Tag Archives: calendula

Calendula Woes

Ginny Projects, ,

You would think that as calendula infused oils are the base of my soap, lotion bars, lip balm and cream that I would be very invested in the rows of flowers Tiny House Farm is growing. This year, not so much.

Behind all those weeds is my calendula. My poor, neglected calendula. We had covered the rows with a tarp to kill off the weeds and that part worked out great. When it came time to sow the calendula seeds, I had to wait for the right forecast. The rain we had in this area was hit and miss over the summer. I waited for a clear day with two days of upcoming rain. Sadly, the Weather Channel let me down. We pulled the tarp off and I scattered the seeds and then no rain. For a week. I took a quick look at my rows during every farm trip, but the plants were slow to grow and soon the weeds took over. And the real neglect started.

I could tell myself that I was busy working on the farm books and the masks and daily life, but I simply did not get out to the farm. Except when I went along with Ron to work with the shiitake logs. Which turned out to be a bad thing for me. While moving logs from the soaking tank into the wagon, I tripped on a root, fell forward and hit the wagon rail with the log I was holding. Lost my grip and the damn thing landed , cut side down, full force on the right foot. Good lord, the pain. But I managed to hold it together and we got all the logs moved and the two of us out to the road. I spent the next week or so walking gingerly around the house and trying to get my foot into a comfortable position for sleeping. It was painful putting on shoes and my work boots were the worst. But no long term damage, so I was lucky.

Here are our lovely yellow calendula flowers. Trapped and hidden by the straw and other assorted weeds. If I was going to salvage any of it, I needed to get started. Weeding, really does not make me happy.

But now there was no choice. I simply had to work on this. If I am going to have any calendula blossoms to dry and seeds to save for next year, the weeds had to go. So when Ron headed out to THF on a bright September Sunday for mushroom log soaking and I went out to weed. It got hot quickly so I swiped Ron’s work umbrella and kept working. My goal was to get one row done. Remember these rows are 60 feet long and 4 feet wide. No easy task. By 330 I was just about done with one row and was exhausted. Tomorrow was another day.

Labor Day actually, and I had the day off. So while I yanked more weeds, Ron harvested and cleaned shiitakes. It was a good day for working outside. It was windy and while I lost count of the number of times I had to chase down my hat, it was easier to work

One row and part of a second have been de-weeded. So many weeds. There was straw, dandelions, thistles and several different types of vine weeds. It wrapped itself around everything. Sometimes that came in handy by letting me grab hold of the vine and pulled out a big chunk of weeds. Also discovered we had Chinese lanterns growing in the mix too. They brought back memories of my grandmother’s house in Herkimer, NY. She had Chinese lanterns in her yard for years. Not sure if I will let them stay though. They can easily overwhelm an area. And I want and need my calendula to be the focus of this side of our field. There will be no harvesting for me if I cannot even get to the plants.

I asked Ron to brush hog the ends of each row and the far right row for me. There was no calendula growing there and I wanted to see what I just how much more I needed to get done. There was no weeding done during the week. This is the type of job that needs to start early in the morning if you have any hope of making headway. I conned our Jo into coming out with me the next Saturday and her help made a huge difference. Lessons learned – I really should have gotten the straw pulled out while it was still green. Once it was fully dried, the seeds flew everywhere when yanked. I foresee more straw in my future.

My poor calendula patch. Most of the weeds are gone but it looks very sad and forlorn. The last thing I did was sweep between the rows. Getting the last of the weeds and, hopefully most of the weed seeds further away from the planted rows. Then I took flags and marked the bare patches where I needed to make sure seeds are scattered next spring.

I then started with the deadheading process. For those not in the know, this is the term for snipping off the actual blossom. Doing this results in more flowers growing and allows me to dry those picked for later use in my products. I also harvested seeds that I will cast around the next spring. Left most of them to fall where they may. Ron wants me to lay down weed cloth and grow the plants in nice neat rows. That is not for me. I much prefer the happenstance of nature. If only I could get that result without the weeds.

