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A week of crossing as many things off the list as adding onto it! The bucket shelves are done in the trailer and soon the Dragon Wagon will be rolling all over delivering fresh flower and food goodies! Hella had a field trip into the world of the hens, albeit a very short one! More seeds get to meet the soil, with high hopes for a fruitful future in the Dragon Dome greenhouse! And a few new additions to the yard sale items are waiting for their forever homes! More projects are still underway as the focus turns from making the cabin cozy and comfy to prepping for an avalanche of seedling trays and all the future packaging and management to get them from me to you! And if I've planned my time management correctly, I might even get a few new wreaths and/or dried flower bouquets up online so you can be ready early for the impending February holiday!  The Trailer's bucket shelves are complete! The next step is to put some water in them and a few twigs of evergreen boughs as flower stand ins and drive around to see if they are successful in keeping everything upright and contained!  Each of the rails that hold the buckets in place can slide out of their brackets for easy loading without tipping all the flowers out and fast to slide back in to keep them all safe for travel.  Often the hens are very eager for the scraps from the weekly microgreen harvests that I can barely get in the door before they start munching!  And sometimes the hens give me 'micro' eggs in return! LOL  More seeds are going into soil and this time it's the first batch of tomatoes. The plan is to heat the greenhouse Dome in late April (and probably a few nights into May, weather dependent), so those baby plants will have a nice place to get a head start. I'll be starting a second batch to plant the more usual early to mid May, in case that plan fails. Hella had a midday field trip into the realm of the hens! She wanted to go in and sniff around. The hens didn't mind. But she quickly felt outnumbered and wanted to be released! Wintertime is when all the administrative stuff gets done, like crop planning and packaging prep! As usual, Hella is a constant helper and gets to inspect all boxes and finished projects for quality.  Wintertime is also when I can enjoy the indoor orchids blooming without all my attention being sucked up by a field full of blooms!  More items have been added to the yard sale, mainly a Waterbath Canning Pot and old pillowcases, sheets, and fabric that are great for practicing or pattern making! What's available this week?
Where to find it all? I'll be at Libby this Friday from 12-1230pm! I'll be at Troy this Friday from 1-130pm! Recipes for Food Eaters
~~~ Farming Facts ~~~ Is it a Microgreen or a Sprout?
This is a common question I get at Farmer's Markets and the main difference is how they are grown. Sprouts are germinated in water only, no soil, and are only a few days past germination and haven't 'greened' up yet. Microgreens (and shoots) are germinated in soil and are grown from 7-21 days, depending upon variety. Plus, they get a chance to 'green' up and start producing chlorophyl. Both are nutrient-dense, yummy, and are great additions to your fav salads, smoothies, wraps, or any meal you fancy!
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It's been awhile since the sun shone bright on my little valley and it was very welcome by not only me but all the clucks and quacks as well! When not enjoying doing winter chores in the sunshine, I sat inside watching webinars as part of the many virtual farm conferences that fill the winter and used the time to go through my yarn stash (some of which is available in the Online Farm Store!), and painting panels for a tiny hut to cover my generator during the majority of the year when it just sits waiting for something to go wrong so it can go into action! Clearing out some of my yarn lets me see the amount of dried flowers I have left and I'll be working the next few weeks to make some special Valentine's and Galentine's Day wreaths, bouquets, and barrettes! And it reminded me of all the seeds I saved and that I need to start prepping them for their little packets so they can be available for planting this spring! Check off one item completed and discover ten more to add to the list!!! This week there are also all the microgreens (including the new and popular Pea and Sunflower Shoots), Rainbow Eggs, Duck Eggs, and the rest of the Yard Sale goodies!  Sunsets can be bittersweet in winter!  Everyone got out to enjoy the warmth of the sun, even the hens!  And a favorite pastime of the hens is to visit their long-lost rooster friends to say Hi!  Of course, Hella got out too so she could check out her brambles!  A sprinkling of cayenne pepper around the huts helps keep all the four-legged furry things with sharp teeth (both big and small) away from the hens, as deep winter is the when I get the most visits. It is the smaller predators (the mink and ermine) that are the hardest to keep out and can cause just as much carnage as any larger predator, this line helps keep them from trying to find the inevitable gaps and holes they can squeeze through! The yarns, along with some ribbons and roving, are available on the website as part of the Virtual Yard Sale. They are priced to go to some great new homes and they are great for anyone who wants some practice yarn! Next week the fabrics will be up! What's available this week?
Where to find it all?
