Painting, Peppers and Pork
I’ve been going to work with DH lately, helping him with a painting job which happens to be at my parent’s house. It’s been both fun and satisfying (it’s novel for me to have something concrete to show for my work at the end of the day), but it sure hasn’t left much time for anything else! How do people do it—both parents working? I’d never get anything done! So today I’m catching up: thirteen million phone calls, freezing peppers (I’m roasting some of the red ones first), laundry. Though the girls did a fantastic job of keeping up with the laundry and cleaning while I was gone all week. Also today I washed the cure off the beautiful slabs of bacon and set them on racks in the outside refrigerator to dry and form a pellicle. I think DH is going to smoke them tomorrow. When I first put the cure on the bacons, I trimmed them first so they’d be nice and square, and I cured the trimmings, too, which we’ve been eating the last week or so. Holy cow. So good. Can’t wait to try it smoked!
Eventfulness
We’ve been sucked into the October energy vortex—there is just so much going on!
Our trip to Boone was action packed. We saw friends and family, and stayed in a little motel in Blowing Rock, where we watched TV and ate some junk food, and the next day we went out and hung out all day with our friends with the horses. The two mares are lovely—gentle and kind. I think we’re all going to love them, especially the girls. Of course I forgot to take any pictures.
Friday evening we went to the grand opening of Marshall High Studios, an event the magnitude of which we were somewhat unprepared for! It was fun, and the projects that are going on are exciting, especially (for me) this one.
Saturday night we went to the molasses cooking and fish fry at a little church down the road. You can’t begin to imagine how much fun that was. They hold the fish fry every year at the end of two weeks of cooking molasses every day, and the public is invited to come out and watch and eat. We stayed late, until the end after it had all been put in “cans” (canning jars). ED was fascinated by the process—which really is an art—and all those old timers just latched right on to her, pulling her in to observe different aspects of what was happening (“It’s done when those bubbles are as big as cat’s eyes/rabbit’s eyes/dimes, and they burst and leave a sort of crater on the top”) and just generally including her and all of us. I think we’re going to grow a little patch of cane next year and take it down and help out and see if we can learn something. And once again, no camera.
A Little Trip
We are headed up to Boone today, for what’s starting to feel like a mini vacation. Some friends have offered us two Haflinger mares and we’re going up to look at them, visit our friends, and go see DH’s daughter and the grandkids. Back tomorrow!
Wendell Berry Poem
MANIFESTO: THE MAD FARMER LIBERATION FRONT
Want more of everything made.
Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery any more.
Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something they will call you.
When they want you to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute.
Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace the flag.
Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands.
Give you approval to all you cannot understand.
Praise ignorance,
for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium.
Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion–put your ear close,
and hear the faint chattering of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world.
Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable.
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap for power,
please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head in her lap.
Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and politicos can predict the motions
of your mind, lose it.
Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn’t go.
Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
—Wendell Berry
Bacon
Yesterday I trimmed the beautiful slabs of bacon and rubbed them down with a mixture of equal parts salt and sugar, with a big glug of sorghum molasses and a generous handful of black pepper mixed in. They’re now in big ziploc bags in the outside fridge, and I’ll turn them over every day and kind of massage them through the bag to make sure they’re nice and evenly coated.
DH is going to smoke them for me, maybe next weekend (they need to cure for a week), so Ill keep you posted on how this all goes!
Here’s a wonderful and mouthwatering post that provided inspiration for this step of the pig-raising journey.
Weekend Recap
What an unbelievable weekend. From early Friday morning until late Sunday night, it was nonstop. Sunday there were more than 150 people here, and at one point I just stopped and looked around and had to acknowledge how very lucky we all are. This is such a strong and vibrant community!
Saturday was semi-catastrophic, but I’m not going to go into that right now. Let’s just say (as my neighbor puts it) “A learning’s worth a dozen tellings”. (Some key words: spoilage, old coal pile, and towering inferno.)
And to top off a wildly eventful and fantastic weekend, I won “Most Inspirational” over at BlogAsheville! Woohoo! Thanks, y’all!