Chronicles of the Long Shot Farm

Baby Doll Diapers

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Freyja is obsessed with her baby doll.  She loves to clothe her, change her, and take her to the bus stop in the stroller to pick up Leif.  In fact, we just wore out our second doll stroller.  Freyja is also into using scissors.  Unfortunately there are not too many projects for a 4 year old to go hog wild on with a pair of scissors.

So we decided to make baby doll diapers. I traced a diaper we had onto fabric (which she picked out).  I altered the pattern so it would curve nicely on the back of the baby doll and not be so gathered in the front.  Freyja cut out 4.  She also cut out 4 fleece linings for the diapers so they would be white and fluffy inside. I sewed them together, with a little top stitching and velcro and voila!

 

She was “sew” into this project we then made 4 matching spit rags for the baby doll.  These were simple rectangles I traced from an envelope and lined with fleece.  I also topstitched and sewed 2 lines down the spit rags to prevent them from shifting.  It was a fun way to expand Freyja’s baby doll accessories that she could also be part of.

Posted by Anja Weyant

Peanut Butter Cookies

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I’ve come to believe that every great recipe has its roots in Joy of Cooking.  A few tweaks here and there perhaps, but the bones of the recipe can usually be traced back to the hard work of Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker.  Peanut butter cookies are no exception.

These cookies are rich and crumbly, and are my favorite way to introduce peanut butter to infants (before 1 these days you know).

  • 1/2 C butter
  • 1/2 C brown sugar
  • 1/c C granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 C peanut butter (I use Jif)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Blend butter and sugars until creamy.  Mix in egg, peanut butter, salt, baking soda, and vanilla until well combined.  Add in flour.  Roll dough into small balls and place on cookie sheet.  Press dough flat on cookie sheet with a fork.  I usually dip the fork in sugar between cookies so it doesn’t stick.  You can also use the tip of a whisk and create a star pattern.  Bake 10 min.

Posted by Anja Weyant

Slippers for Freyja

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We moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico a few years ago but bought our first house last October, an 80 year old marvel with hints of charm and bits of 1970s thrown in.  It was originally built on a crawl space.  Later additions were added with a basement and one on a slab. It also has an ancient boiler which slowly chugs hot water through the radiators.  But all Freyja cares about is that its February and her feet are cold on the wood floors!

She asked me for a pair of slippers.  Winter is nearing its end and Freyja is just 4 and constantly growing, so whatever I bought or made would only be worn for a few weeks, 2 months at best.  I searched through my yarn and found some chunky black yarn that I used on one of my very first projects some 10 year ago.  I then set out to browse DROPS Design, at garnstudio.com.  This is one of my favorite places to go for knitting patterns.  I settled on Walkabout.

 

This pattern uses size 9 knitting needles and took just a few hours to make both slippers.  It also sews up the back of the heal, not under the foot, which is something that matters to Freyja.  Overall it was a quick, good solution to cold feet in February.

Posted by Anja Weyant

Naming the Winery

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It was nearly impossible to come up with a name for either the farm – or the winery. It seems that every possible name was taken by golf courses, housing development or venues – whatever we came up with was quickly nixed by a Google search 🙂  So we named the farm, just for fun.  We planted our first grape vines on this farm 8 years ago – when the winery concept was still in the distant future and we thought we’d have lots of time to think about it.  As you can see, we could not come up with something we liked and ended up with just “The Winery at the Long Shot Farm.” Our concept of a winery started with planning and planting a vineyard . . . the name, logo and entire marketing of it was not on top of our minds at the time. [We had a 2-acre lot of fruits, grapes and fruit trees for over a dozen years before we bought the little farm, which is where we learned a lot about what not to do.]

Check out how we named the farm here.

We have come such a long way in the last 10 years. Maybe in the beginning we thought this could be a “long shot”. As a family of archers and adventurers, we know the long shots are the best stories.

Read this and more at Penn Live: Last name standing: Cumberland County winery building toward summer debut

Posted by Tina Weyant, Anja Weyant, and Samantha Weyant Shaffer

2019 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention

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This week the 2019 mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention is going on. Rachel spent time learning and taking the Private Pesticides Applicators exam (Good Luck Rachel)! Tina, Lars (Majoring in Plant Science at PSU), Rachel and Toben learned more about fruit and vegetable growing.  And growing grapes!

Toben even got an approved day off of school and is taking notes on early basal leaf removal and its affects on the health of vines.  As Jeff always says, “If you learned something today, it was a good day.”

Posted by Samantha Weyant Shaffer and Anja Weyant