Compostable Toys and Farm Photos

Again, I am guilty of not keeping up with the farm blog now that the farm is kicking into the real season.  We are so busy with the CSA, selling flowers to a wholesaler and trying to connect with more chefs that writing has been falling by the wayside, and so many writing ideas are slipping away! That’s OK, I will keep trying.

I have to share this photo I took of a project my two year old did with the newly harvested baby squash.  She spent a long time moving them around and arranging them until she was happy with the organization. I think she tried to get the most of the smallest ones together and she was also talking about some different family combinations as she worked (daddy squash, sister squash).  I was happy to see her enjoying the novelty of something new in the house and it made me wish more of our toys were this ephemeral and compostable because just like a new toy, they will not hold interest for very long. But with squash, that’s perfect because we can just eat them or compost them.

 

I want to share a few more images of where we are in the season right now.  I was happy to get to sample the first of our potatoes.  These were just dug as samples, they are really not ready yet and will hopefully produce lots more before we dig them for real.  They were such a treat!

first potatoes – purple, pink, yellow

Here are the last of our summer crops hardening off outside the hoophouse. Last night, I moved all these trays inside in advance of a major thunderstorm and today they are back outside.

 

Our main seedling house (below) is now half overtaken by peppermint.  This perennial did what I always dream a perennial will do when I buy a  new one — established itself and became a big part of our life.  I use this peppermint all the time and I even want to start calling this hoophouse “peppermint house” since  we are always asking each other “which hoophouse” and they really need names.

Tomatoes in another hoophouse that are still green but look so promising.

And finally, my Nikko Blue Hydrangea, a plant that I love so much, even though they are everywhere.  I hope to propagate this plant and get a commercial sized planting in, right now there are just two plants.

And on the farm, we have had a nice long spring season.  We are still harvesting lettuce, spring onions and radishes and we are sliding towards our summer crops.  I can’t wait for those tomatoes to ripen!

 

Lessons from Sunflower Seeds and Shelling Peas

There is so much happening on the farm now, it is hard to find time to write about it. We are already into our fourth week of the CSA season, and strawberries are sadly winding down already.  Deer attacked our late strawberry planting, so the season will end a little earlier than we hoped.  We are also harvesting spring onions, radishes, tons of lettuce, spinach, arugula, cilantro and peas.

A couple of weeks ago we went to a birthday party and one of the party favors was a little plastic pot with sunflower seeds that children could water and watch the plants grow.  I tried to direct my 5 year old toward something else, like the little boxes of crayons or bouncy balls figuring we see enough seeds and plants at home.  But he wanted the little pot and brought it home.  I was very surprised to see it became his new favorite thing for a while, he woke up each day and rushed straight to his little pot to check on the seedlings.  I realized that even though he sees us raise plants by the thousands, it is entirely different to care for your own.  So, I am thinking he needs more of his own farm projects that are on his scale.

Along those lines, we had some shelling peas last week and that was another great project for both children 2 and 5.  They both focused for about 40 minutes on splitting and sorting the peas.  And it naturally followed that they were much more excited to eat the peas that they shelled. It reminds me to look for more opportunities for farm projects that are on the right scale for the children to naturally engage in.

Today we attended our first 4-H meeting around the corner from our house.  There we worked on planting another little garden. It will be interesting to see how that group takes shape and to learn from some teachers who have lots of experience with engaging children on farms.

Have you had any great experiences working in gardens with young children?

Strawberry Summer Cake in Spring

I can’t believe how many people have landed on this blog from a comment I left on the Smitten Kitchen site about my twist on her strawberry summer cake which I wrote about in a post last winter.  I guess someone is always searching for a strawberry cake recipes on the internet.

Since I made it last time with frozen berries, I decided to try again with a batch of fresh berries since we are harvesting lots of them right now, and I sometimes find flats like this waiting for me on the kitchen counter.

Plus we had a lot to celebrate this week.  There was a birthday for Israel, a health scare that turned out to be nothing and left us feeling very grateful, and our first CSA delivery was pretty smooth and organized.   So, I had plenty of excuses to try this cake again.    And the verdict was, it is better with fresh berries than frozen, a lot better.  I would have thought there would not have been much difference because the berries are baked on the cake.

So, here is my second try at the cake. I used about one third whole wheat flour and omitted the sugar on top but otherwise followed the recipe.  It was easy, and I will make it again, maybe next time I will double it  in a larger pan. This one was gone in a matter of minutes!

Spring on the Farm

chandler strawberries

I thought I would share some images of a few things happening on the farm. We are picking our first delicious strawberries – they are Chandlers and they are coming in beautifully right now.  My daughter (she is 2)  calls them Princess Berries and she plans to grow them when she grows up.   Of course picking and eating strawberries is great fun and the children love it. They are showing up in pancakes and smoothies too and will go into our first CSA shares that we deliver tomorrow.

Last week, these two new hives of bees sat on my mantle for a day. Believe it or not, this has happened enough times that I don’t worry about them escaping in the house, even with young children nearby.  My husband draped some of my sewing fabric over them to keep them sleepy during the day.

And here is another look of them when they were ready to be installed in the beehive at dusk.  We are hoping to do better with bees in the future.  So far, we have not harvested much honey, but have celebrated our bees great work pollinating on the farm over the years!

There is so much to see on the farm this time of year, we have tiny apples and peaches on our trees, asparagus is finishing up and we are harvesting radishes, spring onions and lovely magenta lettuce.    And we are planting our summer crop and planning for a new greenhouse and possibly even a winter season CSA this year.  Lots to look forward too.

farm walk April

 

I Need a Siren (repost)

Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. No time to write but I am thinking, and I thought I would repost this from last year, it mostly still feels true except I have been starting to face it as mom a little bit now.

