Painted Corners

A few years ago, we were invited to a new farmer's market in Lomax. At first it was just us and a couple of other people at on old gas station building across from the Pink. My has it grown! On Wednesday evenings the place is hopping!

 Dave Pitman, the owner of the joint is serving up tons of his delectable homemade ice cream.

Tressa is serving up delicious tacos, nachos and other goodies.

There's lots of fresh veggies and fruits from Daves farm, Rogers Pumpkin Farm and of course Grama Sue's Rainbow farm as well as other local sources. If you are looking for large quanties or something special, we'll try to get it for you! Just call us! Dave's # is 309-371-6031, Roger's Pumpkin Farm is 217-449-3486 and Grampa Tom's is 309-221-1131.

Kay Young has lots of pies, cakes, cookies and other goodies for sale. She takes orders for just about anything! Give her a call at 630-768-7683.

Gorgeous Christa Jack has lots of beautiful jewelry to impress your lady from Premier Designs! She does parties too! Her # is 217-430-6094.

Brenda Burt has Tupperware to keep all your goodies in! I even managed to get her # in the picture! How about that? She does parties too!

Stacie Ferguson and her girls are serving up lemonade. Her # is 217-449-3743. Come encourage these budding entrepreneurs!

Sara Kohl is selling great smelling  Gold Canyon Candles. She didn't know if she would make it this next week, but if you want to contact her, give her a call at 217-449-3486. She also does parties :)

And then there's the icing on the cake!

Blades of Grass has been jamming for us every week from about 6 - 8 pm with Jon on the banjo, Seth on guitar, Tim on the violin and Miranda singing and drumming. Jump over to my Face Book page to hear a sample of their music. Their contact # is 319-572-7792.

Have and event coming up or want to host a party? Give any of us a call! We'd love to see what we can do to help you! And in the meantime, come on by! We open up at about 2 with the veggies and ice cream. Tressa starts serving tacos at 4 and the dancing starts at 6. 

Can't get there on Wednesdays? Dave still serves ice cream and sells veggies through the weekend.  He's even thinking about doing some grilling so come check it out.

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

God is Good!

Beautiful day! We really needed this and it came on one of our no market days to boot!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Firefly

This has nothing to do with farming folks. I just wanted to let you know about an up and coming country group I met in Nauvoo recently. I've been helping out my neighbor at her Art-n-Needlework Shop once or twice a week this summer. These girls came in while I was there one day and gave me their website. It was kinda slow that afternoon, so I checked them out. I am a FAN! These girls will be in the top 10 someday and I will get to say, I met them in Nauvoo in 2013!

Check them out: Firefly at http://iheartfirefly.com/


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Home Grown Pickles

OK, I admit it I love store bought kosher dills. There, I said it. My problem is, I have never found a home dill pickle recipe that tastes like them.  But, I have a semi-solution! Several years ago, I started saving my dill pickle juice during the winter, then when the cucumbers come on, I put them in the juice I have saved and refrigerate them for a week or more. They taste great! I have tried using the juice a second time. It doesn't work. The flavor is really weak. But hey! Saving $ on tickles by reusing the juice once ... I can do that!

God Bless You!

~Grama Sue

Sun Tea

Warm summer temps and sunshine make it sun tea time! Here's how I make mine.

Fill a glass gallon jar with lemon balm cuttings. Add 10 bags of green tea and water. Then sit it in a sunny place for the day!

Once the tea is nice and dark, pour through a strainer, chill and enjoy!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Nettle Harvest

My stinging nettles were starting to put on a few flowers today so I cut them all down. The last thing I want is random stinging nettle plants popping up everywhere! The best leaves of stinging nettles are the very top ones, but I'm only planning to use them for tea so I'm drying all of them.

Natural News has a list of many of the things nettle is good for. Check it out. I'm willing to sell some of my stash once I get it dried. If you want some, let me know.

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Flower Quiz

Here's some flowers from my gardens for your enjoyment this beautiful Sunday :) Can you identify them?

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God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

New Chicks!

We got 100 + baby Buff Orpingtons this morning. 

They came in these cool boxes that are divided into 4 chambers. Each chamber had 12 or 13 chicks in it.  This keeps them warm as they travel. God designed baby chicks to hatch with 3 days of food and water in their bellies so that the hen can sit on her eggs until they are all hatched. Some people think it is mean to ship chicks by mail, but actually the conditions they are shipped in are very similar to the first few days of the typical chicks life in the natural.

