- my youngest daughter is helping me develop a website to sell my handmade rag rugs, rug frames, knitting, noodles and soap. We probably won’t have that done until the end of the year—have to get enough inventory on hand—which is hard to do while I work on the rug orders I already have! Will certainly not turn down orders, though.
- Next spring, Mike & I will begin raising rabbits and chickens for our own meat and acquire 2 nanny goats for milk and cheese.
- more time to study medicinal herbs and to catch up on my writing and blogging, & genealogy. A Farmers Market cookbook definitely is in the plan.
- Continuing with the Farmers Market in Attica in a bigger way.
- Opening another garden just for chicken feed for our hens and meat chickens. As we are finding more and more inferior grain (% of protein down, pesticide & herbicide use escalating), we are going to grow sunflowers and pumpkins to take advantage of their high protein seeds.
Update on making using your own 'paper towels'. You may recall that in a previous blog entry that I said that we were no longer using paper towels, but were repurposing squares of flannel sheets instead. Well, the result has been great. I do have a few rolls of paper towels on hand to clean up cat's hairballs or other disgusting things, but overall, we are using our flannel squares with very good results. However, if you are going to drain bacon, or anything greasy & oily, you really need to discard those cloths after that use since it will not be good for the rest of your wash load to have oily rags in the load. No guilt throwing them away though since you have already recycled them once and you are saving $$ and paper products.
Farmers Market tomorrow. Bringing lots of swiss chard since it is growing like crazy and will continue to do that all summer. We do not raise spinach anymore due to its intolerance of heat. Chard tastes like spinach raw or cooked. It is very mild and it grows through spring, summer, and fall. So, we have introduced chard to a number of farmers market customers and many come back for more. If you have garden space, put out a 15 foot row (we have 60 feet!) and that should take care of you and your family through most of the year. Kale is also a good crop. A bit more substantial than chard with a huge amount of vitamins and minerals and the all-important fiber, in many places in the US kale will winter over and begin to grow again as soon as the sun warms the earth in the spring. It is hailed as the new 'superfood', but many of us have always eaten it. Always amazed at the number of people who do not know about or have not eaten kale, chard, turnip greens, etc. There is more to grown in the garden than corn, tomatoes, green beans and lettuce. Try greens steamed with butter, a bit of vinegar, in casseroles, whatever BUT EAT YOUR GREENS. Your grandmother knew what she was talking about.
