StarLight  Farm & Gardens Blog 2011 the Beginning

Alan & Susan Boutilier, founders of StarLight Cafe, stand in front of StarLight Farms.

A family dream comes true.

Ever since I can remember, my father was a gardener. I can’t think of a summer spent without freshly picked vegetables on our dinner table. As we ate, the conversation would often revolve around the food we were eating, the garden, and often how the present garden compared to the previous year’s. There was always something to talk about; the weather, the new varieties, and even the neighbor’s garden.


One reoccurring theme from my Belgian mother, and gourmet cook par excellence, was her idea of owning a restaurant where we could serve the produce we grew. We all knew that when the vegetables were freshly picked and served within hours, their taste and texture was so much better than what could be bought in the grocery store. She and my dad worked in the garden together and she nurtured the dream of owning a restaurant.


When my wife and I were married in 1976, we carried on the same love for gardening and the same fantasy of a farm/restaurant.  Her father was a gardener too, and she listened to many of the same conversations about her father’s vegetable plot. By 1984, we had our first restaurant in California and had a small garden at home, but only combined the two minimally. We would bring fresh herbs and flowers into the restaurant, but we simply didn’t have enough space for a constant supply.  Shortly after we moved to Greenville in 1998, we opened Starlight Cafe with the same concept of serving the freshest, most nutritious meat & vegetables. We buy as much as we can from our local farmers and watermen and grow many of our own herbs.  Once again our dream of growing food ourselves for the restaurant had to wait due to  lack of garden space.

In early January, after casually searching for a farm over the past several years, with help from our real estate agent , Bill Fleming, we came upon the perfect location. We found a 100 year old farm only minutes away from the restaurant on the outskirts of Greenville.  After being  in the business for 27 years our family dream is coming true.

This summer there is much to do, and although we will be supplying some vegetables to the restaurant, most of the summer will be devoted to repairing the barn and fences, renewing the orchard, planting cover crops, and restoring the farmhouse. The future will bring raising heritage livestock breeds, beekeeping, planting  berries, cultivating mushrooms, processing pecans, restoring pastures and experimenting with different sustainable and organic methods of growing.


This project is a dream coming to realization through two generations and an exciting one for our family and everyone involved. We envision this as a process which can involve a whole community, and benefit all of us, especially our customers.

Early Spring 2011

We started working on some of the property before we even closed on the sale, it was spring and some things (like pruning the fruit trees in the orchard)  just had to be done right away!

The beginning of the first garden

Raised beds completed

Early May

Apple blossoms in the orchard.

Two Canadian Geese took up residence at the pond, looked like they sat on some eggs for a couple of weeks, then left, no trace of any eggs.

These giant Morel mushrooms popped up one day, we took them to the restaurant and Toby sauteed them with butter, salt and pepper......absolutely delicious!

Kubota with new disc harrow

Middle Spring 2011

A new urgency started as Spring moved on.... Anything that needed to be done before hot weather arrived, needed to be done right away. The brown colors of winter were disappearing and green was becoming the dominate hue.

Getting peanuts ready for planting. A couple of "yankees" like us had to do some research on this one!

The planting of peanuts is Susan's project. Here we see a black heirloom variety.

2 picnic tables arrive. Summer in the air?

Susan, Gabriel, our friend Kathy and our grandson, Kingsley help stain them green.

We start to work on the barn.

The barn gets a new door. Once again Susan creates a great color.

Late May 2011

After a heavy downpour .... the plants love it!

Left to Right: Gabriel, Toby & Alan plant a field of squash and melons.

Pears are really coming along....

There's always an interesting sunset to be seen from the front porch.

We have 3 large Prickley Pear Cactus stands on the property, good for making jams & jelleys. How about Prickley Pear Wine?

Our Squash field has been a focal point, latlely, (this picture was taken a little while back) there are 27 hills planted. We have been painstakenly taking all the insect egg cases by hand (no insecticides allowed) and our manual bug controll seems to be working

Almost everything we have planted is on some form of irrigation system. (good thing, because we are experiencing a drought) Here you can see a tiny miny sprinkler set up on one of the squash hills. Each hill has one. This system has been working perfectly.

A row of squash hills.

Our first ripe tomato from the Oaxacan Mexico plants. We brought these seeds back from Mexico a few years back. We think they are a very old variety.

Another great sunset....always a nice way to end the day...

New addition to our tractor implements: a Kodiak "Bush Hog" We were able to clear two pastures which had started to overgrow with trees and brush. They were transformed into pastoral landscapes of beauty after cutting.

East Pasture

West Pasture: I am looking forward to seeing some sheep or cattle added to the picture.

Can't stop gazing at the sunsets

Grape vines and gardens.