Collecting the seeds is easy enough. Once they have fully dried on plant, they fall off into your hand when you tug on them. I store them in paper bags for next year. Drying the calendula flowers is a bit more complicated. You can gently pull the petals off each flower before laying them onto your drying rack. Or dry the whole flower, trying to set them upside down in the process. Either way, your fingers are going to get sticky in the process. I did a combination of both and have decided that removing the petals before drying is the better way. More work up front, but the petals dry more evenly. And once they are dry, the only thing you have to do is collect them all for storage in a large glass jar.

As usual, I made it more difficult for myself. My set of drying racks was in shed at THF and I had just left them alone to dry. As the weather got colder, I needed to bring the dried calendula back to our house. Was not sure if colder temps would effect it at all, but I was not going to take the chance. I didn’t think the logistics through and failed to bring a container for it, so I had to collapse the whole rack and bring it home as is. The dried petals had to be pulled off and transferred to a smaller tray covered with mesh. Needed to be sure everything was fully dry. In the process, I managed to dump a good chunk of the petals on the floor. I didn’t take a photo of that as it was just too depressing. Carefully picked it all up, petal by petal and let them sit for another week before I put all of it in a jar for long term storage. Or start infusing olive oil with it. If I do things right next year, I will have even more calendula to work with. The long term goal is to have enough to dry and then sell to others. That is going to be a lot of calendula. What I harvested this year doesn’t even fill a quart sized canning jar and is just over 1/2 an ounce by weight. I may have to plan holding a calendula harvesting event next year.

That which we left behind

Ginny Projects, ,

The year is almost over and we are now looking back to see how we did in 2019. What did we do right and what missed the mark. There is a lot to talk over. We made quite a few changes and additions to Tiny House Farm, but there were more than a few things that got left behind.

My calendula was ignored this year and we paid the price. It started with the huge mistake we made by sowing our seeds and then covering them with straw for protection.

This was what we had in fall 2018, more straw than calendula. It was a sad and sorry site. But I really did not have time to fret about it, or even worse, time to weed the rows. The shiitakes had to come first. And of course, Ron and I spent a good deal of time working on our micro greens. They are a very “hands on” crop to grow.

MOULTRIE DIGITAL GAME CAMERA

This is June 2019 and you can barely make out our garlic growing next to my bed of weeds. The bright yellow blossoms of the calendula cannot be seen at all.

In August I forced myself to find time to harvest what I could of the flowers. I had actually started gathering the seeds and ended up with a good supply of those. The flowers beckoned me and this is what I collected. I thought I would have time to get more over the next few days, but I did not advise Ron of my future plans.

He, knowing we needed to knock the weeds down before winter hit, mowed everything down. Now that he is retired, he has more time to spend on the farm. We are definitely going to work on our communication. I cannot have him slaughtering my flowers again next year.

Our elderberries were also ignored for the most part this year.

I hope the birds and deer on Tiny House Farm enjoyed the bounty this year. Next year, shiitakes be damned, I will get my share first. I managed to harvest about 10 pounds. A sad amount compared to last year when I was struggling to find space in my freezer to stash bags and bags of berries. I think I will have to set a reminder in my calendar so I don’t let the time get away from me. Though we do not yet have a plan to make and sell yummy elderberry jelly; letting the birds get all the berries is not a good thing. I can foresee a netting system in the near future. It will be a good trial run for our future rows of juneberries.

I was particularly annoyed at the deer as I noticed more and more of the brackens missing. I was thinking that Ron’s cousins needed to get busy getting rid of them. Then it dawned on me. Those apparently chewed off branches; I had been harvesting our elderberries.

