Some kids dream of having a horse. I dreamt of having a milk cow. It was all planned out – how I would go out to my sweet little cow and bring in the fresh and creamy milk. I’d lie in bed and imagine every little detail of a morning milking. Then, when I was…
Remember this video, in which I use the handy step-in temporary fence posts? Well, those were for the back pasture. The front ones are a little more rickety and some of them are missing the step-part to push them into the ground. No big deal, right? I just use some force and stab them into…
When I first started making sourdough bread, I used a recipe like this. And it really is a good bread. I still like it. But I started getting tired of using store-bought baker’s yeast. If I’m going to all this work to capture & culture wild yeast, why do I add other rising agents? Ok…
As I walk about the farm, I ponder a deep question of life: “Why do I prefer to eat ‘local’ food when I travel?” Seriously – I’m hundreds of miles from home and wondering where the meat on my plate came from. Shouldn’t the meat be wondering where I came from? If I’m far from home,…
It’s a popular conception that pigs are startlingly clever. Unlike most urban legend, this is uniformly and clearly accurate. I’m ashamed to admit how much time I spend watching our pigs. They are entertaining and surprisingly human-like. Here’s my routine for daily feeding:
This is Sweet Georgia Brown. I spend a lot of my time with her. Georgia and I have had to work some things out between us, but we’ve finally settled down into a routine and hold each other in mutual respect. Here’s how I manage the responsibilities of milking while keeping my sanity and a…
This past summer of 2018 was my first season as a farmers market vendor. Boy, was that a learning curve. I had read so many articles and seen so many tips on how to be a successful vendor, but even so, I’ve learned so much this year. Here are seven lessons that I learned: 1….
We graze our cows intensively. This just means that we rotate the cows daily to a new little bit of pasture. This way, the parasite cycle is broken (the cows aren’t on the same pasture for about a month), the pasture gets to rest, and the cows get fresh grass every day. It’s a triple…