Sweet Local Farm

We have much to be thankful for this year. A new house, a new spouse, the sweetest pet goats, happy helpful chickens, jobs, wonderful friends, supportive family, and our health. We are also thankful to you, our readers, for following our adventures. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Since it has been so mild, I decided to set up our porch table for lunch. The rustic yellow table was left in the barn when we moved in. The wooden folding chairs belonged to Luke’s grandmother.

The blue napkins and checkered placemats are from a thrift store:

The painterly rooster bowls are from Williams Sonoma:

The flatware was from my husband’s childhood:

To complete the country theme I used a pair of vintage roosters as a centerpiece:

The blue stemware is from a multicolored set I found at a thrift store. I chose the two blue goblets:

Now I need to get back to my Thanksgiving baking!

It is the end of November and I am amazed at how much greenery we still have in the garden.
The swiss chard is crisp. I like to use it in soups and stir frys.

The plants are glossy and the stalks are almost like celery. This was one of my first edible plants in the spring and has proved to be one of the last. I will surely grow swiss chard every year.

The kale leaves are like green lace:

The parsley is vibrant and hardy. It is doing really well in the herb spiral I built this past spring.

The mint has exploded to the point of invasive. I’ll have to make a bunch of mojitos!

We save all of our cardboard and use it as sheet mulch in the garden:

Luke lined the paths of the mandala garden with cardboard:

And finally, the garlic we planted about 6 weeks ago has sprouted:

Does anyone know how to protect these scapes over the winter so I’ll have garlic next year?

Our kids, Birch and Rosemary, are so playful. They love to run, jump, and kick. We have been taking them for walks around the yard for exercise. They easily jump on and off boulders and sprint across the lawn with Luke and me tagging along.

Luke playing papa goat:

Sharing a dance:

They are so sweet:

Here is one of our little hens:

Last year I ordered many of our seeds from High Mowing Organic Seeds. Based out of Vermont, High Mowing offers 100% Certified Organic, Non-GMO Seeds and over 450 Heirloom, Open-Pollinated and Hybrid Seeds. Their new seed catalog for 2010 is online now. I’m already starting to plan for next year!

But, this growing season is still in full swing. The days have been warm and the nights have not been getting a hard frost. Our greenhouse greens are doing really well.

The temp outside was around 50 degrees, but inside it was about 74 degrees.

I love Thanksgiving- the food, the decorations, the time to reflect on what we are thankful for. To celebrate the season I set our table for a harvest feast!

I set the tone with a vintage tablecloth:

Each setting has a unique gourd soup bowl:

The centerpiece is a bountiful bowl of local fruits, vegetables, and sage:

All of these items are inexpensive, easy to find, and you can eat them:

My new kitchen chairs:

Check out other Thanksgiving tables at:

Today was a beautiful sunny day. I went for a walk to take a few shots of the farm from up on the hill behind our land. Here is my little slice of heaven:

I love the old stone walls in the woods:

Our barn is over 100 years old:

Our house is lit up on the south side by the sun:

Now that the leaves have fallen the sky is more exposed. I captured these shots of a beautiful orange and purple sunset the other night. If it has to get dark at 4 o’clock, at least I can enjoy the sunset.

Here is Luke coming in from a days work:

A shot through the window from one of the bedrooms upstairs:

We are still eating plenty of food from our garden. Here is a basket full of swiss chard, broccoli, herbs, and big fat carrots:

Luke picked this fresh crisp salad from our greenhouse. It is baby spinach and arugula. I made a delicious cilantro dressing to serve with it and topped it with sunflower seeds. So yummy!

Back in September we were lucky enough to spend our honeymoon on Block Island. We stayed at the stunning Spring House. It overlooked sweeping green lawns, salt ponds, rolling hills, and of course the Atlantic ocean. The hotel had a timeless feel. Our room didn’t even have a TV or an AC, but one doesn’t need those amenities with the ocean breeze and plenty to do on the island.

We ate at the beautiful Victorian style Hotel Manisses. The grounds of the hotel are open to the public. They have a huge vegetable garden and keep many kinds of animals, domestic and exotic.

Here are some of the delicious looking vegetables:

These animals lived on the farm:

Here we are having breakfast on the patio:

We enjoyed our honeymoon!

I found a fabulous recipe for Carrot and Squash Curry Soup on The Pioneer Woman’s blog. It uses yellow squash and carrots, both of which I have from the garden. I pulled three beautiful carrots out of the ground:

I fed the carrot tops to the goats. They loved to have something green to nibble on:

The Shriners stopped by today. They asked us a few weeks ago if we could store their drum core wagon in our barn for the winter. We were happy to help them out. Here is their van in the barn:

It made me a little nervous to put so much weight on the floor, but it was fine. Here is the wagon that will stay in the barn till March:

Looks like it would make a great hay ride to me!