Category Archives: Learning Adventures

Mother Earth News Fair 2018

Learning Adventures, , , , ,

First let me say, thank goodness the planners of this event have obviously been in touch with the Mohawk Valley Garlic Fest planners.  Ron and I really enjoy coming to this every year and it would be very sad if they decided to hold this event on the same weekend in September.

Our trip down on Friday, the 14th was a good one.  Weather cooperated with just a few spots of raininess here and there.  The first workshops started at noon and we had a 7 hours drive ahead of us, so we were packed and out the door at 3:30 am.  The goal again was to get a good parking spot in the lower lot.   Yeah, I know.  We are a bit crazy.  But until you have walked up that hill to get your car after a day of walking around to all your workshops, don’t judge.

This is the second leg of your journey up the hill to the parking lot.  It starts with 3 flights of stairs.  Then up this “ramp” and across the road to the real walk.

And this is just the first part of the major effort to get to and from your vehicle.  The actual parking lot starts at the top of this hill and goes on for what seems like forever.   There are thousands of people attending and they all need a place to park.

Unfortunately we were late and the guy manning the gate directed us up the hill after all.  We were able to find a parking spot not too far up along the left side of road and opened up the cooler to grab a quick lunch and headed down to the main building.

Once again Ron was focused on any and all mushroom workshops, including a three hour one with Tradd Cotter.  He had to pay extra for this one.  This was part of their “hands on” workshop series.

Here he is getting some mushroom spawn from Tradd.  He looks more than a bit giddy to my eyes.  Not sure what the right description of him is; a fan, camp follower, or groupie?

Homesteading was again a major theme this year with over a dozen workshops dealing with that topic in one way or another.  The good thing is that even if you don’t have or plan to have a small, self sufficient family farm; the information they offered works for anyone who is looking to grow and preserve their own food, make and sell craft products or get themselves off the grid.

This year I was heading to classes on preparing for emergencies, paw paws and foraging, different food products you can make (cider syrup and string cheese) and of course, using herbs in skin care products and medicines.

We were at the very first MEN fair back in 2010 and one of the presenters then was Kathy Harrison.  She had written a book about preparing for emergencies – Just in Case.  She has a new book out this year – Preppng 101 and MEN asked her to come back and hold two workshops.  I went to both of them and she is just the kind of person you need to get advice from.  She is practical, frugal and has a great sense of humor.  Fair warning – if you read her books, she will convince you to make steps for being prepared.  We have an Excalibur dehydrator in our house in part because of her influence.   

Both Ron and I went to the paw paw workshop and it was great.  The presenter, Sara Bir is very enthusiastic about them.  As she is a recipe developer, she has ability to take one of her favorite ingredients and make something yummy with it.   She came prepared with paw paws for us to see and seeds that she was happy to share.  I also attended her foraging workshop and that was great fun too.  Good to know that chances of you dying from eating a foraged fruit are pretty slim.  Apparently you stand a better chance of falling into a hole. The basic rules seem to be if it smells awful and a quick lick says yuck, then don’t eat it.  And you need a good book on plant identification.

We were lucky with the weather at Seven Springs,  with typical fall days.  Cool mornings and some rain but when the sun was out, it was lovely.  As usual the people were great too.  It was so easy to strike up a conversation with the person standing or sitting next to you.  While waiting for Tradd’s 3 hour workshop to begin, Ron and I talked with a couple who are just getting started with mushroom farming.  Right now she works with a vet in her area, so she knows all about hard work.  I told her that the hardest part for Ron is accepting that it is quitting time for the season.   Not this year, as we are totally exhausted, but normally we have to fight him on that issue.  In this case, she told me that she is the one that will not want to stop. I advised her to start keeping notes on everything they do, especially the crazy, funny things that happen.  And that she might want to think about a blog of her own.  While I was waiting for the foraging workshop to begin, I overheard the two men behind me talking about shiitakes.  Before we knew it, we had 7 people talking about growing mushrooms.  I mentioned our efforts to grow those that are used in miso soup and discovered that the couple in front of me was a Navy family and had lived for years in Japan.   I asked if she had learned the language and she had.  Actually got to 4th grade level in their offered classes and is justifiably proud of that.  I struggled with both French and German in school.  Never did have the knack for other languages.

