Living on a farm, where everything revolves around the production of food, you'd think think I'd be cooking all the time, right? Not really. Until now... I guess up until now others have sort of naturally taken over in the kitchen, implicitly claiming their territory, which has been fine with me, as I've been using all my energy on work. But now it's just me and T, the new addition, (and S when he's in town) so now I am forced to make time to cook meals of course, but also make sure none of the delicious food here goes to waste. And it's been so much fun!!! I've cooked with vegetables and fruit I've never bought before (eggplant, daikon radishes, quince), I've learned how to make things I never thought of making at home (yogurt, butter), and it's really been a treat to be forced to take the time to prepare my own food! As much food in our pantry as possible is local and organic whole foods. All of the eggs and most of the vegetables we eat are from here on the farm, but I suppose that will change over the winter, as there's not much left to harvest. Fruit, cheese, meat, and the occasional vegetable come from our CSA. Bulk grains, beans, nuts, spices, coffee and milk from the co-op. Some of our fun food experiments this week: We made butter to use up cases of expired but perfectly good heavy whipping cream we got for free, and then used the buttermilk to make pancakes. We made pomegranate juice (we've been eating tons of poms that we get through our CSA, but they were starting to go bad, so we had to use them up - soooo good!) Tonight I made quince butter (thanks Martha Stewart!) from quince we got through our CSA. Tomorrow I need to make some granola, and I really want to start making bread - I've never done it before, but this is the perfect place to start!

Everything is really starting to feel routine now, which is great, because that makes everything less exhausting, and I'm able to relax a little and really appreciate being in this beautiful place. The animals are completely familiar now, and I've even started regularly asking them questions, such as "What do you think?", and they reply, of course: The chickens jerk their head from side to side with curiosity and cluck; Martina the cow nudges me with her nose and moos, impatient for food; Maggie the dog jumps around excitedly; and Chester the cat meows, rubs up against my leg, and then tries to use it as a scratching post. I've even gotten pretty good at managing the produce on my own now - knowing when they need more water, fresh-air, sun, or warmth. Now I just need to conquer the manual transmission - first lesson on the giant diesel truck scheduled for tomorrow!  Hopefully this time we won't need to herd any cows!