On a farm in Dordogne
November 8, 2011 § Leave a comment
Any of you who know me well are aware of my love for France. I could go on and on! But rather than do that (again) here, I just wanted to share a France-focused web magazine with you – and my article they just published about one of the places I stayed and worked as a WWOOF volunteer in the spring of 2010.
On the Farm: WWOOFing in Dordogne
I will go back one day!
A concert for the cows
October 27, 2011 § Leave a comment
Silly . . . but amusing! Especially if you happen to like jazz, cows, and France. Which I do.
First taste of winter
October 25, 2011 § Leave a comment
At the farm we harvested everything we could today, the last-chance grab at saving what we might before the weather overtakes the rest. The fields look bare, but the shed is full of tomatoes, peppers, kohlrabi, eggplant, fennel, celery, collards, chard, even some cosmos and cornflower.
At the horse barn we blanketed nearly all the horses as the blue-gray gathered in the west. The barn manager and a few boarders came out to help us – oh, the blessing of extra hands! The day’s sunny afternoon had turned to rainy evening and it was important to quickly have everyone covered so that they’d be dry when the real cold blew in.
And just now, after listening to a few hours of drizzle, I stepped onto the patio and saw the first snowflakes. I had heard they wouldn’t fall until midnight, but I know that swirl beneath the streetlight. That is snow.
Cold will settle into this region all day tomorrow. Fortunately I get to stay inside most of the day. Job hunting, writing, editing, planning with the company of my dog and my roommate’s new nine-week-old puppy. 6-12 inches is supposed to come, and I imagine I’ll keep doing double-takes as I look out the window. We shall see; sometimes they are wrong.
But if they are right, this is the best day of the week for the first snow in my little world. The day I get to work and rest and play on my time. The day I might take a few minutes to run outside and remember the fun of the first snowfall. Warmth is supposed to return to the Front Range soon after this day-and-a-half of blustery weather, so I imagine everything will melt away quickly. No matter. Enjoy what you have in the moment you have it, I say.
So right at this moment: I am enjoying the little puppy sleeping beside me. A comfortable sweater. A blue mug. And the restful feeling of a quiet evening, after a hard-work day, with no alarm clock to be set for the following morning.
Today and tomorrow
October 18, 2011 § Leave a comment
Today has been a perfect fall day. The kind where you put on and take off layers depending on how much wind there is, and whether you happen to be in the sun or the shade. T and I lingered outside this long morning, while I browsed jobs online and entertained dreams and occasionally tossed her orange tennis ball. The light was just like fall light ought to be.
The farm is winding down, and quickly. Several frosts have come, and plants are beginning to die. I might have flowers to take to the market this week, and I might not. But there are shelves full of all kinds of varieties of pumpkins and squash, and bunches of cornstalks for sale at the farm stand. Afternoons we will cut down finished plants and shell dried beans. I have small plates and container lids spread out on the counter, drying seed. In the evenings I soak in the bathtub and circle vegetable and fruit and flower varieties from the Seed Savers Exchange catalogue with a Sharpie marker, already excited for next year.
But today, this perfect day, I need to remember what comes before the next farm season. I’m filling out application forms for temporary Christmas jobs (admittedly I actually kind of enjoy retail – it’s fun helping people find just the right thing, especially during this cheery holiday time, and the fast pace makes the days go quickly). I’m looking for full-time jobs that might start after that, ideally ones that I can do during the day while putting together plans for my own farm. I’m sometimes anxious. I’m mostly calm. Even struggle and change and waiting can produce a fine harvest. I wonder what winter will bring? And next year? Oh, today. One of those days where you juggle loving the present with hopes for the future.
Wind in their manes
October 7, 2011 § Leave a comment
The wind blew and blew and blew today. Yesterday afternoon it began, and kicked dust into my eyes as I headed into the Therapeutic Riding Center for my volunteer time. As we waited for our riders and the horse leaders tacked up the horses, out in the half-sheltered grooming area, we kept having to squint and turn our faces. The indoor arena where we had the lesson was quieter, but still came the sound of the wind against the walls.
At the boarding stable that night I looked west to see the sky all blue-gray, and a cloudy white mist suggested snow falling in the mountains. The horses trotted anxiously and tossed their heads. Hurry up! The storm is coming! They wanted their food and their paddocks with their sheds for shelter. We wanted that, too, but it takes time! Hungry horses riled up by wild winds make for an interesting night, but I am lucky in my coworkers. We manage to be careful and focused yet able to laugh at the same time.
So the wind whipped my ponytail and blew through the manes of those lovely horses as they hurried through gates, and at the end of the day I was glad to come home to soup and crackers and my friendly roommate and of course my darling dog.
