No Time for Slacking!

Well, one farmers' market will soon be over...one more market day until late next spring.  There will be a market "finale" next week.  I'm taking along my spinning wheel and will demonstrate spinning wool into yarn.  There will be face painting and pumpkin decorating for the kids, an apple pie contest, and strolling musicians.  Should be fun.  My other two markets will continue for another month or until the produce is gone.  

But, that doesn't mean I can slack off.  No way!  Christmas is only months away and I have craft shows/events still to come after the markets close for the winter.   I joined a once-a-month winter farmer's last year and it will be starting soon.   My family and I are looking forward to attending again.   My soaps continue to sell, which means my inventory is quite low right now and I have to keep at it...making and wrapping soaps.

I washed sheep wool yesterday.  The fall brings along several events where I spin wool into yarn.  I haven't bought commercially prepared roving in quite a while since I was given 4 HUGE  bags of wool.  But I have to make time to pick it out and wash it so it's ready when I need/want to spin.  Sometimes I'll card the wool with my drum carder, but lately I've been using my hand cards.  People like to see that, as well as the spinning.

And I need to somehow find time to work in the garden, plant some fall veggies I bought, pick peppers and make pepper jelly.  Not enough hours in the day!  Maybe I should give up sleeping.  LOL!

It's been a mostly dreary, humid, sometimes rainy week.  I washed laundry this morning, but had to use the electric clothes dryer instead of my "solar dryer".  It rained this morning and it's so humid the clothes wouldn't dry anyway.   The humidity hasn't allowed me to wrap any soaps this week either.  It doesn't affect the soaps that are already wrapped, but the ones that not wrapped yet are damp.  That's a good thing in that it tells me my soaps are doing what they're supposed to do....be moisturizing.   Once the humidity level goes down, I'll be able to package the soaps.  Or I could wipe them off with a paper towel and wrap them anyway.  I did that earlier this summer and it seemed to work okay.

This coming weekend I have two events to attend.  Saturday is Marquand's Pioneer Days and Saturday & Sunday is the Cat Ranch Art Guild's Art Show.  I'll be there on Sunday.   At both events, I'll bring along my spinning wheel and sheep wool to demonstrate spinning and my family will sell my soaps.  I hope someone has funnel cakes for sale.  They are one of my favorite treats!

Better go for now.  Have to fix supper early as the kids have their 4-H meeting this evening.

Canning, Soap Making, Baking Bread, and Knitting

Had a busy week last week.  I've started baking bread to sell at the farmers' markets along with my goat milk soaps.  So I spent last Tuesday baking until it was time to leave for the market.  Wednesday morning was another market.  Afterwards I drove to my parents' farm and picked up 3 boxes full of green beans that Daddy had picked earlier in the day.  I put in them in the freezer and finished that job around midnight.  

I spent 5 hours Thursday at the shop where repairs were made on my Durango.  To pass the time, I finished a pair of hand knit socks for #2 daughter and started on another pair.  I have lots of wool socks now, so I thought I'd knit a pair to sell at one of my craft shows this fall.  While at the Saturday morning farmers' market I was telling an acquaintance of mine about this pair of socks and she wants to buy them.  She doesn't care what color or pattern I make them; she just wants a pair of socks that I knitted.

I canned a double batch of spaghetti sauce, as well as a double batch of salsa last Friday.  I didn't have enough spaghetti sauce to fill the last jar, so I made spaghetti and meatballs for supper tonight, along with 2 baguette shaped loaves of artisan herb bread.  The French chevre goat cheese, seasoned with Ranch seasoning, that I made was delicious on this bread.    I ate some on my sandwich at lunchtime, too.  

We're getting lots of goat milk right now, and I have another batch of French chevre sitting until the morning, when I'll drain it and put it in the freezer.  Hubby is patiently waiting for me to make feta cheese.  He really likes the marinated feta.  Timewise, I won't be able to make that particular cheese until later in the week.  I think we need to seriously consider buying an ice cream maker to make home-made ice cream with all the milk we're getting now.  The goatie girls are really producing!!!  Hubby is milking three right now, and we're still waiting for one of the does to give birth anytime.

Tomorrow is Market Day.  I have a batch of artisan herb bread dough in the fridge and will bake it tomorrow.  I have an order for 2 loaves of that bread.  I mixed up another batch of sourdough refrigerator rolls and they are in the fridge until tomorrow morning.  I plan to bake a double-batch of the garlic dinner rolls since they sell out quickly, just ahead of the sourdough rolls....which are wonderful with another vendor's honey spread on top!

I was finally able to make soap today!  Yeah!  I made Smokey Patchouli goat milk soap...not my favorite; and a new scented soap....Magnolia Magnifique.  I wasn't sure what to expect other than it was a floral, but it smells really nice so far.   Have more soap making to go as I'm out of Lavender, Frankincense & Myrrh, plain lye soap, and low on other scents.

Well, it's my bedtime, so I'd better get off of this computer.  I have a busy day tomorrow baking breads and rolls. 

Time is Flying!

Well, here it is September and I haven't posted for over a month!   Hubby and I took #1 Daughter to airport 3 weeks ago and she is now living across the country in the Desert Southwest.  

I've canned lots of pepper jelly, a few tomatoes, and a batch of spaghetti sauce.  Not much else is doing really well in my garden except for the jalapenos.  Speaking of which, it's time to pick them again, and then make more jelly.

My 2 younger kids started a new school year 3 weeks ago.  And  since this coming Monday is Labor Day, they'll have a day off and so will Hubby.  We were thinking of visiting Elephant Rock State Park for the day, but I guess we'll wait and see.  May just grill or smoke something here and enjoy the day at home.

I had a tour at our small farm this past Monday morning.  It was fun!  Four moms and their 2 year olds came out to see the baby goats.  I had the babies' milk bottles ready so the tots could feed them.  First off though, the goats were in the woods and all came to the barn when I called, except that they left the youngest baby goat in the woods by himself.  So I hurried out to find him and he followed me back to the barn.  He was the most playful and the 3 little girls and 1 little boy could hug and pet him; and he followed them all around the barn and the field.   The moms took lots of pictures.

I'm trying something new for two of my three farmers' markets.  In addition to selling my soaps, I made home-made breads and dinner rolls this last week.  I sold everything but 2 breads at the Tuesday market.  Of those two,  I gave one away and the other one sold at my Wednesday morning market first thing before I even finished setting up.  That night I searched the internet and found some sources for bread bags and bought 2 cases.  Guess that means I have to bake breads now so the bags don't go to waste.  Ha, ha!  I recently bought a new Artisan bread book and it has lots of great recipe ideas.  In fact, I made couple of the breads in this book and sold them at the farmers' market.  I have some Deli Rye Bread rising right now and will bake it later to go with our supper.

I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to spend much time knitting.  However, I had to take my vehicle into the shop this morning and I did finish a dishcloth.  Something mindless to work on while waiting.   

I haven't been able to make soap lately, but I finally made a batch of Black Raspberry-Vanilla.  It seems to be the "It" fragrance this summer.  It will be ready to sell before the market season is over.

The kids are home from school now, so I should go and get their snacks ready.