Orange

I recently realized that this year, I am in to Orange, (as my high school classmate, Sheri Leighton, would say) "IN A BIG WAY".

Orange is a sunny color, a summer color, a rich color. It is also excellent as an accent, but not to be used in large doses (unless freshly squeezed in a glass with a generous dose of vodka and perhaps a spash of cranberry).



Here are some ways I like to use orange.

I recently made planter boxes for our local office furniture and supply store, Whalens (http://www.whalens.com/) in Northampton. Just FYI, you won't find beautiful flowers in front of the Staples that opened in the Big Y strip mall this year. The plants in the boxes need to be able to handle some sun and some shade, and are placed on either side of the front door. This year I used a tall red coleus, the Kiwi coleus in the center (crazy/wonderful leaf shape) and orange New Guinea Impatiens. You need to visit the store to get the full effect (as well as a great deal on office supplies and furniture - tent sale this weekend), but these colors are outstanding against the tan block background, if I do say so myself.

I love tea, and searched high and low for 'killer' pots to brew our locally blended Teas (http://www.teaguys.com/) and mugs for sipping. In the meantime, I also found gorgeous plates for the sweet snacks we love to enjoy with our tea and even a poppy trivet for hot stuff or simple beauty. Orange goes with a lot of other colors, so as I said, you don't have to go crazy with the color.

Having a party or need a hostess gift? A former neighbor, Jill, stopped tonight on her way to visit a friend's home. She needed an under $1o hostess gift. I showed her the Vance Kittra candles and she chose a pear and a pair - in orange of course! The summery color!

We have a number of other items in orange, so if you are like me and digging citrus these days, stop by and see what else Hickory Dell has to offer.

The Gift Shop

For the last couple of years, we have had people stop at the farm and come in to the store and say, "I have been driving by here for years and I never knew you had such great stuff in addition to the beautiful plants in the yard". Part of the problem, we know, is the sign. It is pretty, but we had it made years ago when we were just about to open the store, and had a bit of a different vision of what we would be. Last year, we had our friend, Ed Radding, of Radding Associates(http://www.raddingassociates.com)/ design a new sign for us. Ed makes great signs, for any situation. Check him out. We love the sign that Ed designed for us, but we wanted to get the landscaping finished and the new retail greenhouse built before we put up the new sign. We are putting off the retail greenhouse for another year but hope to have our new sign up in 2008. This is a mock-up of what the sign will look like. And, we will have the option to let folks know what we are selling.

Many of the people who read this blog are not able to visit Northampton very often. I have been asked many times to post photos of the interior of the store. Our inventory and the look of the store changes with the seasons. We always have local milk, eggs, cheese, honey, maple syrup, dressings, tea blends, coffee, salsa and nuts. Our gift items are carefully selected and we make every effort to have something wonderful for anyone on your list. If you want to see what is in the store this month, click on this link

http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=A4BAAA2C6B2&cp=ems_shr_alb_pml&cb=PW

I am inserting a 'teaser' photo here, in case you don't have time to look at all.

This is a view of the store from back to front. We love having an open, airy feel - almost like a gallery, as opposed to the cluttered, too-much-to-look-at feel of many gift shops.

American Idol

My friend, Di, has been watching this show since Day One. She has tried to get me involved for a number of years, but I have resisted for the most part. I have to admit that I am a Kelly Clarkson fan, and that my goddaughter and sister took me to her concert at Great Woods a couple of years ago for my birthday, and I loved it. And, in Season 5, I thought Bo Bice sang the last song the best, but I have come to be a huge Carrie Underwood fan since then. Di loved the 2006 winner, but I was a Daughtry supporter. 2007 was almost a non-event, as far as I can tell. The winner was a sweet girl with a nice voice but not, in any way, an 'idol'. Her win may have hurt this year's 17 year old David.
From the first time I saw him, I said that the "little bon-jovi guy" was the best. This is not meant in disrespect to David Cook, but simply to indicate that I recognized his talent even before I heard his story. All I learned in the ensuring weeks, only supported my initial opinion. And the songs he sang and the growth he grew only supported my intuition.
So, I am becoming hooked to this show in the same way as I stopped everything to watch "Star Search", and, in my infancy, The Ted Mack Amateur Hour. Hope to see many of you performing somewhere. If it is live, please let me know so I can be there!

First Farmers Market of the Season

In case you didn’t notice, I have been silent for a while. All of a sudden, Spring Sprang, and I found myself up to my eyeballs in things to do in the greenhouses and around the farm. I did take pictures of my wonderful bleeding heart and bergenia plants and thought I would write about those but never got to it. But, today I do want to share the excitement of the first farmers market of the season. May 6th was the opening day at the “Farmers Market at the X” on Sumner Avenue in Springfield (http://thefarmersmarketatthex.com/). It was a beautiful day with sunny skies and temperatures in the low 70s. Below is our market manager, Belle-Rita. We call her the Mayor of the Market. She talks to all the customers, tells them how the market works, and also that they can’t leave without spending money!! Everyone loves BR!

After working for months to decide what to grow, select the best seeds and plugs we can find and then grow the plants, there is nothing like having all your ‘old’ customers back and happy to see you again. It is really fun, too, to catch up with the other farmers, most of whom we have not seen all winter.

This is Sue from “A New Leaf” in Longmeadow.

This is one of John’s amazing basket creations. Lush and beautiful, it went quickly, along with the others I brought that day. People really love color any time but early in the season they have a huge appetite for anything in bloom. The other things I find we can never have too much of are lavender, rosemary and basil.

So the market was really great, until the end when the truck would not start. Belle-Rita tried to jump me with her car. Then my friend, Sue, from Chiccoine Family Farm tried to jump me with her van, but we couldn’t get the hood open. So, I finally asked the Kettle Corn guys (this is wicked good corn, by the way – we call it Kettle Crack at the market. Check out Eric's Blog at http://wickeddelicious.com/blog/index.php) to try with their big truck. No luck.


I finally had to call John who came down with my Hyundai Santa Fe and got me started in a minute. Seems the trick was to rev the engine to a certain RPM in order to get the truck battery to charge. We finally got home at 8:30 that night. And that is the story of farming. The good always seems to be balanced by the not-so-good. But then the reverse is also true.