Come to the Wind Harvest Farms Strawberry Festival!!

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I can hardly believe that Dan the Man and I found time in our crazy busy schedule to take a "field trip!" What is even more amazing to me is that I got Dan the Man to go on a "field trip" with me! LOL! After we finished our chores on Saturday, I talked Dan the Man into going to the Wind Harvest Farms with me. I have been wanting to go there since I read about them in the paper either last year or maybe it was the year before. We are in a bad habit of not taking the time to go and do things that we would really like to do because of the great excuse of "we don't have time today." Who else falls victim to this? Is there anyone else out there who always feels like their plate is too full and doesn't have room for dessert? Well, that's how I feel most of the time during the summer and I know that it just isn't true. I'm trying to break that habit and leave a little room for dessert on my plate every once in a while. I encourage you to do the same.





So here is the lowdown on the Wind Harvest Farms. The Wind Harvest Farms is owned and operated by Jeff and Diane Edwards. It is located 8.3 miles north of Henry and offers an array of produce and fruit along with various value-added products. The Edwards plan on offering asparagus, strawberries, sweet corn, raspberries, melons and various squash this year. All berries are offered for sale as u-pick or pre-picked. If you don’t have time to run out to the farm, you will be able to find them at the Morrill Farmers Market on Tuesdays, 3:30-6:30 PM and at either of the Torrington Farmers Markets on Thursdays 3:30-6:30 PM or Saturdays 7:30-11:00 AM. These Markets are open mid-July through mid-October.

Dozen of Strawberry Blooms!

What a wonderful surprise to find this little jewel in our part of the state. The Edwards were gracious enough to give us a tour of the farm and explain their operation to us. We started the tour in the strawberry fields where rows and rows of several varieties of strawberries are just beginning to ripen. Diane has already been selling strawberries and predicts that the berries will be in peak production within a week. I am definitely going to buy enough to make some strawberry jam!!!!! I'll post a recipe later for you so you can do the same. If you haven't ever made jam before, don't worry, it is soooooooo easy. Trust me!

Tons of Strawberries like this on each and every plant!

Next to the strawberries are rows and rows of raspberry bushes beginning their journey to their fall harvest. I can hardly wait to come back in the fall and pick some. Just the other day I was talking with a chicken customer of mine and asked if they had heard of the Wind Harvest Farms and they said “Oh yes! They have the absolute best raspberries!” After the berries, we glanced at the other crops.

Rows of Raspberry Bushes!

Dan the Man and I were both fascinated with the asparagus, neither one of us had ever seen an asparagus plant. It made me realize how far removed we can become from our food source if we choose to alienate ourselves from the process. Did you know that asparagus can grow under the surface of the soil and if not harvested can grow to 8 feet tall? The day we visited was the last day for the asparagus harvest, but now I know for next year when it is available and I definitely plan on getting in on that culinary treat.

Jeff pointing out an asparagus plant poking out of the soil.

Newly planted apple and plum trees.

After the tour of the various crops, we moseyed on over to the store. What a beautiful building! Inside on the first level is the store and a BEAUTIFUL commercial kitchen (be still my heart, I would love a commercial kitchen!!!) I had to control myself and not run my hands over each shiney piece of stainless steel! Oh, what I could do with a stove like that! And a walk-in freezer like THAT and a WALK-IN refrigerator like THAT! Okay, I'll stop now, I'm getting way too excited. Back to the kitchen, which I do love. This is where Diane makes all her jellies, jams, pies and other desserts and what ever else she makes. Lucky girl that Diane is! I asked her if she held any cooking classes there. She said not at this time and I told her I thought she could do pretty well teaching people how to make jams and jellies, but I'm sure, just like me, Diane's days are busy! And besides, who am I to tell her how to run her business! LOL!

Jeff and Diane in their commercial kitchen.

I knew immediately that I had a "kindred spirit" in Diane when I realized that the color scheme she had chosen inside was the same as the one I had chosen for my studio!! Red and Yellow, and the exact same shades I think, along with hard wood floors. Upstairs houses an "art gallery" in which local artists have pieces for sale. Like a dork, I have forgotten the name of the photographer that has things for sale there, but they (the pictures) were beautiful and very reasonably priced.

