Homestead Blessings

Days of Thanksgiving

2011-12-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving greetings from our beautiful hills! There are so many things to be thankful for and we are truly blessed. Back at the end of October we were able to get our front pasture tilled under and planted with some pasture seed mix so, Lord willin', we will have new green pasture this spring! I know the horses will appreciate that. :)

We are also very grateful for getting our hoop house planted and covered before the frost got too hard. Now we have loads of beautiful greens, kale, swiss chard, lettuce, cabbage and broccoli- perfect for our fresh juices we love to make every morning.

This is one of the last basket of potatoes harvested from the garden. Yukon Gold, how delicious!

We were blessed to have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with some dear friends. The children made this very adorable corn husk doll family. Aren't they cute?

I even got to go riding for the first time in a long while. It was so wonderful.

After the holiday we got a load of Homestead Blessings Cookbook orders and spent one whole morning packing and shipping. We are so thankful for that and we had so much fun hearing from so many different folks around the world! What a blessing!

And last but not least, our first "snow' of the season. It only stuck on the frozen tree tops, but if you were looking up into the trees, you felt like you were in a Winter Wonderland. :)

"We've got a lot to be thankful for and Lord I want to thank You"!

Blessings from the Homestead,

Vicki

2011-11-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

Just a note... if you would like a cookbook signed by the West Ladies, please leave a note in the "special delivery/comments" on your order page and we will gladly sign it for you! Also, please specify if and who you may like it signed to and the proper spelling of any names. Thank you, and many happy homestead cooking days to you!

2011-10-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

After many months {possibly years} of writing, editing, cooking, editing again and finally off to the printer- we are so excited to annouce that the Homestead Blessings Cookbook is now available at our website www.homestead-blessings.com !!! Yeah!!!!

Full of lots of pictures from the homestead kitchen and garden, hand sketched drawings by Mama, stories and tips from the farm and over 150 recipes that are easy, fun and centered around the home and farm.

Recipes for homemade breads and Lemon Meringue Pie...

and also recipes for canning pickles, relishes and produce right from the garden!

So gather 'round in the kitchen and open up the Homestead Blessings Cookbook to try new recipes and have some good 'ole fashioned family fun! We hope this book will be a blessing to you and your homestead!

www.homestead-blessings.com

2011-10-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

Howdy Friends! We are happily celebrating a beautiful fall here in Tennessee, thankful for the new season of harvest. Back in September we released our new cd, "Farmers Daughter" just in time for the Mountaineer Folk Festival we were singing at in Pikeville. Wow, those last few weeks were a mad rush and seemed to fly by so fast! The weekend after we had a cd release party hosted at our farm for close friends and family, and everyone had a blast and it was a great success, thanks to the Lord. We had friends bring their music, songs and instruments and there was loads of food too! Here are a few pictures we'd liked to share with y'all from those super fun events!

Our new cd, "Farmers Daughter", is now available to order online! You can find it exclusively on our website www.homestead-blessings.com

This new Homestead Blessings product is a perfect gift for the holiday season, or to have for any day on the farm!

Jasmine greeting folks behind our Homestead Blessings booth at the Mountaineer Fest.

Making mountain music!

A dear friend displaying her beautiful quilt on our clothesline

Lots of food and fellowship

Barefoot children playing at the sandbox as a mother watches with a careful eye.

Visit our website at www.homestead-blessings.com to see our new cd "Farmers Daughter" !

Also coming very soon the new Homestead Blessings Cookbook!!!

Last Days of Summer

2011-08-31T15:49:00.001-07:00

We had the great opportunity to have some friends over for a day at the river this past weekend. What a fun time we had swimming, jumping, diving, floating, kayaking...

The Three Littles ready for adventure!

Surveying the situation, getting ready to "cross over Jordan"

Our blond haired, southern surfer boy

Here we go!

The Captain and his cabin boy

Sitting on "the rock"

Country girls keeping cool

Kayak lessons

Nothing to it,

that's how country girls roll!

Splashing

All the delicious food...

And plenty of fellowship!

Make sure y'all remember to check out our END OF SUMMER SALE on our website www.homestead-blessings.com

End of Summer Sale

2011-08-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hey Ya'll,
Check out our great end of summer sale on our website www.homestead-blessings.com. We are offering "The Art of Canning", "The Art of Gardening" and "The Art of Herbs" for sale as a pack or individually. Now is a great time to start a fall garden, or make herbal concoctions for wintertime and to prepare and plan your canning for next seasons harvest. These cooler days are an excellent time to get those frozen strawberries from this past spring and make some delicious jam! So, go check it out soon, if you already have our DVDs, take advantage of this sale for the holidays, wedding gifts and birthdays... but remember the sale ends September 10th!

2011-08-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Morning Glory

The last of the Zinnias

The corn patch under the Martin houses, praying for a good yield this fall!

Our garden is filled with butterflies

This morning we went to pick apples in one of our small orchards

Some on the trees, some on the ground

The start of a good pickin'

Some were pretty high in the trees and a little hard to reach.

We hope to start pickin' on the hill top orchard this coming week.

Giving our new work horse a sweet snack. Notice her beautiful bluish eye?

We call her Shenandoah, because it means "clear eyed daughter of the stars". She actually has two blue eyes!

We are very excited about getting a new horse, a new "homestead blessing"!

www.homestead-blessings.com

Life on the Homestead

2011-07-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to do a photo shoot for our new up and coming CD, "Farmer's Daughter"

Here's your sign!

It's suppertime on the farm

Recording in the studio

Canning Corn...

...And a' shuckin' them corn husks

Green beans, pineapple, green tomatoes and corn for our winter storage so far.

For more on canning, check out our DVD "The Art of Canning" at www.homestead-blessings.com

summer's bounty in the frying pan

And we had little visitors on our porch this afternoon!

Stay tuned for the cookbook and CD on our website www.homestead-blessings.com

Green Beans in the Garden... or maybe corn?

2011-07-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

At some point in your life, there is going to come a time when you just have to lighten up and laugh at yourself. One of the best moments and memories we have of being able to do just that, was the first time our family watched this video. One of our awesome (and creative!) friends put this together with a little hard work and ingenuity, and seriously, we loved it!

Take a couple of minutes to watch this music video, and smile when you think of us. :)

You can find our CD with the official music video to the song Green Beans in the Garden on our website www.homestead-blessings.com

Meanwhile, back at the Studio

2011-07-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Finally, we are working on recording a new CD!! Yeah!

Jasmine checking out the sound proof walls. ???

Recording harmonies on "Everlasting Arms"

Humming and harmonizing on "No Not One"

Playing back what we just recorded.
Lord willing, our new CD, "Farmers Daughter", will be out on September 1st. Look for it at www.homestead-blessings.com

2011-07-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

Broccoli harvested last month

Elderberry flowers that we gather to dry and make tea with in the wintertime

Little kitty taking a nap on the front porch

Jasmine and Julia are working on editing the Homestead Blessings cookbook

Ready for blackberry pickin'?

Black Gold

Believe it or not, this picture was taken at the crack of noon, in the middle of a major thunderstorm. It got so dark in the house that we needed the lamps to see by.

Canning "pineapple" from zucchini, using pineapple juice and raw sugar.

It tastes just like pineapple and you can use it as you would in any recipe calling for pineapple. This recipe is just one of the many handy homestead recipes you can find in our upcoming cookbook!!!

