Yuccabird

I am building a website for Yuccabird Herb Farm, and I'd just like to thank New Mexico Magazine for deciding to put our website address in their upcoming June issue, because if that wasn't happening, we surely could procrastinate for another year or two. Also: How did I end up building websites when all I really want to do is grow plants and stick my nose in apple blossoms?

Keeping these bouquets too. And the fraggle head guy.

Black garlic, ya’ll !

New front porch

New Mexico and the Rocky Mountains have their own elderberry, the red elder, Sambucis racemosa. About 5-6 years ago I was trying to grow the black elderberry and ordered 50 seedlings from the New Mexico forestry seedling program. I carefully tended them in pots for two years and finally planted them out behind our shed and herb kitchen so they would get runoff water from the structure. A year later they bloomed and fruited … Lo and behold , the black elderberries were not black. They were the same red ones I could find growing wild all over the mountains near our home. I was a bit miffed. But then I kinda fell in love with them and decided to learn to use them. Also: this is how big red elders can get when no cows are around to mow them down. My sheep don’t like them.

Lilies in the weeds blooming beautifully. We will bring some to market this weekend.

All the things! Botanical bitters, herbal teas, tonic vinegars , syrups and salves. And Ella is making new signs! Yuccabird Herb Farm today 8-1 at the Santa Fe Farmers Market.

Sometimes I feel like we are getting too old to recreate ourselves, and yet, that is utter hogwash. So here is my first listing on Etsy -- the first of many. Get yer online juniper bitters here! https://www.etsy.com/shop/Yuccabird?ref=profile_header

Botanical magic from the mountains of New Mexico by Yuccabird You searched for: Yuccabird! Discover the unique items that Yuccabird creates. At Etsy, we pride ourselves on our global community of sellers. Each Etsy seller helps contribute to a global marketplace of creative goods. By supporting Yuccabird, you’re supporting a small business, and, in turn, Ets...

Hopi Black Dye sunflower in the autumn wind. I love the growth habit of the Hopi black dye -- each leaf node sprouting its own little fat head.

The Hopi black dye sunflower has this amazing growth habit where each leaf node makes a super fat head.

Yuccabird updated their business hours.

"In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher. " Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama Quotes "In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher." - Dalai Lama quotes from BrainyQuote.com

These have been some busy weeks at the Boxcar Farm... we are planting like mad, trying to get everything in the ground in time to make it in our short mountain season. Planted Glass Gem corn, Painted Mountain corn, cabbages, onions, an acre of 22 varieties of winter squash, an acre of 10 varieties of potato, carrots, beets, peas, various radishes, parsnips, turnips, rutabegas, Jerusalem artichokes and many many long rows of beans for dry beans. Today we did Bulgarian beans, Calypso beans, Nodak Pinto, bolitas, Anasazi and Jacob's Cattle, Silver Cloud Cannelini, red beans, Black Coco beans, and three kinds of green beans. As soon as the corn is up, I'm going to plant Ojo de Cabra (eye of the goat!) and Cassoulet beans to climb up the stalks. We are excited about beans this year. Here are a few pictures of spring on the farm.

Hello, hello from Boxcar Farm ! Today is a day to celebrate garlic -- Happy National Garlic Day!! Our garlic is a few inches high up here in the mountains of Taos County... growing peacefully under the careful watch of Jicarita Peak, which is still covered in snow. We'll post some pictures soon! In the meantime, make some garlic soup! http://www.npr.org/2017/04/19/524654665/its-national-garlic-day-who-is-making-up-these-weird-holidays

Trying to make up for an iffy garlic crop with a late planting of hundreds upon hundreds of cabbage and broccoli. Did someone say it was a holiday?? Not at Boxcar Farm!

Harvesting berries for juniper bitters and pinyon sap for trementina salve. Rough work , eh?

At Boxcar Farm, we are busy inside these days concocting fabulous herbal goodies and making botanical print scarves for holiday markets. We already have several inches of snow on the ground -- it went from summer to winter almost overnight. The woodstove has been churning out heat day and night.

And , the squash field , late July.

This is what we do for fun at Boxcar Farm ... In between the tedium of harvesting rows of garlic, we dress up the Interns in handmade, hand-felted, eco-printed Merlin Jesus garb and make them pose for photos !!
— with Mary Steigerwald (remove)

An acre of potatoes and an acre of squash in the ground here at Boxcar Farm, parsley and tulsi and celery are still in the hoophouse, some new hops vines, thousands of cabbages waiting to go into the field.... Beehives are busting out all over and baby goats are frolicking in the field. I guess we're doing this whole "farming" thing again!

out in the high winds today digging burdock, dandelion and yellow dock root for a new potion!

Boxcar Farm will be headed to farmer's market this weekend with our new line of "Boxcar Botanicals" herbal products -- medicinal herbal vinegars, hand-blended teas and a few salves. Come try our Osha Chai and Boxcar Fire Cider.

Planting stinging nettle, baical skullcap and echinacea, plus broccoli, Chinese cabbage and lettuceheads. And a black rainstorm brews over Jicarita Peak.

I'm just fiddling around here to see if I can do anything with a Boxcar Farm page... although I think I'd need more local likes to really promote anything....