Farm at Coventry

The MAN announced today that his 'brew kitchen' is finally closed for the year.The brewing, fermenting and bottling processes are all complete. The equipment is sterilized and stored away, the dishwasher (we call it the 'sterilizer') is mine again and rows of beers fill the shelves in the cool storage area of the basement.
Oh, just for the record, after all these weeks of beer talk, I feel I should explain that the MAN and I...we barely drink at all. Hard to believe, but it's true! For the MAN, the most enjoyable part of all of this concentrated work is the 'thrill of the craft' ...not the pursuit of partaking. Tasting a beer around here is as focused and concentrated as a fine wine tasting. We often simply share a single glass. As a true craftsman he truly enjoys perfecting his recipes and sharing the latest with friends and family. We are never at a loss as to what little 'extra' to take to a potluck. In fact, his "Stiff Neck Brewery" beers are always highly anticipated! The MAN may have forgotten my request for a mugwort ale ....but I won't tell him tonight. We're finally going to kick back and relax in whats left of this weekend.

Slainte' !

Not sure why this tickles me so much. The last long rays of the sun before it goes down below the horizon have a strange way of altering our perception of everything. Sort of like a mirror in a funhouse. Our 'shadow side' is something that we generally try to hide or look away from. But tonight, for some reason, I can't get enough of this one. It makes me giggle. Maybe it's the thought of all those cars driving by while I shot a variety of other poses...yeah, that must be it. hehheh. I'll share some more traditional photos tomorrow on Serious Sunday.

I'm not sure, but I think we're done burning wood for the winter. At least inside, anyway. I do enjoy starting the day with a fire in the woodstove, but recently have had to let it die out before noon because it was so warm outside. Yesterday I lit the first fire in the outdoor pit as I cleaned up more leaves and continued my pruning. The boy hauled at least four overflowing wheelbarrows full of downed sticks and branches from around the yard. We kept that fire blazing high for a good four hours in the afternoon, water buckets at the ready, due to a few errant wind gusts that caught us by surprise. The day ended in the dusky hours, sitting nearby as the fire burned down to embers. I resisted the call to go inside to clean up and start making dinner. The warmth on my face and hands made more of an impression than the cold air on my back. Guess that is the real mark of spring for me...sitting outside by the fire, instead of inside. Yep, spring is here. Time to clean off the chairs around the pit.

I found this beauty at the local grocery store, one of a kind, sitting all alone nearly hidden by the happy tulips and daffs wrapped in pink and purple foil. It looked so intriguing with it's green flowers. Sort of mysterious....so I brought it home with me. I'll tell you more about it once I figure out where I put the nice little booklet that came along with it.

UPDATE: Found the booklet. The mystery deepens. Clearly this plant is NOT what the booklet describes here. These flowers are absolutely GREEN, not white. I have done a little more research into the origins and old uses of the Hellebore. Oh boy, seems another powerful plant with a shady reputation has wooed it's way into my garden this year. So far, she has my full attention.

Late yesterday afternoon, I found another hidden clutch of eggs.The bane of raising free range girls is their fickleness to lay in one spot. There are a few predictable, orderly girls amongst the ranks, but most of them are deeply in touch with their feral side, preferring field grass and sky over fresh straw and a coop over their heads. As frustrating as it is to search sometimes, the discovery of a sweet pile of hidden eggs, always provokes a gasp that rivals finding a basket filled with synthetic grass and chocolates.

Rabbits under the Moon...

Under the moon, across the snow

the little rabbits come and go.

Out of the forest, deep and white,

Their shadows follow them at night

into the clearing. To and fro

under the moon the rabbits go.

There in the silent silver light

They hold their midnight rabbit rite

as one old rabbit leads the rest

in secret, soundless rabbit fest

and, lifting ears to some high tune,

they raise their tails to greet the moon.

They are not secretive as mice

But dance all night upon the ice

Beneath the moon and leave at dawn.

I find their footprints on the lawn.

Under the moon the rabbits go,

Leaving stories in the snow.

