Homestead Journal - Spring at Cobble Hill Farm (entry 2)

 Spring days are still upon us and with this season come dandelions!

Do you see dandelions as a friend or foe?  Dandelions, to me, are a sign of spring and are one of the first things that I pick and preserve for the season.  I dry out the flowers and some of the roots to save for use throughout the year and use the greens fresh.  Our coop girls like the greens as well.  Although they can be quite bitter, my favorite way to use the fresh greens is to add them to my salad where they are combined with other greens and veggies.  Make sure you only use dandelions you know have not been sprayed.

This week I made a batch of dandelion salve, one of the salves I try to always have on hand.  This makes a great item for gift-giving as well!  I'm sharing the recipe here, both for making the infused oil as well as for making the actual salve.  I use this general recipe for pretty much all of my salves (oil to beeswax ratio), switching out the infused oils, depending on the purpose of the salve.  

Although we prefer this ratio, it is adaptable.  If you prefer it to be a little firmer, melt and add just a bit more beeswax.  If you prefer it to be a bit softer, melt it and add a bit more oil (and next time just add a bit less beeswax).  Another note on making this.  The recipe I use is measured by ounces.  Although I've included other measurements, you just don't get consistent results with measuring by teaspoons & measuring cups.

**A note about the ingredients in this salve.  The castor oil is used because it helps with the glide onto the skin.  You do not have to use castor oil and instead add .25 ounces additional dandelion infused oil.

If you have tamanu oil, you can substitute 1 ounce of it for equal amount of dandelion infused oil.  I like tamanu oil and have found it very helpful for many different skin conditions, but it does not have to be made with it.

If you would like to add essential oils to this salve, start with 5 drops and see what you think.  The total amount that you'll need to lightly scent it depends on the essential oil that you use.  

You should always do your own research on the benefits and downside with using specific herbs before consuming or using.  There's plenty of information out there if you simply do a quick search for it. **

Dandelion Infused Oil

You want to start with dried dandelion flowers.  They need to be thoroughly dried because any water content will introduce bacteria into the oil and because we aren't using a preservative, it will greatly reduce the shelf-life of the infused oil from 1 year to 1-2 months.  

Snap the flower off right where it is attached to the stem. Place the flowers flat and single layer on a cloth or paper towel for a few days to air dry.  The blossoms will wilt and any bugs that may be hiding in them will get out of the flowers.

For the salve recipe, you will need a jar that holds about a cup of oil/dandelion mixture since the salve recipe uses just shy of 3/4 cups of oil.  

Fill a pint canning jar (or something similar) with about a 3/4 cup of dried dandelion flowers and then add 1 cup of oil.  You can certainly infuse more oil if you prefer to keep it on hand.  I like to cover my oil infusion with something breathable, so I cover my jars with a piece of cloth or a coffee filter, using a rubber band or ribbon to hold it on the jar.

What type of oil should you use?  You can use any oil that is liquid at room temperature (i.e. not palm or coconut oils).  I usually use either olive oil, avocado oil, sweet almond oil, or peach kernel oil, but you can use whichever oil you prefer or have on hand.

Leave in a sunny windowsill for about 2 weeks, shaking daily (or when you think about it).  You can leave it infusing for 3-4 weeks if you're not ready to use it in 2 weeks.  

Strain the oil using cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer, discarding the dandelion pieces.  You are ready to use the oil!  Any remaining strained oil can be stored in a jar with lid in the refrigerator for long-term or in a cool dark place for shorter term.  Make sure to label it so you remember what it is. 

Dandelion Salve

makes approx. 6 ounces of salve

.75 ounces beeswax pellets (approximately 2 3/4 Tablespoons) (purchase it in pellets or grated, or grate it yourself)

5.0 ounces dandelion infused oil, strained (just shy of 3/4 cup)

.25 ounces castor oil (or use additional dandelion infused oil)

5-15 drops essential oil(s) if you prefer a scent

In a heat-proof container, add the beeswax and oil(s) (not the essential oils).  You can either microwave this in 40 second intervals until the beeswax is melted, or place in a small pan of water (water level should be no higher than up to the halfway point on your container) on the stovetop over low to medium-low heat and simmer lightly until melted.

Once the beeswax is melted, remove from heat, wiping the water from the container if melted on the stovetop (so you don't get any water into the final product).  Stir.  Stir in essential oils if using and carefully pour into tins or containers.

