Baker Creek

This past weekend, Stella and I went on an adventure. Just the two of us. Up into Missouri to attend the Baker Creek Spring Planting Festival.

Baker Creek is a seed company out of Mansfield, Missouri that was started by Jere Gettle at the age of 17. They have one of the largest collections of heirloom seeds from the 19th century. You can read more about them here.

This was my first visit to their farm and I was not expecting such a crowd. Last year over 7,500 garden enthusiasts, organic foodies, hippie back to the landers, homeschoolers and the likes passed through the gates. When we arrived the grounds were already crawling with people. There were so many amazing vendors and presenters that I didn’t even get to see.

The kids tent was a hit with Stella. She loved the cool sand pile and enjoyed playing the free games. After you collected so many tickets you got to turn them in for an organic soda. But only one! I love that everything was as natural as it could be. She opted for some pink streaks in her hair for fun.

It was a little less crowded in their pioneer village. They have a vegetarian restaurant onsite that was donation only. The line was much too long for us to stand in, but the few food trucks at the festival were serving farm to table real food, goats milk ice cream, smoothies, and such. It was amazing to be able to eat and not have to worry about what is in it and where did it come from.

I would have loved to have perused the seed store but it was nearly impossible to get in the door. Everyone else must have had the same idea. So we wondered around, did as much shopping as we could carry, and made plans for next year. Those plans include a wagon, or two. Also a tent since this thing goes for two days.

Some of the amazing things I was able to carry back to my car included:

Some gorgeous hand thrown plates from Cyborg Clayworks. Wooden weapons from SturdiGuns.com.

 

A huge handwoven basket that saved my hide and held so much stuff. Can’t remember the name of the artists though. Some herbs, a few very interesting varieties of tomato and pepper I hadn’t heard of, two honeyberry bushes and a new hop plant. I fell immediately in love with this handmade broom from Laffing Horse Designs. So much so that I ordered a bunch of them to carry in our store.

 

The Baker Creek Spring Planting Festival was very inspiring. It was great to see that so many people care about where their food comes from, even down to the source of the seed. The vendors were top notch, and I would rather spend my money on handmade things any day.

Being gone for only two days, you would have thought my garden would have behaved itself. Of course not. But just coming from a garden fest, I was excited to jump back in.

I started the day off by transplanting some tiny tomato plants out of the nursery bed into a bigger plot. Warren eventually joined me and I would say we put in a good three hours in planting, cultivation, and building our hugelkultur beds. It was a nice ending to the day to sit down in the garden with a glass of wine and watch the sprinkler make idle arcs over all my hard work.

It all pays off in the end.

Holiday Roundup

Happy Holidays! Are you glad they are almost over? We admittedly had the most laid back, relaxed, no worries Christmas we’ve had in years. And admittedly I wish I was better about pulling out the big camera and taking pictures of my people on Christmas day but I suppose I was pretty laid back about that as well. But never mind. Here’s a quick holiday round up that I did manage to capture.


If you happen to be in Little Rock, please please please hit up ZaZa’s for the most amazing salads this side of the Rio Grande. My concoction: field greens, smoked turkey, hardboiled eggs, anchovies, capers, goat cheese, croutons, and cucumber dill dressing. Most epic salad ever! Close by is a little store called Yarn Mart. We visited twice during our time in Little Rock. My mother even fell a little bit in love with yarn.


The kids couldn’t resist this yarn bombed tree. I wanted to take it home.



Next up was the Museum of Discovery and then the grand finale…… tickets to see Trans Siberian Orchestra perform The Lost Christmas Eve. This was a terrific Christmas gift for the kids. They loved the trip and the concert and they will certainly remember it better than some toy.


And on to Christmas morning…

New SmartWool gear for me and a kickin pair of Sorels. Various home dairy items. The kids all got new Kleen Kanteens and a few different craft kits. Warren got new books and accessories for his various hobbies (think guitar, beehive, beer growlers). It was a very Minecraft Christmas for the boys and Santa came thru with Julie’s bed for Stella.

And the day after brought nice weather and chance to test out new gifts. A slackline for the kids to share. Eli scored a camping hammock. Stella rocked some new outerwear and they built a goat playground for Willow.

I’m still all hopped up on sugar and carbs and alcohol and more than looking forward to a complete all over life detox in January 1st.

Hope your holidays were Merry & Bright! See you back here after the New Year.

We've Reached The Dog Days

I swear y'all I already have that fall itch. The one that comes with the first of August. When stores are in full on back to school frenzy. When summer has just overstayed its welcome. When Arkansas is sticky and muggy and buggy and all around yuck. It makes you just want to go jump in the river but truthfully I'm already tired of swimming this year. I'm even tired of wearing shorts and I keep finding myself reaching for a pair of jeans instead of my favorite summer staple.

Now I don't mind reminiscing on the fun we had this summer. After our first semester of homeschool we were all doing quite okay with the being together all the time. I didn't anticipate that summer would really be that difficult. We kept a light school schedule with daily reading and math. Taking a few weeks off here and there. We also went on an epic roadtrip! 7 days through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorodo. Just me and the kids road trippin in the ol' Honda. We saw and did some amazing things. I'll let the pictures below speak for themselves.

Warren and I also snuck away for a night to the Rock for Oklahoma concert to see our boys! The Kings totally rocked it. I got a picture with Nacho. If you have ever seen the documentary Talahina Sky then you know who that is. I also snagged Caleb's cup and not to sound like a crazy person but oh man it was kind of sort of awesomely cool.

I also started another blog. Primal Hippie is my small corner to document my adventures in Paleo and fitness. Yes...I do still work out. Not to the extent I once did and I try to keep it a bit more varied than just running every day.

Between more remodeling projects, traveling, river trips, and schooling this summer seems to have been jam packed and I am gratefully welcoming routine and looking forward to that first chill in the air.