ARE WE IN F-ING ENGLAND?

So guess what, guys?  MY CAR IS BACK!!!  It came back to me by way of a flatbed truck driven by a man named John, who had very few teeth.  It's so shiny...it looks totally new.  If there wasn't a Connecticut College window cling and a rainbow bumper sticker on the back, I wouldn't know that it was my poor little car.  

On Wednesday, to celebrate the return of my car and the rare few hours of sun...

I just realized that I haven't complained quite enough about the rain.  Are we in FUCKING ENGLAND?  (Can I curse on my blog?  I can now.)  I feel like we didn't have summer yet, it's just been a very long, wet, spring.  I mean, people can't even get their hay in, because there's never a long enough period without rain.  How are they going to feed their animals?  On Wednesday, there was so much rain that our cheese cave flooded.  Boots and cheese wrappers were floating around in a 2.5 foot deep sea of rainwater.  Some of the orders we packed on Tuesday were on the floor and got completely ruined, as did a lot of the cheeses aging on the bottom racks.  It sucked, basically.  

Later on in the day of The Great Flood, it did stop raining for a second.  So I seized my chance, put on entirely the wrong attire, and jumped in my spiffy little car.  I drove to the trailhead in Branbury State Park to hike to the Falls of Lana and Silver Lake.  Being in a hurry to catch those evanescent moments of sun, I had put on shorts and and t-shirt.  Who hikes in shorts and a t-shirt through the woods when it has been raining for the past eternity?  Me, apparently.  I am a big mosquito bite.  I'm pretty sure that there is no part of my skin that hasn't been punctured by a hungry bloodsucker.  It looks like I have the chicken pox.  I'M SO ITCHY.  Nonetheless, the hike was absolutely gorgeous.  It was like walking through a fairy wood.  Moss covered most surfaces and mushrooms of exciting shapes and colors sprouted up along the path.  (I was stupid and forgot my camera) After a few minutes of hiking, I could hear the falls.  I have no idea what the Falls of Lana generally look like in the summer.  I imagine they are a fairly tame cascade...not a RAGING, ROARING, MUDDY, RAPID RIVER TEARING THROUGH THE TWISTS OF A GORGE BEFORE SHOOTING OUT OVER A PRECIPICE like they were when I saw them.  It was actually quite frightening.  Even though I was standing at a safe distance, I felt like the river was going to reach out and grab me with its white-capped fingers.  But it didn't.  Obviously.  

I kept hiking up the mountain, and finally arrived at the very picturesque Silver Lake.  It was not silver...in fact, it was a rather odd red colour (I can spell it that way because we are in England, now) that made me rather hesitant to swim in it.  So I hiked back down (slash ran because of the mosquitos), got back in my car, and drove to my favorite place on earth.  The Middlebury Natural Foods Coop.  Duh.  

While I was shopping, Molly called and asked if I wanted to go to Field Days with her.  Addison County Field Days is a big deal.  It's a very authentic agricultural fair, complete with sheep shearing, tractor pulls, and a demolition derby.  It also has fried dough, caramel apples, rainbow ice, maple cotton candy, and many other (theoretically) edible things, most of which have been dipped in boiling oil and/or painted with butter.  As a whole, it was a combination of Ocean City, NJ + the St. Dennis Fair + Belleville or the Green Dragon Amish markets.  Molly and I walked around, ate crap, and petted animals.  We were so tempted to steal these two adorable calves at the Poulin Grain stand, because no one was watching them...but we only had a minivan and logistically, it would have been challenging.  Not to mention illegal.  But they had such big brown eyes and long eyelashes...

It was fun.  And I got a shirt!  Wooo.

Today is Friday, so I am baking bread.  I woke up and started to put together 7 batches of bread at 6:30.  I got out to the cheese house by 9 and poured a big batch of chévre.  Then I cleaned the vat, priced some cheese, packed an order and 30 tubs of chévre.  Ate some lunch.  Watched a movie.  Now it's time to shape the bread.

I hope I didn't bore you to death with this insanely long post.

Final note...I'm leaving in less than two weeks.  I'm pretty sure that's the weirdest thing ever.

Quick Note

Just a quick note...

If you would like a Blue Ledge Farm shirt, I can bring back some when I come home on August 20th...they are $10.  A good deal!  They come in dark blue, light blue, teal-ish, a pretty orangey color, brown, and purple.  Let me know!  Comment or email me at lisa.kalan@conncoll.edu.

Rocky Acre Farm Bed & Breakfast

I am back at Blue Ledge Farm!  Last time I posted was before the big Rocky Acre trip, so I can update you on that...

For the past three years, my family has embarked upon the 1.5 hour drive (through the country, past the large signs pleading, "Repent!  God will forgive your sins!"  Ah, bible pushers...) to Mount Joy, in Lancaster, PA.  Our destination?  A little B&B/dairy farm called Rocky Acre.  There we find kittens to torment, male lambs to avoid, and some mean corn fritters.  We only stay for less than 24 hours, but it's always a good, albeit ethically questionable, time.  The majority of our stay is spent watching, petting, or rescuing the kittens.  It's sometimes hard to decide whether the owners run a cat farm or cow farm.  Grace, my 5-year-old niece, and other similarly aged guests at the farm run around trying to catch the kittens and trap them in a playhouse, where they run some sort of dubious cat day care.  We found the kids force feeding cat food to the kittens and then putting them down for naps.  My sister and I felt bad for the kitties, so we snuck into the playhouse and rescued a few of them.  The proprietors of the day care center were not fooled, however.  We had to fend them off with protests of, "But this is my kitty!" as they came with grasping hands to snatch the cats back to hellish captivity.  The way the children carried those poor baby cats!  Though I suppose if the kittens really didn't want to be handled, they would stay away from the kids.  