Woke up this morning to cold air and a pink sunrise. Hurry up, Tassie. The poor dog hears me say it every morning, first thing, while I stand outside in slippers or bare feet waiting for her to do her little business, because I’m always staying in bed until I absolutely must get up or be terribly late. And she usually kind of hurries, because she wants her food (which she gets next), but this morning I had to chase her as she decided to wander far from her usual spot into a cluster of pines. Tass! Come on. And I was late, but not by very much, at least, and I had time to grab a sweatshirt.
Oh, it was a shocking kind of cold this morning – our bodies have been so adjusted to heat thanks to this summer, and even earlier this week I was growling to myself about when the heat would please leave. In the early hours of this day I wore gloves, a winter hat, pulled up my hood, wriggled my numb toes in their boots to try to get blood flowing. All of us sniffed all morning as we brought in the harvest – fortunately, no frost last night! Just the wind blowing from the West, down over Long’s Peak to the farm.
The sun came and the shadows moved out of the way, and by mid-morning I was down to a cozy hoodie. A chorus of blackbirds had settled into two or three trees on the outskirts of the farm, and noisy, they were! Perhaps fussing just as the humans have been – all warning one another about the likelihood of rain and the possibility of snow tonight. I doubt snow will come, especially this soon. It sits on the mountains and teases me most of the winter. But you never know!
We shall see how the market goes tomorrow, with the forecast of “Light drizzle for most of the morning. Cold.” These are most definitely days for dressing in layers, and bringing along just-in-case items. I will wear merino and a scarf, grab a puffy vest and my raincoat, and throw an extra pair of wool socks into my market bag. Bring on the weather, October!
Waiting for frost
October 6, 2011 § Leave a comment
We check the weather every day. When the frost comes, everything changes, and quickly. What will survive – and for how long? What won’t?
Growers and producers set up farmers’ markets and CSA shares around specific dates, carefully defined growing seasons. But the frost makes the real call as to how long the farm will continue to be in production.
Do we humans control nature? Sometimes, and sometimes too much. But the weather reminds us that in the grand scheme of things, we have to fit within the earth’s habits and patterns. We can make the most of them, and adapt to them. We can use such things as hoop houses and greenhouses and row covers and mulches for the fields, sheds and heat lamps and straw and water holes and fans for the livestock, to support better and longer growth and survival. But we can’t force nature’s hand. We have to follow it, and pay attention to it. Sometimes we hate it. We learn to respect it.
My grad school friend Mae Rose Petrehn talks all the time about grazing practices, and holistic management in particular. (She’s currently grazing several hundred sheep on a ranch in Nebraska.) Here’s a link to an article in The Atlantic about cattlemen who are looking at new (old) ways of having ruminants on the land, grazing in a way that emulates how nature would have it done in the wild, in order to restore landscapes in addition to producing food.
Lisa M. Hamilton writes: “The basic premise of holistic management is to use livestock like wild animals. But whereas bison on the Great Plains moved through the landscape by instinct, now ranchers must supply that direction. Rather than simply turning cattle into a pasture, these ranchers conduct them like a herd, concentrating bodies to graze one area hard, then leaving it until the plants have regenerated. The effect can be tremendous, with benefits including increased organic matter in the soil, rejuvenation of microorganisms, and restoration of water cycles.”
Read the article! The Brown Revolution: Increasing Agricultural Productivity Naturally.
There is a kind of tension that can exist when one’s livelihood and/or survival depends on nature. But we are kidding ourselves if we think that only applies to some people. It applies to all of us, as nature’s resources feed, clothe, and shelter us – even if we have so distanced ourselves from the process of production that we forget this reality. So we would be wise to explore the tension, to avoid the downfall of domination, and to move as much as we can towards harmony.
So long, September
September 30, 2011 § 3 Comments
I will send September out in high style this Friday night, with a long bath and Country Living, re-warmed homemade chicken soup with rice, and an early bedtime.
But first, here is the John Keats poem I feel the need to re-read and remind everyone of this time of year. You may want to put on your literary thinking cap since it’s all old language and meter and rhyme, but it’s a gorgeous piece and worth the time. Can’t you just imagine England in the fall? I was there in the gloomy winter/spring, but I can imagine. And I’m remembering so many pastoral paintings, hanging on the walls of European museums, by artists whose names I wrote down on scraps of paper, and shoved in my pockets, and inevitably lost.
—–
To Autumn
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,-
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
The sunflowers are done
September 29, 2011 § Leave a comment
We pulled the stalks out of the ground this week, taking care to save some of the heads for harvesting seed. So here is a last sunny face for you! Till next summer.
Delays & anticipation
September 29, 2011 § Leave a comment
Well. It is the second-to-last day of September and I am a brooding a bit for several reasons:
1. I love September. It’s my favorite month and it’s almost over. A whole year of waiting for it again . . . it feels kind of like finishing a favorite book. Satisfying, except you’re not ready to be done with it yet. (This is of course referring back to the days when I read books.)
