I don’t know about you, but personally, I always wonder where folks come up with the lovely, cute, creative names for their farms. I realized I’ve never shared how our farm name came about. Since this is my blog and I have some time, I’ll share the long version and go all the way back to my childhood.
When I was little, my mother had a set of books that she kept on our bookshelf in our living room. I always liked looking at the books even though I didn’t know what they were. I have quite a soft spot in my heart for old, beautiful hardcover books and would frequently go to our library as a child and spend my allowance to buy hardcover books that I just thought were pretty and (again, being completely honest) smelled good. (My husband tells me I have a super sniffer. One of the things I love about books is how they smell)
Okay. I came to find out, when I was older and could read, the lovely green and tan books on the living room shelf were the works of the author Louisa May Alcott. I believe the first time I read her works were these copies of the books. I loved them. I don’t remember how old I was. I don’t think I was maybe 12-15…Not just Little Women, though I do love that series. I really love all of her works. My favorite story of hers is actually a solo novel called Jack and Jill. Followed secondly by the duology of Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom. But as I said I do deeply love all her works.
Fastforward to after college and I’m starting my handweaving studio and business at the same time I’m starting a raw milk dairy and grass fed beef business. (We don’t do anything half-@$$ed in the Bleasdale household…) I started contemplating names. I wanted it to have significance to me, even if no one else ever understood it or liked it. I decided on Orchard House Studios. At the time, we lived in a little house that was formerly a workshop that Ben built when he was 18. The physical location of the building on the farm was next to the orchard. (which is no more. The space is now used as the garden and almost all the fruit trees that were planted are gone)
So my studio was next to the orchard and in my home, Orchard House. If you’ve ever read the Lousia May Alcott books, specifically the Little Women trilogy, you might remember that Alcott named the house that the March family inhabits the Orchard House. There are several other wonderfully named homes in the series: Dove Cottage, Plumfield, etc. I love the old world custom of naming homes. But that’s a whole ‘other conversation.
When the farm began to grow more and more and we needed a distinction between the goat farm and the cow farm and my weaving business was diminished to an extent, I simply chose to carry on the name that I loved so much and call our farm Orchard House Creamery. My father-in-law told me it was a terrible name for a farm. He said it doesn’t have anything to do with dairy and didn’t make sense. It wouldn’t make people think of milk. hahaha. It’s funny to remember that now.
it’s funny, we no longer live in that house, the orchard is no longer there, but the name and the meaning and the literary reference remain. I felt somewhat like a silly little girl naming my farm for a reference to a book…but I stick by it because it brings me so much joy every time I think of it. It reminds me of a particular scene in the series which I dearly love: the children are out-of-doors playing and come to lie down on their backs and talk about their hopes and dreams for their lives. They called it building castles in the sky. I love that picture of daydreamy hopes for the future and it’s another reason why I chose the name I did.
A complete side note because I’m feeling nostalgic…I was going through some boxes of stuff from when I was a kid a few years ago. I discovered a copy of the book Eight Cousins that was gifted to me at some point though I don’t remember receiving it. My family (like many others I’m sure) has a tradition of writing the date and name of whom gifted the book to whom. I happened to look inside and found that my grandmother gave me that copy of Eight Cousins when I was a little girl. My grandmother passed away a few years ago. It’s amazing how things become precious to us after loved ones passed away. I love thinking about grandma gifting this book to me. She always encouraged us to read and loved to read, herself. I miss her but am so thankful for helping to instill love of literature in me.
And that, dear readers, is the incredibly long version of how our farm got its name.
~JoAnna