When we weren't involved with the cats, we collected eggs and fed the handfuls of hay to the goats and lamb.  My nephew, Carter, made the mistake of going inside their small pasture.  Their one male lamb butted Carter's 7-year-old butt all the way across the field, resulting in a very traumatized little boy who will probably hold a grudge against all sheep for the rest of his life.  I also hold this grudge.  Sheep are the smelliest, most frustrating, most unintelligent animals I have ever worked with.  And the males will butt you, which is really frightening until you realize that sheep are herbivores and they're not out for blood.  

My favorite part of staying at Rocky Acre (although I kind of hate supporting a commercial dairy) is feeding the baby bulls.  The guests aren't allowed to touch the heifers, because someday they will be milked, but the bulls are fair game.  If you get up early enough and wander across the street to the calf hutches, the vets will put you to work.  They fill giant baby bottles with yellow colostrum milk (the milk that their mothers produce right after pregnancy, full of antibodies and the like) and warm them up.  The bulls aren't quite experts at the whole bottle thing...they have trouble finding the nipple of the bottle and some of them can't figure out how to get the milk out.  It's all very cute though...even when one of the bulls butted me and I fell on my face.  Still cute.

Before I became a vegan, my second favorite part about Rocky Acre was the breakfast.  It's the most epic farm breakfast you can imagine.   Think scrambled eggs with cheese, cinnamon coffee cake, peach cobbler, pancakes, canadian bacon, corned beef hash, fruit, potatoes...it's absolutely insane.  But the crowning glory of this over-the-top breakfast is the corn fritters.  I have the recipe somewhere.  Made with boundless amounts of lard (I think) and cream and eggs and other such unvegan things, I can no longer partake in the joy that is corn fritters.  But I do remember them being crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and perfectly sweet.  I miss them something terrible.  

Another year at Rocky Acre has come and gone, and my soul is satisfied, although not so much my stomach.  

Burlington International Airport

I'm home!  On Thursday, I had to get up at 4 AM and take a taxi to the Burlington airport (because my car is STILL being fixed), and I got into the Philly airport around 8:30.

It's been busy at the farm!  We have a new intern, Clara, who is going to be with us for 10 days. So many interns!  The farm is crawling with them!  Since Clara is there, I am not just sitting around by myself all the time, which probably contributes to my spotty posting lately.  Sorry about that.  

What's new on the farm...let's see.  

Well, Wednesday would normally have been my day off, but since I am leaving for 5 days, I wanted to work.  It was pouring when I got up at 7:30.  When I asked Hannah what I should do, she suggested that I help Shannon catch all the piglets because they were going to be castrated.  I put on my boots and headed out in the thunder and lightening.  Hannah said that she and Shannon would catch the piglets and then hand them off to me and Clara.  We would then run up the steps and put them in a pen in the barn.  What they didn't mention was how bewildered the piglets and their mother looked and how LOUDLY the piglets screamed when they were grabbed.  It was not my kind of job.  I ran away and went to work in the cheese cave, organizing shelves of packing equipment.  Yes, give me a job that involves moving rolls of tape and stickers from one shelf to another.  I can handle that.  

Last night I went to see She & Him in concert with my best friend Stephania.  It was so cool to see Zooey Deschanel in person...it was like meeting a famous person!  Even though we didn't actually meet her.  She was wearing a sparkly light blue dress and a blue bow in her hair.  She also played the tambourine.  There is a video below, a stunning example of my film expertise.  This is the song "Black Hole."

Before I went to the concert, I went blueberry picking with my mommy.  We went to a place called Indian Orchards, which has become my new favorite place to pick fruit in the last few years.  They grow their produce sustainably and as organically as possible.  We also picked some peaches that smelled so sweet it was like inhaling summer.

Tomorrow is the big annual trip Rocky Acre Farm!  WOO!

FRED THE BREAD STARTER

Hi-

I lend my sincere apology for the lateness of this post. You see- I am too preoccupied feeding, milking, harassing, and talking to goats that I have little time to reflect on my honest experience here in the glorious beauty of Leicester, Vermont. I like maple syrup. And things that don't involve meat but instead involve gymnastics and frozen fruit. and tempe. Tempe in fact has an h in it- or so I am told by Clara Dennis the coolest sexiest person alive- so... I enjoy tempehhh. That is pronounced as clearly as chevrrrreeee. That, if you don't know, is a pretentious cheese. Made from goats milk. And aged for 3 days. Then wrapped. And served to your lovely mouths with their tongues and teeth open to the new, orgasmically great cheese....taste.

Hope your life doesn't suck, and that you don't have to feed pigs wheyyyy all the time, 

sincerely,

apologetically,

lovingly,

Lisa. 

(this post was obviously not actually written by me.  love, the real Lisa.)

There is an Entire Watermelon in My Fridge.

I don't have a car.  

I won't have one for a few weeks.

I am going insane.  

The end.

In other news, there is a cantaloupe, a watermelon, and a bag of grapes in my refrigerator.  So I'm going insane, but at least I have lots of fruit!

Happy Bastille Day!

Hellooooo, dear readers.  I will update you on my recent life...

On Saturday, I went to the Middlebury market, as usual.  The day started out so slowly that we were legitimately afraid that we would go home with all of the cheese.  But it picked up quite a bit and we ended up doing well.  And I sold all my bread but one loaf!  Yay.  That night I went to Branbury Beach with Hannah, Greg, the kids, Greg's mom and stepfather, and Hannah's parents.  It was so nice to get in the water, which I haven't done yet this summer, surprisingly.  

I worked from 8-12 yesterday, putting together Lake's Edge and pouring Lake's Edge and Crottina.  Then Molly came to visit!  I introduced her to the goats, and they got along very well.  The cats took to her, too. 