~Margaret Menamin

I just had to leave that first Lily post without words. Photographing this flower combined with the heady scent it is releasing this afternoon has left me all but speechless...but I will persevere. I have been infatuated with lilies for some time. It started with a white Casablanca lily I bought years ago for my Moon garden, simply because it has a white flower. I had no idea that it also had such an intoxicating fragrance. Even though the white Lily has associations with the Virgin Mary, the Resurrection and the Holy Trinity, it is also deeply rooted with symbolism that is much older. The white lily is considered sacred to the Goddess Eostre/Ostara/Astarte (Easter) thus representing the Spring"Passion" (fertility) of the Vegetation God with the Earth Goddess. The PA Deitsch also used the stylized lily (or lily-tulip) in their folk arts and fraktur. It is often depicted with three petals which represented the Holy Trinity (or the Triple Goddess to pre- Christian cultures). Regardless, of the chosen symbolism, this particular flower is literally dripping with fragrant fertility today... and no one can deny a flower that in Spring, right?

Now, here's a guy who follows his dreams. When Ranger Jim sets his sites on the mountaintop, he climbs them...literally. Jim has spent the better portion of his life seeking out and climbing to the highest point in every state. Additionally, he has climbed the highest mountain on every continent in the world, except Antarctica. He is planning to achieve that goal this fall...by climbing Mount Vinson for his eightieth birthday. But his travels don't take him to the mountains only on off-season holidays. For the past forty years, Ranger Jim has served as a seasonal ranger-naturalist in sixteen of our national parks. I've also heard tales of the Taj Mahal, climbing to the tops of the great Pyramids of Egypt (and promptly getting fined when he came back down!) , traveling the Trans-Siberian Railroad and walking the Great Wall of China. But for all the tales of world travel, Ranger Jim's local roots run deep into Chester County soil. Generations of his family have lived in this area. Jim's father was a railroad engineer who gifted Jim with a life long fascination with trains and the rails. Another of Jim's dreams has been fulfilled recently with the completion of his self-published book "Sowbelly Railroad". The Sowbelly was a short line RR that ran right through this township in the 1890's. It took twenty years in the building, but only ran four years before advances in technology caused it to become obsolete. It's history was fleeting but incredibly important to this area. Jim has tirelessly gathered historic documentation and photographs for this book for many years. Last night, Jim stopped by to deliver a personally autographed copy of the book. I am thrilled to finally have one in my hands. The first edition printing of thirty copies sold out before I got one. He took a 'risk' and ran a second printing...thirty more. You won't find it on Amazon or in Barnes and Noble. But he's got a box full in the back of his car if you're interested. Sometimes it pays (in unimagineable ways) to go directly to the source for your purchase. When the final mountain has been conquered, Jim plans to work on a book about his travels. I can't wait to read that one.

This is Lenore. She was our tiny nubian mascot for the first day of class. When Lenore came into the world earlier than expected, she endured a bit of a rough start. Her human mama, Lisa suddenly had a helpless newborn to nurse around the clock. A few days of nursing care combined with more kidding in the herd produced some serious 'goat mamma' exhaustion. Lisa didn't want to miss the first day of class but Lenore couldn't be left alone. So a new chapter in the Homestead Herbalism annals was written today: "Lenore Goes to Herb School". Lenore was very well behaved and slept quietly on a sheepskin most of the time. During the breaks she drank her goat mamma's milk from a bottle and kissed those who held her. There is probably no better medicine for a teeny preemie than lovin' from fourteen cooing women...and no sweeter ice breaker for the first day of class.