2. I set many goals over the last few weeks – and shared them – and have not even come close to reaching them! Such as getting up early to walk the dog, biking to work, and reading through The Vegetable Garden Problem Solver (re-set that goal: if I’m through the book by next February I can be content). Am I lazy? Or am I asking too much of myself? Grr, me.
3. The exciting September News that I hinted at earlier has to be pushed to . . . October, maybe. Stalling on my own part has something to do with this, but there are other factors. Sometimes things have to take on their own life and timeline, and that’s sort of what this is. So – hang in there, me and you.
Still. I can shake myself out of this brood (a little). Because on this second-to-last day of September I also have some very good things to look forward to:
1. We’re having a party at the farm! A potluck-style crawfish bash thanks to my boss and her Southern roots. This Saturday night. (I’d better take a nap between the farmers’ market and the party, come to think of it.) If you’re my friend and you live here and you want to come, let me know – the more the merrier!
2. I am happy to announce that I will be attending and blogging for/about the Carolina Farm Stewardship Associaton’s Sustainable Ag Conference in Durham, NC! It’s taking place November 12-13, but I’ll get there early to check out the area and participate in some pre-conference activities. More details on that later, but if any readers are in the area and/or attending the conference I’d love to know.
3. Change comes with the seasons, when you work on a farm. It scares me but I also need to acknowledge how lucky I am to mix up my schedule and my life; to have new experiences and opportunities for learning; to make new friends and new discoveries. Come November my world is going to shift, and I don’t know how far – it could be very far, or not far at all – but I get to ride out that shift. And write it out. (Thanks for reading!)
4. There will be more time set aside for writing books. I may not be reading about vegetables as I should, but book ideas have been be coming out of my ears lately. So it seems weird to look forward to this, but I am excited about jotting down the thoughts and the plots. I’ve already started, and it’s only going to get better. Winter seems to be more of my writing season, especially poetry and fiction, and I can’t help but feel glad about dark quiet nights by the fireplace, shutting out the buzz and hum of everything else so that the imagination can do its thing.
5. And finally: baby brother is getting married. I love/hate weddings but the love part of them is what I aim to focus on. The event planner in me wants to know all the details. The budding photographer in me can hardly wait to capture all the gorgeous moments that will be had. At first the news came as a surprise but now the idea is getting more and more fun. I am hoping for the utmost of happiness for them.
So then. There are delays and disappointments and the passing of time, and there are joys and excitements in the passing of the time.
It’s life, eh?
And here is a delicious Etsy blog post I wanted to share, to sweeten this slightly moody post of my own: How to Make Chocolates. Check out the deal you can get on the cookbook! Yum. We are moving into the season of decadence.
Huevos rancheros, this way and that
September 25, 2011 § 2 Comments
This is the season of tomatoes and peppers. It’s not in mid-summer on the 4th of July like so many of us want to think (and the same goes for watermelon). In Colorado, late summer and early fall is their time. At the farm we are checking the loaded tomato plants almost every day, and harvesting all colors and sizes of heirloom varieties. I come home with the split ones, or the ones too ripe to sell.
My last roommate lived for several years in Texas, so she gets credit for introducing me to huevos rancheros. After she ditched me to return to The Lone Star State, though, I kind of forgot about making them. Scrounging hungrily through the kitchen several weeks ago, I rediscovered a huge stack of yellow corn tortilla shells. I also had some ends of cheese in the fridge. And eggs. A few peppers on the counter. And oh so many tomatoes! Dinner practically made itself.
So one of my new favorite things is to see what kinds of variations I can make with a base of a lightly fried corn tortilla and a sunny-side-up or over-easy egg or two. You don’t have to follow a recipe; you just look at what you have and mix and match. What do you like? What do you think will taste good to you, on this particular day?
Sometimes I stick with tradition and smother everything in salsa. Often, instead, I saute whatever vegetables I have on hand and spill them overtop, or tuck them off to one side. (Grilled veggies could also be awesome here, if you are lucky enough to have a grill!) Sometimes I add refried beans, extra cheese, sour cream, or fresh slices of tomato and pepper. Almost always I layer something between the tortilla and the egg – arugula, Swiss chard, or a few leaves of basil – along with some grated cheese. (Cheddar is good. Gruyere is better.) Arugula is a definite yes, when I can get it, with its bite so bitter-tangy through the egg and cheese.
If you’re trying to make sure you eat enough greens, you can just put them underneath everything else. Line your plate with romaine, buttercrunch, or rainbow chard. You might even use kale or collards or beet greens if you steam them for awhile first. When you’ve layered and arranged everything as you please, then dig in! And the pretty presentation should turn into a delicious mess. The warm egg yoke and the crispy tortilla and all the other flavors running together make it easy to eat your nutrients. And that, I find, is always a good thing.
Kinds of Honey 