Today, I worked from 8-12 flipping Crottina and putting together more Lake's Edge.  Whew!  I did afternoon chores with Tucker and we finished in RECORD TIME, 'cause we're awesome.  For dinner, I had broccoli and kale with chick peas.  I also roasted a small sweet potato and a beet from the garden!  It was SO good.  So sweet and beautifully colored.  

Mosquito season in Vermont is supposed to be from around May 15th - June 15th (I think), and it was really not bad at all.  I assumed we were safe from the mosquito plague after the June 15th deadline, but apparently I was wrong.  Lesson #1: Don't assume anything, especially if it involves Vermont and nature.  It has been raining a lot here, and all the standing water allowed lots of mosquitos to breed.  You can't really go outside without being bitten a few times.  It really sucks, because the weather is so beautiful.  Hopefully it won't last.  

In other, much happier news, Stephania is coming to visit!  She and her mom and brother are coming up on Friday.  Sam (Steph's brother) is going to be a junior in high school and he is looking at UVM, so they are stopping at the farm on their way to Burlington!  Woo!  

I put up a new song.  It's a Jack Johnson song, which means it's amazing, because the name Jack Johnson is synonymous with amazing.  Fo realz.

Michael Pollan, Bread, and Cake

Some of my boules!  Aren't they cute?

Today is bread day!  This means I wake up at 6 and put together 10 batches of dough, which takes me about 3 hours.  I don't know why it takes me so long...I'm going to have to figure out a way of shortening that process.  Because that's only the beginning.  About 6 hours after that, I have to shape the dough, let it rise again, and bake it.  The journey ends with me cleaning up the kitchen, absolutely worn out, surrounded by 30-40 crackly-crusted loaves of sourdough bread, at 10:00 PM.  All in all a good day.  I threw in some mould washing, cheese pricing, and a lot of  singing to the Rent soundtrack while I was alone in the cheese house.  It was intense.  

Last night I made a Gâteau au Citron using a recipe from Orangette.  A Gâteau au Citron is a French style yogurt cake with lemon.  It's nothing fancy, but it was really delicious.  

Gâteau au Citron, adapted from Orangette

1/2 cup plain soy yogurt (or regular yogurt)

1 cup Sucanat (or granulated sugar, or any kind of granulated sweetener.  Sucanat is unrefined cane sugar and therefore somewhat better for you)

3 large eggs (I actually used eggs, because they come from the chickens here that run around all day)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp lemon zest

1/2 tsp powdered ginger

1/2 cup canola oil

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9 inch round cake pan.

In a large bowl, mix together yogurt, sugar, and eggs.  Add flour, baking powder, and zest and stir until just combined.  Then add oil.  It'll seem like the oil will never combine, but keep stirring and it'll become a smooth batter.  Pour into pan and slide into the oven.  

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.  DON'T over bake, or I will punch you in the nose.

Let cool on rack for 20 minutes, and then turn out onto a rack.

This cake, we have found, is good with whipped cream and berries, or by itself with a glass of rice milk.  Or with peanut butter.  For breakfast or dessert.  Anyway, it's versatile and totally worth making.  I bet you could use sour cream instead of yogurt.  Just a thought.  

Right now, I am reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan.  You've probably heard of this book.  Or his last book, In Defense of Food.  I really think that everyone should read it, especially if you're reading this blog.  I  think Americans needs to be educated about food and what they're putting into their bodies.  This book explains what the hell is going on in this country in term of food, and demonstrates where and why agriculture, big corporations, and the government intersect.  Read it...right now.

Jeezum!

Picture:  The top of a wheel of Riley's Coat (a washed-rind hard cheese.  it's so delicious)

Today I made pesto.  

Basil

Arugula

Garlic

Chévre (fresh goat cheese)

Hazelnuts (or walnuts, or almonds)

Good Olive Oil

Salt

Puree basil, arugula, garlic, chévre, and hazelnuts in food processor or blender.  Slowly drizzle in oil while processing.  When smooth, add in some more chopped nuts, for texture...if you want.  Eat on pasta, on bread, by itself.

Today I woke up at 4:30, did morning chores, and then wrapped Lake's Edge and Camembrie in the cheese cave until I went crazy (approximately 5 hours).  Then I led the goats out to the woods; helped Greg fix the grain auger by handing him tools, fetching him Jesus nails, and being a human hammer; and watched the cats and kittens play.  The kittens are getting so big!  But they're still adorable beyond belief.  I wish they weren't so scared of me, because right now they run away when I try to play with them.  It makes me feel large and frightening, which I find insulting.

So remember I mentioned my near-death skidding off the road fiasco thing?  Well, I took my car in to get looked at yesterday, and they were like, "Um, were you driving this around for a week?  This car is so screwed up, what's wrong with you?"  I mean, it was making a rather odd noise when I accelerated, but I didn't think it was a problem...but apparently some things were rubbing together that shouldn't have been, and other things were twisted in odd directions.  So they took my car, and I was left car-less in Rutland, Vermont.  I had to take a bus back.  I no longer have a car.  Which will be interesting.  I'll definitely be eating a lot of garden fresh produce.

Tomorrow is my day off!  I plan to go to the lake and swim, because it's gonna be a hot one.  

Great Googly Moogly!

I am sitting down.  That may not seem like a big deal to you, but it's something that hasn't been much a part of my life in the past 48 hours.  You see, Hannah and Greg have switched placed with me; they are in Pennsylvania visiting family and I am here in Vermont on the farm.  They left at about noon on Friday and will be back sometime today...I think.  What I've been finding myself doing most is feeding.  Feeding the fire, feeding Connie, feeding the starter, feeding the pigs, feeding the goats, feeding myself.  Everything needs to eat.  

