Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Gifts from Here and Near

I remember the first time I spun yarn from fleece instead of buying it at a store. Then there was the first egg that never sat in a carton in its life. Last week I had syrup that didn't come out of a syrup bottle and several glasses of maple sap straight from the tree. Simple gifts but EXTRAORDINARY!

On the way back from returning the maple syrup evaporator, Karen and I were talking about how blessed we are to have so much Fresh Local Food and other products available to us. We returned the evaporator to the woman who loaned it to us and gave her a quart of syrup. She said that was too generous and insisted we take a pint of her honey. Many people around here have hives and many sell honey but I have not seen local beeswax for sale. I asked our new friend about it and she through in a slab of beeswax.

Karen and I came back here and had a peanut butter and honey sandwich on the front steps with the temperature reading 68 degrees (it is February). The honey was some of the best I have ever had! We also had some potato chips made here in the Valley and apples from just over the Blue Ridge Mountains where I got my new fruit trees.

The last 5 or so gallons of sap we decided to drink and give to our animals instead of making into syrup. It is high in calcium and this last batch was even a little sweeter. The bucket was almost empty this morning.

Some of the best gifts are of service. Karen helped me trim hooves yesterday. Soon we will be shearing, kidding, and lambing.

This morning I woke and heard the latest gift--- Rain!

1 comment:

  1. I had that honey twice today. Thanks for sharing it with me.

    I was wondering if the sheep liked the sap. Polly sure put a dent in it here. I kind of wish we saved more of it for them. Maybe next year.

    I treasure your friendship and all the new experiences we share together. We've learned a lot, haven't we? I wonder what we'll be blogging about in another year.

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