Happy Sunday Friends,
This week marks Saint Patrick’s Day and the first day of Spring. Spring symbolizes rebirth and renewal. I don’t know about you, but
after this long, cold and snowy Winter, we feel like celebrating! There is still time to sign up for our Spring Forest Farm walk and Sound Bath, which is this Friday from 2-4pm. Light refreshments from the Prep Barn will be served.
We will be taking our silent walk through our Forest farm and
focusing on early Spring Ephemerals; wild and delicious plants that only appear for a few weeks between mid March and May.
We especially love wild ramps, winecap mushrooms, dandelions and violets
(can you say violet syrup?). It has also
been a few years since we planted over 3000 ostrich ferns. Ostrich ferns produce the wildly popular Fiddlehead
ferns, which are the early shoots of this beautiful forest plant. When sautéed, it tastes a lot likeasparagus. We are hoping to harvest enough to share this year. We always harvest sustainably so that the plant has enough fronds to photosynthesize and continue to grow and spread over time.
We will also be discussing how to eat seasonally this Spring,
the element associated with the season, and have a relaxing and restorative sound bath with our antique set of Himalayan singing bowls in the studio.
Meanwhile on the farm, we are close to installing our second
chicken coop. The older hens have spent
the winter camped out in the sheep barn, and the flock is looking forward to foraging out in the forest at their new home. The
sheep are getting a bit antsy to get back on pasture as well. When they can’t contain their energy in the paddock, they just start bouncing. It’s really funny to see.
We are seeding weekly, ramping up for the CSA and to grow
crops to create value add goods that will be available later in the season. Maranatha sauce, anyone?
April is only a few weeks away, and that means it’s time for
our bi-annual Shiitake mushroom workshop on the 11th. Have you ever wondered how to inoculate logs
to cultivate mushrooms outdoors like we do here on the farm? We have over 1500 logs that we harvest
mushrooms from throughout the growing season into the fall. Farmer Sam will be leading the discussion about
the fungus among us, and you will participate in the inoculation process. You even get to take an inoculated log home
so that you can enjoy your own future mushroom harvest. Bring a friend or two. It’s a really fun group activity and the
weather should be great.
In the meantime, we are still offering free local delivery
until our farm store opens on June 3rd when we launch our CSA.
Then we will be open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4pm-6pm.
We are expecting some challenging weather tomorrow, including potential tornadoes. This photo sums up what Fern and Violet think about that!
Please stay safe, and may God bless you and your family today and always. Thank you for your interest and support for the work we do here on the farm. Happy Spring!
Sincerely,
Michele & the Maranatha Farm Team