It's been a month since I've shared the happenings at Windy Thistle Farm. We're still closed to visitors right now. We've started our Market Basket Friday delivery serving S. St. Louis and points south to Cedar Hill, MO. There is a lot going on here at the farm - we're building our campground, planting our main market garden, building paths, creating a cottage herb garden as well as six new beds! So come along and see the tour of what a difference a month makes!
We have a tentative opening date of July 1st for one lucky family to camp while still maintaining social distancing. We're really talking Glamping here with one meal completely prepared for you at the farmhouse and the ingredients for two more meals provided for you to cook over your own campfire. If you're interested in booking a visit or seeing the menu, contact me at heartwynd@aol.com
The wooded campground has taken a little while and isn't done yet but the end is in sight. We have three sites but only one is nearly finished. We've put loads of pea gravel from our creek on the campsite to make dry footing and a comfortable base for tents and we'll be adding a picnic table and finish rocking in the fireplace for each site, too. It's near the creek and we're building a rocky footbridge across the creek and while it's holding, we need to do more work. We'll be graveling in the foot paths as well so the footing will be secure. Our creek is a dry creek, and only holds water when it rains but it is quite pretty all the time.
We had built a long kitchen garden but it's just not what we wanted so we've changed it. I put in a cottage garden - it's perfectly imperfect. We're using rocks from our campground project to make the divisions within the gardens and we'll surround the entire garden with rocks before we're done.
Coming off the cottage garden is the cobblestone path I'm creating - it's a work in progress. It leads from our back steps, around the deck to the gate to the market garden. Along the way it passes the Basil Garden and the Mexican Garden, the Cucumber/Sunflower beds and the Onion bed so it's going to be a lovely path to walk in the mornings while I harvest the day's produce.
We've also installed a flagstone walk in that leads down the chicken pens and we've graveled paths around the pens to keep our feet out of the mud on rainy days. I love the way the cobbled path and this flagstone path looks so much. I'll be planting creeping thyme between the rocks - it'll add such a lovely scent to the air when we walk on it.
Our beehives are going strong. We've caught two swarms and so we have four hives now. We're hoping to have a honey harvest in July. It was quite an experience catching the swarms and I'm so impressed to see all the hives busy with worker bees going in and out. We named our two new hives Hunnysuckle and Daisy. Daisy is a top bar hive and right now, she's still unpainted. Boyo's number one and two built that hive in just a couple of days because we needed a hive right then! It's working out nicely and we'll get it painted eventually.
We're also raising White Leghorn Chickens that were supposed to be Cornish Cross meat chicks but weren't so we're keeping them for the great big white eggs this breed lays and the good meat weight they eventually achieve. Three of them are roosters, though and we're only keeping one so there will be chicken dinner soon. I'm watching the boys to see which one is nicest to their ladies, though. It's a great way to add to our flock and Leghorns do breed well, so we'll have more in the future! Our original egg flock is doing very well with Julius as the cock of that roost. Chicken rearing goes well.
We're already harvesting fresh spring vegetables - salad greens, leaf lettuce and radishes. We have some herbs available at this time, too - lemon balm, spearmint, peppermint, sage, thyme and chamomile. The spring wild flowers are up so we're offering bouquets of herbs and flowers. It's an exciting time around Windy Thistle Farm! Respond to the Windy Thistle Farm Stay B&B on Facebook to order fresh produce or email me directly at heartwynd@aol.com to get on our delivery route.
Until next time, Stay Safe and Keep your social distance! Kind regards!
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