Seedsavers, Decorah Iowa

Last month we went with friends to Decorah, Iowa. Since their daughter had attended Luther College in Decorah, they were very familiar with the area and what there is to see and do. Seedsavers was our main destination. I'd heard so much about it.

The trip down and back was beautiful, although at that time we weren't yet at the peak of color. Still, the roads and countryside made it a fun trip, and Seedsavers was spectacular. Because there had been a few frosts, the plants were no longer blooming, but that didn't really seem to matter. I know what they look like. It was still fascinating to walk among the rows and rows of various vegetables and flowers (weed-free, I might add) and to tour the barnyard, seeing the white cows and the chickens.

 White Park Cow - What a beautiful animal!

From Seedsavers.org:

"Ancient White Park Cattle 

These cattle roamed the British Isles before the time of Christ, and are described exactly in ancient Celtic lore. Today only about 800 of these extremely rare, wild cattle survive worldwide, including slightly more than 200 in the U.S. (and about 80 of those reside at Heritage Farm). These distinctive cattle have white coats, lyre-shaped horns with black tips, and black ears, noses, eyes, teats and hooves (and sometimes black is splashed from the hooves up the front shins toward the knees). The cows are intelligent, alert, quite hardy, healthy, and are aggressive grazers that favor brush."

Feeling a bit Thirsty

Inside the Shop

From Seedsavers.org:

"Seed Savers Exchange has been promoting the preservation and utilization of heirloom varieties for 37 years. Working with our members--farmers and gardeners--to ensure that these unique varieties are not lost forever, SSE encourages "participatory preservation" through membership in the Seed Savers Exchange. Each year thousands of seed varieties are exchanged among backyard preservationists through the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook for diverse reasons such as connecting to our garden heritage, finding varieties suited to a particular region, enjoying the diversity of heirloom varieties, and sourcing material to use in localized breeding projects.

These preservation methods keep many open-pollinated and heirloom varieties circulating in the hands of gardeners and farmers, making them available to everyone."

Seedsavers was a fabulous place, and I'd love to visit again in August of 2013.

I could hardly come away empty handed, could I.

Among the seeds I purchased were calendula (for my Sweet Baby! Calendula soap) and Stevia. My daughter-in-law just sent me an interesting video about Stevia. One Stevia fan has discovered a way to eliminate the aftertaste that is a common complaint about Stevia. 

It will be nice to have some of the beautiful seed packets from Seedsavers to look at during the long winter ahead. In this climate, there's plenty of time to plan a garden.

***

'Sweet Baby! Calendula'
Natural, Gentle Soap for Baby

...and more! Check out all our handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our Etsy Shop 



***

Joining BARN CHARM 

Italian Dinner Party Potluck

We had such a fun time when our friends joined us recently for an Italian dinner party pot luck. The week before the party, I ordered several CDs of Italian music through inter-library loan and settled on Dean Martin Italian Love Songs and another CD, Viva Italia, popular Italian songs along with the mandatory (in my mind) mandolin.

 Setting the mood 

my new candy corn candle from Country Cabin

 Some of our younger guests

Don't you love that hat!!!

When Dean got tired of crooning in Italian, we were serenaded by this lovely young lady and her harp.

 Italian Plum Pie - it was delicious!!

made by the same young lady who played harp

All dressed for a party!

What do we do when we get together? Well, we discuss the amazing grace of God and politics and knitting and books, act silly, eat great food, and enjoy each other's company. Sometimes we play word games.

And now, of course, I realize that I didn't take any pictures of those men who were sitting out in the kitchen! They managed to evade the roving camera.

Last, but not least, the FOOD:

Counter clockwise from left: Pistachio Jello, Spaghetti with anchovies, Stuffed shells, Italian club soda, focaccia.

From front: Tuscan Chicken Stew, Italian sausage soup, bowties, and sauce for a delicious beef roast!

