Henny Penny Farmette

Mention beekeeping, and most folks think right away of the delicious honey that bees make. Of course, farmers and gardeners love bees because the insects pollinate the plants growing in the vicinity of their hives.

Filling eight-ounce jars with backyard honey

After collecting pollen, the bees make honey–nature’s sweetener. Honey adds an interesting flavor to savory dishes and is a valued ingredient in desserts. Raw honey also has medicinal value since it has a slightly acidic pH and can cause a complex reaction when used to disinfect scrapes and wounds. But honey has other uses as well.

Because honey contains lower levels of fructose (unlike refined sugars), it is less inflammatory to the stomach and digestive organs. Today, honey is widely considered a superfood, one to be consumed to maintain good health. Honey is a great ingredient for cough drops and sore throat soothers. Or, drop a spoonful into your favorite tea for a cupful of enjoyment at any time.

Bits of wax, pollen, and even baby bee food are strained from the honey before it’s bottled

Comprised of tiny particles of powdery pollen gathered from flowers, bee pollen is loaded with vitamins and minerals. It also contains amino acids, enzymes, and proteins. It can be eaten in foods or on cereal as well as used as an ingredient in soap.

Beeswax makes lovely candles and soaps. Honey is often used as a vital ingredient in homemade cosmetics, bath oils, and hand cream. Of course, all these gifts from the hive are as appreciated by those who don’t keep bees as well as those who do. And since the season of gift-giving is upon us, consider buying from local beekeepers their artisanal honey and other products from the hive.

I suppose I just didn’t get the shopping gene in my DNA. So while everyone else shops the Black Friday specials, I’ll be  doing repairs on a room of our farmhouse. The second bedroom doesn’t yet have the windows completely framed, joint compound and tape on the seams, or plaster on the walls.

It would have been lovely to sleep longer today–this day after Thanksgiving–but our newly adopted cat woke me early. I made coffee and plucked navel oranges from the tree to put into the juicer. After a bagel, coffee, and a glass of juice, I mentally ticked off a list of things I wanted to do today. And I’d get right on those tasks after I watched the sun rise and observed the wild birds foraging at the feeders and the squirrels chasing each other along the fence.

There’s only one fig left hanging on the tree but the squirrel seems intent on having it

Nature is so seductive, I could have just as easily forgotten my to-do list and stayed outside, enjoying the fresh air and the natural world. I think it’s a terrific idea that many parks in California are waiving fees today to offer individuals and families the option of enjoying nature instead of shopping.

As for shopping, I think life could be much simpler if we just ask a question or two before purchasing: Do I really need it; or, do I just want it? For myself, or someone else?

I know the gift-giving holidays are weeks away. The season of sellers bombarding consumers with “buy” messages is upon us. Call me old-fashioned or blame it on my Midwestern farm-family upbringing, but I prefer to give and receive the gifts of self. Something homemade with love, if possible. Or the gift of time . . . extra hands to help me plant bulbs, put up blood orange jam, paint a room, or pluck eucalyptus leaves to make a holiday wreath.

A jay finishes its breakfast with a sip of water

What do people remember about shopping together? On the other hand, time spent with a friend, a child, or grandchild making a gift or doing something nice for someone can strengthen the bonds of love.

But back to my Friday punch list. I’ve checked my supplies for the day, and it looks like I’m out of Spackle. Arghh! I’ll have to go buy some. But this won’t be an impulse buy–it’s not something I want . . . it’s something I need to finish the job at hand. Enough said.

If you do love shopping and also enjoy reading, check out A BEELINE TO MURDER. See, http://tinyurl.com/p8d6owd

Up at seven o’clock today meant I caught the sunrise while letting the chickens out of the hen house to forage around the farmette in frigid temperatures.

Basted turkey is ready to slice

I got a good head start on prepping the turkey today. I popped it into the oven by 7:30 a.m. before starting the other side dishes like cornbread stuffing, butternut squash with cranberries and cinnamon-spiced nuts, and the other vegetable and appetizers.

The pumpkin pie is made. I only have to make homemade whipped cream for a dollop on top. Last night, I whipped out two versions of cranberry relish–the traditional stove-top relish and the other made with fresh cranberries.

Cubes of butternut squash with dried cranberries and cinnamon-spiced almonds and just a hint of honey for a little sweetness

The fresh cranberry relish was exceedingly easy to make–two small pippin apples and an orange right from my backyard tree, plus three cups of freshly washed cranberries. I washed the apple and orange, cored the apple and removed the seeds from the orange. Then I just pulsed everything together in a food processor, poured it all into a glass jar and put it in the fridge.

So all the food goes into the car around lunchtime. We’ll serve it at my daughter’s home where the rest of our family will gather together to give thanks for our blessings. We’ll pray for those far from home and those without a home and the less fortunate on our planet.

Some have ordered my novel,  A BEELINE TO MURDER, for me to sign. I’ll give them jars of lavender honey as a thank you.

God bless you, my readers. Happy Thanksgiving.

