Maple syrup time!

Dominick has been lugging hundreds of gallons of sap from our beautiful sugar maple trees to our new evaporator. We stoke the fire to boil it down for days on end and voila- tasty syrup. (As an added bonus Dominick has brushed off his middle school knowledge of ratios, density, temperature, vials and the like to calculate when to stop boiling - the riskiest moment.)

Well, we have 5 delicious gallons of syrup canned and waiting for summer csa boxes now. 

Its amazing what trees do and how little we know about them. Next on  my reading list is The Secret Life of Trees.

our new evaporator! 

the beautiful old maple

The winter chill

Well, the temps have been low low low this week. We have been a bit worried about our chickies, as it’s their first winter. So far so good!  They are even still laying, which is remarkable. We have the water heater to keep the water from freezing and the heater lamp going.  But the mobile coop we built this summer is standing up to the cold, the storms, everything!   

Winter is here... time to plan!

I love this time of year.  As winter sets in the seed catalogs start to arrive and everything is possible.  Imagining the summer is so exciting: the flowers dancing in the breeze, the perfect tomatoes, the rows and rows of sweet peas ready for the children to pick.  There are no daily chores right now, other than caring for the chickens and collecting those delicious eggs, just dreaming and planning.  We can't wait to hear what you want us to grow for you, though I have some ideas myself.  I'm going to be planting a new kind of snapdragon with the softest coral color, for example.

Mary

Announcing... Us!

As of late June, we are officially a business!  Dominick created an LLC and was so excited to get our federal tax ID number.  It makes it feel like this is really happening.  Taxes, farm insurance.  The real deal.

We have our plot planted with all sorts of goodies that will (hopefully) mature in later summer/fall so we can do a pilot CSA for family and friends.  Beans, tomatoes, snapdragons, basil, and corn just to name a few.  Our little chickies are all grown up now. Not only are they starting to do adult things with each other (ahem), we got our first egg from one of the chicks we raised from one day old.

Here is Louisa with one of our first eggs!