Springtime at Medley Acres

I haven’t been keeping up well with blogging this spring … too many things sapping my creative energies up, but I don’t want more time to go by without documenting all the beautiful and interesting things going on here at our little family homestead! Lots of veggies and plants started again this year … I may have gone a little overboard with dry bean seed planting when I first heard there might be a food/meat shortage and I was anticipating possibly stocking up and/or selling plants to others in need of rations! But thankfully that doesn’t appear to be an issue (at least not at the moment…). If the growing season goes well, we’ll have an abundance of dry beans available in the fall!

This is a bit of a “photo dump” of things happening around here…

Easter Basket Gifties

This year I think a lot of people are looking at a very different, unique Easter time. On a church related blog that I run, we’re sharing items that some of us ladies make and sell in an effort to not only connect with each other in support but also to provide some “pretty things” made locally to fill those Easter baskets or bring some cheer to someone. Below are some images of the chalk painted jars with flowers and lotion bars I’ve been making over this past year, as well as botanical print cards from drawings I did. If you are “local” and are interested in either of these items, please fill out the contact form and let me know 🙂

Jennifer’s Art Print Cards – sold in sets or individually

Pumpkins for Sale!

IMG_20191006_151454 We’re finally able to get out into the wet wet fields to pick some pumpkins! We had hoped to offer “pick your own” but we’re afraid everyone is going to get stuck in the mud while picking their pumpkins! So for now, we’re picking and putting them at the bottom of our driveway at the self serve stand.

Most of our pumpkins were grown from seed at our house from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds. They are all considered delicious eating/baking, even the wee ones!

Visit our driveway stand at 1988 County Road YY • Baldwin

Little pumpkins are 3 for $1.
Large pumpkins are $3 each.
Special “bulk pricing” for friends with large families 🙂 (ie – if you have more than 4 kiddos, we’ll make you a deal so you can carve pumpkins with your kids and still afford to buy groceries for the week!)

We have 4 varieties of pumpkins:

Jarrahdale Pumpkin
Slate, blue-grey, 6- to 10-lb pumpkins of superb quality. Their shape is flat, ribbed, and very decorative; also a good keeper. Popular in Australia, an excellent variety. One of the more tasty varieties for a variety of savory dishes and is excellent for a year-round supply of squash, as these will often keep well over 12 months!

Jack Be Little Squash
This tiny, cute pumpkin weighs just 8 ounces; flat and ribbed. These are highly popular and a top-selling fall crop. The flesh is good to eat, and the skin is bright orange. This type of squash may have been developed in the Orient, as pumpkins of this type are offered to the ‘Spirits’ by many in Thailand, where they come in 4 or 5 colors.

Conneticut Field Pumpkin
The heirloom pumpkin of the New England settlers and Indians, several hundred years old. Golden fruit weigh about 20 lbs each. This is a truly old variety; can be used for pies; the traditional American pumpkin.

Last Year’s Aldi Pumpkin
Of course I have no idea what kind of pumpkin we bought last year but we got it at Aldi and saved some of the seeds, and they came up just fine this year!

Developing Medley Acres

This year we decided to try planting a pumpkin patch for pick your own pumpkins this fall, along with a zinnia patch, sunflower patch and sweet corn. We also planted a large number of heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs and perennials from seed that we hope to be able to sell later in the summer as well.

Dan invested in a few more tractor/farm implements, including a planter and a plow, and has prepared and planted the 5+ acres we had previously leased to a local farmer… we now have fields of timothy, clover, and switchgrass for cover crops/habitat, and we’re adding our garden fields of pumpkins, sunflowers, and raspberries. Its finally dry enough in the fields to be able to get out and do some planting! We’re hoping for a long fall to make the growing season long enough to make all farmers’ plantings worthwhile this year…

Here are some pictures from the homestead over the past couple of weeks (including today!). Many of the photos are courtesy of our daughter Eva.

grasses in the field

puff dandelion

clover

grass

flower

sunlight and field

zach and miriam in dad’s clover field

nibbling on clover

eva hanging out in the dirt

chewing clover

dan roto tiling the pumpkin row

team work getting the seeds planted

miriam putting in the seed

pumpkin seed – grow!

dad and zach getting the technique down

pumpkin row

getting rocks out of field

hauling rocks

checking out what is growing

raspberries – wild

snowy river the rooster

hens

gretel who needs a hoof trim

heidi the goat

lane of grapes

flowering bush

purple flower

dan’s planter

dan’s planter coming home

our wild asparagus

wild asparagus – kids LOVE it

local second hand shop find – pottery bird feeder

apple blossoms

new raspberries

jen harvesting nettle

basket of nettle

nettle

dried nettle

only half a jar to go

mr wolf “the bee guy” at his hives on our property

bee guy – putting up solar fence to keep the BEAR out

view from my “mom coop”

front yard view from porch

Lotion Bars for Mother’s Day

Last year I ran across some really nice recipes for making lotion bars. Well, what I ran across first were some super cute lotion/soap bar molds that I fell in love with! So I ordered the molds, then decided to try making lotion bars. Someday I will try soap, but for now, I’m enjoying using beeswax from local honey bee keepers and experimenting with different combinations of essential oils.

