Okay, so we are not recycling the whole holiday, just the trees. We take our tree, and donations of trees from the neighbors, and dry them out for the needles. Pine needles make wonderful smelling sachets for the home, car or office. We keep one in our car during the winter and when the defrost comes on, we get a blast of that clean pine scent. During the summer, the heat from the windshield heats up the pillow. When you smell a pine pillow, you are instantly transported to a grove of pine trees in a forest. Or maybe it reminds you of the scent of Christmas’ past.

For us it is a way to reduce, renew and recycle things we use here on the farm. We pluck off the needles to use in pillows and potpourri’s, and the rest goes into the compost pile. We don’t waste anything.

In fall, we start collecting seeds from all the plants that we can. Dill, calendula, pumpkin, squash, tomatoes, and more are all packaged away in newspaper or brown grocery type bags to dry out. Once they are dried, we sort through them to hand pick the best seeds. Some we sell, the others we use in our garden for this seasons crops. By doing this we know where are seeds are coming from, and therefore we know that the produce we sell in the summer is the best around. (more…)