Today we canned green tomatoes, also using the recipe out of our cookbook. As you can see, Jasmine is reading from the sample copy that we just got back form the printers!

The complete, finished Homestead Blessings Cookbook, is coming soon, so keep checking our website!

www.homestead-blessings.com

2011-07-08T12:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day, Ya'll!!!

2011-06-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

The Cabbage Patch

The Broccoli Patch

Mom and Mrs. Stowe working on the cookbook, it will be out soon Lord willing!

Chore list on the chalk board earlier this spring

Clean laundry on the line is always such a lovely thing to see

Little Rhode Island Red hens growing big in their chicken tractor

Blueberries soon to be harvested from the patch on the hill behind the house

The apples are looking beautiful too. Can't wait till apple harvest this fall!

Tonto, the lone ranger in the horse pasture now. Maybe we'll have a sidekick for him soon. :)

Meadow wildflowers growing in the top pasture.

Country roads taking us home.

A Blessing from the Lord- Cascade... a good 'ole horse

2011-03-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

When I was very young, running around the desert with my fringed vest, boots, cowgirl hat and Annie Oakley pop-gun, I longed for a horse like a lot of children do {it just seems natural}. My horse would be a beautiful white noble stead with a long flowing golden mane and tail! Well, there were a lot of other things that needed to come first before I would be able to own a horse. Years went by and I would ride and admire other horses owned by friends or neighbors and visit any horse barns I could, enjoying the smells of hay, brushing and saddling the horses and performing other skills that go with horsemanship. More years went by and life was very full with family, my own dear children, homeschooling and learning the skills of homesteading. My daughters were growing and we had moved to an old Amish homestead that had one of the most amazing 150 year old log barns we had ever seen. It was one that Eric Sloan would have drawn and written about and admired! Perfect for a horse {or 2, or 3 or more}! With more pasture land, this big barn and a new country lifestyle, a horse {of course!} was the next logical addition! So we put the word out, we were looking for a good, well trained family work horse.
   Mable was a very kind soul who still lived at home with her family {a few miles away from us} and she served her family and served different folks in the community who might need her help. We were happy to meet her. One day she asked the girls {Cecilia and Hannah- they were about 5 and 6 at that time} if they would like to see her horse, Cascade. And of course the girls were elated to get to see this horse! To them, Cascade was a giant! She was about 15 ½ hands high, a Standard Bred beauty, chestnut in color, in great health and form, and was only about 12-14 years in age. The girls were in awe as they enjoyed rubbing their little hands over this magnificent creature. Mable took good care of her and liked to hitch her up for a buggy ride or to use her for making rounds and doing errands in the community. And Cascade always seemed eager to go and trot down the dirt roads where there were other horses to see. We all noticed what a good horse Cascade was and how well she worked with children. One day Mable asked if we would like to keep Cascade and use her for awhile. Wow, we’re we excited- of course we would love to take care of her and use her! It was on a beautiful warm sunny day when Mable drove up into our lane with Cascade pulling the little one-seated horse cart. Here at our farm, Cascade would have plenty of pasture, the Old Barn would once again have great purpose in housing Cascade and keeping sweet smelling hay in the great loft and, of course, 3 young children who would just love her and who would take good care of her. I was so grateful, it was a dream come true! Okay, she wasn’t the white noble stead with a long golden flowing mane and tail, but she was still a fine horse {even though I had quite a time getting up on this tall mare} and I did enjoy riding so much! We learned how to harness and hitch her up to the cart and enjoyed using her to get milk and to go visiting in the valley with friends. We also took turns riding her. She was an excellent riding horse, Cecilia and Hannah could both ride her at the same time. They had so much fun cantering around the farm and they even learned how to jump Cascade over old fallen logs which she preformed with graceful skill and agility. Then one day, Mable asked me if I wanted to buy Cascade. She was moving to a different home that wouldn’t have enough pasture for the horse. We didn’t have to consider it long before we knew this must be the horse that God had provided for us. At this time we had been keeping Cascade for about 1 year already and in the year we had gotten to know her quite well. She was gentle and very reliable with children and she was traffic safe, although we kept her to our small country dirt road that consisted mostly of other horse drawn vehicles and some cars. Along with Cascade when we bought her, we got a saddle and bridle, a small one seat, two-wheeled cart and a buggy harness. Cascade was so useful and versatile! When riding her, we found that she had a wonderful saddle gait that was smooth as glass and I loved it! The girls have so many fond memories and stories of riding and playing with Cascade. When friends would come over, they would take turns riding Cascade pretending they were scouts riding for the Confederate army! At one time in her life {before Mable or we owned her}, Cascade had been trained and prepped for a race horse. She could run very fast. When the girls were a lot older they would race her with other horses and even trucks! Cascade was always ready to race and she loved it. She could be so gentle and seemed even thoughtful at times, like if the girls ever fell off of her, she would always stop right away so that she would not step on them. One time Hannah flew right over Cascade’s head, slid down her neck and landed on the ground with a thud. Cascade immediately stopped, and waited until Hannah got up and jumped on her back again and off they rode. This horse was such a blessing to our family. Growing much of our food meant we would need to keep our large garden cultivated from the weeds.     Cascade pulled the walk behind cultivator just fine! Saving us lots of money we would have other wise spent on gas and the cost of a tractor or tiller. Our dear horse also hauled great loads of straw and dirt for our garden in the little cart. We would take out the seat, load ‘er up and Cascade would pull it over to the garden for us. I called her my “garden buddy”. Cascade had very important responsibilities for our family- she carried us for miles for many years! She was healthy as a horse and only got sick 2 or 3 times in all the years that she was with us.
      Over the years as Cascade got older she worked less for us and spent a lot more time in the pasture {with our other riding horses that we had gotten over time}. We did use her to cultivate in the garden right up to 2 years ago and we were so grateful she took care of our garden for almost 15 years! Even in her older age we could ride her here and there and she was still rearing to go!
She lived a very productive and full happy life till she was up in her thirties, which is a good ’ole age for a horse. The day she died, we all had a hard time. I never thought I would cry about a horse dying, but my tears flowed like Niagra! Then it struck me when thinking of wonderful memories of her and our family, how thankful to God I was for the time she was here with us {17 years} and for giving so much joy to our family in her service that God blessed us with. We will miss Cascade so much and I’m sure there can’t be another horse like her, but our garden will need to be cultivated this summer, there’s an empty buggy needing to be pulled {especially with gas prices soaring} and we could always find time to go riding-
        so we put the word out, we’re looking for another family work horse…

A few springs past...

2011-03-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from a few springs back, Mama in the greenhouse

Hannah driving the team during spring plowing

Chickens are always hungry

A busy farm kitchen at high noon

Picking and grinning with friends under the maple tree

Washing hair in the creek, talk about running water!

Early crop planting- cabbage and brocoli.

We love our good ole' wringer washer!

What better way to end your day than with a farm fresh meal and a family prayer of thanks.

These pictures were taken by John Partipillo, thanks John!

2011-03-23T19:46:00.000-07:00

Purple violets, the first sign of "green up"

Bloodroot, a good herb growing right out the back door,

at the base of a maple tree,

on the side of a hill.

Butterflies love our garden this time of year!

Watercress, high in vit. C and grows wildly in the creeks and springs.

