This year, I've noticed a glut of mantis egg cases (called 'ootheca' by scientists and other nerds) along the forest borders surrounding our farm.  Both the native and the invasive egg mantids tend to leave their ootheca on small branches of shrubs or brush grass but may also utilize fencing or other artificial structures. The Asian variety are the easiest to spot: they are puffy, though usually not perfectly round, with the texture of Styrofoam. The North American mantis ootheca is much more elongated, and I tend to find them more often located on the clinging to the undersides of branches. They are most easily identified by their striped markings, which are absent from both the Asian and European ootheca. 
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If you do not wish to continue caring for your holiday plant, you may return plants in good health to Thirsty Boot Farms for a partial refund. Plants can be left with staff at Gunpowder Falls Brewing Co. in New Freedom, PA any time during their operating hours. Send us an email to let us know it’s there! Upon inspection and health assessment of the tree, we will send your refund via your choice of Cash App, PayPal, or Venmo. 

​Check out the table below to explore your after-Christmas options for your plant. 

Light strings (from cypress and spruce) and buckets can also be returned in good working condition for $.50 each. Most ornaments can be removed by simply twisting the wire, but some may require wire cutters. 

Thanks again for supporting Thirsty Boot Farms' Holiday Plant program. We're already so excited to begin planning for next year! ​

     Pictured here is one of our best boys, Opie. Opie was once a breeder bunny with a rabbity working to gain acceptance of his coloration in his breed standard (he's a broken orange jersey wooly, if anyone's interested). He came to Thirsty Boot Farms after the untimely passing of his predecessor, Pete, left a rabbit-shaped hole in our hearts.
     Of course we'd love Opie unconditionally even if all he did was eat hay and papaya treats, which is good because that's mostly what he does.  His emotional support qualities aside (just try and be sad while holding him - it's like having a pet cloud), he is a bit of a freeloader. That is, until you realize he poops garden gold.

      Rabbit manure has long been a favorite of home gardeners, and with good reason. It's nearly a perfect fertilizer: all natural and chemical free, it will not burn plants with no need to compost. 
      So every morning along with my many (MANY) morning chores, I dutifully collect the poop from Opie's litter box to save for Spring. In seasons past, I've mixed the pellets into soil directly. However, someone pointed out that since rabbits are fed hay, I may be inadvertently introducing grass seed to the soil mixture and thus increasing weeds. This may be especially true for Opie, who in fact has a hay feeder right next to his litter box because he likes to poop while he eats, and really who doesn't? So Opie's poop sat unused, collecting in Cafe Bustelo coffee cans indefinitely. 

     Until one day scrolling a bonsai blog it occurred to me: lots of bonsai growers use fertilizer in tea bags, typically on the soil's surface secured with toothpicks. Most of these growers are likely using more expensive commercial fertilizers, but I thought why not try the rabbit pellets? And better yet, since Opie the fertilizer factory produces more than I truly need, why not share with the greater public? So this year, for the first time, Thirsty Boot Farms will make our Bunny Beans Fertilizer available for purchase at each of our on-site sales as supplies last (or if you prefer, you can contact us about shipping). 

​So how do you use Bunny Beans Fertilizer? We're so glad you asked.
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There are many ways that the Bunny Beans Fertilizer can be used to bring out the best in your plants.

-To use as a tea, steep 1 bag per 1 gallon of water in sun for 1-3 days or until the mixture reaches the color of weak tea. Use tea to water plants as normal.
-Place tea bag(s) on the soil surface of particularly valued plants, such as bonsai. Secure with toothpicks.
-Bury the tea bags in soil (the bags are compostable). You can also open the bag and scatter the manure pellets, but this increases likelihood of grass seed distribution. 

We hope your plants enjoy the Bunny Beans as much as Opie enjoys making them!​

Still interested in luffas after all that? Read on for Part II of Luffa 101. (Find Part I here.)

​Whether your luffas dry indoors or out on the vine, you now have to get beneath that skin to actually see or use the actual luffa sponge. So, you’ve got to peel it. And it’s tough! And it’s time consuming! And then I realized it’s a whooooole lot easier if you soak them first. 

From here, I typically give them a quick dip in a mold-preventing solution, then let them dry out once more. I slice them for use in soap, but they can be used whole in the bath.  Oh, and be prepared for seeds. Especially if you slice them, there are going to be so many seeds. It’s up to you if you want to try to remove them.

So in summary and full disclosure, growing luffas (especially in a cool climate) is kind of a giant pain. Some home gardeners appreciate the novelty, but most who've tried it don't seem to go for a second season. ​

For us though here at Thirsty Boot Farms, we plan to keep growing them. What can I say, small businesses thrive on novelty. I myself am addicted to the exfoliating qualities in the soaps we make. Plus it's a fun word to say. Luffa. Luuuu-ffa. Hehe.

I even had the wild idea that I might try to cultivate my own variety of cold-hardy luffa. I bought and read a book on plant breeding techniques only to realize that in simply saving seeds from my successful luffas and replanting them next year, I was already selectively breeding for cold(er)-hardy luffas. So that's pretty cool. ​

​I know I’m in the minority as one who wholeheartedly appreciates the female ginkgoes. It is, in fact, only due to the female trees that I have any ginkgoes at all: the seedlings we were gifted as housewarming favors began as dropped seeds from a female tree in my inlaws' front yard.

​So, it looks like instead I’ll be developing ALL the ginkgoes as pre-bonsai. They’ll take a few years to be salable as well, but I’m looking forward to starting my mini ginkgo forest this spring.  Surely I'll post an update then, because it's bound to be adorable. ​

"I thought they were sea creatures!”

This is, hilariously, the most common response I get when people find out I grow luffas. And while growing a crop of sea sponges sounds like fun, it doesn’t seem like an endeavor that would see much success here in Pennsylvania (though luffas aren't an easy keeper either).

So what actually are luffas, then? Luffas (sometimes spelled “loofa” or “luffah” or even “loofah” – just to complicate your Google searches) are actually gourds. As seedlings they look just like their cucubirt cousins and begin to look a bit like zucchinis as they mature. They grow on vines and if left to dry at the end of the season, will produce a sponge-like skeleton beneath its thin skin. In other parts of the world, they are grown as food and eaten while still green. In North America, most of us are familiar with the dried out versions of luffas you see in gift baskets of fancy bath products.