Our lavender also was forgotten for most of the season. The three of us had worked hard getting it pruned in early spring and filling in new plants were the older ones had died. Then one Saturday we noticed some missing plants. And I found

a dozen plants pulled out of the ground. I set them into a plastic lid and poured in water. Getting them back in the ground would have to wait a bit. The shiitakes again were most important. But we did want to know just what had pulled them out. We set up a game camera on the edge of the field. The lousy weather prevented us from getting a good shot, but we got the proof needed. We have a foggy video of the actual crime. The blasted crows just walked around and yanked the lavender plants out. I don’t know why, but maybe they were hoping for fresh bugs from our digging? We replanted and this time put one of our marking flags with each plant. Hoping that it would keep the crows away. It seemed to have done the trick as no more plants were yanked out.

In mid-August I went out and harvested some of the lavender. I know, I know. I should be doing this earlier in the year. By the time I got out there most of the flowers had opened and you are supposed to get them before that happens. We hate to cut them too soon though. The bees really love the flowers and we enjoy watching them move through our field. Ron especially likes seeing the bumblebees. This even after he discovered that these bees do actually sting.

I laid it all on a drying rack and waited for Mother Nature to do it her thing. We bought this rack system a few years ago just for this purpose. It was very easy to set up and didn’t take up too much room. It is longer than I thought it would be so we will have to hang it up on a higher beam next year. We just slapped it up this time and the bottom rack was just inches off the floor. It did the trick though. I ended up with a quart jar full of dried lavender. And a small bowl of dried calendula. I took this with me to the MV Garlic Fest so folks could see, touch and smell it. Most people enjoy having the chance to actually see or hold the special ingredients in your products.

Obviously things have to change if we are going to see any benefit from our “other than shiitakes” products. This might include my gathering a few friends for a weeding (great fun) party and then later for harvesting events. If I promise there will be no rock picking, I am sure I can count on at least one friend. And she knows who she is.

Mohawk Valley Garlic Fest 2019

Learning Adventures, , ,

It is Tuesday morning; I have the day off and we are still slowly working our way through packing up the event supplies. Things have to be washed, sorted and organized. This has been an event saving policy for me. Nothing was forgotten this time, though I must admit supplies were not always found where they should have been. There was a scramble to find the hand soap and I thought I forgot to bring my camera.

We did adhere to Ron’s time line and were out of the house by 5:30 am and pulling into our spot just before 6:30, We were so early we beat the spot markers and had to wait for them to measure and draw the needed lines. But we weren’t the first vendors there. We made the “brilliant” decision to unload everything and get the vehicles parked. Ron’s favorite word used to describe both good and bad moves on someone’s part. Once our chalk lines were in place we jumped into down loading our stuff. We needed to get both vehicles emptied so we could get them parked and out of the way. Brother-in-law Don arrived early too. And his help was greatly appreciated as we struggled to get the tent up. It is a beast to maneuver and the fourth set of hands was a blessing. The forecast called for a rainy day and we needed the tent up fast. I thought we would then be able to take a breath and take our time getting the setup just right. I had forgotten who I was married to. I guess because we had not been the first vendor to arrive, the goal now was to be the first one ready to go.

This was easier said that done. We were able to get the cooking and samples section up and ready to go quickly, but we had to deal with how to set up our new T shirt display and a changed mushroom bolt set up. Ron’s shop class skills came into play again. He had a new sign printed and laminated but they would not able to give him the rigidity he wanted. So he needed to come up with a plan.

And he did. The wire hanger was strong but light and the sign did not flop over. Getting it secured to the middle tent post was another matter. That took some wire and the rubber bands I found.

Only a few hiccups in the process but soon everything in its place and ready to go. We have to tweak the T shirt display. The sign describing it was up too high and most people did not read it. The shirt itself, was a big hit and got a laugh out of everyone. I will be keeping my new location in the future. I liked having my skin care products on the front row as it was easier to catch attendees’ attention and make my pitch.

So there we were, set up and ready to go by 9 am. Just waiting for potential customers. One problem. They would not be arriving until 10 am. The vendor paper work clearly stated opening time. We just did not register that. Well, at least that gave me time to run over and get breakfast sandwiches for us. We were going to need the fuel in order to get through the day.