Watercress sandwiches anyone?

Off Grid Livin'

2011-03-11T09:48:00.000-08:00

In the recent past we have been frequently asked the question, “how do you actually live without electricity?” In response to those who asked and to any of you who may be also wondering, here is our answer.
We have been off grid for about 17 years now. For 7 of those years we had our water hand pumped {from a spring} on the back porch {summer kitchen} and had an out house too. We now, with gravity flow spring water, have a wonderful in-house bathroom! Most of the time we use kerosene lamps for light and of course the natural sunlight in the day. The nearest power lines are about 4 miles away! Our wood cook stove is for heating {our only source for heating} and of course cooking, heating water and more. We have learned that we don’t really need all the gadgets that we are condition to believe we need. Also, that electric meter {like we used to have} is running {charging you money by the second} whether any appliance is being used or not! Big wheels keep on turning! The bill you pay, pays for more that just the energy you use. Think about it- better yet do research on it! We prefer alternative energy- water, wind, solar etc.,but we don’t have or use all these sources. We learned at first that a good wood cook stove, gravity flow water, and a few oil lamps will get you going. We do juice a lot and use a vita mix. These do take power- in the last few years we attained 3 small solar panels and a few batteries to run these useful tools. We also have a generator that we use only at certain times if we need to. It’s nice, but we are not dependent on it, good thing with the price of fuel these days! We sew totally on foot powered, treadle sewing machines. We wash our dishes by hand and we have a James Washer to wash clothes that we use in nice weather {you can find these in Lehman’s Catalog}. We do use a wonderful old wringer washer {a Speed Queen} let me tell you, those machines were made to last, folks! We use it when it is very cold, it’s powered by our generator for now, but we are looking forward to adding a few batteries to our little solar system and getting our wringer washer going without using gas! We grind our wheat with a Country Living hand-cranked grain mill. We had a neighbor attach it to an old exercise bike so now we can all take turns peddling our grain mill! It works great and you can get great exercise! Before you know it you have beautiful, fresh ground whole wheat flour ready to bake with! For the few things that we do freeze, we rent a freezer space about 4 miles down the road at a neighbors house {where they have electricity hook up}. But we mostly can and dry our store of food and of course harvest fresh right out of the garden in season. We love to work and make things with our hands and use our heads when we go about using energy. We are for tools of all kinds, and we are learning to be good stewards of what resources we have been blessed with! Hope this had been helpful to y’all!
Vicki at Homestead Blessings

2011-01-21T12:36:00.000-08:00

Howdy Y'all from Homestead Blessings!
   As you can see, we are covered in snow and it is so much fun! We love snow!
We have been very busy and productive on the homestead these past few months and due to that {and a cranky camera} we have not been so productive on blogging. What is that they say? Oh, "you can't have your cake and eat it too". I reckon we could change that saying to "you can't have your homestead and blog too". :)

     Back in the fall we helped our dear friends in Alabama harvest their first sorghum crop. It was lots of fun and a load of work too! Here, where we live, our neighbors make sorghum every year and we usually help out in the fields- so it was a new adventure when we were blessed with the opportunity to help out our friends.
   In September, we got to attend an Old Fashioned Ice Cream Social and Dance at a church fellowship not too far from here. We had a lovely time and met some wonderful new friends which is always a blessing. Most everyone who attended the dance came arrayed in period clothing with the Civil War being the main theme and we learned new dances like "The Tennessee Traveler" and "The Grand March".
    Thanksgiving was quiet at home and another family came to share our bountiful meal with us and in the late afternoon we had a huge rain storm which then brought cooler weather. We really had a good time decorating {in any creative manner we could} for the holiday of thankfulness. Jasmine and I found these beautiful green tinted wine goblets for only fifty cents each and we bought all of them {there were only 8}. Then I made name tags cut out in the fall leaf shapes with scripture on the back and we tied them to the goblets to complete our table setting decor. The meal was delightful with the usual dishes including our own homegrown turkey, weighing out to be 19 pounds dressed! We were pretty excited I must say.
And now, here of late we have been painting the house, room by room. It has been such a blessing to "build our house" as the woman in Proverbs 31 does. Coming up next is maple syrup {yeah!} and seed planting and chicken butchering and spring plowing....      Well! I better go and get busy! :)
                 Y'all take care and many blessings to your homesteads!
Cecilia for the West Ladies
www.homestead-blessings.com

2010-11-13T10:59:00.000-08:00

Hello y'all and thank you for your sweet comments! We've been busy preparing our garden for winter, and recently helped our neighbor butcher a deer, which was a blessed time of fellowship. We've also been making lots and lots of soap. Our vegetables in our hoop house are off to a great start. We harvested 8 5 gallon buckets of worm castings about a month ago and the wigglers are working hard so we will be harvesting hopefully that much more of Black Golds again in a few days (by the way did you know you can feed these wonder worms to your chickens and that it is pure protein?). We washed wool in tubs and used the left over wash water, which has lanolin and sheep manure, to fertilize our fall garden. Once the cold weather sets in, we will get goin' on our winter crafting projects, and by the way you might check out our Crafting DVD for gift giving ideas for the holiday season!

Have a blessed fall!
The West Ladies at Homestead Blessings

DVD Giveaway Winner!

2010-11-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to announce the winner of "The Art of Crafting DVD" for our giveaway,

Judy Frey!

Congratulations Judy, and thank you so much for participating, we hope you enjoy our newest DVD! Make sure to send us an email with the address to where you want the DVD to be sent at homesteadblessingsgiveaway@gmail.com

Thank y'all so much for participating in our giveaway, we had so much fun!

Blessings from The West Ladies

The Art Of Crafting - DVD Giveaway

2010-10-23T16:22:00.000-07:00

Howdy Folks!

We're excited to let y'all know about our new DVD "The Art of Crafting". This DVD is filled with a wide variety of frugal ideas and projects, like making pine cone fire starters, great for getting those homestead fires going; make quil (feather) pen then write with blackberry ink that you make; and learn to embellish linens with crochet trim.

We share many more craft ideas perfect for gift giving time or anytime! And, speaking of time, "The Art of Crafting" DVD is here just in time for our first DVD giveaway! Send an email to "homesteadblessingsgiveaway@gmail.com" to enter the giveaway. Also, if you post a link to our giveaway on your blog, you will improve your opportunity to win! Giveaway ends October 30th, and the winner will be announced November 1st.

