We’ve told the story so many times but it truly never gets old. We bought this 120 acre property with no plan. No idea what it would be. No idea how hard it would be. We sometimes joke that it was an accident but we know there had to be a divine purpose. We have to believe that because if not, none of this would have been doable.
In 2020 a church asked if we had a space they could use to hold Sunday services. They had been meeting in a school building and that would no longer be possible due to the pandemic closures. Here we were with a large lawn space and there they were with no place to gather. It was a perfect fit. For two summers now City Church Greenville has used our property to bring the Good Word to the community of Greenville and we say the more prayers made on our property the better. We love seeing what God is doing through the ministry of City Church and we couldn’t be more grateful that we have been a part of it.
Our inaugural wedding season began on January 31, 2021. It was frigid and very snowy and we hosted a wedding in our Little Barn Venue, complete with Sorel boots, fire pillars, fur stoles and burros. Yes, Tipsy Burro was a featured guest with their two tiny donkeys wearing floral wraps and posing for photos. Our season continued in June when we held our first 2 weddings in our larger venues at the same time with a total of over 500 guests on site. How blessed we were to be able to accommodate wedding celebrations on the farm during such a difficult year. Our couples have become friends and we love to see them come back for drinks in the Cidery so we can hug and remember their special day.
In the fall of 2021 we opened our Cidery and also made the decision to close our Fresh Market in order to redesign the space. Sometimes you have to acknowledge what you’re doing well and what you’re not doing well. We felt like we weren’t doing the Fresh Market well at all. It was as if we were doing too much and also not enough in that area. Mike and I found ourselves avoiding it and we figured if we were avoiding it, our guests probably were too.
Now that we’re closing in on the remodel of the space we are 99% sure we have it dialed in. The center market space will now encompass our Kaffebar (moving from the front of the building) featuring Madcap coffee, our orchard donuts, bagels, fresh-from scratch baked goods and additional sandwich options. We’ll be adding taps so you can order hard ciders and cocktails throughout the day. We’ll create a shopping area with a full line of ciders, beers & wines as well as pantry goods and home decor items. This area will be the “hub” of the property.
The Kaffebar space in the front of our main building will become FLOR, our on-site flower shop. We’ve been dabbling with fresh flowers, bouquets and wearable flowers for a while now and we’re ready to see what Brooke can do with a full service flower shop. We’ll also use this area for our grown on-site mums and other flowers we’ll be growing this year.
Our Cidery will continue to host LIVE MUSIC on weekends and we’re launching our Summer Concert Series soon which will bring nationally touring artists to our lawn each Thursday night. Fireworks, markets, concerts, weddings, parties…. the Frugthaven Farm property will host to so many good things in 2022 and beyond.
While we had no idea what we were going to do with this accidental property purchased in March of 2019 I think we’re figuring it out pretty well. Thank you as always for following along and for your kind support of our crazy ideas.
AP