A new idea - what do you think?

I am not an expert on anything, but I do know stuff.  And I love to share what I know.  Some people have noticed that I know some stuff, and they ask me to teach them.  One of the coolest examples is a mother and daughter pair who participated in my cheese making class a year ago.  They came to my little farm, learned how to crank out a good Gouda, got to eat a lot of different cheeses I made, met the goats, and toured my veggie garden.  A few months ago, the 14 year old daughter e-mailed me to ask if she could come for a weekend and help me out with any chores I need to have done, and in the meantime, she could learn stuff from me.
No, I thought immediately, I don't need someone trailing behind me, being in the way, and needing to be taught how to do everything that I could do so much faster.  Do you see what a control freak I am? I didn't tell her how I felt, but she must have sensed it because she wrote back that she would do ANY chores I wanted her to, plus she would bring her own lunch, and she would camp at a campground with her mother.  
Hmmmm..., I thought, that sounds pretty good.  I kept procrastinating on my decision, until I heard back from her again, saying that she would understand if I didn't want her to come, but if I decided it was okay, she would be very excited.
I loved her gentle persistence, and anyhow, how could I resist the idea of mentoring such an eager young woman?  So Anna spent the past weekend with me, learning how to pickle, can, make sauerkraut, practice milking goats, trim their hooves, clean out the goat shed, bake bread, and weed the garden.  She was an absolute joy and tirelessly worked harder than an adult would have!
Here is Anna picking cucumbers for making bread and butter pickles, and beans for dilly beans, and me holding freshly harvested Walla Walla onions:

The first day, we made four gallons of bread and butter pickles.  We also made two gallons of dilly beans.
After lunch, I showed her how to trim goats' hooves.
Afterwards, she helped Steve muck out the goat barn.  Then it started raining.  Anna wanted to go out to weed the garden.
"Are you sure you want do weed the garden in the rain?" I asked.  
"Yes!  It's not too bad", she replied.
So we weeded the garden in the rain, which is a good plan because the weeds come out easier that way. 
In the evening, Anna milked the goats like a pro.  I was very, very, very impressed.

This is Anna's happy victory dance!  We did it!

On the schedule the  next day: make sauerkraut.  We harvested cabbage from my garden, and then spent the morning making it into kraut.  If you want to know how to do it, here is a tutorial on my blog.  Again, Anna had a smile on her face the whole time.  We made 35 pounds of sauerkraut, which is currently gently fermenting and bubbling in my kitchen, exuding an interesting aroma into our abode.
After a lunch of homemade bread (I showed Anna how to make it the day before), goat cheese, and tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden, we made goat milk soap.

A productive weekend, ey?  Anna and her mother were very appreciative of the experience.  And I really loved teaching this amazing young woman how to be more self sufficient and take care of the earth and animals.
So here is my idea: Why not create an apprenticeship program and offer it to the world at large?  A weekend just like the one we just had, with lots of skills learned and practiced.
Anna and her mom told me that a two hour canning class in Seattle costs $75.  Seventy-five dollars!!!!!!!  I could offer my two day event for an amazingly great deal, and people would go home with their own canned pickles, bread, and soap.
What do you think of this idea?  I am looking for ideas about where to market something like this, and how much to charge, so if you have any ideas or feedback, please let me know!

Harvesting, canning, and a new tie dyeing obsession

This week, I have been milking the goats to the deafening sound of rain drumming on the metal roof of the barn. Yes, it's true: the rains are back. The days are getting shorter. It feels like fall. I don't quite know how to feel about that. We are all grateful for the rain right now... but how long will that gratitude last if the grey-ness and wet-ness stretches on and on and on?

Fall means we're busy littler beavers on our homestead. Lots of harvesting is going on, and lots of eating of our homegrown food. Fall means canning and preserving, pickling and fermenting, cleaning up the garden, and lots and lots of snacking fresh from the garden. Eva loves our figs, which she likes to pick herself. She thinks their insides look like worms, which is true, but this doesn't keep her from eating them fresh like they are candy.

The other day, I coerced the male members of my family to help me make dilly beans. They helped me wash, cut, and pack seven pounds of green beans into 18 pint jars, augmented with dill and garlic from the garden, and mustard seeds, and vinegar.

Do you know why they call this squash "Crookneck"?  I would call it "Gooseneck" if I got to name veggie varieties.

Compare some of the tiny eggs that they young chickens give us to the huge duck eggs.

Canning is very, very serious business.

