January 2012 Blog Posts (46)

My love for the changing seasons and the natural order of things means that year-long sunshine,  blue-sky days and clear, star-filled nights with temperatures of 30+ degrees (centigrade) seem somehow "unnatural" to me!  I love nature in all its guises and in the same way that the taste of the first summer peach is something to look forward to and savour when it comes, just because it is so fleeting, so too I enjoy the time when the trees sleep and one can cosy up by the fire.  Don't get me…

I spent the midnight hour a few nights ago working magic with some pears.  

Butternut Squash and Pear Preserves
Pear Cinnamon Jam

Enjoy!

This morning during Bea's first nap I went to the Tractor Supply in Rural Hall. I finally purchased the long-coveted cattle panels (16 feet x 50 inches), some t-posts, and a surprise goody -- a 20 lb bag of diatomaceous earth. Then I had to come home and be Mom and Chef, made lunch for all of us, read books and played and waited for the fussy crankies to set in. It didn't take long and Bea was back down for her afternoon nap.

I rushed outside, unloaded the cattle panels (quite the…

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

Today is an exceptionally good day. Although the garden is not yet ready to be planted, I’ve just received these beauties in the mail from the diligent folks at Baker Creek Seeds.…

Welcome to HoneyBea Farm. We are a small urban farmstead with just over an acre, a couple…

January 25, 2012. Andrea and I worked on perfecting the Hot Sauce recipe. We gave a call to Cornell Food Science and have begun the process of making sure we're doing everything the right way.

In 3 weeks we'll send our formula over to the good people at Cornell and they'll analyze the ph, check the shelf-life, and rate our overall performance (with respect to food safety).

There are about 15 friends who have volunteered to rate our performance with respect to…

Head on over to the group Ressurect the Barter! and sign up for this year's seed swap!  It's a fun and easy way to incorporate more diversity into your garden repertoire! 

Have you changed zones?  The new 2012 map is out, based on average winter temperatures, in 10 degree increments.  

Disheartening news for nature lovers everywhere, the National Wildlife Federation has announced a new partnership with Scotts-Miracle Gro.  Huh? Did we fast forward through the winter and today is April Fool's Day?

So the organization that has created initiatives like "Be Out There" which encourages families to spend more time outside, has taken money from one of the largest pesticide and…

I really wanted to do this blog in yellow, but, I was worried about making the folks who took the time to read it go blind. I can't help it...anything I can do to influence the coming of Spring!! Since my last blog, we have gone through a lot of changes in the way we live our life. For those who aren't familiar with us, we were hauling the big Windmill Blades for the towers that are springing up all across the country. We did that for nearly 4 years and the time finally came that we had to…

     All day I think about suppertime. It seems extreme, but I love a home-cooked meal. I don't always have time for cooking, especially when I have nothing in the pantry except white rice (blah), or no time to make something substantial. But, all day, I think about the meals to be made and the desire (maybe not the motivation...) to make them.

      Yesterday I was looking for a chicken noodle soup recipe. Nothing soothes the soul like soup, and a good chicken noodle…

http://thelittlehouseproject.tumblr.com/post/15987876056/farmer-boy

We held a Soup Swap this weekend and now we have a good stockpile of yummy homemade soups, made by friends, to get us through the winter!

This recipe pulls from a variety of sources: Julia Child and a few chefs I’ve known for the stock, this…

I've had a grudge against Vermont for a long time.  It's a silly, useless grudge, I admit, especially since I've been holding it  against an entire state based on the actions of one silly girl far too many years ago for it to be even remotely relevant to my present day life.  And yet, I held on to it, nursing my ancient hurt.  Until this weekend.

Mark, my mom's boyfriend grew up in Island Pond, VT, about 20 minutes away from the Burke Mountain ski area.  He  and my mom…

So the seed catalogs are arriving in the mail like the Japanese beetles in June. Only thing is, I get excited about getting those seed catalogs. For the Japanese beetles, I lay out traps.

Seed catalogs mean more to me than potting soil, trying new varieties, and dreaming of…

Thanks to Amazon for letting me steal this photo! I always like a nice photo with a blog post :)

Anyway, I've recently been writing about "seeds" and how we are using them around the winter urban homestead here in Baltimore. (If you want to see the first post where I recommend some…

It seems that everyone likes eating peas, but the planting and picking part can be a challenge. At my farm, we have decided that they are an important piece of our crop mix, and have found ways to ease their burden and have them week after week for our markets without too much stress.…