Tempest

A week ago we were woken in the early hours to what sounded like battering surf against our little house.   The word “tempest” came to mind as I lie in bed unable to sleep.  I was sure our hoop houses would be ripped apart, and then I remembered our pastured meat birds and fully woke with a feeling of dread.  I woke Michael, who can sleep through anything, and we put on our rain gear and headed out to the back pasture where 150 meat birds were parked in their moveable  houses.  Only to find no houses and soaking wet birds scattered all over the fields doing nothing to save themselves from the weather.  After 3 hours of searching with a small flashlight, we recovered 2 of the 3 house and rescued most of the birds.  In the morning we woke, still cold from the wind and rain, to find our farm scattered with everything that hadn’t been tied down.  A week later our neighborhood is still without power, and we are keeping generators running to  keep our chest freezers full of meat frozen.  Despite all of this we got through our second Farmstead Share with the help of our fabulous work shares.  We even made Halloween costumes and went trick or treating.  Our theme this year seemed prophetic, for weeks the kids had been trying to come up with an idea, finally settling on “weather!”  Clouds, raindrops, sun, moon, rainbows and a leprechaun of course!

The 2nd Share

Beets

Cilantro

Romaine lettuce

Kale

Butternut Squash

Leeks

Heirloom Tomatoes

Garlic

Elderberry Syrup

Farm Eggs

Wholesome Holmstead Yogurt

Hahn’s End Lynn cheese

Elderberry Syrup is one of our family favorites!  The kids love to mix it with sparkling water and make their own healthy “soda”.  I mix it in herbal teas as a sweetener, or take a spoonful whenever I remember.  Want to know more about the    healing properties of elderberries? Go to herbwisdom.com and search Elderberry.