The last workshops ended at 4:30 pm on Sunday and there was no way we were going to head home after that.  It is so worth the cost of an extra night at the hotel.  Ron wanted me to plot a scenic route home and find us a few places to stop.  That really is not easy to do with a GPS or on your laptop.  That is why I still love paper maps.  You can lay them out and see where you are and what roads you can choose to take.  We decided to stick to the highway for the first couple of hours.  Not much would be open before 9 am anyway.  Once we branched off to a small road Ron was happier.  Driving through small towns is his idea of a good drive.  We came across a health food store and stop to check it out.  I discovered they had gallon sized jars for sale.  I paid 20 cents more for those 4 jars than the ones  I purchased them at another store.  But the jar lids were 50 cents cheaper.  All in all, not a bad deal.

We weren’t in any great hurry to get home.  Well, Ron wasn’t.  I am still more a fan of getting where you are headed sooner than later.  After sitting for most of the last 3 days, I wanted our 7 hour drive to be over with.  Besides I have apple cider to buy so I can try making cider syrup.  And I really want to try my hand at fermenting again.   I had success with the garlic and want to try carrots again.  This is what happens each time I go to this event.  I come home full of enthusiasm and plans to try new things.  Somehow I will do my best to squeeze a few more projects into the next few months.  After all Christmas is coming and almost everyone loves to get homemade things.

 

MV Garlic Fest 2018

Learning Adventures,

We three are slowing recovering from our day.  For the first time, it was just the three of us manning our booth.  And, boy was it an eye opener.

As usual getting ready for September 8 started weeks in advance.  Ron had to plan which and how many logs we were going to soak in order for us to have enough shiitakes to sell.  The weather this year had played havoc with all of his plans.  So hot and dry and then days of rain.  It really messed with his schedule.  So, being Ron, he decided to take no chances.  We would soak just about every log that we could.  I honestly don’t know how we survived the last week of August and first week of September.  Every night after work we headed to THF to pull logs out of the tanks and toss another load in.  That was moving a totally of 100 logs each night.  Exhausting work even in the best of time, but when you add in the heat and humidity we were dealing with…. it got old very fast.  Of course we still had to pick what shiitakes were ready, clean them and get them into the frig.

I was also busy getting more things ready to sell.  I decided to try my hand at sewing lavender sachets.  My plan was to get started on this project in July.  But I was dealt a serious set back when I discovered my sewing machine laying on the floor. Seems my Milly cat knocked it off the table.  I didn’t think much of it, as it landed on the thick rug and really did not fall that far.  The next week when I sat down to start sewing I was greeted by an ugly grinding noise.  A couple of phones calls later and I had a place I could take it to. Unfortunately they were closed until the beginning of August.  I had to be patient, but it was well worth the wait. Not only did they fix my machine, but they also sharpened my sewing shears.  It was lovely to have them cutting properly again.

I went through my stash of material and cut out lots of 4 inch squares.  A few minutes of sewing, a bit of iron use and I had a small pile of lovely lavender sachets.   I think they are pretty darn cute and they smell great too.

Without warning all of our soaked logs suddenly decided to start doing their job and produced shiitakes for us.  After the first few days of picking 12 and 15 pounds at a time, we began to get a bit nervous.  They just kept coming.  We crammed every bag we could into the big frig, the tiny one and then Ron took 15 pounds to his brother, John’s frig for storage.  It was crazy.   How were we going to get all of them to Little Falls?   Not sure we had enough coolers and I really did not want to buy another one.

In the middle of all this I still had to work with my elderberries.  Picking, cleaning and freezing them in one pound bags.  Right now I have 15 pounds in our freezer waiting for me to find the time to try making jelly.  I did get another batch of my tincture going and some elderberry syrup too.  That is always a lovely thing to have in your frig.  And I broke the little toe on my right foot.  I smashed it into the same chair, twice.  Just want I needed this week.

I had taken Thursday and Friday off, while Ron had Friday off.  Trips to the bank, the store, John’s house, and all the other last minute things were done by Friday afternoon.  Or so I thought.  At 8 pm we got set up in the kitchen to re-bag the shiitakes into quart bags.   At our first event we measured them out on site and learned immediately that we needed a better way.  We got started and quickly worked our way through our first 100 lunch bags.  That was when Ron realized we only had 200 bags total.  This to use for what was just over 100 pounds of shiitakes we had on site.  For some reason when I was at the store I grabbed one bag not thinking we should have extra on hand.  So another trip to the store for me.  By 9:30 pm we were done.  All shiitakes stuffed back into the frigs and we headed to bed.  Early wake up call tomorrow.