Friday wasn't too bad...I spend almost the whole day baking 40 loaves of bread, half boules (picture is not mine) and half baguettes, mixing in a little bit of mould-washing and cheese-pricing when I wasn't kneading or shaping or freaking out that I was doing it wrong.  It was Saturday that was really killer...I woke up at 4:00 to do chores and was done by about 7:00.  Then Tucker came and we got together the coolers full of cheese to take to the market.  I was going to Middlebury and he was going to Rutland.  Somehow we managed to fit 2 coolers, 2 plastic tubs, 2 tables, 40 loaves of bread, and a tent in my little Jetta.  So I drove to the market, set everything up, and then realized that I forgot the tub containing the most important things: the cash box, the cuttings boards for samples, the tablecloths, etc.  I was freaking out for about 5 minutes, and then decided to go back and get it.  So I drove all the way back to the farm, hit the ground running, grabbed the tub, and drove back to the market.  I was only about half an hour late.  Whew!  While at the market, I sold all my bread but two baguettes!  Greg's bread reputation precedes me, but hopefully people will continue to buy.  We also sold quite a bit of cheese.  It was pretty busy because of the holiday weekend.  

I came back to the farm after that and ate lunch...at like, 2:30, and then at 3:30 I started afternoon chores.  I sat down for a total of one 1 hour on Saturday.  I collapsed into bed that night and then woke up at 4:30 to do it all again!  

This morning, the vacuum pump/motor/something broke in the middle of milking, and I had to call the neighbors, who have a cow farm, to come fix it.  He fixed it, and I finished milking, but then when I went to run the wash cycle, it broke again!  ARGH!!!  CRUMBS AND CARROTS!  It was frustrating.  But it's all fixed now, and I made myself feel better by watching She's The Man (best movie ever) and making vegan chocolate cake.  Would you like to make vegan chocolate cake?  You can, if you follow this recipe.  Omigod, omigod, you guys!  I followed a recipe!  Well, mostly.  

Not-Vegan-Tasting Vegan Chocolate Cake

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

1.5 organic unbleached all purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 canola oil

1 cup vanilla soymilk/ricemilk

2 Tbs cider vinegar, white vinegar, or lemon juice

Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a larger bowl.  In a smaller bowl, mix together canola oil and soymilk.  Mix wet ingredients into dry.  Add vinegar and stir quickly.  You'll see streaks of white as the vinegar and baking soda react.  Pour into a greased 8 or 9 inch round cake pan.  Put in a oven preheated to 375 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes.  I took mine out early and the middle is still gooey...mmmm.  It would be good warm with vegan ice cream.  

There's a new song up!  It's by a band called She & Him.  I think they're just adorable.  One half of this duo is Zooey Deschanel, who you may know from Elf (the pretty blond that Buddy the Elf ends up marrying) or Weeds (Andy's crazy girlfriend from Alaska).  Enjoy!

WILLAKERS!!!

Tonight I was just ON A ROLL in terms of cooking.  CRUMBS AND CARROTS!  It was ridiculous.  I made the best dinner I think I've ever had, with no recipe to speak of.  I went to the coop earlier today and bought baby bok choy and shitake mushrooms (as well as many other things).  When I got back, I was given the gift of broccoli, fresh from the garden!  I steamed the bok choy and broccoli and then dunked them right in an ice bath.  They were the prettiest emerald green color.  I sauteed sliced shiitakes and seitan, and then added the bok choy and broccoli.  I made this awesome sauce with maple syrup, ginger powder, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and lots of garlic scapes.  I added the sauce and sauteed some more.  I slid it all into a bowl and topped it with chopped almonds.  The only thing that could have made it better was some rice.  But I wasn't going to wait 20 minutes for my rice cooker to make some, so I just ate it as it was.  IT WAS SO GOOD.  It tasted like Chinese takeout food, but better and healthier.  

Before all this coop shopping and cooking business, I had decided to make cookies.  My baking has been pretty awful lately, because I haven't used recipes or measuring devices, but this time I was determined to follow a recipe TO THE LETTER.  I wanted to make these little lemon buttermilk cookies.  I planned to buy buttermilk and butter at the coop, but while I was driving there I saw a farmer herding his dairy cows in to be milked.  And the cows were just plodding along in front of this farmer, looking rather dejected...I know that they were out grazing all day, and that they have a pretty nice life...but wouldn't it be better if we didn't have the dairy industry?  It would be so much better for the environment.  No more cow poop sitting around, releasing tons of methane (a greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere, perpetuating global warming.  Farms could be used to feed people again, instead of growing genetically modified corn to feed animals we eat.  And if we couldn't live without dairy, then maybe every family could have just one or two cows/sheep/goats to provide them with milk. 

Yes, I'm working on a dairy farm.  And I love it, I really do.  I love milking the goats and making cheese, and seeing an entire process through from start to finish.  But I feel very hypocritical.  Especially because the dairy industry relies on the meat industry, and if you're going to go vegetarian, you might as well go vegan.  What do you think happens to all the males born to dairy animals?  They can't be milked, obviously, so they go to slaughter.  

I wish that I could go live in the woods somewhere, in a log cabin with 2 sheep for wool and milk, some chickens for eggs, and a garden...it's obviously that I've been reading Little House on the Prairie.  But I do wish we could go back to that time.  Those early pioneers worked hard, and they certainly weren't vegans.  But they hunted wild game that had lived a full and natural life in the woods.  Better yet, we could all live in tipis, like Native Americans and hunt with a bow and arrow.  WHO'S WITH ME?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Ah, well.  I'll do it alone.

Moral of this ridiculous tangent is:  I bought soy milk, cocoa powder, and lemons at the coop and made crazy Chocolate Lemon Cornmeal Sablés.  That's what I'm calling them.  The chocolate part came in when I realized that I had too much liquid from using agave nectar + maple syrup instead of granulated sugar...so I added cocoa powder.  It was good!  They're like little crunchy lemony chocolatey bites of yum.  But I'm not posting a recipe.  Because I didn't follow one.  Well...I tried to, but then realized that I was only using lemon zest, salt, and baking soda from the original recipe, and I gave up.  OY, what has become of me?  You can ask my BFFAEAEAEAE, Stephania, and she will tell you how upset I used to get at the suggestion of using whole wheat flour instead of all purpose white.  I followed recipes like I was Hermione in a Potions lesson.  And now?  I can't remember the last time I didn't substitute something.  It's ridonculous.  

SWEET MUSTACHE, I'm tired.  And I have to get up and start making bread tomorrow.  Good luck, me, and good night, all.

Eenie Meenie Miney Moe

I'm trying something new...I have a little box on the right hand side of the page that should say the title of a song...this week it says "Ashes On Your Eyes."  You can click on it and listen to this wonderful song by Deb Talan.  Woo!

So aside from a near-death experience on Sunday, life has been pretty much similar.  The farmer's market has sped up QUITE a bit...we sold all the bread and almost all the cheese!  It was a crazy day, that Saturday.  I do chores in the morning, so I'm up at 4:30, and then go straight to the market.  The market itself is pretty exhausting...talking to people about cheese from 8:30 - 12:30.  I came back to the farm for a few hours, and then headed to Molly's lake house for her birthday party (it was a lot of fun, and I'm going to leave it at that).  I didn't get to sleep until 2AM, so I was awake for 22 hours!  When I was driving back from the lake the next morning, I almost killed myself by skidding off the road (nearly hitting a tree)...it was a good lesson in driving the speed limit.  It was fine, though.  My car was a bit messed up, but some friendly Vermonters stopped to help me and I was able to drive back to the farm.

Most things I've been eating lately are Red, White, and Green.  Red is usually tomato, White is usually some kind of goat cheese, and Green is any number of things, including kale, avocado, arugula, basil, lettuce, etc.  This combo has never failed me.  The colors of the Italian flag are the way to go for simple snacks and meals.  Put three things on a piece of bread and you're set.  The following recipe is not red, white, and green, but it's still delicious.

Veggie Burger of Awesomeness

1 veggie burger patty (I used Amy's...I also like Dr. Praegers/anything that doesn't remind me too much of actual meat) (Or make your own, of course)

Lettuce

Avocado Slices

Tomato Slices

Sprouts (I didn't have them, but it would be delicious...make it and I will live vicariously through you)

Onion Slices

Sliced garlic or garlic scapes

Balsamic Vinegar 

Olive Oil

Salt

Put onion slices, garlic, olive oil, salt, and a bit of balsamic vinegar in a sauce pan over low heat.  Cook gently, until onions are soft and caramelized and sweet and yummy...about 15 minutes?  Cook veggie burger as specified on your particular package.  Top with lettuce, tomato, onions, avocado, and sprouts.  Eat...well, attempt to eat.  It's a bit messy.  

Tomorrow is my day off!  I am going to do laundry, possibly take my car to a dealer in Rutland, maybe bake something exciting, and participate in a Blue Ledge Farm field trip to see Wall-E.

Good night.

Crack Pizza

At Shelburne Farms they even put people in pens.

Hail!!!

My dinner for the past two nights...recipe in previous post.

Remember when you were little, you and your friends used to say that thunder was God going bowling?  Or that rain was God crying?  Well, if that's true, then the Vermont weather God is a bipolar toddler who has frequent tantrums.  Today it was warm and sunny (I think...I was in a cave, so I can't be sure) and then all the sudden it was cloudy, and then it thundered, and then it POURED SHEETS OF WATER AND HAIL THE SIZE OF MARBLES, and then it was bright and sunny and warm again.  In a matter of maybe...30 minutes.  

Our sourdough starter is ready to make bread!  Yay!  Greg made some test loaves earlier this week, and I got to have two of them...and uh...they're basically gone now.  I like bread.  Especially this bread.  I'm pretty sure it's the best bread I've ever had.

Anyway, today we made 7 batches of dough, each one enough to make 4 loaves.  We then shaped them into baguettes and rounds, scored them, and popped them into the oven.  Now there are lots and lots of loaves sitting in a big cloth bag, ready to be sold at the market tomorrow!  Excitement.

Greg made pizza with some of the dough.  I'm pretty sure he should open a restaurant.  It was deeeee-licious.  Yes, I fail as a vegan.  Shut up.

I'm milking tomorrow morning, so I am heading off to bed.  Bed time for Big Bird.  Nighty night.

Quiche Puff

Sorry that I've been an inconsistent blogger lately...but I've been really busy!!!  Sometimes I'm just lazy...like Monday night...and Wednesday...but listen to my Tuesday schedule, and maybe you'll understand why I wanted to go to sleep instead of blahg.  Wake up at 4:30AM.  Milk 5:00-7:00.  Feed pigs and non-milkers 7:00-7:30.  Cheese house, wrapping and packing orders 8:00-4:00PM.  Get in car, drive to Williston 5:00-6:15.  Gymnastics 6:15-8:15.  Drive home 8:15-9:30.  Eat a snack, shower, and sleep!  My Thursday schedule is the same, but I wake up at 7:00.  So maybe now you can sympathize. 

Since today is a Thursday, that means yesterday was a Wednesday, and it was my day off.  I didn't have anything planned except food shopping, but Hannah kindly invited me to go strawberry/cherry picking with her and Livia and Hayden!  If you have ever seen me in the months of June, July, August, September, and October, you know how obsessed I am with picking edible things.  Especially apples and pumpkins and blueberries, but you know, strawberries and cherries are fun too.  In Pennsylvania, especially at Linvilla Orchard, I'm pretty sure that it's cheaper to buy apples in a store than to pick them yourself.  But in good ol' Vermont, I could get tons of strawberries and cherries for only $7 something.  And Linvilla certainly doesn't have a view of mountains and Lake Champlain.  

