Piedmont Farm Tour

Last weekend we visited a few of the farms that sell at the Durham and Carrboro Farmer's markets. There were 40 farms that participated in the  Piedmont Farm Tour  but we only got to three: Chapel Hill Creamery (farmhouse cheeses), Fickle Creek Farm (pasture raised beef, lamb and pork, free range chickens and eggs, pigs and vegetables), and Maple View Farm (heavenly ice cream). It was really hot and that was about all the troops could handle without naps. My dad was in town and had ambitions to see all 40...in the end he was satisfied with 3 but wished that one of them had been Celebrity Dairy, the goat-cheese maker in Silk Hope, NC. Well, there's always next year.

It was interesting to learn what these farmers are doing to raise healthy animals and crops without artificial inputs like chemical fertilizers, pesticides, hormones and routine antibiotics. Specifically the process of rotational grazing is absolutely fascinating. The ruminants (cows/sheep/goats) go and graze a pasture for a few days and leave behind their cow pies, etc. When they have eaten down that pasture they move out and on to "greener pastures" (either to those green pastures in the sky or to actual greener pastures). The chickens move in next in their mobile chicken coops. They eat the grubs and scratch around in the cow pies, thereby spreading that stuff around and helping work it back into the soil. The chickens poop out awesome nitrogen-rich fertilizer, too, so that when the farmer goes to replant that pasture the soil is good and ready to grow more grass for the cows to eat. Cows/sheep/goats were designed to eat grass, not grain, so they stay healthy and don't need the routine antibiotics that cows that are fattened on grain in crowded feedlots are given. Pretty cool stuff.

It was fun to see where our food comes from and meet the people who are running these farms. It makes me even more committed to trying to eat locally. Ryan is pretty skeptical about the whole "locavore" thing...he reminds me frequently that if we were to eat locally sourced food exclusively that would mean no more mangoes or pineapples. That's a tough reality. I don't think I could do that. Also, really, I don't think Diet Coke grows too well in this climate. So, I will make some small changes and try to support these local farmers but I don't think I can go all the way. 

 

I love this picture of Oliver and Ryan in Carrboro. Ollie is such a Daddy's boy. He is the first one he calls out for when he gets hurt or is scared in the middle of the night. Ryan points out that it may have something to do with my typical response time (can I help that I am a sound sleeper?) but I think that Ollie knows that his dad would leap tall buildings for him. What lucky kids!

We actually went to Maple View Farm the weekend before with our good friends Ali and Mitch. Here are some pictures of that outing.

 

          

Easter Pictures

 

I have been playing around with Adobe Lightroom and LOVE it. I still haven't worked out all the kinks because what gets exported isn't exactly what I see in the Develop mode. These photos for instance have lost a bit of saturation from Lightroom to my blog. It's kind of frustrating after spending so much time tweaking the color...anyone have any tips?

Spring Weekend on the Farm

Oliver, Elliot and I had such a wonderful time this past weekend visiting old friends and experiencing a real slice of rural life in Virginia. Ryan had to bow out, which was understandable but still disappointing. I wish he had been able to come chiefly because we had such a good time and made some great memories that I really wish that I could share with him. So I made him look through all my pictures and hear all the details of our trip ad nauseum. I'll spare you, gentle reader.

The highlights included:

• going to the Culpeper small animal auction with John and Lynnie to buy bunnies and chicks for their kids for Easter
• spending a lazy afternoon with the Meyers, the Oakeys, and the Millers on Mt. Vernon Farm--watching animals, exploring old barns, and devising plans to get Cliff to hire us all to come live out on the farm
• eating some AWESOME organic, dairy and gluten-free meals at Mt. Vernon Farm...and then going home to have "real" dessert at Lynnie's (sliced strawberries and pears just didn't quite do the trick :-)
• Serious country breakfast at Eldon Farm on Sunday morning: John's homemade biscuits, fresh scrambled eggs and bacon, whipped cream and strawberries and cantaloupe
• Marching out to feed the goats and chickens in our pajamas and boots...we pretty much didn't change out of our PJs until it was time to go home
• Spending an anxious 5 minutes trying to locate Oliver and Nathan...only to discover them in the chicken coop, "Making a chicken party" in Ollie's words. They were trying to hold the chickens but the chickens "ran too faster." The boys had dumped out all their food and water and were tossing handfuls of chicken feed into the air and at each other.
• Stopping off in Richmond to see some good friends and old neighbors

I took SO many pictures because I really wanted to capture the experience, but I don't think I was able to distill the essence of what it was really like in these pictures. I have a good camera, but I lack the photo-journalist's eye. My camera is magnetically attracted to my kids. Somehow I am STILL surprised when I go back to look at my pictures and realize that I missed some really obvious details but I have like 100 shots of Oliver. Oh well.

   

Couldn't Possibly Be More Excited

Woo hoo! I can't wait. Tomorrow we are heading up to Virginia for the weekend to stay with my friend Lynnie and her family on their farm in the Blue Ridge mountains. Maybe it's because I was raised in The City and have never actually experienced farm life that I am fascinated with the agrarian lifestyle. (By the way, capital T, capital C obviously refers to New York, New York. I always thought it was funny that when we were at Cornell people would refer to "the city" and mean the bustling metropolis of Ithaca.)

In any case, being a city girl I have these strong pastoral fantasies, and what could be better than being on a farm on a gorgeous spring weekend? There will be piglets and calves, tractors and horses, small animal auctions and farm suppers. I will be living my own Charlotte's Web-inspired dream. T-E-R-R-I-F-I-C

To make it even more exciting, Lynnie and John our friends from Cornell, happen to live next door (three miles away) from Mt. Vernon Farm, which belongs to the family of one of my dearest friends from Richmond, Laura. Laura's dad is a pioneer in sustainable agriculture. He raises pasture-fed beef, pork and lamb without hormones or antibiotics. It was Laura's invitation that actually spurred this weekend reunion. She invited our other dear friend Molly and her family, too. We'll be staying with Lynnie and John but we plan to make it a whole weekend of fun on the farm(s) with all of our friends. I just can't wait!

Oh, and I think the boys will have a good time, too. :-)