Farm Friday

View from the back deck after a rainstorm (notice the white deer/critter fence to protect our garden)

These past two weeks have been great for the farm - but bad for my blog.  Our orders are up and, despite the constant battle against nature, we've been able to fill our orders and bring a lot to the farmers' market.  

We've added another delivery date so I'm now on the road three days a week plus we sell at the farmers' market.  Here's a pretty country church I drive past on one of my routes:

Yesterday we had the opportunity to speak at one of our local Rotary clubs - Danville Riverview Rotary.  We gave a version of the presentation we've given in the past and then opened the floor for questions.  We were told that our talk generated more questions that is typical.  We also made some good connections and helped further educate our community about food issues.  We've come a long way from when I first started selling our extras at the farmers' market and people would ask "what does organic mean?"  Of course, we cannot legally use the "O" word anymore - even with describing our farming methods and comparing them to conventional farming - but now people don't ask us what chemical-free means.  In fact, they actively seek out us and other like-minded farmers.

As I've said in the past, part of running the farm is homesteading - the more we're able to do and provide for ourselves, the better for the planet and the better for our pocketbook as we don't need to make as much money.  Last week I learned to make a quick and easy tomato sauce to freeze and I've been putting some up for the winter.  My dehydrator has been running quite a bit lately.  I've discovered eggplant caviar (will share the recipe next week) and found that it is delicious on golden scallop squash chips that I've dehydrated.  I also dehydrated some of our shiitake mushrooms to sell. We've been harvesting herbs and hot peppers and drying them, as well.  I also made some refrigerator pickles from our zephyr squash.

I've been working on aprons again - and sold two last weekend.  I'm trying to get ready for the holiday craft shows.  Here's a sneak peak at some of the fabrics I'll be using:

I'm off to do some deliveries.  Have a good weekend!