It has been a busy week. I taught another cheese making class, which always energizes me so much (and forces me to really clean my house, which then makes me so happy). The day after cheese class, I went to our monthly Marblemount Community Market to sell my felted hats, handspun yarn, and goat milk soap. I received the nicest compliment from a customer who bought my soap last month. He came back for more this month, proclaiming that this is the nicest soap he has ever used. Happy customers, proud Corina. The next day, I promptly made more soap, this time scented with lemon and clary sage essential oils. It looked and smelled like the most delicious lemon custard. I had to put it high up so my family wasn't tempted to dip their fingers in it and try some...

Part of the fun of doing the market is visiting with friends.  This is what community is all about!

My booth.

But it's not all work and slaving away at our farm. We've gotten addicted to a fun creative outlet involving hand painting T-shirts – tie dyeing! A few weeks ago, I bought a tie dye kit at Michael's for the kids, and wouldn't you know? I got totally hooked by it, because I already hand paint wool yarn, and now the world of cotton has opened up to me! The possibilities! Even Steve dyed one shirt, and his blue one with white bubbles turned out beautifully – looking at it feels like snorkeling in a warm ocean.

I can see opening another Etsy store with tie dye clothing. Maybe the boys can sell tie dye shirts at the market?

Not bad, ey?

And one more thing:  While I was at market, Steve and the kids ran a race in Bellingham, called Muds to Suds.  It's a 2.5 mile run, where you have to navigate obstacles such as mud pits, sawdust pits, a trailer filled with suds, tunnels and more.  The goal is to get as muddy as possible.  Do you think my kids had fun doing this?

Harvest time and canning, and a trailer buying opportunity

There are few things more satisfying and mouth watering than wandering into my garden in the evening and collecting food for our dinner. We've been eating like royalty around here. My garden is going nuts, and that's a good thing, since I have to feed five people.

The boys especially... their appetites have always been huge, and they are growing. When their friends come over for play dates or sleep overs, I can't stop marveling at how little their friends eat compared to my boys.

I make them earn their food! They help plant it, weed it, water it, and the most amazing task of all, harvest it. This week, the whole family dug potatoes. Oh, what a fun job this is! The bigger people dig, and the little people collect the freshly unearthed treasures and put them into boxes. The kids squeal with delight and excitement and forget how hard they have to work to dig potatoes out of the earth. Steve and I found a heart shaped potato and made Kai take a picture of us. The garlic was harvested yesterday, and it's gorgeous.

The onions are unreal this year. Big and juicy and voluptuous, they push their bulbs through the soil while cheerfully waving their green tops. And the carrots are beyond words, really. Sweet and sugary, they are a favorite treat for the kids, I kid you not. I love watching the watermelons, cucumbers and squash set fruit. I don't know if we actually will have ripe watermelons by the end of the growing season, but the black plastic should help. Keep your fingers crossed for us! The figs are shaping up nicely. In a couple more weeks, we will feast on figs.

Right now, our orchard is cranking out plums. We eat them as fast as they ripen. The deer love them, too.

Steve inspects cucumbers growing up a trellis

These small yellow flowers will hopefully be watermelons some day

Yesterday, I canned 33 quarts of peaches, nectarines and apricots (with the help of my three guys, cutting up - and eating - the fruit). We buy boxes of organic fruit from Smallwood Farms on the East side. On the way to various farmer's markets, they drop off our boxes in Marblemount on their way down valley.

Can you imagine the fruit-gorging and juicy nectar-dripping that has gone on in our house in the past week? Well. It's been heaven, is all I can say.

Gallons of canned fruit, with Cheddar cheese drying in the background.  That's my house these days...

In the meantime, the ducks are still patrolling the yard for slugs, and the new chickens have started laying their small eggs.  Eva helps me harvest calendula for my goatmilk soaps. I infuse organic olive oil with calendula, which is well known for its skin healing properties, and then make it into luscious soap.

Last but not least, I want to tell you about the trailer that our good friends Brandie and Bradley are trying to sell.  They bought it last year when they moved onto our property, but since they moved to Arizona and are trying to raise funds for massage school, they want to sell it.  It's a beautiful trailer - they refinished it splendidly.  It's currently parked at Sauk Mountain Pottery in Rockport.  Here is the craigslist ad for it, and you can see pictures there.  Here is what it says: 

"Up for sale is a 1973 Streamline Imperial travel trailer. 27 feet. This trailer has been stripped down to the metal, reinsulated with rot resistant insulation and rebuilt. The trailer is not completed, but is currently livable. The floors are lightweight bamboo. The interior siding is handmade, thin, tongue and groove alder. Beautiful handmade, live-edge old growth Doug fir shelving. No toilet or shower but plumbing is still there. Kitchen is incomplete. Comes with fridge. Exterior has some damage but is in good shape considering age. It is located outside of Concrete at Sauk Mountain Pottery. The trailer has been stored under cover since the rebuilding began a year ago. A wonderful project! $3200 obo."