Calendula. What is that?

Calendula is an herb but simulating a daisy with vibrant orange and yellow petals with green leaves and stem. It may also be known as pot marigold or garden marigold, a native of Southern Europe, Egypt, Caribbean, and the region between Canary Islands to Iran. 

Calendulas!

A view of Calendula's from our garden

Dehydrating Calendula 

Calendula is a wonderful healing and medicinal herb used in various recipes. You won't believe how many ways Calendula can be utilized! However, it is recommended to use caution or not to use it while pregnant, breast feeding, or if you have an allergy to chamomile, ragweed, asters.

• It is edible. Chopped petals can add some flavor and color to your salad, cake, sandwich, cheese, sauces, soups, and butter.
• Flavors range from spicy to bitter, tangy to peppery, pleasantly mild and vegetable sweet.
• Healing wounds and skin irritations. It has an anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. It can heal:
• bruises, scrapes, athlete's foot, yeast infections, diaper rashes, and believe it or not, it can help minimize stretch marks and scarring. Ladies, you might want to try this!
• Sore throat, sores or inflammations in mouth or throat.
• Incorporate Calendula into baths, creams, compresses, washes, salves, topical oils.
• Dried flower for tea and infused oils.
• Pest repellent against aphids, eelworms, tomato hornworms, asparagus beetles.

Calendula Recipes

Step outside of your comfort level and experiment with Calendula. We are currently selling fresh, certified organic Calendula for $5 per pound. 

We are also selling poppies and bachelor buttons! 

 

Contact us for some beautiful certified organics flowers that have many uses!

Certified Organic Garlic coming soon!

Certified Organic Garlic Update

Garlic. One of the world's healthiest foods. 

If you don't believe me, feel free to read up on it for yourself: Medical Uses and Benefits

It's almost time for fresh organic garlic from our fields! We originally planted one clove of garlic by hand in October. Since then, we've been busy planning and prepping an area to hang garlic. This weekend, we were busy in the fields harvesting it. Unfortunately, it is not ready for sales yet as it needs to hang dry for a few weeks. 

This year, we will have 4-5 varieties of garlic available: Amish, Chesnok, Romanian, and Music, possibly Purple Stripe. Garlic does have many uses:  preventing health problems, cooking, or fighting werewolves or vampires along with many more. Whatever your purpose is, we will have garlic ready for you soon! For other uses, please refer to: 12 uses for garlic. If you are interested in pre-ordering, please contact us or visit our Facebook page Country Blossoms Organics LLC. 

If you are unsure how to cook with garlic, here are a few tips and recipes: Garlic Do's and Don'ts, Garlic Tips, and Garlic recipes.

The drying process may take anywhere from 3-4 weeks.

Most of our garlic is starting to dry. Only one more variety to hang.

Bees!

8 Hives at CBO

Today, Nicholas Thill from Honey Grove Apiaries, LLC stopped by with some beehives that will be housed at Country Blossoms Organics. We hope that having these hives on our farm will be beneficial to the bees and to our crops. We are very excited to support Honey Grove Apiaries, LLC in their mission to supply the community with their delicious, local honey, and we are equally excited for our plants to benefit from the bees!

Just a reminder that Country Blossoms Organics LLC will be a vendor at the upcoming Lomira Farmer's Market. Opening day of the market will be on Saturday, June 13th, and will run each Saturday morning until October 10th from 8:00 AM-12:00 PM. If you are interested in participating in this year's farmer's market, we will be having a vendor meeting on Saturday, April 18th at 10:30 AM in the community room of the Lomira Municipal Building. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Jenny at jenpriesgen@gmail.com.

What's Growing in the Garden?

As reported in earlier posts, we have started some seeds for our gardens already, but we have plans to start more seeds in the near future. We will also be direct-seeding much of our produce and herbs. Some of our produce are varieties that have grown well on the farm in the past, but we are trying some that are a little more unique to our farm, so we are excited to be experimenting with our gardens!

We are also beginning to compost more actively. We would like to thank The SweetSpot Bakehouse in Whitewater, WI for saving their used coffee grounds for use in our compost. Compost is one of the key elements in creating healthy soil, and it is a major part of organic farming.

Here is a basic list of the produce, herbs and flowers we have planned for this year. If you are interested in knowing more about specific varieties, feel free to e-mail us at countryblossomsorganics@gmail.com to inquire.

• Parsley
• Cilantro/Coriander
• Basil
• Dill
• Garlic--5 varieties
• Scapes
• Lettuce
• Spinach
• Kale
• Swiss Chard
• Pac Choi
• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Radish
• Beets
• Beans
• Onions
• Carrots
• Sweet Corn
• Cucumbers
• Squash
• Pumpkins
• Melon
• Sunflowers
• Popcorn
• Marigolds
• Calendula
• Soybeans (on stalk)
• Broom Corn

Pricing for our products will be available soon. 

A Little Sun + A Little Soil...

Once the temperature gets above freezing, we start focusing on seeds! The crop plan has been in the works for a while now, but nothing makes the upcoming growing season come alive like the sorting of seeds and the planning of when to start them.

While we don't want to start anything too early, we know that some things just grow better in cooler weather. Parsley was started today, and in the next week or so, we'll be starting some kale, basil, and a few types of lettuce. I (Jenny) also started some microgreens for my own personal use. I frequently grow sprouts in a jar to use in my daily salads, but microgreens are something I haven't dabbled in yet. If you are interested in learning how to grow your own sprouts or microgreens at home, just send us an e-mail at countryblossomsorganics@gmail.com and I can give you a few suggestions.

The awesome Halloween bucket is for mixing potting soil. Nothing strange going on here.

We recently got back from the MOSES organic farming conference where we learned so many awesome things. We are making plans for repurposing some things around the farm to transform them into a greenhouse, some cold frames, and a vegetable washing station. In the next month, we will be meeting with other area farmers and crafters to discuss the upcoming Lomira Farmer's Market. The market will take place on Saturday mornings from June 13th-October 10th, 8:00 am-12:00 pm. It will be held in the parking lot of Transform Yourself Fitness LLC on Main St. in the Lomira, just north of Mc Donald's. You are welcome to e-mail us if you have any questions about the upcoming market.

Brrrrr....!!!

On this frosty morning, I can't help but think spring! We have been busy communicating with other farmers, helping organize the Lomira Farmer's Market, and planning our plots. The whole family is looking forward to attending the WI Garden Expo in Madison this Saturday, February 14th, and we know we will learn many great tips. I also know that this event will make us even more eager for spring! If you see a crew of people with 3 little kids (who are probably running away from us and creating all kinds of chaos), stop over and say hello!

Here is a nice resource on edible flowers. We are planning to grow many kinds of edible flowers at Country Blossoms, so if you're interested in learning more about these, feel free to drop us an e-mail. 

Edible Flowers Resource