Prairie Tales!

Remember the Ft. Seward wagon train adventure? Several of us, well 11 of us, headed to North Dakota in July of 2008 and lived the pioneer life, dressed in typical clothing, camped out, helped with the chuck wagon, the biffy, and other daily routines, clip clopped along the prairie on horseback or bounced along in the back of a wagon while the heartier developed blisters from walking the trail, but all in all, we had a true experience of a lifetime. We shared our stories and pictures on this blog when we returned, after we recovered from the adventure.

Periodically, pictures of this unique vacation will pop-up on my computer. Last month when our eldest sister was here visiting, one of the wagon train pictures appeared on the screen, and my sister simply stated, 'you know, the best thing about that wagon train are the pictures.' I had to chuckle! It certainly is one participants point of view.

Making a Bentwood Trellis

So last week at our Bentwood Trellis class we turned this pile of Willow Clippings from our teapot tree into these lovely trellises:
and this oneand another oneThe instructions are from Making Bentwood Trellises, Arbors, Gates and Fences by our friend Jim Long, published by Storey Books of MA. This book details each instructional step in making a trellis and also discusses the pros and cons of the wood choices. There are also detailed instructions for other garden features such as a variety of arbors, fence panels and gates.

Here are the basic instructions for a 4 - 5 foot high trellis:
1. 2 upright pieces - For a 4 - 5 foot trellis you need 2 pieces 7 - 8 feet long about the size of a broom handle at the larger (bottom) end tapering to the size of your little finger at the top end.
2. 4 cross pieces - They need to be the width of your trellis about 4 - 6 feet long slightly smaller around than the 2 uprights.
3. 2 - 3 flexible pieces like hot dog sticks - These are the decorative pieces.

Any bendable wood will work: Ash, Aspen, Hickory, Maple, Sumac, Redbud or any type of Willow, cut no more than 24 hours in advance. Avoid using Vines: Grapevine, honeysuckle, etc.

Other supplies include a hammer, pliers, and hand pruners. You might like to have sturdy cloth

gloves also. Wire and Nails and brads are also needed.

Here are the basic steps: Begin by laying out the side uprights parallel to each other about 24 inches apart. Attach the lower cross piece about 16 inches up from the bottom. Nail the crosspiece in place. Attach the upper cross piece about 36 to 40 inches from the lower cross piece. Nail in place at both joints. With pliers and wire: secure the four nailed joints. Next is the difficult step. Bending the uprights into an arch, bend and wire the arch securely into position. Attach a center upright if you are making a larger trellis. Attach additional cross pieces. Begin trimming and decorating with lattice pieces and more.

Note: If you wish to make a larger trellis (7-8 feet) you will need 12-14 foot uprights and also 8 foot center upright in addition to items number 2 and 3 listed above. It is suggested that you learn the techniques by making the 4-5 high patio trellis. This size trellis is also easier to transport home.

A Mother's Day Delight!

Our Mother's Day Afternoon Tea Menu featured:
Strawberries atop Peppered Goat Cheese with Crackers
Sandwiches included Bacon & Egg Salad on Whole Wheat Triangles, Herbed Cucumber Rounds, Basil and Goat Cheese with Sundried Tomato Hearts, Herbed Biscuits with Ham Salad, and Rosemary Chicken Salad in Pastry Cups.

The following course featured Traditional English Cream Scones and Chocolate Chip Scones accompanied with true Devon Cream, Lemon Curd, and Strawberry Preserves along side Fresh Orange Slices and Strawberry Halves topped with Cinnamon flavored Mascarpone Cheese.

Petite Desserts included a Frosted Peppermint Meltaway Cookie, Miniature Tiramisu, and Raspberry Mousse in a White Chocolate Cup.

Sit Down, Relax, Prepare yourself a cup of tea, and Enjoy this virtual tea party! Celebrate!

Happy Aunt's Day!

Since yesterday was Mother's Day, I believe I will proclaim today Aunt's Day! It works for me! My darling niece Angelica (age 10) wrote the following composition for a school assignment. Aunt's Day is the perfect day to share it.
If I gave a gift to my Aunt Nancy, I would get her a round, orange, medium sized, fancy teacup because she owns a tea shop and she loves tea stuff. If I got her a tea cup it would feel hard and round. If I got her a tea cup it would be a good choice because you can sip tea out of it and she loves calming down and black tea. I love giving people gifts and I love it when I give a gift to my Aunt. I love picking gifts out for my Aunt because she's really nice so a teacup would be a good choice.

Happy Mother's Day!

This little bouquet of double buttercups
was cheerfully presented to me by Cedar, age 7, because he knows I like flowers. The presentation was,
to say the least, clever and quite unique.
Happy Mother's Day!

