Farm Friday

Random thoughts from around the farm:

We've had crazy weather - snow, rain, and sunny 70 degree days.  And we continue to care for the bottle-fed babies, Grace and her brother whom I've dubbed "Main" after our local homeless ministry.

Earlier this month Bill and I had our farm "leadership retreat."  That is, the two of us spent an entire day working on all things farm and finance.  We talked about the upcoming growing season and divided the chores, with me being more of the brains and him being more of the brawn.  I don't do much of the actual planting or harvesting because it's too hard on my back.  And Bill dislikes the paperwork and other inside work necessary to keep a business going.  So it's a good partnership.  I got our seed order in and the seeds arrived last week.  We're trying some new - and even exotic - items this year to see how they go over with our CSA members and farmers' market customers.

I've been baking more bread.  We don't eat sandwiches, so the homemade bread is perfect.  Once I feel more adept at it, I want to tackle adding more substantial grains.  We had some homemade bread that was going stale and I used that to make homemade croutons.  Once I use up the assorted dressings we have (except for Annie's/Trader Joe's Goddess dressing - yum!), I'm going to get back to making my own.  We've fallen in love with a new creation that I call "winter salad" - shredded carrots, assorted homegrown bean sprouts, homegrown sunflower greens and dressing (usually that yummy Goddess dressing).  Here's a photo of my make-shift sunflower greens garden:

And the actual salad:

A couple of weeks ago I got tired of the mess in my pantry.  I had lots of small appliances I rarely used, plus there didn't seem to be much order to my food.  I took this photo after I had relocated some of the small appliances to a high shelf in my laundry room:

Before

Here's what I ended up with:

After

Much better than before.  I only have three appliances that I use regularly (mixer, blender, and crockpot).  Not perfect, but much more user friendly. 

On a personal note, I've pretty much given up facebook.  I found it to be a giant time waster - with little to no benefit.  I was also surprised to see how often I saw the ugly faces of ignorance and prejudice pop up among my "friends," something that tends to rob one's day of joy.  I find I'm a much happier person without that form of social media.

Have a great weekend!