FROST!

This little fella is not cold!

The weather man said it would happen last night and he was right. There was a light frost covering the grass, gardens and windshields this morning when I went out to feed the animals at 6am. I am so not ready for the changing of the season, it seems so early after such a late spring.

Dalton is warm too...

I was pleased with myself for harvesting and picking another good batch of Calendula yesterday morning and setting them to dry. There have been around 12 pounds of these dried so far this season. Quite an accomplishment for me, that is a pretty good size bed of plants. With the tops harvested every couple of days just after they have bloomed and before they begin to wilt with age. We will have quite a few seeds as well.

Fresh Dried Calendula Petals

Have you ever seen what a pound of Calendula petals looks like? They will fill and packed HARD into 4 Quart canning jars! So that is around 48 Quart Jars full of these lovely and treasured petals. Available in one ounce, half pound and one pound in our Etsy shop. They have been popular and I expect to be sold out of them before the winter is out. No worries here though I have several pounds set aside just for our use in our soap, salves and other herbal goodies.

The Chamomile did not grow well in our gardens this year. Instead I purchased several pounds from a local herbalist and have those stashed away and in our shop. They make very tasty tea when I mixed them with our bee balm and a bit of our mint and chocolate mint.

Some side shoots loaded into the dehydrator

Today we will be sadly putting away some of the summer time toys and yard ornaments. The wading pool, all but one bike and a few other toys will be washed, dried in the sun and stored safely away until its time to take them out again. We will pack a picnic breakfast/brunch and head over to the town park to watch and cheer on Daisy for her Soccer practice today. She is very excited and can’t wait for the first one to start today.

Side shoots grow off the side of the broccoli stem after the main blossom has been cut. They ae smaller but just as tasty.