Life on the homestead

Things are really starting to come together around here. The weather is finally warm enough to plant the gardens without danger of frost. I pushed it a few times with my flower barrels and the potato vines got a little frost bit but they're coming back nicely. The new flower garden I put in around the weeping cherry tree my mom got me for Mother's Day is all planted, I just have to get out there and sheet mulch it. 

The lower veggie garden got an expansion, thanks to my uncle Dale for coming down and tilling up more of the lawn, or what we call a lawn, into more garden space. I think I'll need all the extra space I can get. My veggie starts weren't the biggest hit at the markets so I may as well plant them and get something out of them. 

Once the weather cools down a bit I'm going to get out there and add compost to the new beds and mulch the walkways and put the rest of the plants and seeds in.  I finished planting my raised beds the other day and have been chipping away at mulching them too. 

I can't wait to see and try some of the new stuff I planted.  I planted some sun berries, goose berries and ground cherries all of which are in the nightshade family that I have yet to try. Hopefully they are a hit cause I planted a ton of them. 

My peony bushes have about 50 buds ready to start blossoming. For anyone who knows me they know that this is very exciting for me, peonies are my absolute favorite flower. Not only are the absolutely gorgeous but they smell heavenly! 

I love to cut them and make arrangements for all over the house and especially next to my bed so that I can take a big wiff of them before I go to bed at night and first thing in the morning, there's no way you can have a bad day after waking up to that. 

My little peanut has been so good the past few days doing things on her own so that mommy can get things done. If this hadn't occurred nothing, I mean nothing could get done. She's finally gone from wanting to be held even while sleeping to actually being stoked to go in her swing for a long nap. She's so cute you turn on her tunes and give her her blanky and she gives you a huge smile and just chills out and takes a snooze. I can't wait to start feeding her the food from the garden and see what she likes and doesn't. She's really starting to get big and show some personality, it's pretty neat this whole being a mom thing. 

All in all things are pretty good and starting to pick up around here. Excited for what summer brings and hopefully it will bring a few more customers to the market too, along with beautiful flowers, scrumptious fruits and veggies, and a growing happy girl. 

~ Megan ~

First Farmers Market of the Season

Yesterday was our first Farmers Market of the season. I've been getting ready for it for weeks now, tending to my plant starts and buying all the gear needed for selling, like a tent, tables, cash box and receipts. It hasn't been easy with a newborn or the many set backs that I've endured, like my cold weather starts all getting knocked over or the chicken pecking at what was left and the one and only time we set up our tent it got broken pieces from the wind, but the time finally came and I was somewhat ready for it.

After forgetting to bring chairs and to get change for the cash box we made due and I had to run to the bank while my mom watched Mila. We set up the broken tent with help of our neighboring vendor and pulled my moms truck up and used the tailgate as seating. 

It was a slow day and not sure it was worth the headache really but we had a good time and I had a few friends stop in and chat is up so my only making the market fee of $5 in sales wasn't so bad. I'm hoping that the coming weeks will be better once there is actual produce to sell and people know the markets have started. 

Here's to hoping today's market will be more profitable. A new town and a new outlook 

Spring has sprung

Warm weather has finally come and the snow is receding. The spring bulbs are coming up and the chickens are in heaven searching for bugs around the yard. And I have been one busy bee cleaning up the gardens that never got finished last fall, starting seeds and planting early crops. 

I'll tell you it is a whole lot easier to do garden work without having to carry an extra 10 pounds of baby while doing it. Not sure little miss really has an appreciation yet for growing things but soon enough she will whether she wants to or not. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to get as much as I used to get done, although I'm not so sure I ever will. Things take twice as long but at least they get done and I'll tell you, you tend to really get upset when all that hard work gets ruined because it takes you twice as long as a normal person without a baby and you really have like zero free time to re-do it. So when the wind knocks over your little greenhouse stand with all your cold weather starts it feels even more devastating that you lost half your starts than it would normally. 

I'm hoping to still have some plants to sell at local farmers markets, even though the wind tried to ruin my parade, and I'm hoping my little girl will pursuade buyers to buy our goods over others just because they want to see my beautiful little sweetie. 

