raindrops

its raining FINALLY!!!!!

its been so dry that we are very happy to hear that it will be raining for the next 4 days

...time to get some inside projects done!

my apologies for my lack of blogging this summer...with the antiques shop, new designs in the works, multiple articles (yeah!) and my gardens, I have not been at the computer very much.  but that will change soon.  I have much to share with you - coming soon...

A peek at the inside of our revamped motorcoach

Our cross-country trip adventures

New designs & endeavors

The October Food Project

stay tuned...

Peonies!!!

What a wonderful time of year in the garden... the miniature lilac is beautiful, the bachelors button and hardy geraniums are cheery

and the peonies...aaaaah, the peonies are simply stunning

in the garden...

sorry I have been silent lately...it is such a busy time of year at our farm

every year I try to grow more food, learn a new homestead skill or two and of course we are always junkin for both our shoppe and our studio!!

OH!  and yes I have some exciting news

I have been creating and writing like crazy and I have several articles coming out in Sew Somerset, Somerset Studio, Greencraft and Holidays & Celebrations, so stay tuned!!!

on a totally different front - we bought a camper that I am psyched to fix up & make adorable

so I have been collecting ideas & inspiration

I am drooling over this

credit  thebeehivecottage.blogspot.com

and this

credit  vintagelady2010

but first I have to get the cabbage planted :)

be back soon, but in the meantime...

here are some fabulously fun planting ideas I am going to try this year

credit Fern Richardson of Life on the Balcony 

 credit twokitties.typepad.com

new projects

wooooo-eeeeeee!  its been busy around this farmhouse!

kinda out of breath...

we are opening our antiques shoppe for its 5th summer season

and hubby and I have been junking, thrifting, cleaning, dusting, fixing, pricing, setting up displays

we. are. tired.

but we love it - its always a big push for opening day and then we settle into the groove and have a blast

I will be happy when we open because I have a list of house projects a mile long once I can move onto them...besides the typical spring gardening push, we need to refresh our porches

source

few minor fixes, new paint, new look

sooo, I have been bopping about online looking for inspiring photos

source

love this one - the overhead light and the accessories - yum!

source

the ceiling color is pretty

source

simple and beautiful

source

would LOVE to renovate our porches to be larger and more useful like this one

source

light, bright & pretty

so what do you like best about a farmhouse porch?

happy halloween

very strange...very strange indeed...this Halloween is an almost exact repeat of last year...

our first snowfall...but Jack doesn't seem to mind...

FROM OUR NECK O' WOODS TO YOURS

WE WISH YOU A HAPPY HALLOWEEN

delicious autumn

Delicious autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it,
and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth
seeking the successive autumns. 
~George Eliot

picklin' time!

the garden has bursted forth w/ harvestable veggies
every evening I poke around my cukes, tomatoes, beans and peppers
I am amazed at how many mature just from the day before - the cukes are especially impressive

photo credit FoodMuseum.com

pickling has officially begun in our farmhouse kitchen - dilly beans, bread & butters, sweet green tomato pickles, etc - the canner has been bubbling and I adore seeing all of the jars lined up neatly in the cupboard filled w/ yummy veggies

just for fun...

The following pickle history comes from Mt. Olive Pickle Company. 

• In 2,030 B.C., cucumbers native to India were brought to the Tigris Valley. There, they were first preserved and eaten as pickles.
  
• Cucumbers are mentioned at least twice in the Bible (Numbers 11:5 and Isaiah 1:8) and history records their usage over 3,000 years ago in Western Asia, ancient Egypt and Greece.
  
• In 850 B.C., Aristotle praised the healing effects of cured cucumbers.
  
• Cleopatra attributed a portion of her beauty to pickles.
  
• The Roman Emperor Tiberius consumed pickles on a daily basis.
  
• Julius Caesar thought pickles had an invigorating effect, so, naturally, he shared them with his legions.
  
• The enjoyment of pickles spread far and wide through Europe. In the thirteenth century, pickles were served as a main dish at the famous Feast of King John.
  