Friday and Saturday are days to go to Market. Shopping or selling, as is the case for those who have a market stand. Later today I'll run down to Kimberton Whole Foods and pick up a few things for the weekend and also check on my product shelves in the Apothecary department.
KWF and I go way back... Back to the early 90's when the store was literally a farm store. I worked in the Apothecary for many years and designed the logo. They helped finance my way to herb school and gave my kid a job. Good deal. All these years later, we are still supporting each other... as local business owners. I have grown my business and they have grown theirs: Three locations now and planning more. I don't wholesale my products many places, but this is my neighborhood...and they have my stuff, front and center. They know my products and use my products and recommend them to customers. They even have a picture poster of me on the wall ((insert snicker here)) a very LARGE poster. It's embarrassing, and I can't look at it when I'm shopping, but it works. People recognize me, put a face to a name, and a name to a product that I make with my own two hands. That is supporting local business at it's most basic. We're good neighbors. I like that. I will be working on an educational bag stuffer in the coming week that tells customers about the 2008 Herb of the Year Poster Child, Calendula. I'll describe it's benefits and list a variety of in-store calendula products, ahem, including mine at the top of the list. Goood neighbors!
*Friday /* Saturday

The idea behind baking on Friday is that the inevitable weekend visitors get the freshest selection of fine baked goods. The Deitsch like their sweets, so Friday means baking plenty of desserts and bread to last for the entire week. No wonder they created the 'pie safe'...to keep the flies (and tempted fingers) off the pies all week long. I know this isn't an herbal recipe, but it's one of my favorites, so please indulge me...it's Friday and I have a few guests coming tomorrow!
Old Fashioned Coconut Custard Pie
Have ready a single crust for a 9" pie
Filling:
2 cups milk (my tweak: 1 cup raw milk-1 cup coconut milk)
3/4 cup organic sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 Farm Fresh eggs (no problem)
1 cup unsweetened coconut (with a little extra to sprinkle on top)

Scald the milk until bubbles appear around the edge of the pan. Add sugar and vanilla stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add 4 beaten eggs. Keep stirring! Add 1 cup of coconut and stir again. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. The last 15 minutes, sprinkle the reserved coconut on top of pie . It should toast nicely in the final 15 minutes.

*Friday

...or should I say...2008 Herb of the Year, Part 3? I'm making a few batches of calendula cream today. Not quite sure the reason behind the surge in orders for it in recent weeks. But it matters not! I do truly look forward to making this particular cream. The finished product always pours into the jars in glossy pale-yellow ribbons that look like the best vanilla pudding, only better! Our calendula cream and calendula soap both use the infused calendula oil that we've made the previous summer. To make the oil, we fill gallon jars with freshly harvested calendula flowers. The flowers are then covered completely with good olive oil. Those jars sit right out there in the garden, close to the bed they were harvested from to absorb the sun's rays for a complete lunar cycle.They are tended daily by shaking the contents well, wiping down any dirt or condensation or singing a little song. There is just something magical that happens in that jar when the sun and moon shine on it for a month! It's just not possible (in my humble opinion) to get that same lovely infusion by doing it on a stove top. In fact, I've tried. After the month has passed, the oil is carefully decanted and strained twice. The final product should be clear and a lovely shade of sunshine gold. The jars are then wiped down and stored in a cool dark place until it is needed. Last year we processed 15 gallons of the stuff and have used nearly all of it. Time to plant the new bed for this year so we get the earliest harvest of flowers. According to the planting calendar the next few days are perfect for planting the seeds. I'm going out to scratch up the soil.

If you've followed through the pictorial days of the week so far, you may have picked up that each day is dedicated to a specific domestic task in the life of the Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch Hausfraa**. I keep this orderly list of days hanging in my kitchen, as a simple reminder that many generations of women have structured their domestic lives in this way. Yes, I even know a few.
Being a busy, home-based, self-employed woman with a family, I am known to write (and sometimes complete) long lists of wildly diverse daily duties. Anyone who shares a similiar lifestyle knows how chaotic it can be to juggle it all. But if I can afford time in the day to tackle even one small task from the Hausfraa's 'orderly list' and focus on it completely, I feel instantly connected to generations of industrious women. Women who never uttered the currently popular phrase "multi-task". Another benefit to the "orderly list" is that it allows me to reap a few moments of blissful satisfaction that comes only from engaging in a single task and following it through to completion. No physical interruptions or mental distractions; certainly a small rare gem in the big proud world of "multi-tasking". In the middle of a chaotic day, I consider that to be the kind of relaxing meditation that I can really look forward to.

