Ham Sweet Hitched

How did it get to be Christmas Eve Eve?  Seems like it was JUST here last year, a fresh ice storm wreaking havoc on our roads, trees, animals and ever-loving souls.

This year, it's in the 40s and rainy.  A slight improvement, I suppose, but for the 10th time our ground is thawing again and the mud is rising up to claim our boots, the grass clinging tightly to the Earth, and plenty of other things I'm sure we haven't realized we've lost yet.

I've been carrying a running dialogue in my head about the differences between last year, our first year here with the Farmstead, versus this year.  Most of my punchlines are FARMING:  YEAR TWO.  It's a good way to blow off steam when I'm dealing with a frustrating problem, but it also gives me hope for YEAR THREE.  Each year we will change our practices, refine our approach, improve our methods and, hopefully, produce better meat from happier animals on improved land.

An example, in case anyone was wondering about my inner joke-alogue...

Year One:  "Oh I can't find my gloves.  I can't lift [______] or tear down [_________] without gloves!  It'll tear up my hands!"

YEAR TWO:  "Gloves?  Ain't nobody got time for dat.  Oh hey I just tore a callous on my hands."

Maybe one more...

Year One:  "Please buy from us!  We'll give you a discount!  Free farm tours 4 lyfe!  Desperation!"

YEAR TWO:  "Dear Customer, you're fired.  Please don't contact us again, as we are clearly not the farm you are looking for."

[Yes, we really did fire someone this year.  Listen— you can argue with us about pricing and whatnot all day long, but at the end of the day, if it's not worth it to you, it certainly isn't worth it to us.  We pay for it all up front, spend a lot of time taking care of animals & infrastructure, such as it is, and you STILL want to argue about 50 cents/lb.?  No thanks, we'd rather keep it for ourselves.]

Anywho.  It was a great year.  We made a number of huge improvements, including but not limited to, adding a wood boiler to heat our house [bye bye propane!], building a permanent goat fence that none of them can climb out of, building two doors for our little red barn, improving the "driveway" that goes down to our shop, planting 50+ saplings, clearing scrub trees & weeds, reseeding with forage mixes & cover crops, and building 3 mobile coops for brooding chicks, ducklings & poults.  We also added a barn from Mid Michigan Mini Barns and brought our horses home!!  No big deal, just my lifelong dream becoming a reality.  Life is sweet.

And, we got married.  10.18.2014.  Amanda VanVels Photography captured the day beautifully, and many, many hands pitched in to get the house and the farm looking its best!



























The sky threatened rain that day, but instead it was cool and breezy.  The trees held their leaves and released them softly, one by one, rose petals of autumn. All of our animals behaved, the guests had fun, and the food was delicious.  I'll post more photos at some point, but for now, I'll leave you with wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Hammy New Year to you and yours.

Genesis

This hog was born into a confinement operation.  Until today, he has never set foot outside the barn into which he was born.  He has never lived on anything other than slatted floors, has never seen light other than the dim florescent bulbs lining the barn aisles or the sunlight peeking through vented fans in the walls.  He's never seen snow, or straw.  Until today.

On this snowy morning, we welcomed a new boar to Ham Sweet Farm, and with it, we embark on a new project.  Last year we raised "feeder pigs," otherwise known as weaned pigs, and decided to keep the lone female to breed.  If all goes well, we should be expecting piggies on the ground by early June.

We have  a little American Guinea Hog boar already, but quite frankly, he is so much smaller than our gilt Gnocchi we don't think he can, well, err... get any business done with her.  Not to mention that when she's in heat, she's a raging, frothing-at-the-mouth monster.  Our little boar, The Godfather, is abjectly terrified of her.  Can't say I blame him… she's more aggressive with us when she's in heat as well.

The gestation for pigs is 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days, putting us right at the start of summer for farrowing [birthing].  Perfect.  Christian and I decided that the best thing for everyone involved was to have her bred with a boar more her size.  But where does one find a boar?

We contemplated taking her to a few other farms for a "conjugal visit," A.I. [articificial insemination, test tube babies], waiting to see if The Godfather would change his mind and step up to the task… we contacted a farmer friend of ours about it, and he said he had a boar the farm could no longer use.  In the livestock world, being born a male is a great gig for a very select few.  But for the most part, males are either raised for meat or are essentially a waste product [think dairy industry or all the roosters people are constantly trying to re-home].  Boars, in other words, are a dime a dozen.  We asked our friend how much he would be willing to sell the boar for, and he told us that the going rate for a hog of his size "at market" was about $90.  Keep in mind, we're taking about a year-and-a-half-old hog who weighs 450 pounds or so.  We couldn't turn that down.

