Simple Hand-Made Herbal Gifts

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 [...]

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A Working Weekend

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 [...]

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Fall garden ‘to-do’ list!

You never realize how creative you are until it comes time to figure out what to do with all the L A V E N D E R in your garden!?!!

Most of the lavender seen here (in my drying barn) will be ‘garbled’, that is, the buds and leaves will be removed from the stems [...]

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Osage Oranges

Osage orange trees are a common sight on the Great Plains today although they were not a widespread member of the prairie community originally. Before the invention of barbed wire in the 1880’s, they were planted as living fences – or hedges – along the boundaries of farms.
The name of the tree comes from the [...]

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October Already?

Frost was definitely on the pumpkin the other nite! Thought I’d better tend to the garden and pick the veggies that wouldn’t survive the freeze – green peppers, tomatoes, green beans, basil, dill and such. It was probably a good idea to tidy up the garden anyway since this weekend I’m one of the destinations for the [...]

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Welcome to My Veggie Garden – A Sneak Peek!

Welcome to our garden! Our raised bed veggie garden is a mix of some of our fav veggies like sugar snap peas, tomato, peppers, salad greens, beets, carrots, green beans and more; small fruits including currants, strawberries, raspberries, culinary herbs and a few edible flowers. Most visitors are surprised by and interested in our raised beds. Here, sugar [...]

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Happy Memorial Weekend

Hello my dear friends!
It’s been a looooong time since we’ve last talked. I guess it’s just that time of year when EVERYTHING seems to run together, like, garden clean-up, spring planting, kidding, shearing, lambing, milking, bottle feeding, end-of-school-year activities, graduation (YEAH Matt!), re-opening the shop and mowing – or baling – the grass, etc. Of course, that ‘to-do’ [...]

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If I can’t eat it, I’m not plant’n it!

It’s been a very busy week in the garden…the weeds are growing like crazy! I’ve decided that if I can’t eat it (dye with it or make some herbal concoction), I’m not planting it. There’s only so many hours in the day for gardening in addition to all the other chores piling up around here. [...]

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Happy Sheep Make Beautiful Yarn

Over the past two days, my sheepies’ yarn has taken up residence in my kitchen – dye books and recipes on the kitchen table, dye pots on the stove and counter-tops, various stages of yarn soaking, cooking, cooling, rinsing…and finally, hung to air dry. Dyeing is a wonderfully creative and rewarding process…to see color ‘bloom’ [...]

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Spring’s sprouting…

Who could resist ‘putzing’ in the garden this past Friday when we experienced mid 60’s and sunshine…in Michigan??! I think the temp was a record-breaker! My daughter (who had the day off from school – end of semester something or other?) and I managed to rake a few garden beds from all the wind-blown collected leaves. Under [...]

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