*Thursday, ** housewife

I was happy to find this nice clump of dandelion greens on the sunny side of the springhouse yesterday afternoon. The leaves are just the right size to harvest for eating. Dandelion is a bitter green (Bittreselaat*) but it is 'perfectly' bitter at this stage. Waiting until the familiar yellow flowers appear or worse, when the flowers turn to seed and float away, will produce greens so bitter, eating them will contort the face of even it's biggest fan. This is what I plan to do with mine:
HOT BACON DRESSING
1 egg, well beaten
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup of cider vinegar
3/4 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
4 strips of bacon, cut into 1" pieces
1 Tablespoon of water
Beat the sugar into the egg.Add the vinegar, water and salt and beat well. Meanwhile, brown the bacon in a small saucepan. When crispy, stir the flour into the bacon and drippings until smooth. Add the vinegar water to the bacon mixture and cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Serve hot over clean dandelion leaves or endive.
*Bitter Salad

...Among the Pennsylvania Germans. This is a book that I have wanted on my bookshelf for a very long time. I finally found it and splurged. big time. It's an oldie but goodie, published way before the age of internet herbal knowledge, in 1927 by the Pennsylvania German Society. The information within was gathered for nearly twenty years before it was finally published. There were several reasons why I wanted this book: All the plants mentioned are strictly native to Pennsylvania (with a few brought from Europe) making this a valuable study in useful local plants. The plants are listed by their common names (and Latin names) but also list the dialect names, which are increasingly hard to locate. When talking to old-timers about useful plants, they may only know them by their Deitsch name, making identification much more difficult unless we are both looking at the plant at the same time. Having a list of Deitsch names will help me immensely. Finally, to quote one of the authors, Thomas Brendle, in reference to their interview process for the book: "We found that "the women" are the household oracles and much of the lore which we recorded is "Alderweiwerglawwe". In other words, 'a granny's belief'. I think it safe to say that the women who were "herb grannies" at the turn of the century are gone now, possibly even the daughters and granddaughters who inherited their wisdom, making this book an invaluable resource to the cultural heritage. My cultural heritage. The book is very fragile, but I read it from cover to cover like it was a delicious novel. I will page through it more slowly now, and absorb it, little by little, and learn the dialect names of plants that I handle everyday. I hope to share some of it here on these blog posts. I'm not a granny...but I really like that word 'Alderweiwerglawwe'... because I tend to believe what the Grannies have to to tell us. And, someday I wanna be a granny who is heard, too.

the girls really earned their keep this morning...

finally. They've been holding out for some reason, or hiding them under the porch or in a leaf nest in the forsythia. Guess they were just so happy to be warm and dry in the coop during the bad weather the last few days, that they decided to give us an abundant Sunday breakfast. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that big one on top is a double-yolker. It's as big as a goose egg.

The Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch are somewhat clannish folk. When far-flung members of said clan meet along the 'cyber highway', they already know each other. No awkward explanations of shoo fly pie, hinkeldrek* or hex signs are necessary. So when I received this incredibly articulated non-traditional hex sign from my 'Brother in Blanze'** from Brooklyn yesterday, no words were needed. oh, except for a great big Thank you!! She's a real beauty.
*chicken poop ** plants

When I spotted this little manure spreader out my kitchen window a week or more ago, I knew that Farmer Tom must be juggling farm machinery around between the farms again. Our farm is one of the parking spots for various pieces throughout the year. Within a few days after it arrived, a young fella stopped by while Mike was chopping wood out back, asking if we would be interested in selling it for scrap metal...sorry, don't think so, but we'll let Farmer Tom know you came by looking to buy his "hunk 'o junk" (insert snicker here) A few days later, Farmer Tom stopped by. Before he left he asked where we picked up the little manure spreader...huh?
It wasn't his. Somebody dumped it? Somebody wanted to buy it? Dang, where the heck did we put that phone number?