Garlic Mustard

Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is also blooming at this time of year. A very invasive weed it is on the noxious weed list in many states because it crowds out native species and has no natural predators (deer rarely eat it) to help keep it controlled. In the same family as Mustard, it is an edible weed with a mild garlic flavor to it. It spreads by seed so clipping it off and not allowing it to flower and then seed is a decent way to control it. Add it to your salads or your compost bin.

Mustard Fields

This is the time of year when the fields take on a golden hue and not from the leaves on the trees which are all very green. The yellow in the fields is from Mustard (Brassica or Sinapis). Mustard is in the same family as cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli and is one of the oldest condiments used. Mustard grows most everywhere from North Africa, Middle East, to Argentina, United Kingdom and the US. Canada is the leader of mustard growing production.

The yellow flowered plants spread readily by seed. All of the plant is edible, flowers, leaves and the seed. The condiment is made by mixing the seed with water, vinegar and spices. 700 million pounds of mustard is consumed world wide! The leaves from the mustard is what was used to produce mustard gas.

Dill - Herb of the Year

Dill, Anethum graveolens, has been designated as Herb of the Year by the International Herb Association. This choice is made based on a herbs diversity of uses - culinary, medicinal, fragrant, attractive to bees etc. Special thanks to David Brill for this creative Dill Peace sign photo. The green is dill weed, the brown is dill seed.

This brief information on dill was taken from Bertha Reppert's book Herbs with Confidence. One of our favorite books because of its practical information, friendly style with which it is written and herbs listed in alphabetical design. If you are looking for a beginner books on herbs this is the one.

An annual reaching 3-4 feet, one of the best herbs grown by seeds, dill seeds from your pantry shelf can be used as long as they are less than 3 years old. Sprinkle the seeds sparsely in a shallow area of a well prepared bed. In about two months you will have a fresh crop of seeds. Collect the seed heads to use with pickles, dry some and allow some to self-sow. If dill is happy in your garden it will re seed.

Used for protection against witchcraft, a soothing tea for colicky babies, flavor for favorite pickles- what more could one ask? Dill is all of this and more, so grow lots of dill in your garden.

The name dill comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word "dilla" which means "to dull" because it soothing to infants for teething and digestion.

Dill weed enhances egg dishes, soups, veggies, most an tiresome recipe can be sparked by this remarkable herb. Dill has so many culinary uses it is hard to know where to begin. Dill vinegar to flavor salads, sauces, green beans and dill butter gives the sweetly pungent flavor of dill to almost any dish. Simply mince 3 T dill weed into a pound of butter, blend and mellow for several days. Try this on your lunch sandwich and you will be delighted by the piquant flavor. Add it to cubed new potatoes for dilled potatoes. Enjoy!

Lady's Mantle

This charming little plant has a ton of folk lore associated with it. It is easy to grow and is a plant that enjoys having some shade. It produces very pretty little chartreuse colored flowers in July and August. Named Our Lady's Mantle because the scalloped leaves resembled a cloak that would have been worn by the Virgin Mary. Its Latin name, Alchemilla vulgaris, represents its early history where Alchemists, the early chemists and magicians, used the dew collected from the leaves to magically turn base metals into gold. It is also said that these little pools of water are where the fairies stop to bathe and play. And finally, if you collect the dew of Ladies Mantle in your fine china tea cup and slowly sip, it is said to keep you youngly!

Spoutwood May Day Fairie Festival

The Green Men March. Offering blessings and bounty for the coming growing season.

Some of the other folk who wandered past our booth and enjoyed the fragrant herbs.
Leader of the River Tribe - He trades photos for hugs....
More views of the fairy festival. These wings are made by Custom Fairy Wings.
Clever wire wings. Another great May Day weekend. at the Spoutwood May Day Fairie Festival, sunshine all weekend until about 8 p.m. on Sunday!

May Day Fairy Festival

We enjoy vending at the May Day Fairy Festival every year. Our herb plant display is behind this pair of moss men. This isn't the best photo of the moss men as the one on the right isn't smiling....

The King and Queen of the May: Chris and Patti VanBrederode. Princess Mackenzie was sleeping at the moment.

The Maypole. Our booth is located near the Maypole Court and the Sunshine Stage.

Rob Wood pictured here with a fairy friend is the owner of Spoutwood Farm Center. He and his wife Lucy began the Fairy Festival 19 years ago. In one of the earliest years, Bertha & Byron Reppert (or, mom & dad as we know them!) were King and Queen of the May, alas, no pictures of that adventure. Tomorrow we will share more Fairy Fest Photos.

Happy May Day!

May Day celebrations are held all around the world. One enchanting little tradition involves secretly putting a pretty bouquet of fresh spring flowers on your neighbor's doorknob. If they discover you doing this, they must give you a kiss! What a sweet little tradition! This lovely little nosegay includes smiling pansies, sweet lily-of-the-valley, a petite spring tulip, and lovage greens. This delicate little bouquet is in an embroidered hankie that has been folded and neatly pressed into a cone. A satin ribbon, with two bows is attached to the hankie in order to hang it on the door.