Only a few more weeks till the markets start and I feel like I'm moving at a snails pace in getting it all done but I have to remind myself to just be proud of the progress I've made, I mean it is hard to do it all with a newborn and I've gotten a lot accomplished. 

Everyday I try and get one more task out there finished along with the endless loads of laundry and housework that also needs tending to. But every once and a while  you just need a day to rest and lounge around on the couch and you especially need them when your little one thinks its party time at 3 in the morning and you get all of 4 broken hours of sleep. 

Even with things taking far longer to get done, I am so happy for spring and warmer weather. Just getting outside puts a whole new prospective on things and sharing them with my little peanut is so awesome. She's in awe by all the new sights and sounds. I love watching her experience it all. It's a real trip but I wouldn't change a minute of it and before I know it she'll be out there helping me. 

So for now I've got to try and be realistic about how much I can do and not go crazy at the local nusery buying tons of plants, like I normally do. I've had to reel myself in a few times already and learn to ask for help when I wasn't able to contain myself, not an easy task for me. 

There is definitely a learning curve to having a new baby and doing the things you do normally and we're still working on it. But spring has sprung and we're making the best of it and enjoying every minute. 

5 Things to do During the Winter to Ease your Gardening Blues

1. Take inventory-  go through last years seeds and take an inventory, see what you've got and what needs to be ordered. I make a list of the seeds I have and how many are left so I know what needs to get ordered and also so I know what needs to get planted first before any new seeds.

2.  Order seeds-  one of my favorite things to do is go through the all of the gorgeous seed catalogs with a sharpie and circle all of the seeds I want to try out. I always go over board and more than half of the 6 catalogs have been circled and then I've got to go back and narrow it down some and still way over order, there could be worse things I suppose. 

3.  Organize seeds-  This was one project that my OCD was craving for quite some time now. For the past few years my seed packets have been unceremoniously been jammed into the paper bag in which I purchased them from and stored that way, making it very hard to see what I had for seeds and how much was left. Not to mention it definitely is not the best way to store seeds leaving them open to the elements.  So I've decided to organize and label them in a sealed Tupperware container to make them less susceptible to the surrounding atmosphere. I also color coded them to the time they need to be started and planted and organized them alphabetically and by type, veggie, fruit, or flower. Now my mind is at ease knowing exactly what I have for seeds and where they are and how much I have of them and when they need to be started and planted, it's pretty great.

4.  Create a garden plan-  This one is actually not my fortes. Every year I make one by the time it actually comes to planting it all goes out the window. The one thing that I have stuck to however is the planning of my raised beds and the placement of my garden beds, the placement of plants is a different story. I always inter-plant differing species and find the by the time everything is to its true size that I've planted things far to close to one another. So this year I'm going to actively try and plan out my spacing better and figure out some more companion planting to help minimize pest issues. We're also adding some more beds and getting a new fence so putting it on paper will be helpful to see the whole picture. You can do this the old fashioned way like I usually do on paper or there are some pretty cool garden planing apps for your phone or tablet out there now that you can always check out too.

5.  Start seeds-  Starting your own seeds indoors is a great way to ease those gardening blues and help you save money. Buying plants that have been starting can add up real fast and let's face it there really isn't much variety usually out there for them either. When you start your own you choose what varieties to plant and you know exactly where they came from and what was used when starting them. Plus you get to put your hands in the dirt and have the joy of watching them grow. Starting them indoors without a greenhouse can be somewhat of a challenge and can leave your starts off to a bad start because without proper light they can become spindly and can die due to dampening off. So having adequate lighting, humidity levels, air circulation, and not over watering are key to healthy plant starts but are a small price to pay.

Hope this gets you through till spring!!

~Megan~

Motherhood

The wait is finally over, after what seemed like an eternity, we finally got to meet our little girl a whole week early even. As I anticipated she came during a big snow storm along with 7 other girls that night. It's been a crazy mix of emotions and let me tell you motherhood is all consuming, filled with sleepless nights, and complete physical and mental exhaustion but like everyone tells you it's totally worth it, hours and days just fly past gazing at her endless amount of expressions and listening to all squeaks and groans she makes, I just can't get enough. Even in the godless hours of the night when my little angel turns into a nocturnal terrorist I still am so in love that even that doesn't get me regretting my decision to have her, well one or two really awful nights I may have questioned it but when the angel came back the next day I forgot all about it.

