Don't worry, that garlic won't get eaten by the lions. (At least not all of it. The grass was another story though). We've had some really awesome farm/family days the last couple of weeks. It's so fun to see the kids outside playing, creating castles in the mud and in their imagination! 

The garlic and strawberry plants look good. That's garlic in the foreground. We plant it in late fall so it begins to sprout and grow.  Then it goes dormant over the winter so that this time of year, it's already planted and ready to take off. That way, we can have garlic scapes, green garlic and garlic bulbs for you quickly in your CSA bags. So, the garlic is looking good this year. The strawberries are looking good too. In the above photo, the strawberries are covered with what looks like a giant piece of cloth.  It is. It's called remay, and it helps the plants survive the winter. We hold down the cloth with sandbags all along the edge. Here is a photo of a strawberry plant:

The edges of the plant are a little brown from the cold, but the new growth in the center looks amazing.  We're hopeful for great strawberries to start us out in the CSA bags in May.

This was a day that Adam was working with the bees, so the boys were playing "lion" while Adam had the hives open just a few feet away. It was a sunny day, so the bees were happy, and so were the boys!  This was just the start of their adventure. They also climbed a giant dirt mound from when we cleared out the pond last fall, rode on the tractor and helped mama pick up tree limbs from when Adam grafted.

​Spring goodness!

Remember when breakfast was a bowl of cereal or a piece of toast? (And maybe it still is?) Try re-thinking what breakfast looks like. Through much trial and error, I've discovered I need two things for breakfast to really feel good: protein and veggies.

I still will sometimes have some oatmeal with nuts or granola and yogurt, but the sweet taste in the morning just doesn't do it for me anymore.... and it definitely doesn't hold me over till lunch. Even the oatmeal with nuts feels heavy in my belly at first, but then I feel like I need more nourishment.

So I've created alternatives for myself.  This one is my favorite: kale with mushrooms and fried eggs.  I dice the mushrooms and throw them in a cast iron with a little butter, or just some water so they don't burn.  While those are cooking, de-stem and cut the kale small, then toss it in the pan. Let it wilt and then add a splash of vinegar, either rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar), and then a little splash of coconut amino acids for a hint of sweetness. You could also use balsamic reduction or just skip it.  Then put those in a bowl or plate and use the same plan to fry and egg or two.

I won't lie, it does take a little more time than putting a piece of bread in the toaster. But honestly not that much more time. Maybe 5 minutes. And it's soooo worth it.  I don't do this every morning yet, but I'm working towards it because when I do, my whole day goes so much better. I'm energetic, my brain functions better, and I just feel better (as long as I've gotten enough sleep! But especially on those days, it's important for me to eat well to get through the day).

Making this one change has meant way more veggie intake for me, too, and is a great way to get through that CSA share! I'd love to hear your ideas for veggies for breakfast. Send them my way!

Last year, we bought bees. Three hives. Not for honey, mind you! For pollination. (We have maple syrup and sorghum for sweeteners). They have a job on the farm. It's to go around to all the flowers and "spread the love" so to speak so that fruits will develop from the flowers. Also, as I'm sure you know, bees are so important not just for vegetable and fruit pollination, but to make the whole system work. We need them. They did their job by being bees, and visiting all the flowers on the farm, and then around October we weren't seeing them anymore. The hives had died. We were very disappointed, but it was our first year, so we thought, "well, we'll try again next year."  Well, over the winter we've made friends with a new beekeeper, Monica. She wants to learn to keep bees to do her part to help out the bees.  She came over to see where we kept our hives, and she volunteered to manage the new batch for us for the year.  We took a family trip out to the hives to check them out, and low and behold: