A Finished Vanilla Product!

Our Vanilla is a finished product! I love these old fashioned brown labels I found, they just give them the look they needed. We have the following flavors:

 Vanilla Vanilla (Vodka) 

Honey Bourbon

 Brown Sugar Bourbon

  Walnut Toffee Bourbon

They come in 8, 4 and 2 ounce sizes.

 Each has their own unique smell and taste. Making them was so much fun and my kitchen still smells amazing! 

These will be available upon request, just drop us an email @ CoonHollowFarm@aol.com

Homemade Vanilla with a Twist

Trying to keep busy and not be sad about the current state of affairs is how I am handling things lately. Yesterday would have been the CT Sheep and Wool Festival which I worked half a year to get ready for. Not only the loss of income to run things around here, but missing the excitement of the Festival. 

So I turn my attention on to other things. Recently I went on a fact finding mission and visited a couple of establishments to check out their flavored infused bourbons. To my surprise there was quite a few of them, an overwhelming selection that had my knickers in a twist as to what ones I would choose to make some homemade vanilla. I choose the three above, Brown Sugar Bourbon, Walnut Toffee Bourbon and Honey Bourbon. 

I gathered everything I needed to get started. It's really easy and the real thing you need the most of is tincture of time. Your liquor of choice (Vodka or Bourbon is best), some vanilla beans (Grade B is fine), a container and go!

I really prefer these Ball Jars with the bale top. This is a 16 ounce one so I add about 7 vanilla beans, choice of bourbon and some time. You want to shake it or swirl it daily and give it a good couple of months to extract that pure vanilla flavor combined with your bourbon of choice. 

In the back is one I made a year ago from Vodka. Look at the brown intense color that has been extracted from the beans! When we get back to shows again we will have these available. I stopped selling Vanilla because of a spike in the price of the vanilla beans a couple of years ago which are back in the normal range again. I am so excited to have these available. So for now, something to look forward to as we all ride out these trying times! Get making some Vanilla and Get Back to Basics! You can view our Coon Hollow Farm YouTube Channel to see how it's done!

Happy 50th Earth Day and Natural Pest Control!

Happy 50th Earth Day! It's been 50 years that the world has been celebrating the Earth! In honor of the Earth I would love to introduce my new obsession, predatory plants! I have decided that this year I will combat the flies in the greenhouse naturally by using these predatory plant! This arrived from the supplier last week. It was a cold day and I quickly rushed it into the house to warm it up gradually. These plants take special care but should thrive and do well in our greenhouse. You can also let them stay outside in the summer. They need distilled water and warm conditions. Shortly after arriving, it opened a trap and asked to eat. It was fed and now will digest. 

It has a terrarium over it, keeping it warm and humid for now until the weather stays warm. These plants are so fascinating! I know it will eat well this summer! There are other plants that you can purchase such as pitcher plants (which are native to my home state of Connecticut) as well as others. I am so looking forward to the warmer weather and getting this little one working in the greenhouse to provide natural pest control!

Welcome little ones!

Welcome our new sweet little ones. We added a few new breeds to our farm. They will join the flock when they are big enough. I'm excited about these breeds and the color of eggs they will produce.

We added these beautiful Cream Legbars who lay a blue to blue green colored egg... 

and the Blue Andulusian which have this blue like color even as a one day old chick! This chick lays a white eggs.

Blue Laced Red Wyandottes are stunning chickens, red on top and blue on bottom. Their eggs are a light brown color.

For now we have the chicks separated from our other chicks which have about a two week head start on them. They will spend the next 6 weeks in our brooder and will be put into a separate coop away from our older chickens. Until then we will enjoy their adorable peeps.

The story of Henry and Helen

(Helen, left-Henry, right)

This is the story of Henry and Helen, two elderly birds here at Coon Hollow Farm. Henry is a 7 year old rooster with the sweetest personality. Even when he was younger he didn't have a mean bone in his little feathered body. He was quite the stud with the ladies and has lived his life with such peace and grace.

This is Helen, an elderly blind Speckled Sussex chicken who is as equally gentle and sweet. She gets around just fine but extra feed and space for her is granted for her special needs.

Each morning half of the flock runs into the run to get their morning breakfast but not these two, they eat on the veranda. This way they get ample feed and do not have to fight for it, because if these two did they would starve. 

Their bond is like nothing I have ever seen. He is so devoted to her and stays by her side all day long. If she makes her way down to the water, he is with her. She does go for short strolls during the day. These days the flock is contained to the coops, run and extended run. We just have too many predators to watch them every second. In all my years I have never seen a bond like these two, it is sweet and warms my heart just at a time when we need it the most.

My dream chicken!

For the longest time I have always wanted Black Copper Marans.  The price of them plus the shipping on some of the chicken sites are just out of my budget! Recently I saw someone post on a chicken site that they had chicks for a very reasonable price and they lived in the town next to me! I reached out to her and we arranged a pick up point as not to violate social distancing. 

They are straight run but by looking at their feathers at just 2 days old, it  looks like I have one rooster and 3 hens. They are so cute! They are also very calm unlike some breeds who can be very squirrely!

What makes them so appealing to me is the color of their eggs! The deep almost red and brown color is so beautiful. We will soon have every color in our eggs shown above. We will be adding a few new breeds to our flock, so stay tuned!

Until then, the chicks are huddled under our chick plate, a safe and warm way for them to stay huddled together until their friends join them.

Making good use of this time...

I must say that this has given me time to catch up, to take a breathe and to really look at what has been important. I have kept myself quite busy and have tackled many projects that were on the back burner. I have cleaned my house from top to bottom, I have made lists of things I want to do. I have myself on a schedule which I think is very important to do when you have so much idle time.  The weather here in Connecticut has decided to be rainy and early Spring like so getting outside has not been so easy. Yesterday I decided to make some more of the rainbow yarn I had made last year. I took it to the New England Fiber Festival and within minutes of opening a young woman had her eye on it, came back and bought it. I have dyed all 7 colors of the rainbow, including the often forgotten indigo!

This time I think I will make a couple skeins to give others a chance at it. 

Meanwhile, I hope you all are staying safe, working on those projects you've been meaning to get to and just taking time for yourselves.