Friday, April 24, 2015

Farm Friday

Wild plantain
A quick summary of this week on the farm:
  • Made our regular deliveries
  • Bill picked up our bees so now we have 2 hives again
  • Attended a farmers' market vendor training session
  • Designed and taught a vision board/SMART goal setting class and craft for the women at the city jail 
  • Moved the chicks that we were brooding from the brooder coop to the regular coop now that they're awkward "teenagers" and ready to join the full flock
  • Got the new farm banner that I ordered (the previous one had problems that I didn't notice before ordering - but I was able to use it on the farmhouse)
  • Cilantro was coming in good so sold several bunches; it doesn't last long this time of year as the warmer weather makes it bolt fast
  • Prepared for our 3rd annual open house (including cleaning the farmhouse, weeding and edging the flower and herb beds, making various signs and signup sheets)
  • Set up a compost bin at the farmhouse for guests
  • Ran an additional clothesline under the back deck on our house so I have more room to try clothes and linens
  • Cleaned up the herb beds; removed the sage that died over the winter
  • Planted herbs and flowers that I started over the winter (might have transplanted too soon)
  • Transplanted some white daffodil bulbs that were growing in one of our fields
  • Planted more gladiola bulbs at our house and the farmhouse
  • Collected some wild plantain to put on tonight's pizza (and to use later)

Have a great weekend!

3 comments:

rhonda jean said...

Hi Cherie, I've come over from Bill's blog to see if I can find out more about plantain. Is it related to bananas? What does it taste like? Please tell Bill I can't comment on his blog anymore, I'm not sure why.

You certainly had a full week. I know you had the open house, how did it go? I wanted to tell Bill, so I'll do it via you, you have a beautiful and graceful house. I wish you the best for the week to come.

Cherie said...

Rhonda Jean, thanks for visiting my blog. This plantain is plantago major and not related to the plantain that has banana-type fruit. I've read that the leaves can be bitter. I tried to harvest the younger, smaller leaves to avoid that. I read that it has mild mushroom flavor and, when I tried one of the small leaves raw, it did have that taste. Apparently, this "weed" grows all over the US and is believed to have come from Eurasia. Here's a Mother Earth News article about plantain: http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/self-reliance/common-plantain-zm0z11zhun.aspx.

Our open house went well, despite the poor weather. I'll pass on the info to Bill.

rhonda jean said...

Interesting article, Cherie. Thank you.