our products

We grow a wide variety of different crops on the farm, but our production focuses on our diversified Chestnut and Pawpaws orchards, our Garlic and Winter Squash vegetable crops, and (formerly) our shiitake mushroom yard.

forest grown mushrooms

Log-Grown Shiitake Mushrooms

As of the 2024 growing season, we have transitioned out of actively growing and marketing log-grown shiitake mushrooms. Shiitake mushroom production is still an important part of our woodlot management. We grow shiitake mushrooms on a wide variety of hardwood logs, including red oak, white oak, sugar maple, cherry, and bitternut hickory, utilizing the forest canopy for shade.

Chestnuts, Pawpaws, and other Fruit

Pawpaws

North America’s largest native fruit that tastes similar to a vanilla or banana custard. We have pawpaws available from early September through early October. On our farm, “peak pawpaw” typically occurs around mid-September, but varies from year to year. We grow both cultivars (PA Golden, Sunflower, Susquehanna, etc.) and the seedlings of named varieties.

Chestnuts

Our Chestnut harvest begins in mid-September and ends in early October. We begin sales of culinary and seed chestnuts in Mid-October. Our chestnut trees were all grown from select Chinese and Hybrid seed chestnuts from Route 9 Cooperative in Ohio (the seedlings of named varieties in many cases). We sell Chestnuts at our Bethesda Farmers Market, direct to consumer, and through wholesale outlets such as the Keystone Tree Crops Cooperative and others. Please contact us directly for wholesale/retail pricing and availability.

Persimmons

Persimmons are these farmers’ favorite fruit. We grow both American and Kaki Persimmons. The American cultivars we grow are Prok, Ruby, Weber, and others. The only variety of Asian Persimmons we currently have fruiting is Ichi Ki Kei Jiro.

Most our our orchard tree crops are only available during a small season, are significantly in demand, and sell out quickly due to limited quantities coming from a young orchard. Contact us directly for pricing, availability, and advance ordering/reservations.

specialty cut flowers & vegetables

Sustainably Grown Flowers

As of 2024, we have transitioned out of Cut Flower production in the orchard. We formerly grew and sold cut flowers under the Swallowtail Flowers name and brand.

GARLIC

We grow a significant quantity of garlic every season. Garlic is often an integral component of our orchard alley cropping system. We sell the majority of our garlic to local wholesale outlets and direct to consumer from the farm.