Welcome to grubbygirl.com!

Makers of hand-crafted soaps, salts, oils, and scrubs using all-natural botanicals grown locally on Meeting House Farm.

Mid-Winter Malaise or Excited Anticipation for Spring? Which describes you best? I find myself going between the two these days, depending on the weather. The warm days are getting me excited (and a bit nervous about all the work to be done) about the garden. Armed with my  Gardenista lip balm, of course. When it’s cold out, I tend toward a warm bath with Sleepyhead Soak, followed by some uplifting City Slicker Massage oil. Whatever the weather: Treat yourself well!

Meanwhile, I will keep on making soaps & salts & scrubs for you.

Winter is also my time for planning new gardens, apiaries, new products and even… more chickens!

 

For more than you ever wanted to know about growing up Grubby, check out our family memoir: The Kids are All Right.

 

For more information about Grubby Girl products or to order, please email me, or call: 540-270-5229. I look forward to seeing you soon!

–Amanda Welch

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Signs of Spring!

Spring comes early for the bees. I spent a Sunday afternoon two weeks ago going through all the hives and checking on their progress. All the Queens have starting laying brood and are in the top boxes, so I rotated the hive boxes to give the Queens room to lay and build up the population in time for the big nectar flow later in spring.

Plum about to bloom

I am still working on getting the new hives put together for the apiary expansion this year. Queens Jackie and Charlotte look strong already and may be candidates for splitting next month. Splitting strong hives is when you take out some of the frames of brood and some of the bees (and sometimes the Queen) and put them in a new hive. Workers in the hive without a Queen will select an egg and feed it Royal Jelly and create a new Queen. (Bees are pretty amazing!)
Yesterday, my four packages of new bees arrived. I had to scramble to finish the frames on two of them, I am a terrible procrastinator!

Expanding the apiary

I should have spent more time in 19th century house (our six days without power after the heavy snow storm in early March) making hives. That doesn’t require any electricity. Instead, I read four books which was a nice little vacation from the 21st century. Our time in the 19th century was fine. We have woodstoves, so we were warm. We have a gas range, so we had hot food and since the refrigerator and freezer could only stay so cold with bowls of snow, we did a lot of cooking. We were grateful for the rain barrel and now are planning our simple solar plan to prepare for the next time we lose power.

Heavy snow load that caused power outages all over Central Virginia

But I digress…back to the bees:
I went through to check on all the hives and feed, after I installed the packages. I am sad to report that Anna didn’t make it. Beekeeper error I am sorry to admit. They were completely out of food, as were many of the other hives. I have been feeding fairly regularly but since I have some nefarious robbers in my apiary, I should have checked sooner and kept everybody well stocked.
So plus four and minus one. I feel pretty good about the survival rate in the apiary, many other beekeepers are reporting losses. While picking up the packages I heard that Hungry Hill lost a third of their hives.

Now I need to name these four new Queens…

Queen from one of the new packages

All this work will (hopefully) means a banner year for the bees and honey! I look forward to the first batch of honey every year.

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Obsessed or just jealous?

Ok, I admit it, I am mildly obsessed with the Beekman Boys.

When I first heard of them and saw their website, I was just jealous. They have a great design eye. Their website is lovely. They have an “in” with Martha Stewart. They are marketing their farm products beautifully.

I saw them periodically over the next few years on TV shows or mentioned in the press, but I didn’t follow them closely. I still haven’t seen their reality show but have a feeling I will love it.

Then we saw them on The Amazing Race. We routed for them the entire season. My husband was sure they were not going to win, they had been in the back of the pack for the whole trip. And then they DID! And they did it by being nice, helping other teams, never getting bitter, supporting each other, being respectful and kind to the people in the countries they traveled through.

So I went to being jealous to being a fan (still a little jealous, but so happy for them.)

Now I want to emulate them. (Although I doubt I’ll ever make the Amazing Race.) I live a pretty fabulous life! Maybe not as fabulous as the Beekman Boys, but I do OK. I enjoy design, music, theater, art, cooking and entertaining as well as farming and gardening. But I don’t want to COPY them. I want to be a part of their zeitgeist. And honestly, no one would ever mistake me for fabulous, but they would call me capable, reliable, direct, honest (sometimes a little too honest) and I don’t like to expend too much energy…. SO is that is it: the Capable Grubby Girl? Doesn’t have much of a ring to it. I will have to get out into the garden and ponder this. That is where all the great thinking happens. My best ideas have come during long drives, while weeding, raking or planting, or while doing other repetitive, physical tasks.