For more tips on farming and beekeeping, plus delicious recipes, check out my newest mystery–A BEELINE TO MURDER. See, http://tinyurl.com/p8d6owd

Many factors can affect the health and egg laying of your chicken flock, including weather, housing, size of population, breed, molting, parasite load, and nutrition. But when chickens start viciously pecking other hens or eating eggs, the underlying issues must be addressed.

Silver-laced Wyandottes  (black-and-white) and a Giant Cochin (all black)

Most often, the issue is a case of stress. Causes of chicken stress include overcrowding, excessive heat, too much bright light, lack of food and/or fresh water, and bad diet.

Other factors can include disruption of the pecking order by introducing new birds, especially those of other breeds (for example, fowl with combs and those without) or mixing old fowl with young.  These factors all relate to flock management.

My small flock devouring greens from the garden

When birds start eating eggs (usually finding a cracked egg or broken ones, tasting them, and then pecking eggs to break them to eat) or viciously pecking on other hens, it’s best to figure out what in the hens’ environment is causing the stress. The causes must be eliminated.

For more tips on farming and beekeeping, plus delicious recipes, check out my newest mystery–A BEELINE TO MURDER. See, http://tinyurl.com/p8d6owd

Falling leaves, shorter days, and colder weather signal that winter is around the corner. With roughly a month left before winter officially begins, there are plenty of tasks for the home gardener. Don’t put away your boots, buckets, gloves, trowel, and spade just yet.

After the grape harvest, the leaves change from green to gold or brown and become dry

If you grow grapes and raspberries or blackberries, now would be the time to prune those back before mulching with compost, leaves, or sawdust. Composting suppresses weed growth.

Pick and pumpkins, apples, and winter squash. Store them in a dry area at temperature of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

This young rhubarb flourishes in rich soil and some protection from intense, direct sun

Rhubarb plants can be divided now. Make sure there’s an eye on each new plant and tuck into rich soil and mulch.

This candy-stripe rose requires a good pruning in the fall to generate a large bush with beautiful blooms in the spring

Remove leaves and prune back roses to 12 to 18 inches. Add some bone meal to the base of the bush and work into the soil.

Plant bulbs that will flower in the spring such as daffodils, tulips, hyacinth, crocus, and scillas.

Prepare a bed for onion seedlings or sets and plant them now for spring harvesting.

Plant red, yellow, or white onions in the fall for spring harvesting

Fill bird feeders, hang a warming light in your hen house for the freezing nights ahead, and put blankets around your bee hives.

Transfer potted mums into garden soil. Most are perennials and will return year after year.

Plant kale, ornamental cabbage, and winter-hardy plants such as pansies in the garden or window boxes for winter color.

Move cold-sensitive houseplants indoors.

These fragrant lilies return every year and bloom mid-summer

After the recent rainstorm, I walked around my farmette and noticed small slivers of green sprouting up. They seemed to be everywhere.

I could understand the grass coming back, but the sight of summer-blooming lilies shooting through the soil was quite surprising. The sight of them got me to thinking about planting some bulbs for a springtime bloom.

The bees are drawn to the sweet scent of narcissus that have naturalized in the yard and bloom in the spring

Over the weekend, I dug a bed for some tulips and planted nearly 100 bulbs–some early and others late-blooming.

I also will plant some sweetly fragrant grape hyacinth. The bees are attracted to the pollen because of the scent. Honeybees especially love foraging for pollen on violet-hued tulips.

Honeybees need to find pollen all through the year, so planting bulbs that bloom before the spring wildflowers makes sense for those of us who care about the bees.

For tips on farming, raising chickens, keeping honeybees, and creating farm crafts as well as having a good mystery to solve, check out my novel, A BEELINE TO MURDER. It’s available everywhere and also online at Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

I don’t like to take chances with my citrus trees when overnight temperatures drop to near freezing. I cover them with sheets and blankets.

Orange and tangerine trees covered for cold weather

My hives are in a wooden shelter with a tin roof and the back side open, so I can work without any encumbrance. But I don’t want the bees to have to work harder to keep the hive warm for the queen and babies, so I throw some blankets over my beehives, too.

Also, on particularly cold nights, I hang a warming lamp in my chicken house. My rule of thumb for my hens is when overnight temperatures are expected to drop below 45 degrees, I turn on the lamp so the hens aren’t stressed.

The chicken house has windows that I leave slightly open for ventilation

An advantage of hanging a heat lamp in the chicken house is to foster egg laying at time when shorter days of light slows egg production. The heat lamp makes light available to the chickens for a much longer period.

Potpourri mixtures are easy to create and their long-lasting fragrance can add an attractive visual appeal and fresh scent to any room. You can find many items in nature. Use a festive basket or crystal bowl for displaying your potpourri.

 

 

 

 

A five-pointed, dry and leathery pomegranate peel takes center stage in this potpourri

 

 

 

 

Go on a nature walk to hunt for materials (see the List of Potpourri Items below).

 

Visit a shop for spices–whole nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and allspice.

