Lavender
Buy our lavender at Local Harvest.
Buy Katherine's raggedy creations at her Etsy shop.
Katahdin Breeding Stock
Contact Katherine.
Lamb Meat
We are a self sustaininable farm and have limited meat available. Email by August 31, 2013 if you want to place a deposit of $100 for 2014. I will send you paperwork and explain procedures then. Grass fed, no pesticides. Raised on open pasture, the animals are born and raised and humanely harvested here at our farm under the watchful eye of shepherdess and Dirt Farmer.
Mailing Address: Apifera Farm, 14710 NW Tupper RD, Yamhill OR 97148. No drop by visitors please, the gates are locked and The Head Troll is in charge.
Suffering a long lasting broken heart, a forty plus single woman writes a sacred list of three things she needs to do to recreate a sense of place for herself. It leads her across the country to Oregon where she meets her next door neighbor. Soon after, the man climbs a cherry tree in a heat wave and brings her his cherry harvest, hoping the cherries will cool her fair haired flush from the heat. The next day, still suffering in a heat wave, she bakes him a fresh cherry pie with the bounty he brought her. This leads to one of many epiphanies, that she must love him to bake in a heat wave. With her love for him sealed in that crust and fruit, they go on to move to a magical delapitated farm, and they call it Apifera.
Apifera Farm is home to man, woman, animals and lavender. It is the haven for artist and writer Katherine Dunn [this is not the same author as Geek Love] who is surrounded by so many muses with stories to tell she can't keep up. Besides painting and writing, Katherine also makes puppets who sing Neil Young songs and recite Wordsworth. Donkeys give pie parties, cats fall from trees and the small rodent cemetery thrives in English Daisies. Recently a little pig arrived who is proving to be quite the muse.
The Barnyard of Misfits
Apifera is also a haven for many old and needy barn animals that have fallen on hard times. Since first moving to the farm, Katherine has been taking in old/crippled goats, donkeys, pigs and fowl. The farm originally had 25 feral cats at one time, but Katherine spent two years trapping/spaying/neutering all of them and to this day 15 still reside at the farm. She has taken in a total of 12 old and neglected goats - most adopted from New Moon Goat Farm Rescue - many of whom are severely crippled from neglect, and in some cases they were so malnourished that she became their hospice caretaker. She took on a grumpy little pot bellied pig from Sanctuary One who had lost her elderly owner - and the pig came with her very own sidekick, a severely crippled goat named Stevie, who happens to give kisses. She finds 1# kittens on the rural highway and sweeps them back to the farm, or invites stray roosters to come live with her, and they really show up. An old goose lost her owner due to cancer, so a vet asked Katherine to take her in, and she arrived with her own flock of ducks. Her love of donkeys began with little Pino and soon after came little Paco who was adopted out of an overcrowded situation. It took years for Paco to settle and learn manners. Along came little Lucia, and several other donkeys along the way. Matilda is an old neglected donkey originally rescued by Lavender Dreams Donkey Rescue and is now living the life she deserves at Apifera, after being used as a brood jenny into her senior years without hay or nutrition or foot care. She shares her Misfits through story and art, workshops and drawing sessions at the farm. Plans are under way to bring war vets, the elderly and children out to the farm too. Who knows what new Misfits will arrive tomorrow? You can help if you'd like by sharing what you can towards monthly care.
Lavender:
Upon arriving at Apifera, green and optimistic, the couple planted 4000 lavender plants to sell wholesale and retail. They were determined not to use weed barrier, or pesticides, much to the chagrin of the locals. Many back and knee aches later, they are still at it, although they do everything a bit slower and drink vats of wine at night to help ease their body aches.You can buy their lavender at their online Local Harvest store . Larger wholesale buyers can email Katherine.
Katahdin sheep:
The farm also raises Katahdin sheep, a hair breed requiring no sheering; breeding stock is usually available. The animals are raised on grass and lambs are harvested on the same land they are born on, humanely and quickly. Contact Katherine if you are interested in breeding stock.
Apifera Horticulture
Martyn Dunn is a licensed landscape contractor and operates Apifera Horticulture, formerly known as Horticulture Northwest. A graduate of Oregon State University in Horticulture, Martyn has owned and operated his own business for over 20 years. Serving clients in Portland and the western suburbs, Martyn is experienced in design, boulder placement, transplants, plant specifications, pruning and maintenance as well as designing and implementing water/irrigation systems. While Martyn serves many private homes and customers, he also collaborates with landscape architects and designers.At Apifera Farm, Martyn designed the front gardens and boulder placements. The garden was created to be draught tolerant, and includes as many native species as possible. Apifera Farm is also working with the State to increase native species on their river front, and through the CREPS program have planted and maintain over 400 trees. While Katherine helps in the lavender field, it is Martyn's expertise that keeps the plants healthy and shaped.
Sharing and helping animals in need:
While the farm is not open to the public, it does have a giant Pino Pie Party each summer to help raise money for the senior animal and donkeys adopted into Apifera. Pino is one of the farm's resident mini donkeys who has a knack for donkey hugs, pondering and making even grumpy people smile. He gets a lot of mail. He has also become one the artist's main muses, acting as resident puppet, showman, poet, diarist, and apron wearer. This donkey gets mail from far off lands and has swooned the young as well as the elderly.