 Desserts: Pumpkin cheesecake, apple cheesecake, Italian plum pie

Couldn't resist taking a photo of Kate's cute shoes :-)

Recipe for Tuscan Chicken Stew coming tomorrow!

This post is linked to Making the World Cuter Mondays
and Meet and Greet Monday
and Motivate Me Monday
and Just Something I Whipped up Monday

P.S. We are currently traveling, but I wanted to schedule this to publish today.

Hymn Sing

 Pre-Hymn Sing, at the pond garden

Lest you think that our hymn sings are solemn occasions, let me dissuade you from any such notion. We are simply friends who love to have fun, can't get over God's love for us in Christ Jesus, and love to praise Him with our voices. 

 Pre-Hymn Sing, Making our way toward the house

The Norwegian 'Hello' is a lot like the Norwegian 'Goodbye.'

We don't rush into things. :-)

On Sunday evening, our house was filled with 26 voices, praising God for His majesty, power, grace, mercy, patience, kindness, and other amazing attributes! As I'm writing this, I'm reminded of Psalm 148, which states:

Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights.

Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.

Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.

Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.

Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.

He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass. 

               (By the way, I think this Scripture is quoted in Dorothy L. Sayers' 'The Nine Tailors.')

Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne!

We often manage to harmonize, but always at least make a joyful noise! Why? Because of the joy that comes from knowing that God has sent a Rescuer, His Son, to secure our salvation. Not because of anything we've done, but in spite of what we've done...because of His immeasurable grace and mercy.  So how could this possibly be a solemn occasion?  We have Joy and Freedom in Christ. This is FUN!!! And trust me, we do love to have a great time. :-)

All Creatures of our God and King,

Lift up your voice and with us sing, Alleluia!

Okay, so make that 24 voices lifted in song. I think these two were busy trying to find out what was in that toy box!

Our pianist, getting some serious assistance

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing Thy praise
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise!!

April Picnic

It was an unbelievably beautiful day, with summertime in April. We decided to have a picnic! Kevin grilled chicken, peppers, onions, and red potatoes for us. It was a delicious meal!

When she woke up from her nap, sweet little Jane became the table centerpiece. I still think that toy hanging down from the handle of the baby carrier would drive a child crazy - but then that's just me, I guess. ;-)

Misty lay under the table, ever hopeful that we'd drop a morsel of grilled chicken.

Although Bridger hates and fears flies, I took him out on a lead so he could be near us. He's still on the anti-inflammatory and still has poor control over his hind legs. The prognosis is encouraging, however. I'm told that most dogs recover from this disc problem. Maybe he will too, if I can keep his activity to a minimum while the swelling in the disc goes down, giving it time to heal.

Ever the guard dog, he likes facing away from the people he's protecting, keeping close watch over the perimeter. When Molly lay napping in the nook, Bridger stayed close beside her. When Kevin made friendly little clucking sounds at the baby, Bridger got very upset with him!

I'm sure that everyone but me is sick to death of daffodils, but I will never tire of them. They're in the pond garden, and they bloom before the surrounding trees have their leaves. Once the leaves are out, the area is mostly a shade garden.

Okay, so it's not a big pond - but I love it. I should be able to get the water hyacinths mid-May. Several snails wintered over, so with a few more snails and the water hyacinths, the pond should stay nice and clean all summer.  I'll take photos throughout the summer. It only gets better.

Below is pictured my dear and delightful young friend who periodically organizes some aspect of my life. I love it that she does this!  Today Kimmy overhauled two kitchen pantries. They look beautiful now! And I've got enough closets to keep her busy through several upcoming visits. ;-)

Oh. This is the 'before' picture. Now there is an entire shelf devoted to Kevin's stuff - chips, mostly, and hot peppers. Another shelf is only gluten-free foods. I can see everything on the shelves, unlike my refrigerator - and there's nothing stuffed in little nooks and crannies, as there had been! Go Kimmy!! What a woman! And she only has five children to take care of, so she's got ample time to organize my closets, right??

These last two photos are just thrown in for free.