Lehigh Valley Style

Lehigh Valley Style is a local magazine, the cool think is that Ed and I are in it. Sustainable Country Gentlemen llc is featured in the life in the valley section of the magazine. The article is very well written and I would like to give them a big thanks for having us in there magazine. The picture is a scan of the article .

Zoo

Yesterday I had the privilege to attend Party with the Planet at the Lehigh Valley Zoo. I attended this event as a demonstrator,  for the first time I got to demonstrate only the fiber arts. Normally when I do a demonstration I do it along side us selling produce. This time it was all about The House of Bickert (bik – AIR) with the fiber side of things.
As a child growing up I had visited the zoo, but then it was called The Trexler Game Preserve. They had monkeys, some wild cats, farm animals and birds of prey. It was a neat place to visit for a child of 4 or 5. I had gone back as an adult when I was married. The area where they had the monkeys was there but no monkeys. Every thing else was pretty much the same as I remembered. This time not only was the name changed so was the zoo itself.
They had me setup right has you walked in the front gate. So as you entered the zoo you where greeted by one of the zoos residence and me on the other side. The day was filled with allot of inquisitive minds not just asking questions but also knowing what I was doing and asking questions to confirm  what they have learned in school. I had taken with me my big loom (aka table loom), lace pillow, inkle loom, drop spindle, Chakra, braiding looms and some pieces I had done, some of them where ribbon winners from the Allentown Fair. Every one that had stopped by was very interested in what I was doing and as I said above they asked intelligent  questions.
I was also impressed in the zoo itself, that for a small zoo they have a diverse amount of animals. The list includes penguins, wolfs, owls, eagles, falcons, hawks, palomino horses, camels, wild cats, kangaroos, otters and much more. Ed and I are planning on going back to the zoo when we are able to spend more time there. All in all in was a wonderful day and both Ed and I had a lot of fun. Please look at the photo album below for more pics from the day.

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What’s New?

I apologize for not getting to blog sooner. I have being trying to blog for a while got sick and then got real busy. So I’m able to blog today. the last couple of months have been busy I was able to get to a lace days, gathering of the guilds, the New York restaurant show and I’m working on a new project.

The first weekend in February was lace days at Lost Art Lacers, while I was there I picked up a few things. A new lace making book, more bobbins of course (you can never have to many bobbins), a spool holder, a lace holder (this is used for long pieces of lace so it doesn't get dirty) and a bolster pillow. For any one that knows about bobbin lace, those people know how pricy a lace pillow can be.  While I was walking around I saw a round bolster pillow at a good price. I continued to walk around and get my other goodies.

Before I go any further let me explain what type of pillow this is. The pillow is 18” round in the center there is a rectangle cut out, what is placed in that rectangle is a tube pillow. It is this tube that you make the lace on. This type of pillow lets you make very long pieces of lace, since you can just turn the tube and continue make the lace until you have the length you want.

This pillow was used so right there the price should be reasonable. The pillow was also created with a patriotic theme (flag, red, white and blue fabric was used to make the pillow). It was a whole set It came with a pin cushion, bobbins, pricking cover and dust cover. I picked this pillow up for $40.00, to those of you un-familiar with bobbin lace equipment price, I’m sure your saying that not a bad price. You would be correct and that is why I bought it. What we have yet to discover was, what is was the original price.

When I got home I of course was examining my treasures I found at lace days. When I got to the pillow I took out the bolster and in side was the original price. I will give you a moment to come up with a guess.

the original price was

$350.00 

So all in all that made for a wonderful day.

 

The next trip we took was to the Gathering of the Guilds in Harrisburg. As the name implies about two dozen different guilds came together in one place. There where weavers, spinners, beaders, basket makers, wheat weavers, lace maker, embroiders, polymer clay crafters and quilters. This was a really cool show, you got to see some amazing pieces of work and they had seminars throughout the day. I was able to pick up something for myself. About ten years ago a friend taught me some basic wheat weaving. While I was at this show I was able to pick up a book and since the author was there she signed it for me. One of the embroidery guilds was handing out little counted cross stitch kits for free. They where complimentary from DMC so I picked up one of them as well. Again another good day.

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The New York Restaurant Show which of course is in New York City. I personally have been to a couple of theses shows back when I was in school. They are a lot of fun and you literally eat your way through them. this was actually a couple of weeks ago and we got so much info that we haven’t had time to go thru it all. we did pick up a lot of information for products to sell at the markets so we shall see what comes from that.

The last thing I have to talk about is a new project Ed and I are working on. We have been given the opportunity to rent some space in Coopersburg, PA. This space is going to be used for a year round farmers market, we are currently in the incubation period and are working on having the market open in the middle of May. So keep checking back for more info on that.

So I have been busy just not able to blog. I will try to work on that.

Inkle Belt

Every week at the market I take one of my many hobbies with me to demonstrate. This past Wednesday I took my Inkle loom with me. I figured I would demonstrate how to use the loom and make my self a belt as well. i finished the belt last night and as you can see I have already started to where it. (I do have a better picture below.)

