Valley Maple LLC

I feel like I start every post lately with "things have been busy" but dang, it feels like end of summer and fall have hit us like a freight train!

Kids are back in co-op & busy with homeschool and other activities. We're reaping the benefits - or perhaps, consequences - of our homestead-y hobbies ("why are our hobbies so much WORK?!" 😅)

We are still baking sourdough (even while juggling some weekend conflicts) and have recently started offering both Sourdough Snickerdoodles and Sourdough Chocolate Chip cookies. I may be biased but OH MY...they are so good. Photos coming soon! Sold in single variety packs of 2 for $6 (meaning 2 Snickerdoodles or 2 Chocolate Chips - no mix and match available, for now!)

We've also got a bumper crop of garlic and have some medium heads available for sale, 3 for $5. We may offer more (different sizes) once we've made our fall planting plans! They are hardneck variety and great for eating or as seed garlic.

Reach out if you're interested in sourdough bread, cookies, or garlic. Bread and cookies are baked weekly on Sundays and available for pickup at our home in Apple Valley!

We are just back from our annual "first week of school" vacation - this year, we spent a few lovely days up on Minnesota's North Shore. Rock-hunting, a pie picnic on the beach, a gondola ride up a mountain (and a hike down), rock-hopping our way through a river...and of course, some ice cream stops in between. Gearing up for a busy fall!!

In January and February, the seed catalogs arrive and you start to plan the garden layout, to daydream about warmer temps, and start to place your orders.

March and April, you're hauling out the grow lights, sprouting seeds, and tending to trays full of delicate baby plants.

In May and June, you're fervently clearing w**ds, prepping the ground & the irrigation, hardening off your plants, and putting them in the ground (after Memorial Day, of course).

In July, you're harvesting early crops like beets, battling to keep up with w**ds, and seeing tomato plants fill out with green tomatoes, while the peppers get bigger.

By August, the w**ds are thick. The tomatoes start ripening faster than you can eat and process them, while the blight slowly creeps up the leaves. You trip over boxes of onions and garlic drying in the garage. The basil has succumbed to the Japanese beetles.

September rolls around, you're climbing through a literal w**d jungle to pick your 27th gallon bag of green beans, which you then pressure can while it's 88 degrees outside, and feel simultaneously grateful for the bounty and anxious for it to end 😅

Anyone else??

Even in the heat, we're baking this weekend. Sorry for the late post but send us a message TODAY to get your sourdough order in!!

It's been SO dry lately; we prioritize any watering for the vegetable gardens - and let the lawn and the flower beds fend for themselves 🤷‍♀️ So, I was a bit surprised to see these resurrection lilies doing well! Love these flowers!

Reach out to us if you're in the mood for some delicious sourdough sandwich bread! Pre-order by Friday evening for Sunday pickup at our home in Apple Valley. $10 for a small and $16 for a large, cash or Venmo accepted. We'd love to bake for you!

How's everyone doing with this heat??? 🥵 It definitely makes baking days more challenging (we've had to get used to having the vent fan on for hours at a time...*eye twitch*) We are an outdoorsy family and it's just not even fun being outside right now!

While not sourdough related, I am very late to the overnight oats game, but I am OBSESSED. Sharing my favorite base recipe, with a few variations:

Overnight Oats
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tsp chia seeds
Optional: 1 T maple syrup or honey (I've never needed it, protein powder and mix ins add plenty of sweetness)

In a pint jar, add milk and protein powder and shake to mix well. Add yogurt, oats and chia seeds and stir well.

Option 1: top with frozen berries (as many as you like/will fit in the jar) I do blueberries and strawberries.

Option 2: add 1/4 tsp cinnamon, a tablespoon or two of chopped pecans, and half of a sliced banana. Tastes like banana bread!!

Refrigerate overnight (I usually prep 3 days at a time for work lunches). When ready to eat, stir well and enjoy!

We're baking this coming weekend, message us by EOD Friday to get your orders in for bread pickup on Aug 2! Small ($10) and large ($16) sourdough sandwich loaves made to order with organic flour. Cash or Venmo, pick up at our home in Apple Valley!

We're still baking for the upcoming holiday weekend! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Send us a message by Friday evening to place an order for Sunday pickup. You know the routine - $10 for small sandwich loaves and $16 for large sandwich loaves. Cash or Venmo accepted, pickup at our home in Apple Valley.

We would love to bake for you!

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Give your daughter a garden.

To grow, to tend, to tame. To make it her own.

We planted this garden years ago, not long after we bought this house. We expanded it over time with a dry creek bed, paths made of rock or wood, a little bridge, the driftwood archway now covered with hops, the tree fort built from the stump and new growth of an ash tree. The goal of it has always been a little magical play space for our kids. That goal has definitely been accomplished.

But as our attention turned to other things - in the yard and in life - tending it fell low on the priority list. It's still magical in its own way, and also wild and overgrown. One clump of flowers blends into the next, tangles of w**ds, paths completely overgrown, and no signs of where the yard ends and the garden begins.

In comes a 9 year old who decided this year that it was HER garden. Why would we ever say no to that? In between the day-to-day play, I'll randomly find her out there clearing w**ds, thinning overgrown flowers, planting marigolds, and filling it with her love.

I don't have any "before" pictures and the "after" is still (and probably always will be), a work in progress. But, slowly, this overgrown play space is getting tamed by my sweet girl. I can see her marks in it everywhere I look and it is pure magic.

Who's in the mood for sourdough? Send us a message today to place your order for Sunday pickup at our home in Apple Valley. $10 gets you a small sandwich loaf and $16 for a large. Cash or Venmo accepted. We'd love to bake for you!

It's getting to be that time of year where the "empties" are starting to take over! There's not much to can yet until the garden really starts to take off...but I do have the canning itch! It's already just way too hot out to run the canner though. What to do?? 🤣

We're baking this weekend so if you're in the mood for some sourdough sandwich bread, we'll get you taken care of! Message by Friday evening for Sunday pick-up. $10 for small loaves and $16 for large, cash or Venmo.

Been a little quiet on our page recently, as we are just back from our latest family adventure, a 10 day road-trip to Utah! This experience was a bit bumpier than the last few (to say the least 🫣), but we still came home with some incredible experiences and memories (and lots of learnings) from our time in the desert.

We're back to our regular sourdough baking schedule this weekend - if you'd liked to place an order for a large sandwich loaf ($16) or small sandwich loaf ($10) send us a message by Friday. We'd love bake for you! Pickup at our home in Apple Valley on Sunday, cash or Venmo accepted!