Shotgun Swarms: Catching Honeybees

Our honeybees decided to swarm on Monday morning – leading to two very stressful and busy days for me! The bees, of course, had to choose the day that my husband left for a work conference. This left me alone, to fend completely for myself! When the hive swarmed, they clustered in a boxelder tree located close to the original hive. They were easily 10+ feet up in the tree – teasing me. So close and visible, but so very…

Mushrooms in May

Spring time to us means planting flowers and gardens, playing outdoors, and foraging for Mushrooms! Matt first got me into morel hunting basically as soon as we started dating – and it has been a favorite springtime activity ever since. I once heard an old wives tale that you can start to find morels as soon as the lilacs start to bloom, and that has actually worked out pretty well for me! I’m sure it would be much…

Happy Mother’s Day

Wishing the happiest Mother’s Day to all moms – but especially to the women who raised us! My mom and grandma came to visit me yesterday for a Mother’s Day cookout, and my mom loved seeing what she now calls “HER windmill” – so naturally we had to take photos in front of it. We love spending time with the women who made us who we are, and we celebrate them every day &#8211…

Farmgirl Generosity: The Gift of Windmills

Matt surprised me last weekend with a windmill! He took off in the middle of the day and when he returned home a few hours later he blindfolded me, and lead me out to the driveway to reveal his trailer overflowing with galvanized steel – finally we own a windmill! The windmill’s previous owner – Kathy – had the true farmgirl spirit and generosity and she graciously gifted this wonderful windmill to us! This windmill’s life…

Farmgirl Weddings: Growing Our Own Wedding Flowers

Today, April 16th, marks seven years that Matt and I have been together! Since we got married last August, we will soon be celebrating a new anniversary date – our wedding anniversary! In reflection of our wedding and our time together as best friends and partners in life – I wanted to share how we grew our own flowers to use in our wedding décor. Growing our own flowers was not only a frugal alternative to professional flower arrangements…

Farmgirl Best Friends: Our House Came with a Cat

This is the story of Margaery (or Marge for short): the cat who came with our house. We first moved into our farmhouse in the fall of 2017 – and the first welcome visit we received was from a cat – with long fluffy white fur and a tongue that never stopped licking. For anyone who does not know me – I LOVE CATS. Of course, at that point we had already bought the house – but if they had…

Dreaming of Flowers

Mother nature has teased us with unseasonable warm days and nights in early April, and it has us dreaming of planting. The veggie garden is a staple, but we really love planting flowers now. We first got into planting flowers when we started our wildflower meadow in 2019, when we had decided to convert a fairly large portion of our grass lawn into a mix of wildflower plants. Wildflowers are important to many of the world’s pollinators (including…

Farmgirl Heirlooms: a Vintage Egg Grader

One of the original farmgirls in my life was my Grandpa’s sister – my late great Aunt Joyce. About a year ago, my Aunt Joyce gave me a vintage egg grader. It is one of my most favorite farmgirl heirlooms! This was her egg grader that she used on her own farm and with her own chicken eggs. My Aunt Joyce is dearly missed, but is always with me and guiding me on my farmgirl adventures. In the…

2021 Maple Syrup Season Results

As we reflect on the results from our 2021 maple syrup season at Wetzel Gardens, this season was a very busy one – and our biggest yet! We started the season on February 22, 2021 with the first set of taps going into our trees. Over the first few days, we continued to tap more trees until we had a total of 35 trees tapped with 45 taps (some trees had multiples taps in them if they were big enough…

How to Make Maple Sugar

Making maple sugar is actually really simple! While the process can be a little time consuming, it is very easy and anyone can do it with just a few supplies that are likely already in your kitchen cabinets! Supplies Needed to Make Maple Sugar: Pure Maple Syrup (we make our own, but you can buy maple syrup at almost any grocery store like this example from Walmart) Deep pot or saucepan (we just use what we have in our kitchen…