I decided to call our place "Nectar Farm" for a few reasons, but mostly because our own precious 35 acres were not so long ago a part of hundreds of acres of land that was used for animals, and food production. Our neighbor, Matt Fish, of Curtis Farm (a GREAT place for weddings) is related to some of the previous owners of this gorgeous land, and it was thrilling when Matt pointed out a bumpy embedded expanse of stones at a lower southwest corner of a "new" field we had just cleared, which had previously been a field for ages and ages. Matt explained that the farmers "back then" had rolled the stones down the hill to clear the upper fields and this is where they had landed!
So while our main crop at Nectar Farm is LOVE and ART and NATURE, we are bringing back on a small-scale some of the farm stuff that has endured here through the transitions and changes to modern times. Like the Blueberry Field. It's almost an acre of high, medium and low-bush blueberries. Underneath the brambles and saplings is not only 80+ bushes, but the field is still an expansive ground cover ... a lush low-bush carpet that makes me so incredibly happy!!!
And the truth is, I kind of "stole" the name from my son, Sean. He said that if he ever had a small farm he'd name it Nectar Farm. How could I resist a name like that?!!
Here's Sean and Molly and Yola, on Orcas Island. Sean, a farmer and artist, recently became a sea captain, and now takes people for fishing trips around the San Juan Islands. Molly, as well as being a talented thespian, is a bright light who gardens and makes medicinal herbal goodness - I LOVE the lavender salve she made for me. Yola is now a teenager :) XO
The following is an excerpt from the Full text of "The history of the town of Lyndeborough, New Hampshire" THE "OLDEN TIME"
469 Some of the designs were called the "American Beauty," "Orange Quarter," etc. Mrs. Curtis also has some towels made by her great- great-grandmother, more than a hundred and fifty years ago, which show artistic design in figure. All the girls were brought up to card and spin and weave and knit. Forty-two knots of filling, or six skeins, or thirty-five knots of warp, or five skeins, was a day's work of either kind, and fifty cents per week and board was the pay when working out. Mrs. Asher Curtis, senior, used to milk two cows for an addi- tional compensation of eight cents. As the sheep increased in numbers, the carding, spinning, and weaving of woolen fabrics was added to the home indus- tries of the forefathers. The hum of the " big wheel " mingled with that of the " little " or flax wheel, and then came the era of the " striped frock," a garment made of wool, belted at the waist, and worn almost universally by the men of two or three generations. It was warm and comfortable and was almost the only outside garment many had. It was worn "to mill and to meeting " and retained its popularity until comparatively recent years. John Richardson was about the last man in the " mid- dle of the town" to give it up. The well-to-do and the poor alike wore them. Sometimes cotton filling was obtained from the lower towns, and bedspreads and other articles were made of cotton and wool, or with a flax warp made into a coarser fabric for common wear. Girls made their own wedding outfits in those days, carding and spinning and weaving the wool for blankets, and using their utmost skill in the fineness and the design of linen fabrics. Generally the quantity of table linen, towels, blankets, bed- spreads, etc., was enough to last the bride through her married life, for the goods she made wore like iron. The maidens were very proud of their skill, and were not bashful in showing the results of their handiwork. Frequently the all-wool cloth in- tended for best wear was fulled at some nearby mill and a nap made on it. Joshua Sargent operated just such a mill in town for many years. When the fabrics were dyed the fashionable color was blue, and the aroma of the old dye pot with its bag of indigo was in every kitchen at times. Of underclothing the men had none, nor indeed wanted any. Mrs. Asher Curtis, mother of Mrs. Betsey Ann Curtis, solici-
470 HISTORY OF L YNDEBOROUGH tous for her husband's comfort once made him a pair of good, warm, woolen drawers, and one cold morning persuaded him to wear them. Such an experience was new to him, but he started for the wood-lot with them on. He had loaded his wood and started for market, walking beside his oxen, and he found the drawers uncomfortably warm, so he mounted the load, and in a biting wind with the thermometer below zero, discarded the underwear and never could be persuaded to wear any again. There has been much speculation in these later days, as to how our present winters compare in severity with those of the "olden time." In connection therewith the following record kept by some member of the Goodrich family and found by John H. Goodrich among the family papers will be of great interest. It gives the number of snow-falls, total depth of snow- fall, number of rains, and time of apple-blossoming for twenty- three years, commencing with 1830.