Farmwife's Journal-June 29th

The farm has been berry busy for the past week!  We have been picking strawberries every morning.  Along with selling them fresh, we have made some strawberry syrup and have frozen lots of berries for those bleak winter days when we need a kefir smoothie to boost the immune system and brighten us up! :)  I will be making jam tomorrow...at least that is the plan.  (On the farm, you never know what a day may bring!)
 


Does breakfast get any better than this?  ..strawberry shortcake, homemade sausage, & coffee :)


Jonny and I have been working in the herb garden this week.  We've been harvesting oregano, lemon balm, calendula, and yarrow.  Since the calendula flower is what is harvested, we put those on screens to dry, but  we have been hanging the rest of the herbs up to dry in the market building.   

We had a great day last Friday!  The weather was beautiful....a nice change! :)  As usual, we enjoyed visiting with all the people who came out to the farm.  The kids had a blast playing music!  They were only going to play for an hour, but ended up playing for most of the afternoon.:)

 Just a reminder...we are open every day (June 24- July 8, except Sunday) from 12-4pm to sell strawberries.  We will also have other items for sale during the week.

Happy Birthday, Emily!

 

Today my baby girl turned fifteen!  I took this picture of Mike and Emily this morning before they left for Cricket Meadow (a cute tea shop in Litchfield) to have breakfast.  Emily is always excited to go on a date with her daddy; she is head-over-heals in love with him! :)  We have taken two days to celebrate her birthday, since we are having "Strawberry Daze"  and need to be home from 12-4pm. 
Ben and Jonny were so generous towards Em on her birthday!  They both agreed, on their own, to allow Emily to kiss them as much as she wanted all day. :)  You see....normally the boys get SOOO irritated with Emily because she is always kissing them.  They can't stand it!!  But she just loves them so much and thinks they are soooo cute! :)  So... throughout the day I saw them sticking their necks out to allow Emily access to their cheeks. :)  She said (laughingly) it was the BEST birthday gift they could ever give her!
Mike and I are exceedingly grateful for such a sweet girl!  We couldn't have asked for a better daughter!  The fifteen years that I have had with her seem so short, and I know that I don't have that many more years before she will be living somewhere else, running her own home.  I've got to enjoy every minute I get with her!! :)

Learn more about our soaps!

This Friday, the lady that makes our soaps, Barb Hendrickson, will be here at the farm giving people information on the soap that she makes and answering questions.


Hendrickson Family in 2003

 Barb lives in Kingston with her husband, Charlie, and their two youngest children (they have seven total).
I wanted to have natural soap at our market, but struggled to find the time to make it, so I asked Barb last year if she would make soap for us.  Our family has been using her shampoo/body bar for well over a year, and we haven't bought a bottle of shampoo since! :)
Stop by this Friday, meet Barb, and try her wonderful soap!

We will also be offering a class on how to make soap here at the farm.  Barb has a desire to teach people a method of soap making that is simple and easy for anyone to do.

Here's the class info:  

Super Simple Soap Making

Saturday, July 16th

9am - 11am

Cost -  $15.00 per person

Email me at mindy@housmanfarms.com  if you are interested in attending the class.

STRAWBERRY DAZE!

Due to a cold, wet spring, strawberry season is running about 3 weeks late this year, but the good news is that this will not affect the crop.

Here at Housman Farms, we will be having "Strawberry Daze"! 
Our farm will be open daily (12-4pm) through the strawberry season (probably two weeks...starting Friday, June 24th through approximately Friday, July 8th.)

The three "Friday on the Farm" days during "Strawberry Daze", we will be having live music by the Mahlstedt and Housman children. 



Mahlstedt Children (minus baby Elisabeth)

 Please join us for a fun afternoon on the farm! :)  ...and get yourself some good organically grown strawberries! " :)




Our schedule will be as follows:
Open daily June 24th -July 8th 
12-4pm (Closed Sundays)





Fridays- June 24th, July 1st, July 8th
12pm -1pm   Music
1pm - 2pm  Free Tour (this will not be an educational tour, just a look around)

Pricing:
$4.00 per pound

Here is a video of the kids practicing for "Strawberry Daze".

Building update

Mindy just stopped into my office (in our garage 20 feet from the house) to see if I would post an update about our building since I know more about that kind of thing.

Its been just over two weeks since we started construction. Work has gone fairly well given all the OTHER things that need to get done besides pound nails. Last night I put on the last of the steel on the roof, all that is left a bit of flashing and trim on the roof edge and that will be done. While I'm waiting on the special order items for that, I am going to get started trimming out and installing the windows, as well as getting the "batten" strips installed over the gaps between the boards on our "board and batten" style siding.

We "moved in" to the building last Thursday evening you can see from the picture that my wife is already having lots of fun "making it cute".

Farmwife's Journal - June 6th

The past five days have been a whirlwind!  Spring is a busy time on the farm!
Last Thursday we hired some boys to come and help out with the weeding.  Boy was that a huge help! :) They did a great job!
Friday we had our market, in our garage...again, but the roof is on the market building, so we will be able to start having the market in there now. :) 

Saturday the guys worked on the building all day.  Em and I finished planting a few herbs and flowers.
Most of the garden is in, but planting is something we continually do throughout the summer. 
Sunday, after church, we enjoyed a much needed break with friends.  The kids swam in their pool while the adults visited. 
Due to the heat wave we are experiencing we spent a lot of time watering yesterday....and of course weeding...there is always weeding to do on an organic farm. :)  Then we took our overworked bodies to the chiropractor for a family visit. :) 
Today was filled with more watering, weeding, and working on the building. 
This morning, we were excited to picked up our turkeys at the post office!  We don't have to worry about any of them getting too cold today.  It got up to 102 degrees here!  Emily has been so worried because the number one cause of death for bunnies is heat stroke. :(  They are currently enjoying fans blowing on them and ice packs in their cages.  She also took it upon herself to put Jackson in the entryway of the root cellar where it's about 50 degrees.  She is such a good mother. :)
Here is a picture of what Jonny and I found in the asparagus patch. 

As I was picking asparagus, I saw something go hopping across the ground.  I thought it was a large toad.  Then it flew away.  I looked in the straw on the ground and found this sparrow's nest.  I didn't know that sparrows would nest on the ground.

Farmwife's Journal - June 1

I'm feeling a little "baked" this evening. :) ...spent the entire day planting in the hot sun, but thanks to my After Sun Spray, from Daisy Blue, I'll go to bed feeling fine!   BTW, their exfoliating bar is great for gardener's hands too!  Check out Nadine's Daisy Blue Products! :)   She will also be bringing some of her products to the market!! 
We are not quite done planting....one or two more days should do it!

Mike's Dad came over today and helped Mike and the boys with the building.  It's coming along!! :)  I am really hoping that we will be able to use it this Friday, even though it won't be done.