 

Cut or purchase herbs (preferably dried)–lavender, rosemary, and mint.

 

Combine nature’s materials with spices, dried herbs, and dried citrus slices and peels.

 

Add rose petals, lavender buds, and/or pinecones and red cedar bark.

 

Arrange pretty seashells or small pieces of driftwood.

 

Include fresh leaves and berries from eucalyptus trees  and also he fuzzy seed pods of wisteria.

 

Put the potpourri in a pretty basket or cut crystal bowl; add a drop or two of essential oil if desired.

 

 

 

LIST OF POTPOURRI ITEMS

Combine using any of the following to create interesting mixes, textures, and colors.

Find other ideas for farm crafts and delicious recipes in A BEELINE TO MURDER.

Click here: http://tinyurl.com/nhdae39

The author and her debut cozy mystery, A BEELINE TO MURDER

My fingers still smell like French perfume lavender and rosemary from all the organza sachet bags I helped customers fill as a giveaway during the three day Mini-maker event this past weekend. Hosted by the Walnut Creek Barnes & Noble Bookstore, the event was a huge success for the store, the customers, and participating authors.

I wore an apron bearing the image of my book cover while I helped stuff bags with lavender and rosemary

All the signed copies of A BEELINE TO MURDER sold out and only a few unsigned copies are left. I gave away close to 100 organza bags and special embroidered bags I made for the event. Thank you citizens of the East Bay!

I met a lovely eleven-year-old boy who wrote novels. We exchanged email addresses and he’s already sent me his first two. I’ve promised to read and send him comments. All the while he was talking to me, I kept thinking “boy, did I get a late start writing.”

Another lovely customer bought the book for her mother back in North Carolina because winters on the other coast can be harsh, and a lover of mysteries can’t have too many on hand when the storms hit.

Ready to prepare some sachets and sell and sign a book

The mother of a Girl Scout  invited me to do a presentation before their troop in early spring. I love the organization and will give it my best shot at the end of February or early March. It’ll be a chance to talk to the girls about writing books as a career, making things from nature, and having the courage to follow your heart (as I did when I established my farmette).

I enjoyed explaining to a darling Asian girl, while her parents looked on, the differences between wasps and honeybees. It was a great point of departure into a long conversation. We all became fast friends. She danced away holding her little bag of herbs beneath her nose.

In all, I had a great time. I think the store was pleased with all the “makers” who participated. And I’d do it again.

Meera Lester’s debut novel (release date 9/29/2015)

A BEELINE TO MURDER is available through your local Barnes & Noble stores as well as online at BarnesandNoble.com. Books make wonderful holiday gifts and foster the pleasure of reading.

Here’s the update: We have a winning name for the cat–Cuddy (for cuddly and cutie and clever and kitty,-kitty). Winner has been notified and a free copy of A BEELINE TO MURDER in a tote bag has been mailed. We thank all who entered for their cat name suggestions.

The original post follows here:

Despite Holly Golightly calling her feline companion “Cat” in the the Blake Edward’s film, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, cat lovers everywhere were probably cringing. Cats are as unique as the people who own them and, I believe, every cat should have a special name.

The newest addition to our farmette menagerie of animals

Recently, I adopted a beautiful unnamed cat from our local animal shelter to live with me on my Henny Penny Farmette. Only a year old and possibly abandoned or a runaway, she’d been found in a field. She was hungry, cold, and frightened.

She’s intensely curious and loves slipping into the cave hole in her cat tree

Immediately, she was checked to see if she had been spayed, and she reacted defensively. The behavior earned her an “unadoptable” status, except to a cat rescue organization. I lobbied the shelter staff to let me adopt her. They did.

Now I need a name for her Highness, and I think a contest might be the way to find that perfect name.

Here’s a little info about her to help you dream up the perfect name.

• * She’s eager to give and receive affection, intelligent, and curious.
• * She bears herself as though she were royalty
• * She even looks regal–her animal shelter card states her breeding is believed to be a Siamese mixed with American domestic short hair.
• * Her coloring is cream and lavender-gray
• *She loves playing with kitty toys
• *She sniffed all the books in my bookcase the first time she entered the house. (Methinks she likes being around books and writers)
• *The window ledge overlooking the garden where the chickens, squirrels, and wild birds freely roam is her throne.

CONTEST RULES: The contest begins at midnight Friday, November 6, and ends on Thursday, November 19 at midnight. The winner will be announced on Friday, November 20 at 12 noon (Pacific Standard Time).

PRIZE: The winner will receive a free copy of A BEELINE TO MURDER novel and a tote bag.

TO ENTER: Simply send an email to: Meera@hennypennyfarmette.com with your name and snail mail address and your perfect name for my cat. Limited to one name per entry, one entry per person. In the event, multiple people send the chosen name, the first person to have emailed it will be declared the winner.

And who knows–this cat may become a character in one of my future cozy mysteries. Check out the Henny Penny Farmette series of cozies, starting with A BEELINE TO MURDER (my debut novel).  See, http://tinyurl.com/nkn4vh3