I like to dabble in a bit of self-sufficiency. I'm really kind of too lazy of a person to jump all in, but I do like to dip my toe in occasionally. I love that we eat our own beef. But do I personally butcher it? Nope, nope. And I mooch chickens off of my mother-in-law. I'm too squeamish to even help. I don't think I'd ever eat chicken again. I love eating our farm-fresh eggs. I informed Sheldon when we got the chickens that I kind of, sort of, really despise/hate birds (and am possibly afraid of them) so I would eat from the fruits of his labours, but I wasn't about to help with them. Turns out, I probably could, as our chickens are weirdly tame and you can pet them if you want to. I don't. But still.
Anyways. So yes, we raise most of our own meat, I plant a garden, I freeze veggies, and can some stuff, I keep potatoes and squash and carrots in my cold room. I like to make my own apple juice, jams, and jellies.
I like the thought of owning a milk cow. In fact, I do. Her name is TinkerBell. She's not bred yet, so we won't be milking her until next year some time, so since I don't actually have to do the work yet, I can fantasize about how lovely it will be to have farm fresh milk. Since I don't actually have to do it yet, I'm looking forward to becoming friends with a cow, escaping outside to tell her my troubles as I rest my cheek against her side and milk her. And then enjoy the fruits of my labors, like fresh cream, ice cream, yogurt, butter, and cheese. Oh. And milk, I suppose.
Of course, once I actually have to get my butt out there and milk her, I will probably have to find a way to con Sheldon into doing just one more chore (teehee) but in the meantime, I'm enjoying my imaginings.
My husband is actually very indulgent with me. So when I found some wheat seed that was grown from old wheat seed... like back in the day when wheat was wheat and not messed with and sprayed with this, that, and the other thing, he was all for it. And he set aside some land where he didn't spray it with fertilizer or pesticides or weed control or anything. He went and bought a little tiny seeder. He combined his usual wheat, then came home, cleaned the combine out and went and combined my wheat and put it in tote bags. He spent time in his garage and built a seed cleaner. And now we have our very own flour! So awesome. I think it tastes better simply because of the effort it takes to get it.
 |
| Our first bucket of cleaned wheat |
 |
| My KitchenAid Grain Mill |
 |
| Here we go! |
 |
| It looks like it's misting flour... |
 |
| But eventually it adds up! |
 |
| Our first pancakes with our wheat! |
 |
| Eli liked them! |
 |
| So did Kadon. YUM! |
 |
Our first loaf of bread. We used a bread maker and
we are still figuring out how to make it stop falling. :) |
Comments
Post a Comment