So beat from the past two weeks of hard work, Ron and I just could not sleep.  Thank goodness we had already loaded most of the equipment on the trailer and in my Camry.     Up at 3:30 am and jumped right into the day.  All of my natural skin care products into the car, along with cash box and other small boxes.  Then it was time to get the shiitakes into coolers.  Ice into the coolers and then as many bags as I could fit in. Thank goodness they fit into the coolers we had.  These went into the back of Ron’s Transit and we all grabbed a quick breakfast.  Showers, dressed and out the door we went.  It was a hour drive to Little Falls and we arrived right on Ron’s scheduled time.

After doing four events, our set up system goes really well.  Unload everything and move the vehicles.  Tent goes up first and then everything else fits in and around it.   We were done with plenty of time for getting another breakfast and bathroom calls.  Each vendor was given a discount on a breakfast sandwich from the Ann Street Restaurant & Deli.  It was just eggs, with sausage, ham or bacon, and I don’t know what they did, but it was simply delicious.

The gates opened at 10 am and we did not have another spare minute.  With just 3 of us running the show,  it was all hands on deck for all tasks involved.  By 5 pm, I had just over 20,000 steps on my Fitbit most of it done in our 20 foot wide vendor space.  Back and forth from offering up samples, to the mushroom log spiel then across to ask if someone wanted to try my calendula cream.  I was in charge of the money again, while Ron again was the grill master and Jo was putting together the samples.  All of us focused on selling the products.

It was a long day but again we had fun, burned a ton of calories and as always, learned a lot.   Planning is the key.  Making lists and checking things off is the way to ensure you don’t forget something.  Even then you will, but you will find a way around that if you have planned well enough.  Preparing for one of these events is seriously hard work, but getting everything put away again is even harder.  We got home about 7:30 pm and just left everything on the trailer.  Beat to the bone, none of us had the energy to bring anything more than ourselves into the house.  All the equipment and supplies were covered with a tarp and strapped down.  After all it is not a matter of just getting it into the house.  Everything has to be cleaned and repacked into one of our many bins.  We still don’t have the shed on THF moved to its new location (that is another day’s post) so it is all going back in the living room for now.  And I have already started making a list of things we need to replace, like the frying pans and heat diffuser. And the two hot pot holders that Ron burned to a crisp.  He has a habit of doing that.  I may have to look into finding him flame proof ones that he simply cannot destroy.

As exhausting as these events are, they are crazy fun.  We learn something new at each one so we get better and better at it.  And the people we meet are just terrific.  Both other vendors and customers.   There is a special kick you get when someone stops by and says they brought from you at the last event and are back for more.  Repeat customers; a very cool thing.

 

 

Little Falls Cheese Festival, Saturday July 14, 2018

Learning Adventures,

This was our first attendance at this event and we were part of the new Makers on West Main grouping. It was created to “celebrate the importance of small makers of exceptional products in New York State”. This is a direct quote from the their brochure. We were happy to attend as we are all about buying from local businesses. Even more so now that we are one of those businesses.    And I am always fascinated by the talent and skill that these people have and show us with the products they sell.

Little Falls, NY is just over an hour from Sherrill so we were heading out early for our 7 am arrival time.  We had loaded the trailer Friday night and the last minute things were stuffed into the car and Transit and we were on the road, on schedule at 6 am.  Of course,  I did have to run back in at last minute for my tea.  As I spent years driving to and from Herkimer, this was a familiar drive for me.  Our arrival was little disorganized as we had to temporarily park on the street, unload everything and then move our cars. Then it was a brisk walk back to our sites and time to get set up.  We paid for a double site as we have learned the hard way that more space always comes in handy.  After our last event, when Josi and I both got sun scorched, we decided that more shade was needed.

Being me, I wanted to obtain this by the most frugal of methods.  So buying an umbrella or awning for our tent was certainly out.  We did have a shade cloth that I bought last year to use when working in our field.  Another place where we deal with lots of sun and no shade.  We tossed the whole thing over our tent frame and started brain storming.  A bit of trial and error and we came up with plan.  Ron cut in it half and I sewed two large pockets, one on each end.  Turned out Ron is not that good at measuring and he had to send me back to the sewing machine to make one side shorter.  We had to keep the length just  under five feet for each side in order to stay within the  20 foot size limit.   A trip out to get PVC pipe and assorted pieces to hold them all together and we were set with two sides, safely shaded.  We were excited to try it out on the Cheese Festival.  Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?

