Olde-Fashioned Lemonade

Ingredients:

Directions:

Extract the juice from lemons, set aside.  Combine 2 cups of water, lemon peel, and the sugar in a small sauce pan; slowly bring to a boil.  Simmer, while stirring, until sugar is dissolved, about 4 minutes.  Add the remaining 6 cups of water and the lemon juice.  Chill thoroughly.  For a lovely presentation, serve in a clear pitcher and add one sliced fresh lemon.  Pour over ice to serve, and garnish glass with sprig of mint if desired.

**This tastes best if you kick up your feet and relax while sipping.

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Welcome to Springtime!!!

With winter a memory and warmer days ahead our decorating desires yearn for a fresh springtime look.  It could be a clean sweep for the entire house, or maybe time and dollars lead us to address a few key areas.  Below are living spaces in our home that should not be overlooked.

The first area of a new seasonal look should be the welcome area. It could be the front door, the back door, the porch, or a combination of these.

Your entryway is the face of your home and should reflect a smile to the outside world.  A colorful wreath or swag of seasonal florals (or any other door display) is number one for any seasonal face-lift.  Your porch should echo the look with a basket of coordinating blooms.  For a more formal flair, choose ceramic pottery or a pair of pedestal concrete planters.  Cobalt blue pottery is a timeless choice for any decor.  When choosing flowers, remember that the colors of a garden are the tools of inspiration for all seasonal decorating.  Springtime choices should be purple, yellow, and pink.  No matter what the season, you can never go wrong with red accents in any decorative design.

Your eating area is next.  Your dining room or kitchen table can be easily transformed with bright new place mats or napkins, and especially a colorful centerpiece.  A pot of tulips or daffodils (to be planted out later), a silk bouquet, or a large bowl of citrus fruit are all good choices for the season.  Your primary living spaces are also the place for your favorite seasonal scent.  Candles, scented oils, and potpourri create delightful aromas that can stimulate or relax, depending on your mood.  If floral is your favorite, try lilac.  Lemons, oranges, or herb scents carry a fresh bouquet.  Everyone loves the spice scents; for spring try vanilla infused with fruit or essential oils for the same effect.

Do you know which room of your house can be changed most easily?  It is your bathroom. With a gallon of paint, and about $50 worth of towels and carpets, an entirely new, fresh look can be created.

Happy decorating … and be sure to check back at the end of May for summertime ideas that evoke the days of lemonade on the porch and the parade of flags coming down Main Street, USA.

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Patti & Kevin enjoying a day on the farm

Just as the April showers bring May flowers, so Patti is our own life-giving rain drop for the fun that blooms here at Roba Family Farms.  Lovingly referred to by her co-workers as “Perky Patti”, her main duties are Director of Fun and Staff Development.

Patti came to Roba Family Farms in January 2010 as Director of Fun.  The Roba family and staff wanted to venture into hosting special events and entertainment on the farm.  Patti was the perfect fit for the job.  She developed the Special Events Program, and she coordinates all the events and festivals hosted at the farm.

Patti is a native to Northeastern PA.  She and her husband Kevin live in the Lehighton/Jim Thorpe area, along with their dog, Eva, and cat, Daniel.  Patti enjoys vegetable gardening, cooking, entertaining, and traveling.  Her favorite travel destination is Switzerland, where she and Kevin spend their vacation days sailing the lakes and dining in the Alpine villages and cities.  Her 25 years of Swiss travel have taught her to enjoy dining and cooking with cheese.  There are times when you might find more than a dozen types of cheese in her refrigerator.  In addition to European travel, and an annual trip to the Tennessee mountains, Patti takes to the road whenever  she can, referring to herself as a country road gypsy.  She is looking forward to a cross country road trip sometime in the near future.

Patti has extensive experience in tree farming, customer relations, staff development, decorating, and much more.  With the exception of farming, which she says is in her blood, she attributes her other skills to her many years as a decorator-displayer with Home Interiors and Gifts.  Her planning expertise helps her as she designs and schedules the exciting happenings at Roba Family Farms.  Some of the coming year’s events are the Kid’s Safety Festival, Farm Olympics, and some that are still a secret.  Her goal is to work with each of the staff on an individual basis to develop an outstanding customer service plan for our visitors, and to continue planning new and exciting farm events.

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The Roba Road Trip started at the farm on a 2 degree morning in the dark.  With Farmer John at the wheel, seven of us piled into the van for our 10 hour drive to THE CORN PARTY.  We arrived at our hotel, the Embassy Suites of Raleigh/Durham, in sunny North Carolina to a lovely late afternoon of mild temperatures.  Within minutes we started meeting friends and business associates from Georgia, Texas, California, Utah, Michigan … and, well you get it, from everywhere.

You are now thinking “WHAT is a corn party?”.  Well, it’s a conference of laughter and learning for hundreds of folks from across the USA who just happen to all have a CORN MAZE.  We are happy to be some of those folks; John and Sue Roba, Jennifer Roba and her fiance Jim, and Gene, Liz and Patti, the management team of Roba Family Farms.  After an evening of great food and social greetings, it was early to bed as we had a very busy next day planned.

A hearty breakfast, and we board the luxury buses for our tour.  Our first stop … Duke University.  It is hard to imagine that you could keep our crowd quiet, but a reverent hush fell over the group as we entered the storied, elegant beauty of the historic Duke chapel.  Our visit was brief, and our guide, Wayne, of Tobacco Road Tours, continued his lesson on how Duke, Raleigh, and the Corn party attendees all shared a common interest, agriculture.  Our tour was full of informative stops … Maple View Agricultural Center, an educational dairy where we had hay rides and homemade ice cream, and fun stops, too … the Marbles Kids Museum, and downtown Raleigh to Big Ed’s for lunch.  Then, back to the hotel with lots of work to do.  The Roba team had a late night meeting scheduled to plan a major new project, online ticketing.

Yes, ONLINE TICKETING comes to Roba Family Farms.  You will enjoy the convenience of purchasing your campfire sites and your individual and group tickets online starting this season.  We are very excited (and we know you will be, too) about this additional service that we can now offer our customers.

Corn Party Day #3: A full day of classroom learning of both functional (The Power of Partnerships) and frivolous (Parties that Pop) topics, all designed to bring our customers the most fun they can find at a farm.  At the end of the day, a group of us met for some fun as we discussed … yes, business.  It is great fun to be in a fun business.

Day #4: Back on the buses for farm tours throughout the Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill areas of North Carolina.  To maximize our time together, the Corn party attendees conducted sessions of sharing in between stops.  The night ended at a well known Haunted House attraction, and a Christmas Light Show hayride that journeyed through the Carolina countryside.

Farmer John back at the wheel and we’re heading north, our heads full of new ideas and plans for the coming year.  We brainstorm these ideas inside out and upside down until thoughts become the plans that become the magic that creates the memories that keeps you, our treasured farm visitors, coming back time after time, year after year to Roba Family Farms.

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