They are beautiful in their peace, they are wise in their silence. They will stand after we are dust. They teach us, and we tend them.

~Galeain ip Altiem MacDunelmor

Soak up the sun.
Affirm life's magic.
Be graceful in the wind.
Stand tall after a storm.
Feel refreshed after it rains.
Grow strong without notice.
Be prepared for each season.
Provide shelter to strangers.
Hang tough through a cold spell.
Emerge renewed at the first signs of spring.
Stay deeply rooted while reaching for the sky.
Be still long enough to
hear your own leaves rustling..
~ Karen Shragg, Think Like a Tree

If what I say resonates with you, it is merely because we are both branches on the same tree.

~W.B.Yeats

An overnight storm ripped through here bringing with it howling seventy mile an hour gusts and two inches of rain. I woke this morning to find the pristine view of the pasture from my bedroom window sadly altered. bummer...

Calendula (derived from the Latin meaning 'calendar') officinalis (means "of the apothecary"). So, this beauty is so named as a plant deemed worthy of medicinal use and bloomed for much of the calendar year. As long as the flowers are diligently harvested every few days, it will indeed bloom the entire summer before it retires. Calendula is considered very safe and is gentle enough to use on the very young and the elderly. Calendula's most outstanding contribution is as a topical remedy for many types of skin inflammation. It's use as a wound healer is historic and legendary and has been confirmed by modern day scientific studies. Calendula is especially helpful for slow healing wounds, infections, bed sores, sunburns and diaper rash. Calendula has the nickname of "salve plant" and is used to reduce the inflammation and irritation of eczema and psoriasis. Scientific studies have also proven calendula's ability to regenerate collagen in the dermal layers which could delay aging of the skin. Here on the farm, we are pretty enamored with this plant every year and so growing enough of it for our products holds a high priority in our garden planning. The calendula beds are the first to be prepared and planted early in the season.

This morning just before my teapot whistled, I heard a robin singing.
It's still dark. I can't see him, but I'm happy to know he's out there.
Okay, this isn't a robin. You'll need to use your imagination.

Every year the International Herb Association chooses a particular herb for educational focus. This year they have chosen Calendula as their poster child. Calendula officinalis is otherwise known as Pot Marigold or Mary's Gold. The British simply call it Marigold which confuses the heck out of us Yanks. It is not at all the same marigold that we put in our vegetable gardens to keep the pests away. In the PA German dialect, that marigold is called "Schtinkblumm". We also refer to them as American, French or African marigolds (Tagetes spp). But, I'll rustle up a little bit more about our poster child....

In anticipation of four inches of snow overnight, I had Farmer Tom lined up to come early to plow the driveway so that my "Garden Dreamers" could get to class this morning, no matter what the weather!! A severe case of cabin fever suddenly feels terminal under a brand new blanket of white stuff. This class would NOT be canceled. Fortunately, to everyone's surprise we got nary a flake and woke to a brilliant 42 degree morning. The perfect antidote to spring fever is workable dirt!
We pulled out inspirational gardening books and seed catalogs, began to mold and define our herbal wish lists and reviewed growing habits for a large variety of herbs and edible flowers. Even threw in a garden slide show for colorful visual identification.
We dreamed of damask roses and rose petal jam, anise hyssop flowers tossed into heirloom tomato salad, pesto (always pesto) , and goat cheese rolled in chives and chive blossoms. I have a distinct feeling that we will be eating really well at class this year. The photo recipes we looked at were so enticingly beautiful...
We talked about documenting everything in a garden journal from the size of the tiny seeds to the finished purpose of growing the plant. Today I accidentally said the "life style" of a plant, when I meant to say "life cycle". In retrospect, I feel alright with my faux' pas du jour. Successfully 'dreaming the herbal garden' is truly about getting in touch with our own natural life styles as much as that of the plants we wish to know and grow. The proper nurturing and cultivation of the two, make for a happy creative gardener and a happy fruitful garden...and that's what it's all about.