It is mid-January as we recorded this and time to start the first seedlings for the garden. We discuss our process and plans for the upcoming season.

We get the majority of our seeds from Johnny’s and Baker’s Creek and recommend these sources for high quality seeds. Donna also describes saving seeds and how to determine when seeds from prior years are still viable.

And here’s the link to Gardener’s Supply.

Thanks for listening.

See ya.

Today we talk about some of the preparations we are making for the 2019 season. Not only are we adding new honeybees to replace the lost colonies from last year, but we are experimenting with some new products.

Even though our on-farm Mercantile is closed during January, you can still find many of our products in our on line store and we’ll ship direct to you. Click here to order.

Thank you for listening.

We decided to take a business sabbatical during the month of January 2019. We are using this time to refresh our business, catch up with some product development, and evaluate next steps.

This is the 50th episode of Farm Chatter, a milestone for us. Thank you for listening.

Part two of the 2018 year in review for Five Feline Farm. We discuss more of our improvements and accomplishments over the past year. It has been A-Maize-ing! (pun intended)

Speaking of A-Maize-ing, the video we referred to in this episode is available on our Youtube channel or by clicking here.

If you are interested in reading The Long Road to Market, it is available in our on-line Mercantile or through Amazon.

Thank you for listening and your support during this past year. We are looking forward to 2019 and what will happen.

Keep coming back…it’s going to get interesting.

See ya.

We begin a two part series discussing the growth of Five Feline Farm in 2018. Plus there is a lot of cowbell involved. We are so excited to share with you what has happened in our business and how each of you have helped us get to this point.

Introducing Gert’s Garden Balm, a skin soothing hand and skin cream specially developed with gardener’s in mind. Donna (aka Gert) is a gardener and needed a skin balm to treat her dry cracked hands. She scented it with lemon and rosemary essential oils reminiscent of walking through the herbs of her garden.

Not only for gardener’s, this all natural balm will treat your skin to hand crafted, healing care. Get it here or when you visit the Mercantile on the 2nd and 4th Saturday each month through mid-April.

On this episode Donna interviews Julia about her latest book The Long Road to Market. The book captures their experiences in moving from a feeling of isolation to belonging to a community.

We discuss why this book was written at this time and what the meaning is behind it.

If you would like to get your own copy, you can get either print or digital download through our online Mercantile or through Amazon.

Even better, stop by the on-farm Mercantile for one on the 2nd or 4th Saturday each month through mid-April.

Until next time….see ya.

Today’s episode is all about how we are expanding our ability to make new products based on customer requests. We are including a new balm scent Cat Burglar and new scone flavors.

We also spend a moment trying to figure out how to enunciate “balm” so it is clear what we are producing.

Our Thanksgiving food traditions. A feast for all.

In this episode we mentioned a roasted pepper jelly appetizer. You can find the recipe in Julia’s first book Simply Delicious and you can find that in the fivefelinefarm.com/mercantile in both ebook and print versions.

And the bonus coupon code for cyber Monday is “Thanks” for 10% off your online purchases in our Mercantile.

We continue our conversation with Michael and Beth Gillespie, turning to the topic of food insecurity in our community. We learned what it means to be food insecure and what those of us who are able can do to help.

For more information about food banks go to feedingamerica.org

If you would like to contact Michael for more information, email mgillespie {at} eiu.edu (you know the drill, we don’t want the bots to spam him)

Thank you for listening and be sure to support your local food banks.