Blessings,
The West Ladies

2010-09-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

Howdy Folks,   Wow has it been a busy summer, as you all know I,m sure! Well we found out a hard thing- homesteading and trying to juggle in a website too! We will be changing up a few things on our website, hopefully you all will like them.
We are reading out loud as a family a book called "Forty Acres and No Mule" by Janice Holt Giles. It is an excellent book based on true stories and events about homesteading in the mountains of Appalachia Kentucky. You can order the book from http://www.cumberlandbooks.com/. They have wonderful books.
We hope to be uploading great pictures of our bountiful onion harvest. They cured so good (300 of them) up in the barn hayloft this year. We are very excited.
                                         Well, that's all for now folks!
                                                            Many blessings to your homestead,
                                                                                 Vicki for the West Family

2010-09-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

            "I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvellous works."
                                                                                                                                  Psalm 9:1
Well, summer is coming to an end and we are grateful for the cooler weather. But I have noticed how we are always so thankful for a new season when it begins to change around us. I reckon that's what happens when you live seasonally. Just the other day I heard an elderly lady talking to another about the heat of the summer. She mentioned how unbareable and exshausting the heat was and how she "just could not wait for the winter time to get here." The second lady agreed with her, but then added,
"You know, we always seem to want something other than what we have. Either it's too dry, too wet, too hot or too cold. We are never satisfied"
How true were her words, and I decided right then to try not to complain and bare out the rest of the summer with a joyful and gratetful attitude. And here we are! Autunm is just around the corner!!
   We have stayed very busy the past three months since we have blogged. Canning, gardening, harvesting, swimming and filming. "The Art of Crafting" was finished at the end of July, making it the 11th film we have made. The Lord has blessed us and we are thankful.
This is just a quick blog to check in with y'all. And here are some pictures to share with y'all from our some of our summer projects.
                                          May the Lord bless and be with y'all!
                                                             Blessings,
                                                                    Cecilia for the West Family

Here are a few friends helping sort Red Wriggler Worms

Mama loves her worms!

Many hands make work light.

Our purple hull pea harvest

A basket full of garden blessings!

Georgia Peaches in a jar and water bathed for 25 minutes

Aren't they beautiful!

Pouring up ketchup

Ketchup is so much more fun to can over an open fire!

This is the way we wash the rugs!

Agitate with your bare feet, saves on your back!

We were able to make 16 pints of homemade ketchup!

Taking care of the hickory tree in the goat and sheep pen.

On a farm we don't ride for fun, we get things done! Look closely, our friend Samuel is bush hogging.

2010-06-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

Here are a few Homestead happenings that we thought y'all would like to see...

Outdoor laundry room,

Ready to wring and rinse,

This is barefoot work.

The hand wringer in use.

"She can bake a cherry pie..."

Yes, there are green beans in the garden!!

Bugs are out, so Jasmine is making up concoctions...

Pure essential oils and apple cider vinegar...

Make the best all-natural insect repellent!

Our biggest garden trellis....

will be a jungle house by August!

Making pleats for a civil war era apron,

takes a lot of ironing and patience!

Drying yarrow flowers.

Mama's wool ready to wash.

Hanging out to dry.

Adding finishing touches to our reenactment dresses.

"For the beauty of the earth..."

God's intelligent design and creation.

2010-06-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

Howdy Y'all!!
It has been a while since we have blogged because summertime on the farm brings very busy times!:) Our garden looks more like a jungle now and feels like one too with humidity and all, but somewhere in that jungle we find broccoli, cabbage, onions, peas. Today we canned a few quarts of cream of broccoli soup. That will be so wonderful in the winter when broccoli is scarce.
Our cherry tree is giving us some cherries now and Hannah baked a most delicious cherry cobbler last Sunday for dinner. Yum! We also have lots of beautiful tall weeds that we like to pull up and throw back onto the compost pile. It is wonderful "green food" for the garden. We planted cotton for the first time and it is coming up so well!! We are excited. Hope to use for pillow and quilts this winter. Speaking of quilts, we are blessed to announce that the 10th in the Homestead Blessings series, "The Art of Quilting" is now available on our website www.homestead-blessings.com come by and visit us today!
We are also, for the month of June, giving away our CD, "Farther Along" with every order of the 3 pack, 6 pack or 9 pack of the Homestead Blessings series, but only at www.homestead-blessings.com.
These pictures are from a couple weeks ago and things are already starting look different now. We hope to talk to y'all again soon. Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement! Enjoy your gardening and homesteading wherever you may be!!!

Blessings,

The West Ladies

Mama gathering from the garden.

Simple springtime beauties.

View from the back porch.

Out of railroad ties and old pots, life springs forth!

Calendula and Kohlrabi.

Broccoli harvest.

Calendula flower.

Onion bed.

Our little friend makes fresh mint tea.

Squeeze the juice from the leaves...

And pour it up!

To see more on how to make fresh delicious mint tea go to www.homestead-blessings.com and check out "The Art of Herbs" in the Homestead Blessings DVD series.

2010-05-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!
   Thanks be to God we are all fine and safe after the big storm and flooding in our area! It just happened that we have been out of town this past weekend and actually missed the storm, although our farm did suffer pretty badly as well as others around us. A tornado came through our valley early on Sunday morning, taking down some trees but no houses were lost. The flooding has done much damage to our farm, but our animals are all just fine and dry. Because of roads being out we have been delayed in getting back home, but hopefully tommorrow we will be able to make our journey back. We are praying for those in Nashville and other surrounding areas as they began to rebuild and recover from this devastating event.
                                                                            Blessings,
                                                                              The West Family

2010-05-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

Spring time in the holler...

2010-04-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!
We are having beautiful sunny days which means we have been busy in the garden!!! Yeah! This last weekend we had a family of 15 come from Alabama for a few days and they helped us out on the farm. It was great food, fun and fellowship. They helped us with wood, tin roof on an old shed, tilling the garden, general cleaning up and hauling hay, manure and leaves for mulch. The children loved the worm bin (where Mama grows Red Whiggler Worms for compost) and the creek where they proceeded to "fish" with cane poles and cotton string.
Then at the beginning of the week we had a family of 10 came to visit as they were making their way back home to Vermont. Once again we had wonderful fellowship and shared a meal with them. We were blessed by their music that they shared with us.

We have been transplanting starts in the little green house and in the garden. We are planting, and moving herbs around and mulching alot too. We have planted around 600 onion plants and about 75 pounds of potatoes, hopefully we will be planting 75 more soon. We are finding all kinds of woodland herbs popping up in the woods surrounding our home. Mama has been having fun taking pictures of them.
We are also trying in the meantime to work on the next upcoming DVD on the basics of homestead quilting. We are sewing blocks and patches and making little quilts- and weeding, mulching and planting the garden is kind of like making a big patch work quilt out side!
Well, I've got a lot of pictures to show y'all- so I better get on to that and then back to sewing, seeding, weeding and quilting!! We might get around to eating some supper tonight, but who knows!! :) We could always just munch on the lettuce that is out in the garden. Ha, Ha!
Blessings to y'all and your Homesteads,
Vicki and Cecilia

Spring Beginnings

2010-03-12T13:07:00.000-08:00

Robins are every where and the daffodils are blooming, spring is on it's way!

We have planted lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, snow peas and onions so far and still have lots more to do, but we are so happy that spring is here. The garden has just been plowed (yeah!) and soon we'll be planting green beans, purple hull peas, tomatoes, peppers and lots more veggies when the weather is right.

A Dimes Worth of Something

2010-02-27T18:16:00.000-08:00

A little encouragement for y'all who are planting seeds!

"I payed a dime for a package of seeds;

The clerk tossed them out with a flip.

'We have them assorted to every man's needs.'

He said with a smile on his lip.

'Pansies, poppies, asters, peas,

Ten cents a package, now pick as you please.'

Now seeds are just dimes to a man in a store,

And dimes are the things he needs,

And I've been to buy them in stores before

And thought them merely as seeds,

But it flashed through my mind as I took them this time,

'You've purchased a miracle here for a dime.'

You've a dimes worth of power, which no man can create.

You've a dimes worth of life in your hands.

You've a dimes worth of mystery, destiny, fate,

Which the wisest cannot understand.

In this bright little package - now istn't that odd?

You've a dimes worth of something known only to God."

