Tea Time in Mud Season

Tea time has always been a ritual here at the farm. Actually, to be specific, the cycle goes like this: Breakfast, tensies, lunch, tea time, cocktails (if we have any wine or beer) and then dinner. We are a bunch of grazers and LOVE to eat. I also think the crew does better with regular doses of blood sugar (and caffeine). Tea time originated with my mom and me when I was little, as an occasion to use my Nana's china tea cups and silver tea pot and sit in the living room. It has morphed with my own family into the opportunity to eat as much sweet stuff as you can handle between 3 and 4PM. The idea behind tea time is that it prevents frequent requests for sweets all day from the kids, piling it all into a one hour block. There is a finite amount of sweets that one can eat during this hour, creating a natural limit. The results are marvelous....I get my afternoon coffee, the kids get a dose of sugar and everyone is fueled to make it through milking and the dinner preparations. In a perfect world, this prevents whining for cookies, candy and other sweets during the day. Emma used to plan her tea time snack out hours in advance. Now, she is our resident preparer of tea time, serving us with fresh baked blueberry muffins and tea with milk in the greenhouse.

Mud season is here, on our boots, our floors, our hands and for the smaller set, usually covering the pants. We are spending our days in the greenhouse, seeding up trays of flowers and onions and finishing the building of the Rocket Stove. Today was the first day of "real" work for the season with our first employee, Connor, joining us. We are thankful to have his help.

The Portland Flower Show was inspiring and delivered us home with armloads of flowers and plants purchased at the Cumberland County Cooperative Extensions Master Gardener Auction. They were auctioning all the plants from the show displays at the end of the day on Sunday. Everyone now has flowers in their room...ahhh, it does feel like spring is near.