Welcome to the first ever edition of Snippets from the Schoolhouse!
Our mission: to help you feel more connected; to us at the Schoolhouse, to the natural world, to the Creator, to each other.
After years of living the natural, homesteady, hippie, homeschool, entrepreneurial lives, we asked ourselves, 'how can we best serve?''
So here we are--trying this.
Not youtube. Not tik tok. Not instagram. We're bringing together snippets from our life over here on Schoolhouse Farm--a window into our world--in hopes that you feel encouraged & connected. <3
What You'll find in This (first) Edition:
- Reruns: The Seed Starting Podcast Episode
- Quote from our Studies: Abraham Joshua Heschel
- Whatâs going down at Schoolhouse Farm: The Bullet Points
- Lacey's Herbal of the month: Chamomile
- Wellness habit of the month: Eat Your Greens & Frolick!
- Seasonal Gardening/Almanac: Water = Life!
- Family Life Tip: Noting the Good
- Grazing News: Into the Pasture with Drew
âOur kinship with nature is a kinship of praise. All beings praise G-d. We live in a community of praise.â
âAbraham Joshua Heschel
God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism
Whatâs Going Down @ Schoolhouse Farm?
A bullet point list of current events & projects
- After the unexpected death of a calf/oxâthough very sad, weâve made use of the carcass for dog food and Drew & Abraham are working on tanning the hide.
- March started with some warmer days that inspired garden action! Spreading mulch & compost, cleaning up the randomly strewn trash all over the homestead & enjoying the first blooms of daffodils, hellebores, sweet breath of spring & now forsythia.
- Weâre trying Tater Towers with a layered system of mulch & compost in circles made of hardwire mesh. Our main concern for success is moisture/watering. Itâs an experiment!
- We planted about 1/8th acre of wildflower seeds to satisfy Laceyâs heart. The hope is itâs a robust escape in which we can sit in our garden chairs, drink coffee & gather cut flowers for summer time delight.
- Weâve hosted several guests at the Schoolhouse & Holler Hall. Both have shared their love of the spaces, which makes our heart sing.
- The forestry service came this week to create a perimeter fire lane so we can burn where we had cut down last year. The closer we get to making our back 7 acres grassy forage, the more excited we get to continue to grow our herd.
- Seeds are started! And more to begin. With the high tunnel actually growing in some of our new raised beds, weâre eager to push the seasons a bit and get our early started tomatoes going even sooner than years past! Weâre learning as we go, and are trying to set our expectations accordingly!
- Seeds weâve started indoors: Variety of Heirloom Tomatoes, Borage, Broccoli, Artichokes, Greens, Spinach, Scabiosa, Feverfew, Chamomile, Forget-me-nots, Marshmallow, Valerian, Canterbury Bells, Naughty Marigolds, Hollyhocks and soon both sweet & spicy peppersâŠ(don't forget to listen to the podcast episode linked above for the top 3 secrets to healthy seed starts)
- In the garden or High Tunnel: Peas, Spinach, Lettuce, Carrots, Nasturtiums, Beets, wildflowers
- New Perennials: Serviceberry, loquot, apple trees at Holler Hall, bush cherries, more peonies, kiwis, chestnuts and some we canât recall!
- The comfoo (food club) has opened up several new drop locations around the Triad, added more new specialty wholesome foods and continues to connect local farmers with the eaters who don't want to cut corners when it comes to their food.
- What have you got growing?
pictured: Hellebores generously radiant for almost a month already!
Lacey's Herbal Highlight: Chamomile
Potent Healing from the daintiest of packages.
I'm not a fan of Chamomile tea, are you? For Beatrix Potter, this is one of the most important herbs around! Do bunnies really consume it as she describes? For many itâs just the right tea for calming the nerves and aiding digestion. For me, itâs much more enjoyable as a fragrance or medicine applied topically as the taste does not appeal to my senses. Growing and drying the herb can be satisfying, though hit or miss! Weâve had great success with it in unexpected places as it seems to prefer uncultivated soils with little compostâas delicate as its feather leaves and dainty flowers, it is a resilient herb that can even stand heavy foot traffic.
Roman & German both offer the soothing benefits for both mood and body (great for massage or baths) and can be used to soothe wounds, as a toner for the face and is wonderful for burns.
Romanâgreat for paths and in between paversâit grows only to 6 inches high.
Germanâmakes a nice border plant growing up to 3 feet tall!
As an essential oil, I recommend Roman as it is higher in the chemical constituent Chamazulene which is a potent healer and calmer of anything irritated--muscle tension to mood swings! Learn more (or get some at wholesale) here!
