Worker Bird 7/21/14 Worker Bird 7/21/14

Farm Dinners

Last year, totally serendipitously, I found a new part time job at a third-generation family farmette here in Pittsburgh. I was hired to do 8-10 hours a week of bookkeeping and invoicing, etc. While that is part of the job the bigger part has become much more than that. Farmer Tara has welcomed me as her partner-in-crime to help brood chickens, take care of the beehives, host special events (our first wedding is in October!) and produce the Summer Farm Dinner Series.

The Farm Dinners are one of the coolest things I've ever been part of. This season we have seventeen dinners in the series. Tara worked this past winter to secure chefs from around Pittsburgh to participate by planning menus based primarily on produce from the farm. The chefs also source meats and cheese and other items as locally as possible. We even ask that as much of the alcohol is locally produced and we're lucky to have vodka, rum and whiskey made right here. And the beer! So many great brewers doing their thing locally.

[Side note: We just started working with Hitchhiker Brewing Co right here in my little town. There are plans in the works for them to create a special Churchview Brew with ingredients from the farm. Standby for details on that.]

One of my favorite roles in these dinners is creating the look and feel of the farm. Getting to go "yard-sale-ing" (with my dudes) for vintage dishes and linens is a great way to spend a Saturday morning. We have amassed a nice collection to set the table and various other spots around the farm but I'm always on the hunt. The farm itself is ripe with old wooden boxes, farm tools and antlers to use to create the feeling I'm going for. The flowers for every dinner are pulled from the fields, herb garden, edges of the surrounding woods and Tara's mom's amazing garden. As such the arrangements change along with the season just as the menus do. It's really cool to watch the summer unfold and slowly turn to fall and bear witness to it in such an intimate, close to the earth, way.

I'm wildly thankful to be a part of what goes on at Churchview Farm. Check us out when you get a minute.

Worker Bird 7/6/14 Worker Bird 7/6/14

For the love of honeybees

I spent half of a day last week on a mission to go buy a few thousand bees from a honey farm in Hickory, PA. I love traveling anywhere I've never been before - even if it's just a simple back roads trip to a honey farm (and maybe especially if it is so). I found the farm on Craigslist and headed out two days later to pick up a 5 Frame Nuc to add to our apiary at Churchview Farm where I work part-time.

The honey farm is a typical roadside house, shed and perma-tent thing that sells honey, herbs, plants, etc. A little underwhelming at first. Then I noticed the cow in the front yard with the dogs. A single cow, sunbathing by the front porch while the cute dogs did their own thing. My new life goal is to have a cow-in-residence. Then I notice the bee yard down over the hill by the pond and the garage filled with woodenware and wax foundation and every other bit of beekeeping equipment you could ever want to lay eyes on. Then I meet the grandpa hanging out in the shop. Then I meet the wicked charming 3-year old who named me "captain". I was in total love with the whole place.

The owner (who told me the story of his family losing the farm in the depression and how he bought it back over a decade ago) had me hop in his little farm cart (which I also need STAT) and we roamed all around - sometimes picking up his daughter and her pet silkie chicken, sometimes driving the boy, always carrying a lit smoker to calm the bees when we got to the bee yard. After Mark selected my nuc and loaded it on the cart we went to see his honey house and he gave me some quick lessons in organic mite treatments and I was ready to go. He thanked me for making the trip to which I responded, "I never want to leave". Regardless - with 5-10K bees in the back of your car it's best to hit the road and get the ladies set up in their new home pretty quickly. Less than two hours later they were settled in next to Delia I and Delia II at the Farm. It was a simple, exciting adventure that I hope to do over soon when I'm ready to have bees at home again. Here is Betsy tucked in next to the Delias. Welcome home, gals.

Worker Bird 6/26/13 Worker Bird 6/26/13

Summer for real and everything is growing

It's the season of CSAs and farmers markets and fresh everything wonderful. I started a new job with Churchview Farm here in Pittsburgh and I love every minute I spend there. It's not just that the women who own it are awesome and driven and hard-working; it's not just that there are chickens roaming and dust-bathing and crowing and scratching everywhere; it's not just that bees are flying in and out of their hives - it's all of things rolled into perfect hours under the sun. When I'm not there I find myself daydreaming about our own farm sometime in the future. There's something special about having your surroundings sustain you in ways physical and emotional. I'm thankful for the things that are shifting in my life and in my heart. I'm thankful for my family who I share these days with. Grow some vegetables. And eat them. Enjoy your summer.

Worker Bird 4/1/09 Worker Bird 4/1/09

Spring has sprung

and I like it. No, I love it. Every year I wonder, do I love Spring or Fall better? I think the winner is Fall but I am in love with Spring right now. Everything is a riot of life. Life finds a way, no matter what. The frozen ground still begets tiny, bright green shoots that will eventually be amazing, strong things that take over our yard. Unreal. I'm feeling excited to make some new pieces and I have stacks of bare boxes and piles of scraps and bits of things to make make make. I am currently working on a series of alphabet cards for a new product for L2 - stay tuned for more details on that. We're heading to NYC in May for the National Stationery Show so now begins the flurry of pre-show activity for us. Here are some pics in honor of Spring and honeybees and hopefulness.