Today’s blog post is a photo dump of an ongoing project that has been underway since Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson got Covid. Do you all remember those bleak days of March 2020? Our son Walter and his partner Heather had been forced to return from jobs working at an eco-village in Thailand. As the four of us sheltered in place at Laurentide, we would take breaks from our rectangles of doom and walk around the perennial fields thinking, “Can we eat irises?”
Read moreInstasham!
Everyone has an opinion, ya know? Recently, our third son Atticus (pictured above), critiqued our Instagram content. “It’s getting stale,” he said in that blithe manner typical of an apartment dweller with three houseplants. “No interesting stories,” he said, “and you posted four photos of Heather in a row.”
Read moreOuttakes from our Salad Event + Best Summery Salad Dressing Recipe
Today on the blog I’m sharing Laurentide’s most popular lemon honey salad dressing. Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the recipe.
Read morePing: How a Chicken Was Named for a Duck
Good grief, twenty teenagers? Yes, our chickens have reached that pubescent stage where their feet are growing faster than their bodies, their voices are cracking, and in accordance with their hairy Persian and Colombian owners, they’ve sprouted unattractive facial feathers. They’re now old enough to venture outdoors into a little fenced area where they’re learning to hunt and peck in the grass. We’ve propped a couple ramps leading through a trap door. Making their way down the plank in the morning, they’re out of control and gangly, like thirteen-year-olds on a dance floor.
Read moreToday's Crop: A Branding Package
It’s been nearly two growing seasons since we named our farm Laurentide, after the prehistoric ice sheet that sculpted this valley more than 12,000 years ago. Since that naming, we’ve talked about a brand identity that could elevate our farmer’s market stand and our website.
Read moreEat Lettuce with Us!
I cannot describe to you the way we feel about salad. We’re mad to grow it, mad to eat it, and mad to talk about it. Every night, one of us walks down the basement stairs to the cooler and fills a bowl with fresh greens. One of us throws some oil, acid, salt, and mustard into the Vitamix. One of us roasts some nuts or blasts some chickpeas. One of us chops some veggies. And every night, there is not enough salad.
Read morePresenting Our Grandchicks
This Ameraucana chick (pictured above) has become my favorite. Maybe because she looks like an owl and I want to prop wee little spectacles on her beak. Maybe because I’m super excited about the blue eggs she will lay, hopefully by the end of summer. She is easygoing and perches on my hand without any fuss.
We haven’t really named anyone yet— we want to wait until their personalities become more clear. A friend told me when she was a kid, she was not allowed to name a chicken because that meant it couldn’t go away to “Freezer Camp.” Lol, none of ours are packing their mosquito nets for Freezer Camp. They’ll all eventually get names.
Read moreLearning from Lucy
In the episode “Lucy Raises Chickens,” Lucy and Ricky, new residents of Westport, Connecticut, find life in the country to be pricier than they expect. Their electric bill is $18.75, ‘splain that if you can! But this is 1957 when fresh eggs are going for 75 cents a dozen, so the Ricardos decide to raise chickens to defray costs. Fred is hired as the chicken tender and all seems perfectly normal. Then silly Lucy impulsively orders 500 chicks before the coop is ready, and hilarity ensues.
Read moreMuck and Mire
Two years ago, when my father-in-law got in trouble with a knee replacement, we found ourselves making frequent trips to visit him. We had closed on this agricultural property by then but hadn’t yet made any concrete plans for the future. You can imagine how we suddenly paid very close attention to all the farms we passed en route through Iowa and Illinois. We wondered about furrows, and the uniform distance between them. We noticed flags on the sides of some Harvestores, but not others. We took note of fencing and pole barns. But mostly, we stared at the miles of farmland underwater.
Read moreThe History of Monches
What’s a pandemic winter good for if not to watch birds, solve crosswords, and research your local history. As I’ve whined many times, we’ve no TV out here, so this is how we get our jollies. Let’s just say if you click off this blog post right now to go search for Lady Gaga’s dog, I am okay with that.
