Missing Willow Farm

Gorgeous and delicious!  As promised, here is a photo of some of my farmer’s market space partner’s goods.  She’s an enormously talented artist and baker.  Her confections are very well received in our small town.  She’s been selling out of her decorated cookies, chocolate chip cookies and lemon ginger scones  and is adding cupcakes next week.  Stop by some Friday morning, you’ll be glad you did!

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Hermione will.  She’s got her fancy hat and is planning strawberries and cream for breakfast.  Won’t you join us?

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Visiting the farm always includes helping with chores.  After everyone is checked on, fed, watered & milked, it’s snuggle time.  Our animals are so very mistreated.  😉

Tracy and Claire were both home for a visit this past weekend, a special treat for these empty nesters.

Purchasing the place next door has kept us busy.  Farm and garden chores are starting to take more time in the day with the nice weather settling in.  We’ve got both of our daughters visiting us this weekend, which is awesome!  This is a lovely time of year for a visit to the farm, we’re swimming in lambs and kids.  My Mom will be coming in a bit, followed by my Dad.  After I picked up Tracy at the airport, we went shopping a bit in the ‘big city’.  One little plaza had an angry goose policing the parking area.  As it turns out, his partner had selected the tiny parking island to nest and lay eggs.  The store owners have put out water and food for them both.  It takes a month to hatch a goose egg.  That little guardian is going to be busy, then they’re going to have to take care of little ones while dodging cars.  I wonder if Animal Control could relocate them?  I may have to stop by on my way to and from the airport over the next few weeks to see how this little family is doing.

We’ve expanded our fiefdom!  We purchased the place next door.  Now we’ve got 19 continuous acres of property.  I’m most excited about the mature orchard.  We’ve got apple, plum and peach trees and the woods are full of dogwood trees.  Hopefully we’ll be able to beat the deer to some fruit this summer.  The place comes with a few outbuildings that we’ve already got plans for with regards to hay and feed storage.  This property feeds our pond so now we’ve got control over that.  The previous owner put in a huge doglot that has periodically been used for goats.  We’re planning to use it for pigs (!)  It also comes with… wait for it… a singlewide trailer!  It’s only 10 years old and quite lovely inside (hardwood floors, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, gas fireplace.  We’re going to sell it, have it hauled off, then fence the entire property for additional pasture.   We took Jenna over with us this morning to get some photos.  She peed all over everything.  Marked it as hers.  Good girl!

Friday was the pre-opening of our Farmer’s Market.  It officially opens the Friday before Mother’s Day, but there are a few of us who go early in the season because we have stuff to sell.  My offerings included lamb, eggs, spinach, lettuce, heirloom tomato and herb plants, soap and handicrafts.  I’m sharing my space this season with a good friend who’s an amazing baker.  I’ll get some photos of her Easter offerings this week.  They will not disappoint!

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While I was watering in the greenhouse yesterday, I started thinking about what I would make for dinner with the ground beef I had defrosting in my fridge.  I didn’t have hamburger buns and didn’t feel like driving the 20 min. to the grocery store.  I started wondering if I could make something delicious using ONLY ingredients from our farm (the cow is ours) and settled on pasta sauce.  I pulled a leek from a raised bed and got out a can of tomatoes that I had put up last year with garlic and basil.  When I opened the jar, it smelled like summer!  I had dried mushrooms to throw in the sauce and dried garlic to grind my own garlic powder.  The oregano is already coming up in my herb bed, and had some genovese basil plants I started under lights in January.  I pulled a homemade romano cheese from the fridge to bust into and crumbled dried peppers into pepper flakes.  I could have made my own pasta to put it on but geez, this gal stays busy!

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Jenna loves milking season.  My husband tells me she waits until I’m done milking the goats then sneaks over to the milking stand for a snack.  I usually don’t see this because I do chicken chores after milking then get water to hose off the milk splashes but this morning I changed my routine and caught her in the act.  Sneaky girl!