May's Man Blog

April has been a really great month for one bibbed overall-wearing fella. The 2026 Springtime At The Farm was wrapped up this weekend. I absolutely love the entire event. We get to catch up with our vendor family and see folks that we see on social or send orders to. It is always a perk to put a name to a face. Rumor has it that there might be a more frequent occurrence of our little on-farm gatherings! I am sure that is good news for a guy married to a lady named Heidi who is just about in walking distance, who decided he would rather stay home and shave his legs. (We make shaving soap.) Hopefully, the husband of Heidi will avoid any further blog jokes due to his lack of attendance after our next one.  

My two biggest fears are that we don't have a great turnout for our vendor friends, and I can't recall the other. This Saturday, I had nothing to fear. We are beyond humbled by everyone who took the time to come out. As for the weather, it was subpar. The entire week before was a great week to be a duck. Luckily, the ground stayed solid enough that we didn't have any issues. We all spent Saturday saying, at least it isn't snowing. Years ago, we were able to have our events in the garage with half a dozen vendors. Basically, it was family and friends who stopped by. After the great lockdown, we decided that we needed to expand a bit and have it outdoors. We had been doing our regular market since 2016 and had made some friends that excelled in their craft and were good, what you see is what you get folks. Once our soap family was introduced to our vendor family, everything just took off from there, and likewise, our vendor friends introduced us to their loyal customer families. This weekend, we ended up selling a bag of soap to a young lady who came just to get alpaca socks. I love seeing our soap family get to experience the very best of our vendor friends. Unfortunately, I did not try Little Garden Kitchen's potato salad until the end of our event. I would recommend making the drive from Claremore, Oklahoma, just for the potato salad.

Another nugget of good news for the month is that I was able to visit a local FFA. Penns Manor's Future Farmers of America held a vendor gathering and its annual greenhouse sale in April. We have a weak spot for FFA and 4-H clubs. If we can be where they want us, schedule a fundraiser, or send a basket for a raffle, we're in. I have to admit, I was blown away by the professionalism and hard work that went into that program. In addition to the greenhouses that looked like Martha Stewart was in charge of, they had 3 goats, laying hens, and a bunch of chicks (baby chickens). I made the offer. When they are ready for a milk goat, we will gladly donate one. Every student I saw all day was hustling. They were helping customers get the plants to their cars. They were helpful to all the vendors who were setting up. It was a great group of kids that had some really great mentors leading the way. However, nothing can make you feel older than having trouble picking the teacher out from the students.

After my FFA visit, I got thinking that there should be an exchange program to send urban students out to experience a rural school and vice versa. Thanks to the magical powers of Google, I learned that these programs do indeed exist. Thanks to every single Netflix documentary on sending your kids to camp, Deliverance, Children of the Corn, and The Hills Have Eyes, city folks are a bit hesitant. In fairness, the nightly news, every single Law and Order, and basically every cop show since 1972 have those of us who live a little more spread out thinking that we will not return from the bright lights. Once those bugs are worked out, I can't imagine a better way for kids to see where their food comes from or to see all the options a city has to offer. Heck, if Upper Management came back from the big apple ready to plan her next trip, it must be a pretty good place to be.

I am excited to see what May brings our way and have a final tally on this year's spring babies. We are at 13 as of milking time this morning. I don't know when, but sooner rather than later, the Man Blog is going to turn into a Vlog. My regrets about not paying attention in typing class grow every month. Until next month, stay safe and wash on.