Revisiting an Old Idea...

Some years back, I tried something different in my garden...

 A friend had very successfully launched a "pick your own flowers" business in her garden.  She lived along a pretty major thoroughfare, and sold tons of flowers...mostly zinnias and sunflowers.  Her beautiful flowers advertised themselves well.  When her family moved out of the immediate area, she gave me her sign...and her blessing...to give it a whirl in my own garden.

Well...it didn't go so well.  We live on a corner, with a busy road on one side, and a not so busy road on the other.  But...my garden is just over the hill and out of sight from the busier of the two roads, and thus, the flowers were hidden from view.  I was disappointed, to say the least.

Round two...

I had a little extra room in the garden after my veggies were planted, so this morning I went to my favorite green house, and did a little shopping.  I planted two varieties of zinnias...State Fair, and Cut and Come Again, Blue Bedder Salvia, Indian Summer Rudbeckia, Liberty Classic Snapdragons and Blue Horizon Ageratum.  It doesn't look like much now, but hopefully in a few weeks, the flowers will be big and beautiful!

This time, I'm looking at it with a different attitude.  I'm not doing this to make a lot of money.  I love meeting people, and having something to offer that makes someone else happy.  So, every dozen I sell will be a bonus...and every flower that stays in the garden will just sit there and look pretty.  No problem!

As for the rest of the garden...the tomatoes, potatoes and beans survived the cold nights we had last week and are pushing out new growth...

I planted my lima beans this morning....

...and the Iris opened this week!  I think I post a picture of this every year, but it thrills me every spring, when all of a sudden there they are, blooming like they have nothing better to do than to make me smile.  And they smell so good...

What's growing or blooming in your garden?

And Summer Rolls On...

After about 1 1/2 weeks of having house guests, it's back to "normal" around here...whatever that might be.

The kids enjoyed time with their cousins...we are THANKFUL that they enjoy being together!

It's been oppressively hot and humid...and we are THANKFUL for our air conditioned bedroom!

The laundry pile hasn't gotten any smaller, with smelly barn clothes and extra towels from taking sometimes multiple showers in one day...but we are THANKFUL for the opportunity to be clean!  Someone new to  PA once commented that..."Pennsylvania is the only place they knew of where you could sweat in the shower."   I think they were right!

The weeds are getting ahead of me in the garden...but I am THANKFUL for the 2 inches (!!) of rain that we got on Wednesday evening, although it came all in 45 minutes.  It makes the weeds pull much easier!

Our Amish neighbor man saw my ridiculously weedy garden up close and personal this week as he reapired our calf hutches...but I am THANKFUL that the hutches he was working on are now repaired, and no calves should be able to escape and stomp on my veggies!  (maybe he didn't even tell his wife about the neighbor lady's neglected garden!)

All it needs is some paint, and some new wire around the back side...

Lima beans always seem to be ready in the hottest part of the summer...but I am THANKFUL for the many packs of frozen beans that we will have in our freezer!

They're a pain to pick, and a pain to shell...but I am THANKFUL that Jenna sat with me on the porch yesterday and helped!

Just like me when I was a girl.  My Mom planted tons of lima beans, and we shelled and shelled and shelled and shelled and shelled.  She paid us 10 cents per cup...

I pick them young, so they really aren't fun to shell...but they taste oh so good...

I can hardly wait to taste them, cooked in milk and butter, just like Grandma used to do...

You never heard of this?  Here's how...it's simple...

Put your fresh frozen lima beans into a sauce pan.  Add a small amount of water, and salt to taste.  Cook until soft.  
Remove from heat and drain the water from the beans.
Add milk, just enough to cover, and return to heat, cooking just enough so that the milk is hot.
Drop a small amount of butter into the saucepan (1 Tbsp?)  and allow the butter to melt in the hot liquid.
Serve and enjoy!

It's another scorcher today...but I am THANKFUL and HOPEFUL that the thunderstorms they are calling for will bring some relief from the humidity!

