OCTOBER 2007

Bauman Farms Autumn Harvest days are upon us and we have so much going on I hardly know where to begin. For starters we can not forget about all of the fun activities we have on the farm right now and we have some new activities that are fantastic. You may have heard about one of our new activities, which is appropriately entitled our “Jumping Haystack.” But before I get ahead of myself I can’t forget to mention that our greenhouses are filled to the brim with amazing fall color. The mums are in bloom and looking at the array of colors just makes you feel good. Also, my son Austin is extremely happy that all of the winter squash have arrived from the fields and his favorite is the delicatas.

At the start of every November our family begins the hunt to find a new activity for our Autumn Harvest Days the following October. This year we happened to stumble on to a fantastic idea earlier this summer and the best part of all is that Bauman’s Farm and Garden is the first place on the west coast to have it. We call it our “Jumping Haystack” because it is a huge  30’ by 60’ jumping pillow. When we first saw a picture of it we thought that it would be a lot like jumping on a large trampoline but actually it is very different. It really is like jumping on a huge pillow. It’s kind of hard to describe the feeling because it seems that every time you jump you get a different reaction out of the pillow. Sometimes you are rocketed up into the sky and other times you don’t even leave the ground.
Several years ago we lost a member of our family to MS and we have been looking for a way to get involved with an organization that could help families that are affected by this disease. We have used this new activity to cultivate a relationship with the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Oregon. We have decided that for every person that pays to jump on our Jumping Haystack we will donate $1 to the MS Society of Oregon and they have told us that all of the money donated will go to help families in Oregon. The Jumping Haystack is not included in our activity fee and it costs $3 for a one time jump and $4 for unlimited jumping during the day. Unfortunately, during the week it is available by group reservations only but on the weekends, we are open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. For a complete list of all our activities and prices please go to our website at www.baumanfarms.com and click on Autumn Harvest Activities.

Chrysanthemums or Mums, are one of the most perfect flowers for fall. They come in a wide array of beautiful fall colors and hold up extremely well in our ever changing fall weather. Right now our greenhouses are absolutely bursting with color from our Mums and all of our 10” Mums are on sale right now, 3 for $30 and they are regularly $12.95 each. This is a great opportunity to pick up some huge stunning plants at a great price. In addition to the large 10” Mums we also have smaller 6” mums available for those of us that just don’t have the space for the large ones.
October is a great time of the year for winter squash and right now we have so many different varieties available it was impossible to fit all of them in the store. Therefore, we moved all of them out into the greenhouse next to the store. One of our favorites is the delicata, which is one of my son Austin’s favorites as well. From a very early age he has loved this squash because unlike some of the other varieties that can get an unappealing texture and are not very sweet this squash has a wonderful smooth texture to the meat and is very sweet. They are very easy to make as well. To get microwave baking instruction just ask us at the counter and we would be happy to give you the instructions.

There are so many other things going on besides what I have mentioned I can’t wait for all of you to come out and see us. For many people Fall is their favorite time of the year and with so many wonderful things going on it is easy to see why. There is a lot of work involved in getting the farm ready every year but when we see the smiles on all the kids faces as they run from one maze to the next, we are very thankful to be apart of your family's traditions. See you soon.

Sincerely, Brian Bauman and the Bauman Family.


P.S. I wanted to let all of your know about the newest addition to the Bauman Family. On August 21st Amie and Jeremiah were blessed with a beautiful little girl, which they named Hailey. We are all very excited to have another addition to the family.