And it worked a treat.  One side for our logs and the other for me and my products.    As a bonus, the rust color goes well with dark green tent.   By the time Josi arrived to help again; God Bless, great friends, only the last minute things needed to be done.  You will be shocked to hear that we did not forget anything this time.  I even had a tube of sunscreen ready for use.  Josi brought some too.  We were not going to risk more sunburn this time. Oh, wait.  I did forget to bring fingernail clippers.  A pair of those need to be added to our business/emergency supply bin.  Ron broke two nails during set up and I had a hang nail that bugged me every space minute I had.  It is always the little things, isn’t it?

Just as Ron was getting the samples started we had a surprise visit from Ron’s friend, Shelly.  She has been involved with THF since the beginning and has attended numerous work sessions.  It was nice to see her again and made a happy start to the day.   And then the day took off.   Not only with the number of people, but the heat too.   We were set up on the actual road which reflected heat back up into the tent.  With Ron cooking on the stove, he was taking the brunt of it.   Every so often we got a slight breeze which was a welcome relief.  One of the vendors few tents down from us had brought their own fans and a generator.  Serious thoughts of swiping them had to be tamped down.

With Ron cooking the shiitakes, Jo assembling the samples and Josi offering them to potential customers, I was on the other side of our tent offering my own samples of lip balm, lotion bars and body cream.  This time I had a batch of soap that I added lavender to and I was offering my own version of stuffed mushrooms.

I used wool felt, some old buttons and milkweed fluff to make them.  They were a relaxing project that I worked on while watching TV or talking with Ron.  I  suggested them to people telling them they are cuter and will last longer than the shiitakes Ron was hawking, but they would not taste as good.   People thought they were cute, loved the idea of the milkweed fluff and I even managed to sell a few.

The festival ended at 5 pm and we were more than ready for it.  Hot, sticky, exhausted and hungry but pleased  with the day.  Now all we had to do was break down everything, load it all back into the cars, drive home, unload what we absolutely had to and collapse inside the house.  Though first, I again had to drag Ron away from the other vendors.  He was fully burned out, but he really wanted to spend more time talking with them.  Showers, food and alcoholic beverages for all.  Ron and I had Sunday off, but Jo had to work the early shift.

Sunday morning; this should have been a day of semi-relaxation. That is really a joke, of course as we not only had to finish unloading everything, but we also had to check out THF.  Friday evening we had seen that there was serious pinning on our logs and knew more mushrooms were coming.  No way we were going to pick any Saturday night, but Ron and I headed out there at 8 in the morning.  After we finished harvesting, drove home, cleaned and bagged them we had 24 one pound bags in the frig.

Timing really is everything, isn’t it?  Maybe I need to invent a time machine or a special status chamber for our shiitakes.  That way we can pick them when they are ready and still have them fresh when needed.  Hmmm.  Something to think about.

This was our fourth event as a vendor and we learn more and get better at it every time we do one.  But I really do not understand how anyone can do this over a weekend or three days.  It is simply exhausting.  I guess if you are selling only non perishable products it is a bit easier but still there is so much work involved.  And so much heart too, that you put into your products.  The real fun part is talking with other vendors, when you have a space second and talking with all the people who stop by your booth.  Sharing your knowledge and learning something from those you talk with, that makes the day so worth while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CCE Herb & Flower Festival 2018

Learning Adventures

Saturday June 16 flew by in a  frenzy of activity while Sunday went by in a haze of exhaustion as we slowly worked our way through our breakdown process. This involved emptying out the car, the Transit and trailer.  Then taking a much needed break.  Setting all the coolers we used upside down on driveway so they dried.  Again a break to catch my breath.  Our clothes and all the dishes we used had to be washed. Then get it all packed away again.  I just love this time of year.  Plastic bins, tables and coolers all over my living room.  Remind me again, who’s bright idea was all this?  Oh yeah.  It was Ron’s.

Prep for this event started two weeks ago with deciding how many logs needed to be soaked.  Ron wanted to have more shiitakes on hand than last year.  We actually ran out over an hour before the event ended.  Disappointed customers are not a good thing.   The weather played havoc with Ron’s nerves as we were not seeing solid signs of life on the first sets of logs we soaked.  So he upped the ante.  And when there was a threat of rain, we scrambled to get the just formed mushrooms covered.  Not much is worse than a soggy shiitake.  And then Mother Nature decided to cooperate.  We picked, cleaned and bagged shiitakes every night last week.   In the end we were not sure how we were going to get them all out the CCE on Saturday.