I'll be at Libby this Friday from 12-1230pm! I'll be at Troy this Friday from 1-130pm! It may be months away but it is also just around the corner. Spring and summer tends to arrive fast for the unprepared farmer! The first seeds got sown last week! The main seeding frenzy won't begin until February but I try to spread it out a little so I don't get behind. Some more home projects got finished as soon the only thing I do inside will be sleeping (even though I do wanna try a night or two in a tent in the field this summer just so I can feel what it's like to be a head of lettuce or a larkspur bloom waiting for the warming sun to clear the usual frost) The trailer is getting some more work to make it a lean, mean veggie, flower, and egg delivering machine! And there are a few new greens available during the winter season to check out below (and online as well as at the Pop Up/Drop Off this Friday!) Also, all my tidying and clearing out of unused things in the yard sale has made me itching to clear out more stuff! (I know I said that last batch was the end lol, best laid plans and all!) So next week look for the special stuff that feels almost anachronistic for me to part with like some acrylic yarns and fancy fabrics! I'm still working on my weaving and craftwork but I prefer to work with natural fibers and the acrylics were mainly around for me to practice and learn. I've been staring at them long enough without doing anything with them so they should go to those who will turn them into something beautiful!  The seeding begins! Yep, and it starts with a few early season perennials that won't mind being planted out as soon as that sweet, sweet soil is thawed in the field! They get to sit in the relative warmth under the lights. When I check for those wonderful first signs of germination, I give them a little pep talk and I hope that sitting next to their bigger cousins of over-wintering perennials that didn't get planted this fall helps them see into their futures and dream of the wonderful plants they will become!  Oh, to be a fat cat soaking up the sun! The saying goes 'to get your ducks in a row' but it seems the hens are much better at lining up than those quackers!  The Dragon Wagon is getting some upgrades! I got a start on building some shelves along the side to hold and corral many buckets of flowers and bouquets for those weekly trips to the farmers markets and florists. Hella had my back and was my lookout while I was measuring and installing. It's easy for her to get up but to get down she usually jumps on my head, literally. She meows as a 'heads up' though so I guess I'm the well-trained one! I've had some requests to grow your fav shoots and greens in winter, so this is the first week that the Pea Shoots (left) and Sunflower Shoots (right) are available. Also, the Basil Microgreens will be making a comeback with regular basil to start this week! The pea shoots taste just like eating a fresh sweet pea pod and the sunflower shoots are crunchy and nutty! They should be a great addition to your wintertime meals along with the more dainty micrgreens you already know!  After letting the bathroom paint cure for a couple weeks, I got to put up giant stickers in the form of a temporary wallpaper of shiny gold constellations. It really makes the space feel fancy!  The laundry nook got a crisp coat of light gray and a new super bright LED light so I can really see how dirty everything is!  And last but not least, a curled up kitty atop a feather pillow covered in velvet atop a velvet couch soaking up the heat from the wood stove and dreaming of all the future gophers she will get to chase and pack rats she gets to side eye. Does anyone else sometimes wish they could be their own pet? What's available this week?
Where to find it all?
I'll be at Libby this Friday from 12-1230pm! I'll be at Troy this Friday from 1-130pm! Lots of time spent pouring over seed catalogs, websites, and spreadsheets to make sure I get to grow what I want, can get the seeds, and have space & time for it all! It's like juggling because if I change one variable it affects the others. It is a great task for this time in winter as I start to itch for planting things, seeing flowers and birds, and watching the trees leaf out. I get to visualize and daydream of all the seeds I'll be busy sowing in February, March, and April, all the tiny seedlings I'll be planting out in April, May, and June, and all the veg and flowers I'll get to harvest from June through October because it can get hard to dream about while in the thick of it and all the weeding, watering, and chores that go along with it that we tend to forget to include in our daydreams. The daydreams are just for the fun stuff! The original instagram where the world looks perpetually rosy! One of the new crops that gets a debut even in winter are little trays of fresh, growing Wheatgrass. Cut them for healthy juice or to add to smoothies or as a kitty cat treat when there is no outside grass to chew on or if they stay inside safe and cozy year-round with no access to fresh grass! I started growing some for Hella with really ancient seeds I had. She chewed it all down to little nubbins as she was also trying to find any stray blade of grass hiding outside. I thought other kitties might enjoy it to help keep their tummies happy!  Under all that snow and ice and debris is some happy soil waiting to grow some happy plants!  Most of the crop planning is done on the computer, but mapping it out helps me conceptualize the space I have available and all the seed catalogs and websites help me to dream the future!  Especially for the increasing amount of perennial crops I have, keeping a map of where everything is planted and where I hope future additions will go is a great tool to make sure everything has a home. The office ceiling in the attic is a great place to tack them all up!  A fresh refill of dusty dirt gets the hens in a bathing mood!  Why use the dirt bins if you have deep bedding of pine shavings and dirt, that way you can spread out and have plenty of space for all to bathe at once!  A sneaky little Dandelion is taking advantage of the pots of biennials that get to overwinter inside. It's a cheerful reminder of spring! I've been working on some new sprouts and the first one up is Wheatgrass! It's available in 4 inch diameter dishes still in it's soil so it will stay super fresh for juicing and smoothies or place it out for your kitties to chew on! Hella likes to nibble on it and it'll last for a few weeks in a bright windowsill (which is also a favorite of Hella's) Left: the Wheatgrass just sprouting Right: How thick it gets after about 1 week  One of Hella's new fun toys is a kitty scratcher so she can groom and scritchy-scratch herself even if I'm not around! I stuck it to the washing machine for now to see how she likes it but will move it to a better (less noisy) spot soon, since it seems like she likes it a lot! What's available this week?
Where to find it all?
I'll be at Libby this Friday from 12-1230pm! I'll be at Troy this Friday from 1-130pm! |
AuthorI'm Farmer Megan with a life full of cackles, clucks, quacks, weeds, crazy kitten, and one tiny, senior, blind dog. Archives
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