After a slow start, we had a steady stream of customers all day. The hook was Ron cooking shiitakes for samples and his constant stream of chatter. They listened and bought. Jo once again manned the sample prep table, handing them off to me for sharing with crowd. Don sold all our logs again. People who came asking about them told us again and again they had seen someone carrying one again. They wanted to know what they were for. I ran the register again. We had 11 credit card transactions this time. Ones we probably would not have made without using the Square, but cash was used for the bulk of all purchases. This is why I don’t understand why some keep pushing the idea we will and should be a cashless society.


We learned again that people can be odd. More than one person wanted to eat the shiitakes we had on display. Ron had to be vigilant in making sure they did not follow through on this process. We will have a sign at the next event stating for display only. Do Not Eat. I brought a jar of dehydrated shiitakes with us to show folks what they could do with an extra bag or two. I pulled one out to show a customer. She caught me off guard when she took it from me and bit off a piece to try it.

The rainy day did not materialize and this made the day better for all of us. The bread lady was next to us again and the garlic guy across the aisle. We had been shifted down the row a bit this year. The pickle man was on the end of the row across from us and he always has a line around his booth. The organizers wanted to make sure the aisle did not get jammed up. The crowds started thinning out after 4:45 and I was able to send Jo off to get something to eat. None of us had left the tent since the first customer stopped to watch Ron. Promptly at 5 pm everyone started breaking down their site. We pulled everything out of the tent so we could collapse it. Being so large, it would have blocked others from getting their vehicles close enough to load up their stuff. We dumped what we could back into bins and then sat down to wait for a break in the traffic congestion. I was able to get the Outback moved in and we loaded that up. Ron was finally able to bring in the trailer and we were soon heading home.

Once there we unload only what was most important, and collapsed on the couch. Jo had to work the next day so she was soon off to sleep. Ron and I talked shop while we each had a drink and decompressed. There are things we will change for our next event and others that worked out just the way we hoped. One of those was my idea to bring our “staff” Tiny House Farm T shirts and offer them for sale. And I sold one to a young lady who loved the mushroom house.

Sunday morning was unload day for Ron and me. Jo missed all the fun by being at work. We also had to head out to THF to check on the shiitakes and drop off the supplies. We took a chance and drove the Transit onto the property. It made it so much easier to unload the trailer. One trip in and out. Neither one of us was up for a lot of work. We picked what shiitakes we could and headed home. The plan was to dehydrate them for later use. Over the next few days we will get the rest of the supplies stored away. Lists have already been started with the things we need to replace and ideas for what we need or can change. One big take away is my taking time off before and after is a huge benefit. I was able to help Ron bring in the mushrooms and supplies. And now I am able to get the stuff all put away.

It was another good day for Tiny House Farm. And we are looking forward to attending again in 2020. It is anyone’s guess what Ron will come up with for us to add into our product line.

CCE Herb & Flower Fest 2019

Learning Adventures, ,

There are 4 stages to being a vendor at any event. Prep is one of the longest as that entails getting everything ready for sale. This means growing or making your products. Which can mean actual months of work depending on what you are selling. And you have to get your booth set up ready and pray for good weather. The final prep, of course is getting yourself and stock to the site and then getting set up there. Which is a task in and of itself.

This is the third year that Tiny House Farm was a vendor at the Herb & Flower Fest so we knew the routine going in. It should have been smooth sailing for us, but Ron just had to throw in a curve ball with the addition of microgreens being offered for sale. We had no idea if they would sell at all, but we had hopes and of course all the needed supplies. At the last minute and after much discussion, we decided to buy the Square. Now we can give our customers the option to use their credit card.

As always we were up at the crack of dawn so we could repackage our shiitakes into one quart bags. It works out great that way as all we have to do is grab one of the bags out of the cooler and slip it into our stamped bags. We had gobs of shiitakes and I carefully stuffed as many as I could into each cooler. Then it was a quick breakfast, then showers and we started loading up the trailer. By 630 am we were on our way to the Fest.