I was also making last-minute batches of my skin care products.  I planned to make the cream as late as possible as it is a bit more perishable than the other products.  Ron again used his “majored in shop” skills to set me up with just what I needed for filling the jars.  Being cream it does not always pour neatly into each jar.  I needed a way to fill the jars without making a mess.

Of course, it was my idea, he just made it happen.  I had a piece of Styrofoam laying about the house and decided that would be perfect.  Ron cut out 8 pieces and used his two inch hole cutter on each one and I have a much needed solution.  And I needed to finish my vendor apron.  Nothing like waiting until the last-minute to get things done.  But it looks great and should do the job for me.  It was also the one thing I had to run back into the house for.   I left it sitting on the wrong bin.

Friday afternoon Ron, Jo and I headed over at 2 pm to the CCE to pre-set up.  We took the tent, stove, tables, logs and propane tanks.  Ron made the afternoon just that more aggravating by remembering that he had a 3:30 pm hair cut scheduled and he wanted to stop and get pizza for dinner.  So we were on an even tighter schedule.  Remember, we still had mushrooms to pick and clean that night. This is a process that can take hours, depending on how many we pick.  And I had another batch of cream to make.  The one I made earlier was a disaster.  I still don’t know what I did wrong.  Getting our site set up was a bit nerve wracking as the wind was quite strong.  We would not have been able to leave the tent set up without having the heavy duty weights.  But we did lower the tent itself to reduce the potential impact of the wind.   Jo and headed for home and Ron off to Rome for his hair cut and then pizza pick up.  I got a text 30 minutes later from him.  His appointment is next week.  When will that man learn to use his phone for appointments?

Early wake up call on Saturday.  Well, early for most people.  4 am is normal get up time for us most days.   We jumped right into to repacking all the mushrooms.  To make it easier on us, we decided to set them all up in quart bags.  That way we could just grab a bag from the cooler instead of doing it for each purchase.  Then showers, breakfast and final loading of trailer and vehicles.

We had absolutely fabulous weather on Saturday. Lots of sunshine and a slight breeze that seemed to come just when needed.  We asked for, and got the same location as last year, number 51.   We pulled in and unloaded everything so the Transit and trailer could be moved into vendor parking.  Jesse arrived and we got everything set up and organized.

I was on the left side of the tent with Jesse and the inoculated logs were on the right.  I was  selling my products and our plants.  We had two trays of lavender and one of calendula.  I wanted to make sure people got to see what this flower looked like.  We did pretty well on selling them too. In fact before we even got started a lady stopped by and wanted to buy all 16 of our lavender plants.  Ron hemmed and  hawed but then had to say no.  We would lose not only our pop of color on my table but one of our draws.  Some might say we lost out on a sure sale, but we ended up selling most of the plants.  Again I was the money lady.   This does cause me a little stress.  I have to count out the change a couple of times to make sure I get it right.  Jo was again in charge of completing the shiitake samples.  And that was our first crisis.  Ron had stashed the mushrooms that he was going to use for samples in a separate cooler but we could not find it.  Somehow we had left it home.   Jo took my keys and headed to get it.  We still had over an hour before opening so she had time to save us.  I went back to working on my setup and was looking for a place to store my stuff.  I shoved one of my bins under the table only to hit something.   Guess what I found?  Jo, in being helpful had shoved the cooler under the table to get it out-of-the-way.  I hadn’t looked before as it was my side and I didn’t expect a cooler to be there.  I grabbed my phone and called her to come back.  Luckily she had not gotten far.  Only downside was that she now had to park the car along the road and not back in the lot.   My fabulous friend, Josi Williams arrived to help out.   We put her in charge of handing out the samples and selling the mushrooms.

We were all set up and ready to go when we heard they were letting people in early.  Now it was a scramble for Ron to get the samples going.  And that was the last free minute we had for the next 5 1/2 hours.  While it did take us a bit to find our rhythm, once we did you would have thought we had been working together at this for years.

Ron’s brother Don arriving was an unexpected bonus.  His son, Jesse had taken on his previous task of selling the logs.  He has strong knowledge of our process as he has been to just about every inoculation we had held.  And he does like to talk to people.  Not as much as Ron, but the Delaney genes do run true.