• Pickles were brought to the New World by Christopher Columbus, who is known to have grown them on the island of Haiti.
  
• In the sixteenth century, Dutch fine food fanciers cultivated pickles as one of their prized delicacies.
  
• Cartier found cucumbers growing in Canada in 1535, and they were known to the colonists of Virginia as early as 1609.
  
• Queen Elizabeth liked pickles. And Napoleon valued pickles as a health asset for his armies.
  
• Samuel Pepy's diary mentions a glass of Girkins as something to be highly appreciated.
  
• In 1659, Dutch farmers in New York grew cucumbers in what is now Brooklyn. These cukes were sold to dealers who cured them in barrels and sold them from market stalls on Washington, Canal and Fulton Streets. As it turns out, these pickle purveyors started the nation's commercial pickle industry.
  
• A fondness for pickles has always been a national characteristic of the American people. It's a good thing, since our country's namesake, Amerigo Vespucci, was actually a pickle peddler in Seville, Spain. He supplied ships with pickled vegetables to prevent sailors from getting scurvy on long voyages. While Columbus is credited with discovering America, Vespucci was apparently a better PR man. We're named for him. We became the United States of America -- instead of the United States of Vespucci. And that's probably a good thing, too.
  
• George Washington was a pickle enthusiast. So were John Adams and Dolly Madison.
  
• Pickles inspired Thomas Jefferson to write the following:
  "On a hot day in Virginia, I know nothing more comforting than a fine spiced pickle, brought up trout-like from the sparkling depths of the aromatic jar below the stairs of Aunt Sally's cellar."
  We're still trying to track down Aunt Sally's recipe.
  
• In colonial America, the pickle patch was an important adjunct to good living. Pickles were highly regarded by all of America's pioneering generations because, under frontier conditions, pickles were the only zesty, juicy, green, succulent food available for many months of the year.
  
• In colonial times, and, much later, on farms and in villages, homemakers expected to "put down" some pickles in stone crocks, and to "put up" some pickles and pickle relishes in glass jars.
  
• In 1820, Frenchman Nicholas Appert was the first person to commercially pack pickles in jars.

perfection

"The summer night is like a perfection of thought."
- Wallace Stevens

encouragement

i believe the universe shows little signs of encouragement when you are on a good path...like breadcrumbs sprinkled here & there

maybe its just in my mind, maybe its luck or coincidence - but i do know that whatever it is, it sure does help to keep me encouraged to keep plugging away

for years i have been striving toward a goal of living homemade - grow, mend, make do, upcycle/recycle
you can read about it in my previous post

but this year i have really tried to prepare for some big transitions - we will be building a goat barn and chicken coop this Fall, almost completely from upcycled materials (i will be sure to share some pics as we progress).

goats have been on mind for years & years...in fact my very first blogpost ever was about how dearly i wanted goats.  it is finally going to come to fruition in the next year or so
so i have been researching & reading anything i can about keeping goats - i would LOVE to go to goat school which is a fabulous course founded in Maine.

photo credit:  Homestead Revival

i have also been studying milking goats and how to create wonderful homemade cheeses, butter, sour cream, buttermilk, yogurt, etc.  since i do not have my precious goats yet, i have been practicing with cow's milk - some recipes are ultra-easy, while others take a bit more steps.  keeping and sustaining cultures is fascinating and not hard at all if you stay organized.  i have found great resources on the web and in magazines
i recommend Mother Earth News and Hobby Farm Home magazines
also online check out Homestead Revival - wonderful posts on making a lifestyle change, dairy goats, keeping cultures, etc

so, yes, yes...back to my point...the breadcrumbs...
i have been dreaming of buying several items to help me as i push towards this lifestyle - a grainmill, a yogurt-maker and a dehydrator.  none are cheap.

