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Update for 2024
It’s a new year and there are changes afoot! Surprised? Yeah, me neither. We will not be offering CSA shares this year. Kyle got a new job which will not allow for the time involved in a CSA subscription service. But fear not, he will be selling our produce at the Le Sueur Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings. Also, I, Mary, have been producing a podcast called A Tiny Homestead. It’s conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters (and topics adjacent). Give it a listen, if you’d like. We appreciate everyone who supports our small business! Thank you!
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Spring Is Two Months Away!
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Natural Homemade Lip Balm
We have been getting great feedback about our lip balms, so I thought I’d fill you all in on what they are made with. We don’t claim to use all natural ingredients, but we try to keep our products as natural as we can. Our lip balms are made with beeswax, coconut oil, olive oil, vitamin e oil, flavor oil, mica powder and powdered sugar. Beeswax – Beeswax contains anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-allergenic properties. Beeswax has fantastic skin-softening properties and enhances skin elasticity. Coconut oil – Coconut oil contains antioxidants that help protect the skin from harmful radiation from the sun, and coconut oil helps to hydrate skin and…
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Yummy Gluten Free Bread
I made my first loaf of gluten free bread yesterday. I have been procrastinating about this for weeks because the first and only time I tasted gluten free bread I didn’t like it at all. The kind I tried eating was dense, dry, and tasteless.So, I found a recipe using almond flour and started mixing up the batter. I was concerned with the fact that the recipe called for FIVE eggs. I was unimpressed with how thick and yellow the batter looked. Overall, I thought it would turn out to be a brick that would go directly from the oven into the trash can.I was pleasantly surprised when I…
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FDA Disclaimer Situation
“The information in this post about essential oils is not intended to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat or prevent any disease. According to the FDA, only drugs can make those types of claims, which these products on our website are not.” You’ll likely be seeing this disclaimer on my posts when I write about our products. We use essential oils in our soaps, and there’s a good reason for that. Most essential oils are plant based, and I feel better about using them than fragrance oils, when we can. My hands are a little tied when it comes to talking about the benefits of essential oils. I could literally be fined…
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Self-care and Baked Goods and Produce, OH MY!
A lot has happened since I last wrote. We became an official business – A Tiny Homestead LLC. We began ordering supplies and making all the things. We vended at our first local craft fair a month after starting the business, and then a second vending opportunity two Saturdays ago. It’s been a whirlwind of activity, and learning, and excitement. All three of us also registered to be Minnesota Cottage Food Producers, which means that we can sell baked goods, dried herbs, and canned goods that we make here. We don’t have to use a commercial kitchen, nor are we subject to state inspection. This coming weekend is the start…
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Big Changes!
Spring will be arriving for real this weekend! We had blizzard conditions last Friday night, but this Saturday we are expecting highs in the 60s. That’s the first big change. The second has a bit of a story to be told. March 6th, Kyle’s almost 30 year employment with Xerox ended. He has decided to take a hiatus from the job world and focus on home. This means that we have made A Tiny Homestead into an official business (our name now has the letters LLC attached to it). Not only will we continue to offer our CSA farm shares, but we will be selling our produce and wildflower bouquets…
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Spring Is Two Months Away!
It may look like this outside right now, but Spring is closer than we think. The first seed catalogs have been arriving in the mail and we have been dreaming of this year’s garden. We invested in our farm by acquiring a seeder, a small tiller (for weeding in between the rows), and a decent sized hoop house (to house seedlings and to extend the fall growing season). We’ll be building a new chicken coop and a roadside stand this Spring. If you’d like to become a member of our CSA, click here.
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CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and an update
It’s been a minute (more like almost six months) since we moved into our new home. There was much to accomplish before the snow fell. Six cords of wood to cut and split. Lilacs, apple trees and other plants to get in the ground. And a huge shopping trip to restock our pantry and freezers. (Never move food if you can help it. Eat down what you have in the house, make the move and then restock. Full freezers are heavy.) We got a new kitten, Molly, in August. And then at the very end of September, we got a puppy! Her name is Maggie and she is a mini-Australian…
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Big Changes!
A Funny Thing Happened…
Self-care and Baked Goods and Produce, OH MY!
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A Funny Thing Happened…
So, time really got away from us over the last few months, which may seem strange considering there weren’t a lot of outside distractions (ahem – thanks Covid). The garden at our neighbor’s house produced many pounds of produce – we ate, we shared, we donated to the local food shelf. And then a funny thing happened. It seemed like the straw that broke the camel’s back at the time but read on to see what felt like a minor tragedy turned into something fantastic! Our neighbors had been planning to build a pole barn on their property. Turns out the only feasible location for the pole barn was less…
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Life In the Time of Covid
We were going to be planting big this year (as mentioned in previous posts), but now, we have upped our game a bit. We started lettuce seeds 2 weeks ago. They are a little leggy, but we have an oscillating fan blowing near them, and we turn the tray every morning, so hopefully they’ll get it together. The lettuces are for us, so that we have fresh greens to eat, and we won’t have to go to the store for salad mix. We planted tomato, pepper, and brussels sprouts seeds this past weekend and they sprouted after 3 days. We assume it’s because the room gets lots of sunlight all…
