snowy walk-about and farm animal catch up
Oh we do get around. Last month I was in Melbourne and this month I am in Illinois.
I’m Cecilia, from The Kitchen’s Garden Farm in Illinois and (recently) The Compact Kitchen’s Garden project in Melbourne. Life is full of travel as I manage our 400-acre farm in the Midwest, prepare to be a doula for my daughter in Melbourne, and tend family gardens in New Zealand and California.
Wherever I go, I plant trees to help offset the impact of all that travel—doing what I can for the Earth.
Join us! Subscribe, and if you can spare a few dollars a month, become a paid subscriber to help care for the rescue pigs and plant trees here on the prairies to help create your own carbon co-pay.
Good afternoon all. It is Sunday here on the prairies and Sunday is NEWSLETTER DAY. I am traveling so much lately I don’t even unpack. My suitcase sits open on the couch in my study. But if we travel we must take pay our environment back for all that nasty pollution traveling in planes causes so I have more trees and bushes ordered to plant.
Not yet though as the ground is frozen solid and covered in snow.
What’s in this post:
WalkAbout (yay) in the snow (not so yay).
Round Up of the animals
Audio book
Recipe for bread
And Plans
Walk-About:
There is very boring reverb in this video when I am walking outside, I hope it is not too annoying (probably from my big coat rubbing on the mic) but it took me 90 minutes to upload into the newsletter (rural internet is rubbish) and I make no claim as a sound engineer or a videographer for that matter so as usual we make the best of it. Because I know you all love the Walk-Abouts!
Farm Animal Round-Up
The Cows
Eating out in the snow and wandering about lazily.
They do very well when it is cold though when they poop in their cow shed the cow pats freeze solid making it very difficult to clean. And uncomfortable to rest on, I imagine. I have taken out as much out as I can and spread extra straw for them. The deeper their bed gets the warmer.
The PopPops
As you saw in the walkabout these wee pigs are very good at keeping themselves warm. I make sure their beds are deep with straw so they can burrow down.
They are about 8 months old now and still quite small. They have about 10 more months on the farm. I let them out into the garden to eat so they get a bit of a run around. These pigs are very easy to train.
The Hens and Some Roosters
When I got back last week these hens were not laying much at all. As a rule birds don’t tend to lay eggs in the winter. Now that the days are getting longer and it is cold I have added a warm light and increased their feed and in just a few days we were getting seven or eight eggs a day.
To bring chickens on to lay we increase the protein.
Their door is iced open (while I was away) which is not good when you think about the number of predators around but I think all the possums and mink and raccoons are in their burrows in this cold weather and I hope we can get the door thawed out before I have to travel again.
The Barn Flock
The barn flock are fat and happy with a big container of tailings from the mill. Mainly oat and corn husks from the organic mill down the road that takes all the grain from our fields.
The Big Pigs
Jude and FreeBee the big rescue pigs are doing wonderfully in the cold this year. Last year - FreeBee (one of his sponsors calls him The Florida Pig) did not do well in the cold at all.
But this year they are in the trailer and inside the trailer is a hog house that we have insulated the inside part with straw.
And it is working so much better.
Bad Tima and WaiWai. (Wai is also a rescue pig)
Wai NEVER comes out of his house when there is snow on the ground. He gets breakfast in bed and water at the door. Tima on the other hand could not give a toss.
She is always out looking for trouble.
Dogs and Cats
TonTon is very old now and spends all his time sleeping with his old cat LuLu.
Sweet.
And Boo is - as usual - out on the farm making sure we do everything correctly.
Bedtime Stories
Alice in Wonderland is finished. Below is the page with all the chapters.
It will be free to all for one more week before it will slide gracefully behind the paywall.
I am rehearsing Wind in the Willows this week and then soon; BedTime Stories Wind in the Willows will be released. One chapter twice a week as usual.
I read you stories because we all need a break from the gaggle that is the news and the speed that is our lives. It is very easy to get swept away and maybe even a bit worn out and depressed. The fires are just awful. The politics. The world at large. So take a break. Turn it all off. And replenish. Maybe listen to a story that is not a podcast full of opinions and rest.
I have been cooking on the new wood-stove non stop since I got back to the farm. It is a game changer.
I have not ONCE turned on gas or electricity to feed myself. And the firewood is from our own forests and shelter belts. So, here is my bread recipe!
A Whimsical Bread Recipe
Take a big bowl – your favorite one. Toss in 3 cups of bread flour and 2 cups of 100% stone-milled heritage flour – you need the fibre. Make a well in the middle, a deep lake-bed surrounded by gentle floury hills.
Pour in 3 cups (and maybe a smidge more) of good, clear well water. Grab your trusty yeast (mine’s been in the freezer for two years – still feisty) and drop three pinches into the lake of water. Around the outer rim of the flour hills, give five generous grinds of rock salt.
Now, mix. Start slow, pulling the edges of the hills down into the water, until it’s all a shaggy, sticky mess – don’t overthink it. Leave it be for 20 minutes to begin to develop.
Then, stretch and fold. A gentle tug, a lazy fold, like tucking it into bed. Repeat this a couple of times. Go slow there is no hurry.
Rub a teaspoon of olive oil inside a clean bowl. Slide your dough in, then cover the dough with oily plastic wrap. Set it in the fridge. Go to bed.
In the morning stoke up the fire. Heat up the Dutch oven in the fire-oven. (I have no idea what temp the oven got to - hot.
Bake 30 mins with the lid on. 30 mins with the lid off.
Done. Easy right. Bread making is a wonderful exercise when you need to slow down.
And cooking with flour from my own fields in an oven heated from the prunings of my own mulberry trees is so satisfying.
Have a lovely day wherever you are. And remember - slowing down is an art-form and needs practice. Rest. Give your brain a rest. Rest your body. Listen to one of my audiobooks. Or take some time out with me on the farm.
Or go stand in your backyard and lean on a precious tree. Sit and stare out the window for a while. Sleep.
"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."
— The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1
We are all working hard to sustain a lifestyle that will also benefit our soil, our landscape, our soul and sustain our earth. I feel a lot of anxiety in my life at the moment as I stretch between hemispheres trying to be everywhere for everyone all at once, so believe me I need rest too. Leave me a comment so we can start a dialogue. That is my favourite downtime activity. (Other than sitting in front of the fire with a glass of wine).
How do you balance your day - how do you rest your mind?
Every little bit helps.
Love, Celi
I love making bread this way. Although I can't often eat it and we don't have a wood oven (yet!)
Have you tried using one of the great big Tupperware containers for your overnight rise? I don't have plastic wrap on hand and so far my breads haven't escaped from my big Tupperware. Except when their sleep is in the oven (turned off) overnight but then I preheat without checking...
Everyone looks happy and healthy, Cecilia! Very cute little farm you've got over there! Thanks for the tour and I hope your hands have since warmed up!