photo credit: Cooking.com

so rewind to late winter when some friends & family held our annual swap party - everyone comes w/ 10 or so items that they no longer use and we have a fun & frenzied swap, then anything leftover is donated.  so as i placed my items here & there on the tables, i saw an almost brand-new yogurt-maker!!  i was so excited and nervous - i wanted that thing!!!  to keep a very long story short - i got it :)

photo credit: Raw Guru

now fast-forward a couple months - i am at a yard sale w/ my hubby.  it is a good one and we are loading up w/ stuff.  after my initial sweep, i practically bump into a brand-new, in the box dehydrator that i hadn't noticed right away.  it had never been used, all parts were there including the optional upgraded accessories.  i was able to get it for $5

so i know my examples sound very materialistic, but these were items that improved and encouraged my path towards homesteading.  every day i receive all sorts of forms of encouragement...something as small as the swallows happily nesting in our carefully placed birdhouses makes me smile with contentment that this is the right way for us...we are not lost and the next breadcrumb is right up ahead.

the year of the Cucurbits

i am ultra excited about the new addition to my gardens this year - a good old fashioned melon/squash/gourd/pumpkin patch.  In case you were wondering...Cucurbitaceae is a plant family, also known as gourd family, which includes crops like cucumbers, squashes (including pumpkins), luffas, and melons (including watermelons). 

We will begin digging this weekend - luckily my hubby sweet-talked our farmer neighbors and we have use of a small bobcat and rototiller - wooo hooo!  Definitely will be a huge back-saver as this garden will be large so the plants have plenty of room to spread out.

We will be trying all sorts of varieties including...

TONS of interesting winter squash & specialty pumpkins

photo-Johnny's Seeds

Rouge Vif D'Etampes

photo-Johnny's Seeds

Marina Di Chioggia

photo-Johnny's Seeds

Moonshine

photo-Johnny's Seeds

Jarrahdale

photo-Johnny's Seeds

Musque de Provence

photo-Johnny's Seeds

Long Island Cheese

photo-Johnny's Seeds

Speckled Hound

photo-Johnny's Seeds

Blue Hubbard

photo-Country Living

Lumina

photo-Johnny's Seeds

Waltham Butternut

photo-Johnny's Seeds

Vermicelli Squash

photo-Johnny's Seeds

Buttercup Squash

plus a big crop of summer squash as well

photo-Johnny's Seeds

Cashflow

photo-Park Seed

Horn of Plenty

garden experiments

for some reason I just adore the look & feel of hay and straw

it just instantly gives me a warm, down-home farm feeling

so when I saw this gardening technique I was smitten

it is called of course STRAW BALE GARDENING

It is important to grow in straw, not hay, because you will have far less weeds plus straw sprouts are the easiest things ever to pull out.  It is not a new technique but I had never stumbled across it before

since I grow only organically, I will amend the conditioning process of the bales but other then that it looks like an easy-peasy project!

I am always open to creative garden experiments

read this past post and this one as well

Are You Trying Anything New in the Garden?

 Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!
~Thomas Blackburn

the pantry project

over the long, cold Maine winter my hubby built me a new pantry...

it is a work in progress...

the shelving was built from old barnboards
I found the stark white walls, even in this small space, very boring so decided to add some fun

I decoupaged old baking recipes from a vintage book I had that was falling apart - it had wonderful graphics as well

I also had some beat up, but colorful, sugar and cornmeal sacks that were perfect for the whimsical farm look I was going for...a dash here & there of fabric, lace & trim and the space perked right up!

I needed a smaller shelf for spice jars and realized the perfect addition was the small type tray I had been kicking around for over a year trying to find the "perfect spot" - it has found its home and the green was a match made in heaven

I enjoyed every bit of this project but the really, really fun part has begun...scouring my treasures for small kitchen items, old tins and containers.

I was surprised with some beautiful pantry jars as gifts and I love them intermixed with canning jars & repurposed ones.  Simple labels were created on the computer or handwritten.

be creative when repurposing jars & containers but make sure they are clean & food safe!  I've taken giant pickle jars, cleaned throughly to get rid of the "pickle scent/flavor" and then wrapped in scrap fabric.  also try oatmeal or baking powder containers for dry goods (see photos above)

as I mentioned, it is definitely a work in progress - we will be adding screen doors, more storage containers for bulk goods and of course more food :)