Our favorite winter proverb around here is “When life hands you cold, make something hot in the kitchen.” A cake or pie is always nice baking in the oven, but to really warm the house up on a miserable morning my hands-down favorite strategy is to make stock. Simmering on top of the stove for most of the day, the magical pot produces humidity, fragrance and the promise of a delicious soup or sauce when all of the flavor is at last distilled. continued »
We go down a walk now together, children, pledging that we won’t get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone with your hands of power and your heart of love. Help us then now Lord to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors and every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid, when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. Lord in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for the day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right. Let all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.
from Rev. Joseph Lowery’s Benediction for Barack Obama’s Inauguration
A customer recently sent us a link to a really cool site, The Madison 100 Mile Diet Map, a resource created by four UW-Madison cartography students who wanted to provide an easy way for area residents to find locally produced foods. And Circle M is on the map! continued »
Like all Judeo-Christian celebrations, Sabbath and Sunday included, Easter is all about getting the day off work and eating. continued »
Spring began here this week with a bang. Literally. Five little piggies (actually huge 300-pound porkers), five sheep and two goats went off to market, as we harvested last year’s babies and made room for those soon-to-be born. The bittersweet event makes the start to the new season both deeply satisfying and awfully sobering. Like farming itself, I suppose. continued »
My first response to the news about this week’s gigantic beef recall was to read the stories and skip the videos offered on the internet. I feel pretty ambivalent about the ubiquitous access we have to graphic “news” footage. While I appreciate the accountability such access allows, I think the media often slides into a voyeuristic, almost abusive sensationalism that is as unhealthy for the viewers as it is unkind to the objects. Occasionally scarred by seeing such pieces, in this case I realized that as a small meat producer, I had a certain responsibility to know what the accusations of illegal and inhumane treatment at the slaughter facility were all about. The videos turned my stomach. continued »
The most pervasive feeling that characterizes my life here on this pretty little farm is Thankfulness. And then there are mornings like today when it’s 14 degrees below zero at morning chore time. continued »
Back when I lived in Chicago and was peripherally involved in the indie-folk music scene, I chanced to be in a band with a fabulous Rastafarian bassist named Spark. He would occasionally piss us all off by refusing to play in a particular venue. His reason? He objected to how the kitchen was run. continued »
Several days after the artificial insemination adventure, I was filing the receipt from our swine semen supplier and noticed that the box and its fragile contents had cost us $79.00. continued »
“Better to be lucky than good.”
Shannon picked up this salty proverb from a foreman during his days as laborer on a carpentry crew. It’s one we pulled out quite often during our home-remodeling years back in Chicago. Now it’s something of a daily liturgy spoken here on the farm. continued »