We took all three vehicles with us this time and somehow, we ended up needed all of that space. Of course the microgreens in their trays took up all of the rear space in my Outback and nothing could be stacked on top of them. When we arrived on site, we discovered that we had been very smart to lower our tent and set out the heavy weights. The wind had kicked up overnight and blown a few other tents over. But the wind had also helped dry the place out. The grass was still soggy but at least the puddles on the roadway were gone. Jo, Ron and I raised the tent and started unloading and setting up. This again was familiar routine. Don arrived and helped us with the finishing touches. Ron’s idea to prop up my shade cloth was a good one. He had attached a PVC pipe T to a six foot long piece of the pipe. Then he drilled a hole into the side bar holding up the shade cloth and through a PVC cap. The cap was affixed to the shade cloth bar and the pole went into the cap. And viola, no more bumping of the head.

Start time was 9 am and by 830 Ron was getting his station set up. He just needed to know where the thermometers were. They are required by the health department. Oh boy, I had forgotten to bring them. Guess what is going to be added to the show stopper list? Jo grabbed her keys and headed home to get them. As she would not be back before we got started, I would be in charges of getting the samples put together. I slipped on Jo’s apron (remember this) washed my hands using our hot water dispenser and pulled on rubber gloves. In the midst of all this, Josi arrived and we were ready to go.

The second stage is the actual event. The gates opened, folks were walking by and Ron was hawking his wares. A mushroom bolt was our first sale. Customer told Don that they wanted to buy a log at our last event but we were sold out by the time they came back around. Jo came back with every kitchen thermometer we had in the house and I gave her back the apron and her spot at the sample table.

Don was kept busy with our logs. He always had a crowd around him and he never stopped his sales pitch. Some logs were taken right away, while others sprouted sold labels. Then we got our first credit card purchase. Now to use the Square you have to plug it into your cell phone or a tablet. My phone was nowhere to be found. I knew it was in the tent area because I had used it to send text to Jo while she was dashing back to Sherrill. She tried calling my phone and we could hear it ring, but still couldn’t find it. Thank goodness the customer pulled out cash so we did not lose the sale. I was supposed to be working the microgreens and my skin care products, but I really needed to find the phone. Jo kept calling it and we kept hearing the ring but no phone. It was 15 minutes later and we had our second request to use a credit card when Jo came to the rescue. My phone had been in the apron pocket all this time. Which explained why when Jo and I were searching the same area we both clearly heard the thing. Good grief. We do have our crisis’s, don’t we?

It was lovely day with a good crowd of people and lots of sunshine. The wind did cause a few issues with our tablecloths, but fix is in the works. Don sold all of our logs included the display. And we did sell some of our greens. Everyone who tried them thought they were delicious. The sticking point seems to be how to use them. I think we will need to a few actual dish ideas to toss out. Maybe even print up a few recipes to hand out.

The third stage of an event is packing up to go home. Everyone is tired, hungry and a bit cranky but it we have to get it done. With so many vendors all wanting to get out, there was little hope Ron could our trailer into play. We packed up everything and waited for the traffic to clear. Our left over greens were given to one of the CCE staffers for her chickens and some were just tossed into their compost bin. Sadly some of our shiitakes ended up in there too. We were luckier than other vendors. Our open trailer allowed us to basically toss stuff onto. As long as we covered it with a strapped down tarp, they would be safe. Other things were shoved into one of the vehicles, hugs for Josi and Don and we were off.

Well, Jo and I left. Ron hung around a bit longer as we were waiting for one of our log buyers to come back and get her log. As of today, Silvia hasn’t made herself known. At home finally, the cars were emptied out and we were done. Well, for that day we were.

