The Hugues Homestead

Sent to me by someone close to my ❤️. So creative to hang the Homestead Heart on a wreath for extra interest!

Friends sharing 📸s of The Homestead Heart as class Valentines, gift toppers, mantelpieces, yoga decorations, and gifts just to let friends know they are loved. 🥰

Hannah is taking a crafting break this week to recover from mid-terms, but look out for some new cards featuring Hannah’s unique artwork coming soon!

I’m still knitting away, and wanted to share how much I love the way my mantle with the strung Homestead Heart came out, as well as this cute idea my friend had for using a Homestead Heart as a sweet replacement for a wine gift bag. I’ll post the order form in the comments if interested or reach out with any questions!

Hannah and I are getting a little bit crafty to get us through the cold-snap! Hit us up for some hand-crafted valentines. The Knit Homestead Heart is made with beautiful yarn from Staci's Stitches yarn shop in North Scituate. I love the look of the hearts in the top 2 rows of this picture that are made with malabrigo yarn that Staci helped me to pick out. Hannah has also designed several heart-themed hand-painted cards. Pictured here are her first 3 mock-ups and she has two more designs coming. The cards are 5x7, are blank inside, and come with an envelope. Follow the link in the comments for ordering info, or reach out directly to me with any questions!

Hannah's Hand-Painted Cards:
1 - Together We Will Touch The Sky (Heart Balloons)
2 - Eight Times the Hugs (Octopus)
3 - You Are Loved (Heart)

We are happy to be currently harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers, some summer and winter squash, yellow beets, broccoli, carrots, kale, peppers, potatoes, string beans and greens! We have been working out a new irrigation system this year and have had an over-watering situation with all the rain - learning curves! We'd like to ask for your feedback for informational articles you'd like to see this fall on our website - about gardening, cooking with fresh foods, beekeeping, or chickens. Also, check out the yoga tab for my background and current offerings, and the farm store tab for holistic health offerings (fresh herbal salt blends coming soon and neti-pot packages currently available through a link on that tab)!

The Hugues Homestead Tools for setting realistic expectations for yourself, to appropriately self-reflect, and to build slow down moments into even the busiest days.

Lots of growth this past hot week!..and a bunch of bolted carrots 🥕:(

Here are some interesting facts about the dandelion flower:

The dandelion is the only flower that represents the 3 celestial bodies of the sun, moon and stars. ☀️ 🌙 ⭐️. The yellow flower resembles the sun, the puff ball resembles the moon and the dispersing seeds resemble the stars.

The dandelion flower opens to greet the morning and closes in the evening to go to sleep. 😴

Every part of the dandelion is useful: root, leaves, flower. It can be used for food, medicine and dye for coloring.

Up until the 1800s people would pull grass out of their lawns to make room for dandelions and other useful “weeds” like chickweed, malva, and chamomile.

The name dandelion is taken from the French word “dent de lion” meaning lion’s tooth, referring to the coarsely-toothed leaves. 🦁

Dandelions have one of the longest flowering seasons of any plant.

Dandelion seeds are often transported away by a gust of wind and they travel like tiny parachutes. Seeds are often carried as many as 5 miles from their origin!

Animals such as birds, insects and butterflies consume nectar or seed of dandelion.🐦 🐛 🐜 🦋 🐝.

Dandelion flowers do not need to be pollinated to form seed.

Dandelion can be used in the production of wine and root beer. Root of dandelion can be used as a substitute for coffee. 🍷 🍺

Dandelions have sunk their roots deep into history. They were well known to ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, and have been used in Chinese traditional medicine for over a thousand years.

Dandelion is used in folk medicine to treat infections and liver disorders. Tea made of dandelion act as diuretic.

If you mow dandelions, they’ll grow shorter stalks to spite you.

Dandelions are, quite possibly, the most successful plants that exist, masters of survival worldwide. 💪

A not so fun fact: Every year countries spend millions on lawn pesticides to have uniform lawns of non-native grasses, and we use 30% of the country’s water supply to keep them green.

Bee Happy Gardens 🐝

Repost from: https://allpaganloot.com/

Saw someone selling this on a local to me yard sale site, but I love the idea. I like the graduated rows for sun exposure and space-saving, and the DIY food-safe bucket planter approach. Gardening doesn’t have to be expensive 💕.

We have started one of these types of beds, and it’s a great regenerative concept for many reasons: https://www.ruralsprout.com/hugelkultur-raised-bed/?fbclid=IwAR0GmX9A-3nQYPN5M27v_yzyibxjt2u_nJHK0ioIZneGIvM7jVogG_jdbCo

Building A Hügelkultur Raised Bed - A Step By Step Tutorial Hügelkultur raised beds are one of the best ways to grow an abundant edible garden. This guide, with photos, will walk you through making one.

Posting this to review a little closer since I’m finding points interesting: https://www.grit.com/farm-and-garden/do-it-yourself/winter-sowing-zm0z16jfztri?fbclid=IwAR3X14_6N0NKWzgPnj6rHyePf4CuZqM507Q9KhW-79Wh-oKuLK1m9HuWtGI

Winter Sowing Your Seedlings - Farm and Garden - GRIT Magazine Learn how to start your seedlings earlier and easier with winter sowing.

ℌ𝔬𝔴 𝔱𝔬 𝔯𝔢𝔠𝔶𝔠𝔩𝔢 ℭ𝔥𝔯𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔪𝔞𝔰 𝔱𝔯𝔢𝔢𝔰?

Wondering what to do with your tree to avoid just throwing it in the trash? The National Christmas Tree Association has some advice for you!
Read more >> http://bit.ly/2gzpIvF

- Soil erosion barriers: Some communities use Christmas trees to make effective sand and soil erosion barriers, especially for lake and river shoreline stabilization and river delta sedimentation management. Here’s an example of just such a project, called “Balsams for Brookies.”
- Fish feeders: Sunk into private fish ponds, trees make an excellent refuge and feeding area for fish.
- Bird feeders: Place the Christmas tree in the garden or backyard and use it as a bird feeder and sanctuary. Fresh orange slices or strung popcorn will attract the birds and they can sit in the branches for shelter. (Make sure all decorations, hooks, garland and tinsel strands are removed). Eventually (within a year) the branches will become brittle and you can break the tree apart by hand or chip it in a chipper.
- Mulch: A Christmas tree is biodegradable; its branches may be removed, chipped, and used as mulch in the garden.
- Paths for hiking trails: Some counties use shredded trees as a free, renewable and natural path material that fits both the environment and the needs of hikers.

Here is another interesting read from the NYT, "Don’t Just Throw Away Your Christmas Tree" https://nyti.ms/38pIjTJ

Image: eastern white pine, Steven Katovich, Bugwood.org
~MB

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