have a whirly Halloween!

Go get 'em Kazoo

Kazoo is rooster #5, the "lowest" guy on the totem pole of roosters at my farm.  But he holds his own, gets action from the hens, and belts out a handsome tenor cock-a-doodle-doo.

cabbage management

Huge batch of kimchi ready to take a nap in the sauerkraut crock

Autumn jams

My latest iTunes download:

Claremont Records, founded by one of the guys in Can, released a 5 year anniversary compilation

Really nice collection of cover songs by my favorite foxy twins band

Yes I love her

Beautiful record by the guy from Yellow Magic Orchestra

I fell in love with them when I recently saw Big Easy Express

blessed are the cheese disciples

Aiden from The Cook's House delicately dusts to a pan of 

Mt. Holiday brie - she totally has sunbeams shining out of her face

LJ and Aiden milling a vat full of chive Montasio

out of your face

the pantry project: October 27

blueberry bran muffins

pantry items: open bags of wheat bran, oat flour, and molassas

jewel tone carrots

One of the farmers at the market gave me these carrots - he said they were "of no use to him" because some of them were short and had grown split at the bottom

...so what can you do?  Pickle 'em! These are kind of a raw carrot pickle

barnyard update

New feral barn cats Mama and Baba.  Neighbors of my parents trap, fix and release strays, and since my first barn cat Mama moved out, I was in need of some mousers for the coming Winter.  They are small black kitties, a mama cat and her son.  This is them right after being installed in the insulated cat condo that will be their house in the big barn.  I have not seen them since they arrived, but their food is eaten, so I am sure they are in there somewhere.

My hen Blackie, who was sitting on 6 eggs, did not hatch any of them, which makes me think they weren't fertile eggs after all.  She is now trying to hatch a single egg from one of my own hens, so in a few weeks, we should have a chick, maybe.

Poor Rita, the sweet hen I adopted a few weeks ago, died this past weekend.  I don't think she was well when I got her, but at least she enjoyed a few weeks of sunshine and fresh air before she died.  She was a beautiful and sweet hen.

The rabbits are doing fine - they are hearty Winter animals, so while they can go inside the barn at night if they choose, every morning I find them out in the morning frost in the hen yard, waiting for their breakfast.  Licky is super friendly, runs up to greet you like a dog, and loves being held.  They love dried banana chips.

sky study #98

a series of very ominous sky studies from Saturday, October 19th, 2013

sun in the fore, storm to the North

over the East pasture

insert gnome here

A perfect fall toadstool - they're all over the farm

bun, bun, bun, kale

Pinky, Licky & Blackie get their greens on

meet the Haulmaster

New and improved milk can lift and pouring system, masterminded my Mike Kurta, of course.  A 500 lb. electric winch makes lifting the full milk can, which weighs between 90 and 130 pounds depending on how full it is, a breeze.  Dad designed the girdle that clamps around the can itself, with two ropes attached to a central hanger for easy and smooth tipping

The old system - a hand cranked come-along and nothing but your own strength to pour out the milk.  It would slosh everywhere.  It worked but wasn't smooth and took a long time.

The pantry project: October 20

arborio rice

butternut squash rissoto

how much is that doggy in the window?

Ivan came by last weekend to say I still want to live with you.

Fall on a stick

My friend Pete from Pete's Chocolates in Detroit came by the farm with his pile of great friends for a cheese evening and dog fellowship fest.  He was bearing caramel pecan apples that they made themselves.

red and pink

pan of tomatoes for roasting

Rudy inspects the jars of roasted tomatoes

beets from the garden

 I can pickle that

a growler of mushroom brew

I visited the mother of all health food stores, The Brattleboro Food Co-op, where they had a self-serve kombucha tea bar with 7 varieties on tap.

Detroit besties

Dinner at Green Dot Stables in Detroit

I'm drinking what?

Godzilla was misunderstood.

Vermont Shepherd

I spent some time at the glorious and renown Vermont Shepherd creamery

Their enormous barn with cheese cloths drying on the line

a couple of their many farm dogs

border collies represent

cheese cave this way

the exterior of their cheese packaging room and cave built into a hillside

the shipping area - looks like Boss Mouse

I love bulletin boards - upper left is an old photograph of draft sheep pulling a sleigh through the Vermont snow; lower right a pickup bed full of border collies

shelves of cheese in the cave

fresh wheels in the brine covered in a diamond layer of rock salt

our beautiful sisters

The pantry project: October 14

Pasta with sauteed tomatoes

Pantry item: half bag of pasta

cheese school

cheese grandmaster Peter Dixon

Girl power cheesemaker Margot from Sugarhouse Creamery

the vat controls

Teacher huggin' on 160 lbs. of curd

The wheels hooped up and starting to press