What Your Farmers Do In The Winter + A Fun Recipe

It's December and us veggie farmers must be settling in for a long winter's nap, right?

Nope!  :)  After taking one week off to celebrate the end of the growing season and give Thanksgiving as a family, we are back at the controls of our thriving small farm business excited about the coming next season!

If you are a gardener and/or veggie lover, you might have noticed that seeds were being snapped up like they were going out of style last year.  We're accelerating our seed purchasing this year in order to be fully stocked for our 13th growing season in 2021!

We're also busy harvesting and preparing our farm's fresh greens, carrots, other roots, squash and more for our Winter CSA members and preorder customers.

And most excitingly, we're getting ready to open the registration for our 2021 Summer Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in January and making plans to expand our veggie seedling and perennial plant sales in spring 2021!  

And for the fun part...

As much as we love and anticipate getting our hands back into the soil come next year, we also love getting them clean again at the end of the day.  How about you??  :)

Well, you're going to love this!

Sugar scrub! 

Wait, what are you talking about?  

It's the most amazing thing that we were originally introduced to by some CSA members who make it for sale (shout out to Fabula Nebulae of central Maine). 

The sugar acts like an abrasive to work dirt and germs out of your hands, the soap cleans, and the coconut oil moisturizes!  No more dried out hands after washing.

So check out this easy homemade farmer's favorite hand scrub to help you get ready for the coming year of fresh veggies and gardening!

Plus it also makes a great gift idea for your special gardener, veggie lover, or anyone who just wants clean hands!  (Like who doesn't?)

Easy DIY Sugar Scrub Recipe

Even if you are not the DIY type, I encourage you to give it a try. The recipe is simple and easy. It literally takes less than 5 minutes to make a batch.  

Ingredients to yield 3 cups of hand scrub:

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup mild soap (like Dr. Bronner's or mild dish soap)
• 2 cups sugar
• 20 drops rosemary essential oil (optional)
• 4 drops tea tree oil (optional)
• Lemon Zest or 10 drops Lemon essential oil (optional)
• Fresh Herbs, chopped, like mint, thyme, rosemary, basil, lemon balm, etc. (optional)

How to make:

1. Soften or melt the coconut oil in a measuring cup or bowl. Mix with soap.
2. Add sugar and stir vigorously to “whip” it.
3. Add essential oils, if desired.
4. Add zest of lemon, if desired.
5. Add fresh herbs, if desired.

How to use your sugar scrub:

1. Scoop a dollop into hands using fingers or a spoon (see below).
2. Scrub away!

Note: The hand scrub should last a few months. Do your best to keep water out of the jar. Maybe scoop before you put water on your hands or use a spoon to scoop the scrub out of the jar, so the contents stay clean and water-free. During the summer, this isn’t too much of an issue for us as we go through a container pretty quickly…

How do you like to clean your hands after a good day of gardening?  Reply and let me know!