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Hi Everyone,
Well, my week didn’t start off the grandest, nor did it end the grandest. Last Sunday morning I acquired an earache while milking cows, and as I sit here typing a whole week later I am still dealing with a clogged ear. I have tried everything—to no avail. I fear it may be my body’s new way to deal with my winter allergies. Nevertheless, I will be most happy when the cloggers quick “clogging” in my ear. While the ear did put a damper on a lot of the things that I wanted to get accomplished last week—thankfully it didn’t totally shut me down.
Monday morning shortly after we got the cows milked a visitor arrived. It was a planned visit, and a very enjoyable one. Olivia, from Breaking New Roots YouTube channel stopped by to do an interview/farm tour for her YouTube channel. She arrived around 11:00 and left around 2:30. We talked and walked. We visited the sheep and the laying hens, the broiler chicks and the milk cows. Olivia said that she expects to post the video the end of February—I will let you know when it happens!
When the tour was over we grabbed a bite for lunch and then we headed to town to get some picnic tables for our upcoming farm to table dinner. We need five tables for the dinner, but decided to purchase one for starts to see how we like it. When we got back from town Mom and Papa put together the picnic table while I answered emails and made arrangements for someone to come and pick up a little bull calf.
Before we finished milking the cows on Tuesday the vet showed up. Back in October we sold a bred heifer to a family at our church—but six weeks later we were surprised to find out that Miss Buttercup was in heat again. We brought her back home and put her back in with the milk cows so that she could roam with Dijon, the bull. A few weeks later she was in heat again and we watched her get bred—but we wanted to make sure that she took this time. A cow has to be six weeks pregnant before the vet can do an ultra sound on her to see if she is pregnant or not. To our delight the vet was able to see a wee little calf forming inside of Buttercup. Therefore, as soon as the milking was done on Thursday Mom and Papa loaded up Miss Buttercup and took her home to her new family. I stayed home because I wasn’t feeling the grandest. The clogged ear was also affecting my breathing and energy level. Buttercup arrived at her destination shortly after lunch—and shortly after Mr. Maynard had headed back to work. Mrs. Maynard told the children not to tell Daddy that the cow was coming home—for they wanted to see just how long it would take him before he realized that we had returned their cow. Found out today at church that it took him just 20 minutes. I am sure that the children were glad that they didn’t have to keep that secret any longer.
Mom and Papa were not home very long before they had to load back up and go and pick up our Azure order. I had rested most of the day and finally felt like doing something so I made some kombucha (a week over due to be done) and I finished a batch of Soothing Salve. Then it was time for dinner—but that wasn’t too complicated for we were having “Fast Food” farmer style. I broiled some steaks, and then I opened a jar of home canned potatoes, and a jar of home canned green beans and I heated them up. Then I grabbed a bowl of already washed homegrown lettuce and put together a quick salad with apples, onions, walnuts, and dried cranberries. The meal took 15 minutes to fix. Now that is some healthy fast food!
Friday afternoon Mom and I headed to town to get the other four picnic tables, a few groceries, and some potatoes to plant this month. February is the month to plant Irish potatoes. Some people plant them by the moon, some people just plant them, and the old timers around here plant them on Valentine’s Day. Not sure just yet when we will plant ours. This week has some good root crop days according to the moon—but the eyes on the potatoes have to get a little bigger and truth be told I am just not ready to plant potatoes. Valentine’s Day falls on a Wednesday—and we never have time to garden on a Wednesday. The next root crop days fall the last week of the month—which is the week of our Farm to Table dinner, and I cannot guarantee that we will have any time to plant that week. So we shall see what happens and I will let you know when we send the potato eyes down under to look for buried treasure.
For years Mom and I have dreamed of doing farm to table dinners—but we didn’t know any chefs or anyone who could do the cooking for us. Mom says that if she had to cook for a crowd you would find her in her bedroom corner crying. It is not our forte. Decorating, hosting and sharing our lovely farm with others are more up our ally. Back in November we started dreaming with a fellow vendor who owns and operates a portable wood fire pizza oven. He and his wife have catered weddings and other events—and pizza isn’t the only thing they know how to cook. A few years ago they bought a little farm and started “farming”, but instead of selling their produce at a Farmer’s Market they decided to turn their produce into pizza and sell pizza. Everything is organically grown, and of top notch quality. Their fame for their pizza is growing and if you live locally you can check them out at Kalacrow Pizza. While they are known for their pizza, pizza will not be on the menu at our first Farm to Table Dinner. If all goes well I am sure that we shall have a pizza event one day—but this dinner is straight up fancy. On Saturday, March 2, from 4:00 to 7:00 there will be appetizers, a hayride, and a four course meal served outside overlooking the farm and in a place where you can watch the little lambs romp and play. If it sounds like an enjoyable evening to you then check out our “Farm to Table Dinner—March into Spring”. The seating is limited so grab your tickets ASAP before they sell out!
I realized that there would be some work to do in order to get ready for our first farm dinner—but one thing I didn’t expect was that all five picnic tables would have to be sanded and sealed. Wood working is not my favorite thing in life—and sanding is the worst part. Mom loves wood working—but I am not sure that she enjoys sanding either. Anyway, I am glad that there are a lot of other things for me to do instead of sanding. Mom on the other hand began the sanding adventure Saturday afternoon—but only got three quarters of the way done with the first table. The other four still have to be put together. In the meantime, we have to figure out what is the best way to seal the wood so that the weather doesn’t affect it—we want to have more than one farm dinner and we don’t want to have to keep buying picnic tables.
I did manage to get a little bit of weeding done in the garden Saturday afternoon—but I really wouldn’t call it weeding. The next batch of lettuce is growing very nicely (after a very rough start), but the heads are cradled in a bed of spring weeds—some weeds were taller than the lettuce heads. I didn’t want to pull up the weeds—for then the lettuce heads would get splattered with dirt when the sprinklers turned on. So I had this grand idea to chop and drop. I took some little grass clippers and I clipped the weeds (henbit, Carolina geranium, a few small thistles, and chickweed) off at the ground and laid them around the lettuce heads. The bed went from lettuce playing hide and go seek with the weeds to a lettuce bed with a carpet of green wrapped around each head. It was a really pretty transformation—but when I looked at the row tonight there was one wilted lettuce plant. I must have clipped it along with its surrounding weeds. Oops!
Well that is my week in a nutshell!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare