Heartfelt thanks from Sheepy Hollow for…
family and friends,
warm woolies,
birthdays,
soft muzzles,
quiet moments,
wagging tails,
lots of hugs,
a friendly hand shake,
bountiful harvest,
an unexpected visitor,
starry nights,
a wood fire…
God’s grace & blessings to you!
Posted in Farm | Tagged Farm | 1 Comment »
I finally finished my ‘original’ design primitive Santa! Too late for my Christmas in the Country Open House, but still in time for the Christmas season, never-the-less!
Prim Santa is made of 100% wool, red & green plaid suit trimmed in wool fleece – that’s my Cheviot wool fleece! He has rusty bells stitched onto the corners of his ‘coat’, twig legs, (it’s difficult to discern, since Santa is displayed from one of my hand-crafted twig trellis) and is holding a coffee-stained satchel filled with scented rose hips, cinnamon and spices, a piece of wool trim and a rusty mini gingerbread man cookie cutter.
His face is actually repro vintage card ‘paper’ santa. I added a touch of silver glitter to detail his eyebrows. His hair and beard is made with wool locks from a Border Leicester sheep. Their naturally curly locks are often used by doll-makers.
I also finished a few Christmas stockings, hand-knitted 100 % wool…for hanging on the fireplace mantle. I needle felted the sheep with my Corriedale and Shetland fleece. The sheepie is sporting holly sprigs around her neck. I think I’ll list a stocking or two on my ETSY shop once I figure the appropriate postage.
I’ve been needle felting for a very long time and enjoy 
creating anything sheepie! I love the texture of working with difference wool fleece.
Never too many sheepies…
How about a few stocking stuffers?
Simple muslin drawstring sachets filled with 100% organic lavender, stamped with a ‘lavender lamb’. The ’squeeze bag’ releases wonderful lavender scent. Great for fiber enthusiast’s yarn stash, a desk drawer, linen closet…
Slightly larger, my Moth Beware! Wool Saver Sachet is filled with fragrant red cedar and a variety of naturalmoth-repelling herbs raised in my garden such as tansy, wormwood, mint, rosemary, lavender…to name a few. 
Also hand-stamped with a prim sheepie and Herbs motif! These sachets will also be listed for sale in my ETSY store!
Well, I’ve been busy knitting up some red fingerless mitts and little red felted bowls, perfect for catch-alls!
Happy fiber’n!
Posted in Fiber, Primitives, Sheep | Tagged Primitives, santa, Sheep | Leave a Comment »
As the days shorten and the chill in the air turns our thoughts to home and hearth, take joy as winter approaches. It is indeed a more ‘peaceful’ time on the farm…gardening chores are mostly done, animals are ‘bedded’ down for the winter, winter woolies are taken out of storage… It is a well-deserved quiet season to reflect on friends and family.
As Christmas-tyme draws nearer, simplify your gift-giving with heartfelt hand-made gifts. If you favor ‘collectables’ as I do, such as crockery, wooden bowls & trugs, baskets, linens, anything made from tin – you get the idea - fill them with something that you’ve hand-stitched, knitted, ‘put up’ from the garden, jams and jellies, herb vinegar & oils with herbs from the garden…or whatever your particular talent or speciality!
Here’s a few ideas to use as a springboard to get your creative juices flowing:
For that special cook, a mason jar filled with your very own herbal ‘bouquet garnis’ for flavoring soup and stews. Prepare a blend of your fav dried herbs. Place 1 tablespoon of the mix in the center of a square of cheesecloth, tie with kitchen string and attach a tag describing the contents and a recipe or two?
A vintage canister filled with a special tea blend – add some of your own dried herbs, naturally!
Herbal bath salts presented in a pretty recycled cut glass jar. Use 1 cup sea salt, 1 cup Epsom salt, 1 Tablespoon baking soda, and dried lavender buds (a few drops essential oil optional) makes a relaxing bath. Or, add mint for a ‘re-energizing’ bath soak.
A fragrant potpourri in a bowl: 1 cup dried lemon verbena or lemon balm, 15 bay leaves, 1 crushed cinnamon stick, whole cloves, allspice and dried rind of lemons or oranges. Add a few sprigs of pine or cedar ‘greens’, pinecones, and such from the yard! Hint: Make sure they’re de-bugged – place in a zip-lock and freezer overnight!
An old stoneware bowl filled with new potatoes and your fav recipe for potato soup, potato salad, scalloped potatoes, etc.
