Cheesemaking is kicking into high gear?we’re freezing a lot of chevre to enjoy later when the milking slows down, and here’s the beginning of a farmhouse cheddar:
I screwed up the last batch of beer and foolishly didn’t brew for a while. Our homemade beer (when it works, which it usually does) is much tastier than what we buy at the store, and ends up costing about half as much.
Here’s five gallons of soon-to-be-porter bubbling away:
Last year, we got a freeze in early September that took out all the tomato plants, and Teri made a lot of green tomato ketchup. This year, none of the main (Brandywine) tomato crop had turned red by that point, and my dreams of pasta sauce seemed to by dying?but the past month has been mostly sunny and warm, and we’re bringing in five-gallon buckets every few days.
Though we aren’t entirely dependent on our homegrown food, it’s probably saving us a couple of thousand dollars a year now, so I have a little more appreciation for how much people doing this in the past were subject to the whims of the weather?and for what a joy it is when one’s hard work is rewarded with abundance:
In a break from my usual “functionality IS the aesthetic” carpentry ethic, I’ve made a tea table to go alongside my desk (I hate having beverages and food on the same surface as my computer). The top was from a rough-cut slab of some unknown hardwood that I got a bunch of for free because of “imperfections”, and the base is something that was left behind when the electric co-op trimmed around the power lines.
It’s beautiful wood?but I didn’t know that when I got it, so most of it is incorporated into the chicken coop. Now that I’ve seen it sanded and sealed, I think I’ll be pulling the rest of it off the coop to make things from (don’t worry chickens, I have plain old fir boards to replace it). Anyway, here’s the table, which I’m quite pleased with:
Closeup of the wood:
Worky work work! In addition to all this, there are of course the daily chores such as caring for livestock, cooking, keeping the fire going, earning a living, etc?but some other farm residents have more sensible priorities; I leave you with “Snail Love”:
