Hornet Homestead

Hornet Homestead A little family homestead, follow us on our successes, learning and growing.

We’re beyond excited (and honestly, a little giddy) to announce that greenhouse pre-sales are BACK for another year! We’...
02/07/2026

We’re beyond excited (and honestly, a little giddy) to announce that greenhouse pre-sales are BACK for another year! We’ve made a few updates to the greenhouse since last season, and while a new setup always comes with a few butterflies, we’re ready to grow and roll with it.

🌱 Pre-Sales are LIVE now through February 28th!
To order, just shoot us a message with what you’d like. We’ll confirm your order, keep in touch along the way, and let you know when everything is ready for pickup and payment.

👀 Want the details?
Take a scroll back through our recent posts for a closer look at what varieties are included in each category.

🤫 PSSST… SECRET MENU ALERT
We do have a handful of “Secret Menu” starts that will be available first-come, first-served for our pre-sale folks 👀 When you place your order, we’ll let you know what’s available so you can add on or swap if you want!

As always, thank you SO much for the continued support—it truly means the world to us. We can’t wait to get growing with you again and hear from you soon! 🌱💚🦫🍀

Now for the foundation of every garden, the tomato!! From 5 gallon buckets to in the ground right off the porch, you can...
02/06/2026

Now for the foundation of every garden, the tomato!! From 5 gallon buckets to in the ground right off the porch, you can guarantee this is the first thing you grab while you check out your little plant heaven!! Check out what we’ll be growing!! 🍅

Pre-order Price is $4 per start!

Buffalosteak - A cut above the rest, this prime beefsteak has solid, meaty, bright red flesh that’s robustly flavorful. Early and more productive than many similar varieties with the beefsteak name, the vigorous, indeterminate plants yield lots of 6 ½ ounce fruit throughout the season

Cherokee Purple - (our favorite) - Similar to red-fruited Cherokee but much darker. Vigorous indeterminate plants produce slightly flattened, 13–14 ounce tomatoes with a purple cast and a good, rich flavor.

San Marzano - The rosy red fruit are meaty and thick walled, reaching up to 5 inches long, and gather on the indeterminate plants in thick clusters.

Cuore Di Bue - These big tomatoes have a bottom-heavy shape reminiscent of a pouch with a gathered top. They measure 3 ½ inches wide and 4 inches long and weigh in just under ½ pound each. Cuore di Bue is one of the tastiest saucing types with dense flesh and lustrous, orangey-red skin.

Oregon Cherry - Oregon Cherry is one of the early cherry tomato releases from Oregon State University. The small-fruited red tomatoes are 1 1/2 inches long by 1 inch wide, and load up heavy on 1 1/2 feet tall by 2 feet wide determinate plants.

You saw what brings the heat!! Get ready to cool it down with something crisp and crunchy….good in salads or as a salad ...
02/05/2026

You saw what brings the heat!! Get ready to cool it down with something crisp and crunchy….good in salads or as a salad just add onions and some light vinegar & a lil salt n’ pepper!! These cucumbers will garnish any dish…even pickled!! 🥒

Pre-Order price is $2 a start!

Lemon - These 3–4 foot, semi-bush type plants bear loads of apple-shaped cucumbers with lemon-colored skins. The flesh is very mild and sweet, never bitter. Scrumptious and colorful in salads. Best harvested when the size of limes.

Sweet Slice - This high-yielding slicer has tender skin, crisp, clean flesh, no bitterness and great disease resistance. One bite of Sweet-Slice and you’ll be smitten by the refreshing flavor, and they’re absolutely burpless. Glossy, dark green fruit grow 10-12 inches long with pure white interiors.

Homemade Pickles - The vigorous 5 foot vines exhibit excellent disease resistance, and yield armloads of solid, crisp cucumbers. Pickle-perfect fruit are medium green with small white spines. They can be harvested at 1 ½ inches long for baby sweets and 5–6 inches long for robust dills. Just the thing for the best crunchy dill pickles you have ever tasted.

Always a fan favorite, we’ve come to love these freeze dried as little Jalapeño Chips and the Bell Peppers save great fo...
02/04/2026

Always a fan favorite, we’ve come to love these freeze dried as little Jalapeño Chips and the Bell Peppers save great for stir fry!! Add some heat to your garden this year for breakfast, lunch and dinner!! 🌶️🫑

Pre-Order price - $4 per start

Early Jalapeño - Most familiar in their green stage, jalapeños are hottest and fully ripe when they turn red. The stocky 2 foot tall plants will not fall over or break branches even with a heavy load of fruit. The short, 2–3 inch peppers are thick walled and juicy.

Ancho Poblano - Popular and versatile pepper known as poblanos when fresh, and anchos when dried. Deep green, turning to red when ripe, the fruit are flavorful and mildly spiced. They are terrific for chile rellenos or made into mole.

California Wonder - Each plant produces wonderfully sweet bell peppers that are typically 4 lobed, thick walled, and blocky. The leafy plant habit provides good scald protection and the large rich green fruit turn red on the bush.

