Maple Chip Ice Cream

The early august heat has become unbearable, and the air is so humid it is actually suffocating…. But in the ultra hot almost unbreathable air that burns as it enters your nose, the fragrance of fresh herbs and wildflowers hang and linger. So at least the heat smells beautiful.This is still my ultra busy time of year. I am beginning to exhaust. And without the B&B operating due to Covid, I find I must find some alternative method to earn supplementary income. So I am studying towards that starting two days from today. So what time I have had (none,) has been eaten up by preparing for that…

I spend my days in heat so severe lately all day outside in the gardens doing heavy work, that I finally had my first ever full blown asthma attack some days back. That was positively wretched. But I am ok again….

For my 40th birthday…. Yeh, that was actual worse than my asthma attack. I know right?! My 4oth too, and during Covid no less. Not even my mother came. No one did. It was terrible and lonely and the worst birthday on record. One thing however was good. I got myself an ice cream maker.

But before I get into my new favorite flavor….. It’s time for the part of this that is a Covid journal. I can’t wait to stop writing about this as much as you can’t wait to stop hearing about it. It just gets worse. The death count keeps rising. We still have no national plan. With open state borders we need one. Otherwise we need to start closing state borders so this thing can stop spreading from hot spots to places that are still fairly calm. But the orange dumb ass pretending to know what he is doing in the white house…. In all actuality has not a clue. No plan is coming. 150 thousand are dead nation wide…. And people even here in the so called most educated state in the nation can’t figure out masks sufficiently as the death rate and infection rate is starting to shoot way up again. Mr. Baker, is threatening to do what he NEVER EVER EVER will in fact do. Which is shut everything down again. So why he threatens it escapes me. He isn’t frightening anyone into being more responsible. So he needs to just do it already or just shut the you know what up. But he won’t. I wonder if I can vote by mail to replace him with a poodle in november or if he isn’t yet up for re-election… I am convinced a poodle would have been wise enough to have made sure at least 1 state body was taking no mask complaints about businesses operating in the states PRIOR to reopening back on labor day. But no. Dumber than a poodle Baker, couldn’t even get that right. Leave it to a republican they said….. This one is a moderate they said. People are dying and he is putting businesses right to profit above his constituent’s rights to oh, life and liberty and pursuit of happiness. Soooo I hate being political in this blog…. But given the state of affairs, it is quite difficult to avoid going there.

Other things going on? roughly 30% of Boston, conservatively 200 THOUSAND people in Boston alone are about to lose their apartments because the morons in Washington are hell bent on being idiotic. Boston, is one of the 5 most affluent cities in the country. What will this lapse in protection for renters mean for less affluent communities? I don’t want to imagine. So no job means no more healthcare. No more healthcare, means paying a million dollars for covid treatment out of pocket if you get it. No work means no ability to pay that. No ability to even pay rent and no more protection from eviction and no monthly $600…. And well…. I just feel sick for all those hundreds of thousands losing everything. Here, I am rather insulated. I own my home and my mortgage is essentially done. My husband still works from home. For how long? Hopefully indefinitely…. But in this climate…….. Who really knows? The world is collapsing around me while a bunch of sociopathic nut bags totally out of touch with the reality of real life, drive the bus with a nation of captive commuters over a cliff. That is where we are. Being someone chronically working my farm in one way or another….. I just don’t understand this. I look out my window at the fence of the goat pen. A problem spot for us. I see every creative fix I have made, once using a lunge line, another time a horse lead. another time a dog leash…. Once I closed a gaping hole using an ancient decaying no longer in use chicken coop. Problems require creative solutions. Governing and farming are not really so different. Humans are the cattle for governments, while cattle or goats or chickens or whatever, are the cattle for farmers. But the problems are not really so different. It’s time for governors, and federal politicians to roll up their sleaves and fix the dang fence already and they need to get creative. The human livestock can’t handle another hit right now. And I am assured by a literal rocket scientist, (Dr. Farmer Moomin, a PhD holder in the field of physics courtesy of Helsinki Uni,) that governing is not in fact rocket science and neither is farming. To which myself and likely, Frau Angela Merkel, both said, “DUH.” But here we are never the less…. Wondering what more 2020 can throw at us.

Again, I find myself marveling at the Mayans, who predicted the end of the world within a margin of error of 8. We date the mayans using a dating method with a margin of at least 50 years on either side of the exact date it measures. We like to think that these cultures of mezo america were compared to ourselves less advanced…. Maybe not….. I mean…. Margin of 8 margin of at least 100 total…. They all died of a salmonella pandemic….. We are dying of a covid pandemic… Seems all these thousands of years have really not advanced humanity at all. Which is depressing…. And even I am starting to feel some of the covid depression of being cooped up for too long.

Now that that is out of the way let me move on. (I hear you all singing for joy.)

It has been crazy hot lately. Unbearable. And with no bodies of water nearby and no pool or swimming hole on the farm, I vomit at least twice a week from the extreme climate conditions that are the result of global warming which is the reason we settled on a homestead to try to live more environmentally and naturally. The only saving grace we have had lately, is the ice cream maker I got myself for my horrid excuse for a 40th birthday. Oh well…. At least there was a cake.

The other day, I made maple chip ice cream. Maple flavored ice cream with chocolate chips mixed in.

1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 cup maple sugar
Pinch of salt
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1 table spoon vanilla extract
2 table spoons maple syrup
1 cup chocolate chips (more optional)

We whisked together the milk and cream, then set it over night in the fridge, got it out, mixed in the vanilla, sugar, and syrup. Popped it in the ice cream maker set it to the icecream setting after plugging it in. Ten minutes later, we added our chocolate chips and allowed it to mix to completion. Once mixed, we very quickly scooped it out of the machine, into a container, and put it in the freezer for a while…. Then………. Then…….. Sweet New England style deliverance from the heat was ours…. At least for a little while.

Thank you for reading.
I hope you are well through this crazy time.
Amanda of Wildflower Farm

Tags: ag, agriculture, agro, airbnb, B&B, Central MA, covid journal, environmentalism, extreme climate conditions, farm, farm blog, farm wife, farm wife blog, farmer, farming, farmstead, green, hobby farm, homestead, homestead blog, homestead farm, homestead farm blog, homestead wife, homestead wife blog, homesteader, homesteading, homesteading house wife blog, house wife, housewife, housewife blog, ice cream, inn keeper, inn keeper's blog, kitchen blog, lifestyle blog, maple chip, Maple Chip Ice cream, maple chip ice cream recipe, massachusetts, new england, new england ice cream, recipe, rural suburban farming, simple living, suburban farming, travel, wildflower farm

About wildflowerfarm

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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Maple Chip Ice Cream

Maple Chip Ice Cream

About wildflowerfarm

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