The fourth stage is the clean up. This is the most boring, time consuming and annoying stage. We have to unload everything and clean it all before putting it back in the bins. Making note of anything that needs to be replaced too. It poured rain most of Sunday, and we waited until late afternoon to empty the trailer. Now the living room is once again crammed full of stuff. Rainy days all week kept us from getting it all back to the farm. Our next event is the MV Garlic Fest on September 17 and we cannot function with all of this underfoot for the next three months.

There is actually a fifth stage. The after action report. This involves counting the money made, getting said money into the bank account and lots of discussion of how the day went. Every time we do an event we learn something new. Josi recommended I do a better job of hanging up my milkweed stuffed mushrooms. She believes most people thought they were a decoration and not for sale. Ron thinks we need to buy a bigger tent for us to use. My budget is shuddering as I type this. We need to buy another thermometer that I then leave in the cooking supplies bin. We made eight sales using the Square so that was a good addition. I spent some time getting our account organized with prices plus the service charge and photos. And I made sure Ron had the app set up on his phone too. I need a nice sign for my skin care products as people don’t always see what other items we have for sale. Ron and the shiitakes samples are center stage so I need to step up my game a bit.

June 15, 2019 was another good day for Tiny House Farm. We are definitely getting more comfortable in our own skin. But that is the trouble. Jo and I are giddy with happiness when we know what we are doing and what to expect. Ron, on the other hand, to put it plainly, gets bored. And that is when he finds a monkey wrench to throw into our lives. Just to shake things up a bit. And to see what more we can do. One day he just might find out what his two girls can do, when we toss him in the compost pile.

THF wrap-up for 2018

Our 3 Acres, ,

This is the time of year when all of us sit and look back to see what we have done and how far we have come.   We had some major changes at THF and more than a few ups and downs.   Money was spent on repairing our equipment such as our fabulous and much needed trailer/wagon.  We use it to haul just about everything around the farm.  Money was made by selling our shiitakes and my new skin care products.  We added a third event to our schedule and kept our eyes open for any other potential customers.   New people were met and a wonderful friend, Bob Crane was lost.

The weather played havoc with our schedule and plans.  Too much rain at the wrong times kept us from harvesting, planting and painting.  Yes, we had more painting to do.  Ron finally moved forward on getting buildings for THF.  It was a big deal when our shed arrived.  It was Amish made and just what we needed to store our equipment.  Well remembering the time involved in painting our first tiny house, we decided to have the builder paint the shed for us.  We still have a few tweaks do to.  I want to paint green around the windows and door to break up the massive sameness.   And we desperately need more of Ron’s whimsies to hang on the building.   Especially now that it has been moved.

Yes, after all the time and effort Ron spent to have the shed set in just the right position, he decided to have it moved.   He pulled the trigger and had the same Amish man build another shed for him.  The two families we have been working with have been a huge help to us.   Ron has plans for them to build him a few other things over the next few years.   And kids are just delightful.   The second shed is bigger so we can use as for processing our products.  Cleaning and bagging the shiitakes, sorting the elderberries and drying our calendula and lavender.

Once Ron decided where he wanted this new building, he also decided this was the time to move the shed too. He did not like the current location as it got too much sun and there is no way the two fans we had installed would keep the shed cool enough to dry but not damage either our lavender or calendula. So we had two cement slabs poured. Though I fretted about our budget, it was exciting to move forward with his plans.

By the time both sheds were moved into their new spots it was late November and too late to get a coat of primer on it. Hey, I have a great idea. We need to have a painting event come spring. I am sure we will have lots of volunteers for that project

You can tell from this photo that we had one big project that didn’t get done. We had planned to mow down the proposed future site of our juneberries and get the landscape cloth rows set up. We just didn’t get to it. Too much rain, too many other things to get done and too much inference from our normal daily lives. Things like our jobs caused us to miss some wonderful THF work days.

