Travels.....Off the Farm

I am sitting here catching up on all that I missed over the past week. Jack and I spent a restful week in Vero Beach Florida...catching up on reading and soaking in the sun (in healthy doses, of course.) Vero Beach is a quiet mid-East coast Florida resort town and we caught it on an off-season week. As a result, the town was very quiet, the beach was deserted and the sidewalks were rolled up by 5 PM each evening. The weather was perfect: each day being sunny and warm (85) with a cooling breeze blowing in from the sea. Because of the sea breeze, there were no appreciable bugs to pester us.

On Saturday we took a road trip across Central Florida to Fort Myers on the West Coast to see Ryan play in the College Club Baseball World Series. He was brought in as relief pitch in that game and their team ended up winning the game. Jack was so proud of him....what a great pitcher he is. His team continued to play throughout the coming week and as of Memorial Day, they were still winning. Ryan pitched the entire game on Memorial Day and the other team scored no runs.....way to go Ryan!

But back to the roadtrip....we encountered swarms of icky, gooey bugs that splatted all over our car. It was like driving through black hail. Apparently there is this twice-a-year phenomenon in the South called the LOVE BUG

Good food and great company made the week complete. I am posting a picture of me on the beach....the apron I am wearing is not my own, but rather one that belonged to the condo in which we stayed (sadly, I forgot my own). My friend (Georgeann) at Mary Jane's farm is collecting pictures of farmgirls "off the farm"....so here it is. I must also add that Dorothy was so right...."there's no place like home!" It is so great to be back home and back on the farm!!

A journal for Melody

I thought this was the best place to post this picture. ANewYorkMelody contacted me thru etsy asking if I could create a vintage-look journal for her. This is what I came up with.....It is 5 1/2 inches by 8 1/2 inches. It has unlined paper inside, but I equipped it with a moveable line guide to make writing straight much easier. It is bound together with gold ribbon and embellished with an antique skeleton key. Check out some of my other creations.

Notes from the cabbage patch - or - Have I bitten off more than I can chew???

If all goes well, we should have plenty vegetables to get us thru the winter. Last week's garden work yielded the planting of the following plants (most of which I started from seed in the greenhouse): 19 cabbages, 19 cauliflower, 25 broccoli, 12 brussels sprouts, 12 zucchini, 10 cucumbers, and 4 summer squash. Add that to a 30 foot row of snow peas, 30 foot row of onions, lettuce, radishes and spinach seeds; all of which have germinated and are growing by leaps and bounds. The asparagus that I planted a month ago has finally taken hold and pushed numerous shoots through the earth to find their way toward the sun. Next year should be an excellent year for asparagus at this rate. My question is this, however: whatever was I thinking with 19 heads of cabbage. One can only eat so many stuffed cabbages. And although I love creamed coleslaw, preserving it seems to be a problem. A roadside cabbage stand may be the next project. I failed to mention that there are also at least 36 tomato plants and half as many pepper plants still in the greenhouse and in need of planting. (Oh did I also mention that there are seeds for corn, green beans, limas, peas, beets, carrots....and I can't remember but perhaps something else.....oh yes, giant pumpkins.....yet to be planted) I believe that by the end of this week every inch of our garden will be filled! I cannot wait for this harvest. Am I nuts? We'll have to find a way to preserve all of this food! Actually, I am prepared. I have my Foodsaver vacuum packer ready to go. What a great feeling it will be to have a freezer full of home grown vegetables, and a refrigerator stuffed with....CABBAGE! (Oh my goodness, I forgot.....cabbage causes flatulence (look it up)!

I have opened an Etsy!

Well, after weeks of thinking about it, I finally did it. I sat down yesterday and opened my Etsy. For those of you who are not familiar. Etsy.com is a place to sell handcrafted items. I listed my Princess Mater bags and also tea towells with the same design appliqued and embroidered on them. I have also listed aprons and will be putting my jewelry on as well. You can find my shop at www.honeybeez.etsy.com. I opened shop yesterday afternoon and within an hour had sold 2 items.....to my best farmgirl friend, Mima, in California! Where would we be without our friends!

My Etsy is dedicated to my Mother and my Grandmothers who taught me a love of handcrafting. I learned to sew, stitch, knit and crochet from these three amazing women.