Good morning farm followers! I cannot believe it is August 13th already! Wow this year is literally flying by! August has proven to be quite hot and very wet just as July has been. God has given me many things to do so my days are filled, but we need to remind ourselves that business does not mean productive. As you read through the information pages of this website you know we raise Gulf Coast sheep. These are a critically endangered breed of sheep simply because folks just are not raising them. They are really great sheep! They have lovely fleeces which can be used in many applications. Their meat is mildly tasting, not gamey or over powering. We keep them as "grass fed"as possible and whenever grain is fed to them it it always ORGANIC. No compromises here simply because we know that grain is heavily sprayed with man made chemical fertilizers and pesticides and it is not worth it. Our health and the health of others matters. We want children to grow strong and healthy. We want to see their beautiful brains develop to be a blessing to society in whatever capacity God gives them. So we farm with a purpose and we trust God continues His hand of blessing upon us to make a difference. The Bake Shop and the Farm Store have been quiet these last few weeks. Baking is happening but on a smaller scale. I never want to bake "just because" I want to create nutritious food, food with a mission to make us strong and bless our bodies with things good for us. I so want to tell the world about Ancient grains and how much they are missing when they do not avail themselves of the pure goodness of them. But I wait patiently for whatever opportunity I am given. Until then I work, and study, and trust! Lord willing we will be traveling up to Connecticut to pick up a new Ram for the Ewes on Friday. It is a 17 hour drive but I trust we will learn much on our journey. We will post new pictures of this special new male on the farm next week so stayed tuned! OK folks have a good rest of your day. May August be a month of joy and blessings to you all.
Summer wanes on...
Good morning farm followers! Wanted to stop in and give an update on what all is going on around here. Summer is in full swing and it has been very hot and quite wet this month. I am thankful though because there are so many dry places across this land they would gladly swap a place with me. Got some fresh organic peaches, Bing and Rainier cherries as well as some lovely organic rhubarb from a company I have been doing business with for well over ten years. Azure Standard in Dufur, Oregon. I am all about buying and supporting local but when local cannot or will not meet my standard and I cannot do it myself then I do the next best thing and that is imitate the Proverbs 31 woman and get it from afar. Azure has wonderful organic produce which the majority is grown by themselves. These folks were organic before organic had to be a buzz word! So when they have fruits and veggies in season I am all for it. Thankfully we have a Co op that delivers monthly so I can get my goods without too much of a hassle. Hopefully some of these lovely fruits/veggies will make an appearance in the Bake Shop before weeks end. Life gets pretty hectic around here. Some days I wish I could replicate myself just so I would have help. :-) My dear friend and food photographer Jessica Gray has finished up snapping beautiful images of all I asked her to do. I will get the new photos uploaded ASAP. The only slow down for me is that the photos she took are so awesome it is hard to choose just one. Been working on some yogurt cultures hopefully I will get the different varieties going so I can incorporate that into my product line. I would ask that if anyone would like to purchase freshly baked Ancient grain bakery products from our shop please message me. I try to be available almost every day so in order to offer the best of the best I would appreciate advanced ordering. You do not need to pay for anything until pick up but I want to make sure Einkorn, Red Fife and Mr. Abruzzi rye look their best! I mailed some goodies to Michigan and they are to arrive by Friday. Will know then how shelf stable these products can be. I have had a few requests to possibly ship some products. This is a test of possibly doing that. Well I have rambled on enough. Looking to continue providing quality to you all so your lives will be quality living!
Cottage Bakeshop Updates
Good afternoon on this lovely Sunday afternoon. We are thankful for Sundays around this farm since we rest from our labors and nourish our souls. Today we celebrated the baptism of our 19th grandchild. Such a blessing, so as I sit here and reflect on the gracious God we have I bless Him for all the wonderful folks who came to the Bakeshop this week. We do so desire to see folks come and learn about how food can be nourishing and good for you once again. Einkorn as many of you know is the staple grain of which I bake and I am excited to add new things to our product line. We are blessed in this nation with such an abundance of seasonal fruits and veggies. It is such a privilege that their appearance is on the food scene now and I can hardly wait to showcase them in the little Bakeshop. On the Farm store side we will have some fresh organically grown local tomatoes and cucumbers that we would love to get an opportunity to sell. Cherries are very available now so hopefully we can get some cherry type breads and scones baked up as well as a crostata or two! Well enough said today! Thank you for reading my blog and hopefully we can be blessing to you this week.
Farm Store Update
Greetings all you fine farm followers! Over the weekend we participated in the Upstate Farm Tour here in SC. Well over 250 folks visited our farm and bake shop. We are so very, very thankful for each and everyone of you. We trust you learned something and that perhaps even been inspired to do something to contribute to better food in your life. We will officially open the Bake Shop June 18, 2018. Given the response over the weekend I need to replenish my supplies and get on a schedule of baking. Many of you folks have asked for specific items and I am working on a page on this website to put each item and its price with a small description. Hopefully that will keep everyone more informed. Please put your contact information in a message so that I can respond appropriately to everyone and keep better track of each inquiry I get. We are always open to suggestion here so please feel free to give feedback where appropriate. Many have asked if I can teach a class or perhaps speak at some function they attend. Like everything in our lives we evaluate each situation as they are brought on the scene of life. We want what we say or teach to matter so before I commit to anything I want to make sure it will be useful and filled with good instruction and exhortation. Thank you all again for all your kindness. It is appreciated! We think that opening the store from 8-5 Mon-Sat. is a good beginning! So Lord willing we will see you then! Enjoy your day!
Farm Store Bake Shop progress!
Greetings from the Didaskalos Farm! The hired electrical work has been done. Inspections finished and we have our own account with the electric Co-op for the store now. Woohoo! Now my Farmer husband will finish the harder job in my opinion of the inside electrical work and then we can get busy on set up and design! Exciting times here! I had to take a week away due to a personal situation in our family but I am back on the Farm getting down to business. I am very encouraged by the amount of visitors to our farm website. Hopefully as we get better at website management you all will come back often. Please let us know what things we can write about that might be of interest. Till next time enjoy folks you only get one opportunity!