Fill a bowl with spicy pomanders. To pomander fruit, select firm oranges, lemons, limes, apples, etc. Draw (or freestyle) a simple geometric design onto the fruit with a water-soluble pen. Use a wooden skewer if necessary to lightly pierce your design on the fruit, wash off the ink, and insert whole cloves. Add row after row of cloves until your design is complete. Makes a wonderful fragrant centerpiece or for wreath embellishments and lasts for weeks.
A bar of your home-made soap and a hand-knitted wash cloth, with or without a vintage ironstone soap dish, tied with ribbon or raffia makes a lovely gift! Who doesn’t use soap????
An old fluted tin lined with a pretty towel and parchment paper, filled with fresh-baked cookies! Don’t forget to add a tag with the recipe!
Pinecones dipped in bees-wax, add a cotton wick and arrange in an old wicker basket as fire-starters for the hearth.
No matter, it’s the heartfelt thought and warm sentiments in gift-giving…leave a comment if you have a special hand-made ‘gift’ idea or two to pass along!
Bountiful blessings!
Posted in Farm, Gardening, Herbs, country living | Tagged Farm, garden, recipes | Leave a Comment »
A heartfelt ‘THANK YOU’ for visiting Sheepy Hollow’s ‘Christmas in the Country ~ Holiday Open House’.
We had wonderful weather for touring the gardens
and visiting the barnyard menagerie!
I enjoyed meeting new folks and revisiting old friends.
I had many requests for the cheese spread/dip.
I’d love to share the simple, but delicious, recipe with you.
You’ll need three basic ingredients:
1 cup mayonnaise, 1 cup parmesan cheese, 1 small diced onion (I used green onions/scallions).
I also added a little chopped fresh parsley…but you can easily
modify the recipe to whatever suits your fancy!
Many blessings!
Posted in Farm, country living | 1 Comment »
Posted in Farm, Fiber, Goats, Herbs, Sheep, country living | Tagged Farm, holidays | 1 Comment »
I save EVERYTHING! What’s considered scraps by most folks, I save and squirrel away for that special project. For example, I save wool snippets from rug hooking, yarn scraps, thrums and so on. A scrap of wool makes a nice tie around a cellophane bag ”wrapped” gift, a make-do collar for a sheepy ornament, tied around a bar of hand-crafted soap, bundling sachets, adding a tag to a gift…you get the idea.
I’ve been wet-felting ever since I have owned sheep (+10 years)! Wet-felting is a simple fiber project that requires no special equipment…just good clean fun with wool fiber, a dash of soap, hot and cold water and a little agitation, umm, mooshing and gooshing. Depending on my project, I usually generate small ’scraps’ of felted wool pieces. They usually become the ears and tails on many of my sheepy fiber art projects. But here’s a simple ‘crafty’ idea that uses some of those felted wool scraps. Creating these sheepy cards is easy enough for kids (with a little supervision) and adults – and we all love and occasionally still use stationery sent via the U.S. Post office!???
Any card stock will work nicely. Center and stamp a sheep image onto the card. If you don’t have a favorite sheep stamp, you can cut out a body by hand or use a large punch and draw a simple ‘primitive’ sheep head and legs. With an ExActo knife (here’s where the adult oversight may be necessary), cut out the body. Fit a small ’scrap’ of wool behind the ’stamp’ on the inside of the card and secure with a piece of tape. I like to attach a slip of paper over the tape on the interior that provides a little info about the sheep, breed, type of fiber, etc. Stamp a message, embellish to your heart’s desire. I tend to simplify…less is more. But, the possibilities are endless!
Enjoy!
Posted in Fiber, Sheep | Tagged fiber art, Sheep | 2 Comments »
A low maintenance wooly flock of sheep…made with a pipe cleaner, most sheepies are sporting my farm-raised Corriedale fleece. The large sheepie in the back is made with Merino and wool felt ears; the first on the left is Suffolk. Add a length of ribbon and they’ll make cute ornies for the tree. Embellish if desired with black ’seed bead’ eyes, perhaps a collar and small bell? You decide…
Happy fiber’n.
Posted in Fiber, Sheep | Tagged Sheep | 1 Comment »
Do you recall all the parsley in my garden in a previous post (it’s actually about half of the parsley in my garden)? Well, if you have lots of fresh parsley, here’s a recipe that perhaps you’d like to try… TABOULI. First, a few facts about parsley. Parsley is a biennial – that means it comes back the second year and produces seed. But, I generally treat parsley as an annual and plant it every year. It’s not as prolific the second year because most if its energy is spent on producing seeds, not the leafy greens we’re after. If you’re a seed-saver, plant a fresh batch and save the seeds from the second year.
Now, I prefer Italian plain leaf parsley versus French or curly leaf parsley and most cooks will tell you the flat leaf variety has more flavor. While most folks consider it a garnish, it’s actually very nutritious, a rich source of iron and vitamins A and C. It’s also a natural breath sweetener! The goats, bunnies and chickens love any harvest surplus!!