RePosted from May 10, 2011 | 3 Comments | Edit

Another Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Memorial Day came and went last week, and I found myself unprepared to mark the day.  In fact, today we are already on to Israel’s Independence Day — but I seem to be running a bit behind.

Back in high school, I probably read more Holocaust memoirs than was healthy and later I spent quality time at both the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Israel’s Yad Vashem. In those pre-mothering days, there was plenty of time for reflection. Now as a relatively new mother, museum visits and heavy reading have seriously fallen by the wayside.

Everything about becoming a mother shifted the ground beneath my feet. When I studied the Holocaust in the past, I always connected most directly to the stories of children and young people experiencing the war and the camps. My parents, grandparents and teachers did their best to help me make sense of it.

Now that my perspective has shifted, I am not sure I can bare the stories of parents losing their children. I know I cannot keep my distance from it for much longer though. I think my new mother exemption is wearing thin and I only have a few years before my children will start asking questions. Now that my generation is all grown up, I cannot wait for reminders from parents or community, it is my responsibility now, and it is daunting.

This is a moment when I long to be enmeshed in Jewish community. In Israel, you do not miss Yom HaShoah. Besides being all over the news there is the siren. The whole nation stops for two minutes while a siren plays to remember the victims. Cars actually pull onto the shoulder of highways and everything seems to stop. I never witnessed it but my husband remembers hearing the siren and as he stood outside his hostel in Jerusalem and here is a link to a video which gives a glimpse. Last week, I read this blog post on Kveller which describes the siren and it reminded me that sometimes it is hard to live outside Jewish community and outside of Israel.  I need a community to stand with and lean on as I learn to face this history as a parent. I might be grown up, but I still need mentors and reminders. And once a year, I need a siren.

Counting the Omer for Beginners

Inspired by new friends from the blog world, I decided to try my hand at counting the Omer this year, the 49 day count that began on the second night of Passover and goes through Shavuot.    I had heard about it before and this year was inspired by the Omer counters from the Midianite Mama and Amy Meltzer’s idea on Homeshuling.  And given that I have lots of my own sewing supplies, I decided to jump in and make my own Omer counter.

I decided against using candy in mine. We had too many sweets during Passover and I try to limit sugar to more occasional treats.   After reading a little bit about the tradition of counting the omer, I decided to make my own counter based on a tree theme.  The tree has seven branches for the seven weeks of counting, and each branch has 7 snaps, for the seven days.  Then I cut out lots of leaves and some birds and attached the other side of the snaps to those.  We snap a bird or leaf on the tree each day to keep count.   This is also designed for snap/fine motor practice and fun for the little ones.

As far as what to do, I turned to the traditionalists at Chabad and found this great resource at Aish.com which I printed out as a daily guide.  There is something different to reflect on every day and it is very usable and easy to understand.   I poked around a little further and learned they are actually counting the Omer with daily updates on the Huffington Post, how cool is that?

And here is our Omer counter, this was a fun project and I got to use lots of leftover snaps from my diaper making days. The little pocket on the bottom is full of enough leaves and things to get us through the 49 days, unless they vanish around the house.  I will post another picture of it full, it will look prettier.

Want to join me? No sewing is needed. You can just mark up any calender counting 49 days from the second night of Passover our use this calender and blessing (or buy one from the Midianite Mama) .  Let me know, we can swap ideas via the Facebook page for the blog.

Guest Post: More than Slippers

By Cheryl Corson, landscape architect, writer and knitter.

I’ve sewn, woven, and knitted gifts for loved ones for over thirty years. During that time I’ve also sewn backpacks in a factory, paid by the piece, made clothing for a New York City fashion designer, and run my own production weaving business. Beside technical skill, production work and gift making have little in common.

 Knitting and felting a pair of wool slippers for my husband is a much slower undertaking than production work. Because of this, it becomes a gift for me too – the gift of time. He gets slippers; I get hours of quiet time, during which I often reflect on him and our marriage.

 In fall, he thoughtfully selects 2 colors from dozens on the color chart. Once ordered, the wool soon appears in a box on our front porch. We open it, sharing happy anticipation, turning the soft balls of sage green and maroon yarn in our hands, neat paper bands still intact. Then I begin knitting.

 Christmas approaches and I keep knitting until one day, 2 clown-sized slippers slide over my dubious husband’s feet. Into a pillowcase and the washing machine they go for felting. We check them from time to time until they eventually emerge from the hot water exactly his size. I stuff them loosely with plastic bags to shape them as they slowly dry. On Christmas morning, my husband unwraps them and slips them on, playfully pretending to be surprised.

 I like that they keep his feet warm. I like seeing them side by side by his nightstand when he’s not wearing them. They’ve now molded to his feet and have distinct left and right sides. Their daily use and the understated love they embody, set them apart from store-bought slippers, even years later, as the heels have worn and need patching.

 All these knitted, woven, and crocheted objects go well beyond being merely clothes, garments, or apparel, and into the territory of raiments, vestments, and adornments. And in my dictionary, to adorn invokes the word grace, whose own definition is divine love.

 “Grace” gets to the heart of the matter. It explains the deep emotion and beauty binding yarn, maker, and receiver together into the timeless fabric of human history.

wool slippers, knitted & felted

Cheryl Corson is landscape architect, writer and knitter.  Her website is www.cherylcorson.com.  You can read other gardening posts by Cheryl on this blog under our guest posts tab here.