Yes I can!

Canned Apple Slices
I feel a sense of pride. Tonight Dr. Farmer Moomin, and I taught ourselves to can. We explored our new water canner with some bought apples. I am grateful to the farm I shop at for helping me out with bulk. The Wilson Farms in Lexington, has been my favorite place to shop since always. My mother shopped there I grew up shopping there and though it is a 40 minute commute…. It is where I still go for my groceries… They were super kind to help me out this way.
I spent today, chopping apples, collecting violets for jelly, and exploring the yard… I found a massive patch of wild mustard. One of these days I am gonna dehydrate it, and also use it fresh in salad… Keep some for now save some for later sort of deal.

About to get started with apple prep work.
I also discovered copious quantities of lemon balm growing just behind the house…. And some queen ann’s lace once used as an ancient form of birth control. I found some plantain, and a wild raspberry bush baby vine that is crying out to be transplanted to where it can be useful…
It has been a rather interesting day… I forgot it was tuesday… Forgot quarantine…. Spent most of the day hanging with the green wild things at the edge of my woods… The air gets more pure every day… I am still following what is going on, but here I am kind of insulated from it. As I learn to live an older way of life, I find society begins to become more extra somehow. Many of my social needs get met listening to the wind making the trees sing…. Or interacting with my evil goose Mr. Darcy…. Or the goats or dogs… And here away from people anyway rather than in a city, again, we are always social distanced…. Just as a matter of space and population size. I feel for those living a modern life….. Can’t imagine….. But the world keeps turning and we turn with it. Today, I am proud of learning a new skill. Canning with a water bath canner. Tomorrow bring on the green beans and the pressure canner!

Canning Apple Slices.
Well, thank you for celebrating this new skill with me
This has been really fun and interesting
Hope to have a lot more about canning over time
Take it easy all
Amanda of Wildflower Farm
Tags: ag, agriculture, agro, airbnb, B&B, canner, canning, canning apple slices, farm, farm blog, farm wife, farm wife blog, farmer, farming, farmstead, homestead, homestead farm, homestead farming, homestead wife, homestead wife blog, homesteader, homestteading, house wife, housewife, inn keeper, inn keeper's blog, MA, massachusetts, new england, new england homestead farm, old fashioned house wife, old fashioned housewife, old fashioned housewife blog, old fashioned living, simple living, travel, 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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