Farming in the shade

This isn't a recipe, to be honest. Recipes tell you how much of what to add, and when. I would really like to encourage to get beyond recipes. As a recipe-lover myself, I understand those of you who just want it to be easy and clear. Tidy and neat. Predictable. I get that. But sometimes you need to take a leap of faith when you're cooking. If you cook enough, you will get so that you feel comfortable with cooking. And that's when you can start to experiment. Enough philosophy. Here's something I made this past week. Nuña Stir-Fry Nuña beans, 1 cup dry (use more or less--this fed 3 people) Butter Salt Carrots Ramps Garlic Chives Dried Apricots Soy Sauce Here's what I did. I soaked the beans from mid-morning until just before suppertime. I drained the beans, and rinsed them several times. I heated the butter in a non-stick skillet, and put the drained beans in. I sautéed the beans for about 7 minutes. They whistle as they're cooking and then p...

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed,  for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  --Lamentations 3:22-23

This past week we made a dash for the east side of the state, where our favorite wool mill is. We received a call about a week ago that our wool was finished. This HAS to be the fastest they have ever turned it around. We were amazed. A 6-7 hour trip is not undertaken during lambing season without some fear and trepidation (on my part, mostly). We knew we had a small break between the experienced ewes and the first-timers. So we took our chances. We left behind our competent farm hands--our son and my parents. None of these competent farm hands are wild about helping with difficult births, but we were hopeful that nothing would happen while we were gone. And we got lucky. This year we ordered some bulky and aran-weight yarn. And roving--quite a considerable amount of roving, in fact. We are very grateful that we didn't have any accidents on the trip. But we did joke that if we were rear-ended, we'd probably be well-cushioned against the impact. Here is most of the r...

The average person consumes 584 pounds of dairy products a year. Like snowflakes, no two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots. The average dairy cow produces 7 gallons of milk a day, 2,100 pounds of milk a month, and 46,000 glasses of milk a year. Cows are heribivores, so they only have teeth on the bottom. There are 350 squirts in a gallon of milk. Cows must give birth to a calf in order to produce milk. --from farmersfeedus.org

Things have settled down considerably around here, because the county drains did what they were supposed to do! Here's a picture of the one that runs right in front of our house. While the drains did what they were supposed to do, there were a couple of days when they were completely overwhelmed. During that time, our fields became holding ponds. Some of the roads became holding ponds, too. It's very important in floods like this to have some sort of plant matter (dead or alive--doesn't matter) in the fields. The plant cover helps to keep the valuable topsoil in place. We've worked hard to build up the soil, and we don't need it washing away. Here's an aerial view of one of our fields with live plant cover. You can see the ditches we put in the field leading to a holding area. Ideally, the water from the fields drain directly into the county drains and these holding areas (also known as fields) don't have to stand full of water. But t...

Last summer we were crying for rain. And now this. This is a nearby field, not ours, truthfully, but ours look about the same. We've had an average of 1/2" of rain each day in April. Well over three of those inches fell today, on top of already saturated soils. I would show you what happens in my basement when the soil is completely saturated and the ditches and fields are full of water. But I have nothing to complain about when I compare the little streams that trickle across the cement floor of my basement to the moats completely encompassing houses that I've seen on the TV screen. Sandbags are available at the local fire station for those who are trying to keep rivers and streams from coming in. Trusty sump pump, keep working tonight while I try to sleep, please. And have mercy, Lord, on those who are losing so much.

We usually let ewes begin lambing in the large pen, with the other expectant ewes. After the first lamb is born, The Farmer will let her care for it for a few minutes. Then he will go in and pick up the lamb (or lambs, if he's arrived after multiple births) and move slowly out of the large pen. In this case, the lamb is the bait that makes the ewe move, too. She is very concerned about her lamb, and will follow closely, calling out the whole time.  The ewe and her lamb(s) are placed in a small lambing pen, called a jug. I have no idea why they are called jugs. If anyone knows the origin of that term, I'd love to know. They are kept there for 1-3 days to ensure that they bond, and that the ewe is caring for her lambs well. No distractions. We set up a whole row of temporary jugs during lambing time. This is one of our hay storage areas, so we need to be sure that we've used most of this hay up before lambing begins. After their time in the lambing jugs, the ewe...