Saturday, July 18, 2009

Lavender Harvest

The Lavender Harvest
Here you can see a basket of lavender bundles ready to go to market, these are the five dollar bundles and are about the size of a 50 cent piece.


If you would like to order some fresh lavender bundles contact me at my email address K2P2SSK @ CENTURYTEL . NET (delete the spaces) with the number of bundles you would like to order, We send a little more than double the size you see in the picture above in each bundle, these all weigh out at 5oz each and the ones we send are all 12oz when fresh. I will then send you a request for money from paypal or you can ask for my address to send the check to. WARNING: Lavender harvest is only 2 weeks so we will run out of fresh lavender bundles in another week or so. If you are sending acheck for fresh you need to send it yesterday!!
Here is a the beginning of the lavender harvest with the larger bundles which are as big around as our fingers can reach. We later weigh them all to be sure the count is correct and then arrange in nice neat bundles so we can mail them out wrapped in tissue the same day they are picked.
Use lavender to help ward off moths from your fiber stash. If you soak thestems, leaves, and buds in vinegar in a glass jar for 2 weeks and thenstrain and put in a spray bottle you'll have a wonderful cleaner that willrepel bugs (ants hate lavender) as well as clean your counters and help makeyour kitchen or studio smell wonderful!
One Bundle125+ StemsFresh Little Rascals Farm Lavender$17.95(Prices include Priority Shipping!)
Two Bundles250+ stems totalFresh Little Rascals Farm Lavendershipped to the same address$29.95(Prices include Priority Shipping!)
I prefer PayPal, but checks or money orders are acceptable too - REMEMBERit's a 2 week window for harvesting the lavender so you need to act quicklyto be sure we don't sell it all before your check arrives!!
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Sunday, July 5, 2009

Washing Mohair Fleeces

So here is the patio and my fleece washing station (until DH finds me a new spot). You can see I've got buckets for sinks and a planting flat to pour the fleeces/water into that serves as a strainer (see behind blue bucket on right). On the banister is Cinnamon's fleece, see Thursdays April 30th to see pics of me shearing him, he's so big I had to divide it up into two and use two 5gal buckets to wash it in.
Here you can see the cascading curls....each one is at least 8" long and some are double that. I didn't shear him for a year so I could see if I could use the longer curls in something like a fleece woven rug or perhaps in core spun yarn that I can weave or knit into a vest or what ever.

The one problem I've got with his fleece is that it's hard to dis-entangle the curls, I'm sure given an evening alone with my spinning wheel I'll figure something out.
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Thursday, July 2, 2009

Large Curd Cottage Cheese

Well, today I tried to make large curd cottage cheese. I used fresh goats milk, used about 7 drops of that calcium cloride stuff to help make the curd harder, and followed instructions to the letter.......















As you can see the curds didn't hold their shape but it still tastes great!! So its' not a total success but at least it's eadible!! I think next time I'll add more of the calcium cloride and see if it makes a difference. Perhaps I'll make vegi lasgna tonight for dinner and use this as one would use ricotta, could be good.
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