Side note:  Real Life now includes earnest discussions concerning tracking the heat cycles of our female pigs and goats, and excitement over good lookin' babydaddies for the aforementioned.  Our weekends are chock full of excitement!

Yesterday, I got home from work and Christian arrived home shortly thereafter.  I realized once we came in from chores after dark, I had just thrown my work clothes on over what I had worn to work that morning.  Nothing like building a pig hut in your favorite, and probably most expensive, pair of jeans!  Thankful for Carhartt weather these days.  It was warmer yesterday than it has been in quite some time, topping out at a balmy 28 degrees or so.  We prepped as much for our new arrival as time allowed before dusk came calling and it was time to take care of everyone else for the night.

When we woke up this morning, predicted snowfall of up to 8 inches made us think the delivery wasn't happening.  We did morning chores, and were inside about to make hot chocolate when Christian got the text— "The boar is on his way!  See you in a half hour!"  We threw our bibs back on and raced outside to put finishing touches on the honeymoon pigpen.  Just as we were finishing up with the pen and plowing out the driveway, a truck and trailer pulled in.

We opened up the trailer and he just stared out of it, unsure of what to do.  It took some coaxing but finally he jumped down from the trailer and sauntered into the pen we built to hold him and his new girlfriend.

We've been tracking her cycles for the past few months, and know she should be "coming in" tomorrow.  So today they're mostly flirting a lot, chasing each other around, and whispering sweet nothings to one another.  It's pretty cute.

So far, the new guy is doing just fine.  Cavatelli, Gnocchi's brother and lifelong pasturemate, is quite jealous of their new separation, so we may have more trouble with him in the next few days than anything else.  The boar has never seen or heard any of what he's experiencing today, so it's all new.  We have three strands of hot electric wire, laced with bright orange tape so he can see it, to keep him in.  He seems calm and inquisitive, shy, nervous.  Christian and I are both looking forward to watching him explore his new world.

 Also, his tongue sticks out a lot.  It's ridiculously cute...

Ham Sweet Farm in the news!

I promise I haven't forgotten about you, little blog!

The passing of time on a farm is marked by empty bags of grain, refilled waterers, ripening tomatoes, and growing babies.  Our ducks, who were once so small that they couldn't be contained inside the small bars of a dog crate, have now outgrown the coop we built for them.  Our pigs outgrew the feeder we made for them, their shoulders growing too wide to fit four-abreast.  When we first got them, all five could eat from one feeder at the same time [albeit with some squealing].

The rotational nature of growing living things is entrancing, hypnotizing, steady.  By the time you catch up on one corner of the farm, another has grown wild and needs attention.  So it is, too, with the seasons.  The bursting greens of spring, the scorching haze of summer, the bounty of autumn, the halting blanket of winter.

With September looming just around the corner, we are starting to think of wintry solutions to what surely will be problems with our methods of feeding and watering everyone.  Currently, you can stumble outside in pajamas and flipflops to take care of morning chores.  A few crisp mornings with dew resting heavy on the grass jolted us into the reality that soon, we will need to be all layered up before we venture outside.  Reality bites.  But it also means an end to the frenetic garden-watering and grass-mowing and fence-building, at least until spring decides to come around again.

The local magazine Capital Gains was kind enough to interview me recently, for an article about eating ethical meat.  I'm always happy to talk about why Christian and I are doing what we're doing.  Check it out below!

Conscientious Flexitarians— eating the right meat

First Harvest!

Oh my gosh, I grew something!!  Even after a few years of concerted efforts toward gardening, the feeling of harvesting something from YOUR own garden is still miraculous.  We've gotten great rain so far this summer so I've only watered once... After living in Colorado, the fact that anything you plant can be studiously ignored until you're ready to eat it is a gift.  Rich black earth, forgiving skies and humidity that plants just soak in to produce sweet, tender leaves...

So, what do we have?  3 kinds of basil, collards, cilantro, and the best damn broccoli I have ever had.  It's so sweet and tender, worlds away from what comes from the supermarket.  We also have various herbs that are ready to be picked and dried or used fresh, tomatoes that are quickly growing into trees, eggplant, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, tomatillos, zucchini, a few types of peppers, onions, garlic...  we're also trying sweet corn, which I have had terrible luck with in the past, but it's growing!

We turned up a new section of the garden in what used to be lawn, and the plan was to leave that fallow this year and let the old grass decompose.  But then we bought some carving pumpkin seeds, and decided to sow them directly into the overturned sod.  The pumpkin vines are strong, vigorous and starting to flower.  Looks like we'll have lots of decorating to do for Halloween this year, and plenty of good eats for the animals as well.