Tabouli is a healthful Mediterranean dish traditionally prepared with cracked wheat (bulghur), parsley, mint, garlic, tomatoes, green onions, olive oil and lemon. I’ve substituted lentils for the bulghur and added a chopped cucumber. It’s great chilled or served at room temp, by itself or in a pita!
Prepare 16 oz lentils (or 2 cups bulghur) according to package. Drain any extra water and set aside. Chop 1 cucumber, 2 small tomatoes, 1 bunch green onions, 1/2 cup fresh chopped mint, 2 cups fresh chopped parsley and 1 – 2 cloves minced garlic (to taste). Make the dressing: 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, 3/4 cup olive oil, salt to taste, 1 tablespoon pepper. Mix all ingredients. Makes about 8 cups.
For dessert, how about GOAT CHEESE TRUFFLES?
Ingredients: 8 ounces high quality Chevre goat cheese (preferably your own), 10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips, 2 teaspoons vanilla, cocoa powder. Method: Melt the chocolate chips and cool slightly. Cream the goat cheese and vanilla; add the cooled chocolate and continue to cream. When well creamed, use a melon ball to measure out the truffles. Place on a wax papered cookie sheet and place in refrigerator. When firm enough to handle, roll into balls and roll in cocoa powder. Refrigerate. Your friends won’t believe it’s goat cheese. HINT: The truffles freeze well – perfect for midnight snacking…straight from the freezer! Enjoy!
Recipe courtesy Goat Lady Dairy
Posted in Farm, Herbs, cheese, recipes | Tagged cheese, Goats, Herbs, recipes | 3 Comments »
What happens when you love F I B E R and G O A T S ??? You get a goat that’s reputed for its fiber and hardiness, in this case, a P Y G O R A, which is a breed purposely bred and registered to produce fine fiber for hand spinning. Pygoras are a cross between an ANGORA goat (who produces mohair – a long silky fleece) and a Pygmy goat (often producing short, soft down). You can learn more about Pygoras at www.pba-pygora.com
I’d love for you to meet Brutus, the latest addition to my fiber ’stash’ and barnyard menagerie. My husband and I drove out to meet Pygora breeder and owner, Allison, at Great Lakes Pygora. Anyone interested in learning more about Allison can visit her at http://www.greatlakespygora.com
Brutus is a Pygora wether (castrated male) and is about eight months old. He has a Type B fleece (that is, Blend-type: a blend of the Pygmy goat undercoat, which is cashmere, and the longer Angora mohair. It is 3 – 6 inches long and has a nice crimp (curl). The second coat is usually obscured by the longer coat.) I fell in love with Angora goats and cashmere ever since I read an article in Wild Fibers Spring 2008 and Fall 2008 issues, respectively. Then, another article appearing in Spin-Off magazine entitled Fiber Basics: Pygora captured my interest! But, the most recent clincher came when a friend was spinning locks of hand-dyed mohair during our last spinning guild meeting…I was smitten and knew I had to have some of that beeeeeautiful fiber!
So, I asked hubby if I could have a Pygora for my birthday (mid-November) and he said YES! Welcome dearest Brutus! Ain’t he handsome!!!??? Pics courtesy of Allison…
Brutus is a quick learner. He knows that all of my goats are fed and ‘managed’ on the stanchion twice per day, where they get individual daily attention - cuz I love my critters! He’s already warming up to me and the rest of the flock/herd. The sheepies don’t pay him much attention and the goats are all ‘into’ checking each other out and establishing a ‘heirarchy’ amongst them. Brutus doesn’t know what to make of Bo, our Great Pyrenees? But, he’s got lots of company and is making new friends and exploring his new home!
Happy fiber’n!
Posted in Farm, Fiber, Goats | Tagged Goats, pygora | 3 Comments »
Matt was home over an extended 4-day weekend (mid-terms) so I spent lots of time rattling the pots and pans in the kitchen preparing his ‘favorites’. Used up the last of my goat’s milk cheese with baked manicotti…YUM! I made meatloaf – it’s always a family fav – for another supper, and last, stuffed green peppers with a basil/tomato sauce with pick’ns from the garden just before the hard frost.
For dessert, I had to bake an apple strudel…but not the type you’re probably most familiar with…light airy filo-type crust? This ‘apfel’ strudel is my mom’s recipe from the ‘old country’, Nieder Osterreich (Northern Austria) from a little farming village called Rastenfeld where my mom was born and raised. It’s a simple-folk farmer’s hearty-type dough, made with flour, sugar, butter, sour cream, milk and egg yolks. It rolls out easily and is then filled with fresh sliced apples, sprinkled with sugar and dotted with butter (I toss in a few raisins and a little cinnamon). Another BIG Y-U-M!
