Hello again! Yes, we now have a boardwalk at the farm. On the south side of our Mercantile building, there was a bit of a problem area, so we fixed it by installing a boardwalk. Plus four new planting boxes. Even though there are a few details left to complete, it is functional and we … Continue reading "172-A Boardwalk at the Farm"

Hello from Five Feline Farm! This past week, our area experienced an unusual late snow and freeze warning for two nights in a row. We covered everything possible and prayed for the rest. Everything was fine! It appears the snow had an insulating effect. Coupled with the temperature not dropping quite as low as expected … Continue reading "171-How the Farm Fared in a Freeze"

Welcome to our milestone episode #170. This week we share our progress in landscaping around the new sidewalk from the driveway to the Mercantile building. We have been busy! You will also hear a new feature: a garden tip and a kitchen tip near the end of the episode. This week we talk about using … Continue reading "170-Landscaping at the Mercantile"

This week we made major improvements in accessibility to the Mercantile. It has been a need for a long time. Many of our customers, friends and family members had difficulty walking the mulched path from the parking lot to the Mercantile building. Now, the walk will be easy. A new concrete sidewalk leads from the … Continue reading "169-Major Improvements at the Farm"

Who doesn’t love fresh flowers? In this episode, we interview our friend and neighbor, Cathy Hiser about her new venture in flower farming. She describes her interest in growing flowers, the types of flowers she has started and when she anticipates fresh picked blooms will be available. As a bonus, we plan to include some … Continue reading "168-Interview with Cathy Hiser"

Spring is a busy time at Five Feline Farm. The Mercantile is open on Friday and Saturday from noon to 4:00 PM. We discuss on this episode how that simple change in hours helped our stress level. Sometimes it is just the little things that make a difference. In addition to the change in hours, we … Continue reading "167-Noodles, Gardening and More"

On today’s episode we review our Mercantile season opening; the successes and challenges. As always, we learned and are making a few changes. One of the lessons learned is to make our opening hours more consistent. To that end we have changed our hours to 12:00 PM (noon) to 4:00 PM both Friday and Saturday. … Continue reading "166-Season Opener at the Mercantile"

It’s that time of year! We are excited to start our on-farm Mercantile season. Beginning Friday, March 19 2021, the Mercantile will be open on Fridays from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM and Saturdays from 12:00 PM (noon) until 4:00 PM. More hours and deliveries will be added. You can order ahead through our online … Continue reading "165-The Mercantile is Opening"

With the arrival of warmer weather, the outdoor tasks at the farm begin in earnest. In addition to planting, transplanting and taking out invasive plants, we are preparing for the season opening of the Mercantile. On Friday, March 19, 2021 from 10:00AM – 2:00PM we will open the Mercantile. Our onsite store features great products … Continue reading "164-Spring Has Arrived"

As the title of this episode suggests, we are starting to see warmer temperatures in East Central Illinois. Those warmer temperatures allow us to begin the outdoor tasks like removing invasive plant species and burning up the cuttings. We also have been able to check on the honeybees. We may have lost one colony over … Continue reading "163-It is Almost Spring at the Farm"