Its July already?

Hello!!  oh, my goodess, summer sure is super busy here.  I worked most of May at a local greenhouse and farm and then returned to work in late May.  We planted a huge garden this year, adding potatoes and corn, which we've never done before.  Unfortunately our green beans did not come up and our zucchini seems to be rotting on the plant before it grows very big.  We had a ton of rain a few weeks ago and it just didn't recover from that.  The tomato plants are huge though, which is a wonderful blessing.

I've been exploring our yard, pastures, and the field across from us to find medicinal herbs.  We have nettle and red clover all over our pastures.  Elder grows along the fence and in another week or two, I'll be able to pick the berries and dry them.  I'll continue to make elderberry syrup for us throughout the year and the kids have requested that I try elderberry gummies this year.  I was amazed that I found a small patch of yarrow in the middle of the pasture.  I was super excited.  I currently have the dehydrator going with mint, chocolate mint, basil, and oregano.  I hope to get the clover, nettle, and thyme done this weekend also.  

I have calendula solar infusing in oil and am working on the second infusion.  I'm looking into making a plantain oil to make a salve to help with these terrible bug bites.....or I might just keep it an oil and put it into a roller ball.

I made a great cherry jam with the cherries off of our tree.  The pear trees have about a dozen pears on them.  The trees are only a few years old.  Our poor apple trees are empty.  There was a hard freeze four nights in a row in May and the trees never flowered.   

I cannot wait to post how the salves and oils work out.  Soon, I'll be crazy busy canning spaghetti sauce and freezing potatoes.  

I'm still planning curriculum for this next year.  I'm pretty sure I have it all figured out.  I'll post about that next time.  Have a wonderful week!