I received the most amazing box of goodies from American Meadows last Saturday!   It was overflowing with Hibiscus, Lupine, gladiola bulbs and so much more.  Mason was helping me unpack everything and get it into our gardens.  Lupine is the flower that reminds me of our honeymoon on the coast of Maine.  It flowers here in Connecticut (and most of New England) somewhere early June.  Gardening with American Meadows is so very simple.  They offer an incredible selection of perennial plants, wildflower seeds, vegetable seeds, flower bulbs and berry plants.  I would LOVE to put in a raspberry patch in our yard!

Gardening with American Meadows

When you get a package with live plants, you want to open it up right away.  Get the plants out and into the garden as soon as possible.  Make sure to read the instructions as to what each plant prefers for lighting, etc.

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I’ve been spending these gorgeous sunny New England days doing yard work.  After a really long and harsh winter, our yard was a complete mess!  I used my husband’s backpack leaf blower to get all the leaves into piles.  I’ve been using the lawn tractor and trailer to pick up the piles of leaves and bring to the back corner of our yard.  I’m making a big compost pile.  The yard is looking amazing- the perennial gardens are almost all mulched and look great.  Once we get the fence up for my compost pile, I’ll put some lime on the leaves and yard waste to get the process a head start.

Now that the yard and our patio are all cleaned up- it’s time to get the charcoal grill out and barbeque!  If you have some time, try making my pizza dough recipe and cooking it right on the grill.  I personally love to cook fresh salmon on a cedar plank or grilled bourbon molasses chicken.  Once we get into late June or early July, fresh sweet corn will be ready from our local farm, Gresczyk Farms in New Hartford (on Rt. 202).  If you’ve never been there- you must stop.  They have their own farm fresh eggs, milk, half & half, Freihofer’s breads, Canton Creamery ice cream, bacon, orange juice, honey, maple syrup, perennials, annuals and SO much more!

Farm fresh eggs

Maple Farmhouse Barbeque Sauce

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I grew up on a small farm, so I have always loved to garden.  It’s in my blood.  Now that spring has FINALLY arrived it’s time to do a little backyard gardening!  This is the little kit I put together.  It’s reclaimed wood that was made into a box with a handle.  It holds all my seeds neatly and a few gardening gloves.  I can easily carry it around.  Stay tuned this spring, for many wonderful backyard gardening ideas and tips.

It’s time to clean up the yard, mulch the perennial gardens and start some of our cold crops.  I planted Zinnia seeds yesterday- they give such a gorgeous array of annual summer color to the gardens (and an inexpensive option to other annuals).  One of my favorite places to visit this time of year is Comstock Ferre in Wethersfield, Connecticut.  It’s been restored to its original glory- just like I remember it as a kid.  You’ll LOVE their wonderful selection of heirloom seeds, perennials, herbs and more!

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Now that spring is upon us, we’re heading outside to cook dinner on the grill.  In our household, we have a charcoal grill.  The fiery charcoal bricks fill the neighborhood with aromatic grey smoke that makes your stomach growl and reminds you of childhood memories.  Tonight I cooked Lemon butter Haddock with a bread crumb crust.  I think y0u’ll love this Lemon Butter Haddock recipe! 

You’ll want to soak one cedar plank for about an hour.  The longer you soak it, the less likely it will catch fire and burn.  You can find them at Walmart or your local hardware stores.  This time of year, the wholesale clubs (Sam’s Club, BJ’s and Costco) have an amazing selection of grilling items.  Be sure and stock up on lighter fluid, Kingsford charcoal bricks, cedar planks and lighters.  We store all of our extra grilling products on a stainless steel rack in the garage.  The rest is easily accessible near the grill in a plastic storage bin.