I someday hope to have a little shop set up on our “homestead” where I can sell things like this and other crafts, but for now, I’m going to just spread the word and likely add these to my Etsy store.

If you are interested in purchasing one of these lotion bars and live locally, I’d be happy to prepare one for your wife, sister or mom for this upcoming Mother’s Day 🙂 I have them in the form of larger 4oz size flowers, which come with/on an antique (or antique-ish) saucer for $8 or in a smaller 2oz size in tin for $6.

Lotion bars are made with beeswax from local beekeeper, shea butter or mango butter, coconut oil and an essential oil. They have a very light fragrance – I have used a mixture of lavender and orange with some, and peppermint and orange for others. They work great for rubbing onto really dry spots on your skin, for travel, and for sitting next to your kitchen/bathroom sink or on a night stand… having it rest on the little saucer makes it handy to keep anywhere! And it looks cute! (if I do say so myself!)

Since the flowers are all in various designs and the saucers have been collected from second hand shops, there’s no guarantee that you will get exactly what you see online… please allow me to pick the right flower and saucer combo for you 🙂 Your purchase will come in a little bag with tissue paper and a tag, ready to give 🙂

Please fill out the contact form or send an email to jennifer at turningleafstudio.com if you would like to place an order 🙂 Thanks!

“Let Food Be Thy Medicine” –Hippocrates

My husband Dan gets these emails periodically from the USDA about farming practices and farms across the US who are doing interesting things. One of the more interesting ones came in the other day about a farm in New Jersey, which is run by a doctor. He and his family bought a large acreage and now runs a farm in conjunction with his practice…

From the USDA article: “Two farmers help Dr. Weiss with the farm and run the Doctor’s Farm Market, with ‘doctor’s tips’ and ‘doctor’s recipes’ next to each fruit and vegetable…” Read the article Healing Patients on the Farm here. You can visit the doctor’s website at www.myethoshealth.com.

Ethos Farm in the Early morning Autumn light and frost covering the land

Image and info credit to Dr. Weiss/Ethos Health/Farmers.gov

Natural Tick & Lyme Disease Prevention

As yucky of a topic as this is, I thought this was a very good and informational article by Whole-Fed Homestead about ticks, how they work, and how to use natural products, and common sense, to help prevent being bitten by the little buggers… it is so hard to decide between using something chemical that has proven nasty side effects, but is effective, and some natural options which require more effort and applications, and may be less effective. Either way, there are pros and cons. Every year, we weigh it out and often use both methods. But I felt this article covered a lot about how ticks work, which helps me decide what to do to protect myself and my children. Good luck!!

Apples for Sale at Medley Acres

Taking orders for freshly picked apples from our family orchard! Apple varieties include Honeygold, McIntosh and Cortland. Selling in 10 lb bags for $5 and 15 lb bags for $7.50. (larger quantities available at $.50 per pound). Bags include mixed variety. We do not use any sprays or chemicals so the skins are blemished, but the apples taste great and are perfectly safe to eat. Please email orders to jennifer @ turningleafstudio.com or call 715.688.4010 and we will have them ready for you to pick up!

Also selling deer/wildlife apples from the ground in 50lb feed bags for $10.

Time to think about planting for fall and winter…?

I just got an email from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, talking about planting soon for fall and winter harvests… I have never actually thought about this before, but always admired friends who had hoop houses and green houses and were able to pull carrots out of the ground in January… it seems Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds might have some suggestions I could actually consider here in their blog and on their website… Might be fun to start thinking about how to extend the growing season on our property!

I am not affiliated with Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds; I simply love their seeds and gorgeous catalogs and like to share…!

photos and content credit: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds/Rareseeds.com

Flowers and a Porch

I love the flowers that are blooming in my front garden. The Hubby is putting on a new front porch for us, since our house needed a little more “curb appeal.” Even though we live on 20 acres in the country, and there is no curb. So eventually, I will be able to sit out on my covered front porch to admire my flowers …

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