It seems like it has been weeks since I last posted anything. As usual the summer got away with us, and I have been trying to fit all the fun things in before the weather changes and school starts. Already our summer farm help starts collage next week. New England summers are short and there are many things required of you to enjoy it properly. There are traditions from my childhood that have now been passed on to our son Tristan that we simply have to do each summer. A day at the ocean, with lunch at a fish shack, and a trip to the candy store for salt water taffy is at the top of the list. We always host a lobster bake for all our relatives who are visiting, we had this last Sunday, it almost killed me -- I must be getting old. All the horseback riding we can fit in and a few afternoons at the lake, and a least one educational visit to an art museum take up quite a bit of time. There is also the not so fun stuff like canning, picking vegetables, weeding and getting the hay in.
Last Thursday we had an orphaned litter of kittens come in at the practice. They were just hours old, we have been feeding them every four hours and keeping them under a heat lamp. Out of the original five kittens, three have made it and are now off to a good start. We have all been taking turns keeping them at various staff members house's overnight so no one person has to get up with them every four hours.
The food situation is going great. Brookford Farm has got their stuff together and is getting their vegetables, meat, eggs and dairy all out on time when they say they will, and we have received all the right stuff. For ten weeks now we have not had store bought bread, I have made it all myself. All our cheese has been raw milk , grass fed cheeses, from Brookford. Our fruits and vegetables have been either from the CSA boxes or our own and we have been supporting our local farm stands by buying sweetcorn and blueberries.
I have put a lot of kale and beets, and a bushel of corn in the freezer. We have made twenty four pints of various fruit jams, some for us and some I sent on with our visiting cousins. I have made a batch of zucchini relish, and bread and butter pickles. We have over four gallons of raspberries in the freezer too. Rob got the garlic in last week with Tristan's help and we had about a bushel of it.
Adelaide, our Jersey cow in milk, is almost done. she is only giving about a gallon of milk a day. I milk her just once a day. I want to keep her going until week twenty of our CSA. We are really thinking of signing up again for the Fall/Winter CSA ( I never thought I would say that). We will need the milk then. I would get the full diet share again and add on an extra dairy share. I would also try not to get their bread. We are still trying to pawn off our two loaves of bread each week on someone. Unfortunately, everyone is starting to catch on. Even the Salvation Army will no longer take it.
We are half way through the experiment. I would say it is very possible to eat local as long as you know how to cook and are willing to go the extra mile, plan ahead and be prepared to put a lot more time into cooking. After the last ten weeks the things we have noticed the most are more money in the checking account, way less garbage-- because if you don't bring the packaging in to the house you don't have to get rid of it-- and we have lost our taste for highly processed store bought food. I have noticed that I don't have as many mood swings, and Tristan is so much less crabby when he gets hungry. Can it be because we are not eating the additives anymore? We have changed our eating habits for the best. I am looking forward to the next ten weeks.