Our son, Chef Tobias, and grandson, Kingsley, picking the first of the tomato harvest.

One of our first harvests from Starlight Farms.

Our first peaches...did someone say homemade peach ice cream?!

Beautiful "White wonder" watermelon

"Wilson's Sweet" watermelon

"Pike" muskmelon

"Costata Romanescu" Zucchini

Susan loads up her car with just picked vegetables

8 minutes later!! at StarLight Cafe kitchen delivering!

Midsummer Report
Two weather elements and one event  have shaped the activities for this Summer of 2010: lack of rain (drought), 
high temperatures,and some new neighbors with goats and sheep.
Fortunately, when we did the majority of our planting, we installed drip irrigation systems. We also activated an 
old well, and that combined with our city water supply, has enabled us to keep most of our plantings well watered, especially during the periods of searing heat.

Our farm is divided into 7 areas: a small garden by the main house which we are using to conduct our trials, two
large fields for production planting, a more remote field behind one of the rentals, two large fenced pastures,
the woods, a medium sized orchard, the large pecans trees, the grape arbor, and the original farm house.
The Trials garden was planted with two varieties of tomatoes, two varieties of eggplant, some 
cucumbers, three varieties of 
chili peppers, a half row of peanuts and edible soybeans and 
a row of ground cherries.  All and all, this garden is a total success and continues
to provide produce for the restaurant. As mentioned above, we acquired some new neighbors and one
day we discovered a herd of goats happily munching on some of our plantings.  As you can guess, 
this was traumatic for us, but fortunately, Nikki, one of our farm caretakers, was able to chase them off
before too much damage occurred. The peanut and soybean plantings were mostly eaten but the
rest of that garden was intact.
I paid a visit with a sheriff to let our neighbors know that this was not an activity that could continue.
Since then they have installed new fences and no more invasions have occurred. 

In one of our larger planting fields, we planted 27 hills of various squash. The melons are growing
vigorously and have numerous  fruit growing larger by the day. The summer squash plantings have not
been so successful and have suffered an significant attack by Squash Stem Borers. We have harvested
some fruit from these plants, but since we are organically growing, we were unable to use pesticides
to protect the plantings. Next year we will cover the plants with a light row cover to keep the pests
out. We will see how this works. We planted a one hundred foot row of okra, and they are now six inches tall
and looking well. The other planting field plus the remainder of the squash field is about
to be planted with a Buckwheat cover and weed smother crop. The bees love buckwheat blossoms
and maybe we can harvest some grain if we have time.

The orchard is doing well, with the pear trees almost breaking with the weight of the enlarging pears. 
We should be harvesting pears soon and we will be preserving a good majority of them. The baby
trees that we  planted were attacked by the errant goats and we have since then built fenced enclosures
around these trees and they are now safe from marauding animals.

The two fenced pastures were "bush hogged" with the tractor and all the little trees that were
starting to encroach, were cut down. Both pastures look neat and tidy now and are quite majestic to view.

The original farmhouse is being restored and one room is finished with a new ceramic tile floor
and fresh paint. The kitchen has been totally stripped and is  ready for new 
sheetrock, ceiling wood, and new tile. This project continues and is as large an endeavor as any
of the agricultural ones.

There is of course, still much to do as we will begin working on the barns and fences in anticipation of acquiring 
animals. So far, the summer has been successful, with lessons learned to be incorporated next year. We think that it all goes with
the territory, as they say, and the family is enjoying the experience and the restaurant  and our customers 
are benefiting from the fresh wholesome food. We shall see what the latter months of summer and the early days
of fall bring. 

This temperature was not unusual as we experienced the hottest summer I can remember

The Pear Harvest has begun and we have been selling them at the Uptown Umbrella Market and using them at the restaurant. Pictured is a display at the market.

Making Pear Cider (Susan & Toby)

Meanwhile, more trees are being planted (and protected)

The beginning of a whole new harvest. The cutting and collection of firewood for the woodstoves in the farmhouse.

This planting field was seeded with Buckwheat as a cover crop. It will be turned in to the soil in November.

A pretty evening again with the Crepe Myrtles in bloom.

The farmhouse looking good in the setting sun.

Farmers Market vegetables on the grill. (not all grown by us) at the Restaurant

I have to say, after reviewing all of these pictures, that we are painting a romantic picture of the farm. Of course we choose the best photos with the best light. Its not always like that though, some times the lawn doesn't get mowed, piles of debris don't get picked up right away, construction materials lay outside the house before we can take them away, and plantings go unweeded for awhile. But all and all, we do a pretty decent job in keeping on top of things while we work our "day" jobs. Thanks also goes out to the restaurant employees who also pitch in to keep it going.

We began cleaning up all the branches from the spring pruning in the orchard. Good for smoking meats.

After the hurricane, we had hundreds of Pear "drops" all over the ground. We had to do something quickly so we started pressing these pears to Pear Cider. First we had to crush them in this machine.

Then into the "squeezer" to extract the juice.

Then put the muscle to it. Sqeeeeze!

and then........liquid gold! It's amazing how much liquid pears hold.

So delicate and delicious.

One of the byproducts of Pear Cider. Here Susan has made Pear Vinegar. Be on the lookout for StarLight Pear Vinaigrette on a new menu.

The three large Prickley Pear Cactus are loaded with these fruit. Just delivered to reataurant. In Spanish they are called "Tuna" What will Chef Tobias do with them?

Here is our grandson, Kingsley sitting on a giant Liquid Amber tree felled by the hurricane. (Destined for firewood)

Woodshed started. It will be more impressive when it is filled 6 ft high. Easy to do with all the downed hurricane trees in the woods. Heat for winter!

One of the planting fields freshly mown to stop the weeds from going to seed. In a few days, we will disc it under and plant a winter cover crop of Rye and Vetch.

October 2011

Here we have the same field, freshly disced a few weeks later, waiting to be raked smooth for planting. Today Saturday, October 8, we will be seeding the rye.

Planting the winter garden: transplanting cabbage, brussels sprouts, mustard greens, collards, broccoli, etc. We are limiting the planting somewhat, so we can start working on the barns and fences.

The watermelon planting was the most prolific bearer of fruit of everything on the farm. Now I know why watermelon is synonomous with the south. There are still some melons left on the vine, and its October!

Here we have some peanuts and pecans. The peanuts were planted by Susan on a trial basis with about 12 feet of row. Neither of us have ever grown these before, so it was a total experiment. Succuss here, and a full planting next summer. Pecans are just starting to drop.

Our grapes did not produce much, it was a very hot and dry summer, and we failed to get them set up with drip irrigation. We are just eating them out of hand and next year we will take better care of them and hopefully get a better yield.

Our barn from the back. Its a North Carolina classic with nice proportions.

This birdhouse was mounted on a fencepost when we bought the place. it was painted up in a cutezy flower theme. Some bluebirds didn't seem to mind the decor, and moved in. Recently, mother nature decided it could do the design one step further and some morning glories grew up the post. You never know whats going to happen out here.

Our road out to the highway with some residual puddles from the rain.

Its not all work here at our farm. Here our grandson Kingsley is on our neighbors horse for his first time.

Alan and daughter Abigail, going for a ride.

A farm is a great place for kids to learn all kinds of things about the "outdoors". Here Kingsley is learning tree-climbing.

Autumn has arrived, and its quite pleasant to be outside this time of year.

As there is less and less crop work going on, we are starting some of the projects, that we have been putting off. Here we are starting to work on the chicken house. (the wicker furniture was inside, we thought the chickens could do without them)

The wood pile approaches full. Here Randall Boutilier, retired rancher, shows me "how its done".

Not much has been mentioned about the farmhouse renovation, but it is a big part of the overall project. Here is a picture of the kitchen nearing completion.

This symbol was noticed recently on the back of a hand embroidered dress by native Indians of Oaxaca Mexico. Very agricultural... the maize, mountains, sun....nice icon for StarLight Farm?

New addition to the barn, star donated to us by Matt Scully of the "Scullery."

Me and our good neighbor friend Jerry, enjoying an end of day beer in front of a pile of burning leaves. (I know we should be composting them but it was such a beautiful fall day, couldn't resist.)

Susans recently canned Pear Vinegar, ready for StarLight Pear Vinegrette.

Now that winter has arrived and the growing season has slowed way down, we have had time to work on the infrastructure.

Here is a view of the farmhouse kitchen, almost finished being remodeled. Note the handmade Mexican tile.

Here is the opposite end of the kitchen, with a breakfast nook we created with a table and some chairs purchased at an antique shop on Dickenson Ave.

This old woodstove was purchased from one of our neighbors. Believe it or not, it weighed close to 800 lbs. We had to lift it with the bucket loader on the tractor. It took a whole afternoon to get it installed in the house. Now we are using to keep half the farmhouse comfortably warm.

Our winter trial garden has been very successful. One thing we learned is that these Mustard greens can take several frosts and still look good. (as you can see)

And then of course, there continues to be those amazing sunsets. Here the sun wanes over the "Oak Grove"

We had to start a second wood pile as we continued cutting on our trees downed by Hurricane Irene.

When Christmas came, we thinned out some pines and used them for Christmas trees. Here my oldest son Tobias is about to take one home for decorating.

It's not always about the Sunsets. Here is the old dinner bell backlit by a sunrise on a very cold morning.