Happy Friday

"Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance."

- Epicurus

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In January, I saw so many posts calling it "the longest month ever", but I think that's February for us. Especially this February. It's been an extra month of icy and cold and dark; so much that we're so glad to bid adieu to February! And alas, March: the month of official spring is here. Phew.

The baby (as you might have watched on our stories) has been so patient and easy-going with her dual creamery life; I think we imagined she would adjust easily (it's all she knows!) but we're grateful to report that, in fact, our sweet Em is as happy to be home as she is in the creamery. Which is especially good news as we approach "Ice cream season" - though one of our favorite customers just reminded us there is no thing: ice cream is always in season. Nevertheless, gelato production is about to pick up big-time, which means we'll all be hanging out longer days and hours in our beloved creamery. The coolest part is doing it together, with you guys on our minds the whole time. The importance of the fact that we get to be food producers (not just bakers or makers) but actual producers is not lost on us. Your milk, yogurt, and gelato starts with hay here. It's not bought in and repurposed. It's start-to-finish milk made from our own cows, right here. It's something we're so dang proud of and so excited to share with our family, but we hope you know we couldn't do it without trusting customers like you all. We're just so grateful.

This week, the gelato is a favorite bring-back flavor: chocolate chip cookie dough. We used scratch made edible cookie dough with our favorite organic flour (heat-treated to make it edible), organic butter, cane sugar, brown sugar and real chocolate chips. We added LOADS of it to our classic base but heightened with vanilla, brown sugar and a touch of sea salt for the perfectly sweet-salty treat. It's like licking a bowl of batter even before you get the bite of cookie dough! I think you'll love this one as much as we have (already a few pints in...) We delivered it to Calliari's and Susquehanna Small Batch for the weekend and of course we're fully stocked at our farm shoppe this Saturday and Sunday!

Farm Shoppe Hours:

Saturday 10am until 2pm

Sunday 1pm until 3 pm

Links + finds from the week:

• Fellow farmers (specifically new + beginning farmers), another round of Jumpstart Grants is open! We received one of their $10,000 grants which was a huge help to install our milk pipeline a few years ago.
• We all love a good doughnut, and this recipe from The Lost Kitchen looks amazing. I might try some this weekend. Have you watched Erin French's show, The Lost Kitchen? I love it. I love her story, her style, the way she uses local/farm fresh ingredients. It's worth the watch. 
  
• I know Spring is a few weeks away yet, but we saw a Blue Heron last night and heard of some locals spotting a red-winged blackbird: the birds are first to tell us spring is near! We love using our Merlin Bird App to listen for birds.
• I was skeptical of this stuff, but we've tried it and I'm convinced it works to keep colds/flu from wreaking havoc across the family. Start it at the first symptom (sore throat, body ache, fever, etc) and I'm telling you, it seems to ward off the illness!
• Poking fun at ourselves: we'll be the "old" parents when Emily starts school, so we're already trying to make light of it!

Have the best weekend!

Lisa