Saturday, March 26, 2011

Vintage and Market Store

The Simple Farm's First Vintage Barn SALE and Market!

The date is nearing for our farm's first Vintage Barn Sale and Market.  Thursday, March 31 - Saturday, April 2nd our farm will be hustling and bustling with a ton of vintage, creativity, artsy-ness, hens cackling, goats maa-ing and more.

This fabulous farm event will include over thirty artisan vendors who be offering for sale some of the most amazing pieces of refinished furniture, clothes, home decor items, shabby chic pieces, handmade gifts and antiques.

We'll also have our farmers' market on Saturday where our market store will have baskets full of our organic veggies and our organic farm house eggs.


Besides our fresh snipped herbs, we're including some new farm house speciality items as well that we know you'll love - our yummy farmhouse honey lavender butter, our special herb butter, Jill's organic peach jam and Jill's cinnamon rolls.




Hope to see you this Thursday, Friday or Saturday!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Three Day Vintage Party At The Simple Farm

In case you haven't heard {here} we're having a 3-Day Vintage Party at our farm - better known as a Vintage Barn Sale. I've pictured a few - just a few of the items that OVER thirty amazing restoration vendors are bringing to our farm.

Our first semi-annual Vintage Barn Sale 
is THIS week (March 31, April 1st, April 2nd)!  

Thursday, Friday and Saturday - 
from 10 am until 4 pm. 

9080 E. Cactus Rd

Scottsdale, AZ

We hope you come.  

Just a few "visiting the farm" reminders:
No dogs please (we like them but our goats don't).
Keep kids with you - no kiddos little or big wandering around please.
Please refrain from smoking at the farm.

Thanks!













Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Turning Ugly Into A Beautiful Garden Area

This past year has been quite the adventure!  We've spent the last year turning dirt and sticker bushes into spaces and places of beauty.


We've Michael has ripped out fences, torn up dirt, built barns, put up fences, moved dirt around, built raised beds, made little gates and a lot more to reclaim 9080 E. Cactus Rd (Scottsdale, AZ) back into the farm/ranch land it once was.

His newest spot of attention has been to redefine and redesign the center island area of the turn around on our farm. It's been ugly for the past thirteen years with what I'd say would have been hopeless for anything other than the pine tree and the big rocks.

Creativity flowed the day my husband stood staring at this ugly place {here}

Today Michael spent time on Ugly and he's slowly turning into a spot of sanctuary.  Stay tuned for part 3 pictures!







Farm Life Today

Yesterdays market at our farm went quite well. Batavian and other gourmet lettuces (from seeds purchased from Italy) went like hot cakes. So did our Detroit red beets, cherry belle and French breakfast radishes, spinach, arugula (rocket), bright lights chard, mustard greens and of course our herbs ~ lavender, French tarragon, mint, parsley, oregano and English thyme. Oh - all but two dozen of our farm house (fresh) eggs went home with someone. That's good.

Today is a new day and it's Goat Dairy Day this morning at our farm.  I mentioned {here} that Lavender is due to kid in four weeks and she needs special beauty treatments to hopefully ensure healthy kids and the healthy delivery of those kids.  Actually all the does and the bucklings require different vaccinations, vitamin boosters, milk checks, hooves trimmed at different times and it just so happens that today is a day for much of that.  So, we're off and running.  Hope your day goes better than anticipated. Attitude and gratitude makes or breaks a day!  Tell someone thank you!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Goat Kidding Preparations . . .

. . . are underway at our farm. Michael and I have been watching videos and reading the different accounts of kiddings from more experienced goat lovers like those of Kathryn and David of Black Mesa Ranch as we get ready to get ready for The Simple Farm's first season of birthing goat babies.



Lavender starts out our kidding season in about four weeks. We have several of vaccinations to complete, the rest of our birthing kit to gather, Lavender's spa treatment to do (final hoof trim, a clip around her udder, tail, back end and down the legs), and the kidding stall to finish and filled with a ton of fresh hay.

The next four weeks are critical for us Lavender. We're watching her diet (balance between calcium and phosphorus), making sure she gets exercise and is given lots of love.

Todays Beauty


Just gathered today - these will be for sale Tuesday at our market at our farm on Cactus Rd.

Spring at Our Farm

The other day Sook and her husband stopped by our farm to bring us several bags of wonderful aloe vera plants.  As we took a little walk around to admire the spring beauty, Sook commented how we should charge people just to see our farm.  Michael and I took that as a complement to the hard work we've done.


Yesterday, we held a yard sale here at our farm and one person after another commented about the beauty. Others expressed their comments in silence while wide eyes peeked around at the color.  Some people said they didn't know such a place of beauty and particularly this farm existed.  I like to say that our farm is Scottsdale's best kept secret.  


Everyday we are so thankful that we get to experience what others often do not or who are to busy to notice.  We are so thankful that God has given us the strength and joy to take a piece of land that was barren and rugged and create sanctuary in this place we call our farm and our home. 



When is our farm open to the public?  
Because we're a very busy working farm - and are only open to the public on Tuesdays - the day we hold our farmers' market.  

We do make time (occasionally) for special tours so please see the Visiting Our Farm page {here}