Life after Milking
Big DADDY says this is the life!
Rob and I have been slowly adjusting to life without the milking herd. It sure is different. We don’t have to get up so early and less time in the barn evenings. Hopefully the hydro bill will go down next month. The 50 girls we kept have settled down and are also adjusting . They have lots of room to race around. After 7 years of having the barn full of goats it sure feels weird and empty. We moved everyone downstairs for the winter including the 3 bucks. Rob continues to milk 7 once a day. We got 5 gallons of whip cream (used a cream separator) and made 5 pounds of our own butter. Some are making bellies and due in March. It gives me something to look forward to this summer, knowing I will hear them munching on grass as I work in the gardens keeping me company and giving me a shout. It is also very peaceful to watch them roam around the fields. Like they belong.
Smell that fresh air!
We were able to get away for a whole weekend. Rob was so happy to have no work and just be on the road traveling. We drove to Ottawa for a 50th birthday celebration. We got some help for the chores, the weather worked out and the roads were great for driving. It was gorgeous driving into Ottawa the trees were laden with ice and snow. It was nice to be able to socialize with like minded folk and have a choice of good food while away. We met some wonderful growers that go to the Ottawa market. It was encouraging to hear others say they don’t know what they would do if they did not have their own food. I feel the same. Once you find out the difference, taste it, feel it and take responsibility for your own health you will never go back to following the rest of the world. One just needs to be brave and try new foods, ideas, ways. There is so much diversity in a natural system. Its there for everyone.
Bean Bash
I would feel so good if I could help direct anyone that grows organically to at least try or consider the heirloom open pollinated varieties. I want to learn and try so many more varieties.
I am truly enjoying my days this winter shelling beans we grew, cleaning, labeling and packaging them. To touch these shiny seed gems and remember this summer planting them in the ground and watching them blossom and grow without our help. Some we ate green lots we left to dry. Rob stomps on the bags then on a windy day takes 2 pails and the weight of beans drop into pail, the chaff and pods blow away. My job is to sort and clean them. One small pack in a row produced a jar of dried beans. I am able to sample (soak, cook and eat) and see if I like them enough to grow more the next year. Five x 50 foot rows gave us 12 pounds of Boston Bake beans. They taste so good. We eat them with a fresh piece of bread or alone. Soup, baked, dips you can do so much…there is absolutely no need for people to be sick or starving and eating out of tin cans.
Colour changes in Beans
I found out from a seed cleaning fellow that grain seeds turn color with age. At harvest time to a year or so if you still have the seeds they will have changed.
The above picture proves beans also do this. Sometimes you wonder if you have the right tag on the right bean but this is what happens. This year the Boston bake are white with purple markings and I look at what seed I used to plant (seed I had grown and saved from 2008 in 2010) it is definitely darker. On the end are the original seeds I kept from 2008 and they are very dark indeed.
