Get A Good Friday Buzz Going
You are a valuable and important member of your community. The work you do is important, and your contributions are noticed. — The bees
Here’s What’s Happening At Good Spirits Farm
Chris worked his tail off last weekend processing honey. It’s such a hot and sticky job, with the added bonus of getting stung a few times here and there. We only ever take half the honey in a hive, so the bees still have plenty to get them through winter. It’s a more conservative approach, but we’re trying to think long-term and keep our hives healthy. And, even only taking half, our hives yielded 110 pounds of the good stuff. We may actually have enough to ship some this year—stay tuned!
Poor Veli must have gotten spooked by the fireworks on the Fourth of July because she hasn’t wanted to be out with the sheep these past few nights. We’re giving her a few days to get her confidence back, but we truly do need her out there guarding the critters and not here, guarding….our porch.
I have made the (hard!) decision to sell my old farm truck. It’s become unreliable, and I had a pretty big realization this week that A) I hate pulling a big trailer and B) I can’t afford a new version of my truck, and C) I can probably just pay someone to haul for me the 4-5 times a year I need cows/hay moved. I will be sad to see my truck go, it has so much character and has taken me (and Juliet) so many places. But, I am so excited about the idea of being able to drive places without the low-key fear of breaking down always in the back of my mind.
Here’s What I Loved This Week
It’s cold-brew season! Once a year I remind everyone that you can make cold brew at home and it’s really easy (and all I want after doing morning chores). A French press works best, and you do need about 24 hours, so plan ahead. Here’s my method:
Choose your coffee to water ratio. You'll find all kinds of suggestions on the Internet, but I have found one ounce of beans to one cup of water works well and doesn't feel horribly wasteful.
Use a rough grind on those beans.
Pour the grounds and cold, filtered water into your French press. Give it a quick stir, just to make sure all the grounds are saturated.
Forget about it until tomorrow morning, when you'll press the plunger, pour a cup over ice, and be so thankful for thinking ahead.
That cold brew recipe is the s**t (that's a good thing for those of you not familiar with jersey slang)
We harvested honey a few weeks ago and I'm just now starting to process...and it is slow! I'm just running it through a double sieve (of which I only have one pair) so it'll take me a while to get through it all. But it is incredibly satisfying and tastes yummy!