Let’s start the menu off with our selection of squash this year. We’ll have the option of 4 different varieties all with...
02/03/2026

Let’s start the menu off with our selection of squash this year. We’ll have the option of 4 different varieties all with their own unique traits but delicious flavors. From breads to main courses these are a garden staple.

Pre-Order price is $3 per plant 🌱
Check in tomorrow for Peppers!

Emerald Delight - A powerhouse of a squash, Emerald Delight supplies a bumper crop of dark green fruit throughout the summer. The open plant habit makes harvesting the tender fruit a breeze, and the mild flavor lends itself to uncountable summer dishes. Vigorous, disease-resistant plants performed well in our trials at a time in the season when other zucchinis had already fizzled out

Yellow Crookneck - This old-time variety is also an all-time favorite. It wins hands down when it comes to sweet buttery flavor and firm texture. Vigorous 4–5 foot bushes will provide you with an abundance of bright yellow, warted, crookneck fruit. Delectable when 6 inches long or less.

Sunburst - This is a deep yellow scallopini that is as vibrant as the sun. Delicious as it is colorful, it’s the earliest and most productive of the yellow scallopini. Vigorous 3 foot bush habit. Can be picked from baby size up to 6–8 inches across without losing its tender, buttery flavor. Only your imagination limits the ways to serve Sunburst! 

Smooth Criminal - This will keep you stocked with a wealth of buttery yellow, straightneck squash from very early in the season until frost. Beautifully uniform fruit is prime at about 6 inches long with creamy white flesh. Thanks to an almost spineless plant and unusual, upright habit there’s no need for stealth during harvest either, as the leaves and stems leave no trace on bare skin (human or squash).

You know what this means! 🥛Bernice is 13 days postpartum today and received confirmation from the vet that we're good to...
02/03/2026

You know what this means! 🥛

Bernice is 13 days postpartum today and received confirmation from the vet that we're good to start consuming her milk!

We'll have a limited number of weekly order slots available after we finish notifying the rest of her established clients, so if you'd like to be added to her waiting list, please shoot us a message!

$14 p/ gallon. $5 p/ jar deposit unless you bring your own to swap. Cash payment due at the time of pickup, no exceptions.

Thank you! 🐮

Here we are again… and we couldn’t be more excited to kick things off!! Last year absolutely blew us away. Thanks to an ...
02/02/2026

Here we are again… and we couldn’t be more excited to kick things off!! Last year absolutely blew us away. Thanks to an amazing turnout for pre-orders, and countless new and friendly faces stopping at the stand, by the end of spring we had sent out just over 200 starts 🤯🌿

And the miles these little plants traveled?! From Del Norte County to Shasta County, all the way up into the Portland Metro area, plus gardens sprinkled throughout towns across the Rogue Valley. Not too shabby for a 12×12 homemade greenhouse, if you ask us!

We’ll be doing pre-orders again this year, just like last season. Send us your order, we’ll get growing, and you can pay at pick-up. Easy, simple, and grown with a whole lot of love. We’ll be spending the rest of this week sharing what we’re starting for 2026, so keep an eye out 👀🌱

And yes—we heard you! Your feedback means everything. More cherry tomatoes? Done. More squash varieties? Absolutely. We’ll be keeping the beloved Oregon Cherry stocked and adding some fun newcomers: Emerald Delight Zucchini, Yellow Crookneck, and Sunburst Patty Pan 🌞🎉

You do not want to miss what we have coming this year. Thank you for all the support—stay tuned, the growing season is just getting started!! 💚🌿

Start February off Right!!!!
02/01/2026

Start February off Right!!!!

Since Bernice is back in milk and the littlest calf is on the bottle, Mr. H’s days off have quietly turned into unoffici...
02/01/2026

Since Bernice is back in milk and the littlest calf is on the bottle, Mr. H’s days off have quietly turned into unofficial date mornings three or four days a week.

Coffee is ready by 4:15 a.m. on the dot, and this time of year it’s all about warm layers and bibs before stepping out into the dark.

Some mornings it’s just the two of us in the parlor — set up, milk, take down — catching up on the week behind us and making plans for the days ahead, all to the steady hum of the milk machine.

Other mornings we have a guest milker. The Dairy Master himself makes an appearance, fully committed to supervising cleanup. At this point, nothing escapes his watchful eye.

We’re so grateful for these small, ordinary moments — the laughter, the joy — sharing both new hobbies and old ones with the littlest cow hands at our heels.

One day… all too soon… he’ll probably be running the whole operation. Until then, we’ll gladly settle for the little hollers letting us know the bucket overflowed or that the process is officially “Alll Done!!” 🐮🤍

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Grants Pass, OR

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Monday 8am - 7pm
Tuesday 8am - 7pm
Wednesday 8am - 7pm
Thursday 8am - 7pm
Friday 8am - 7pm
Saturday 8am - 7pm
Sunday 8am - 7pm

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