ED’s Lovely Yarn

ED has been working on a Very Special Project. This wool is from her Cotswold/Lincoln crosses, and you might not be able to tell so well from this picture, but there are two distinct colors here—one lighter, and one darker. I can’t say anymore right now, but I’ll try to keep you posted about the Very Special Project.

 

Grass

So ED has been grazing her sheep and the cows and horses, not just here on our farm, but at a couple of different pastures in the neighborhood (thanks to gracious neighbors). One of the fields she’s been using is just down the road—we call it “Tom’s Field”, even though there is no longer any Tom associated with it. ED shares Tom’s Field with another neighbor—he mows part of it for hay, and he lets ED graze the parts of it that are too steep to safely mow. Here’s what the hayed part looks like:

You can see here that the grass is thin enough to see the ground in places, and our recent spate of dry weather has left the grass crisp and curled. The color isn’t great either—yellowish to brown. This was last cut in June.

 

Here’s a picture of the same field, taken the day before, on the part of the field that ED had been grazing, mostly sheep:

Check out the difference.

 

In related news, in another field, which we call Gebhart’s Field, we have recently discovered dung beetles. I don’t even know how to tell you how exciting this is. Those ancient Egyptian scarabs? There’s a reason dung beetles are sacred.

Today in the Kitchen

Today I roasted these little beauties—Sungolds, Blondkopfchens, and Isis Candies—with a little olive oil and salt, and I’ll can them in a couple of small jars. They’ll be a treat this winter, I think!

 

I also canned regular old tomatoes in quarts, and I finally got around to canning the dulce de leche I made a few days ago, along with a batch of sweetened condensed milk. Now I’m making butter while warily eyeing the bowls of tomatoes and the massive zucchinis that are lurking in my kitchen.

 

Yesterday ED and I went over to Tennessee to pick up the lamb from the three sheep we dropped off last week. The meat is absolutely gorgeous—so deep red it’s nearly purple, and well marbled. This is exciting for us, as these fellows were totally grassfed—ED has been rotationally grazing, moving them daily—so we weren’t sure if the meat was going to be too lean for our tastes. It’s not—it’s perfect. Very, very mild and tender, too. ED is feeling a great deal of satisfaction, seeing the fruits of her labors, and I am just so happy to have a freezer full of lamb and pork for the winter. Actually more than one freezer—we had to plug in another one we haven’t been using to hold the legs and shanks.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

DH, ED and I took a few sheep over to the butcher in Greeneville, TN this morning and picked up Bill: 241 pounds of pork chops and sausage. We chose to not have the sausage seasoned, as I’m not terribly fond of breakfast sausage, and I’m glad we didn’t—the plain ground pork is wonderful! Also, a friend told me this afternoon that she got all her sausage seasoned, and it had msg in it.

 

So next week we’ll pick up 150 or so pounds of lamb. It feels great to have a full freezer!

Finally, a Little Breath of Fall

Bernard started school today, which coincided with a breath of fall in the form of breezes and a little less humidity (though still plenty hot). I had a touch of the familiar fall feeling: energized and melancholy.

 

I had a sort of boring day of catching up on some stuff—lots and lots of laundry, including washing and line-drying all the curtains in the house; I cleaned out the big deep freeze in preparation for picking up our pork Friday; and just generally cleaned house.

 

Friday, when we go to pick up Bill, we’ll also be taking three wethers to be butchered. It feels good to be filling the freezers, especially given the price of clean meat right now.

 

I’m fighting an irritating little cold, and already looking forward to bed tonight.