My new ideas

So with my hubby loosing his job I have been trying to come up with some new ideas for my markets.   Thus Chicken Scratch Gourmet CSA program is now underway!!    So far this is what I am doing= I send an email out to my customer list on sun/mon, they will get to choose an entree item, a bread item and a desert item from a list of options.
Here is what the first week of it looks like=
Entrees= white chili, potato corn chowder or vegetarian chili
Bread= rustic herbed biscuit loaf, cornbread or rosemary foccacia
Desert= fresh apple crisp, spiced baked apples, mini pumpkin pie, or an asst box of cookies
I am goin to do this by the week to keep it affordable for customers.  $13.00 this week.  
Obviously I am pretty new to this so I am gonna put it out there for any of you to leave me advise or comments or ideas.  It is greatly appreciated!! 
Today was such a beautiful fall day cool in the am and a bit rainy  then now at 6pm it is 63 degrees and sunny. 
Today all I did was make a few batches of pierogi, and some mixes up for this weeks baking.  I am gonna do some almond spritz cookies, maybe pumpkin shapes and dip in an orange glaze for this weekends fall tour group.
My precious boys are doing wonderful and hubby is comin up with some new business adventure ideas for him too. 
I wish we had the funds to buy a food truck and go a few times a week to the city to sell lunches and early dinners.  But that isnt gonna happen any time soon.  Darnit! LOL I just think that would be so much fun!! to be creative with food and go to the people!! 
Kind of on a larger scale than markets and I just love doing markets.
Hope yall have a wonderful night~~ I will be back soon with pics of what I am making
HUGS
Darlene
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

First day of fall baking~

Today was the offical start of fall here in beautiful sw michigan it was gorgeous!!  The trees are just starting to show some colors and I cant wait til they all show their beauty.  Fall is my favo favo time of year!!  The colors, the sounds in the air, the smell around us and the fact that it is almost halloween!! my favo holiday to decorate for.

These are my butter crumb struesle topped zucchini muffins

plain ol zucchini muffins

butter crumb walnut struesle topped apple bread

Apple pie cakes, with butter crumb topping

these look and smell yummy, they are in the oven right now

I love how tall these muffins got!  and soooooooooo yummo!

nekked punkin cookies

nekked sugar cookie leaves

they will have some yellow and reddish color frosting on them.

I also made some white chili, stuffed peppers, potato corn chowder soup, my glazed pistachio bread and some banana muffins and mango passion fruit filled thumbprint cookies.   And some peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips, lavander shortbread flowers and some chocolate chip brownies.    A few other cookies and I am ready for market tomorrow.    We have a 60% chance of rain and storms tomorrow sunday and monday  and tuesday but wed and thurs look gorgeous!!!  I will be decorating for fall tomorrow after market so hope it doesnt rain tooo much1!
Hope yall have a wonderful weekend!!  Talk to yall soon!!
HUGS
Darlene

 ~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Sneezy snezzy sunday

Well the last few days I have been goin thru my puffs like crazy!! With this cool weather change my sinus allergies are in over drive i swear!! I am a sneezin fool these days!!

So last week my friend and I made some ABSOLUTELY AWESOME cinnamon raisin bread. These loaves are for serious bread eaters!! LOL they are a woooping 2 pounders too!! They look just great and taste like nothing I have eaten before!! I also made up another batch of our EGGCELLENT EGG BREAD braided loaves, and my zucchini pineapple bread and did up some dilled bread rounds which were yummy!! Tomorrow if I am NOT sneezin we are making up some multi grain bread loaves and also a farmhouse white sandwich bread. So lots of homemade breads!! which I am swearin we will NEVER buy another loaf of store bought bread!!

This weather has been so stange all of a sudden friday it switched to almost early fall weather!! which is absolutely nutso! the plants are dyin and the tomatoes are pretty much still green, the beans, eggplant and broccoli are flourishing but the squash and watermelon and cukes are lookin pretty putrid!! poor things!! Yall know how much I LOVE the snow but am so NOT lookin forward to it at all!! our summer has just flewn by so stinkin fast.. My hubby keeps sayin "dont blink and it will be over" with everything we have looked forward to this summer and boy he is so right~ Vacation time will be here in just a couple of weeks and wow arent a bit ready for that!! Anyone else feel like life is in fast forward?? what happened to those long dog days of summer?? sure havent been round here LOL oh well at least we are all still well though~

So this week should be pretty productive i have picked enough ripe peaches to make some peach jalapeno jam, some peach pies, and also some more spicy dill beans and want to try some crispy breadsticks and a spiced flatbread so will be at the kitchen alot i guess!! love it but just really miss being away from my boys so much~~

Have a super evening and will chat more soon
~HUGS~

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

WET Thursday

Butter crumb topped blueberry muffins

I bought this great mini cake pan the other day and made mini peach blueberry cakes

A peach blueberry pound cake complete with my "farmgirl bling" (lol icing drizzles)

Some of our blazing star peaches! LOVE the colors!!

We got ALOT of rain this am and t storms are comin around mid day. SOOOOOOOO I skipped the Allegan market today! ;( I miss it but once things get wet and damp that is it for baked goods!~~figured it wouldnt be good. So I am heading over to the kitchen to play and then have an order to deliver this afternoon. I did manage to get my Spicy Dill Pickle Slices done yesterday and they smell good!! When I was a kid my mom HAD to buy me one of those big deli dill pickles!! each and every time we went for groceries, LOL remember those?? and i loved to drink all that great dill juice!! Now I get such terrible heartburn I dont even buy pickles anymore.

Well I guess I better get off this puter and get my work done!! No days off here til december maybe?? LOL

Have a blessed thursday yall!!

~~HUGS~~

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Busy Tues

HELLO~~
Wow the weeks go by so dang fast and we have had such a beautiful absolutely glorious summer so far it is gonna be sad to see ol man winter knockin on our doors!! The last few days my mom and I have made lots of goods.
We did up more of our silly dilly beans and I came up with what I am calling "CLUCKIN SPICY SILLY DILLY BEANS" which just means they are jacked up with some great spices. Mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, fresh garlic and also some chili powder!! Cluckin good!! LOL
and we made some more mild hot pepper jelly, some carmel apple jam and today I want to try to sneak over to the kitchen to make some banana nut bread jam!~sounds sinful dont it???
Maybe make a few more pancake mixes up and cookies. My brother has to have some surgery on his foot so we are plannin on leavin around noon so that doesnt leave me alot of bakin time today oh well can go when we get home too i supposse.
Well all the girls are doin good keepin up with egg production and we added 24 of the babies to the "flock" they are big enough to be mixed in now, i just feel so bad for them as the girls ahve their peckin order and usually the babies all get pecked at the first few days, I try to watch them closely though and hollar at the olders ones. I know i wont stop it but i dont like the babies being picked on. This set of little ones is so sweet too. We have some isla browns, rhode island reds, white plymouths and not too sure what the mixed ones, our hatched eggs are but they are just little honeys!!
It is looking more and more like rain so hopefully it doesnt blow over us like the last few days has, we need rain!!

Better get my butt off to get some things done so with that I say have a blessed day and will chat more soon!!!
HUGS
Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Wet Wed!!

HEY THERE!~ so it is still rainin and a bit cool outside!! but glad we are gettin this nice steady rain all night!! just hope it is gone tomorrow for market!! then it can start up again after 3 pm tomorrow!! LOL

Well we have a new addition to our farm! A male peacock, now I just have to get a female. I really will go and try to get a better pic of him, we just got him and he was pacing in the pen off the side of the coop so it was hard he was still spooked in his new place. His head and neck are just gorgeous aqua and blue!! I have to come up with a name for him yet but will soon!

So just wanted to say hey and hope yall have a happy hump day!!

!!HUGS~~

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Hey yall!!

You can accomplish anything!!

WOW~!~ It is sunday!! A day of rest!! well not on our farm, we do take time to Thank the Good Lord above for all the blessing he has given to us and I do have tons of things to be thankful for!! I am just lovin life bigtime and actually having the time of my life!! even hobbling around I love this life I have been given!!

The market was slow yesterday there was a car show in town and I noticed alot of our regular customers didnt come by it was very busy in town and the parking lots around the market area were all taken up early on by car folks and lookers so I did bring quite a bit of goodies back with me but that is ok most of it will go to my parents, in our freezer for winter use and a suprise package for dear friends.

I made this simple coffee cake and added some fresh apricot slices and OOHHHHHHHH was it good!! now this could also be made with any of your favo fruits too!!

Give it a try!!

Cake:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1/3 cup melted butter

1/3 cup milk (i used 1/2 and 1/2 cream)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla ( i also added 1/2 tsp almond extract)

mix ingredients and place in 9 inch baking pan. lay sliced fruit ontop now

Top with my simple streusel mix:

1/4 cup softened butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans or toasted almonds work good too!

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

cut butter into above ingredients to form crumbs, place ontop of cake

Bake at 375 degrees til top is brown (25-30 min)

ENJOY!!

BTW if yall get a min stop on over to the www.southhavenfarmersmarket.com site they have done a great job on it for market!! THANKS to JOHN for taking great pics too!!

And thanks for all the well wishes my foot is doin much better!! It is still sore and swollen but nothing like the other day I tell ya!! BE CAREFUL FOR NAILS while out walking too!!

Have a blessed day and will talk to yall this week!!

!!HUGS!!

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Happy Happy weekend!!

Well had a longggggggggggggggg day yesterday, I baked pretty much all day. It was a crazy week with the holiday and then I kind of lost a day being at work (nope not the kitchen I worked from 8 30 to 5 30 at the hospital) so really only had 2 days or my time. BUT I made up for it yesterday!! LOL The top photo is of some of my glazed pistachio bread, below is some frosted chocolate mocha cupcakes (which by the way may just be a new favo of mine!! COFFEE AND CHOCOLATE!~!~ YEAH!!

some little apricot almond scone cookies I tried.
Here are the UNDRESSED pistachio loaves!!
OH and this is a must have every week!! Cheddar pepper bread!! yummo!! JUST YUMMY!! I used some aged sharp cheddar cheese, add some chopped onion, sweet red orange and yellow peppers and a bit of green pepper. I made this last year and it was a big hit!! So am making them babies again and I love em toasted or on the grill with a dab of butter. They are big un's too. Some of my customers have said it reminds them of pizza bread. Workin on a few other combinations to try out on this recipe too.

Peach dumplings~!~

So I havent work too much on any new crafty or scrappy things but will have to make some time for that. I did mange to make another batch of hot pepper jelly and also did up some strawberry apricot jam. A local store had apricots on sale and they looked so good just had to buy some up. I did make some little mini bite size pies with a cream cheese filling and topped them with a slice of apricot. Did a few with a dab of strawberry jam and then a chunk of a fresh straw on top. These will be finished with a dustin of powdered sugar and will go to market today with me. SO all in all I think I have a pretty good selection for today. Thurs in Allegan went really well considering it was cold windy and rainy all day. Well as you can see I am still here too didnt melt too much LOL!!

It has been really cool round here too, a couple of nights ago we went to bed and it was hot and muggy, had the ceiling fan on but woke up in the middle of the night shiverin, had to close all the windows and off went that fan. and it has been chilly ever since, the days are only in the 60s to 70 and at night it has been in the 50s which isnt too awful bad. I love summer but not all that hot humidity. SO these days are really nice!!!

Well gotta get my butt ready to leave for market will try to get on here more lately sorry I have been neglicting my little blog here. Hope yall have a super fun weekend!!

~~HUGS~~

Darlene
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

BL and Danny Gokey idol

BIGGEST LOSER!! OK I really want to just say I SO WANTED MIKE to win!! Did yall watch last night!! Those transformations are just truly inspiring!! Hubby and I love that show and have watched almost every season!! BOB and JILIAN we love you guys and how much you give of yourself for others!! I could not believe how terrific TARA looked too!! what a pretty pretty gal!! she could be a model again!!
Being a michigander we were rooting for the father son team MIKE AND RON!! and you guys look truly amazing!! We are very proud of you both and how you represented our great state!!
WOW~! now did yall watch Idol tonight??? I have to say i am so so disappointed that DANNY GOKEY is leaving!! WHAT WHAT WHAT???????? CAN U BELIEVE IT??? I cant!! I gotta go wipe the tears off my face, my mascara is running now!! REALLY now I have voted every time for him. What a soulful guy with an amazing voice!! Good luck to Adam and Chris!!! even though i am really quite upset by this vote!! WE LOVE YA DANNY!! cant wait to buy your cd's youll be makin!!

So have a blessed evening!! i am off to bed as it will be an early am i have to get more bakin done for market!!
DONT FORGET IF YALL ARE IN OR NEAR SOUTH HAVEN MICHIGAN stop on by our market for some great finds from everyone!!!

~HUGS~~
Darlene
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

FUN FILLED FRIDAY!!