Here’s the recipe, made the old-fashioned way – BY HAND. NOTE: MAKES TWO APFEL STRUDELS: In a large bowl, add 4 1/2 cups flour, 2/3 cup sugar, pinch salt. Stir with whisk. Now, make a hole in the center of the flour and add: cut in 2 sticks butter, 4 tablespoons sour cream, 4 tablespoons milk, 4 egg yolks (reserve the whites to brush on top of the strudel if desired). Now comes the fun part! Push up your sleeves and with your hands, begin to pull in flour from sides and incorporate into the ‘wet’ ingredients. Once you have formed a ball of dough – of sorts – turn out onto a floured dough board and work gently adding a bit more flour if needed until ingredients are all incorporated and smooth. Put finished dough aside under the bowl while you prepare your apples. Peel, core ‘n slice 7-8 large apples (I use Northern Spy but any good baking apple will do. Now, back to the dough…cut the dough in half (makes 2). Roll out half the dough to fit lengthwise on a parchment paper lined 11 X 17 baking sheet, approx 1/4 inch thick. Arrange sliced apples down the center of dough. sprinkle on sugar to taste, add cinnamon & raisens if desired, and dot with a few bits of butter. Gently fold over dough to center and pinch ‘n tuck ends closed. Brush on egg whites and sprinkle with sugar if desired - OR - when baked, just dust strudel with powder sugar. Repeat process with second half of remaining dough (for second strudel). Transfer from wood board to baking sheet, next to first strudel (see pic). Bake at preheated 350 degrees F until golden brown, juices should be flowing, approx 45 minutes – 1 hour. Remove from oven and allow to cool before slicing. Enjoy!
Since I had man-power available, we managed to perform necessary flock management, worming, feet trimming, etc. getting everyone prepared for the winter and breeding(?). I also managed to skirt, wash and pick Reeces’ fleece, my ewe lamb - whom I sheared this past September. I was hoping beyond hope for a nice warm day to perform this ‘chore’ when it turned so unseasonably cold! Nevertheless, I accomplished the task in two days…well, I had to let the fleece dry overnight in my drying barn before I could ‘pick- it’. That’s kind of like teasing the wool apart – in preparation for spinning. But first…
Before I could USE the drying barn (I forgot to mention sequencing) – remember ALL that lavender drying all over screens and racks in the drying barn??? Well, it took me two days, but I finally ’garbled’ (that is, removed all the leaves/buds from the stems) every bit of lavender I had harvested this past summer and temporarily stockpiled in the barn. YEAH – well done! Smells heavenly. I saved some of the longer lavender stems to bundle and use as scented ‘faggots’ for the fireplace.
And, I also made another batch of goat milk soap – this time I used peppermint and rosemary essential oils and some of my farm-raised organic peppermint for color. TIP: I use a ‘dedicated’ electric coffee grinder for grinding herbs and other botanicals for creating various herbal sundries. I always look forward to soapmaking day - the kitchen is usually filled with wonderful scents. After the soap is allowed to “set” for approx. 24 hours, I remove the soap (in this particular batch, a 10 pound loaf) from the mold. TIP: Use freezer paper to line your mold for easy release. I immediately cut the soap ‘loaf’ into individual bars. TIP: A non-serrated knife/blade makes a clean cut and/or a cheese-cutter (straight or curly/fancy blade cuts the soap nicely. Sometimes you can find them at the dollar store. I usually get anywhere from 24 – 30 bars depending how I cut the loaf. TIP: A small old wood drawer makes a nice soap mold! The bars of soap are placed on wire racks where they’re allowed to cure/harden for another 3-4 weeks before the soap is used/sold.
Last, but not least, hubby also mulched our veggie garden compost with his chipper/shredder that operates off the tractor PTO. We have a 3-stage compost system. One bin accumulates, one bin is in-process/cooking and one bin is the final ‘product’ …which is usually always empty because we put it right back into the garden beds in the Spring. Since we already got hit hard with frost several times, I’ve been cleaning-up the garden beds and accumulating lots of garden debris. You increase the rate of decomposition by increasing the surface area…that is, chop up your veggie waste. Here’s the final product – it looks almost ready to place back into the garden – full of nutrients for next growing season!
A busy, blessed weekend!
Posted in Farm, Gardening, Herbs, recipes, soapmaking | Tagged cheese, compost, Farm, garden, Herbs, lavender, mulch, soap | 5 Comments »
