Farm Fed Femme Fatale

Sept. 12

I'm not a supermarket... but I am a source for good healthy food.

The recent hurricane has not only left many homeless but also has left whole communities with no supermarkets; The Fresh Foods Market was litterally washed away.  Residents have relied on this supermarket as their only source of groceries, and are faced with making different choices.

Many peopple who are used to one-stop-shopping are now picking up vegetables at one farm,  eggs at another, and raw milk at yet another. 

In no way am I looking for a "silver lining" from this disaster but I am proud to be one of many local farms to donate food down to the towns hardest hit by the storm.

Here on the farm I was spared the worst of it. Only a flooded chicken coop and a downed maple tree.

Through their ordeal the chickens never stopped laying!

August 22

Well, I am tickled pink. Several of my fellow organic farmers called this weekend offering fresh vegetable scraps and discards from their endeavors to my pigs. Deep in the process of  canning, pickling and freezing they stopped to think of a productive use for their imperfect produce.

Not only does this provide a healthy, varied additition to my pigs diet, but it also shows great new-very old thinking about the food chain outside the super markets. That they took the time to call and drop off pig groceries, with no solicitation on my part, shows me how people are really making a difference.

Viva la victory garden!

Viva pastured pork!

August 18

Two customers and readers of this blog stopped by yesterday to pick up an order of lamb and declared with delight  "You're a real person".  I can't say how pleased I was by this.  The connection between food and the farmer that raises it was made.

Whether at a farmer's market or visiting the farm in person, folks are really starting to appreciate the human connection. Between the great exposes written about factory farming, to the great documenteries like Food Nation  the word is reaching out that people have choices to pick good wholesome food, grown on a human scale and cut out the less healthy choice of the factory farm and the big box stores like Walmart that push that product.

You might say "push" is a strong word usually reserved for drug dealers, but afterall aren't drugs illegal becauase they are hazzardous for people and bad for society as a whole? And don't you see some similarities between crack and a steak that is raised in a confined feedlot, fed on high inpact corn (and other things too gross to mention) and shipped thousands of miles using  gallons of gas only to be presented in a sterilized, saran wrapped package at Walmart? Not good for the consumer or the planet.

Food for thought. I am off to gather eggs and make some deliveries at the local health food stores. Then we shall see how the rest of  the day unfolds.

August 11

The morning was spent washing and packaging eggs, I was sold out both at the market and at my  little farmstand. This afternoon, after some necessary writing, I will retire to my kitchen to wax two wheels of cheddar. This is my first attempt waxing cheese so wish me luck!

August 9

Busy day at BettyAcres. A full driveway of contractors, electricians, and the County weatherization  team. What a great program! The county comes in and shoots insulation, fixes windows and doors and audits the energy efficiency of old houses such as mine. Savings to the planet and the homeowner. Many programs exist like this one across the country it just takes a few phone calls and appointments to set the ball rolling.

It is very easy to sit back and complain about taxes, but few people actually investigate programs that are tax financed that they might qualify for. As with most things, sitting around waiting for the proverbial "knock at the door" rarely works.

These various improvements and the heightened activity in the kitchen are making me think about the upcoming winter.Three batches of feta cheese and two of cheddar have been put up with more to come. Kimmy the Cow is producing great milk with lots of butterfat from the late season grasses. And I have been able to purchase enough flour,pasta, and grain with the extra money coming in from the farmer's markets to last me through the winter. I am starting to feel prepared for the long cold winter. 

With preparation comes confidence. I am basically a large squirrel.

August 4

I just love Thursdays. Maybe it is left over from my career in the city when I was shut in an office for twelve hours a day, and Thursday represented the week more than half over. Now of course I don't think in terms of a work week and weekend. Everyday is a certain amount of work, triumph and minor(we hope!) hardship. In any case, I still like Thursdays.

Maybe because they follow market days. Yesterday was great I sold out of both eggs and  grassfed-beef and made enough money to cover the entire farm's feed bills for another week or so. Early in the day I had given my tent sharer a dozen eggs as a gift and five minutes before closing a harried woman ran up shouting "Am I too late for eggs?"

When I explained that I was sold out, quick as a flash, she focused on the eggs in Jaime's basket. "What about those?" She said. Those are a gift I replied. She fixed me with a rather pitying look that seemed to say "You wouldn't last five minutes in the city". And resumed her mad dash through the market.

Maybe I wouldn't last five minutes in the city.

Hoorah!

August 3

Off to the Delhi Farmer's Market today. Sell some eggs and beef, and visit with a lot of friends. Perfect weather for it. When I get home I really need to see about getting the piglets moved out to pasture, or maybe I'll do some baking if the weather stays cool.   

August 1

Over the weekend I defrosted and seasoned my last batch of semi-soft cow's milk cheese. Semi soft cheese freezes beautifully when frozen fresh in bulk (I use zip lock freezer bags for the purpose.) So cheese making is upon me. Now two of my culinary rules are that food always tastes better with the addition of cheese or bacon. Sorry cholesterol police. 

Kimmy the House  Cow is milking beautifully while raising a fine bull calf. The advantage, as I have mentioned before, of having a calf at her side is that I am not restricted to milking her twice a day. So in the afternoon she comes in from pasture for milking and her daily ration of grain and we both seem content with this schedule.

Having ordered my cheese-making starters and rennet I am ready to go. I'll make some soft cheeses for freezing as well as some hard cheeses for waxing and storage. This may temporarily cut into the pigs daily ration of milk but they seem pretty content with all the "seconds"  of garden produce and extra eggs they are now getting.

As always cheese-making is done in it's correct time. Having finished with much of my freezing of garden produce and before I start canning my apples and berries I have somewhat of a lull in my kitchen activities , which is good considering each task comes with it's own set of equipment. So perfect.

Several years ago I made cheese commercially, I started by doing an internship with an artisan goat cheese maker and then taking several workshops at neighboring colleges equipped with dairy incubator labs. Making cheese year round I found a little monotonous, but when done four times a year for my own consumption and for friends it is just fine. Enough time passes in between that I get to relearn and improve on my recipes.

And so I thought of cheese when over the weekend I had to track Kim and her calf halfway up the mountain as they had escaped their pasture.

Lucky for her I wasn't thinking of beef!

July 29

Yesterday was my birthday, I bought myself a stainless steel egg cup and spoon. A little luxury in the morning. And what could be better than a soft-boiled farm fresh soft boiled egg?  No extra fat, only as much sodium as you see fit to add. Perfect. 

After my little luxury purchase I changed into farm clothes and saw to cleaning the pig and chicken pens. Now you may wonder why I would take on such a Herculean task on my birthday.  But the celebration of my birth is sort of my personal New Years. And what would be better than starting a new year with a clean slate, a ship-shape farm.

So I am starting my year with a well running farm. Don't get me wrong there is certainly room for improvement. The vegetable garden is over grown,  the electric fence for the new pig pasture needs tightening an weed whacking. The pigs need to be moved (gulp) and so on but it does feel great not to be so under the eight-ball.

So here I am forty-five year old single farmer. Sounds sort of dire as I type it out. But not really. Really I am in a position of totally changing my life without any baggage.

So let's see what today reveals.