Stories/ The Long Days Arrive

The Long Days Arrive

June at The Farm with Ed Hackett, General Manager of Beach Plum Farm

There’s a moment every year when the farm stops feeling like spring and starts feeling alive in every direction at once. June is that moment.

The days stretch longer. The fields fill in overnight. The greenhouses hum from sunrise on. The first real heat settles over the gardens and suddenly the farm feels fully awake again.

You can see it everywhere right now. Strawberries coming in heavy. Tomato plants climbing fast. Herbs taking over entire beds. The first Bolero carrots showing up on the harvest tables. The kitchen doors swinging all day long. Bikes moving across the property. Guests wandering the gardens with coffee in hand before the rest of the day begins.

And the birds…still everywhere!

A Group Of Birds

And then there’s the sound you begin hearing once the farm fully settles into summer:
the bee hives buzzing.

The hives are in constant motion.

Bees moving between the raised beds, herbs, wildflowers, berry patches, and greenhouse edges from sunrise until dark. You notice them most in the early morning when the farm is still relatively quiet — the steady hum sitting underneath everything else happening around the property.

It’s easy to forget how much work is happening inside a single hive. A single worker honey bee produces an incredibly small amount of honey in its lifetime — roughly 1/12 of a teaspoon. One tiny drop after thousands upon thousands of flights through the fields and gardens. Standing near the hives this time of year gives you a different appreciation for just how much life, movement, and labor exist inside the farm every single day.

A Strawberry With Leaves

Mornings begin early here. Harvest crews move through the rows before the heat arrives, baskets filling with lettuces, herbs, radishes, peas, kale, strawberries, and whatever decided it was ready that morning. By breakfast, much of it is already heading into the kitchen.

The Chalkboard Kitchen is now open daily from 8:00 AM–3:00 PM alongside the Market, open daily from 8:00 AM–5:00 PM. As always, the menu changes constantly based on the fields, gardens, and pastures surrounding the barn. No reservations. Just walk in, grab a table, and settle in.

Our summer dinner experiences continue in two distinct ways.

On Wednesday and Thursday evenings, our Tables in the Garden dinners invite guests directly into the raised beds themselves. Individual tables are placed throughout the gardens, allowing each party to experience the farm in a quieter, more personal way while still surrounded by the energy of the evening unfolding around them. Lanterns come on. The fields cool down. Dinner moves at the pace of the farm.

Then on Friday and Saturday nights, the farm shifts into the larger communal spirit of our traditional Harvest Dinners. Guests gather together around shared farmhouse tables for long family-style meals centered around the day’s harvest. These evenings are lively, social, and deeply rooted in the spirit that started these dinners years ago.

Both experiences remain connected to the same idea: a true table on the farm. Food grown steps away from where it is served. Evenings shaped entirely by the season.

We are also excited to continue our Garden State Dinner Series this month with a special evening on June 12 featuring Salt & Clover Sheep Farm, It is the kind of partnership that feels deeply connected to what we believe in here at the farm — small-scale agriculture, thoughtful stewardship, and ingredients with a real sense of place.

Another side of the farm comes alive.

The beach is officially open at Congress Hall, where cottage guests can enjoy beach service just a short five-minute golf cart ride from the farm. Mornings begin with coffee on the porch and egg collecting, afternoons stretch out beside the Orchard Pool, and evenings settle in around the fire pits with blankets, cocktails, and s’mores under the Cape May sky.

As the farm quiets down for the night, one of the best parts of summer begins. The fire pits crackle to life, the fields soften into darkness, and the sky over the farm opens up in a way that feels harder and harder to find anymore. Out here, away from most of the noise and light, the stars still show up.

There’s something about Cape May nights at the farm that slows people down. Crickets in the distance. A cool breeze finally arriving after a long summer day. The smell of wood smoke moving through the property. The kind of evenings where nobody seems in much of a rush to head back inside.

And somehow, despite all the movement, there are still those quiet moments that make June here feel different. The smell of tomatoes in the greenhouse. The sound of sprinklers before sunrise. Mint growing back stronger than expected after winter. Strawberry shortcakes returning to the bakery.

The farm changes quickly this time of year. Sometimes daily. That’s part of the point.