This Week at Ramsey Farms

Week ending June 7, 2014

I harvested my first batch of homegrown beets this week!! Just a few large early beets and made two pints of pickled beets. Yum! Tastes like my Grammaw's recipe!!

The house was shown four times this week!! That is a record that more than doubled the number of total showings. There is someone interested in making an offer on the "Big Farm" we found in Georgia back in April. They have not made an official offer, so I'm not too concerned. Yet. Plus I know that what is meant to happen is what will happen. If that property sells before mine does, well so be it. I

believe that means there is another farm looking for us. (That's right, the piece of real estate is searching us out and wanting us to come find it, buy it, make it our home.)

My next door neighbor gave us a heap of yellow squash that we have thoroughly enjoyed eating on this week! My son likes to eat it raw with raw onions. (Don't ask.) I did a squash, onion, garlic saute one night, a cheesy delicious squash casserole another night, and fried squash two more nights! We're also eating lots of carrots and onions and it's time again to harvest some sweet peas and radishes and maybe a few more days until I will want to take up more beets. I
have been cutting and drying the garlic scapes (scallions/stems) for use in recipes.

Baked lots of yummy breads this week including one that will be perfect for a friend's baby shower next weekend. By the way, all the strawberry jam I made was sold - the feed n' seed sold out and had people coming back asking for more! I plan to make a much bigger batch of blackberry / raspberry jams in the coming week or two. That way I can put up my own stash and sell a good bit too. (Don't worry, I have my own personal stash of the strawberry, too. Under lock and key. Ha!) :)

Made my own sour cream by mixing 1 cup whole milk with 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar in a glass jar. Shake it up very well. Put it at the back of your fridge (the coldest location) and let it set up for at least about 30 minutes. Do NOT shake it or stir it! The cream will rise to the top and the vinegar will sink to the bottom of your jar. Spoon out the cream and use just like store-bought sour cream - it is easy and delicious! The sour cream you made will be good as long as the date on your milk - so use that as your expiration date. Enjoy!

Created new batches of sunscreen, bodywash, hand soap, and tried a new dish soap recipe this week. Hopefully one of these days I will get all these DIY all-natural recipes posted to share with y'all.

We held a bonfire and wienie roast on Friday. It's so lovely to eat outside at the table or on the picnic blanket while watching the fire and taking in the beauty of the garden. And what bonfire is complete without roasting some marshmallows? We made lots of s'mores for dessert then caught lightning bugs and chatted by the fireside until late.