~ Author Unkown ~

Vickie for the West Family

2010-02-26T14:43:00.000-08:00

Hello to all!
Sunny days = running sap from the giving maples! Yeah! We are grwoing cotton this year so now you can call us " cotton pickin' sap suckers"! Ha Ha !
   The wood cook stove is full of large kettles with wonderful "sweet water"- almost maple syrup!
Early this moring the house was very warm with smells of maple syrup and freshly baked bread. Now I'm getting "purdy" excited about planting and all. I started flats of broccoli and cabbage about 2 weeks ago in our kind nieghbors green house. Last night I planted 2 flats of seeds, parsley and edible flowers, yeah!
Went outside this morning to look over large garden area, gonna have it plowed with a team of Perchons. Hope to get ya'll some pictures of that! Hope to plant some snowe peas tommorrow, clean up, plan and pittle in the raised beds and all! Right now they look pretty bare. Found some old gourds up in the hayloft, we'll use those for Martin bird houses- can't wait!
Hope you can get outside and have fun too!
(P.S. My fingernails are dirty. That means it's nearing spring, which is great but... to keep that dirt thing from happening, you can scrape your fingernails acroos a bar of soap- then after you are done working in the garden just wash up! You'll have more soap than dirt!)
                                                        Blessings to your Homestead!
                                                                      Vicki for the West Family

2010-02-23T13:46:00.000-08:00

Here are the promised pictures! Wow, are we busy today! The sap has been running like crazy and so we have 150 gallons of sap to cook down today! There are 3 different fires we have going right now so we can boil down all the sap. Thank the Lord for this wonderful "run", hopefully we'll have enough to keep us in sweets till next year! :) Well, I better quit this rambling and get back to the sap. Y'all enjoy the pictures!
Blessings,
Cecilia for the West Family

Homestead Happenings

2010-02-21T16:06:00.000-08:00

Well we have been busy making bread, sewing dolls, cooking maple syrup and getting ready for spring. The air has warmed up quite a bit outside and the spring birds are singing. Speaking of birds, I have had fun taking pictures of robins, chickens and our goats. The goats love to nibble on my apron when I'm taking their picture. They don't hold still either, just jump around and such. :)

We have been working on the cookbook, trying out new dishes and deserts, we'll all have to do a lot of juicing after this!! Hah, hah!

Hopefully we'll have some more pictures up soon . Until then...

Blessings,

Vicki for the West Family

You Have Come to the right place

2010-02-17T10:18:00.000-08:00

Hello Y'all!
We are having our blog worked on (as you can see) and have changed our blog name "Hearts for Homesteading" to our company name "Homestead Blessings". Hope this has not caused y'all any confusion!

Be sure to visit Homestead Blessings' Online Store

"The trees of the Lord are full of sap..."

2010-02-03T14:25:00.000-08:00

Well the sap is running and we have tapped around 30 trees and have cooked down about gallon of syrup so far. It takes 30-60 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup depending on the year. This year it is taking about 60 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup.
The beautiful sugar snow we had last week has really helped with the sap flow since the nights are right below freezing and the days are up in the 50’s. The other night we read a chapter out of “Little House in the Big Woods” about how Pa went to Grandpa’s to make maple syrup and sugar. Another good book to read about making maple syrup is
“Maple Sugar for Wendy Foot” by Frances Frost. It is an older book but a great read aloud for the whole family to enjoy.
There is a lot of hard work involved in making maple syrup, but the product of beautiful amber color sweetness to pour over hot pancakes is a great reward. The “tapping” of the trees, collecting the sap, boiling down the sap into syrup which can be a long process in itself. But the good news is, you don’t have to live way out in the boondocks or even have a farm to make your own maple syrup! If you have a few sugar maples in your yard, you can tap those trees, collect that sap and cook down your syrup in your own kitchen! We have friends who live in downtown Birmingham who are making their own maple syrup right there in the city! Here is a good book list for you to gather information from:
Making Maple Syrup, By Noel Perrin ( A Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin)
Backyard Sugarin’ By Rink Mann ISBN 0-914378-20-1
The Maple Sugar Book By Helen and Scott Nearing ISBN 0-8052-3400-4
And remember there is a world of information out there on the internet!
Here are a few facts about making maple syrup:
When the temperatures get below freezing at night (32 degrees) and stay above freezing in the day, that is when the sap is running up the trees from the roots to the very tip top branches to get the tree ready to begin budding. It is at this time that you want to tap your trees. For the state of Tennessee, this usually happens at the end of January or the beginning of February.
The older the tree, the more sap it is able to produce. The Maple tree can live to be a hundred years old, some have even lived to be up to 300 years old.
The American Indians were the first recipients of maple tree sweet sap; they then shared it with the early American settlers.
Once a tree is big enough to tap (at least 10 inches in diameter) it can be tapped year after year.
Sugar Maples do not reach tappable size till forty or fifty years after planting.
Maple trees that have been tapped produce larger quantities of sugar water and contain more nutritive materiel than trees that have not been tapped. Tapping does not hurt the tree at all.
1 gallon of maple syrup weighs 11 pounds.

We use maple syrup for all kinds of things. Many times we substitute regular sugar for maple syrup. It is our main source of sweetener that we use, so it is very important for us to make at least 8 gallons of syrup for the year.
In between boiling down sap we have been making sour dough starter using freshly ground rye flour, brewing Kombucha tea (both recipes we got from Sally Fallon’s “Nourishing Traditions”) organizing our sewing room, quilting and playing in the snow!
Here is one of our favorite recipes using maple syrup:
Maple-Pecan Popcorn
8 cups popped popcorn
1 cup pecans, toasted
½ cup butter
1 ½ cups brown sugar or raw sugar
½ cup maple syrup
¾ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
Grease a large bowl with butter or oil. Add popcorn and pecans to bowl and toss together. Line a large baking sheet with foil grease with butter or oil, set aside. Combine butter, sugar, and syrup in a heavy bottom saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, then cook, without stirring, until mixture reaches 300 degrees on a candy thermometer (we just let it get real hot and bubbly for approximately 3 to 5 minutes). Remove immediately from heat and stir in salt and baking soda (mixture will foam). Quickly pour caramel over popcorn mixture and with an oiled spoon, stir until thoroughly coated. Turn mixture out onto baking sheet and spread into a single layer. Allow to cool slightly, then break into bite-sized pieces. Enjoy!
Well, I better be getting off this computer trap and get busy with the days living! Ya’ll should do the same! J
Proud to be Southern Sap Suckers,
Cecilia for the West Family

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Snow Days

2010-01-28T13:03:00.000-08:00

Well, they are predicting a winter storm with lots of ice and snow. Some folks dread the winter weather, but we are looking forward to lots of sledding and snowball fights! There is plenty of good dry wood and the wood cook stove is fired up, there will be hot soup and cornbread to eat and lots of good books to read for the cold snowy evenings. True winter weather hardly ever happens here in Tennessee, oh it gets very cold sometimes- but we see little snow. This year however it seems like we are getting our share. The sap has been running quite well the past week and with this "Sugar Snow" coming we should be collecting lots of sap.
Here are a few pictures from our last winter storm for y'all to enjoy.

A Winter Harvest

2010-01-27T13:42:00.000-08:00

Greetings once again, hope you all are staying warm!