That bright sunshine was great for bringing out customers but it played hell with my products.  We clearly have to do something about getting some shade.  My display was ruined as I had to stash everything under the table.  The sample jar of cream which melted went into the cooler so it would thicken again.   But you know, everyone who tried the cream thought it was great and it was my best seller.  I do have to work on my sales pitch.  I will never be, and don’t really want to be the carnival barker that Ron is, but I can and will get better at the sales game.   Another reason we need shade is for my cash box.  It is black metal and got really hot.  I needed pot holders (not on hand) every time I had to get in there for a few more ones.   And I need to make a new apron.  The pattern I used is a good one, but I want the pockets to be just a bit deeper.  I started out with 5 small pockets along the lower band but I ripped out the stitches so I had two large pockets and one for a pen.  That worked for me.  I now have a few weeks to sew myself one that suits me better.

All in all it was another great though exhausting day for THF.  We were sold out of shiitakes just before 1 pm.   And while Ron did apologize to everyone who came back looking to buy some, he made a point of telling all of them they shouldn’t have waited.  And I didn’t even want to yell at Ron until it was all over.  We had broken our site down and I had pulled my car back in to the lot to start loading. Then I sent Ron out to get the Transit and trailer.  And what does he do; stops to chat with the lady two stalls down from us.  Fifteen minutes later, he is still taking with her.   Josi suggested we all head home and leave Ron to load everything up by himself.  Finally I had to call him on it and get him moving.  He arrived back just in time to get boxed in behind a lady driving her big van who stopped in the middle of the road to start loading up her tent.  It wasn’t until I went over to point it out that she bothered to look behind her to see the 4 or 5 people trying to get by. It took some assistance from Jesse to guide her out of the way enough for Ron to get by and then he had to guide the others by him.  What a mess that was.  If only he had come right back with the wagon when I sent him for it.  Then he could have missed all the aggravation.

We loaded everything and tied down the covering tarp with straps,  Hugs all around and it was finally time to head home.  Jo and Ron went first with me following.  And a good thing that was.  We were about half way home on a country road when I noticed one of our bins was getting ready to fall off.  I hit my horn and flashed my lights but nothing.  Neither one of them noticed.  The bin went flying into the ditch and still they did not hear the horn or see the lights.  I pulled over to pick everything up.  Jo’s kettlecorn was the only causality.  The bag it was in was ripped up pretty good.  I ended up with popcorn all over my front seat.   Ron is so lucky that the bin didn’t break.  They did finally notice that I was not right behind them and called me.  Of course my phone was in the trunk so I couldn’t answer them.  When I got home, I was happy to yell at both of them for not paying attention.   We just pulled the important things out of the car and headed inside.  Alcoholic drinks and left over pizza after our showers.  So tired.  And sunburned.  Ron and Jo were safe under the tent, but Josi and I left with the back of our legs scorched   We had gotten sunscreen for our arms and face from the wonderful first aid folks, but had not thought about the legs.

Once again we had great time and were pleased with end result.  We took fewer logs with us (sold out of those), more shiitakes (sold out of those) and my natural skin care products.  Which I had respectable sales in.  We just need to change a few things, figure out how to create shade on one side of our tent and remember to bring sunscreen.

Remember to come to and see us at the Little Falls Cheese Festival on July 14.  You can check to see if we got our needed improvements worked into our process.

 

Tweeking the process

Learning Adventures

2018 has been a year of expansion for THF.  This means that we are learning about and doing new things.  Since February I have been busy making what we are calling our natural skin care products.

While we have sold some of it to our friends, we won’t find out if they will really sell until we are at our first vendor event.   That will be the CCE Herb & Flower Festival on June 16.  Last year we were blown away at the reception of our shiitakes.  But my worry about how well our products sell will remain front and center until the event if over.  It is just a little bit scary.  I have put so much of myself into this newest part of THF.   I am trying to keep my hopes based in reality, but it would be wonderful if this stuff sells well.

During this process we have stumbled across a few interesting things.

This is a jar of coconut oil being infused with lavender.   I know that coconut oil will solidify at a low temp, but I have no idea what this is about.  Could not resist taking a picture of it though.

Coconut oil is one of the basic ingredients I use in my soap and lotion bars.  And it is a huge pain in the neck to get out of the big plastic jars the brand I use comes in.  After a few weeks of fighting with it, I decided to put our woodstove to good use.  I put the jars near the stove and went on about my day,  waiting for the oil to melt.  Then I poured the oil into one of my soap loaf molds.

