Lehman's Country Life

Original Oil Painting By Sue Steiner

Check out the Events Calendar on this page to see the schedule of local artisans sharing their knowledge and skills in Lehman’s Buggy Barn as demos.   We are fortunate to have a wide variety of local, talented folks from the Ohio Arts and Crafts Guild who welcome the chance to talk with visitors to the store on topics of interest such as environmentally ‘green’  activities, farm related arts and crafts,  pottery, wood carving, farm animal art, rural landscape oil paintings and gardening.

This week Devona of Clevernesting will be back with her garden themed crafts using recycled items normally thrown away.  Last week she shared with us seed catalog art, plastic grocery bag woven baskets and coffee bag seed starter pots.  You’ll enjoy her enthusiam as she shares her wealth of ideas and tutorials on how to make the most with the least using commonly found items!
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Ohio Arts and Crafts members had such a great time last fall and winter interacting and demonstrating in the Buggy Barn at Lehman’s they will be back again starting next week until the end of the year.

You can go to Lehman’s Events calendar and see who is scheduled so far and the themes of the various demos.  We are inviting a wide variety of artists and crafters to share their skills and knowledge with you for demos sure to please all ages!  Expect to see woodworking, mural painting and farm animal art, hands on crafts using recycled materials, wool rug hooking, spinning and weaving, fiber arts and pottery to name a few.

Check back often or sign up to be notified when an event is entered on the calendar.  You can plan your trip to Kidron knowing what demo is scheduled that day.  Stop in the Buggy Barn and be inspired!

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There is a little hunter-gatherer in us all. Before humankind settled down and started to make gardens in settlements we were nomadic hunter-gatherers. And June is really the start of the foraging-for-free-food season.

I tend to think that hay fever is the sophisticate’s response to being alienated from this most ancient of activities. One herbalist told me that if you looked out in the countryside you would probably find something to heal whatever ails you within twenty yards of your doorstep.

Since most people go in for lawns these days you probably won’t prove her right if you live in the suburbs or exurbs. But if you can get out into the country in June, the flowering blossom of the elder may just help your hay fever!

Medical herbalists reckon that tea made from the elder flower, sweetened with some local honey, might just ease your hay fever symptoms. Elder is mildly antihistamine, while the pollen in local honey will help acclimatise your immune system so that it won’t be so irritated by pollen.

The blossoms are creamy umbrellas of tiny flowers and the scent is both sweet and slightly astringent. Wine makers prize the flower heads to make elderflower champagne. I use them to make a syrup that can be diluted with sparkling mineral water to make a refreshing soft drink.

The syrup (which includes some lemon juice) is also useful to add to gooseberry jam or jelly. The combination of elderflower with gooseberry is delightful.

June is also the time to start taking inventory of your preserving equipment. You can recycle jars for storing dried herbs like elderflower and meadowsweet for teas. But for making jams, jellies and pickles you really need to consider getting proper canning jars. You also need a really large preserving pan (or stockpot) and a selection of funnels to fit different sizes of jars or bottles.

While it is fashionable to eat ‘seasonally,’ if you don’t want to incur huge food miles it is well worth taking a leaf from our hunter-gatherer ancestors and storing for the winter months when in our cold northern climates there is a dearth of ‘seasonal’ food available. They are the real mentors for teaching us how to live a low impact lifestyle. So we need to make like the squirrels and get foraging and storing!

Editor’s Note: The information in this article is not professional medical advice. Lehman’s makes no claim to the above information. Consult with your physician or another professional healthcare provider before making decisions about natural therapies and/or remedies.

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Autumn is here, and the herb garden is getting ready for a long rest. You have carefully tended to your herb garden throughout the growing season. Now comes the time to reap your harvest to get you over the winter until the garden awakens in spring.

You have a variety of choices to preserve your herbs. For fresh herbs all winter, you can dig some of the plants up and pot them into containers to make a garden for your kitchen windowsill. Or you can dry or freeze your herbs.

Harvesting Herbs
Most homegrown herbs should be harvested before the plant blooms. The exception to this rule is herbs from the mint family – mint, dill, and oregano, for example.
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Time to feed and tidy up

The air is cooler. Clouds are darker. Plants are losing their summer luster. Fall flowers are beginning to bloom. Now is the time to get ready for spring! Right?

Getting Ready
Perennial plants are always getting ready for the next season. In the spring, they are getting ready to grow and flower. In the summer, they are in full swing with blooms and leaves. By fall, they are storing food in their roots, getting ready to go dormant. In the winter, perennial plants are reading gardening books to find out who their new neighbors will be.

You can help perennials get ready for spring by feeding them in the fall and doing a few maintenance tricks. This advice is for all perennials – flowering plants, shrubs, trees and even lawns. For specific instructions on exotic plants, contact your local nursery or county horticultural extension agent for help.
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If you love using herbs as much as I do, you will probably agree that fresh-picked herbs taste better than store-bought or dried ones.
Even those of you who have limited available yard or garden space can plant a kitchen herb garden. Herbs are easy to grow, don’t need a lot of space, thrive in just about any type of soil, and many are cold hardy. An ideal location would be a few steps from your kitchen, but any spot that gets about six hours of sun a day is good. By planting herbs that are most often used in cooking, you can pick what you need all summer.
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