HEY THERE YALL~~
well TGIF~ got up this am and sanded on my cabinet then went to lunch with my mom and brother and then we went to store and bought some groceries. WOW!! some of the prices have really gotten high on everyday items.!!! CRAZY!! last year our groceries were higher because of feul prices now that they are down groceries still continue to soar ^^^^ oh well we are plantin more in the gardens and my mom and I are plannin on cannin more and more this summer.
Mother nature sure has fooled us here in MI as it is down right stinkin cold out now!! in the upper 30s and windy, hopefully we arent gettin snow like they say for the weekend, then they say back in the 50s next week. My sugar snap peas are sprouting like mad in my greenhouse and the lettuce is lookin good!! will take some pics this weekend of the babies!! OH AND GUESS WHAT>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> my Mr. Boopie Woopie Boo has a date tomorrow!! Barney is gettin gussied up to meet 2 ladies!!! yepper a friend at work's daughter has 2 girls and we may become related if the meeting goes well!! LOL I am taking my dig cam with so will post them with my little studmuffin!! LOL
The girls are back to layin eggs and production is goin well now, everyone is happy for the springy weather we been havin they have been scratchin everywhere. I still have to set up the duck pool though!!! OH MY GOSH the geese and ducks were so mad, they came running the other day to where we have the big pool for them set up, only to find it there but empty!! YUP empty!! oh they were mad!! I watched and swear they were stampin their little feets around and squackin up a storm. Probably swearin their little pea pickin hearts out at me for not filling it!!What was I thinkin huh!! will fill it up this weekend if the weather is ok. Last spring we got a late late snowfall and freeze, well their pool was in a different spot along the drive to the coop and one morning while leaving to go to work i did chores, (it was dark outside and my hubby didnt hook up a backup light on my truck) so as i was backin up I felt something strange and my tire was spinning on the drivers side. WELL YEPPER AS YOU ARE PROBABLY THINKING RIGHT NOW!! I backed right over and into the side of their pool.. Now this is a kiddy pool that is only I think 40 inches? tall or maybe a bit more but geee!! smashed it right down. My hubby called me at work after he seen it and had to harass me about it!! Well the way I seen it IT was so his fault for not puttin that back up light that i have been askin for for along time!! LOL ok still my fault but it sounded good huh!!! LOL
Well have a super super night and will chat more this weekend!!
HUGS~~
Darlene
Still have flower seeds for sale if anyone wants just look in my archives!!

OK NOW THIS IS NOT FUNNY AT ALL!~~ the news just popped on tv to say we are under a winter storm watch with 3maybe more inches thru sunday!!! NOT FUNNY AT ALL!!! I better get the heat lamps on in the greenhouse quick!!!
DANG!!

Some of our Flock

Happy Sunny Day!! Here's some pics of some of our flock, they are in the big pen we built just waiting for me to open the gate and let them run!! We have such a problem with hawks and coyotes that we had to build this pen that is 50 feet long and 18 feet wide complete with handsewn chicken wire top so they are safe when i am not home. The white palm turkeys are so pretty we have 1 hen and 2 toms and those boys strut their stuff so proudly!! We have 4 geese which are also pretty and NOT aggressive thank goodness, then the guinneas which are very cool, they are the watch dogs of the barnyard. We also have 3 white peking ducks and one female mallard which is our "little duck Annie" who by the way does not go in the duck pool for some reason but she is adorable and small. I kept joking that i was going to write a kids book about the duck that doesnt like water!! Then there are my "girls" our hens we have all kinds and them some, since we hatch our own eggs we get some really pretty different looking girls. Auracanas, white rock, barred rock, rhode island reds, sultans, crested polish, silkies, and a couple of frizzles which are absolutely adorable. They are in the pic on top in the cage as they are still quite young and very friendly too!! It is cold here so wont do too much in the greenhouse today we got a light frost the other night and it has really put things on hold for a bit. We need to clean out the horse barn and spread that manure on back garden then maybe cut some grass if it dries out more. BUT the sun is shining and bright so all is good!!

Have a blessed day.

Happy monday!!

HELLO!!
here is a pic of one of my velvet queen sunflowers last summer!! I have these seeds available for purchase too and they range from light bronze to dark burgandy colors great to add to cut flower arrangements or in a mason jar.
Well greenhouse is finally done!! and it is full of seeded trays!! so now come on little seeds sprout!! LOL, we have just over $120.00 into it as the plastic sheeting is very expensive, the temps outside are only in the high 40s and rainy but what a difference inside! toast warm i must say!! Cant wait to have all these plants to plant and sell.
I made 12 dozen donuts on sat and had to make more on sunday so we are gettin the word out cant wait to start on cookies and quick breads/muffins!! I want to try some unusual combinations with our herbs for the breads to take to market this summer~~ I just have a love thanks to my grandparents and mom for gardening, farming and baking and now i can finally incorporate them together!! YEAH~~
Have a peaceful night!!