Larger is not always better

[helwen]

... in many cases, and food is often one of them. Larger veggies or fruits may be tougher, blander, not as juicy or flavorful, etc. And in the case of my FIL's peas, I shelled ~10 lbs. (pre-shelling weight) by hand because they wouldn't fit through the pea sheller opening... I think he's hoping to get a different type of pea next year, thank goodness -- says these larger peas aren't as sweet as he likes them.

***
Farmer's Market went well, sold a lot of syrup. Best week yet! Chatted with various folks...

might be getting some alpaca to play with -- a guard animal so no knowing what the quality will be like...

found out that I should make sure the grass clippings for the chickens are short so they don't get pieces stuck and get ill (I've been doing that anyway, but good to have confirmation of my instinct on that one)...

met an interesting couple who rent in S. Ashfield, one of whom is a teacher at Earthwork Programs, where they teach various types of wilderness skills and knowledge.

***
Did help out a bit with unloading hay Saturday, although that was mostly L's and others jobs. But I'd been wondering how he was doing, and sure enough he was unloading alone because the person who was supposed to be with him wasn't for whatever reason. Then it turned out the field crew was wondering the same thing, so as soon as they could spare a person they sent one up. Thank goodness, as I did get a couple of blisters this time. I could still move the bales around on the loader (tossing is probably the main reason for my blisters), so I moved some of the further away bales closer to the tosser, both for the rest of that load and a bit for the next when the rest of the field crew came in with their load. Can't keep up with the big guys by any means, but I help where I can.

***
Pouch-making workshop went pretty well after a few false starts. Nine pouches at least partly made; Emma will work some more on the ones I left there, and I took home three to finish. Might be meeting again this coming Friday to finish up.

Went over some of the certainties and possibilities for the Runnymede Dinner -- all sounding tasty!

***
Study group on Sunday was a bit more casual than usual, with all of us arriving at different times, but some interesting conversations and we did cover necessary business, as to the who/what/when/where of upcoming gatherings. Got another tour of harpnfiddle's lovely gardens, to see what was in bloom now and how things are doing.

***
Been finding more things over the past few weeks that we can probably get rid of and/or boxes that need re-packing so the contents will take up less space in the barn. Sometimes I find what I need from a box and just bring a few things up from the barn instead of the whole box, or in some cases I think some boxes were moved as partials, so there are definitely things that could be condensed. If I can sort and re-consolidate enough before winter, I might even be able to get things more completely sorted by type. This would be quite helpful and definitely more manageable.

Comments

[magpiemss.livejournal.com]

hey do you still have some syrup? Rowen and I are running low, and we prefer local, homegrown or better yet friend grown :)

[helwen.livejournal.com]

We sure do :)

The question would be how to get it to you. We do ship, but that isn't cheap these days. We're unfortunately not making it to SRWC this year :(

Someone else just put out an inquiry to our group's list asking if anyone's going down though, so if someone's going and you're going, maybe we can arrange something.

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

I can pick up at Pennsic and get it one step closer, perhaps, unless someone else would be a closer delivery option.

[chrisilin.livejournal.com]

Do you still want the two pouches I'm making? :)

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yes! I was going to write you today, to see if you'd had time to start on one or not. Two? Great! Thanks :)