The Gardens and Fields
Join us in picking perfectly ripe
fruits and vegetables for our farm to table meals
Our fields are filled with a wide variety of vegetables, and our gardens are lush and beautiful, all interspersed with quiet areas to relax and enjoy the setting
Small family farms dot the countryside of Transylvania, creating a tactile tapestry over the undulating terrain near Harvest House Transylvania. Some have tractors and other farming equipment, but most family plots are tended by hand using century old techniques. We do the latter here at our farm.
Paprika
We have non-hybridzed Szegedy pepper seeds that are used to create the original flavors of traditional Hungarian paprika and used in all of our dishes.
Tomatoes
Our tomatoes are to die for. Big, sweet, full of flavor, not like anything you've ever tasted. You never get tired of them!
Cabbage
A staple of Transylvanian cuisine, we like the sweeter, more delicate summer cabbage taste for our delicious stuffed cabbage meals.
Eggplant
Our eggplants are sweet, delicious and an integral part of our vânātā (eggplant dip) that goes very well with our fresh baked bread.
Roses
"Roses bring beauty to the world" is a traditional Transylvanian saying. We have over 100 rose bushes in our gardens.
Tulips
Very traditional motif for Romanian and Hungarian wood carvings. We're awash in tulips in March and April.
Fruit Trees
There's nothing like walking through an orchard, selecting the best looking fruit, and then savoring it's sweet and juicy flavor. You may wander and eat as much as you'd like. Mmmm mmm mmm!
Seating Areas
Relaxing and enjoying the flower gardens is top priorities for some of our guests. We have a number of peaceful places to just be. Nothing like taking a nap with a smile on your face!
Harvest Time
Come help with the harvesting process in August and September. It's fun, easy and a learning experience. From preserves to drying peppers to making tomato juice. Lots of hands on opportunities if you wish.
Mid January
Manure is spread over, then tilled into fields, orchard and flower beds. Crocuses and other late winter bulbs are starting to pop through the soil
Late February
Thousands of pepper, tomato, cucumber, eggplant, and cabbage seeds are planted and cared for in the greenhouse.
Our Seasonal Garden and Field Schedule
March
Hundreds of flower seeds are planted. Cuttings from flowers that survived the winter are transplanted and tended to in the greenhouses. Early tulips are now gracing our gardens, bringing bursts of color on the dark soil.
Late April
Root vegetables such as onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, and parsnips are planted in the fields when the weather and soil are warm enough. Flower gardens are now bursting with tulips, poppies and daffodils. Our grape vines are sprouting leaves. Storks have arrived and are rebuilding their magnificent nests.
May
When all the vegetable seedlings are big enough to plant in the ground, a flurry of activity starts in the fields by mid May. We're planing everything including sweet corn, pumpkins, watermelons and beans. And, by now, the fruit trees are in full bloom and some of them provide flowers for teas and juices in late May. Flower seedlings are now strong enough to be planted in our gardens. Strawberries are gracing our breakfasts. We're starting to make strawberry and apricot preserves.
June
Our rose bushes are in full bloom and will continue to flower through November. Flowers are starting to go wild in the gardens and are now coming into their own. Sweet and sour cherries are ready to eat, along with raspberries and w're making berry jams. Oh, and it's time to make sour cherry liquor. The fields are now tended to daily. We have fresh salads every day. Bees have ample honey, so we're processing the golden spring honey. Yumm!
July
The weather is getting warm and the fields and flowers are loving it! We're up early working in the fields, watering, oohing and aahing at the growth of the plants. Sweet peaches, early apples, blackberries, peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes are now filling our stomaches. We're making pickles, jams, having BBQs, enjoying the warm and light filled evenings (gets dark around 10 p.m.). Life is good!
August
It's harvest time! By mid August, we're picking our first harvest of paprika peppers and stringing them up to dry. We can't keep up with the volume of tomatoes, so we're making tomato juice, catsup, pizza sauce, sun dried tomatoes, on and on. And we're eating sweet, crunchy corn daily. Eggplants are being roasted in our BBQ and made into a wonderful spread that's eaten immediately or processed for jarring. The storks are now migrating south with their not so little ones in tow. Summer honey is ready and we're processing again, this time it's darker and has a stronger flavor, very delicious! But my favorite is the sweet, juicy, rich, red watermelons!
September
Nights are getting cooler, but still very pleasant. Harvesting continues with paprika peppers, eggplant, and eating peppers, but now the grapes are coming into their own and we're crushing the varieties that are now sweet and juicy. Cabbage is really filling out, apples and pears are starting to ripen, plums are eaten, made into jams, put into pastry, fermented for palinka. It's a very busy time on the farm.
October
This is it. Everything is being harvested. The paprika peppers are pretty dry now and will be ground into a fine powder. The last of the eggplants, eating peppers, tomatoes, and more are picked. The cabbage is ready for harvest and now we have cabbage soup, stuffed cabbage, sour kraut making. The distillation of fermented apples, pears and plums is making very tasty palinka. The forests are abundant with mountain blueberries and other fruits, as well as mushrooms waiting to be picked. Migrating birds fill the air. And the apples, oh the apples!
November
It can still be pleasant during the day, but boy, you can really start to feel the chill. Winter is coming. Time to plow the fields, dig up the flowers that won't survive the cold winter and put them in the greenhouse, harvest the late grapes for sweet wine, roast sweet pumpkins, say goodbye to the magnificent tomato plants, chop firewood, order manure for December delivery, and finally, close up shop.
December
The village is all decorated in holiday lights, St. Nick visits the children on December 6th, carolers wander the streets in the evenings, churches are getting ready for the holidays, everyone is baking, cooking, visiting, shopping, drinking, all in preparation for Christmas and the New Year.
There's a true pleasure picking and eating perfectly ripe tomatoes right off the vine