We show a few of the chicks where the food and water are. 

Then we gently dump the rest out. The chicks who were shown where the food and water are will show the rest.

They are having fun exploring their new home. It's pretty warm around here so we are debating if we need to put a heat lamp in. They need to stay warm for the first week until they acclimate to the climate. Then they should be OK. 

We'll keep them in this building until they are big enough that the cats will think twice about having chicken nuggets. Several got out today and a cat got one. It's hard, but that's part of farming. We still have lots left. Just have to praise God we found the hole before they all got out. We caught the rest and put them back in the building where it's safe :)

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

  

Surprise Party

Grampa Tom earned some brownie points tonight! He arranged a surprise birthday party for me at the Burlington Farmer's Market! He had our good friend Kay make a delishious chocolate cake.

And got all the vendors plus quite a few of the early customers to gather around our booth to sing "Happy Birthday to me just before the market started. 

I had no clue. I was busy setting up. I saw a crowd forming out of the corner of my eye, but I just figured Kay, who sets up next to us, would be sold out early tonight :) Then everyone started singing. I cried. How awesome! Thank you everyone!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Japanese Beetle Saga Continued ....

They attacked my black berries today. 

I've heard that Japanese beetle traps actually draw more beetles than they catch, so, I've never considered them. But, Saturday night I talked with a friend at church that says they work for her. We've had company and I've had to work so I didn't have time to do much til today. There are literally millions of these pests here, so I thought I'd need lots of traps. Being as cheap as I am, I looked on-line and found out that a milk jug with mashed up fruit, sugar and water will also work, so this morning I put out 18 of them. 

And then I sprayed the blackberries. my crab apple tree and the corn that were covered with them. There were also a few in my lettuce, kale and chard so I sprayed them too. Won't be able to bring any of these to the markets this week, but I haven't been selling much of them anyway. We will see if these jugs can prevent the next vicious attack.  

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Japanese Beetles

We are spraying sevin this morning. The apple trees and the corn are full of Japanese Beetles and my home made bug spray doesn't touch them. 

 

We hate to use this stuff, but we don't have time to pick off  literally thousands of bugs off our trees and plants. So far there are none on the green beans, but we will spray tonight when we  get done picking or they will probably devour them by tomorrow. We won't pick again until next Wednesday.


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Home Grown Bug Spray

Wanted to post this earlier in the week, but my internet provider was having problems. I could barely get on the internet and I couldn't upload pictures. Glad they finally seem to have things fixed! Being stranded in the real world is OK, but I miss all of you!

I make my own bug spray. Like most everything else I do, it's not an exact science.

I use a two gallon bucket and line the bottom with onion and garlic tops. Then I throw in a couple of handfuls of hot peppers.

I fill the bucket almost full with water and then add a couple of tablespoons of dish soap.

After a few of days, I strain it through several layers of cloth (a folded up old pillow case does the job) and VOLIA! ~ bug spray! I try to use this after we've picked on Friday for the weekend markets and then on Monday.


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Cilantro

Finally have my cilantro back! I didn't bother to plant any early because the stuff is a weed and I thought some would be coming up around here, but it never appeared. I must have done too good of a job at seed gathering last fall. Anyway, I have 2 little patches now and one more that has just been planted. 

The other day, a customer was befuddled because she had bought a cilantro plant somewhere and it just went to seed. Cilantro will do that. In order to keep a steady supply, you need to plant it every 2-3 weeks ... and even then, it probably won't do anything if it is really hot. Last summer I planted some at the end of June and it didn't even bother to come up until late August! Seems weird to me given it's popularity as a salsa ingredient, but that is how it is. 

To save it for those yummy late July salsas, just chop it up, put it in ice cube trays, put a little water on top and freeze! Don't throw away those stems! They are the most flavorful part :)

Have you heard about all the health benefits this stuff has? It helps take heavy metals out of your body, balances cholesterol, balances blood sugar, anti-oxidant, antibacterial, anti-fungal, stress release, protects against salmonella, prevents UTI's ... No wonder I'm prone to craving salsa!

I'll have it at the markets this week!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue