Farmer/Artist/Mom

   Hello, folks! This is an update of a prior pinned introduction post. As you can probably tell at first glance, the primary focus of my blog is farm and nature related. I live in the western end of Maryland, USA in the Appalachian mountains. My USDA growing zone is 7a, there’s a LOT of variability in the mountains, and so our weather can be a little inconsistent.

  I am in the 55-ish age category, I have a husband, a twenty-something son and daughter, plus a slew of kids’ friends, girl or boyfriends, cousins, and random passersby. 

  Our ‘farm’ is not commercial; in fact, the large majority of the acreage is in a natural state (on a rather steep mountain) and only a few acres are devoted to our garden, orchard, and pasture. I have kept cows, both milk and beef, but at the moment our field is home to our horse, Hero and a trio of goats. The chickens do not generally have names. Pet-wise we have four [spoiled] cats and two farm dogs.

  Other things I post about sometimes include my paintings and drawings, the massive cleanup effort at my late father’s farm, the kids’ colleges, solarpunk, and sometimes health stuff or adhd. Bad puns happen; no apologies will be given!

Someone left one green plastic chair behind after the last pond party. Son has it set up near the dock. So he can use it to . . ponder. I guess.

The latest installment of "this growing season is Weird" is this; joe pye week is usually, like, Doug Jones levels of tall. This year it's about to my shoulder. The pollinators are all gone to bed by the time I took this photo, but in daytime it's usually shaking with the force of bees and butterflies clustering around it.

Oh, here's a photo from a few years ago. I was STANDING beside these plants holding the camera at my head level. They're so tall!!

Yesterday I went scounting around the house. There was a small cabinet panel (unused) that had been given to me for painting purposes - it's j-u-s-t about the right size. And there's a remnant of the fish-print fabric I got for a shirt for Son a couple years ago. I have some velcro somewhere amongst my sewing notions, just need to find it.

(insert Kronk meme) It's alllll coming together!

For those with text readers:

"RootsTable is modern American food, rooted deep in Appalachia and aimed straight at what's next. We cook from tradition, not nostalgia—regional ingredients, time-honored technique, nothing fussy, nothing wasted. This is food built on stewardship, seasonality, and a little transformation, shaped by a landscape that's still alive and producers who are still pushing. It isn't a revival act and it isn't a throwback. It's what comes next—and we're not asking anyone's permission to build it.

It starts with dirt. Real fields, real family farms, growers who never once believed good food had to be complicated. Our kitchen doesn't dress those flavors up or bury them under technique—we get out of their way and let them talk. Sounds simple. It isn't. It's the whole craft, and we've got it down.

The menu moves because the land moves—that's the point. When peaches hit their peak, they arrive in your salad the same week. When the cold rolls in, the soups get serious. Nothing sits on this menu because it's easy to source. It's here because right now, today, it's the best thing coming out of the ground.

Every person who works here lives here. We're not outsiders playing Appalachian for the weekend—we're in it, of it, and writing real checks to the farmers and producers who make this corner of the map worth eating in. And to the city folks wondering if it's worth the drive: it is. Point the car at the mountains, roll in hungry, and find out what you've been missing."

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Ooooookay. Let's say, for argument, that you're a rather wealthy city dweller. Who has a yen to move to a much smaller area and become, instantly, a Big Deal in the local arts scene by opening your very own gallery, ministage for music events, and food service space. Nice, right? Living the dream. I mean, ok, we do get plenty of people moving here for the small town atmosphere, and some of them are pretty wealthy.

Now, it's a pretty economically stressed area, and the population has been declining on every census since its peak in 1950. We're down to 66,000 folks in the whole county, now! I am certainly not against folks moving here. It's just Fucken grating to me to hear "We're not outsiders playing Appalachian for the weekend—we're in it, of it, and writing real checks to the farmers and producers who make this corner of the map worth eating in." from somebody who moved here less than ten years ago. My dude, you are very much "playing" Appalachian.

My husband asked if I wanted to go down to Hickory Hollow at Home Farm to check on the situation for firewood cutting this fall. We loaded the dogs in the truck and off we went.

Happy dogs! A bit of a walk, but not enough to get hot and miserable.

There are some trees here standing dead or dying. Of those, we will cut some and leave others for their wildlife benefits. Mushrooms, bugs, birds, amphibians, rodents - everybody loves dead trees. By cutting just the ones closest to the road, we make it easy on ourselves to load the wood in the truck, prevent the road getting blocked by the tree coming down in a storm, and leave plenty of "cafeteria" trees further in the woods for the critters.

Saddle chair update; a family member with very low situational awareness may plop down on the chair as if it were normal and pitch abruptly sideways. Comedy gold.

Yes, jalapeño poppers are a breakfast food.

K wanted to grow jalapeños this year, because she and the boys got so into cooking with them. She picked out the plants at the nursery, planted and tended them devotedly, and got enough harvest on Monday to make a nice batch last evening. Jalapeños, cream cheese, bacon. She brought some home to me, after their big crawdad boil & jalapeño popper feast down at Home Farm last night.