design of the times

Blue Gate Farm, our CSA, recently built a new barn to house, store and prepare their produce for local Farmer's Markets and their CSA members. They wanted to 'dress up' the barn by creating a barn quilt and held a contest to see who could produce a design that would capture the essence of their certified naturally grown farm operation.

While I have never designed a quilt block, I do quilt and love to look at patterns and completed projects. I sat down with my grid paper and began to imagine how an overflowing basket of produce would translate to a squared block. After some searching and sketching, I came up with this:




I submitted my design and didn't think much about it again until about a month later when I signed on to Facebook and saw a message from Jill, one of the owner's of BGF, telling me to look closely at their completed barn quilt design . . . . my submission, along with another, inspired their fabulous new barn art!



I was able to see the finished barn quilt in person when our family helped out at the 5th annual Farm Crawl this past weekend. It is bright and vibrant; perfectly poised on the top level of the barn that is so integral in the operation of the farm.

Being able to participate in the design of such an awshum concept (barn quilts in general) was reward enough, but BGF is never satisfied with 'just enough' . . . they always go over and beyond expectations. So, in addition to receiving credit for part of the design, I also received a generous gift basket filled with products from the farm!



Jill's famous crack pretzels, Elderberry Syrup to add to teas and sodas, Lemon Sunshine Jelly, some Pear Peach Butter and 4 handmade cards featuring photos from the farm. Major *love* happening!!

Finally, here is a collage featuring the 2 designs alongside the finished painting. I know I am biased, but I think it is the best barn quilt ever created ;)!



Now I need to take barn quilts off the brain and focus on getting these kiddos through schoolwork this morning so we can go jump in the fabulous Fall leaf piles. Do you have any piles yet?

through their eyes

Every Tuesday evening we pick up our CSA box of fresh produce at a coffee shop in downtown Des Moines.  I usually ask my hubby to stop by and pick it up since he works in a nearby suburb and is often out, about and near the area.

This Tuesday I decided to have the kids and I pick up the CSA box and take advantage of the beautiful weather by packing a picnic dinner to have and enjoy down at the nearby PapaJohn sculpture park.  I called Dave to meet us there and join us after work.

Now that we are homeschooling, I wanted this 'field trip' to incorporate an educational aspect, so I told the kids to grab their cameras for a lesson in photography.

We talked ahead of time about framing the subject, (not always or necessarily on center) choosing which direction to best utilize the light, playing with shadows and glare, paying attention to what would be in the background and getting creative with their angle of the shot.

Here are a collection of the photos straight out of their cameras, no photo editing other than placing them in collage format.


Through Ben's (age 7) eyes:

Through Ellie's (age 9) eyes:

Through Maddi's (age 13) eyes:

Yep . . . totally loving this homeschooling gig.

Still to come . . . I promise . . . podding (we all love it) and photos of our homeschool space.  There are simlpy not enough hours in the day or available computers in the house to keep up with my special blogging space!!!

where does your food come from?

Yesterday we were invited to Blue Gate Farm's Annual Ice Cream Social out on their family farm. 

According to their website; "Blue Gate Farm is the small, family operation of Jill Beebout & Sean Skeehan.  We are Certified Naturally Grown, producing healthy fruits & vegetables, free-range eggs, raw honey, and alfalfa hay.  We run a limited membership CSA and are regular vendors at the Des Moines Downtown Farmers Market.
This season we were able to join Jill and Sean's CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group and receive weekly boxes of their fresh produce, eggs and honey.  By season's end, we will have received about 20 deliveries.

Buying Fresh and Buying Local are two very important values for our family, so BFG is a perfect fit for us.  Having the opportunity to visit their farm and actually see the fields where our food is grown was very exciting and educational.  Oh yeah, and yummy . . . Jill made ice cream (vanilla, chocolate and goat cheese), chocolate zucchini brownies, pumpkin zucchini bread, herb and regular ice tea, and served up some of her Mom's cookies.

Jill and Luci beginning the tour of the fields with the herb garden.  Notice the 'blue gate'! 

The new storage/utility/all purpose shed.  They need use of the old one, so the new structure is being built around the old one.  Very creative!

Hey, that's our food out there in those fields . . . safely behind an electric fence to keep the predators out.

The farm also utilized two high tunnels in order to maximize their yields.

Happy Bees make Happy Honey! 

We were really lucky to interact with a 10 day old Nubbin goat from Reichert's Dairy Air; a neighboring goat farmer who makes fabulous artisan goat cheese products.  Ben and CJ were fast friends and explaining to Ben why we couldn't just 'take the kid goat' home was a toughie.

And here is dear Blue, the reason the farm is turkey vulture free.  Thank you Blue for all the hard work you do to keep the riff-raff out.

Other than the yucky heat and humidity, it was a fine day.  I am looking forward to the Fall Harvest Pot-Luck so I can spend some more time hanging out and learning about my beloved CSA.

love is . . .

Remember those old 'love is... ' cartoons?

Here is my version:

Yep!  Today our CSA hosted an ice cream social out at their farm for all of the 2011 members.  I was checking my email before heading out the door and I discovered a message sent by Jill, one of the owners.  The email contained detailed nutritional information (including carb counts!) for her homemade ice cream and chocolate zucchini brownies. 

How cool is that?! 

It's people like Jill who remind me of the 'good' in the world.

And, tomorrow, I will share photos and stories from our visit at the farm.