Weather changes

It's hard to believe but we will soon be posting snow photos.  Going from this green and the lovely hills full of color, to bare trees and wind swept winter.  Found some lovely little mushrooms on a walk.

 

This is one of our silkie chickens, we feed them beet juice and some of their feathers turned purple.

Apple Cake for breakfast

B&B updates

I just have a little time to post that our B&B is fine, and all the animals on the farm are just fine, don't worry!  We are so high on the hill, that we only lost a few trees and had some erosion damage.  Please pray for our friends and neighbors in the town of Candor, and also the town of Owego, (among other places,) many are still without power, and some homes and businesses are a complete loss.

What to expect at Small Graces, important questions answered for you

A cottage in the woods that sleeps up to 4,

with an upstairs double-bed and a downstairs futon.

An outdoor spa room with a tree-hanging shower, a tub and lights.

Yes, we have electricity, Yes, we have runnning water and a bathroom, with hot water and the cottage is heated.

Linens and towels are provided.

We love to host children, but they must be supervised, especially in the sleeping area. We do not provide any pack&play, etc, you will need your own.

We are unfortunatly not accessible for the handicapped.

Please, no pets, there are many animals on our farm.

Our breakfasts are as organic and local as possible, with many ingredients grown right here on our farm. 

Your breakfast is delivered to your door!

Farm tours are available when making reservations.

Smoking is not allowed indoors.

Please enjoy a recent photo tour of the cottage.

 A breakfast table for two.

 Kitchenette, with mini fridge, microwave, toaster oven, coffeemaker. Stocked with coffee, tea and spring water.  Extra dishes, silverware, and mugs.

 A jewel of a bathroom, with an antique roll-top platform tub, a pedestal sink, and a composting toilet.

 The cottage is heated, this is our cute decorative stove, it looks so sweet with the little flames lit in the cold weather!

A beautiful view, we are "in the middle of no-where," on a quiet site on the end of our farm.  While we are central to several towns and cities, please expect rural driving to get to them.  Since we are in the fingerlakes area and there are beautiful hills to go around, everywhere!  (stunning in the fall!)

Summertime photos of animals on our farm

 Sweet little duck, "Charcoal".

 The very cool bean trellis in the garden.

 One little, two little, three little kitties.

Silkie Hens that will soon be laying your breakfast eggs!

Breakfast is looking good!!

Recipe for breakfast at Small Graces;  take farm fresh ingredients, organic and local whenever possible, mix with many ingredients grown here on our farm, bake in a heart shaped pan and serve on a tray straight to your door.  Enjoy!

The view from here

 The weathered old planters, we found these old wash tubs here in the woods, when we bought our place 12 years ago.

 The new outdoor tub

 Sunlight on the porch at the B&B

 Momma and newborn baby out on the spring grass.

Some of the 2011 mommas and babies on Forget me not Farm

The Caroline Farmers Market

 Here we are at our booth, honey, yarn, homemade bath products, and all things fiber!

 This is Peter, with some Amazing bouquets that his wife arrainges, sooooo incredible.  You have to be there to smell their delicious aroma!

 This is the booth for Dead end farm, our local Organic Milk and Beef.  LOVE their vintage scale.  They don't make them like this any more, still working!

 

Snow Farm Creamerys beautiful display of artisan cheese and samples.  I had a very hard time deciding which one, but my little girl didn't, she spent her own money on a cheese named Tiara!  You know it's got to be good.  What a foodie. Hee hee.

A close up of our honey comb

A sweet shot.

Taking honey off the hive

 Delicious! Once again we had the priveledge to smack our lips and use our antique extractor all together as a family.

 However, this time all was not so sweet.  The hot weather, the bearings going bad, and then the extractor vibrating almost off the table.  (We have some sanding to do)

 All in all, I think it was a learning experience still, and we held our tempers, and were completely rewarded by the taste of french vanilla ice cream with fresh honey spooned all over it.

Time for tea

Things are busy, busy here at the farm, and we have been baking and having tea to get thru the warm afternnoons.

Today the weather cooled off nicely and we spent some time in the garden, weeding and doing a bit of the yard work, I pruned this branch from the hydrengea.   Some things on the breakfast menu for the B&B cottage include, scones, apple maple sausages, buckwheat pancakes, some special sauces (like strawberry-rhubarb, and pear butter), with local maple syrup, and also cornbread in a teenie little pan, served with Stonewall Kitchen marmalade and honey-whipped butter. I hope this makes you hungry! 

Time to get away

Drive on up for a visit!  Violets, lambs, beautiful woods, and don't forget-great food!

Small changes at Small Graces

 Our new painting job.

 The new bedspread. (Vintage of course)

 Our new porch chairs.

 The deck and beautfil new foiliage.

New  solar lanterns, aren't they pretty?

The 2011 view, loving the sunshine!     Hope to see you soon.

Whats happening in our area July/August

Here is a link to a Tioga County Calendar for upcoming events in our area.  I hope you take a look and find some interesting things to try.

http://www.visittioga.com/index.php?startdate=2011-7-1&enddate=2011-8-30&page=eventweekly&Itemid=135&sdate_mo=7&sdate_da=1&sdate_yr=2011&edate_mo=8&edate_da=30&edate_yr=2011&category=0&option=com_thyme&calendar=1&day=16&month=5&year=2011

Yummy mail, garlic and the pantry

 We just had some yummy mail come, our regular shippment of Stonewall kitchen jams and sauces, I just love cooking with their ingredients!  We always have some for sale in the cottage too.

 Here is a close up of this years garlic, I am afraid it's a bit small, we are still waiting for our stretch of sunny days.   The growth you see here happened over one night!  That was after the one nice spring-like day that we had.

 Garlic again-so pretty. I wish I could post the smell of the earth, and the garlic too!

This is a view of our pantry, I thought maybe guests would like to see some glimpses of the makings of breakfast!  These herbs are either grown here, or are from a bulk order that I get, and are all organic. Rosemay, Basil, Chili, Raspberry, Chamomile, Spirulina...

Just to let you know

We are very sorry to let everyone know that the cottage is undergoing some maintanence this month. We cannot accept any reservations for April.  We will be up and running again by May, and the good news is, that the cottage will be fresh and have some wonderful new details.  I am planning on posting photos of our progress, so keep watching here.

more maple syrup photos

Here Dean is checking on our third batch of syrup, and the last.  We made a total of 2 and 1/2 gallons for our first year.  It tastes really great in my coffee.

Forget-Me-Not Farms first maple syrup

 This is what it looked like outside, as the boys and I started the sap boiling to make maple syrup.

 We have never done this before, so it took lots of stirring and figuring before we were getting it right!

 We found out that we had to take the sides of the pan off the blocks for it to boil.

At 10PM, when the moon looked like this, we took off our first syrup, and this morning we had pancakes with sweet homemade maple syrup.