Busy Season Is Upon Us!
Strawberries ready for planting.
Above my head I hear the sound of happy buzzing bees. They are playing in my blooming wisteria. We have an area outside I call, The Flower Grotto. It can be found in The Humming Bird Herb Garden, just out behind the house. From here I can watch happy goats bouncing around playing on the hill. I can hear the chickens cackling away in their coop, and I can keep an eye on the dog as she roams about the yard. It is the season when lilacs and wisteria sit as co regents here at the farm. From this spot I smell both. The lilac from a few feet to the side and behind me, the wisteria above me. They mingle with the fragrance of the fresh young herbs I just put in the gloriously rich, dark soil in my raised beds. I get to greet the lemon balm and sage that have returned as old friends, and put in many new green friends for myself. A humming bird just landed on the humming bird feeder, and a squirrel is busy robbing the seed feeder we also set up most years for the lady of the forest’s hungry birds. A few drops of spring drizzle fall. I hear them bouncing off the brick grotto floor. It sounds like fairies dancing in a ball room, the droplets landing on the brick. It makes a light music for me to write by. There are no words in the English language powerful enough to describe the perfect beauty of this moment, housed in flowers, and lit citronella torches, looking out at my tiny piece of well loved land.
This time of year brings with it an endless supply of beauty beyond beauty. It also carries with it the need for intensive labor. This is my busy season. I try to keep up the house and the guest rooms, while managing goats chickens, the herb garden, and a vegetable patch that is a bit on the large side by most standards. I plant, I clean, I manage animals, and in addition, I am constantly creating the things I need for self care, cleaning, and for whatever else I might need.
herbally medicated lip balm.
Recently, in the middle of everything my lips dried out, so I made herbally medicated lip balm. It is great stuff. I am thrilled with how it came out. I have even given some away to family and friends who swear up and down they have never had better. And as much as I enjoy being a mad scientist in my kitchen, I adore putting living things in the ground.
Peas headed for the vegetable patch.
A large percentage of the vegie garden is planted now and the herb garden is pretty well done. I spend time every day walking the dogs down past my little collection of fruit trees which have been flowering, down along the little private road that leads past the fruit trees and all the way to the town road.
It is a very busy time this year and with Dr. Farmer Moomin, working full time plus, it means I am largely on my own. But being largely alone so near to the forest surrounding us doesn’t frighten me. If anything I find it intriguing to imagine what secrets it holds… Note to self, get a metal detector for your birthday! The forest holds many secrets of the past. Old farm equipment, old stone walls… There is even an old apple tree. I have noticed too some berries that seem to still be planted in a row while I was clearing some land a couple of weeks back, at the edge of the woods. At one time, this entire region of central MA was called Lancaster. And back then, there was tension with the Natives Americans in the area for righteous reasons. (colonialism is evil.) To make a long story short, they set Lancaster on fire. Burned most of it to the ground in a raid that was terribly deadly to both natives and settlers alike and produced the first story of a person being kidnapped by natives and made to live amongst them. I can’t help but wonder if one of the secrets of the forest, is what may have been here and may have burned long ago in that horrible and violent event.
Lettuce to be planted.
The Flower Grotto, where dreams are born and sent sailing up through the clouds and around the stars of the night sky. As we make dinner out here on the grill, under the twinkle lights that edge the ceiling of the grotto…. A place of inspiration where many an idea for a book has been birthed, and many a poem written, and countless day dreams explored to the fullest. While I wait for the roses to bloom, and work very busily at providing a simple more natural and environmentally friendly life for myself.
Thank you so much for keeping me company out here today, in the flower grotto.
And thank you for reading.
Amanda Of Wildflower Farm
Tags: acreage, ag, agriculture, agro, airbnb, B&B, bed and breakfast, bed and breakfast house, BnB, close to nature, closer to nature, DIY chapstick, farm, farm blog, farm wife, farm wife blog, farmer, farming, farmstead, garden, gardening, gardens, herb garden, Herbalism, homestead, homestead blog, homestead farm, homestead wife, homestead wife blog, homesteader, homesteading, house wife, housewife, housewife blog, inn keeper, inn keeper's blog, lifestyle blog, nature, new england, new england farm, new england homestead, new england homesteading, old fashioned housewife, old fashioned housewife blog, simple living, travel, vegetable garden, vegetable patch, wildflower farm
Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.
My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.
Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.
Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.
Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.
We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.
We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.
This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.
We welcome you on this journey with us.
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