you will need to be masked , and you ’ ll be asked to put on gloves if you want to grab a cart and shop inside . These are Linda ’ s rules . After COVID hit Linda and Robert agonized over whether to open or not in June . “ As a farmer I would never want to make anybody sick , not in a million years , not my customers not my employees not my family . So I make people wear gloves . Does that work ? I don ’ t know , it makes me feel better .” Another rule ? If you touch it it ’ s yours !
These days in early fall you ’ ll find bin after bin of shiny peppers — pablanos , serranos , sweet banana , hot cherry and multi colored bell peppers to name a few , all bursting with color . The huge indoor space is immaculate . It always was , but now with COVID you get the sense that everything is done to perfection . Long tables of stacked peaches and apples , walls of local preserves and other specialty farm products are all part of the mix . Pumpkins and squash will be coming in soon , and , if you want to-die-for pie , Lewis Orchard pies are famous — peach , blueberry , cherry , sugar-free peach and more . Pies are available Thursday through Sunday , but you ’ d better call and reserve one !
Besides handling the challenges that have come with the pandemic , a frost destroyed 75 percent of their peach crop in late May . Up until that point it was looking like a great year . The previous growing season had been relatively good to make up for a disastrous 2018 where the rain was relentless . “ Pumpkins melted , the pepper crop suffered , and the peaches rotted in the field . It was just too wet and too overcast for too long ,” recounts
There ’ s always an abundance of delicious farm produce to be found at Lewis Orchards .
Linda . What is it about a farmers
Always innovating and adapting , the Lewis brothers might have inner resolve that allows them to roll with the loss and disappointment ... is it genetic ? “ I married into to consistently grow cover crops
been some of the first in the area
the family so you learn the farmers to enrich and improve the soil . saying ‘ I can ’ t wait until next year ,’” “ Since the 1980s ,” Linda remembers , “ we always planted rye as the says Linda . The Lewis farm legacy goes cover crop . It turned out to work back to the mid 1800s ; one of best for us .” deeds on the farm is dated 1856
Fast forward to 2001 — the year and the other 1888 . Robert ’ s grandmother Lottie married Guy Lewis son Marshall tragically passed
after Robert and Linda ’ s middle
from Thurmont , Maryland whose away . That heartbreaking event father was an orchardist , and required enormous strength and that ’ s how they got started raising resolve to even go on , as Linda peaches in the 1920s . Through the recounts . Robert ’ s father had been years Lottie would haul fruit to the killed in a freak car accident in 1988 Bethesda Farm Women ’ s Market and this was yet another devastating family tragedy . But with deter- twice a week . In 1957 her husband died of a heart attack and Lottie mination they kept going . decided to stay home and work the “ In 2001 we bought the farm farm . Robert ’ s father MJ and his from Robert ’ s grandmother ’ s estate with the help of Montgomery brothers took over the business . Years later in 1973 MJ and Jay Lewis County ’ s Office of Agriculture ,” recalls Linda . The easement arrange- decided to grow vegetables on the land , instead of cattle and hay . ment with the selling of transfer
22 plenty I autumn harvest 2020