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Hi Everyone,

            The first week of November has come and gone, and now there are only eight weeks left until 2027. My how time flies when you are having fun! Although my week didn’t start out too fun. We processed chickens the Friday before and when I woke up Saturday morning there was a slight stiffness in my neck. Brushing my teeth was hard, and by night I found washing my hair to be almost impossible. Come Sunday the pain was unbearable, and while I did manage to still play the piano for church, Mama will tell you I did it with a tilted head. I had the Pastor pray for me and the pain started to calm down. I spent the afternoon on a heating pad and by night the neck was not so bad—but then I went to bed and woke up Monday morning even worse. I managed to milk the cows, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon pampering my neck. Tuesday morning I felt like I was 75% better, but was still dealing with some pain. We were due to process the 50 remaining chickens on Thursday—but with a Farm to Table Dinner on Saturday night Mama didn’t want to take the risk of me having a setback. So we postponed the chickens “one bad day” until tomorrow (Monday). My neck is still not 100% well, but I am very thankful that my sister, nephew, and niece have offered to come over and help us.

            Tuesday morning I got the cows milked and then I had to bottle the kefir. While I waited for Wayland to finish washing his share of the milking equipment I packaged eggs. Then when Wayland was done I washed my kefir making dishes. Then it was lunch time and after that I had to finish making the yogurt. By then my neck was screaming at me, but I needed to finish the eggs—but, Mama didn’t agree with me and my sister stopped by for a visit. So I surrendered to relaxing the rest of the afternoon. (Thanks sis!) Once the cows were milked and the orders were packed and the receipts were printed on Wednesday and Papa was off for Jacksonville—I spent Wednesday afternoon resting too.

            Thursday morning greeted me with a nightmare. At 7:00 I walked into our farm kitchen to put together the milking equipment—and one by one I took down the milk tanks from off the sink and set them down on the floor. When I grabbed for the fourth tank I realized that it was crawling in ants. The other three tanks had some ants on them too—and by now my dress did too. I shook off my dress and then I noticed that the sink was overcome with ants. The recent rains had brought every ant out of the ground and they were now invading our territory. I got the tanks cleaned up and then Mama and I put together the milking equipment. After breakfast I returned to the farm kitchen to wage a war. I grabbed my weapons—a five gallon bucket, a water hose, and a big bottle of Dawn Dish soap. I found that the ants had moved into the back room and had a nice big pile of dirt just inside the back door. I started there—and worked my way backward toward the sink and the other room. I covered everything in inches of soapy water. I washed every ant off of the sink at least five times—but I couldn’t win. The sink is not in use—it came out of our old Milk House and is being stored against a wall in the farm kitchen until the new Milk House can be finished. The sink was too close to the wall for me to figure out where all the ants were hiding—and needless to say, three days later the sink is still crawling in ants although not as many. Storing the milk tanks on that sink conveniently keeps them out of the way—but they can be stored on the other sink just as easily. I didn’t get started milking until 9:45—I called Steve at 9:30 to ask him to please come in about 30 minutes late for I hadn’t even started milking (he usually comes in at 10:00). When the milking was all done I went to check on something in the greenhouse and found that ants had moved in there too. The day before I had Dawn dish soaped a huge nest that was right beside the door into the greenhouse—and the ants retaliated by taking over my greenhouse. After lunch I spent hours fighting the ants. First I removed every pot and tray, cleaned off my planting table, and emptyied everything off the floor and onto the shelves. Then I grabbed my weapons: a five gallon bucket, a water hose, and a big bottle of Dawn Dish soap and began fighting. I would add a good amount of soap to the bucket and then turn my hose on pretty hard and fill it up with water causing it to overflow with a large volume of soap suds. Once it started to cover my feet I would move backwards toward the door repeating until I exited out the door. To my dismay the ants are under the greenhouse and have taken up nesting between the wooden floor layers—which are quite rotten. Now as soon as we step inside the greenhouse the ants come swarming out at us. When I left the greenhouse Thursday afternoon I continued my war on ants—this time I was attacking ant hills that were around our new barn, in the grass where people walk, and around the lean-to where we host of Farm to Table dinners. The dinner was just a few days away—and we needed to make it safe to stand around and talk. Some beds we successfully terminated—and other beds were just abandoned and the ants built new homes a little further away. The saddest ant story was still to come! We have a metal trough at the entrance to our dining area where we plant seasonal flowers for our dinner parties. It needed to be refreshed so Friday afternoon Mama and I went to Home Depot to look for some fall flowers. We were not too impressed: the big pots were too expensive and the little pots where not really big enough; some might last through the winter, but others would die at the first frost (which will be this coming week). I went to investigate a rosemary plant and saw shelves of herbs that grow great in the winter and came up with the great idea of planting an herb garden and tucking some purple and white pansies amongst the herbs for color. So we bought our herbs and came home and went to plant them—and to our dismay ants had taken up residence in the metal tub and we did not have time or the ability to pick the tub up and carry it away and dump all the dirt out and fill it back up with fresh dirt. So the herbs were put in trays and placed on the shelves in the greenhouse until another day when we have time and resources to take care of the ants.

