May Is Cool

In spite of the coronavirus, life on the farm is actually lovely right now. Spring is cool this year (for the South), and it seems to me the flowers and vegetables are better than usual. Here's my lovely elderberry tree!

Each little blossom will be an elderberry.

I want to make jam so badly.
Last April, this tree looked like this:

Isn't that amazing?
This spring, I cut off five more exactly like that from my tree, and now I have five more starts. I want elderberry to be one of our prime products on this farm in future -- lots of jam, lots of syrup perhaps.

Sugar sweet peas are bearing.

We'll pick some flat ones for salads and stir fries. The others I'll allow to mature, and I'll freeze peas again for the winter.

Speaking of freezing ... I've put two gallons of our strawberries in the freezer so far, and they are still bearing!

Perhaps we've mastered strawberries?
Lettuce:

Last year I told Adam I wanted a small bed dedicated to just plantain. I use it to make an ointment. It's a weed that grows in the yard, but it gets mowed down. He was tired of me saying, "Wait! Don't mow there! It's plantain!" I wasn't sure how a weed would perform in a bed to itself ...

... but it's doing rather well! 

I'm kind of a nut about growing herbs. It's ridiculous; I grow way more herbs than we could ever eat, and I don't even like eating some of them. But I love growing herbs. I have no idea why. And I can't help but make a video now and then about my herb beds. It's a little like showing off your children to others and saying, "See how he's grown?!" Anyway, here is the current video. Welcome to my herb beds:

I have a few basil in little pots that I'm taking around to friends. I have two more lemongrass plants to put in the ground somewhere. And only five Matt's Wild Cherry seedlings germinated, in my packet from Jonny's Seeds -- quite a disappointment! Soon I'll be moaning about the heat, but for how, I'm loving working outside in the cool May weather this year. Blessings to all of you, friends!

Windy March Farm

So much wind! It makes a normal day a cold day, especially in the garden, which lies on the north side of our property, abutted by a huge farm field. The winds across that field cut like a knife. But in the greenhouse:

 Those are basil seedlings. We also have oregano, but it's much smaller.
We're picking asparagus for the first time this year! First two spears:

 Onion seeds. I have onion sets doing beautifully in the garden, so I don't know what I'll do with these, or if they'll thrive.

 The four volunteer tomato plants from last fall that I've over-wintered are still going strong in the greenhouse. They're a bit peaky, but will bounce back as soon as I get them into the soil in May.

 'Tis the time of year for dandelions. The kind lady at the post office looked at me rather funny when I asked if I could pick the dandelion flowers in front of the P.O.

 I dry them and then infuse them into safflower oil.

This is used to make "Dandelion Lotion Bars" in the summer, which are insect- repellent. But this is the first step, which must be done when the dandelions are fresh and plentiful, well before the mosquitoes come in herds.

What else on the farm?

*Kale, collards, and spinach are all up in the beds.

*Strawberry plants are healthy. 4 in a large garden bed, and the original small strawberry "nursery" bed is coming back well from winter.

*Onion sets look tall and healthy.

*6 hens and 1 rooster still. Lady Grey, my broodiest silkie, is broody again and is due with chicks on April 11. Because I struggle to incorporate new birds into my flock, this is by far the easiest way to guarantee new birds will be smoothly received.

*Adam has started mowing and weed-eating. His gas can was chewed through this winter.

*He's covered the crawl space openings with lattice, repaired the garden fence, dug out the front ditch, and trimmed bushes and fruit trees as the weather allowed.

* I dug up yet more daffodil bulbs that were in bad locations where Adam wanted to mow. It does no good to have them mowed down; they never bloom. I've been rescuing daffy bulbs every spring since we moved here! This time I'm giving them away to friends.

That's all for now! Spring has begun, but it's really not warm enough yet to do that serious seed-starting and yard work we long to do.

Being Industrious

Today I was awake at 4:00 and up before 5:00. We're getting old.
Yes, that's the back-end of a hen you see.

That's Lady Grey, who is broody on a clutch of eleven eggs, give or take. This morning she hatched out the first one!
I spent much time this morning in the chicken coop making the nesting box better for chicks - cleaning, gently shifting eggs, cleaning water and helping the new chick drink, getting chick feed, etc., etc. I enjoy chicken work.

I sat down about 6:30 to watch Mary Berry on "Who Do You Think You Are?" Did you know her great-great grandfather was a baker too? After a bit, I got antsy and decided to make a new product for my soap business: shampoo bars. (By 8:00, I had them in molds and was eating breakfast at last.)

Gumbo Lily recommended that I make this item, and I agreed. As I poured it into the molds, the shampoo was the color and consistency of lemon curd.

It's scented with rosemary and a dash of peppermint.
I don't think I'll be going back to my Prell. 
The recipe came from Wellness Mama, a respected site. We'll see if it's up to snuff!

 

I bought premium all-natural lard. In the past, people have been turned off by lard, but it's lovely for your skin and hair and makes a good bar.

I'm also making warming pouches filled with flax seed. Have you tried one? I bought one about five years ago from a friend in Oriental. She's since moved, so I feel the market is fair game for warming pouches. They're easy to make. Flax seed is the best filler for these lovely muscle helpers. Pop them in the microwave for 30 - 60 seconds and put them on your neck. I've used mine so much. Here are the fabrics I chose:

I still need to price these new items, and I promise I'm crunching the numbers to ensure I don't lose money on their sales. 