The road in the photo above is Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive. It cuts through our little town of Monches, home to the Ox and Cat Saloon, a ball park, a church, an old mill, and a mill pond that is very popular with fishermen. If you need milk, gas, smokes, pretty much anything that isn’t pizza, beer, or the word of God, you have to drive another fifteen minutes.
Read moreTorn Between Two Houses and Feelin' Like a Fool
During this work-from-home year, we have had the great good fortune of living in two places at once. Our farm is only thirty-five minutes from our suburban home, so we commute back and forth a lot. There are advantages to both. Here in the suburbs, I love chatting with Stacy next door. I appreciate the convenience of a garage, and of course the array of nice shoes, high class chapstick, and probably a thousand books. Not to mention the biggest perk: television!
Read moreThe State of the Blog 2020
“A married couple, mid-fifties, responsible community members, believers in recycling, pinewood derby, and gluten-free book drives, take leave of the suburbs and stick their shovels into a country farm. It is not what they expected. The work dulls his mind. The lack of company sharpens her temper. The chickens never shut up shut up SHUT UP.”
Read moreRIP Sweet Chicken
Our most proper Henrietta has died. She who once ruled the roost became sick last summer with an infection that would not heal despite the medical attentions of the vet, of Dona, our resident chicken expert, and of my father, a retired pediatrician. She spent her last weeks in the glass house (above) where she reveled in the warmth, ate lots of mealworms and tomatoes, and really seemed to get better. Then she got worse.
Read moreBig Country Christmas at Laurentide
An old farm. New owners. A pandemic. Boxes of vintage lights. Acres of evergreens. No place to go . No where to be except right here. End result: boy oh boy have we enjoyed decking these halls!
The bulbs are quite old. They’re from a box that was purchased at Bower’s Hardware Store in Murphysboro, Illinois, back in the 70s.
Read moreA Book to See You Through the Relentless Pandemic Cooking
First off, don’t let the photo above mislead you. Yes, I’m holding my latest favorite recipe book but we don’t eat our chickens. In actuality, I am polling the hens to see whether they prefer I use their eggs for cottage cheese pancakes or fudgy icebox brownies. Both recipes are among other standouts in Phyllis Grant’s new book, “Everything Is Under Control.”
Read moreBotanical Art to Get You Through the Election
Source: Woodlucker
My first season of flowers is over. The signs of decay are everywhere. The bleached leaves of the King Solomon’s seal look like parchment paper streamers from some festive fairy bash. The purple asters have closed their faces into little disapproving black knots. The tamarack trees are baring their trunks faster than Kappa Kappa Gammas on spring break. But oh, the memories.
Read moreMaking the Move to the Farm
Sometimes. as I open my eyes in the morning, I’m not sure where I am. That’s how often we are back and forth between the farm and our suburban home. My sleepy mind can’t always keep up. If my toes land on hardwood, I know that I’ll need my warm bathrobe so I can go feed the chickens.
Read morePlaying with Fire at Laurentide
Among the many plants we’ve been experimenting with here at Laurentide, one is hot peppers. A couple years ago, Walter decided to create a pepper with the flavor of a habanero but in a more slender form and with slightly less heat. His first try came out small and wimpy, so he kept cross pollinating. What you see in the photo above is Walter’s fourth generation pepper, and they’ve definitely got some fire.
Read moreKeeping It Clean at the Farm
Look at this pretty man bathing in the nice water. Can you smell the soap? Can you hear him singing the Three Dog Night song? “Wash away my troubles, wash away my pain, wash away my sorrow, wash away my shame.”
We’ve installed a new outdoor shower here at Little Laurentide. It is beyond description to stand on the flagstone in bare feet after slaving in the garden.
Read moreProcrastination Links 08.31.20
It’s the unofficial last week of summer and the transition from summer to autumn is on full display at the farm. We are harvesting the last bounty of the gardens and fall colors are slowly appearing. While so much hardship is dividing our country, I continue to turn to the gardens for inspiration and hope. If you need a little break this week, check out my favorite procrastination links from around the web…
Read more