            Last week wasn’t all about stiff necks and invading ants—there was also a dinner to prepare for. There was mowing to do, a brooder to clean out from the last batch of chicks, a hayride wagon to fix (the weld broke off of the tongue), glasses to wash, floors to pressure wash and picnic tables to wash down. Best of all there was produce to harvest! When we began planning for the dinner I was not sure if there would be anything growing in the garden that we could harvest for the dinner—because the army worms were devouring everything. To my delight the lettuce, kale, broccoli, green beans, mustard greens, onions, turnips, cabbages, and carrots (although I did have to plant them twice) all ended up growing faster than the worms could devour them. So Thursday morning as soon as the milking was done Wayland and I headed to the gardens to harvest. We harvested roselle calyxes, ginger root, kale, and sage. I had already harvested the lettuce. Then I had to gather together all the meat, lemon juice, and other ingredients for Brett (the chef) to pick up around noon. Mama and I commented so many times that it was well worth the money we pay the Kalacrow’s to plan the menu and cook all the food for the dinners. We also invited some friends of ours to come and help with the set up—and help they were! They arrived around 2:30 Saturday afternoon and they helped set the tables, fill the water jars, wash and shred the lettuce, prep the hay wagon and decorate the dining area. To my delight the husband took time throughout the evening to stop and take pictures and short videos—I have to give him all the credit for the Facebook pictures of the dinner. The dinner was very delightful, and the food was delectably scrumptious! We started the evening off with the Kalacrow’s signature Maple Lemonade. Then we took a hayride around the farm. Once we returned to the tables, bowls of fresh garden salad topped with parmesan cheese and roasted persimmon vinaigrette were awaiting us. To drink we had our signature Roselle/Ginger Mocktail made with kombucha, ginger syrup, lime juice and sparkling water. Then they brought us bowls of Pumpkin bisque made from the Long Island cheese pumpkins that I grew this year. The soup was followed by Wood fired beef meatballs and made from scratch pumpkin ravioli served with sage butter. The main course comprised of three pizzas: Ragu, Eggplant Parm, and Salsiccia with homemade chicken sausage, charred kale and Manchego. The dinner was finished off with a beautifully and artistically served Ricotta Cheesecake that was placed on a ginger cookie that was surrounded by roselle jam and topped with fresh whipped cream and a smaller ginger cookie. Yes we were stuffed by the end of the six course meal—but every bite that went into our mouths was so delicious. To think that those elegant dishes were made from ingredients grown right here on the farm: milk, eggs, lettuce, carrots, kale, roselle, ginger, lemons, limes, kombucha, chicken, beef, and herbs. It was a lovely night of food and fellowship.

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare