March 1, 2021
Dear Friends,
I hope this letter finds you and your family healthy and happy!
This is the month where winter melts into spring, the month my neighbor calls “the month of waiting.” It’s a month whose sunny days tease us into thinking that spring is nigh, then strains our hearts with days of gloomy drizzle, slush, sleet, snow, and notorious winds. That said, I’ve heard the spring sounds of cardinals and the chickadee love song, and there was some bare ground that was soft underfoot when I walked into the woods yesterday.
My seed orders have arrived, but I know better than to start anything for another 3 weeks. (Well maybe I’ll just have to start some mixed lettuces and onions a bit sooner - dark days won’t bother those stalwart friends too much…)
It’s been a pretty mild winter here with only a couple of days below 0 and a decent snow cover to protect the sleeping strawberries and insulate the berry bushes from fluctuating temperatures. We’ve had great numbers of birds at the feeders including year-round bluebirds and some unusual visitors like rose-breasted nuthatches and pine grosbeaks. Woodpeckers love the suet (bluebirds do too!) and we have downies, hairies, red-bellies, flickers, and even pileated woodpeckers in the fruit trees right outside the windows.
This is our season for cooking and we’ve been busy in the kitchen putting up preserves and mustards nearly every day (Ralph’s in there now making Chili Pepper Mustard). He’s also been busy making breads and fine-tuning his Italian Dark Chocolate Cake and baking pies every time it snows because we’re paying our neighbor in pies for plowing our long driveway. (Ralph did it for years with the bucket of the tractor, but at 70, it’s nice to have someone else do it from the comfort of a pickup truck.)
Our big news this month is that we’ll reopen Tiny Farmstand on 3.13 (my lucky number!) in anticipation of Pi Day (3.14). We’ll have PattiPies (and full-sized pies by special order) as well as our preserves, mustards, and vinegars….and maybe even a couple of surprises!
We’ll be open just for weekends at first, but we’ll try to be open 7 days in April (depending on snow and cold.)
I planned on making PattiPops for April, but 2 of my favorite little boys came by this past weekend looking for them so I might just put some up a little sooner. (As a little old lady, I can’t imagine eating cold food this time of year, but kids are running at a higher temperature than me and I hate to disappoint them.)
This is the month we’ll finish pruning the fruit trees and begin cutting back the raspberries and blackberries. We also need to re-skin the greenhouse because one of the heavy snows cut open a slit across the top ridge. And by the end of the month I will start the tomatoes and peppers and some of the herbs and flowers!
Mail order has been going very well and the USPS seems back on track with deliveries all happening in a reasonable timeframe. We appreciate each and every order and are touched by the warm and loving messages we’ve received.
Abbey’s snoring happily at my feet and I think it’s time for me to join Ralph in the kitchen and help fasten the lids on the mustards.
Sending love and warm wishes for health (and happiness!) during these crazy times!
Love, Patti and Ralph and Abbey
Sunshine sparkling on newly-fallen snow illuminates the berry bushes and fruit trees.