"A riddle

wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma" - Winston Churchill (1939).  While Churchill was referring to Russia when he said this, I am referring to another "foreign country", if you will:  the past.  Being a 'history geek' I've always loved the quote, "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there." (L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between, 1953) and the more history I learn, the more I believe it to be true.  I love the Churchill quote, too, and both together sum up how I'm feeling about the name of the moving body of water (brook?  creek?) on our property.

All this started when we went to the craft fair in town today:

There were quite a few vendors selling all manner of things (hand carved wooden bowls, jewelry, hand braided rugs, Native American jewelry and crafts, pottery, and more) and they had a very nice turn-out for a first - time craft fair.  I brought home a couple of things:  a beautiful blue and green stoneware bowl from Rhonda Wainshilbaum:

A really cool t-shirt from Wicked Stepmother Jewelry:

Loved this because it is a gravestone rubbing from one of the old cemeteries in town and supports the town Historical Commission.  And, last but not least, prints of two old maps of town (also from Wicked Stepmother) - one is the 1871 map I mentioned in my previous post and the other is dated 1858:

The even better part of finding these is that purchase of them also helps support the town Historical Commission ~ not some on-line company (where I was going to buy them in the future) who I would also have to pay to ship them to me.  Nope, they are here in my hands right now AND helped the Historical Commission.  Can't get better than that.  Oh, wait, yes it can:  they were less expensive than the on-line price!   Wicked Stepmother doesn't seem to have an on-line presence but, if I find one, I will post it for you.  They had more t-shirt designs and had earrings with early gravestone type designs - REALLY cool stuff!

Ok, so to get back to the history/riddle/enigma thing:  when I got these two map prints home I spent some time looking closely and comparing them.  I found our farm site then, out of curiosity, I looked for the brook.  Somehow, in the thirteen years from 1858 to 1871, the names of this moving body of water mysteriously changed.  In 1858 what we thought was Brandy Brook was Still's Brook, which (in 1858) ran into Buddington Creek just below us.  Then, in 1871, Still's Brook somehow becomes un-named and what was Buddington Creek becomes Glen Brook.  Now, I know the answer to why these names have mysteriously changed and/or disappeared, it's really quite simple:  the 1858 map is by H.F. Walling and the 1871 map is by F.W. Beers.  Two different map makers, two different sets of information.  The Beers Atlas seems to have become the accepted version because an 1894 USGS topo map found on line uses the Beers names, which have pretty much stayed the same into the present time.  I'm going to have to do some more digging into the town history at some point in the future, though, because I'd never heard of Still's Brook or Buddington Creek before and they intrigue me.....

A rose.....

by any other name would smell as sweet. - Wm. Shakespeare

And, a blog and a farm, by any other name, would still be the same blog and farm.  So, from here on out, Brandy Brook Farm is Stonewall Corner Farm.  I'm going to miss the name Brandy Brook Farm ~ I really liked it and loved the way it just alliteratively rolled off the tongue.  Alas... we have discovered that the brook that runs through the farm is not named Brandy brook after all and it just doesn't seem right to name the farm for it.  It seems dishonest, somehow.  The actual name of the brook is Glen brook and we are not going to use that because there is already a farm in town with the name Glen Brook Farm.  It was an honest mistake ~ Brandy brook actually runs into Glen brook and we didn't realize that the name changed before it got to our property.  I found this 1871 map of our town on line and it very clearly labels Glen Brook:

So, we spent some time seriously brainstorming new names for the farm and, based on some of the words that describe our place that we mixed and matched (quite literally - I wrote them out and we cut up the paper and randomly picked words to put together) we finally settled on Stonewall Corner Farm as the new name.  And, this time, it's official:  there is a business license on file with the town that makes it so.

All this means that, for those of you who follow or are subscribed to this blog, the name of the blog will be changing with the next post, probably in the next week or so.  Just wanted to give y'all a head's up.

Lessons and reflections, Part 2

Ha!  Bet you thought I forgot!  Sorry it's been so long.  Really.  School was a little hairy for a while, and then I got sick.  Really sick - viral asthmatic bronchitis.  That = coughing all the time and having trouble breathing.  I think I'm getting better but I am still coughing some.  All that means that I haven't been able to do anything in the garden so Country Boy has taken care of all of the winter prep, including planting (and MULCHING!!) 91 cloves of garlic.  It's only a pound, so will most likely yield enough for just our use but we'll see.  That would be almost a head of garlic a week if they all make it, which might be a little much.  We do use a lot of garlic but, well.... sometimes you can have too much of a good thing!  We got ours from High Mowing Organic Seeds:     

From their website:

"Organic Purple Glazer Garlic - HEIRLOOM A glazed purple-striped garlic that grows well in most climates, but really excels in places with cold winters. Likes to be planted early in the fall. Excellent for raw eating and for roasting because of its exceptional sweetness. Outer bulb wrappers are white and inner bulb wrappers can be almost solid purple. Will store for 6-7 months. There are 8-10 cloves per bulb. Originally from the Republic of Georgia. Hardneck (Allium tuberosum)"

I LOVE this company!  They produce beautiful catalogs that provide all the information you need about their seeds.

We also got all the potatoes harvested ~ Country Boy did most of the work for that, too.   We got a great harvest and the potatoes are wonderful.   We won't be selling them, though, because we didn't get them covered soon enough and they started to green up some.  I've used them to make scalloped potatoes and they were fine - we ate the whole casserole with no ill effects - you just have to peel them to remove the green.  Count it as a lesson learned.  We will plant potatoes again next year, too - lots of them.  And lots more French Fingerlings, too, because those, folks, are delicious!