I waited for it to harden again and then wrapped each loaf in plastic wrap.  Now all I have to do is slice off what I need for each batch.  And I can easily see just how much I have left.  I think when I do this next time, I will pour just the amount needed for my double batch of soap in the mold.  Then all I have to do is plop the whole thing in the pan and turn on the heat.  I am all for anything that makes life easier.

Ron has been busy coming up with new ideas too.  We have spent hours tacking down all the landscape cloth we have in our field.  For our garlic patch, the elderberries and paw paws and more recently the lavender and calendula.   It was not a overall success.  First we tried using those staples designed for just this job, but they were useless.  Then Ron took the small wood blocks that he and brother in law Doug spent hours working on.  They were supposed to be a mulch of sorts for his ginseng plants.  Which did not work out as planned.  So he drilled holes in each block and we used them a “washers” for timber spikes.  Those worked pretty well unless you hit them too hard with the hammer and they broke.  And sadly they did not hold the cloth down as well as we had hoped.  We get quite a bit of wind out on THF and if it gets under one of the sheet edges, the whole thing can be ripped up.  We lost more than a few of our newly planted lavender starts last year after a wind storm blew through.

Ron’s solution was to order the above disks from “the rubber man”.  They are left over from another process and are perfect for our needs.  Once Ron drilled holes in them, of course. Which he did in the kitchen one chilly day in March.  He used the drill press he found at a yard sale for 10 bucks a few years ago.  I don’t think he even remembers what he bought it for, but it sure came in handy for this project.  The rubber disks don’t break when you bang the spikes in and should last longer than the wood blocks.  And you can bash them down right to the ground.

But you really do need to use a proper hammer.  The first time Ron and I went out to do some tacking, we forgot to bring a hammer.  Rocks, even good sized ones really don’t do a good job.  Our wrists felt it the next day.

Ron also used his amazing macgyvering abilities to get his solar powered fans set up in the drying shed.  He bought them as a kit back in August, and of course they were not as easy to put together as he hoped.  He managed to get one solar panel together;  somehow as it did not come instructions.  Has anyone else noticed that trend? More and more things that need to be put together don’t come with an instruction sheet.  Or they some with one sheet of only pictures.  It was so frustrating that he then set the while project aside until now.   More pondering was needed in order to figure out the best way to get the last panel put together and to get them both set up on top of the beams that he had built into the shed just for this purpose.

Once he got the second fan set up and we bought a new roll of duct tape, both fans were installed in the shed.  The purpose is to keep the air circulating and the temps down enough for us to use the space for drying garlic, lavender and calendula.  The solar panels are the power source as we are not connected to the power grid.

It was another great and fun adventure getting the panels onto those beams and attached.  Ron and I got it done with just a few frayed nerves.   We could not tell yet if it was going to work as the sun was going down by the time we were done.   We still have to tack down the connecting wires both in and outside.  But they are up and running and doing their job.  The next step is to get the shed organized and figure out what our drying racks are going to look like.  And how we are going to set them up.

Ron also decided to expand our mushroom world.  This year we drilled and inoculation a set of logs for nameko mushrooms.  These will be smaller and slightly sticky and are used in miso soup.

They are grown differently too.  The logs are just placed on the ground, making sure they are in contact with the surrounding dirt.  We won’t see anything from them until this fall.  I will be sure to keep you posted.  One of Ron’s other plans is to grow oyster mushrooms in buckets.  Our shiitakes are always well received but it would be lovely to have something more to offer our customers.

Who would have thought that our lives at age 60 would suddenly be crammed full of so many new and slightly crazy projects.  Isn’t this the time of life when most people are reducing their work loads?  I have known for years that Ron could not retire and then just sit around the house.  He needed a project to keep himself and his mind busy.   Leave it to Ron to shake our world up so much with a farm of all things.  I saw us having a garden in our backyard not growing mushrooms, elderberries, lavender and paw paws on 10 acres.  Still cannot believe he dragged me into this.  And now I have jumped feet first into making skin care products and have plans to sell them.    A few years ago Ron started making my morning tea, and now I think I know why.  Obviously he has been putting something in my cup.

 

 

 

 

Mother Earth News Fair 2017

Learning Adventures,

Our trip this year started out with a 2 am wake up call Friday morning. By 3 am we were on the road with a 7 hour drive ahead of us. It was a familiar drive but it seems to get just a bit longer each year. Didn’t help that we hit serious fog a few hours in.

