I know I spent way too much time in the kitchen, too much time in the garden and not enough time just resting. I climbed a major mountain this year as I began my 7th decade on this earth. Most days I am on my feet about 12 hours a day. On my weaker days it is less but for someone my age this is one good accomplishment. Mr. Bootsie says the only way to get me to slow down is to take me away from our farm. I am not sure this works for me quite like he feels it should. As we are riding down the road my mind never stops working. I see this or that and maybe it would work on our farm.
I am at a place I really wanted to be, I think, most of my life. I just never knew how much it meant to me until I returned to the country. When we came here I knew it was a time for me to do all of the things I wanted to enjoy or thought I would enjoy. I had a garden, well, a postage stamp garden in my yard in the city. The garden fed us and I was able to preserve veggies. I didn't have a lot of variety or many plants, so when I was able to have a third of an acre in garden, I was pleased. The list of what I was going to grow went on and on. My problem was this land was covered with trees. All of the trees were removed and raised beds were put in. Our first mistake was going to the mound of topsoil place and buying topsoil. Ten years later I am still working on that compacted soil with manure and compost trying to get a balance in the soil. After that horrible mistake, I built my beds with composting leaves, and my black gold I was making in my tumbler and manure. These beds are very productive.
Next came the chicken coop. It was built with lumber from our property, milled by a local farmer and built by him. Then came the goats, a barn built and Mr. Bootsie built the goat stall. Pasture was put in. I really felt like this was a farm. Now I realize I have a problem.
Is my true love the kitchen? Is this where I want to be? I find so much satisfaction working in the kitchen, preparing food for storage, learning a new recipe. I watch the cooking shows on TV when time allows and always learn something or have a memory stirred in my mind.
We make a number of gravies and creamed soups. I have learned even if the recipe doesn't tell you the milk or water should be warmed it you start with a roux, things work and come together much better if the liquid is warm. I have been having the base for my broccoli cheddar soup (recipe link) break and the end results was a very soupy, thin soup. My mind returned to thinking about how my momma did this, I find myself standing in her kitchen beside her stove. There was always a tea kettle on the wood stove and this was the source of the water used when making gravies and soups. The light went on...The water in the kettle was always warm/hot as the kettle was on the stove. Needless to say, this week, the sausage gravy went together quickly and the base of the broccoli cheddar soup did not break, we had a nice thick soup.
I am learning, that I need to find pages to read and visit which offer information about what I am now interested in doing. There are so many information sources and it takes time. I want more time to spend with my animals, I want time away from the kitchen, and propping up my feet for a few minutes would be a treat. I have a farm and I need to find the balance.
No matter how much is done, there are always many more tasks waiting to be addressed. I have found I cannot handle the heat during the summer. Avoiding the heat does slow down production. This year I have just taken this in stride, not allowing myself to get concerned when tasks were left undone. The animals have food, water and are checked on several times a day, the garden is watered and some bug control done on a daily basis along with harvesting our crops, this is about all I can manage on the super hot days. I learned this year, the goats, ducks and chickens enjoy the harvest of the garden, it is okay for me to give them snaps, squash, tomatoes and other veggies. I really do not have enough at one time to take to the food bank and driving there would be another hour out of my day. I think I made my way to the top of this mountain as I hate to see food wasted after all of the work has gone into producing the crops, feeding our animals is not wasting the food, it helps with our feed bill.
I am trying to find a balance, I believe I moved in the right direction this summer. I have full shelves in the pantry, the freezer is packed to the top, the drying rack has garlic and onions cured. This was a good season for our garden. In fact I had the best garden ever. Working on the land for 11 years is paying off and I find comfort in walking outside collecting my meals from the garden. We have enjoyed an array of fresh veggies on a daily basis. I just enjoy the garden to table movement on our farm. For me this is my comfort zone, the balance will come or not but this has been one delicious summer.
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