Upstairs in the "Art Gallery"

There is also a beautiful room, almost like a dining room, where groups can come and enjoy the farm while having a meeting, playing cards or just to enjoy each others company. This is a perfect place for various "ladies groups" to come. Diane said that she makes dessert for them along with coffee and tea. Her desserts feature whatever is in season. If you belong to such a group that has meetings or such, you should consider this as your next gathering spot! If you would also like, you can congregate on the patio outside!

"Dining" room upstairs, but this is only half of the room.
I realized I didn't take a picture of the other half which also has a nice table.

Patio outside!

Diane and her strawberries!
(I snagged this photo off her website, she said it was okay!)

I am especially excited for the upcoming Strawberry Festival at the Wind Harvest Farms this Saturday, June 26th from 10am to dusk. The festival will host a day full of strawberry picking, a Farmers Market from 10 AM-1 PM featuring local producers (including me!!) and vendors, a lunch featuring pork sandwiches prepared by Ron and Lynn Pulley of Heritage Hogs and strawberry sundaes prepared with strawberries from the Farm and if that in its self isn’t enough, there will also be live music by the Ft. Laramie Fiddlers from 1 PM-2:30 PM. For more information on the Wind Harvest Farms you can contact the Edwards at (308)247-2334 or check out their website at www.WindHarvestFarms.com.

Roadside stand they use in the summer on an honor system.

Jeff, Diane and Dan the Man shooting the breeze.


Hope to see you this Saturday at the Strawberry Festival!

Weekend Getaway: Colorado Garden & Home Show

A few weeks ago, Dan the Man's sister, Carla, asked me if Dan the Man and I wanted to spend a weekend in Ft. Collins, Colorado with her and Geologist Jim, her husband. We always have a great time together so of course I was game for a weekend away. We planned it for this weekend with nothing really in mind to do except to stay a couple of nights in Ft. Collins and just enjoy each others company and do a little shopping.

Geologist Jim and Carla live in Casper, WY. We usually get to spend holidays with them, or at least some time during the summer months at the cabin with them, but this last year was so crazy for all of us that we didn't get to spend much time together at all. We always laugh until our stomachs hurt when we get together, so I was really looking forward to a fun weekend. It didn't matter what was in store, we always enjoy each other's company.

Carla was in charge of getting the hotel and as we often do, used priceline.com to get it. She bid $50 and we got the Fort Collins Marriott on Horsetooth Road. It was really nice and a great bargain for $50/night.

Fort Collins Marriott

Lobby


Fireplace in Lobby

Room


Room with suite (we didn't have a suite, so we didn't have a table like
that but our desk and TV area looked like this.)


Restaurant at the hotel, but we didn't eat there. Looked nice though!

After our chores on Friday, Dan the Man and I left for Ft. Collins which is about 130 miles from our place. I think it's around 220 miles from Casper to Ft. Collins. Skyler and Chris would be in charge of the ranch while we were gone.

We met up at the hotel after lunch and decided to hit "Old Town" Ft. Collins which is downtown. I love "Old Town"! It is full of unique shops and great restaurants. The older I get the more I like shopping unique shops verses shopping in malls. Here are some of my favorite in Old Town:

The Cupboard is a WONDERFUL kitchen store, two stories full of everything you could possibly need for your kitchen. When you walk in you are hit with the most delicious aroma of freshly ground coffee. The top floor is all cookbooks!

The Perennial Gardener is a fantastic garden decor store who has a court yard out the back door of the store. Love gardens? Then this store is for you!

EsScentuals is a bath and body kind of store that has a fantastic basement that you have to go see just because it is decorated so cool! They also do spa treatments down there.

White Balcony is a cool boutique that carries "a huge mix of accessories, gifts and greeting cards, specializing in unique and edgy merchandise. The store has to be experienced first hand to truly understand how much inventory there is.. everything from chandeliers and lamps to hats, candles, handbags, jewelry, and other great whimsical gift ideas." I love, love, love this store! Even Dan the Man and Geologist Jim found it entertaining!

