Henny Penny Farmette

My hubby and I took a much-need break from the farmette work  to celebrate the Fourth of July at the Alameda County Fair. The fair food smelled delicious (funnel cakes, tacos, burgers, barbecue, and baked goods). We’d already eaten a large lunch so we hurried to the grandstand to see the horses.

Where I grew up in rural Missouri, our horses were not as elegant looking as those beautiful race horses. Ours were draft horses, tall and strong and bred for pulling a hay wagon or doing other farm work. I felt a shudder of exhilaration as I watched those race horses take to the track and run like the wind.

Giant sunflowers in bloom in the Henny Penny Farmette vegetable patch

Friday and Saturday, we did more farmette chores. On Sunday, we attended a lovely “coming of age” celebration. The event was hosted by our Indian friends whose son and daughter had reached the age marking that milestone. Their son received his first dhoti (a male garment symbolizing his transition from boyhood to manhood) and their beautiful daughter wore for the first time a gorgeous silk sari accessorized with gold jewelry. The affair was presided over by the temple priest and involved the immediate and extended family. Although I chitchatted with everyone, I managed to taste almost every dish offered in the all-vegetarian Indian meal, which was yummy!

Next up on our July social calendar is hubby’s birthday. We so seldom have time off to just kick back and enjoy life that we are planning to relish his big day with a trip to the zoo, a sky ride to see the 360 degree-view of the Bay Area, and dinner at Sotto Mare in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood (great Italian seafood). We’d previously planned to take some time off to travel to Spain for this birthday, but he got four new jobs to oversee, ending all hope for that trip this year. Maybe next year.

Wild red plums make a tasty sweet-tart jam

Today is Monday and we’re back in the workday rhythm of our farmette. There’s a fence to put in so the chickens have a safer area to free-range, a shed that needs more waterproofing and shelves installed, and tons of plums and apricots to pick. These, I’ll dehydrate and make into jam. I’ve got to harvest honey and put supers on the hives, too, so it’s going to be a busy week.

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If you enjoy reading about gardening, farming, keeping of bees and chickens, along with a good mystery and some delicious recipes for home grown goodies, check out my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries: A Beeline to Murder, The Murder of a Queen Bee, and A Hive of Homicides (available online or in bookstores everywhere).

Novel #1

Novel #2

Novel #3