It’s pretty cold today, well outside that is, inside we are very warm thanks to our wood cook stove and a stack of seasoned wood!
Just thought you all would enjoy a few posts about winter time herbal harvesting! Which I love to do. There is nothing like going out in the dead of winter and finding nutritious live food! Chickweed will grow from winter till late spring . Try some sprinkled over your salad or blend it in a smoothie! (Learn about making healthy and delicious smoothies on “The Art of Cooking” DVD.) You can read more about Chickweed in the previous blog. A few days ago I was out in the garden digging around in the dirt and I found Jerusalem Artichoke. I almost forgotten about them. Good thing I did cause those tubers have the best taste during cold months. A few folks call them sun chokes. I like the idea that they are a true survival food! You can find them growing wild along creek banks and roadsides. Jerusalem Artichokes are easy to grow and take very little care once they get going.
About five years ago a friend brought us some of the tubers. We planted them like potatoes, they grew like weeds! Come summer there stems shot up 3 to 5 feet with a small but beautiful yellow orange sunflower at the top. They can be very invasive so you might want to plant them out side your garden. We don’t start digging them till after the first frost in the fall. We dig what we need for that day leaving plenty to keep growing. We love these tubers raw sliced up in salads or sliced and stir fried in butter. Another method of preparation is scrubbed simmered in there skins in enough water to cover until tender then peeled and served either with butter and salt or with a cream sauce. Yum! You could also peel, oil and roast them. They can also be turned into pickles and pies! Wow, what a wonderful winter herb found naturally right on the homestead!
Well, I would like to get this posted and while the wood stove has the home so warm I would like to wash and hang some wool.
Happy Homesteading,
Vicki
www.homestead-blessings.com

The Winter Wonder Weed: Chickweed!

2010-01-26T14:14:00.000-08:00

“And thou shalt eat the herb of the field…” Gen. 3:18
There are many wonderful “weeds” that we can find easily in most yards, gardens, fields or roadsides that are actually very helpful, nutritious plants. A few of our family favorites are, wild violet, dandelion, horse radish, mullein, plantain and chickweed.
We would like to cover the above herbs in the blogs to come, for now we shall focus on chickweed because it thrives in the winter.
Chickweed is the most common of plants growing in all corners of the world. It is a lovely green plant which hugs the ground and has many small, heart shaped leaves.
Chickweed grows freely here in Tennessee all through winter and into early spring when the tiny white star flowers appear. Some folks think of this invasive weed as a real bother so they spend lots of energy pulling it up just to replace it with another plant which may be no more nutritious or valuable than the chickweed! (We use to do the same thing until we found out how good it was!)
Chickweed is an edible herb. When my daughters were very young they discovered chickweed while they played hard in our woods. Out behind our house, they would imagine being dainty English ladies drinking “tea” (spring water) with their pinkies poked up in the air or they were energetic Indians, whooping and running through the woods, they always made chickweed an important part of their play. When those little ladies and Indians got hungry what did they eat ? The girls would collect chickweed along with a few wild onions, wash the wild crafted herbs in the nearby spring and serve it up on cherry bark “plates”. Yum! I was amazed and grateful that they had chosen such a healthy ‘play food ‘ . Soon our whole family was enjoying this tasty free treat in our salads.
It is such a wonderful surprise that in the dead of winter you can find the lively, bright green plant growing there just waiting to serve you in food or medicine.
Chickweed can be used like spinach, some folks put it in their green drinks. You can make a nice tea with it. ( You may want to add peppermint or your favorite tea and honey to taste.) One of my favorite ways to use this versatile weed is by making a salve with it.
Although chickweed is a very safe and mild herb, it’s importance is great with many health benefits. Chickweed is rich in Vitamin C and minerals especially calcium, magnesium, potassium and zinc. It is good for you inside and out. Teas can be made with chickweed which could be used as a wash to help acne.
The North American Chippewa and Iroquois Indians use it as an eyewash, and as we already mentioned the little ladies and Indians of the West woods, ate their chickweed.
Chickweed is very good for skin diseases such as eczema, it is both soothing and healing on psoriasis, rashes and sores. Chickweed has been used for sores in the mouth and throat. This wonder working weed is also good for burns and works at drawing out boils and splinters.
Chickweed helps any form of internal inflammation. It is used for lung conditions and great for coughs and colds. It is a blood purifier and absorbs toxins from the bowls. It dissolves plaque in the blood vessels and more. Now that’s what I call a wonder weed!
Our family counts it a real blessing to have chickweed come up all over our gardens and fields without our sowing, planting or cultivating, free for our using for our food and health! We are so grateful to our Creator for chickweed. I hope you can find this treasure of an herb soon and discover for yourself the many blessings of this wonderful winter weed we call chickweed.

Dairy Delights

2010-01-20T10:32:00.000-08:00

Howdy Everyone!
We would like to share with y'all about making your own whipped cream! It is sooo easy I'm sure anyone can do it. Start with the chilled heavy whipping cream (about 2 cups)sometimes it helps to chill the bowl you'll be whipping in. We like to use hand cranked egg beaters (since we don't have the electric type) to whip our cream with. What you basiclly do is just beat the cream until it is like the consistitensy of cool whip or stiff egg whites. Right when it starts getting thicker and fluffy, add 1 tsp. vanilla, enough maple syrup to sweeten as you like, and a pinch of salt. The whipping of the cream is like your 15 minute farm girl work out! Sometimes we trade off and share the healthy exercise! This makes a great topping for any kind of desert or just to enjoy by itself. Here are some pictures of a No-Bake Raspberry Swirl Cheese Cake that Hannah whipped up right out of her head! She is good at that kind of thing. Hopefully this recipe will be included in our cook book coming out this spring! For more great recipes check out our newest DVD "The Art of Dairy Delights". This video includes how to make yogurt, mozzerella cheese, butter and much more!You can see it at www.homestead-blessings.com. Alright, better be going- y'all take care and have a blessed day on your Homestead!
PS: Coming up next, maple syrup season!

A Gingerbread Barn Raising

2010-01-04T11:14:00.001-08:00

Over the holidays we spent our time building a gingerbread barn. It was so much fun! We had never made a gingerbread house/barn before so this was a great adventure for us!
Hope y'all enjoy the pictures!
Blessings,
The West Ladies

Holidays on the Homestead

2009-12-22T13:26:00.000-08:00

Greetings to y'all!
Winter has come to our valley and although we've yet to see snow... it has been very chilly here. Winter weather brings us in doors by the warm cook stove and we pull out our winter projects to work on by lamp light. Projects like washing wool, stitching on quilts, sewing dolls, making felt socks and hats,canning chili beans and baking cinnamon breads and apple pies. We have found a wonderful easy recipe for apple pie that never fails:
Classic Apple Pie
6 cups sliced apples
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. sugar
Place apple slices in pastry lined pie pan. Sprinkle with next 5 ingredients, dot with butter. Cover with top crust; cut vents. Brush with additional melted butter; sprinkle with sugar. Bake @ 400 degrees for 45 minutes.

This holiday season we have spent singing carols around the fire place, having gingerbread "barn raising's" and inviting folks into our home for delicious meals made from the gardens bountiful harvest.
On the homestead, things are moving along in the seasonal orderly fashion. In our new hoop house we have "baby" lettuce, spinach and greens popping up and even though the weather has not been so much to our favor- Hannah and Cecilia still find the courage to brave the cold and ride the horses and before too long it will be time to start tapping maple trees for syrup season!
As we enter into yet another year, we pray that our hearts will be turned towards Christ more and more as we diligently do the work He has given us for occupation until His return.
Happy New Year and many blessings to you and your homestead!
The West Family

A little bit of alot of news...