Oh, and our hens laid their first eggs.  Two of them.  Dinner!

Here's to the joy that bounty brings.  

Goodness

                     

"Goodness is uneventful.  It does not flash, it glows." 

                                      --David Grayson

The First of Many Porch Mornings

Between the chorus of birds and frogs, the breeze gently bringing the sound of neighbor's windchimes across the fields, and the thrumming of bees, I'm fairly certain the earth is singing a song just for me on this perfect morning.

Wisdom & Gravity

"I'm grateful for our house,

for this cozy bed and covers,

for my friends and for gravity....

ya know mom, with out gravity 

we would be just flying around in the sky...."

                    — G. Cure, age 5

Among the Treebones

One place I miss whenever I'm not there.  

Love On A Gloomy Friday

I found this little guy this morning while setting up the Farm Store.  I stopped to appreciate the significance of its shape, stepped outside to take this picture, and then continued setting up.  I emailed it to the woman in charge of the Farm's web presence.

And then my New York Times app flashed across the screen of my phone, BREAKING NEWS.  Heartbreaking news.  A mass shooting in a Connecticut elementary school.  Children gunned down.  It seems to have set the entire world ablaze.

I hope to live in a world where everyone has access to affordable mental health care and support.  A world in which children are safe in their innocence.  I'm lucky to have the relationships I do with my parents— they always loved my brother and me.  They even loved us through our teenage years when we didn't necessarily love them back, or love anyone other than ourselves [and sometimes not even then].  Love is all around, but sometimes the patience to seek it out is lacking in our frenetic lives.  I think we owe it to ourselves and everyone around us to take a moment out of every day to appreciate love in some way.  Wouldn't the world be a better place?

Cows n' Tumbleweed

"A cow is a very good animal in the field; but 

we turn her out of the garden."  

                                 — Samuel Johnson

A Country Wedding

No, not mine.

We've been preparing for a wedding at the farm for over a month now. The celebration took place yesterday and it was deeply satisfying to see everyone enjoy themselves, the food, and the simple beauty of the, and a, farm. One of our roosters, whom we call Handsome, even invited himself over and hung out behind the bar for a while.

My favorite part may have been the father of the groom breaking down into tears and exclaiming, "this is the proudest day of my life!" to a tearful audience... But it may also have been the many gracious guests who thanked us for the work we did. Or perhaps the guests who were excited about their first trip to a farm and had questions about the animals, or just took a walk through the vineyard and hops to explore. It's tough to pick a favorite because, after all the work and thought and sweat you put into an event like this, having everything go smoothly (while looking gooooood) is incredibly gratifying.

After 14 hours yesterday, I headed home exhausted but exhilarated. As George put it so well, if you plow and the smell of the fresh earth doesn't speak to you, well, farming isn't for you.

Gathering Eggs

It may seem like a simple pleasure to take part in the daily ritual of egg-gathering.  Once you've tasted one of these, however... an egg to you will become anything but simple.

You may even be so inspired as to take them directly to the kitchen, along with some fresh spring chard of course...

After topping it with some sour cream, into the yolk— rich, fresh and golden— you go!  Talk about a real breakfast of champions; this will keep you energized all day long!  Not only because the food is rich and packed with nutrients to nourish your body, but because you gathered the egg and cut the greens and ate it sitting on a porch step in the sunshine.

Hello, dream life.

Everything is perfect.  I won't bore you with details about what a wonderful boyfriend and partner I have, how much fun our dogs are, how much we love where we live.  But trust me, I couldn't have imagined anything better than where I am and what I'm doing.  These days I'm hardly ever on the computer, much to the chagrin of countless people with whom I mean to, and want to, stay connected.  It's pretty great, too, because just about all I do is sign in to pay a bill here and there.  While I'm not out working dawn till dusk outside everyday... some days that's not far from the truth.

I'm working on two, yes TWO farms.  Leistikow Farms which raises lamb and goats, hay, numerous grape varietals and produce in a greenhouse is my home-away-from-home these days.  George, Kim and Olivia make even the longest and most difficult days of work or life so much more bearable, richer, filled with a lot more laughter.  As of last week I'm also working two days a week in Cure Organic Farm's farm store.  Both jobs are a lot of fun, challenging in different ways, and shining examples of what local food can be— and what local farmers are capable of accomplishing.  I feel incredibly fortunate to be learning from some of the best farmers/people/characters in the area, and also to have this Farmily around me.

