TREE JUICE.
Have you ever had a glass of maple sap as it's being boiled down into syrup? It's a profound experience, perhaps even life changing––like an earthy sweet tea. When I went back to the farm this week, the Smiths were boiling down their sap––follow their experience here!––and let me have a taste. Now I want it every day with everything.I feel there are a lot of possibilities with sap, and with trees: wines, beers, medicines, syrups. In fact, recently, a friend sent us some hickory syrup (made from the nuts, husks and bark of a hickory tree) and some crabapple jelly. They're wonderful. We've put them on bread and on biscuits and (hopefully soon) pancakes.Anyone have any other good tree/sap recipes? We're into it!- Jesse.
EASY DIGGING.
Hannah and I farm with our hands, almost literally. We don't own a tractor, and likely never will. We use a broad fork to plow, cut the grass with a scythe and farm with pretty much whatever crude object is laying around and will do the job. But sometimes, when Wendell isn't enough help, we need a hand. Or more specifically, a tool.The growing season is fast approaching and it is time to start thinking about preparing a garden spot. For those of you who are looking for the kind of tools we use on our farm, easydigging.com is a great place to find them. We love what they're doing and what they stand for. We love that the owner, Greg, is an engineer who cares about the utility, design and ergonomics of every tool his site carries. We love that all of the handles and the majority of the tools are made in the USA. We love that many of the reviews on their site are from other farmers and we love that it's the perfect place for people who like to do it all by hand––like us––to find what they need: broad forks, picks, wheel hoes, seeders, hand cultivators, grubbing hoes, etc..And in the name of full disclosure, Easy Digging did not pay for this post, nor ask for it. Our relationship to them––besides loving their catalog––has been that they use our review of the Meadow Creature Broad Fork (which we continue to love, use regularly, and will forever shamelessly support), and sent us a 6" Grub Hoe as a thank you. We're greatly appreciative of, and honored by, their generosity, and glad we've been able to help them sell their broad forks. But we didn't put this post up for any reason other than we simply love what they're doing and would love for more people to utilize these tools and this site.It's very satisfying work, both environmentally and personally, to get down on your hands and knees and farm. Stores like Easy Digging make that possible.- Jesse.
HARDWARE STORY.
I remember one morning in high school a teacher came into our classroom and said that we needed to support this small hardware store downtown. She said they were struggling and they would close if their business didn't turn around soon. You see, Richmond had recently got a Walmart...To a fifteen year-old the place looked insane. And the owners were a little suspicious of my being there, but I dutifully went in and bought my soda––small, I realize now, but trying to do my part (never questioning why a hardware store would have soda).A couple months later the store closed. And if that hardware store was anything like Bruton's in Tompkinsville where I went this weekend for building supplies, then Richmond lost an absolute gem.I walked in with a strange list of materials, then met a man named Doc who took me all over their store––a store piled high with everything from garden tools to wood stoves––and proceeded to find every single thing on my list. And not just find them, but in some cases help me make my decisions and give me tips on installing them. He pieced together a kit for a stovepipe; he got all the materials I needed to install our (future) electrical system; he found me insulation, staplers, masks, and everything else I had come for. This went beyond customer service––I had my own professional to guide me.Now this might or might not seem like a big deal to some, but if I had needed these same things in a town with only a Walmart, would I have been able to find them? Also, would someone there have been able to help me? And would Walmart let you borrow a charger for your drill batteries because you forgot yours in Nashville like a dope? Doubtful, but Doc saved the day. I'm a newcomer to this carpentry thing and I'm honestly quite intimidated, but Doc was an enormous help––a priceless one.As a kid, although I bought my soda, it was hard for me to truly value that hardware store in Richmond because I had no real use for it. Now, however, I see their value and how important it is to keep them alive. And although Bruton's was slammed busy and had seemingly nothing to worry about, it felt good to support them. Without Doc and his store, I would've had a much different weekend, a much less productive one.- Jesse.
stay tuned for more posts about all the cabin progress we made this weekend!
