Sunday, August 29, 2010

Lavender Ice Cream

Nothing says summer like ice cream.  We love ice cream.  All summer I have wanted to try a batch of lavender ice cream.  My former career in the pastry arts helped a bit here.  I am very particular about my recipes for lavender they can't be just good, they have to be outstanding!  Luckily with this recipe I was successful on the first go round.  It is unbelievably good.  You can find the recipe on Facebook under our group Friends of Purple Dog Lavender Farms.  Just for the record don't try coloring it with food coloring it will only come out looking gray.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Inspiration

We all have someone or something for inspiration.  Our dream started small and grows and grows as we try to create the vision we have for this place.  My wife and I keep each other going and we have looked through many sites on lavender for inspiration for our little piece of Shangri-La.  Here are two sites we just love.  Here is the labyrinth in Kastellaun Germany  http://www.labyrinth-kastellaun.de/
  and then this beautiful English lavender farm. http://www.yorkshirelavender.com/

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Tomatoes


Nothing says summer like fresh tomatoes from the garden.  Albeit 70 plants may be more than necessary.  I admit I got a bit carried away.  I couldn't resist one more variety, Marmande, Brandywine, Purple Cherokee, Black Krim, German Stripe and another 10 varieties.  Now that they are ripening we have made 20 qts of sauce, and more will be jarred, chopped into bruschetta, and gobbled right off the vine.  They are luscious, but it looks like the creature  from the movie,"Little Shop of Horror"s in our garden.  We will have to cut back next year and find a better way to support them.   One advantage of gardening is each year you can start again and try to fix the mistakes from the year before.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Quote


"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large Garden." ~Abraham Cowley, The Garden, 1666

Monday, August 16, 2010

Growing a Business


Starting a business, or farm is like growing a plant.  It takes time, you have to nurture it. Start slow give it what it needs but not too much, not too quick.  My biggest frustration is probably that we are not where we want to be in our vision of what the farm and lavender will finally look like.  We can only grow so fast.  We go from season to season.  This is a good thing for with each change in the farm we have to learn to work with the new change. It is one thing to plant 1300 lavender plants, it is another thing to harvest, weed, dry and store that lavender. The logistics of working with our crop through the season and what we can do to make it more productive, more successful, takes time, test what works and doesn't work.  What varieties thrive and what varieties whither. It is all about time and patience.

"In my garden there is a large place for sentiment.  My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams.  The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful."  ~Abram L. Urban

This farm is my dream, we are living it, growing it and in time it will be what we dream it to be.  In the meantime we are content with the steps we have made, the work that has been done.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Partner, Mate


I mentioned this just a week or so ago, about all that happens on this farm would not be possible without my wife.  This week that was put to the test.  Shari had to help her son get back to college in Colorado.  They drove out from New York with things to help fill his apartment.  That left me alone to take care of things on the farm.  "No problem"  I said.  After a couple of days though it has become quite clear it takes more than just one person to keep things afloat here on the farm.  If it wasn't summer with time off from teaching, I couldn't have kept this up for long.  Besides the daily chores of feeding horses, dogs chickens, there is harvesting and maintaining the garden, getting the roadside stand filled with product, canning the bounty from the garden, let alone mow the pasture, weed the lavender, mulch the labyrinth and fix what ever needs fixing.  These past few days has helped me to appreciate my spouse even more. To appreciate her not just for her two hands and back to help in the work around the farm, but for her company and conversation and smile making this a home, a life our dream.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Our Flock

We have chickens.  Not for meat, just eggs.  We like their antics as they travel around the acreage picking bugs.  The chickens are totally free range and I can honestly say I have never tasted better eggs.  We have had some losses due to the local wildlife, this prompts us to build a pen to keep them in when we are not home to keep an eye on things.  We have never lost a chicken when the dogs or we have been out working.  But for the ease of their care and when others may watch the farm for us we will build a chicken yard for them.  One thing we have noticed is when we have raised our chickens from chicks they are more tolerant of us.  They let us pet them, hold them, carry them. Chickens we have received full grown from others are more skittish and run when we come near.  We love the diversity of our flock, the different color eggs, the character they lend the farm.  People say they are just animals, they don't have feelings.  That may be true to a degree. We do know they have a good life.  They are not trapped in a cage, limited to a small piece of land eating whatever we toss on the ground.  They live a full life as chickens were meant to be, just as our dogs run free on the farm as they were meant to be.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Project

It seems as if there is always at least one project going on at any given time on the farm.  Right now we are building a deck, mulching the labyrinth, splitting firewood, tending the garden and probably other things I am forgetting.  There never seems to be enough time in the day, yet we push on.  What else can we do? One of my projects was to create something to hold sunflowers for display at the market.  In one of my earlier posts I mentioned some French flower buckets I had purchased.  These have worked out extremely well.  We have painted them different colors, and they look just great.  Well as I was eyeing scraps of things in my workshop I came across some stair balusters  I was going to use to make some endtables and decided they would suit my sunflower project better.  A few screws, some scrap wood, paint and the French flower pot and voila, I have my stand.  This winter  I will refinish the legs to make it look just that much nicer!

Monday, August 2, 2010

Market Days


Going to market isn't so much about making a dollar or two, but educating our customers what to do with our products and how the different lavenders we grow can be used for different things.  This also enables us to get the word out that next year we will be open for u-pick.  We found that people are really intrigued and want to know more information like which lavender is more aromatic, how the different varieties each have their own unique scent, which ones can be used for cooking, and which ones are better for potpourri.  We had a sample of our own lavender mustard on hand and we received rave reviews! Many of our customers said, "I didn't know you could cook with lavender!" We are letting people know that there is more to lavender than just the "munstead" and "hidcote" varieties and that lavender can come in colors ranging from the darkest purple, to pink, to white.  We try to open their eyes to the possibilities and uses of this amazing plant Lavendula, lavande, lavender.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Mate, Partner, Wife

This farm is a lot of work.  Mind you, we're only part-time farmers.  This is not our full-time employment, but there is more work than "you can shake a stick at it" (whatever that really means).  All this wouldn't be feasible, possible and especially doable with out my wife and partner.  Not only does she help to weed, sow, harvest, dig, plant and all the other things we do, she believes in this dream that is our farm.  It is "Our" dream and "Our" farm.  If both of us were not committed to this venture it wouldn't work  We wouldn't get as much done and we wouldn't have has much fun. It is fun, all the work and effort we appreciate at the end of the day when our farm is beginning to show the signs of the vision we share.

Thank you Shari, wife, partner, believer in crazy mid-life dreams!
Love,
Your husband
Doug