I continued working on my calendula products, though by the time our events started I stopped making our goat’s milk soap. I had enough of that to sell in 2018. I did learn that soap making can be wonderful fun but frustrating. You will remember that my first attempt of making soap was a simple calendula soap and the bar Josi and I made turned out great. I decided to try making more but this time a double batch using larger molds. I used the on-line lye calculator which is a fabulous tool for all soap makers. It will take any recipe and allow you to increase or decrease the batch size. Or change your ingredients but always making sure you end up with a usable bar of soap. What they can not help you with is making sure you pay attention to your process. When I poured the soap into the molds, I immediately realized something was wrong. I didn’t have enough to completely fill both molds. I couldn’t figure what I had missed. While driving home from work the next day, it hit me. I had not added enough water. I used the amount from the original recipe.

That is when I learned about rebatching. That is when you chop up your not quite right soap and melt it down, adding what you need in order to fix it. That goodness I had a large crockpot to use for this.

I actually kinda like the way it turned out. But it was a lot of extra work. Especially as you cannot be sure you have fixed the problem. This was not the end of my troubles. I tried again with the same recipe but this time it was too oily. I think that was because I put the soap molds right into the insulated box I used for the goat’s milk soap. That meant the soap stayed hot much longer that it should have. So crockpot to the rescue again.

In the middle of all this I also made my first attempt at elderberry jelly. And that turned out to be a huge success. I cannot wait until we have it ready to sell. I plan to make more from the berries I have stashed in our freezer. Our elderberries bushes produced so many berries. I make elderberry tincture and syrup. We sold more than a few pounds, gave away some and froze the rest. I deliberately did this in order to have jelly to sell at the CCE Herb and Flower Fest in June 2019. That means more work between now and then as Ron has to come up with the label design. But first we have to decide on the right jar. Needs to be 4 ounces and able to go into a water bath. We are thinking that the Ball jelly jars while the right size and easy to pick up locally, will not work. Their quilted outside will not take a label easily.

Another hit we had was the pawpaw butter I made. Ron came home with a box of pawpaws from Cornell and I stumbled onto a recipe to turn them into a butter. I learned one of the best ways to cook the pawpaws too. You peel the soft fruit and then toss the whole thing in to the pot. Once it is cooked enough you run it through a fool mill to remove the seeds and any peel that is still in there. It was a solid home run from almost everyone we had try it. Now we just have to wait to have our own fruit to use. That will a few more years. I really do like being able to offer more than one nonperishable product that I can make ahead and not worry about. And both the jelly and butter would be wonderful on a toasted English muffin.

We had a huge set back with our garlic. We had planted 4 rows again in 2017 and were expecting to see another great harvest. But it was not to be. We are not quite sure what happened but we tossed out more than we salvaged and got the remaining set up for curing by hanging it from the rails in our work tent.

Once it was fully cured we moved it to the shed. That was another mistake as time got away from us and we left it there too long. We had a surprise cold spell here. And by cold I mean several days well below 32 degrees. When we finally got out to pull it in, we discovered it had frozen and then thawed. We had to toss most of it. It was very depressing.

Also depressing was the set back I had with growing calendula. I had watched a video from a farm in Maine that grows this herb and they used a bed of straw as mulch. Since we had a bale left over, I thought it would be a good idea. Yeah, it really wasn’t. We didn’t think much of it when the straw started growing in the beds, thinking we could spend some time weeding it out. Of course that didn’t happen either.

In the beginning the flowers were lovely and grew much better than Ron expected.

This is what I had come fall. You can barely see a few yellow flowers amid all the straw. Now I have to wait until spring so I can mow all the old dead stuff down and try again with more seeds and serious commitment to weed pulling. We left most of flower heads to go to seed and drop where they where. I did snag seeds from a few orange flowers to grow next year for sale. We are going to plant again next year in our old garlic rows.

We have January, February and March hash out our plans for 2019. There will be another log inoculation event, more planting, much more weeding, and painting. Lots of decisions to make and assorted mistakes too. And I will certainly collect a few more bruises. But we will have tons of fun, meet more great people and if all goes well, we will make some money in the bargain. We are all really looking forward to it.

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.