The new year started off with a bang this past week. The peach trees decided it was spring, and burst into bloom. The chickens and ducks are leaving eggs lying around everywhere. One of the black hens keeps trying to come inside and lay an egg in the kitchen. And last week we had FIVE…
Tag: goats
A New Herd
The goats have been keeping me busy – we slaughtered the three male bucklings from this spring, and suddenly we have lots of meat and lots of milk. Kefir, yogurt, cheese, too. It is such an abundance as we have not had in several seasons. It feels heady and happy – every meal is a…
New Milk Custard Pie With Mulberries
This post is not timely, unfortunately. A while ago the mulberries were finished fruiting, and the season for new babies is nearly over. But the truth is this post is a difficult one for me to write – because there was trouble this season, and people who don’t live with this kind of thing –…
Radishes With Miso Tamari Sauce and Sesame Seeds
The peach trees are blooming profusely in the orchard still. I’ve watched each of the ten trees one by one be ornamented with delicate pink blossoms, and then the slow, graceful dance of lacy green leaves unfolding. So quickly the flowers fade and are gone, but for these three weeks or so I am enchanted…
Three – A Birth Story
Two of my eight mama goats this year were due to kid last week. I didn’t write down the exact day I turned the buck in with them (a healthy goat carries her kids exactly 150 days. It isn’t like cows who have a 20-day window), but it’s easy to see when they are ready,…
Chocolate Covered Wensleydale Chevre Bonbons
For most of the summer, Stinky decided he was a cow. When i got home and tried to reunite him with the rest of the goats, he was skeptical, but agreeably walked in when i held the gate open. He spent a minute sniffing everyone’s tail, and then followed me out again to be with…
The Fromagerie
The next day is cold and rainy in the morning, and it’s just me because the Teenager warned me not to wake him up early “or else”. This means the backpack is WAY lighter. I am prepared with a waterproof backpack cover and raincoat. They are still milking when I arrive, so I wait and…
Out With The Goats
A neighbor has a fromagerie where they make cheese from goat and sheep’s milk. In the past few days, several sheep and goats were killed by wolves. They have a guardian dog, but he is very young. Our host asks if we would like to go stay with the goats and sheep in the pasture…
Chocolate Chevre Cheesecake with a Chocolate Cookie Crust (grain-free)
The high days of summer have brought the rains at last, the grey and sandy days broken by the tropical sun. Nothing is gentle here in summer. The rolling thunder and pounding rain, the blinding sun and baking heat all work an alchemy and draw the green and the sweetness out of the earth for…
Goat Stew with Parsnips and Raisins
More than a week ago now i woke up to a grim grey sky. I started the chores right away, hoping to be inside by Calcifer when the rain started. Things went quickly, despite the usual difficulties of the brooder lamp flickering out for the little ducks, and wading awkwardly through the 100 little meat…
Spring Fertility Madness
It’s been the craziest week ever, and nothing seems to be slowing down in the least. Nearly every evening finds me exhausted and covered in some sort of birth juices, dirt, milk or all three. It all started about 3 weeks ago, when I had just finished creating an email to send out, offering acorn-fed…
Disappearing Goats, or Adventures With Fencing
I’ve been trying to think of this summer of just me, the children, and the farm while Ethan is away as an Adventure. I have, as much as possible, tried to make adventures a part of my life, thinking that they will give me something to look back on when I am too old and…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 