I’ve been on a sour cherry hunt for the past month or so. I’ve tried every upscale grocery place in Greensboro and nobody ever carries them. I started looking online to see if I could get some shipped here from a fruit supplier but the only thing I could find were jarred or frozen cherries. In my online search, I located an orchard an hour north of here and sour cherry picking started yesterday. And they were expecting 3000 people on opening day. We were one of the first in line. This place has 34 acres of cherry trees. We met folks from NC and Tennessee picking there. I pitted cherries for 2 hours when we got home. I so far have made maraschinos and the best cherry pie I’ve ever tasted. Today’s adventures include cherry liqueur and maybe some black forest preserves. 
Cherries
11 Jun 2017 1 Comment
Garlic Harvest
08 Jun 2017 1 Comment
Our garlic harvest filled the back of our Mule. We dry it outside in a shady spot for a week then store it in our pantry. This should last us a year.
Felt Play Mat
31 May 2017 4 Comments
in Crafts, Uncategorized
For Dominic’s fourth birthday, I made him a felt play mat featuring some of his favorite places/things. On the left hand side is our garden and green barn, along with our pond. At the top is a fire station and a construction site for trucks. In the center is a neighborhood. I couldn’t resist making one of the houses a haunted house then decided it could just be Halloween in the neighborhood as that’s his favorite time of year. At the bottom you’ll find some of his favorite places to go. McDonalds or ‘The Restaurant’, Target (one of my favorites, too) and Sea World. His Mom and Dad have annual passes there. Finally, a parking lot. Along with the mat we gave him a bunch of Matchbox cars and tiny farm animals. And some Star Wars vehicles. 🙂
Kiln Opening Day
29 May 2017 4 Comments
in Crafts, Uncategorized
It’s always super exciting to open our kiln to see the results of what we’ve been working on for so long. It takes us a good while to make enough to fill our kiln. Brian does wheel work while I hand build in another room. Once everything has dried out for a few days it gets the first bisque firing which takes a full day plus cool down time. Then we have to glaze everything and that takes a day or two. The final firing is a full two day process, including cool down. For someone like me with limited patience, this can be very trying. 🙂 Here’s a sample of what we made this round.
A sampling of Brian’s bowls. I love his double glaze technique.
I’ve been goofing around with melting glass. The larger pieces are ring dishes. The smaller ones will be used in my miniature work as platters and dishes. You can purchase tiny dishes online but they’re super expensive. The smallest bowl is about the size of a dime.
I’ve been playing around with pottery stamps and my newest glaze. I love the blue highlights.
Farm Frittata
28 May 2017 Leave a comment
For breakfast this morning I decided to try my hand at a frittata for the first time. It was to die for! It’s got garlic, shallot, spinach, potato and asparagus from our garden, eggs from our hen house, goat cheese from our freezer and ham from WalMart because Brian won’t let me have pigs… 🙂
Spring Harvest
27 May 2017 1 Comment
This morning we harvested surely what must be the last of the asparagus, our first salsa peppers, a LOT of potatoes, some garlic, a sampler carrot and spring onion and some spinach and beet greens. I am thinking frittata.
New Addition
24 May 2017 1 Comment
To the family, not the farm. 🙂 Our daughter Tracy and her husband Brad just welcomed a daughter to their family. Dominic is the proudest big brother. Her name is Maxine and she’s precious!
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The Garden Is In
27 Apr 2017 1 Comment
Our garden is completely planted for this year. We’re approaching our last possible frost date with temperatures in the 80s in the forecast. The only thing missing is zucchini and we will squeeze it in somewhere if we find some starter plants.
Every bed is planted.
The garlic should have scapes soon.
Future cabbage.
Jerusalem artichoke rhizomes. We’ve wanted these for a while but never think about them until the growing season is over. All of our normal seed suppliers were completely out. I found these on Etsy.
Hot peppers started from seed indoors.
Can’t wait for these to flower so we can enjoy some new potatoes.
Poblanos and jalepenos are already starting to flower.
New Tenants
22 Apr 2017 2 Comments
The fox family that lives in our annex pasture has expanded. They totally ignore our sheep when they’re over there. The den is near our front gate. We’ve seen five of them so far.
Who You Gonna Call?
16 Apr 2017 Leave a comment
This is a miniature scene from the original Ghostbusters movie set inside an Altoids tin. Venkman grabbing Slimer with his proton stream. The ballroom in the background is the one used in the movie. The chandelier is made from a piece of vintage jewelry.
Missing Willow Farm 