2009-09-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a very busy and exciting summer for us here at Homestead Blessings. Gardening, canning, swimming in the creek, cleaning house, farming, hauling hay and fellowshiping with other like minded believers on the front porch while the sun sank west over the hills. We have had some cooler weather already, a little early this year I think. The other morning we had a fire going in our wood cookstove and it felt so nice and cozy. We are always greatful for fall to come, bringing the cooler beautiful weather and bluegrass festivals in eastern Tennessee. Bluegrass festivals are a wonderful part of our lives and we always look froward to going to them and hearing good music, eating good food and meeting new people. We are currently working on the "Homestead Blessings Cookbook" which will be out sometime this fall, we're hoping. Also coming up soon we'll be filming the next three Homestead Blessings DVD's, so keep an eye out for them. Well,take care ya'll, and may you have many God given homestead blessings!

Happy Independence Day!

2009-06-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

Hey Y'all!
We hope y'all are having a great summer. We have been getting ready for the 4th of July and working in the garden and canning up veggies. If any of you have not heard about our website, we would like to let y'all know about it. www.homestead-blessings.com We'll be keeping y'all up dated in the future. Till we meet again!
Blessings
The West Family

"There's green beans in the garden..."

2009-06-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

Truely there are lots of green beans in the garden! So we have been busy canning up those beans here of late. The heat has come to beautiful Tennessee and so we spend our extra time in the really nice and cool swimming hole. Satarday we went to sing at the Nathen Beford Forrest homeplace in Chapel Hill and had a wonderful time. There were lots of re-enactors (including us) and very neat calvery and infatry demostrations and delicious homemade ice cream cranked by a John Deere hit and miss engine. Let me tell you, it hit the spot for us!This week will be a busy one for us, tomorrow we'll be canning green beans (of course), making soap, washing luandry and pulling weeds from the garden. We'll also be canning zuccihini and maybe some green tomatoes too. I need to make strawberry jam and we need to check the blueberry patch on top of the hill to see if there are any ripe.
Bella, our wonderful blue heeler, had 8 puppies a few weeks back so we are excited to have the cutest little pups running around. They are growing so fast.
We are so excited by the arrivel of summertime... so many wonderful things like splashing in the creek, picking blackberries, eating watermelon and fried green tomatoes, sitting on the front porch swing singing old mountian songs, canning up pickles and jams, picking on the guitar and banjo, fishing in Buffaloe river, chasing lighting bugs- oh the list goes on. May God bless ya'll and have a wonderful summertime! We'll be keeping in touch!

Slow me down Lord, ease the pondering of my heart.
By the quieting of my mind, steady this hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time.
Give me among the confusion of the day the calmness of the everlasting hills.
Author Unknown
www.homestead-blessings.com

2009-06-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 6 2009
Hey Ya’ll! Sorry it has been a while since we have written, but as you can imagine things are really busy on a farm in the spring and summertime. We have been gardening (of course) and getting ready for the next Homestead Blessings video series.
A few weeks ago we had help from some dear friends at church who came out and built our new chicken house! It is really awesome and we are very grateful to them. The hens and rooster are very happy now in their new home!
Yesterday we got two new things for our homestead. A nice 7 foot deep swimming hole dug out in the creek by the garden (so we can cool down on those hot summer days to come) and a free kitten from a yard sale! We needed another cat because the two we have are getting old and a little lonely for a youngster running around. She is silvery gray and has green eyes. We have called her Fiona Gray. Also, Billy the Kid got a new home yesterday. L I was a little sad to see him go, but we can’t have a Billy goat on the farm. So now Magnolias milk production will go up, I hope.
This past week we filmed the Canning video. And the week before that we filmed the Gardening video. We only have one more to film for this series, the Herbal one. Since we filmed the Canning one, it got us a head start on our summer canning. So far we have put up, 14 quarts of green beans, 7 quarts of tomato puree, 6 or 7 quarts of blackberry jam and a little bit of sour kraut and pickled eggs. This is just the beginning though, we usually like to can at least 100 quarts of green beans not counting all the other fruit and vegetables we put up.
We have harvested almost all of the early spring garden- broccoli, cauliflower, peas, lettuce, spinach, all this is over with so we replanted the raised beds with peppers, basil and other hot weather plants.
We have quite a big day ahead of us today. We are going to try and build a chicken pen for around the new chicken house, pull up the peas and replant lima beans, harvest potatoes, and I need to find some time in between all that to can some dilly beans and the rest of the tomatoes. So I better be going. Magnolia needs milking and the little chicks need feeding.
Many blessings to ya’ll!
Cecilia

2009-06-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

Wednesday May 20 2009

We have been very busy here on Homestead Blessings since spring has sprung and the sun finally decided to shine and chase away all the rain. Yesterday, was a beautiful, beautiful, perfect day. The bluest skies, warm sunshine and a gentle southern breeze blowing, not too hot and no humidity. We even had a fire going in the cook stove in the morning because it was so cool. The garden is so beautiful right now and we spend 90% of our day out in it. We had part of the film crew out here yesterday morning getting some B roll shots for our new up coming DVD on gardening. So most of the morning we were all outside, hoeing the beans and potatoes, making raised beds for holy basil, marigolds, balsam and parsley, digging our first new potatoes, picking our first harvest of peas and squishing bugs that were on the potato plants. We have been using some straw for the pathways in the spring garden, so the contrast of the golden yellow straw and the brilliant green of the broccoli and cabbage is amazing. At dinner we all came in, sat around the table and enjoyed the meal and each others company. With the new potatoes and peas we just harvested, I made creamed potatoes and peas which was amazingly good, not because of my cooking, but because they were organically homegrown and very fresh. We also had, home canned green beans, yellow squash cornbread, fresh lettuce and blueberry buckle for desert.

After dinner we did some cultivating with our mare Cascade, staked our tomato plants, and found that our newly hatched Barred Rock laying hens that we ordered in the mail, were gone from their little chicken tractor out by the barn. Only 3 were left out of 15, we figured my blue heeler, Bella, must have gotten to them while we were eating dinner. ‘Tis a very sad fate, but that can happen on a farm. Bella is a very good cattle dog and watch dog. We have her trained to keep the chickens and goats out of the garden and she does very well herding up the horses for us. She just hasn’t been trained to leave the baby chicks alone yet. Needless to say, I’m working on that now.

Billy the Kid is getting very big and today he is 2 weeks old. He is very playful and friendly, and he has not discovered how to get out of the pen yet, which we are very grateful for. I milk Magnolia every morning, even with the kid on her all day and night, she still gives about a quart of milk. She is very good about milking. I just take a bucket of feed out there to her, squat down and began to milk. She never kicks, moves or anything. It is wonderful. When Billy is weaned, we’ll take him to sale barn or sale him to someone locally. We are going to get another young nanny soon, and hopefully some lambs in June. So our small herd is growing! Well, I best be moving along, there is laundry to be washed, eggs to check, planting to do and songs to be written.

The Lord Bless Y’all!