Oh! And guess what? I got a new piano student this week. An older gentleman called me after seeing my advertisement at the post office. I take that as a good indication that I'm on the right track. Now it's 9:00, and soon I'll drive to the music store in town to choose practice books for my new student. That will be fun! All that I've done since 5:00 this morning has technically been "work," but it doesn't feel so. Many, many thanks for your kind words of support for me as I step out into more avenues of from-home work. You have been wonderful, friends!

Farm Update: July 3

I haven't done a farm post in nearly two months. I have various excuses: rain, rain, and then a bit more rain. A wedding. The outrageous heat. But truthfully, I had energy for one blog, not two. There you have the unvarnished truth.

For future reference, here are a few stats:

*3 chicks survive from the May clutch. I think two are hens, but unsure still. They are nine weeks old today.
*Ethel is broody on four Ameracauna eggs, one week in. 
*It's a bad tomato year. I have about 25 plants in the garden, but the Mini Orange plants are performing badly because of excessive rain - rotten fruit. The 2 plants in pots with drainage did better.

*Matt's Wild Cherry tomato plants are doing okay. The 3 plants that overwintered on the porch have done extremely well. I should try that again. I had abundant cherry tomatoes all through June, which is early. The rope trellising is not a good solution for tomatoes. We need a new plan. Cages are too short for vining varieties.
*Cucumbers are bearing very well. The pickling variety turn yellow quickly. But the rope trellising is perfect for cucumbers. We will do that each year.

*I started my Blue Lake bean plants too late. I have 8 plants in a bed fenced against rabbits. Difficult to weed. Pepper plants also in there, and growing well.
*The greens bed was fabulous. We could not eat or sell even a majority of it.
*Babies' Breath and Chamomile did not grow well. Heavy rain destroyed the first and heat/weeds destroyed the second.
*Carrots appear to be growing well. No sign of orange root yet. I sowed seeds on March 29.
*A good year for onions, which were put in as sets last fall. At the end of June their tops were down enough to pull them. They're curing on the front porch. Then I think we'll store them in the frig.

* Each year our potato harvest improves. Adam harvested them today. He'll brush off the dirt and we'll store them in the spare bedroom.

*I've had decent farm sales at the market, selling nearly everything. 
*I have so much tomato sauce left over from last year that I'm cooking it down and turning it all into tomato paste, which Adam uses most readily in cooking.

Reduced by half, after simmering for a day

*We ate some peas this year, but did not freeze any. We don't tend to remember what's in the deep freezer, and garden produce sits there for a long time, uneaten. Need to improve on that.
* I made a batch of tea tree soap in February, one of lavender in March, and just made a mixed batch last week. I've steadily made batches of Healing Herb Ointment, Bee Balm, and Insect Repellent Lotion Bars, all of which sell well. I'll make a bit of ointment for ourselves today because we use it so often.
*Herb beds are doing very well, if weedy. I made a large batch of herbal tea (mint, lemon balm, tarragon, lemongrass), and sold the first tin of it at the market on Saturday.

*Adam's willow tree starts are doing extremely well. Thicker wands have grown better than thinner ones. 
*My seven loofah vines are looking very good. They won't bear until autumn. I sold almost all of my last year's loofah scrubs.

I think that's about it! If you want to know more about what's happening in our lives -- the roof, the wedding, the dogs -- skip on over to my other blog, Through a Glass Darkly. Thanks for stopping by!

Circles and Such

 I'm still spinning. Combing, dizzing, and spinning are calm activities.
Plying, dying and wrapping the yarn into skeins are exciting activities.
These two skeins are in an avocado dye.

 On the other side of the stove my homemade chai is reducing.

 Instead of throwing out this celery stump, I'm growing it in the windowsill. I did one last fall and now have a large celery plant, waiting to be transplanted into the garden this spring.

 I can't take much credit for the Bee Balm that is my small business's best seller. Everybody loves it and wants more. I'm shipping five tubs off to New York City today.

 The concoction below, however, is a new product: Healing Herb Ointment. It's a bit greasy, and it smells earthy. But oh-my-goodness ... is it full of good stuff!

 In addition to all these lovely oils and butter and wax, it's infused with plantain, yarrow, and dandelion.

My baby thyme plants are growing.

 One more circle from my house -- this large plate. My mother gave it to me. It was gifted her by an elderly lady whose parents were missionaries in China long ago. The plate came from them, and who knows how old it is and where it came from before that.

 If you don't follow my other blog, here are a few shots of the nearly-finished kitchen. All the shelves are up on the stove-side!

 One more long shelf will go up on the sink-side (below). But the shelves are full now, and the kitchen looks homey.

 Our local thrift store is rearranging for spring, but I found these jars amid the chaos. Those are 1/2 gallon Mason jars, at 50 cents apiece. I was chuffed, as the British say!

Otherwise, farm life is slow now because it's still cold. Freezing temps (just barely) at night, and windy during the day, and cold. I'm eager to put all these herbs in the ground ... but not yet. Not yet.