I wasn't quite sure what to do with all of the fruit that I had collected, but I found a recipe for strawberry bread...like banana bread, but with strawberries.  Of course, my version substituted every ingredient besides the strawberries...whole wheat instead of white flour, agave nectar instead of sugar, egg replacer, Earth Balance instead of butter...oh, and I didn't use measuring cups or spoons.  You can imagine how it tasted.  Like shiit-ake mushrooms.  Actually, it's not that bad, just a bit floury.  I'm obviously not including the recipe for that, mostly because I have no idea what I did.  I really need to start following recipes again.

So exciting news!  I mentioned it in paragraph #1...I am doing gymnastics again!  I go twice a week to a gym in Williston called Green Mountain Gymnastics, and I'm part of an open gym program for middle school/high schoolers, neither of which I am.  The coach is going to be a senior in college, though, and she's really nice, so I feel fine.  Woooo for getting back in shape!  Yeah, about that...I feel like I've been run over by a tractor.  It's been more than I year since I've done gymnastics, and my body is protesting, loudly and painfully.  But it's ok!  It feels great to be back in the gym.

This is what I've been eating for dinner recently, because of my strawberry surplus.

Salad is Cruise Control for Awesome

Salad:

Any type of mild lettuce you like, washed and torn into pieces

ARUGULA....mmmm

Sliced strawberries

Small pieces, crumbles, of goat cheese (I used our herbal chévre)

Diced avocado

Sunflower seeds

Dressing:

2 parts Good olive oil

1 part Good balsamic vinegar

Maple syrup

Salt

Garlic scapes

For salad:  Combine everything in a bowl.  Duh.

For dressing:  Whisk together olive oil and vinegar.  Add a little maple syrup and salt to taste.  Slice garlic scapes into tiny thin disks and add to mixture. 

Pour dressing over salad, grab a fork and a good book, and head on outside.

Weekend with the Parents

Sorry for not posting when I said I would.  I'm a bad bad blogger.  Oh well.  Who reads this thing anyway?  

I was a bit too busy to post over the weekend because my parents collected me on Friday and we set off for a whirlwind tour of Burlington and the surrounding area.  The first day was really amazing...we stopped off to look at Shelburne Farms.  It's this GARGANTUAN estate built by a man who had married into Vanderbilt money (you know, the family with the railroads).  You walk into the Farm Barn and it feels like you're entering the courtyard of a medieval castle, complete with turrets and a bell tower.  It was utterly gorgeous.  The first thing we did was get a snack...a veggie platter with fresh little carrots, baby beets, and radishes from their garden, homemade hummus, their fresh baked bread, and Shelburne farms' cheddar.  "Wow," is all I can say about that.  After we finished, we went and looked at the animals, including a colossal brown swiss cow.  I could have sworn she was part elephant.  I am going to have pictures of lots of these things, but I haven't received them yet.  

We drove around some of the property and saw this Hummer:

Which made us laugh.  

For dinner that night we ate at American Flatbread in Burlington...it was delicious.  They use all local and organic ingredients whenever possible, so I felt good about throwing my veganism to the winds.  We buy their pizza at Whole Foods, and it was really exciting to eat at the actual restaurant.

  

Saturday was the Burlington Farmer's Market, and it was AMAZING.  There was a ton of produce, especially strawberries and lovely greens.  I bought some rainbow chard and garlic hummus (from a vendor called "Chick Peace").  Then we met this guy, Dylan, who is a sort of family friend type dude...it's complicated.  Anyway, we know him, and he has an organic vegetable farm called "Digger's Mirth."  Isn't that a great name?  Doesn't that just invoke images of the earth laughing up vegetables?  I like it.  Dylan took us to the farm and gave us a little tour.  It was beautiful, and really interesting.  And he gave me some adorable little carrots!  I took some pictures...

  

We had reservations for Black Sheep Bistro in Vegennes, because it was highly recommended by Hannah and Greg.  It was far away but worth it.  There was a lot to see on the way down and the town of Vegennes is very quaint.  I got curried asparagus soup and a spinach beet salad.  Mmmm.  Oh, and Ben and Jerry's for dessert!  Cinnamon Buns ice cream in a kid cone.

For breakfast today we went to a crepe place called The Skinny Pancake.  The place was very cute, and had the potential to be delicious, had I not ordered something vegan.  Who orders something uncheesy in a crepe place?  That was dumb.  Ah, well.  I'll know for next time.  

And then it was time to go!  

And now I'm watching the Olympic Trials, angry that I'm not at home in the stands.  Grrrr.

One of the Girls

Picture: My drawing!  I have the artistic skills of an very talented toddler!  It looks a bit better in person, but not much.

Because Hannah and Greg are artists, they have a studio on the 2nd floor of the New Barn.  It's beautiful and bright and stocked with easels and brushes and pastels and the like.  Today I felt like doing something vaguely artistic, so I climbed past the eagerly bleating goats on the first floor and up into the studio.  And then I looked around, feeling very much out of my element.  I grabbed a pencil, paper, and chair, and sat down by the window to sketch what I saw.  I tried my very best and STILL ended up with a drawing that could have come from my 2nd grade portfolio.  I like it though.  I actually put a lot of thought into it, successfully captured some things.  Like how the sky looked before a recent storm, and the way the fields sometimes look like a patchwork quilt, and the different layers of the mountains.  I gave no thought to perspective...the goats are as big as the trees.  Ah, well.  I showed it to Hannah and Greg and they managed, admirably, to make positive comments without laughing.  Quite impressive on their part, I think.

