Farmer's Markets, Golden Eggs and Low Maintenance Gardens

THINGS ARE POPPING UP ALL OVER!

Things are really growing around here! We’ve got onions, potatoes, spinach, green beans, lima beans and radishes up. Today we finally got some corn and lettuce planted along with more green beans and onions. Hopefully, I’ll have baby chicks next week. Oh! And you’ve just got to see this little cutie!

THE FARMER'S MARKET

Our first farmer’s market went ok. We had about 30 dozen eggs and ended up selling quite a few of them for $1.25 a dozen. That doesn’t come anywhere near covering our production costs, but we didn’t want to take them home. Because of the flooding, the market is being held at the train depot in Burlington. I thought there were a lot of people there, but the veteran vendor’s said it was really slow so we expect things to get much better. BTW, if you want to come, it is held from 5-8 pm every Thursday. We’ll be going to Keokuk in a couple of weeks and probably to Carthage too.

ON THE CRAFT TABLE

Take a look! Grampa Tom had a fantastic idea for reusable shopping bags!

Cool huh? And to think we’ve been burning our feed bags for years! He’s asking $10 a piece. If you’d like to buy one, stop by or e-mail me. mailto:gramasues@hughes.net/

We’ve also got “golden goose eggs” and smaller “golden nest eggs”

We’re asking $2.50 for the goose eggs and $1.50 for the nest eggs. Pretty cheap way to make someone a little richer! I also pray over each one that God would enrich the lives of those who receive them.

Our gazebo blew down in a wind storm last week. Not a bad thing – we were planning to take it down and use the metal for tomato plant supports anyway. Last year, I wove a top for it out of pink and yellow material. I took the top off and plan to try braiding a rug out of it. That’s what I’ll be working on this weekend.

NEW PROJECTS

We’ve got 2 new projects we are adding to my 30/$30 list.

1. We’ve decided we will offer to build the low maintenance gardens for other people. These gardens take a lot to build, but once they are up, they are a breeze to take care of and they produce a ton of food. A 4 x16 foot garden can produce enough vegetables to feed 2 people for a year. We went to a seminar back in January to learn about them and are very excited. If you’d like to read more about these gardens, go to:

http://www.gardeningrevolution.com/index.html

We are also talking about offering classes for those who want to do it themselves.

2. The other is affiliate marketing. If you click on the ads on my blog, I’ll get a commission on anything you buy!


GRAMA'S WISDOM

(tips, recipes and ideas for saving money)

How to Boil a Fresh Egg

This secret actually comes from one of the greatest sources of wisdom around … my CCU yahoo group … specifically from one of the group “moms” Deanna. Thanks Deanna!

Set eggs out for a couple of hours to bring to room temperature. Bring water to a boil before adding eggs. Slip eggs into boiling water with a slotted spoon and bring back to a boil. Then turn to simmer for 20 minutes. Chill eggs quickly in ice water.

One of the biggest problems with fresh eggs is that they don’t peel well. This method makes them easy to peel and they don’t get that yucky green around the yolk thing either.

Want more of Deanna’s wisdom? Check out her newsletter, Tea With Dee :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teawithdee/


GOD BLESS YOU ALL!