The garden is coming along slowly but with this week's rainfall, I suspect there will be a lot of growth coming soon.  This is always the time that I have to force myself to hold back on planting.  In our area of upstate NY, it is still possible to receive freezing temperatures in the overnight.  I learned many years ago to take it slowly with planting any frost-sensitive plants.

We have harvested the first stalks of asparagus, and the greens (arugula, kale, spinach) are getting close but not quite ready yet.  Rhubarb is up but the stalks are still small as are the carrots that returned from last fall.  

My azalea bush impressed us this year with an amazing array of blooms.  This bush was something we transplanted from my mother-in-law's property after she passed, and it has bloomed beautifully every year that it's been on our property except for last year.  Last year only 1/4 of the bush bloomed, so I wasn't sure if something had happened to it.  After inspecting it, I didn't see anything wrong such as any obvious disease but wasn't sure until this week when the entire bush bloomed.  I'm so happy that nothing is wrong with it!

My daffodils are just beginning to open and the remainder of the flowers and flowering bushes on our property are greening up.  We should be smelling the heavenly aroma of lilac blooms soon.

It looks like we are going to need to spend a decent amount of money purchasing fast-growing shrubs for one entire side of our property.  Unfortunately, one of our neighbors took down almost every shrub on their side of one of our stone walls which leaves us with zero privacy.  It's such a bummer. Something I knew we would need to do eventually, in case of this scenario, but not something I was planning to add to the list this year, especially with concerns about the economy.  I will be working on this immediately.

For some reason the coop girls egg production slowed for a couple of days last week but have picked up again.  As I've mentioned many times, the majority of our flock are over the age of 5 so their production can be unpredictable.  

Another large part of our homestead life is our soap & skincare business.  If you have a homestead business and/or work for yourself, you know that self-employment has a ton of advantages over working for someone else.  That being said, one of the largest drawbacks is that when your business is slow your income can be negatively impacted.  Sometimes greatly impacted.  

I bring this up because some of our sales have slowed, as I suspect is happening with other small businesses as well.  We sell our products online, at a year-round farmers market, and at a handful of craft shows throughout the summer.  Our online store sales continue to increase slightly while our farmers market sales continue to decrease slightly.  We aren't sure what this year will bring with the economy, tariffs, increased pricing, etc. but we are preparing ourselves for our online store to not increase this year and hopefully not decrease either, and unfortunately, for our farmers market to continue to decrease as it has the first 4 months of 2025.  While the farmers market issues I'm sure are partly the economy, there are other problems there as well that are unique to the market but also out of our control.  

We used to be able to plan our year based on previous year's sales since we've remained pretty steady from 2018-2021.  That is no longer the case, and it does make it more difficult to plan ahead.  And I am a planner!

Almost all of the vendors we've spoken with at our farmers market are also experiencing steady declines in sales at that particular market.  In one way it makes us feel better because it's not just us, but it also feels frustrating because that means the problem(s) is out of our control.  We were recently speaking with a few vendor friends about this because one of them is considering taking on a temporary part-time job for financial security based on our decreased market sales.  She asked us, "but would you want to go back to working for someone else?" and we all emphatically replied "no!"  She laughed and said "right, me neither".  She ended up deciding to wait it out a little bit longer to see if things pick up.

Unfortunately for her, she does not yet have an established online store, so she is counting only on sales at 2 farmers markets, our Sunday market being one of them.  She told us that her other market has not slowed nearly as much as our Sunday market has, so she has hope that she will be able to make it work.

I write this in part to share the real-life ups and downs of homesteading full-time but also to encourage any of you who have your own micro or small business, that if you have a product that you can sell online but currently sell solely at a local farmers market or craft shows, to start an online store.  There are many choices making it easier than ever to do so.  Our online store has been imperative for the survival and success of our business.  During the pandemic our only sales came from our online store for a couple of months until we could return to our farmer's market.  Other business owners that we know who did not have an online store already set-up prior to the pandemic, went without any income for months because of it.  I find a sense of security in our online store because we own it and have full control over all aspects of it.  Something we don't have with local farmers markets or craft shows.  

Of course, there's more to it than just getting products online.  You also have to figure out how to get your products in front of others but getting them online is at least a first step.  Actually, I may expound on this topic in a future post.

Hoping this finds you doing well!

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