And last but not least we stopped at Nepal Tibet Imports. Carla was on a mission to find a Turkish coffee pot thing so she could start making Turkish coffee. I was surprised The Cupboard didn't have anything, so we saw this place across the street and decided to give it a try. We didn't find anything that dealt with coffee, but we did find some wild belly dancing outfits that we kept trying to get Dan the Man and Geologist Jim to buy us for Valentines Day. Lots of laughs were had at this store! We finally had to leave before we got kicked out. Also the smell of all the incense was about to kill us all. Just so you know, this store is not on my list of stores that I adore, I only added it to the story because of the belly dancing stuff. Too bad I don't have a video of Carla and me trying to get the boys to buy us those belly dancing things. Dan the Man was turning red every time I held an outfit up and tried to simulate belly dancing. As his father would have said, "knock off the nonsense!"

After all this shopping, we were getting hungry and it was supper time. We found a quaint little Irish Pub called Lucky Joe's to eat at. Good food! Dan the Man and I had Fish & Chips, Carla had Irish Stew and Geologist Jim had Chicken Strips.

On Saturday we went to the Fort Collins Winter Farmer's Market. Very cool! It is held every other Saturday from 10am to 3pm at the Opera Galleria 123 N College Ave. They had everything from late season produce, confections and baked goods, wine and cider, eggs, local and artisanal cheese, mushrooms and meat, and handcrafted products. There were several vendors and several shoppers!

For the rest of the day we decided to go to Denver, which is 65 miles from Ft. Collins, to go to the Colorado Garden & Home Show. I heard about this show several years ago, but just never made the time to go. When Carla said it was in Denver this weekend we decided that we HAD to go. It would be something that both the boys and the girls would like. I knew it would be BIG, but I wasn't prepared for how BIG it actually was!

You've got to read the Fun Facts about the show. It will give you an idea of how BIG and cool the show is! There are 14 created gardens displayed, many with water features. There were something like 650 vendors! Oh my aching feet and back from all that walking! We spent at least 5 hours there. Thank God that Dan the Man and Geologist Jim are such great sports to do all the walking and looking with us girls. We love you guys!

Here are a few (actually quite a few!) pictures from the show.

My favorite picture of the show!
Love the shadows on the sculpture!

Weird animated prehistoric animals to delight the children!

Who doesn't love a gerber daisy?

Dan the Man and Geologist Jim

More gerber daisies!

Geologist Jim and his lovey wife, Carla.

Wouldn't be the COLORADO Garden & Home Show without the columbines!

Adorable little crocheted hats.
Someday I'll have grandchild to buy cute little things like these for!

Ohhh, la, la!

A little photoshop effect.

I'll take one of these for my back yard!

Weird twisted plant.

Adorable petite daffodils!


Ohhhh, la, la!

Egads... who is that with Dan the Man.
I look horrible, but I didn't want Geologist Jim to think
that his picture taking skills weren't good enough for the blog!

It's a chair, can you see?

Hey, it's the Bread Man's Bakery!
Those of you who shop at the Scottsbluff Farmer's Market know this vendor!
I wanted to get some bread, but resisted the temptation.

Carla, is that the bus to the Drunken Monkey?
Sorry, inside joke...

Cathedral downtown Denver.
Just a parting shot.

For Dinner that night we ate at Austins American Grill in Ft. Collins. Yummy, delishous, highly recommended! Carla had a Smoked Salmon Burger. I had the Short Smoked Pork Tenderloin. We both had a cup of the Fat Tire Beer Cheese Soup. Geologist Jim had Prime Rib Au-Jus with Chipolte Shrimp and Dan the Man had Rotisserie Sirloin Roast. It was all scrumptious! We would definitely eat there again. Two thumbs up for food, service and ambiance!

Well, that was our weekend, what fun! Thanks Carla and Geologist Jim for a memorable weekend we won't soon forget! Looking forward to the Thermopolis weekend getaway to come hopefully in the near future!