May 2022 | The Elliott Homestead

Welcome to May. Perhaps the very best month of the entire year (opinion, of course). May holds with it lilacs and apple blossoms, the first of the spinach and arugula from the garden, a bit of rest after a whirlwind of planting vegetables for the coming season, and well, my birthday. So it’s pretty good in my book.

I’ll be 36 in just a few days and am feeling quite pleased about it. I’m old enough to understand now how fleeting youthfulness is. (In fact, I just had to buy my first knee brace to nurse back a bum quad muscle.) Old enough to have been humbled and softened, still young enough to thrown down in the garden for an entire Saturday.

36 seems pretty good.

I’m celebrating by eating pasta every day of May. Because nothing brings me more pleasure than pasta.

If you’d like to join me next week, I’m going to be teaching a free pasta making class on ZOOM. We’ll be covering how to make a basic egg dough and three ways that you can use it for various pastas in your own kitchen. (No pasta machine required!). I’ll also be covering how to make the pasta with einkorn flour, if you’d like to know the trick to that. It’s free and you’re welcome to join in! A PDF with recipes, as well as a recording of the class if you can’t make it live, will be sent to everyone who registers.

Register for the free pasta class right here.

I’ll be 36 when I teach the class next Wednesday. I’m feeling older and wiser (and hungrier) already…

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On The Farm

I’ll find the words soon to share the details about this, but we found out this week our beautiful dairy is open (to no fault of her own - bum bull). After giving her a year off and waiting around for all these months, it’s a massive blow to my farming heart that dreams of once again basking in milk and butter. “This too is from the Lord.” I tell myself. And I believe it. But we often can’t see the why in the midst of the struggle. Cece is a huge resource for our family’s food supply and it’s devastating to face another year without her production.

Tears welling. Eyes burning. More on this later. (I love my girl so much.)

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In The Studio

Shop ‘Spring Bouquet’ right here.

I’ve been desperate to fill the ‘Framed Art’ section of the art shop for weeks now. We sold out so quickly last time I was still waiting on the next round of frames to arrive!

This time, I ordered extra and filled the store with four new prints (with multiple copies). My hope is to showcase how I imagine the photographs being showcased in a home. Framed art is a personal and subjective creation - but I’m so grateful for how well they’ve been received by you all. There are still a few available which you can shop right here. These are framed, handled, packaged, and shipped by me directly.

There’s been a shipping and price discount on our card collections for the spring season! You can shop The Garden Rose Collection, The Rustic Collection, or The Kitchen Collection of greeting cards and we will ship them directly to you.

The cellphone cases, on the other hand, come directly from the printer. But look how beautiful they are! You can shop all the cellphone cases available right here.

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In The Kitchen

Tis the season for rhubarb! Which you can obviously tell by the latest blog content. We’ve been busy making rhubarb jam, rhubarb chutney, rhubarb cake, and rhubarb curd! Here’s my delicious recipe for this very easy rhubarb curd - it’s almost like a pudding. Delicious served chilled with a dollop of whipped cream.

And if you need a new cake recipe to add to your repertoire in the kitchen, I’m sharing a rhubarb cake recipe as well. This one uses a special ingredient - sour cream! - to add moisture, fat, and tang to an otherwise simplistic (but beautiful) cake. You can find that recipe, as well as a video of me making it, right here.

Because spring is so busy on the farm, we also shared over on YouTube last week how we whip up a dinner in a pinch. I’m sharing a few of my favorite go-to supper recipes when I don’t have the time to invest in an elaborate dinner routine.

I call it “fast food on the farm”. These meals are 1) healthier, 2) cheaper, and 3) take less time than running into town for us so they’re certainly my go to.

Cooking Community members! Make sure to cook through this month's recipes! We’re focusing on food that packs and travels well so you can enjoy these recipes on a picnic, a day at the lake, or just for a lazy day. Recipes + instructional cooking video are on the member site. Here's a peek at what we're enjoy this month over in The Elliott Homestead Cooking Community.​

If you're not a member, I hope these images inspire you to get in the kitchen and cook something beautiful and delicious. Even if it's just for yourself.

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What’s Inspiring Me

• ​Good, clean wine. Always. ​

• Pasta! So make sure you register for my pasta class next week so you can be enjoying it too!

Thanks for being here, my friends! We’re so grateful for you all.

Cheers,

Shaye