• 1/2 stick butter, melted
• 3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tablespoon granulated maple sugar
• 2 Tablespoons ground mustard
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 3-4 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• salt & pepper to taste

Mix together the butter, bread crumbs, ground mustard, maple sugar and Parmesan cheese in a small bowl.  In a plastic bag, marinate the fish with the lemon juice, white wine, salt and pepper.  Preheat the charcoal grill as directed on the Kingsford bag.  Place the soaked cedar plank on the grill, directly over top the heated charcoal briquettes.  Then place the fish on the plank and coat it with the bread crumb mixture.  Close the lid to the grill and let cook about 25 minutes or until the fish flakes apart nicely.

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It’s that time of year- Spring yard clean up!  Time to start raking out the perennial beds, mulching and getting prepared for the upcoming gardening season.  I’ve been busy trying to get the yard cleaned up from a very long winter here in New England.  There’s lots of sticks to pick up, leaves to rake and compost to make.  Tulips and daffodils are poking through the soil and soon will bloom.  We’ll be mulching the perennial gardens soon with a double ground bark mulch.  This helps to prevent any erosion and keeps weeds to a minimum.  Plus, it makes your gardens look very manicured.

While I do some raking, the kids are busy playing with their Tonka dump trucks and excavators in the compost pile.  A few years back we took down eleven trees.  This pile of earthy rich compost is the result of some wood chips from those stumps and yard waste.  The kids have a blast digging in this dirt pile!  I usually rake out the perennial beds and make piles of leaves and sticks.  I come back at the end of my raking to pick up those piles of yard waste.  It makes everything clean up nicely and I plug away at it over a few weeks.

This year, we’ll be making a brand new vegetable garden.  We have limited space, so we’ll be putting vine vegetables on chicken wire trellises and limiting what we grow.  The earthy soil from this compost pile will help add the much needed nutrients to our new garden.  I’m dying to have freshly ripe heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers and basil from my very own garden.  I’ll likely plant a mix of heirloom and plum tomatoes, which make an excellent marinara sauce- which I’ll can up for our long New England winter.

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I’m not sure about you, but I have a STACK of brand new jeans, Capri’s and jean shorts sitting in the bottom of the closet.  Over the last 10 years I’ve put on weight with two babies and stress of running a wedding business.  My down fault was honestly the baby weight.  But I never really lost it since I was too busy worrying about all of our clients’ wedding designs and details to have any time to exercise.

Now that I’ve decided to refocus and make homesteading my main focus, along with inspiring women and families in my books… I have time to lose weight.  I have a Venus Swimwear bathing suit I bought right after I had the first baby (which I gained 85lbs. for) thinking for some weird reason that the weight would simply melt off like the celebrities you see on TV.  (Of course, in all reality, that celebrity mom has a personal chef, nanny, and personal trainer.) I’ve never worn it, it still has tags on it.  I’m planning on wearing it this summer/fall!  I’m MAKING time this spring/summer to have really great workouts and loose the weight for good.  I’m on day 3 of my workouts and I feel better already!

Follow me on my journey as I eat better, exercise a lot and feel better all around.  If you are like me, you probably put everyone else first.  I’m hear to tell you that we need to put ourselves first at some point.  This spring- become healthy with me and start exercising, eating right and having positive energy.  You’ll find you have so much more energy, feel better and look incredible.

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Jam is so easy to make at home.  Making it at home also lets you know exactly what ingredients go into it.  Homemade jam is excellent on toasted bagels, toast and in shortbread cookies.

Mixed Berry jam recipe: (makes 9 jars of jam- 1/2 pint jars)

• 6 cups fruit (a mix of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries)
• 7 cups sugar
• 1 package(1.75 ounces) fruit pectin
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Over a medium heat in a medium saucepan heat up the fruit.  Keep the lid on to create some steam and mash the fruit a bit.  Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon, using caution not to burn the fruit.  Once the fruit becomes soft, add the lemon juice and stir.  Add the fruit pectin, bring the heat up to high and stir with a wooden spoon until it comes to a rapid boil.  Then add all of the sugar and bring to a boil again.  (While you are working on making the jam, heat your jars in simmering water in the Ball waterbath canner.)  Continue to stir so it does not burn.  Boil for one minute then put up in jars.  Follow the instructions on the Ball Mason jars as to how to properly can the jam.

