The Blended Homestead

05/31/2026

We have a new beekeeper in the family! Last weekend, one of Teddys teachers, Miss Chloe, wanted to see what it was like to be a beekeeper. 🐝 So we invited her up and I asked Teddy if he wanted to get in the bees with Chloe and I, and he responded with an enthusiastic YES! At 3 years old he is the youngest beekeeper I know! 🐝 I told him to be brave and not drop the frame. He was very curious 👀 with what the different things were in the frames. I think Chloe is excited to be a beekeeper someday. So happy to be able to give these opportunities for learning about a the different world of bees and how they work together. Thanks for stopping out Miss Chloe! And most importantly no one was stung! 😁

05/29/2026

It’s about to get real SALTY!!! 🌱 🧂

Ramp season came to a close and this year. It was a tight window I worked on harvesting with frigid colds and really warm weather late to get the ramps to grow too quick for us to have a great harvest this season. And once we were able to try to get the salt mixed, the sun 🌞 hid from us. If you didn’t know all of our Ramp Salt is sun dried under the beautiful West Virginia sky. Just like our garden, our Ramp Salt is very weather dependent. Cloudy days or rainy days means the salt won’t dry. We will have our first batch of salt available at the Wheeling Farmers' Market this Saturday. We will be there from 8-10:30. Yes, we will need to leave the market early for a kids birthday 🎉 party. See you at the market!

St Mikes Church Parking Lot
1225 National Road
Wheeling WV
8am-12pm
(We will be there from 8-10:30 but the market runs until noon with many other wonderful vendors)

05/23/2026

Teddy and I are packing eggs tonight and we will be at the Wheeling Farmers' Market tomorrow for the first 8am-12pm market. Rain or shine, homesteads still run, and so does the market! We will have eggs 🍳, apple 🍎 butter, shirts 👕, and a couple jars of honey 🍯. Hope to see everyone there.
St Mikes Parking Lot
1225 National Road
Wheeling WV 26003
8am-12pm
Market season is here! 😁

05/23/2026

Rainy days ☔️ off school call for Greenhouse visits with Dad! Teddy and Maci ran along with me to pick up plants from two of our favorite organizations. Both of their first greenhouse visits and Teddys eyes 👀 were checking out all the plants 🪴 while Maci was appreciating all of the hanging baskets. 🌼 They work hard to get plants started and we appreciate supporting their organizations and working together in the farming community. Holub's Greenhouse, Ohio in Glencoe, Ohio grows all of their plants from seed and also is one of the only greenhouses in the country to produce their own soil for their plants! 🌱 We’ve worked with Grow Ohio Valley especially with the Public Market in Downtown Wheeling since its inception nearly seven years ago. These plants will be thriving on our homestead this season and we’re excited to see what the season brings. Thanks for what you do to provide wonderful plants for our budding homestead! 🥬🌶️🧅🥒🌺🌸🌼

05/16/2026

Spring crops! They’re doing wonderfully! I’ve never grown cabbage 🥬 before, so naturally I decided to plant 100 heads. 😂 I also planted onions 🧅, brussel sprouts, leaf lettuce, and head lettuce. We’re also now to the point to get plants in the ground for our summer crops like zucchini, tomatoes 🍅, cucumbers 🥒, etc. Happy growing everyone!

05/14/2026

I passed! Luckily I’ve never failed a West Virginia Department of Agriculture Bee 🐝 Inspection, but it is possible. For me to sell my bees, they are required to be inspected to ensure I am not selling bees with a myriad of diseases and issues. We passed with no visual sign of varroa( #1 issue in beekeeping) or any other problems. Brood(eggs and larvae) are starting to build up, plenty of honey stored to keep the bees happy. Excited for the bee season to get in full swing. I sell nucs (short for nucleus colonies- 5 frames of bees, a mini hive) and full hives(I am one of the only producers of sales of full hives in the entire state! 🤯). Our bees have been sold and raised in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania! We’re always excited to see how our bees are doing. Those bees are made with the queens I make that are directly related to those I keep on our small family homestead. 😁 Thanks Colby for checking in on us!

05/02/2026

The simple task of letting the chickens out each morning is something I appreciate. Teddy has learned so much and has grown into a great young boy. Being present for your children goes a long way into raising wonderful humans. ❤️🐓

04/22/2026

Supporting one another while running small businesses means much more than you think. Buy a meal and create memories with your family. Melissa is a true artisan chef. 👩‍🍳

Thanks to The Blended Homestead for the ramps!!! We’ve got a rampy vegan bean burger made with sweet potato and locally grown red Merlot beans from Weatherbury Farm. Also featuring their Maxine Bread Flour in these house made ramp buns.

A rampy burger sauce and a vegan house made cheese sauce for your tots on the side.

Making meals like this is why I started Midge’s Kitchen.

See you later today!

04/17/2026

Our favorite time of the year results in one of Wheeling’s best dishes at one of Wheeling’s best spots Avenue Eats. 🌱

WILD RAMPY WINGS THIS WEEKEND!

04/10/2026

This may seem like just any old chicken coop, but this one is very different. Our coop is completely mobile. The coop, the fence, the waterer, and the chickens- 100% mobile. With a wire mesh floor- all their p**p 💩 falls right on the ground. We move them around all the time, sometimes for them to just get fresh grass, but many other times for a purpose. We have been working to move our chickens 🐓 in our garden to prep our gardens naturally allowing the chickens to p**p in the garden while eating bugs and worms. This improves our soil by increasing nitrogen, reducing w**d seeds in our soils, and eating the grass down.

To do this properly and safely for our vegetables, we do not harvest produce for a minimum of 90 days where the chickens have been, and we do this a minimum of 120 days for any places in our garden where we grow produce that isn’t traditionally cooked like lettuce 🥬 for example.

It’s farming with a specific purpose. Our homestead is Blended as it all works together. And we get eggs 🥚 as a bonus. 😃