A Rambling Farmgirl,

Cecilia

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

2009-06-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

We truly understand the saying, “Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise”! I remember one spring day, a few months after we just moved here, attending the small local church and hearing the preacher say these very words; “We will all meet here next Sunday, Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise”. He meant it! Every word, because the creek is liable to rise real fast if we’ve had a lot of rain. We are so sorry for the folks who have had hard times from it! Some lost horses, many of our neighbors lost their crops of watermelon and corn, and the top soil off their fields which is quiet a loss. We are still grateful for the much needed rain. Our neighbors will plant again what they lost and the sun will shine again soon!

Blessings to your Homestead,
Vicki

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

2009-06-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well, we got our rain Mama wrote of. It started on Tuesday afternoon and continued on and off for the rest of the week. Yesterday morning we woke to find our lovely little creek that gently flows through our front yard to be a mighty raging river pouring out of its banks. Our foot bridge that goes over the creek was swept sideways and covered with water and debris, but we pulled it out with a 4-wheel drive truck and got it to higher ground. The little dirt road we live on became a nice sized flowing creek, and a few places where there were coverts got completely washed out, leaving big holes impossible to drive around. Several corn fields and watermelon patches were washed out, taking all the nice top soil with it, leaving big gravel bars behind. The old timers are saying this is the biggest flood we’ve had in this area since ‘91. Through it all, we managed just fine and things will be back to normal soon. With all this rain, everything has turned mighty green and our garden has grown a lot with the past week. It’s almost like you can watch it grow! But along with the peas, potatoes and lettuce, the weeds are popping up everywhere! I fully understand the term, “growing like a weed”. It can be very hard to keep up with them!

Yesterday I noticed the green beans are coming up in the garden. We’ll be picking our first crop at the first of June most likely. There will be “green beans in the garden”!! Our Nubian/Boar goat, Magnolia, is due to kid sometime this month. It’s exciting to think we’ll have fresh milk and little baby goats jumping and running around the place. Magnolia was born on this farm two years ago and this will be her first time to kid.

The blueberry bushes are blooming and there are little peaches on the peach trees. We are expecting a good crop of apples from our orchard on top of the hill this year. The strawberries are ripe and ready to pick, thus beginning the long canning season. This month we’ll put up strawberries and green peas most likely.

I have been busy sewing the past week. Making dresses, skirts and aprons from patterns (first time I’ve really used a pattern) from the 1860’s era. I love to sew (and wear!) these clothes, it’s like your stepping back in time. We can relate so much to the old days because we live very similar to the way everyone did then. We even sew on a treadle sewing machine like the folks did then!

Well, I best be ending this essay and go fix some buttermilk biscuits and gravy for dinner. Ya’ll take care now!

A Rambling Farmgirl,
Cecilia

West Girls Buttermilk Biscuits
4 cups unbleached white all-purpose flour
8 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Mix these dry ingredients together. Add just enough lard or coconut oil to make flour mixture like course cornmeal. Then add just enough buttermilk to make soft biscuit dough. Roll out 1 inch thick and cut with regular canning jar ring or biscuit cutter. Bake at 400 degrees until lightly browned on top. Makes around 12 biscuits

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

2009-06-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

Well time has gone by as it so quickly does and we have now had some very hot and dry days! That’s Tennessee for you! We have been able to pick pok choy, butter crunch lettuce, (my favorite) spinach, a spring mix with wild flowers and more! Its is such a blessing to gather the beautiful, healthy food that will nourish another sweet family ! There are many wild trees and flowers to enjoy right now, dogwoods, mountain laurel, blackberry and more! Plants are so amazing to me! They feed us, cloth us, (cotton, flax and linen) give us medicine to heal us, feed our animals and more. Wow, we are blessed! It is so wonderful to work with them and watch them grow. We are truly working close to our Creator when we are in the dirt!

We got the tomatoes (that we started in the green house from seed) planted in the garden this week. We planted Roma tomatoes which make the best for canning pizza sauce, ketchup and salsa. This year we started our okra in the green house around the first of the month and we set the plants out in the garden yesterday. That way we will have okra a little bit earlier this year. Maybe some jambalaya and okra file` gumbo will be on the menu this spring. Okra is related to the hibiscus flower and is very healthy for you. Some dear friends of ours came out yesterday and helped us build a big beautiful trellis for our cherry tomatoes and hyacinth bean to grow and climb on. We will also plant the beautiful moon flower vine that blooms big and white in the evenings. It is so nice because we will be able to walk under the arbor into the big garden, pick our food and enjoy the beauty of it!

I’ve been transplanting zinnias and marigolds from the greenhouse out into the garden. I got African marigold this year for a salve I would like to make and marigolds are soooo good for the garden and to keep away bugs. Zinnias make beautiful cut flowers and of course look wonderful in the garden! Cecilia and Hannah have been staking the early peas and Jasmine is planting arugula. We are all trying to get plants and work in before the rain comes in the next couple of days. We will be working on getting a new chicken coop built next week. We are having to move our hens to another spot on the farm because they like to find our neighbors garden and scratch up their lettuce. Oh how they love to ramble! We have 18 hens and 1 rooster that give us plenty of beautiful brown eggs. (Not the rooster of course!) Three times a week we sale eggs to our faithful egg customers, which is more than enough to help pay for the feed and still leave plenty of eggs for us!

Well I must go transplant my basil now. We love pesto, and we eat it with almost every meal in the summertime! We hope to share a few recipes with ya’ll in the future. That’s all for now folks, gotta get back to the garden!

Blessings,

Vicki

P.S Here is a recipe we love to use when the spinach is coming in:

Mushroom and Spinach Marinate
1 gallon sized bag of baby spinach or chopped large spinach
1 ½ cup mushrooms, sliced
1 can black olives, drained and sliced
¼ cup olive oil - or more if needed
Celtic or Kosher salt
Fresh cracked black pepper
Toss spinach and mushrooms with olive oil, add black olives, pepper and salt to taste. Let marinate in warm kitchen for 1-2 hours or in fridge overnight. We like it best at room temperature. This sounds too simple to taste good, but we love it and even served it at a gourmet party and everyone raved about it.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

2009-06-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

Hello from the West Family! While its raining out, just thought I would give an update on what’s happening here on the homestead. The rain is much needed and we are very grateful. It’s a bit chili, we must be having what the old timers call Blackberry Winter. But our little seedlings are staying nice and warm in the kitchen by the old wood cook stove. The raised beds are filling out with lettuce, cabbage, radish and broccoli. Chickweed is everywhere, we have been collecting and drying for later use for our healing salve. The herbs we have throughout the garden are making their appearance!

The Greek oregano are large, beautiful mounds of green. Its ready for its first trim. We have already made herb butter with plenty of oregano, garlic chives, thyme and sage. All ingredients right from our very own homestead ! You can make this healthy, tasty, butter too, here’s how; soften unsalted butter, 1/4 pound or so, you can add some olive oil if you wish, then chop or cut up about 1 to 2 teaspoons of fresh herbs real fine,(or if your using dried, ½ teaspoon) sprinkle the herbs into the butter, whip or stir the green and yellow mixture, and there you have it! Just pop this herb butter into the fridge or another cool place wait an hour or so, over night, even better! Yum! This wonderful, better butter, is so good spread on fresh baked bread or pastas or any food you would like to flavor up.

Blessings,

Vicki