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I love everything homemade.  Nothing says love, quite like making something from scratch.  Being made at home, you know what ingredients go into it as well.  For adorable and scrumptious Valentine’s Day treats for the kids- try making these chocolate dipped marshmallows.  They are really attractive, fun and simple to make.

To make these yummy treats you’ll need candy sticks (about 6-7″ tall) which you can find at Walmart in the craft/candy section or at a local candy/confection store.  Buy jumbo marshmallows at Walmart or your favorite grocery store.  Melt chocolate chips or chocolate pieces over a double boiler with the water just simmering (hint: make a double boiler with a sauce pan filled partially with water and add a glass bowl sitting on the top of it).  Stir the chocolate until it’s fully melted.  If  you’re melting white chocolate you want even less heat.

Push the candy sticks into the over-sized marshmallows and set on a parchment lined sheet pan.  Dip the marshmallows partially or completely in chocolate and roll in lots of goodies. Suggestions are toasted coconut, crushed Oreo’s, crushed graham crackers or crushed toffee pieces.  Stand up on the lined sheet pans and let dry in room temperature.  Then package up pretty in cellophane bags and tie with a ribbon.  You can dip all sorts of goodies in chocolate, including homemade granola bars, pretzels, fruit and homemade shortbread cookies.

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It’s winter and that means it’s the season for very dry skin.  We’re expecting about two feet of snow between tonight and tomorrow.  Some areas are expecting even more snow.  I’m going to warm up in front of the crackling fireplace with some of the wonderful products from Vermont Soap.  This little bottle of “green gold” is incredible.  It smells fabulous, but most importantly moisturizes and repairs the cracks in my hands.

My skin is so dry right now.  Between being so cold and less moisture in the air and the fireplace, which I love drying out the air more…. I’m in desperate need of added moisture.  Vermont Soap offers all goodness organic.  The Lavender oatmeal soap suds up wonderfully and smells incredible.  I’m in the cleaning mode with being stuck inside while we ride out storm Charlotte.  So, my next step this afternoon is to clean the hardwood floors and the wood trim with Vermont Soap’s “liquid sunshine!”  This stuff makes me want to clean.

Castile Liquid Soaps are natural detergent substitutes. They are free of artificial colors, fragrances, preservatives, animal products, their byproducts, and animal testing. Our Castile Liquid Soaps are used for hand and body wash, oily hair shampoo and for general purpose cleaning.  I’m seriously in LOVE!  Here’s to another wonderful New England made product.

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By: Jessica Robinson

Sugaring season has always been a love of labor for me since I was little.  Sugaring season is when the weather starts to warm up and sap starts to flow in maple sugar trees.  When I was young, my parents tapped the neighbors sugar maple trees.  Galvanized buckets would line the streets on the path to our sugar house.  We would collect the sap daily, sometimes twice a day if we had a good run.  I remember trudging through the snow, a white five-gallon bucket on each arm, carrying the sap from the tree to the truck.  We’d dump the sap, bucket by bucket into the big plastic tank in the back of my Dad’s Chevy diesel pickup truck.  That’s the same truck I learned how to drive in.  I’ve only driven a car once.  It’s a farm girl sort of thing!

My parents’ sugar house has modernized quite a bit.  They no longer use wood to fire the evaporator and have a State of the Art packing facility in the area that was the old woodshed.  Many sugar houses throughout Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont are open to the public during February-April so you can tour the farm and see how maple syrup is made.  There is nothing better on a cold raw day to step out of the car and smell the sweet aroma of maple sugar in the air.  Some sugar houses even serve breakfast during this time of year.  During the second weekend in March, Hebron celebrates it’s Maple Festival.  You will be able to tour five different sugar houses, eat a pancake breakfast and other fun festivities.

We love real maple syrup in our house!  I use granulated maple sugar when I bake pies, cakes and pastries.  I also sprinkle it on bacon before I cook it to add a wonderful flavor.  There is nothing quite like real maple syrup.  Here’s to another successful sugaring season!

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