I went with the more neutral colors except for the borders which are in the purple family. This design is a pick up design of a Celtic knot, the back ground of the design is a gradation of beige, ecru and white. I have it going from dark to light back to dark. I did an experiment on which side I like better, positive or negative. After I did the first section I looked at the back and thought the negative was pretty cool. So I decided to do the next section in negative to see which one I liked the best. The positive side one out, when I saw the reverse I liked how the gradation worked. But when I really looked at it, it’s hard to see the design. The positive side is more pronounce just like it’s supposed to be. After I finished it I did wash it to  shrink and strengthen it.  It also hides any mistakes, not that there where any. So here is my first official project of the year completed. Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soap

A few blog posts before I had a teaser about soap. This is something that Ed and I have talked about for nearly a year. Our concept is to make our own soap and sell it; continuing with the sustainable concept. Well today we made our first batch of soap, Ed made a comment that its like being in chemistry class. I would agree except I thing this is more fun.

The soap we made is called Homesteader’s Soap. The original homesteaders or farmers would save all the fat though out the year from there cooking, to make their soap. The different fats where bacon, chicken, beef, pork and so on. They would render this and use it for their  soap. The soap we are making is not animal, only vegetable, and is used fryer oil. Our concept for this soap is not a bath soap, but a laundry soap. As the original homesteader soap was a bit harsh for bathing, I’m sure this would be also.

The first step is to measure out your lye and water. For safety sake you should wear rubber gloves, goggles and old clothes. This is for your protection from splashing lye. The lye has the potential of burning you severely. Once you have both the lye and the water measured out you need to add the one to the other. The reason I’m saying it this way is because the way I did it was adding the lye to the water. After I did that Ed said to me that, that is a big no no. You are supposed to pour the water into the lye. I have another soap book that says to do it the way I did. So I don’t think there is a difference. Once the two are mixed together and you are stirring to dissolve  the lye. The water heats to between 150 degrees and 250 degrees. Ours was about 200 degrees. After that you let it cool to 100 degrees.

Once the lye is nearing 100 mark, you need to warm your oils and fats to the same temperature. Once that is achieved then you add your lye to the fats and oils. (Both books agree that you should add the lye to the fats, just saying.) As you are adding the lye to the fats you must stir and not stop until you are ready to pour the soap into the mould. This step can be as quick as 15 minutes or as long as an hour. It all depends on the types of fats and oils used, the lye absorbs each fat differently. The really cool think when you do add the lye to the fat, the reaction is instantaneously happening. You can feel the soap getting thicker, it took this batch about 45 minutes to be able to pour into the mould.

You know the soap is ready to be poured into the mould when you have what is called “trailing”. The best way to describe this is by thinking of pudding when you pick up the spoon a trail of pudding is left on the surface from the spoon. The same thing happens with soap. Once you have achieved that you can pour it into its mould.

You will notice that the mould is sitting on top of a wool blanket and a quilt. This is so you can cover the mould so the soap can cure slowly. As a matter of fact the mould is going to stay covered for 48 hours. Once that time period has passed you can un-mould it. Now when we do unwrap it and un-mould it. It should still be warm to the touch, I of course can’t say yes or no to this yet. But in a couple of days I will be able to.

So later in the week I will post so everyone knows how we did and what we will be doing with it from this point on.

Farm Show 2012

I got to the farm show this year. Just not on Wednesday like I usually do, this year we went on Friday and I must say the vendors are tired and just want it to be over. But the Butter Sculpture still looked good. I think its a law that they must have a cow in the sculpture, which makes total sense of course, since that is where the butter comes from. But you would think that they would switch it up a bit. Never the less it is an amazing  site to be hold indeed. This year the sculpture is of a boy and his cow wining a ribbon at the country fair. The ribbon giver is the Dairy Princesses. The sculpture is kept in a temperature controlled cooler and you have a 360 degree view, just by walking around the display.

Since the Sheep to Shawl and the fleece auction where both on Wednesday, I wasn’t coming home with fleece or pictures of the competition. So instead I got to spend more time with the animals them selves. Yes I wanted to take some home with me I just wasn’t sure I could get them on the bus. Some years when you are looking at the animals they are shy, and stay away from humans. not this year they where trying to eat my jacket. I had one ram that wanted to come home with me, he just went nuts. So yea i have to work on getting some animals. Below you will see some more picks of the animals that wanted me for lunch or my jacket.

All in all the show was an excellent show we had a good time. Of course we are looking forward to next year.

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Happy New Year

I must apologize for not getting out my New Years Eve post. One of the big themes for last year was not enough time. I realize that everyone has this problem and every time I had a little extra time I was so tired I feel asleep. So obviously this is something I need to work on this year. 

Very quickly the biggest hump we had to get over last year. The most prominent is all of the rain, we need water just not as much as Mother Nature as been giving us. The water is still laying all over the farm, when it dry’s up a bit then we can continue butting in raised beds.

The only other major thing is not having enough money. I know that is everyone's problem and I’m not going to delve into it any further.

Now lets look at this New Year and some of the positives from last year. We where able to make some connections last year that brings us into a better situation this year. First we did a first time festival called Vegfest, that was phenomenal for us. From that came the opportunity to sell over the winter at The Market at Westgate (which is a year long farmers market). This also is helping us to sell in more places, when we get back into local season produce. We have expanded are line to offer herbs and dry good. Some other things we are looking to add are home made soap (again time problem). I would like to sell some of my fiber items (woven to be specific and others). If I can get a fire under him I’m going to get Ed weaving baskets (we’ll see how that one go’s). For the spring we would like to offer Heirloom seeds, so this is what we have setup for this year we will see how it go’s.

I of course would like to weave more and I am going to try. I have many ideas I just need to organize my time to get them all done. Another goal for this year is more animals on the farm (this is more the money and time issue then anything else). So this year has a lot of potential and we will do everything we can to achieve these goals. All we can do is try.