Winter woods

So I will begin by sharing more recipes and more details of farm living. Sure some aspects of country living are a bit mundane, but it is through the quiet reflective moments that gives you an appreciation of the world around you. From watching a honey bee work the flowers in spring while you weed. Or breathing in the fragrance of new mown hay from the farm next door while you fix a fence. Or even the cold sting on your cheek in mid-winter as you gather wood for the fires and then enjoy the thawing with Simon right next to the woodstove in the evening.

Simon

 

 

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Rebuild, Renew, Renovate

These are my three “R”‘s for this winter.

1. Rebuild garden fence and expand the vegetable garden for spring.

2. Renew the existing beehives and add to them.

3. Renovate the chicken tractor to accommodate 25 new chickens this spring.

Let’s get busy!

I have big plans for the apiary: doubling it! I just picked up the materials to build 12 hives. How long does that take? I will let you know.

12 bee hives in their boxes

We decided to take the plunge and expand the apiary because:

1. We’d love to get more honey! (We are usually sold out by early September).

2. Bees are important to our local agriculture.

3. The State of Virginia is giving grants to anyone who starts a new hive! (Up to 12)

I will post picture of the hive building process and the finished apiary as it all comes together.

 

The chicken tractor has been a great home for our six (then four, now eight) laying hens. My brother built it a couple of years ago with scrap he had lying around his farm. He did a great job!

Chicken tractor

When he decided to move back to the city, we inherited his chickens and their tractor.

A lesson we learned from this experience is that:

We love chickens! And their fresh eggs! But also that pressboard is not good for outside use over the long term. The roof has absorbed about so much water that it is hard to lift, and the floor looks like a wave. So, my plan is to replace the interior floor with wire and walk boards and the roof to metal. Also, I am going to enclose the entire top section which will more than double the roosting and nesting space.

When it was new!

Hopefully, the weight will not increase. I can move this tractor by myself and I would like to keep it that way! (The picture here shows the tractor before it had wheels even.)

Since our hawk incident, I changed the access for the chickens. We used to just prop the roof open during the day and they would fly in and out of the top section. Now that we used electric netting fencing (to protect them from legged predators), I have opened an access for them to the bottom section. They climb up the chicken ladder to roost, eat & lay their eggs.

Anyone have any feedback on different breeds of laying hens? I would like to have a United Colors of  Meeting House Farm in the chicken yard and am considering adding some other varieties. We currently have 4 aging Golden Comets and 4 Rhode Island Reds. I am considering adding Araucanas, Silver laced and Golden Wyandottes and Black Austrolorps. (Mostly because I like the different colored eggs and I think these breeds are cool looking.) I’d love to know what you think.

I will post pictures of both processes and we will talk about the garden later.

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Adjusting the Sails

I hope everyone has had a lovely Holiday Season and is energized for 2013!

There is a note pad I gave my husband that says:

“We cannot control the wind but we can adjust our sails.”

(I don’t know who said this first and a quick google search gave me many versions of this attributed to various folks.)

I am trying to incorporate this ethos into my planning for the coming year. Goal setting and business planning have always been challenges for me. It is hard to hold the bees accountable to their honey quotas and I haven’t found a good motivational technique to inspire them yet. Gardens (and bees) are ruled by weather, pests and a variety of possible demises. Sales are another area where there is little control, or so it seems.

In 2012, some of our Grubby Girl Products have been selling well at our local Whole Foods in Charlottesville, which is very encouraging and the new Virginia Beach Whole Foods has placed an opening order. (YAY!) One goal  for 2013 is to get Grubby Girl into more of the Mid-Atlantic Whole Foods store. So, if you frequent one, please ask someone in the Whole Body section to order you some Grubby Girl!

Tell them to get some Sleepyhead Oil, City Slicker Scrub and Gardenista Lip Balm.

And I will set my sails again toward better management of my hives and gardens. I am doubling the amount of hives in the apiary and increasing my garden by the same. I will direct my energies this winter to promoting Grubby Girl to the Whole Foods Stores in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvannia, Washington, DC, New Jersey, Ohio & Kentucky! Wish me luck and for the wind at my back, as I wish for you.

Happy New Year!

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Falling into the Holiday Season

As the winds blow and the leaves fall, it is time to get ready for Holiday markets, visits from family and preparations for winter.

And we have exciting news: You can now get some of our Grubby Products at the Charlottesville & Virginia Beach Whole Foods Markets!

And Select varieties of Grubby Girl Oils, Balms, Soaps, Salts & Scrubs are available through any Mid-Atlantic Whole Foods, just ask in the Whole Body Department and they can order it for you. I have been coordinating with these two stores to organize in-store demos, I will post when I have confirmed dates and times.

I have been busy getting restocking the soap shelves and readying for the Holiday Season. Come down and see me at Charlottesville’s Holiday City Market!

Freshly made soaps on the drying racks.

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Let’s talk about cake, baby.

