Ranch Newsletter | July 2025

Originally sent to subscribers on July 31st, 2025

Farm Update

"If I had my way, I’d remove January from the calendar altogether and have an extra July instead." — Roald Dahl

July was lovely. Despite the excessively warm June we had, July was perfect. We had a few mid 90's days that were hot, but for the most part July was a long a string of lovely upper 80's weather. And compared to last July, life was much easier around these parts.

Last year I had a 12 family CSA, weekly kid's camps, weekly markets, and all the usual work of caring for animals, keeping up with the house work, and restocking my soap business. I knew about half way through July 2024 that I needed to let some things go because I couldn't do it all and I was starting to burn out.

Now, here we are a year later and going out to my garden to harvest veggies makes me happy again. Lingering in the cool of the still morning to notice the new growth, take in the sunrise, watch the ducks on the pond, the goats grazing in the field. It's my happy place again rather than a frantic and exhausting rush from one task to the next.

I told myself last year I needed to figure out what I loved most, and so far, all the things I'm doing right now, I really love. It's been a few years since I've taken the cherry plums from our tree and used them for jam making. This year I spent four days harvesting, cleaning, and making jam and while it was tiring and made my kitchen very, very sticky, I enjoyed every minute of it. And now that jam making is done, I'm looking forward to canning more things, like Jalapeno jelly, pickles, and tomatoes.

After the July 4th weekend I realized it was going to be difficult to keep our farm stand stocked with veggies all week long, and keep up with CSA orders, and still have enough produce for us, so the farm stand is now a Friday - Sunday farm stand. I try to get the farm stand out front and stocked by 8am and then I close it down each evening around 8:30pm. Sunday night the farm stand gets brought back off the street for the week and this process is working out well for us. I've started adding canned goods as well as produce, and when I have the time, I also like to add some kind of baked good as well.

We celebrated Craig's birthday in July, and our boy Finnick's 2nd birthday. In August we'll be celebrating our puppy's 1st birthday, my birthday, and if all goes well, Daisy's babies! Her due date is August 5th, so we are just days away from baby goats!

In natural skincare news: I'm getting a lot of great reviews about our new Ranch Hand Soap and on the rare occasion that men stop by my market booth, I love seeing their eyes light up when I tell them about it. Craig says we need more stuff at markets for men, and it sure seems like they appreciate finding something they'll use.

My next soap making classes are:

• Wednesday, August 13th, 6-8pm

• Saturday, October 11th, 2-4pm

• Wednesday, October 15th, 6-8pm

Learn how to create your own small batch of Bastille bar soap using entirely natural ingredients, resulting in a soap perfect for sensitive skin.

You will discover the science of soap-making, explore the ingredients suitable for homemade soap, and create a 1-pound batch of soap to take home, cut, cure, and enjoy.

Please note, you will be required to wear safety gear for this class - gloves, glasses, and an apron. We will be working with lye.

Classes are $55 each, are limited to 10 people, and have an age limit of 13 and older. If you'd like to sign up, you can do so here: https://www.julbudranch.com/events-1

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