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Edit Your ProfileCody Creswell2022-04-20T21:42:46-04:00

willowsfordconservancyandfarm

willowsfordconservancyandfarm

Jul 3

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For our Hiatus week we're sharing a June throwback: Broccolini harvesting! Sligthly different from broccoli, these brassicas are just as delicious!

#farming #agriculture #food #eatlocal

Jul 2

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Happy July! ☀️So far this summer we’ve caught lots or different critters on our trail cams as part of our ongoing wildlife survey including raccoons, deer, geese, and more!

Our wildlife survey started in February and will wrap up in December. The data from this survey will serve as a foundational tool to help us make smarter decisions about habitat management and conservation in Willowsford. 🌿

Jun 26

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It's Week 7 for the 2025 Summer CSA! Farmer Andy takes us down the pack line and shares his cooking tips.

#loudouncounty #farm #agriculture #food #eatlocal #shoplocal

Jun 24

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Want to learn more about Eating In Season? Join Farmer Anna TONIGHT at the Rust Library in Leesburg! She'll cover the benefits of seasonal produce, where to buy it and how to incorporate it into your diet. You'll also have an opportunity to taste locally grown cherry tomatoes - YUM!

This program is in partnership with @fhcasa and the Loudoun County Public Library system. See you there!

#loudouncounty #supportyourlibrary #agriculture #food

Jun 23

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🐝 Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is one of the most recognizable and widespread native plants. Its genus name, Echinacea, comes from the Greek word for hedgehog in reference to the plant’s spiky central disc.

While the showy purple petals help attract pollinators, the true flowers are actually the tiny structures within the central cone, known as disc florets. Pollinators like this bee gather nectar and pollen by visiting each individual floret—watch closely in the video to see the bee moving from one to the next.

Jun 19

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Welcome to week 6 of the Summer CSA! This week we had our first cherry tomatoes of the season, yum! 🍅

The Farm Stands are open today! The Farm Stand in the Grange from 4-7pm and at the Boat House from 4-6pm. @threecapfarms will be at the Farm Stand in The Grange, stop by for some delicious mushrooms! 🍄‍🟫

Don’t forget on Saturday at the Farm Stand in The Grange we have our School’s Out event with a foam party, wagon ride farm tours, and @chacoffee.co will be joining us! 🫧

Jun 18

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🦋 This week is Virginia Pollinator Week! 🐝

Did you know that one in every three bites of food you eat is thanks to a pollinator?

Pollinators are critically important and this week we encourage you to take some time to appreciate them. You can support pollinators through these simple actions:

- Planting native
- Avoiding pesticides
- Leave some wild space in your yard

Jun 12

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Garlic scapes have entered the chattttt 😍

See you at the Farm Stand this weekend?

Jun 12

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It's Week 5 for the 2025 Summer CSA! Farmer Andy takes us down the pack line for the Farmer's Choice and shares some great recipes. Mark your calendars - FREE Foam Party at the Farm Stand in the Grange on Saturday June 21st!

##eatlocal #farm #farming #agriculture #food #loudouncounty

Jun 11

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The Farm Team is a well-oiled spinach washing machine! 💪

#food #farm #farming #agriculture #EatLocal #loudouncounty

Jun 10

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Farmer Andy harvests a bunch of Swiss Chard and chats about the CSA!

#farming #agriculture #gardening #eatlocal #loudouncounty

Jun 9

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We see a lot of deer on our trail cams but felt very lucky to capture this special moment between a doe and her fawn this past Friday!❤️🦌 Notice the white spots along the fawn’s back? These spots are a clever form of camouflage. The speckled pattern mimics dappled sunlight on the forest floor, helping the fawn stay hidden from predators during its most vulnerable early weeks. Fawns are born in late spring and lose their spots by fall usually, though will often stay with mom through winter before going off on their own.

Jun 5

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Farmer Andy shares this week's Farmer's Choice share contents for Week 4, June 5-7. Did we mention we have eggs at the Farm Stand this week!?

#eatlocal #farming #loundouncounty #food

Jun 4

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Chirp, chirp! 🪺 Bird box monitoring season is in full swing with plenty of eggs and hatchlings in many of our boxes along our four monitoring trails. In this box along our trail in The Greens we found one week old tree swallows.

Volunteer monitors help us check us bird boxes weekly to gather valuable data to help with the conservation of cavity nesting birds like these tree swallows and other species like eastern bluebirds and chickadees. Interested in becoming a volunteer monitor? Let us know and we’ll provide training! Monitoring is easy, flexible, and takes no more than an hour or two each week.

Jun 3

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Farmer Andy harvests beets and shares his cooking tips!

#beets #food #eatlocal #loudouncounty #farming #agriculture

May 31

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Come get your nutrition fix and see us at the Farm Stand today (Saturday) - here until 1:00 pm.

May 29

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It's Week 3 for the 2025 Summer Season! Farmer Andy shares his cooking tips and the Farmer's Choice contents!

#farming #agriculture #food #loudouncounty #eatlocal

May 28

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No chlorophyll? No problem! This is ghost pipe (Monotropa uniflora), a hauntingly cool plant that skips photosynthesis and gets its nutrients through a parasitic, mycorrhizal connection to trees. Often mistaken for a mushroom, ghost pipe is actually a flowering plant. Since this plant is not photosynthetic and (therefore does not need sunlight) it can be found in dark areas along the forest floor where other plants may struggle to grow.

Our Land Stewardship spotted this along the trails yesterday, be sure to keep an eye out for it on your next hike!

May 27

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Farmer Andy harvests green kale for this week's CSA!

#farming #agriculture #loudouncounty #food

May 23

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Come stream monitoring with us on Lenah Run! Our Land Stewardship team, led by Ranger Emily who is certified as a stream monitor with @loudounwildlife , conducted stream monitoring on a section of the creek this past week.

Stream monitoring entails collecting, identifying, sorting, and counting benthic macroinvertebrates – tiny creatures that live on the bottom of streams and rivers. They tell us if a stream is healthy by their absence, presence, or abundance. The different macroinvertebrates have varying tolerances of pollution, so by identifying them and measuring the quantity at which they’re present in the stream, tells us about the health of the stream and the water quality. From the stream survey results, volunteers can give the stream a stream health score.

We do our monitoring with Virginia Save our Streams, a program of the Izaak Walton League of America. Our survey found 224 organisms, including mayflies, lots of beetles, two clams, lots of fly larvae, and worms. The variety of organisms yielded an 8 on the stream health score index. This means the ecological conditions cannot be determined at this time. It’s essentially in between the unacceptable ecological conditions and acceptable ecological conditions.

Anyone can get certified to be a stream monitor and can establish a new monitoring site in Willowsford or elsewhere to contribute data. We sometimes have volunteer opportunities to join our surveys. We also hold educational programs where we head into the stream and do our own survey. Check out our calendar or reach out to join our next program.

#streammonitoring #citizenscience #loudouncounty