How is your summer rolling along?

Dairy Farming 101 - Part 2 Keeping the ladies happy...

There’s something you should know about cows. They are food driven animals!  Dogs want to be fussed over and cats want to be treated like royalty. But cows? Just feed them. A lot, and on time…



The specifics of the cows’ feeding program differs from farm to farm, so don’t get excited if this isn’t how your neighbor does it…but this info will be helpful for you to know when you come over to do the feeding next time we need a night off ! (thanks for offering!)


First off…I need to add one item to Dairy Farming 101 – Part 1…


Someone reminded me that I forgot to include Hummies – a PA Dutch term for young calves.  We usually called them this when I was a girl…how could I forget this one?!


Water – cows drink between 23-50 gallons of water each day


Hay – alfalfa is mowed and left to dry; then raked into windrows, baled into small manageable bales, and stored in the hay mow (usually in the upstairs of the barn). This process takes about 3 days from cutting to the mow.  Rain really throw a wrench into this process...that's one reason why you hear farmers talking so much about the weather, and why their ears are glued to the weather radios all summer long!


Balage – alfalfa is mowed and left to partially dry. It is then baled and wrapped in airtight plastic. We bale it into round bales…these are the marshmallows you see lined up along the edge of the field. After the balage has cured for a few weeks, it is fed to the cows. They love this stuff!


Haylage – the same as balage, except instead of baling and wrapping, it is chopped and blown into the silo.


Corn Silage – the entire corn stalk is chopped and stored in the silo. Excess silage is often stored in an ag bag – that white worm that you see sitting out in the field. In the winter, after our silos are emptier we transfer the silage in the ag bag to the silo


Cob Chop– dried ears of corn, ground to a fine texture by a hammer mill. Minerals and molasses are often added.


Toasted Corn – shelled corn, dried and toasted (smells a little bit like peanut butter when the bin is first filled)


Toasted Beans – soybeans, dried and toasted (they’re actually quite tasty!)


Pellets  or Top Dress– a nutritional supplement that looks like overgrown rabbit food! This is the only feed that we regularly buy for our cows. All the rest is grown on the farm.


Calf Starter and Calf Grower – special feed that we buy for feeding young calves; usually several different types of grain flavored with lots of molasses…it gets them used to eating solid food…kind of like giving kids candy!


Silo Unloader – the machine inside the silo that throws silage down the chute via augers and into the cart so that you don’t have to climb up and fork it down by hand!


*Now that you know a little bit about keeping them happy...and are likely bored to tears, let me know what you'd be interested in "learning' in Dairy Farming 101 - Part 3!

Enjoying the view

A week or so ago, a visitor to our house commented on the beautiful view that we have from our yard; flowers, fields, grazing cows, Amish buggies, etc. Typical Lancaster County scenery. She then continued to say…”Oh, but I guess you really don’t have much time to sit and enjoy it, do you?”

How right she was!

Keeping that in mind...yesterday, I did a horrible thing.  :)  I forced my kids to sit on the porch with me. It was a gorgeous day; low humidity, sunshine, a gentle breeze, a puppy playing at our feet! But alas, I ruined it! Shelling lima beans was on the agenda. My kids despise the job. They LOVE to eat them, but shelling is sheer torture!

I know the feeling. I disliked it as a child too! My three older sisters and I were subject to hours of slave labor ( just kidding!), sitting under a tree at the picnic table, singing silly songs at the top of our lungs, shelling lima beans until our fingers were numb. All the while, our Mother was bent over like a hairpin in the hot sun, picking lima beans until she could barely straighten up! Finally, she would come and sit under the tree with us, and help finish the horrid job.  (and you know what?  It really wasn't all that bad after all!)


Now the tables have turned…I am the horrid mother who forces her children to shell lima beans. But I know how good they will taste in the winter, served with milk and butter…and I can hardly wait to finish picking, so I can finally have an excuse to sit on the porch and enjoy the view!