Chocolate cake. That’s what I call this:

Chocolate cake

 

 

Super rich, loamy, lovely garden soil, ready for the fall garden to go in. It takes a while to build nice chocolate cake garden soil. This garden has been amended with compost from Panorama Paydirt for several years and well composted horse manure from our lawn ornaments: Eddy & Baby.

Our lawn ornaments.

Why don’t you come out and see this Labor Day! You can check out the garden & the bees, the lawn ornaments, the chickens, the polar bear, and our other farm dogs on The Market Central Meet yer Eats Farm Tour.


There is a nice Louisa Loop, including US, Ted’s Last Stand, Forrest Green Farm and Poindexter Farm. Or you can spread out your visits:  Caromont Farm, Babes in the Woods or any of the 21 farms on the tour.

Hope to see you Labor Day!

Jake, polar bear

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Full Swing

Market is bustling, the gardens are lush, the bees are making honey, (well at least Queen Martha is), it’s not too hot yet, what a fantastic time of year!

AND,  you can now find some of your favorite Grubby Girl Oils, Scrubs and lip balm, at the Whole Foods in Charlottesville!

Grubby on the shelves!

 

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Spring Things

Well, spring hit us early. The bees are at least a month ahead and are starting to put honey up already. I hope to have some ready for the Spring Farm Tour, but I make no promises. Bees work at their own pace and will not be rushed. I had a bunch of swarms this week and was able to catch one of them.

Looks high, but I got it! with a ladder in the back of the truck.

You can also come see me at the Charlottesville City Market most Saturdays. The first couple of markets have been beautiful weather and it has been great to see everybody again.

The crowds have been phenomenal for so early in the season and the strawberries have been absolutely delicious!

 

We also have two new members to the farm team. Jake & Eleanor, Great Pyrennes puppies that we have high hopes for to protect our gardens and livestock from marauders (most especially the deer!) It will take a while for them to reach their full potential. Right now they are just CUTE!

Ginger loves her new back-up team.

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Resolve to Learn Something New

How about beekeeping! I will be teaching a class at the Louisa Arts Center at the end of this month.

Winter is such a great time for planning the next year’s garden. Get out those seed & plant catalogs and dream of warm days working in the sun. Today it actually felt a little like winter and we had a few flakes of snow. A big change from last week, we were down to our shirtsleeves in the balmy 60 degree weather. I was able to get a hive check in and feed the bees on Sunday.

Here are a few tips to attract bee to your yard, even if you don’t want to keep a hive yourself.

  1. 1. Don’t use pesticides. Most pesticides are not selective. You are killing off the beneficial bugs along with the pests. If you must use a pesticide, start with the least toxic one and follow the label instructions to the letter.
  2. Use local native plants. Research suggests native plants are four times more attractive to native bees than exotic flowers. They are also usually well adapted to your growing conditions and can thrive with minimum attention. In gardens, heirloom varieties of herbs and perennials can also provide good foraging.
  3. Chose several colors of flowers. Bees have good color vision to help them find flowers and the nectar and pollen they offer. Flower colors that particularly attract bees are blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow.
  4. Plant flowers in clumps. Flowers clustered into clumps of one species will attract more pollinators than individual plants scattered through the habitat patch. Where space allows, make the clumps four feet or more in diameter.
  5. Include flowers of different shapes. There are four thousand different species of bees in North America, and they are all different sizes, have different tongue lengths, and will feed on different shaped flowers. Consequently, providing a range of flower shapes means more bees can benefit.
  6. Have a diversity of plants flowering all season. Most bee species are generalists, feeding on a range of plants through their life cycle. By having several plant species flowering at once, and a sequence of plants flowering through spring, summer, and fall, you can support a range of bee species that fly at different times of the season.
  7. Plant where bees will visit. Bees favor sunny spots over shade and need some shelter from strong winds.

 

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Thankful for the Days

The bees are snuggled up for winter, our first meat chicken experiment is tucked away in the freezer. I am spending my days getting ready for Charlotteville Holiday Market 2011. (Click on link to see video).

Holiday Market 2011

I have begun to bring some topiaries to market and am thinking of making some suet as well.

This is part of my idea to make Black Friday “Green”. Instead of shopping at the crazy sales, spend the day after Thanksgiving making gifts for the holidays and then celebrate Small Business Saturday shopping at your local retailer, craft fair, Holiday Market or order online from Grubby Girl!

As the holiday Season is upon us, I am thankful for so many things: Life on the farm, my friends and my family. I hope everyone has a peaceful and joyful Holiday Season!

Now off to the Grubby mines to make some soap!

Posted in Balms, Bees, Farming, Oils, Products, Salts, Scrubs, Soaps, Uncategorized | Leave a comment