Coco’s Cottage Farmstand

Our house is small, y’all—and I do love it. It’s just the two of us, it’s cozy, and honestly it means less to keep clean 😅

But lately things are getting tight as we’re trying to grow… more bread, more produce, more everything.

Thank y’all for being so patient with us while we figure it all out and keep building this little dream of ours. 💛

We’ve started adding simple things like this tiered cooling rack to help us keep up with production and make the most of our space.

Slowly but surely, we’re growing right where we are. ✨

Nanny always used to say that if Grandpa thought a little bit was good, then a whole lot was better 😅

She was usually talking about his Stetson cologne… let’s just say sometimes he smelled real loud. Like, you could smell him coming before you saw him.

I guess I’ve taken that motto into a lot of my own life.

This year I decided to try planting sweet potatoes, so I ordered 100 slips. Then Travis and I watched a YouTube video on how to plant and care for them properly… and I may have gone a little overboard.

If everything goes right, we might end up with around 1,000 lbs of sweet potatoes 😳😂

So if you need us, we’ll be over here eating sweet potato fries, pies, casseroles, sandwiches, baked sweet potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes… basically living in a permanent sweet potato situation.

We were so ready for a juicy treat! 🍉

Travis is holding one of our watermelons, and the tendril closest to it was completely dried up—which usually means it’s ready to pick. So we cut into it thinking we had a perfect one…

Surprise! It wasn’t quite ripe yet. But we could tell it’s one of our orange-fleshed varieties, which we’ve been experimenting with this year.

We try to keep track of what we plant and where, but at some point everything kind of blends together and we end up guessing a little more than we’d like to admit 😅

The good news? The chickens absolutely devoured it as a fresh treat, so nothing went to waste. 🐔💛

Update!!! We have a baby deer! 🦌🤍

Don’t worry — this picture is really zoomed in. The baby is safely tucked away in our front treed pasture, far from humans, dogs, and poultry. We’re keeping a close eye from a distance to make sure everything stays calm and undisturbed.

We’ve seen mom & dad nearby, watching over her like they should. I’m hoping Mama moves her into the woods soon for a little more coverage and peace of mind — and just to know she’s checking in regularly.

Nature is pretty special, y’all. 🤍

Every year since we started gardening, we try to have at least one meal made almost entirely from what we’ve grown ourselves—and here’s one from this year. 💛

For the first time, we were able to add a good source of protein with fresh eggs from our chickens (something we couldn’t have back when we lived in the city). This plate has fried squash, potatoes & onions topped with sunny side up eggs, plus some sliced cucumbers on the side.

Meals like this are such a good reminder of how valuable food really is… and how much time, effort, and care goes into producing it.

It also got me thinking—while we grew the veggies and gathered the eggs, we still relied on a few pantry staples to bring it all together. Oil to cook with, salt and pepper to make it actually taste good… and suddenly those simple things felt really important.

Now, I’m not an extreme prepper with a bunker full of supplies—but I do like to be a little prepared. So next time we’ve got a little extra, I might grab an extra bottle of oil and stock up on some basics.

Because if I ever have to survive an apocalypse… I’m doing it with flavor. 😌✨

We had a little visitor in the yard today… 🦌💛

We’re pretty sure this sweet deer is pregnant. She’s been showing up looking a bit rounder lately and moving a little slower than usual.

It’s always interesting seeing her out here in the middle of all our farm chaos, just passing through like she belongs here too.

Moments like this are a quiet reminder to slow down and notice what’s already around us. ✨

Thank y’all so much for the support this weekend! We made more bread than we ever have before, and we were down to just 2 loaves within about 5 hours of opening the stand. That kind of support means everything to us, and we are so incredibly grateful for each and every one of you. 💛

I think it’s important to not only share the amazing, fun parts of this dream of ours—but the hard parts too.

We can’t find Goldie, one of our OG chickens. She was the gossip girl of the flock… always had something to say and would come runnnnning to tell you all about it.

We know there’s always a risk when letting our flock free range, but it’s one we choose because we truly believe it gives them a happier, healthier life. They get to chase bugs, eat fresh grass, explore, and just be chickens. But sometimes… this is the hard side of that choice.

We’re not exactly sure what happened. There were no signs of a struggle, and we didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. It just… hurts. I cried while we were out searching for her.

This life has made me tougher and stronger than I ever thought I could be—but losing one of them still hurts every single time, and I think it always will.

There are moments where I think about not getting more animals… but in the end, we’ll keep going. Because despite the hard days, this life brings us more joy than we ever imagined. 🤍