I use it in my favorite âSleep Elixerâ blend and directly on cuts, scrapes & burns. Inhaled deeply it's also great for allergies & anxiousness:
Healthy Habit Corner by lacey
Eat your greens and frolick!
Spring is the perfect time to incorporate more greens. As the world around us greens up, things like chicory, dandelion, henbit, nettles and other forageable greens are packed to the brim with micronutrients, vitamins & minerals itâs difficult to get any other time of year!
Including some of these early spring greens can be just what your liver and body need to detox out the winter sludge thatâs built up while the sun played hard to get through these last few months of winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
If youâre a gardener, youâre starting to see the sweet and well watered leaves of bib lettuces, cabbages and other garden greens ready for a bright spring salad that satisfies deep voids in the caverns of our nutritional needs.
Not growing? These last few months Iâve added a simple new greens powder product to my routine that I highly recommendâit makes getting a daily dose of the super-powers greens have to offer super simple, and can be used as an alternative to other daily supplements that are likely not nearly as effective.
I made a short video to explain what makes this so greatâwatch and let me know what you think!
As we see with our herd as the green starts to poke up, and they have more access to fresh grasses and forage, the nutrient density of the meat and dairy they provide is remarkably improvedâand their vitality perks up. Some of the most fun on the farm is watching them them become vibrant, more energetic, and even frisky this time of year. Images of frolicking herds and flocks on revived green pastures isnât just a clichĂ© of storytales! We should lean on the wisdom watching this process unfold offers us!
Eat your greens and frolick!
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Schoolhouse Seasonal Snippet:
Water=Life!
Planning your garden? Now is the time to think about infrastructureâin particular watering systems. Though the spring offers abundant hydration for our gardens, if we donât have a system in place for late June through September, we may lose the bulk of the profits from this season's hard work!
Drew is the Schoolhouse farm irrigation expert and has created a network all over our property that makes ensuring that plants stay well watered throughout the growing season a priority.
Donât forget those young perennials! As weâve learned the hard way, not watering newer perennials until theyâre established can stunt their growth and potentially prevent fruiting if not worse.
Whether you intend to use water catchment systems like rain barrels or mini-ponds, itâs worth considering timers and automation to help reduce the need for daily watering by hand. Drip Depot is our favorite resource for watering supplies!
Above are glimpses of the new raised beds we're using to cultivate in the high tunnel. Drew is currently refining the watering system--he's already updated the timer and sprinklers for low-pressure water sources. (he's been trouble shooting this system for the few years we've had the tunnel--there is a lot to understand)
Family Tip
Noting the good with Lacey
I recently watched an encouraging video as I was scrolling on instagramâit has been sitting in my mind ever since. The suggestion went that the best counter for a frustrating relationship or behavioral issues in the home is to focus on noticing and complimentingâeven when it seems like there is no good to be found, noâESPECIALLY when there seems to be nothing good to be found. Negativity can be a real vortex that self-fuels and almost needs no help to grow, and the effects of it only compound the issues. The simple act of looking for, focusing on and bringing to attention the positive can have a similar effect, but we humans need to be diligent to take steps uphill instead of down. The path of least resistance generally goes places we donât really want to be, but little uphill steps can lead us to some pretty magnificent viewsâeven of each other. <3
Grazing tips from Drew:
Don't graze in March--and maybe not in April.
This time of year it's so hard to not want to get those cows and sheep on the green grass. I'm holding the excitement and going against my normal instinct. I'm closing down grass areas.
- I'm making their paddocks smaller.
- Using up the rest of the hay for the year. my goal is always to get to middle of april. This year seems like it might be even later.
But what made me realize I needed to cinch them down was that i went out today and saw them nubbing an area that just started growing.
The poor grass didn't even have a second to start growing roots.
So instead of letting them have that new grass:
- Making sure their salt is plentiful. this year I am giving them a sulphur and salt block. we had really bad ticks last year. My hope is to keep them off the cows by upping their sulfur intake. So I'm starting now.
- I've got them a basic all purpose mineral. just to make sure they have everything they are missing during the non growing season.
- I'm going to start giving them garlic salt in water soon too. that will help with the ticks and salt water is way more bioavailable for them.
Lastly, I'm getting out my maps and making plans for this growing season.
- How long will they be in a paddock?
- Which paddock did I start in last year?
- Which paddock did I end with last year?
- Which cows do I need to sell to make sure I have enough grass for everyone?
- Which cows do I need to butcher?
Thanks for joining in on the fun with us through this new format--we plan to publish regularly! And we'd love your help!
What is happening on YOUR homestead? What would you like to see in future editions of Snippets from the Schoolhouse? Need advice? Recommendations? Direction? Submit your topic ideas, advice requests and more here:
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