At the beginning of every season, I declare confidently that I am going to do a better job of documenting our season. And every year it seems I get worse and worse about actually doing it! During the day, I get too busy working and don’t take the time to take photos and then by late afternoon or evening, I’m just so ready for a shower or dinner needs to be made (always, dinner). All that to say, the season has begun in earnest! The daffodils have arrived as have the hellebores, the first cherry blossoms and, sadly, the invasive lesser celandine. Oh, what I would give to not have to battle invasives. Our world is hard enough without battling these thugs in our own garden escapes! Nevertheless, let’s celebrate those things we want to bloom!
In Bloom
The hellebores are blooming and are as lovely as ever. I’ve noticed a proliferation of tiny hellebores growing around all the ones we planted, they must be self seeding! My favorite time of the day right now is when the hellebores are backlit by the setting sun.
The daffodils have also started blooming around the farm! I love the drifts through the orchard, it’s a happy, sweet little area. Now if only we could get some apples!
The forsythia has been a shining star in the landscape and on our mudroom table!
In The Garden
I’m sooo anxious for some garden produce but we just aren’t there quite yet. The rhubarb is coming along and I did just see the first asparagus spears appear so hopefully my next update will happily share that we are eating from the garden again! I have gotten the cool season plants sown and started (peas, beets, carrots, lettuces and greens), the sweet peas are placed out and the ranunculus too!
In somewhat distressing news, I noticed that my seedlings under grow lights are starting to fall over. This could be caused by two things- lack of light or dampening off. I believe it’s because of the grow lights being too far away from the trays, forcing the seedlings to become too leggy and weak. Ya’ll, I didn’t even pay attention to how far the lights were from the trays, normally we move them up as the seedlings get bigger, but this year we forgot to move them down! I’m not sure if they can be saved, will keep you updated!
Celebrate
Easter completely snuck up on me this year! I found myself Easter morning dodging raindrops, that turned into a downpour, foraging for materials to make a very last minute arrangement for our table!
While we had a fairly simple Easter lunch with family, a few standouts were Bryce’s “bloody bunny”, Grace’s deviled eggs with dill and salmon roe, and ramp butter, made with the very first ramps of the season, to top my sister’s biscuits. The bloody bunny, while a horrible name, was a fun Easter riff on a Bloody Mary. It was made with carrot juice instead of tomato juice and we decided that it was a health drink! We followed the recipe from Drink Your Garden by Belinda Kelly and Venus Cunningham. This was a Christmas gift and while this is the first drink we’ve made from it, it does seem promising!
On The Farm and In The Store
Last week, our Peony Workshops went live and we are so excited to welcome everyone back to the farm! This year, we are adding another date! The workshops are May 23rd and May 30th. As of now, we have 3 spots left on the 23rd and the 30th is wide open. Please ask any questions you might have, this is a special day for us and I love sharing the peonies. Speaking of peonies, the first ones have made their way up and are looking great! Of course, this also means wedding has started in earnest.
That’s it for now, I’ll leave you with a photo of the hardest working member of the family… Rosie :).