We dealt with this for hours.  It would clear for a few miles and then we would be back in it.  We were just over an hour away from our destination of Seven Springs, PA when it finally cleared for good.

We arrived early this year.  Which meant we got to park in the lower lot and avoid the long hoof up the hill to the secondary lots.  We parked and organized our lunch.  I forgot to bring plates for us to use.  It is always something.  You would think after going to so many of these events, there is nothing I would not remember.

They weren’t letting anyone in even to walk around until noon so we had an hour to kill.  But that was easy enough.  Ron found a way around the staff and we wandered around looking at the vendors doing finally prep. We headed back to the main entrance just before 9 am and watched the swarm of people come in.

Once the workshops started, the afternoon went fast. We split up, each heading to our own workshops. There will be a few that we both go to, but we learned long ago that it is better to go our separate ways. Not only do we get a break from each other, but we learn more that way.  Friday was a short day, from 12:30 to 6 pm. I went to workshops on salve making, fermenting and backyard foraging. And did some visiting at vendor booths. Ron and I met up after the last workshop and headed back to our hotel. Once again we were staying at the Comfort Inn in Somerset. This year I brought dinner with us. Chicken salad, watermelon, cucumber and beer.  Made it so much easier than trying to find a place to eat. Both of us were exhausted so we had an early night.

Next morning Ron realized he forgot to bring underwear.  Thank goodness for stores that are open 24 hours.  A quick trip and he was set for the rest of our trip.   We also picked up a few more snacks.   Saturday workshops started at 10 am. Still cannot understand why such a late start to the day. So many people who come to this type of events are early risers. Maybe they are trying to give us all a break?  We arrived early enough to once again get into the lower parking lot. This year they were trying something different. Hands on classes.  Things like butter churning, making a mead or sourdough starter, fermenting mustard and a  kombucha demo. They were hugely popular. But they really need to come up with a better plan.   In order to attend the class, you had to pick up a special ticket. This meant waiting in line for over an hour.  You can imagine how annoyed some people were.  I wanted to get into the lavender sea salt body scrub class and while I waited in line, I missed one of the workshops I had down on my list. That was disappointing.  But I had a good time talking with the people in line with me.  As I was first in line, I had no trouble getting the ticket I wanted.  Have to say the class was worth the wait too.  Hoping they will continue with hands on classes next year, but figure out a better way to run them.

Dinner on Saturday was at the Rey Azteca Mexican Restaurant.  We make sure we have at least one dinner there every trip.  They have great food and we usually run into at least one other couple who is also attending The Fair.

Sunday morning was a bit sad as it was the last day.   I had a bit of a scare when I hit the soap dish with my elbow and it fell down and shattered in the tub.  We cleared it up as best we could, stopped at front desk to tell them and headed out.  We had an early start as there was a mushroom identification session at 8 am.   Again we ended being able to park in the lower lot.  And even closer to the doors this time.  Getting to the fair site early enough really does pay off.

Tradd Cotter, the mycology expert who gave a couple of workshops, had also taken a group out at 7:30 am on Saturday and they collected all the mushrooms they could find.  Now he was going to tell them what they all were.   I was surprised, but shouldn’t have been at the number of people who showed up.  There are so many people interested in mushrooms these days.

The last workshop ended at 4:30 and we headed back to the hotel for one more night there.  There was no way we were going to start on a 7 hour drive home at that time of night.   We had a meatloaf dinner at a local diner and called it a night.   We packed up most of our stuff and settled in to watch the Ken Burns show on the Vietnam War.  I didn’t make it through the show and fell asleep pretty quickly.

No need to get up early on Monday but we were still up and about by 5 am.  We had a good breakfast, packed up the Transit and set off up the road.  Less than a hour into our trip and we hit fog again. Worse than the drive down.  Ron was disappointed that so many things were closed on Monday.  We couldn’t find a single place to stop.  He would have been happy with the largest ball of string or a house with 27 cats in it.

We got home about 4 pm and it was a welcome sight.  It had been a long weekend and we were both glad to be home.  Of course Ron insisted on the three of us making a trip out to THF.  He wanted to check on his shiitakes. It had been a full four days since he was out there last.  He was suffering from withdrawal.

I always enjoy going to the Mother Earth News Fair and come home with lots of enthusiasm for finally tackling all those projects I have brewing in the back of my mind.  Wonder how long it will last this time?