As to the secret escape to the farmers market- it was fantastic. We met two farmers there. One who is possibly interested in passing on his CSA and market booth to a new farmer. Interesting, no? The other farmer promised to teach me how to butcher a sheep. That wasn't really on my radar until he got so excited about it that I got excited too. It was sort of a strange moment for me. I am not the same person that I was several years ago. Vegetarian to sheep butcher. Life takes strange turns sometimes. Anyway lots of possibilities. Life is good.
We spent this last weekend at Tryon Life Community Farm in Portland, OR. This months class was focused on Urban Permaculture, appropriate technology, food forests and rocket stoves. To be fair we bailed out on Saturday afternoon to go to the Portland farmers market but the rest of the weekend was interesting. Now I know that I NEED a rocket stove. I must have one and a heated bench to go with it. Maybe even two. Maybe more I haven't really decided yet. So stay tuned, we will be having a rocket stove workshop in the near future.
As to the secret escape to the farmers market- it was fantastic. We met two farmers there. One who is possibly interested in passing on his CSA and market booth to a new farmer. Interesting, no? The other farmer promised to teach me how to butcher a sheep. That wasn't really on my radar until he got so excited about it that I got excited too. It was sort of a strange moment for me. I am not the same person that I was several years ago. Vegetarian to sheep butcher. Life takes strange turns sometimes. Anyway lots of possibilities. Life is good.
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So we just got some pics of our Guinea Hogs and well, we just had to share them. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then all I have to add is some girlish squealing, so it's probably best you just look for yourself. Enjoy!
We are now officially on twitter. Putting our mixed feeling about twitter aside it will be a good way for everyone to know when we are having farm events. So if you twitter think about following us. It should be good for a laugh if nothing else! You know you are connecting with local food when you are following your farmers tweets! What a strange world we live in...
It's been a wild couple of weeks here at Siren Song. Two weekends ago we were sitting looking at Ab's dog Luna and she just looked strange. We decided to find an open vet and get her checked out just in case. The vet says she isn't going to survive the weekend. She's totally anemic and going septic. He is closing in an hour so if we can keep her alive through the weekend he will see what's up on Monday. We leave in total shock. She was fine the day before and now she is dying?? I take Ab and Luna home and head for the health food store and do what I do best. HERBS. I buy $100 in herbs and blood tonics and have another wild conversation with the woman working. She wants to know why I look familiar...it ends with "oh the crazy cow lady from a couple weeks ago, I liked you!" I was there last month trying to figure out what to do about flies on the cows. Oddly enough sitting in the stall with a ton on burning incense didn't really help....I digress. Anyway, we spend the weekend spooning marrow broth and herbs into Luna and miracle of miracles she is still alive Monday morning when we are sitting on the steps of our vet at 8:00. Its been over a week and Lu is still with us. She is even eating. Her blood cell count is still bad but we have hope.
On a much more pleasant note we have found our goats!! We love them!! We are mildly obsessive about talking about them. They are unimaginably cute and I don't particularily care for goats so that is saying a lot! They are staying at a farm in Salem until we decide who we want bred to whom before we go pick them up. The people there are fantastic and spent hours talking pros and cons with us. We are also buying some breeding stock heirloom, endangered Guinea Hogs from them. Also, painfully cute. I have never held a three day old piglet before. It was a strangely deep experience. Getting closer to your food is both wonderful and terrifying. In the course of searching for diverse genetic piglets to breed these guys to we ended up finding another fantastic breeder and are now picking up piglets in Vacaville for the breeder in Salem! Funny how things work. Also, the Alpacas are actually on the way. We are getting 5 fiber boys and 3 bred females. It took us forever to decide but after much negotiating we finally agree. See the website and facebook for updates as soon as we go pick everyone up. |
AuthorJen Henry is a Permaculture Designer, horticulturist and visual artist. As well as a massage therapist, herbalist, painter, chef, glass blower, writer and market gardener. She is grateful that her English Degree has finally come in useful for something. Archives
January 2012
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