A Visitor From Chicago

One of Shawn's closest friends from college, Rebecca, came to visit us this past weekend from Chicago. We had so much fun! It felt like we were all over the place, but we managed to take her on a tour of a lot of our favorite places. She came with us to our Saturday market in Westminster. Definitely one of our favorite places. Later that night, we visited Scott's farm, Sattva Place. Unfortunately we forgot the camera this time and don't have any photos of his magical and beautiful farm. We visited with his heard of cows, his baby goats, his boar and sow, his horse Darla and her foal, his flocks of chickens and turkeys, and the trillions of lightening bugs who appear at dusk. As usual, we had a wonderful time sharing a meal and a bonfire with Scott and his adorable dog Yindi.
Next, we headed over to see Abby and Daniel and their goats. We hung out in the barn with the babies for quite a while.

Rebecca got to give them a special treat, and they were loving it!

Shawn's turn to give them a treat.


They are super playful, they love to climb and jump. If you give them a good place to climb, climb they will.



After we ate dinner and came inside, we laughed our way through an impromptu jam session on instruments none of us knew how to play.

The next day we got up and put Rebecca to work. Weed, water, mulch, repeat. We tackled the beets, some of the potatoes and onions, and the garlic.

The garlic and onions after they've been weeded, watered, and mulched:
We ate several good farm meals while she was here. At Scott's we had a delicious fritata made with eggs and milk from his farm, and veggies from our friend's farm. We brought a salad with our cucumbers, lettuce and onion. On our big work day, we had beets, beet greens, new potatoes, and cucumber salad with garlic chives and cherry tomatoes (from the high tunnel).

For pizza night, we made a salad with lettuce, cucumber, and nasturtiums:

We had such a great weekend - hopefully we can get out to Chicago to visit this fall!

Some Helpers

Last week Danielle (who Josie has been friends with for a few years) brought her one year old daughter, Sadie, and her lovable dog, Ollie, out to the farm to help do some planting.

Ollie and Jaxxy get along great, they spent almost the whole day sprinting around the farm. Most dogs don't have the energy to tolerate Jaxxy's playfulness - but Ollie does. He can't get enough!After some tea and a little time to catch up, we sent the dogs out to play and headed over to the garden to with our flats of cabbage. We are growing four types this year: Golden Acre, Early Jersey Wakefield, Mammoth Red Rock, and Frigga Savoy. We should have some early and some later, as long as we can keep those pesky cabbage worms off of them.



Sadie did a great job. We brought over a shovel for her to play with and even found a big red ball in the grass near the garden!
We got four rows of cabbage planted, one for each variety. So far, they have been tolerating the freezing cold nights pretty well. Hopefully they make it through tonight - we are hoping its the last night in the 20s.


After a long morning of planting and a little snack, Sadie was almost ready for her nap. We were so happy to have them come out and work with us!
After they left, we spent the afternoon planting the rest of the spring crops. Peas, kale, lettuce, mustard greens, pak choi, parsley, radishes, and kohlrabi. Josie's mom came out to help too!
When we were done, we covered the cabbage and lettuce with row covers to help keep pests out. They help keep the moths that lay the cabbage worm eggs from finding the plants and will hopefully keep the rabbits and groundhogs from finding the baby lettuces.
We had a really productive day, thanks Danielle and Sadie!

Farm Fest Highlights!

Farm Fest was so much fun! We really enjoyed spending time with everyone who came out. Thank you so much for supporting us and joining us for a wonderful day! Here are a few highlights:

Zaw, who works with Linda at Maret School, and his neighbor Shawn rode their bikes from Silver Spring all the way to the farm. (Yes, the Silver Spring in Montgomery County)

LOVE the sign!

The trip is close to 50 miles!!

We were so excited to see them when they arrived, and it only took them about 3 and a half hours! Incredible! Thanks so much Zaw and Shawn for making the day even more exciting!
Shawn and Mark spent several hours cooking pizzas, in a 500 degree oven, on a 95 degree day. Needless to say it was HOT in that kitchen, but they made some amazing pizza - it was eaten up as fast as they could make it. It included toppings such as basil, pineapple, green pepper, beets, and turnips. Regina, from The Farmer's Daughter (oh so famous for her delicious, and huge, cinnamon rolls) made the whole wheat, rosemary and chive dough for the crust. A few days before Farm Fest, we got to help her knead the dough, it was great fun!

Two of the delicious pizzas with basil and parmesan toppings.

This was a Zero Waste event, so we had glass jars to drink from, cloth napkins, recycling and compost bins. It worked out really well, we had no trash at all at the end of the day!

We set up our farm stand and included Linda's new book called "Yellow Bird". The limited first edition is on sale for $18 a copy - let us know if you are interested!! So exciting!

It was a beautiful, but hot, day so many people spent time in the breezy shade overlooking the garden,
or under the oldest black walnut tree watching the kids play on the swing set.

Jack enjoying a cool drink of water.

One of the cutest puppies in the world.

Scott Trexler, who has a stand right next to us at the Westminster market (selling organic chicken, eggs, beef, rose, and pork), brings his lovely puppy with him to market every week. It is great fun to watch her grow! And grow she will, she is half rottweiler and half Saint Bernard...

Here is Regina reading to David, her son, in the shade in front of the farm house.

Smile David!

Some of the many musicians who played at Farm Fest, pictured here are Dave, Joel Hoskins, and Pawpaw. They set up in the workshop and it worked out great! We will have to remember that for the next party.

Thanks again to everyone who came, to Dave and Linda for making it happen and making the property look gorgeous, to Mark for all your help, and Regina for the yummy crust!

The Bees Get A Second Story

Our good friend Mark came down to the farm this weekend for a visit and to check in on his bees. With rain clouds brewing above us, we managed to get in a quick inspection of the hive and were pleased to find that our ladies have been very busy drawing out comb, making honey, and generally keeping their home in good working order. We were also pleased to find that plenty of eggs had been laid, which means that the queen remains healthy and industrious. For their good work, we rewarded the bees with a second story on the hive and ten brand new frames to fill.

The absentee slum lord and his super inspect the hive

The ladies are hard at work

A Visitor and Tons of Strawberries!

This past week, Shawn's Tibetan cousin Chungdhak came by the farm for a visit and to lend us a hand. Between picking salad greens, mulching rows of beans, and thinning the beets, she shared with us her own extraordinary story, including her brave escape from Chinese occupied Tibet at the age of 11. Her account of the current state of affairs in Tibet and the oppressive polices imposed by the Chinese were shocking. We urge everyone to read up about this situation and learn what you can do to help change it - more information can be found here.

During her visit, we received a group order from the Maret School for salad mixes, kale, potted plants, and eggs. It was a lot to pick, so we were lucky to have an extra set of hands.

Harvesting salad greens

Bags of freshly picked and washed greens

We also checked in on the bees and found them to be in good shape. The queen is laying plenty of eggs, which in turn are becoming strong little bees. They have also filled up the first ten frames of their hive and so it will soon be time to add a second story!

After a solid week of work on the farm, we went down the road to Baugher's to pick strawberries. (Proof that we love what we do - our idea of taking a break from picking on our farm involves going to pick on someone else's farm).

Some of the fifty pounds of strawberries that we ended up picking!