Celebrating Spring
Early crocuses.
It feels like winter… Cold today. Clouds invade the sky, they hang there making a concerted effort to blot out the sun. But she has become too powerful to be muted. She peaks through in breaks between the clouds, fighting the good fight against the white fluffy invaders. She has allied herself with the blue that waits behind every cloud to step to the forefront and make to make itself known. A more valiant ally I can’t imagine. But the chill has taken the air. And last night the animal water froze where it lay on the ground. But hope is not lost as this morning it is abundantly clear mud season has begun. And peaking up at me when I went out to feed the outside people were some early flowers. These crocuses sat gazing upward cheering on the sun and her ally the blueness between the clouds.
Tess my favorite maple tree is sprouting red bulbs. Soon she will be green again.
Tess, one of my special trees, a friendly maple, is starting to sprout little red buds, the earliest sign of coming leaves. She stands straight reaching up to assist the sun in the sky, with Pikku, the great dane at her back sniffing about in the grass oblivious to nature’s silent battle to return life to the earth.
Early blooming jonquils.
It isn’t just the crocuses cheering on the sun. The early blooming jonquils offer their yellow hew in an effort to strengthen her so she might finally vanquish the cold in the air. So that life might return to out woods, and barn yard. The jonquils offer the sun their strength gladly and whole heartedly.
Blueberry Earl Grey whole wheat einkorn muffins.
Inside the house, I bake beautiful muffins from einkorn flour with blueberries and earl grey tea. Fuel for the war ahead. Later, I will leave one on the rock where I leave all offerings to the fairies of the woods. Hopefully they too will lend the sun their assistance and it won’t be long now till mud season will end and the cold will move along carrying the clouds with it. Leaving the sky bright blue and the golden yellow sun glowing, warm, and victorious, calling to all the living things of the earth to rise again. We celebrate this year munching our delicious muffins inside the house where it is warm.
Yummy spring muffins.
To make these muffins, you will need:
4 cups whole wheat einkorn
3 tea spoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon pink salt
1 earl grey tea bag, crush dry herbs into powder and add to dry ingredients.
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup maple sugar
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
1/4 cup olive oil
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons honey
Your selected amount of frozen or fresh blue berries, I usually use no less than 1/2 a cup and never more than 1 cup.
To glaze the muffins, you will need:
3 tablespoons wildflower honey
3/4 to 1 cup of confectioners sugar
1 table spoon water.
Play with consistency till you get one you like. Add more sugar if needed and a little more water if needed.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and tea. In a smaller bowl mix the wet ingredients, eggs, butter, honey, buttermilk, sugars, and olive oil. Mix the wets together just as you did with the dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry. Prepare a muffin tray. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 25ish minutes. take out when ready and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Mix your glaze, and glaze your muffins use the back of a table spoon to press about a tea spoon amount of glaze onto the top of each muffin. Now, it is time to serve and eat. You won’t be sorry, these are as glorious as the sun’s victory over the cold on a crisp frozen early spring morning.
Thank you for reading
Amanda of Wildflower Farm
Tags: ag, agriculture, agro, B&B, B&B recipe, baking with earl grey, baking with einkorn, blue berry muffins, Blueberry Earl Grey Whole Wheat Einkorn muffins, breakfast, brunch, einkorn muffins, farm, farm muffins, farm wife, farm wife blog, farmer, farming, farmstead, handmade living, homemade living, homemade muffins, homestead, homestead einkorn muffins, homestead farm, homestead self sufficiency, homestead wife, homestead wife blog, homesteader, homesteading, homesteading New England, house wife, housewife, housewife's blog, inn keeper, Inn keeper's recipe, Innkeeper's blog, new england homestead, recipe, recipe for einkorn muffins, recipe muffins, self sufficiency, simple living, stay home wife, stay home wife blog, whole wheat einkorn muffins, wholesome living, wildflower farm, Wildflower Farm Kitchen
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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