When I say it's consuming I mean it in every sense. I thought that I'd be able to do all of these things while she slept and that my life wouldn't change that much but I was wrong. My life is completely different and I honestly never thought I could care so much for someone else but I do. Those first few weeks you're so exhausted that even the thought of cooking dinner or cleaning wipes you out and if she's sleeping you better try to too or you'll regret it at 2 am while your little girl is screaming bloody murder and you've only had 4 hours of broken sleep to keep you going. 

You then start to wonder how you'll ever get your taxes done, or when you'll feel like writing a blog post, or even baking yourself something yummy. Slowly I'm starting to get used to the complete lack of sleep and am able to cook a nice meal or even go out for one. These moments are so fleeting and sometimes I'm grateful of that but they really are something to be treasured as well and I couldn't be happier to be able to experience them for myself, we are truly blessed despite all the poopie diapers and sleepless nights. Welcome little miss Mila, mommy and daddy love you to the moon and back.

~Megan~

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake With Strawberry Frosting

So it's my partners big 30th birthday tomorrow and of course I just had to bake him a cake for the special occasion, after all turning thirty and having a baby due any day now is a big deal. So when I asked him what kind of cake he would like me to make him he said chocolate strawberry cake, kind of an unusual request I thought but I can make it work. Strawberries at the grocery store in February aren't very appealing, so thankfully I had just enough left in the freezer that I got at the farm stand this summer, so I could make the frosting strawberry as requested. The rest was pretty easy whip up and I'm sure it will make the birthday boy, or man, very happy! Here's how I did it:

Ingredients for the chocolate cake: 

- 2 cup organic sugar

- 1 3/4 cup of gluten free King Arthur multi purpose flour mix

- 3/4 cup cocoa powder

- 1 teaspoon salt 

- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum

- 1 teaspoon baking powder 

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 2 organic free range eggs

- 1 cup milk 

- 1/2 cup organic canola oil

- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

- 1 cup boiling water 

Instructions: 

Preheat oven to 350 and grease 2 9 inch cake pans. Add sugar, flour, cocoa, salt, xanthan gum, baking powder and soda to mixing bowl and mix together. Then add the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla extract and mix with the dry ingredients. Then add boiling water and beat until well combined, mixture will be thin. Add batter evenly to both cake pans and bake 30-35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting. 

Strawberry frosting ingredients:

- 1 cup of organic strawberries

- 2 sticks of butter, softened

- 3 1-2 cup of organic powdered sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions: 

Purée the cup of strawberries in a blender and add it to a sauce pan. Reduce the strawberry purée by half over medium- low heat, it should take about 20 minutes or so. Allow it to cool completely. 

In a stand mixer, beat butter till fluffy and then add a cup of the powdered sugar and beat some more.  Once combined add 2 teaspoons of the purée and the vanilla extract and mix well. Then add 1/2 a cup of powdered sugar to 2 teaspoons of purée at a time until all ingredients are added and well combined. Now use frosting to frost the cake and enjoy a big hunk for all of your efforts!! :)

~Megan~

Immune Boosting Tropical Smoothie

This is one of my favorite smoothie recipes. It's bright and citrus-y and packs a good punch to fight off any invaders of your immune system. It's chuck full of lots of vitamins and minerals and with the addition of coconut oil is also antibacterial and antiviral. The chia seeds add a good amount of protein and the coconut water adds electrolytes to keep you hydrated and its just plain good,  so what's not to love? 

Here's how to make it:

Ingredients: 

- 2 organic bananas 

- 4-5 organic oranges, segmented 

- 3 organic carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

- 1/2 cup or so of frozen organic mango

- 1-1 1/2 cups of frozen pineapple 

- A heaping tablespoon of organic extra virgin coconut oil

- 1-2 tablespoons of chia seeds

- 1/2-1 cup coconut water 

- 4-5 ice cubes 

 

Instructions: 

Add all the ingredients into a high powered blender and blend away until nice and smooth. Poor into your favorite glass and enjoy!! 

~Megan~