And oh, did I mention the BABY GOATS?!

So cute they make even the most hardened and impassive people melt.  Close to 70 have been born to date, and when you walk into the goat pen it appears to have been raining babies.  They snooze, they scamper, they do kick-flips off the barn walls, they nibble on your shirt or pants or neck or anything that comes within nibbling range.

See that handsome boy on the right?  When he was born [actually, pulled from his mama due to sheer size and limits of physics], he had swelling in his shoulders and neck that rendered him unable to lift his head to nurse.  We didn't realize this until he was 12 hours old or so, by that time quite weak and Eeyore-esque.  What struck me about him was how massive his head, neck and shoulders were, like a little bulldog.  I scooped him up, gave him a bottle and named him Biff.  Christian and I want to buy him from the farm and make him ours... and thus borne, a menagerie.

Are there any other additions to the Farmily, you might wonder?  Well as a matter of fact...

Not only do we have the most handsome boy in the world, but also the most beautiful girl:

I started leasing Roxy from George and Kim— joyful joy, HORSES!  It's been so long, far far too long, since horses have been in my life.  Everything about them feels like home to me, from their soft whiskers tickling your hand as they nuzzle for treats to the sweet green smell of their sweat.  I could shovel manure for the rest of my life and be a pretty happy girl.  

So, Roxy.  One day Christian was returning from a business trip to Toronto and said he had a surprise birthday present for me.  My birthday was a month off and he told me he was going to keep it a surprise.  Silly me, thought he had found a unique store of some kind in Toronto... but when I picked him up from the airport he jumped in the car and blurted out, "IboughtyouRoxyhappybirthday!"  My stunned open-mouthed silence turned to Are you serious?? and tears.  Mine!  My horse.  I'm still trying those words out in my head a month later.

Last but not least... something else I've always wanted.  Still not quite sure how it happened but I bought my very own American Freedom Machine.  I call her Bumble.  My Buttertruck.

Livin' the dream... still in my high heels and muck boots.  Wouldn't have it any other way.  I promise not to ignore this blog any longer... I'd like to go back to regaling you with pictures of random bits of beauty and cuteness, and the occasional rant or video or who knows what.  Life is too unpredictable to have it any other way!

xo

P.S.  Here's the blog I've been neglecting this one for, in case you're wondering... http://www.the365kitchen.com/

Finalement en France!

I've been in Nice for the past few days, with my friends Lindsay and David. They don't call it la cote d'azur for nothin'... it's beautiful. I have finally tried macarons and they were everything I've always hoped for. We spent yesterday morning wandering through the famous Marché aux Fleurs, a daily flower and farmer's market.

My brain is going through language shock— just when I was really starting to settle into Italian, I suddenly find myself in France! I took French for many years, but after three solid months in Italy, I'm having a lot of trouble remembering words that I know I know in French. I couldn't tell the taxi driver I had been working in Italy for the last three months, because I couldn't remember the words for "work," "month," or "farm." I've also been rolling my r's like crazy and saying perche? instead of pourquoi?, si instead of oui, and so on... apparently it's bad enough that a waiter asked me if I spoke Italian when I was trying to order in French. Such a strange thing!

Here's a farm video that's different from the rest... excuse my manic laughter in it! Fellow animale intern Max stars on the bike and with the ukelele, with Greg sitting next to me on the tractor and our supervisor Giulio driving. Enjoy!



Also, in case you are hoping for more posts about Spannocchia... they are coming! I will continue to digest my experience [probably for the rest of my life!] and will most definitely be writing more about it here. If anyone out there has questions to ask, about the farm or my experience or food or whatever, please leave a comment here or send me an email and I promise I'll get to it! Grazie, merci and thank you!

And... new pictures of my travels thus far.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Helsinki to see my dear friend Irena. Can't wait!

Leaving Spannocchia

So, today's the day! The past three months really flew by. I meant to post something here but there just hasn't been time.

I'm headed to the UNESCO world heritage site Cinque Terre today. From there I will head to France and then Finland to meet up with friends. Exciting of course, but it's sad to be leaving. Yesterday Riccio and I moved the horses and donkeys out to their summer pasture, and with that, my work on the farm was done.

Since I'll have some time on the train today, there should be a longer post coming soon. Until then, pictures of my final weeks here and here.

A metà strada

The internship ends one month from yesterday, and two months from today I will board a plane headed for home. Two months ago tomorrow, I was sitting in Detroit Metro airport wondering how the hell I had gotten myself into this all. Can I really be halfway done here, two-thirds of the way through at Spannocchia? Apparently.

The animales interns switched duties around as planned, so I have been taking care of the 28 pecore [sheep] and 10 agnelli [lambs] instead the maiali. It was a welcome change, but brought about new challenges of course. The learning curve with maiali was steep, but after working with them for five weeks I am confident enough to gauge most situations and deal with them appropriately. Our Cinta will, for the most part, follow anyone or anything with a grain bucket. The pecore, on the other hand, have an incredible herd instinct, which is great as long as they actually follow you.

The first morning after the switch, I had a plan:

Community and Place

“[T]o a great extent we are a de-placed people for whom our immediate places are no longer sources of food, water, livelihood, energy, materials, friends, recreation, or sacred inspiration.”
— David Orr


William Vitek (1996) discusses “community and the virtue of necessity” in an article he wrote by the same name, from the anthology Rooted in the Land: essays on community and place. His assertion that “necessity leads inevitably to virtue for the individual and well-being for the community” makes a lot of sense when you consider the oftentimes selfish nature of humans. It serves as a reminder that, without necessity, we tend to live without regard for others or the Earth— until faced with some sort of catastrophe or day of reckoning.

I have been at Spannocchia now for five weeks and feel remarkably settled into life here. I enjoy waking up early, knowing that the animals are hungry and waiting for me. I enjoy spending my days outside, and really, many days I am outside for 12 hours. On the days when we only work in the morning and have class in the afternoons I feel restless, anxious to put my boots back on and get outdoors again. I have been working with one of the horses here, so after I finish evening chores [or class] I run down to the stable until it’s time for dinner. What a change from my life at home, and oh, how much I am going to miss it when I leave.

A few quick things

... since this computer refuses to open the post I had all typed and ready to go.

1) The other day I had some downtime so I walked out into the cow pasture a ways, and scared the hell out of three deer. I came over the top of the hill and was about 40 feet away from a buck, who the strangest barking noise I have ever heard before he and his girlfriends ran off. Then as I walked back, I surprised a young cinghiale [wild boar].

2) Each day I understand more and more of the Italian conversations around me. I'm still having trouble responding, but am at least learning new words daily that I can sometimes string together to form terrible half-sentences.

3) I think I've figured out the secret to Graciela's cooking. Olive oil.

4) The smell of chives will always remind me of yoga on the front terrace. They grow amongst the grass and wildflowers there and are crushed as you move through the asanas.

5) After just a few weeks, I am getting noticably stronger. When I got here I could lift bikes off the hooks where they're stored, but couldn't put them back up. As of this week, I can. I can also hold a full chatturanga pose during yoga, and throw bales of hay around . Still can't lift them above my head, but maybe next week...

6) I'm on duty this weekend which means that I'm in charge of all the animals [pigs, chickens, horses/donkeys, cows, sheep]. I worked from 8 am this morning until 6:30 tonight, with about an hour's break for lunch. Would have had more downtime but two groups of pigs busted through their fences and wandered down to the farmhouse for a little lunch in the olive orchards and I had to bring them back to their respective pastures. I'm turning into the pied piper of pigs.

7) On a related note, the more I work with pigs the less guilty I feel about eating them.

Also, new pictures!

First Week

I don’t know how to begin.

It’s been a week since the interns converged in Siena and headed to the Tenuta di Spannocchia. We’ve already settled into a steady rhythm, eating breakfast, working from 8 to 1, lunch from 1 to 2, and then work again until 5. After that, free time to bike or talk a walk around the grounds or write in a journal or collapse in a patch of sunlight and wait for what is certain to be a spectacular sunset across the valley from the front terrazzo. Sometimes we get out our yoga mats and practice sun salutes until the sun disappears below the mountains.

At 7 each evening we meet in the dining room for Spannocchia red wine, and then the dinner bell sounds at 7:30 and we get to experience Graciela’s unbelievable Tuscan cooking. Dinner really is an experience, with the primo then secondo followed by insalata [I’m still trying to get used to salad after dinner] and then last but most certainly not least, la dolce. The interns are usually back to the house we share, Pulcinelli, by 9. We build a fire in the fireplace and play a card game or read until, one by one, everyone goes to bed to prepare for another early morning.

Haunts

Greg and I were craving some good ol' fashioned American food before we head out to the farm, and stumbled upon what is probably Firenze's only diner. It's also the only place I have seen wi-fi in the city so far— go figure. There are some things only a burger, fries and a milkshake can cure.

Blogger seems to be broken and refuses to upload any pictures. If you click here you can see pictures through my facebook account!