I like working in the garden. There is a certain joy to seeing a straight, weed-free row of cabbages. But there is something particularly delightful about harvesting directly from the brushy, uncultivated land. This time of year, when berries are ripe, I spend a great deal of time in brushy, uncultivated land: communing with the…
Farm Life
June Update
Kale Pasta
Right now we have a kale infestation in the kitchen. We have been sautéing it, freezing it, and making tray after tray of kale chips. Meanwhile, my neighboring market vendor who sells delicious organic pasta skipped a week of selling. And I was plunged into a pasta-less world. I had gotten very accustomed to my…
Night-time
Imagine the countryside. In imagination, it’s probably daytime. Why? The world is in darkness half the time. And it’s beautiful. When people visit our farm, they often compliment the peace and beauty, the sunsets and the trees, the birdsongs and the breeze. And they also often comment on the heat and the flies. I always…
Busy
I sincerely intended to write a good post today. This is what I did instead. See you next week. I’m exhausted.
Thunderstorms and Dewdrops
Yesterday was unusual because it was noticeably beautiful. The world is often beautiful, but it’s not always noticeably so. Georgia was particularly and peculiarly moody yesterday. As I was unraveling a complicated knot of electric fencing wire, she seemed to view it as her special duty to stand directly in front of me, stretch her…
Butchering Chickens – Guest Vlog
Meet Owen Godbold, my fellow farmer-friend. He’s the fifth of eight siblings – all boys but one. He’s homeschooled, energetic, very humorous, and a chicken-lover. He reveres Joel Salatin and has a vast lore of knowledge concerning poultry and pastures. And he makes cool vlogs! So since my dad is out of the work-picture with…
Farmer’s Market Checklist
On market mornings, I roll out of bed at 4 a.m. and start working. By the beginning of the market at 8, I feel like I’ve been awake a whole day. And that’s where my trusty checklist comes into play: I don’t want to forget something in a flurried-fog-mind. So just after I sit down…
Morning Milking
We’re past the “onion stage” of spring, in the midst of lush green grass, and Taxi is grown up enough to be pretty undemanding. So it’s milking time! Georgia is producing about 1 – 2 gallons every morning (even with her calf nursing 24/7), so we are indulging in fromage blanc, queso blanco, teleme, and…
New Market Pavilion
Today is rainy. It is, as I would say when I was eight, a sort of droopy day. Even with the flowers outside budding and blooming in the wetness and the little seedlings in my market garden soaking up the rain, it’s just droopy. In general, this past winter has been very muddy and wet….