freckled hen farmhouse EC workshop: canning & preserving recap!

we hosted our freckled hen farmhouse EC series: canning & preserving workshop this past weekend & it was absolutely wonderful!

i cannot thank the handful of gals enough who said yes to this crazy dream & joined us on the farm.

i want to give you a peek into the amazing day i spent with our canning gals on the farm… grab a cup of coffee & get cozy, friends.

luke & i poured hours into getting the farm workshop ready. we filled wheelbarrows with perennial flowers & decorated our old blue bike with burlap & a chippy wooden star. 

we wanted our space to be inspiring for the amazing ladies coming to the farm. our hope is that they would feel relaxed & rejuvenated while learning a skill they could bring back to their own home.

these ladies were amazing. we gathered in the kitchen peeling & coring tomatoes. that morning, we were strangers, but amidst the chopping of vegetables & stirring of pots, we talked of our lives & grew together as friends. 

at one moment, i stood back & admired the chatter in our farmhouse kitchen. i closed my eyes & imagined the incredible women before us who would gather in kitchens together putting up sustenance for their family during the winter months.

over pots & jars, us sisters made herbed tomatoes. we decorated our jars with the sweetest fabrics, ribbon, twine, wooden spoons & tags.

once the labor of the day was finished, we shared a farm to table lunch & then headed to prairie grove for an afternoon of junkin’!

our friends at hogshead tours picked us up in their wonderful 1970s volkswagen van. our driver even wore suspenders & a bow tie! we felt like junkin’ royalty, y’all!

in praire grove, we visited the best of flea markets. colorful, chippy & rusty oh my!

the gals walked away with a handful of treasures. i managed to find an old ladder for five bucks. the rule that it had to fit in your lap in our hogshead tour van? yeah, there’s always an exception if it’s chippy & cheap, y’all. 

our first workshop would not have been as meaningful & wonderful without the artists who showered us with gifts in our swag bags. i feel like these gals, across states & borders, were there with us, stirring pots & canning tomatoes. 

big hugs to our maker & artist friends who contributed to our swag bags & graciously sponsored our first canning workshop:

– gingiber

– poppy & fern

– katygirl designs

– recipe for crazy

– tiny prints

– arch + craft

– myrrh handmade jewelry

– pen + paint

– be crafty

– pinwheel parcels

– mary wangerin: the turquoise paint brush

– amaginarium

as we ended the workshop & the gals gathered their things to head home, i was in awe of my tribe who surrounded me & assisted me in making this happen for these incredible gals. big hugs & giant golden stars to lesley of recipe for crazy & kara of arch+craft for being my right-hand gals before, during & after the workshop. these girls made food, washed dishes & helped out in a kajillion more ways than i could even begin to count. i am so thankful to call these amazing women friends. thank you, lesley & kara. i love you girls!

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i cannot wait to share more details about our upcoming “inspiring home” workshop happening on our farm in the early winter months. as we put our gardens to sleep, light the first winter fire & cozy up within our homes, i am inviting you onto our farm for a day of creating within the home & cultivating an inspiring home on a budget. more details to come! … xo.

love,

natalie