Then I had an urge.  I had an urge to know what it's like to be a goat.  I went downstairs, climbed the fence, and sat down in the middle of the pasture.  I picked a blade of grass, I put it in my mouth, I chewed it thoughtfully.  Then, suddenly, I was surrounded by a small herd of young goats, who seem to think that everything is edible.  Everything.  My shirt, the ties on my pants, my fingers, my hair, my ears, my nose.  I'm surprised that all the features are left on my face.  If the goats had their way, I would be a naked, earless, noseless, fingerless, bald young woman.  Eventually their nibbling tickled too much and I had to stand up.  I discovered that being a goat mostly consists of standing around eating grass, baahhhhh-ing at everything that moves, and running in and out of the barn for no particular reason.  It's an action packed life.

Remember when I made those soba noodles with almond butter sauce a few weeks ago?  I found an interesting recipe on Orangette for soba with a peanut lime sauce.  I've adapted it below:

Soba with EXCITING Sauce

Organic, All Natural Peanut butter

Lime juice (I didn't have limes, so I used lemons)

Olive oil

Soy sauce

Cayenne pepper

Powdered ginger

Chopped Garlic 

Nutritional yeast, obviously

Water, to thin it

Soba noodles

Daikon or regular radishes, sliced thin

Lamb's quarters, spinach, or bak choi, sliced thin

Carrots, sliced thin

Whisk together all ingredients for sauce until it turns into something sauce-like.  It'll be lumpy for a while, but keep stirring and it'll become smooth.

Boil soba noodles for about 2 minutes, until al dente.  Drain and rinse in cold water.  Put in bowl, mix with veggies and sauce.  Enjoy!

I have felt entirely uninspired for the past few days.  You may have noticed that.  I think that I am going to make this a Monday-Wednesday-Friday blog, that you can stop by on your way to check xkcd.  If you don't know from xkcd...that would sadden, but not surprise me.  I wouldn't have the faintest idea of what those four letters represented if I hadn't met Susanna and her posse of webcomics.  You'll have to do the research yourself, though.  I don't want to make it too easy to discover.  

Just...Don't Drop The Soap

I worked from 5 AM until 4 PM today.  That's 11 hours.  The great thing is, it barely feels like I'm working.  It's amazing.  Who else has a job like that?  Only me.  

Tomorrow is my day off, and then my parents are coming up to visit from Thursday to Sunday.  Very exciting!  

I'm not quite sure why, but I am happy to an extreme degree.  Which is nice.

For dinner, I had tempeh tacos.  I made some more tortillas from the leftover dough I had, and then made a filling.

Barn Swallows

Tempeh Tacos

Tempeh, cut into 1/4 inch strips

Sliced red bell pepper

Sliced onion

Sliced mushrooms

Spinach

Red pepper

Curry powder

Nutritional yeast

Soy sauce

Sesame oil

Avocado slices

Heat oil and add peppers and onions to pan.  Saute until onions are softened.  Add tempeh and mushrooms, cook until tempeh is golden brown.  Add spinach, heat until wilted, season with soy sauce, red pepper, curry powder, and nutritional yeast.  Fill half a tortilla, top with avocado, fold in half and eat!

I'm going to have a midnight (midnight = 9:00) snack of whole wheat tortilla + maple syrup + peanut butter + banana.  Goodnight!

Short But Sweet

I am trying to think if something especially notable happened today...

Can't think of anything.  

Actually yes!  Milking went REALLY well today.  I finished in a very reasonable amount of time...it probably took me about 1.5 hours.  

And another thing!  I bought these amazing looking, perfectly ripe strawberries at the co-op.  I ate them, and then decided to call them "S.O. Strawberries."  S.O. standing for "Spontaneous Orgasm."  That's how good they are.  I started to eat them just by themselves, but then I remembered the bar of Lake Champlain dark chocolate that I had also purchased at the co-op.  I melted it in a makeshift double boiler and dunked the strawberries.  A few of them got a sprinkling of spicy pumpkin seeds.  Yummy.  

Also, it was the most gorgeous day, 78 and breezy.  

Happy Monday.

Father's Day

I'd like to dedicate this post to fathers everywhere, especially my father.  And, of course, my brothers, Andrew and Dan.  Oh, and Greg!  Happy Father's Day to all (for whom it is applicable).

In other news, the piglets have arrived!  I found out this morning, but I think they were born last night.  There are eight, of all different colors.  Some spotted, some orange, some pink, all adorable.    

So this morning I woke up, which I took to be a promising start to the day.  I fed my starter, because from days 10 - 14 of growing a starter you feed it three times a day.  Feeding just consists of adding certain amounts of flour and water and stirring.  It's quite smelodious (to quote my father on Father's Day).  Is that a positive statement?  I'm not sure, but it's meant to be one.  It smells pretty good, like apple cider vinegar. 

Then I had breakfast...obviously, I ate chili on a piece of bread with cheese.  Because I'm too cool for cereal.  I worked in the cheese house from about 8 - 12, flipping chévre and pouring crottina/Lake's Edge.  And then I was free!  I fed my starter again, and then started to think about feeding myself.  I had a plan, and that plan involved homemade flour tortillas.  I'd just read, on Orangette (see previous post), about making your own tortillas.  It just so happened I had all THREE ingredients required to make it.  Well, she said to use white flour, but I only have whole wheat.  So they were whole wheat tortillas.  And they were DELICIOUS.  Here is the recipe, adapted from Orangette (Molly Wizenberg), who adapted it from Saveur Cooks Authentic American.

Barn Swallows I

Whole Wheat Tortillas

4 cups organic whole wheat flour
6 Tbs vegetable shortening (Earth Balance)
1 1/2 tsp salt, if shortening is unsalted

In a small saucepan, bring about 2 cups of water to a boil.

Mix together flour and salt in a large bowl.  With there being a dearth of large bowls in my apartment, I used a stock pot.  Mix in the shortening with your fingers until the flour mixtures is a coarse meal.  Add about 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups of water (enough so that the dough holds together), and start by mixing with a spoon.  Once it is cool enough, bring it all together with your hands.  

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for about 2-5 minutes, but no more.  

Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 min.
Heat a 9" cast iron skillet over medium heat, with a tiny bit of canola oil.

Cut ball of dough into 6 wedges.  Cut wedges into 3 to make 18 wedges in all.  Take 1 wedge and roll it into a VERY thin circle about 8 inches in diameter.  Put dough in pan and cook for about 20-30 seconds, until puffed.  Flip and do another 20-30 seconds until golden brown.  Cool on rack, and repeat with remaining wedges.  Don't stack until wedges are completely cool.
Yield: 18 tortillas

I ate these tortillas as part of soft tacos made with more chili (can you overdose on chili?  I hope not), avocado slices, and crottina leftover from the farmer's market.  I am still so full from lunch that I'm skipping dinner altogether.

I lazed about all afternoon...except for the hour I exercised, and the half hour I weeded the garden.  The rest of it was spent reading Orangette and The Paupered Chef (another food blog, check it out.  One of the writers visited our farm yesterday)...and, I confess, on ConnColl Confessional and Facebook.  

The writer of The Paupered Chef has kindly identified those mysterious garlic greens from last post!  They are called "Garlic Scapes," and they are the first young tendrils of garlic plants.  I found a lovely looking recipe for Garlic Scape Pesto from A Mighty Appetite, which I would most certainly make, had I in my possession a food processor.  Someone else must make it and tell me how it is...assuming you could get your hands on garlic scapes, which, come to think of it, is rather unlikely.  Keep an eye out though!  Stop by farmer's markets.

Barn Swallows II

Garlic Scape Pesto

1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into ¼-inch slices
1/3 cup walnuts
¾ cup olive oil
¼-1/2 cup grated parmigiano 
½ teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste

Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator

Intense. Like camping.

Picture 1 : All the things I got at the market today...organic garlic greens (I don't know what they are, that's what I'm calling them), organic microgreens, and lamb's quarters.  

Picture 2 : My chili.  It was intense.

Check out this blog, entitled "Orangette."  It puts mine completely to shame.  I will persevere, however, and continue to update my inferior blog.  NOTE (20 minutes later):  I just found out that this Orangette woman, Molly Wizenberg (she's Jewish!), is a published writer.  I no longer feel like a sad excuse for a blogger.

It was a Saturday, a market day, a morning milking day.  I was out of bed by 3:30...I woke up for some reason.  It happened to be a good thing, though, because I put some rice and water in the rice cooker and then went back to sleep.  When my alarm rang at 4:30, the rice was done.  I mixed it with some rice milk and maple syrup for a breakfast porridge.  Pretty yummy!  Milking was easy, although we had to continue recording the amount of milk each girl was giving.  Then Hannah and I walked the goats out to the woods and I fed the piggly wigglies.  One of the big sows is pregnant, and when I walk out there I keep expecting to see a jumble of piglets lying somewhere.  But it hasn't happened yet!  I'm having daydreams about Charlotte's Web.  

I helped out in the cheese house pouring chévre for a little bit, and then Hannah dropped me off at the Middlebury market to bring reinforcements to her dad (her parents do market duty...her dad goes to the Middlebury market and her mom to the Rutland market).  The market slowed down a lot once I got there, and we didn't sell as well as we had been.  I talked to some pretty cool people though...one guy, Casey, was coming to the Middlebury College language school from Wisconsin.  He didn't come to our tent to buy cheese...he came for our competitively priced Blue Ledge Farm t-shirts.  He left all of his shirts on the train.  I felt a bit used...but he was going to be learning Russian, and I, being of Russian ancestry, was charmed.  Tucker also came by, with some of his family.  They all seem really sweet.

I had $4 left to spend in my wallet...I spend ALL of my money on food.  I just can't help it.  The co-op is so enticing.  I spent $3.50 at the market and was able to buy a bag of organic micro greens and...well, I'm not sure quite what they are...they look like chives/onion grass/scallions, but they're not hollow.  Anyway, they are amazing and taste like mild garlic.  We traded cheese with this adorable old lady and she gave us bags of Lamb's Quarters.  It's commonly considered a weed, but it's actually very nutritious and tastes like spinach.  I can't wait for the market to really pick up and more produce to become available.  

So I went to the co-op in the afternoon because I was DETERMINED to make chili.  I'd seen Hannah and Greg and the kids eating chili and I was like...I WANT IT.  But it had meat in it.  So I made my own!  It is probably has the most ingredients of any chili ever made.

Barn Swallows

Chili con EVERYTHING (but carne, of course)

Minced Garlic

Diced Onion

Diced Red bell pepper

Diced Carrot

Diced Potato

Diced Fresh tomato

Pearled barley

Black beans

Crumbled tempeh

Canned diced tomatoes, squished up a bit.

Frozen corn

Frozen peas

Sliced Button mushrooms

Cumin

Cayenne pepper

...I think that's it.

So, don't do what I did, and use dried black beans that have been soaked.  Cheat and used canned black beans, and your stomach will thank you for not making it wait to eat for an hour or two.  The recipe is pretty simple.  Saute onions, garlic, and bell pepper for about 3 minutes or so.  Season with cayenne pepper and cumin.  Add carrots and potatoes.  Saute for a few minutes.  Add barley, tempeh and canned tomatoes.   Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer, and cover.  Simmer for 30 minutes.  In the last 5 minutes of those 30, saute mushrooms, corn, and peas, and fresh tomato until hot.  Add to chili.  Simmer for another minute, then serve.  Garnish with chopped scallions and cheese of your choice...I used some crottina.  Mmmm.  It was totally worth the 2 hours it took for me to make.  

Whew!  This was a long one.

Yowch!

Picture 1 : This is not Vermont.  It's France.  But I love this picture, and I didn't feel like going downstairs to get my camera to upload the lovely photographs of my damaged digits.  So here are some sunflowers.

Remember how I mentioned my haying blisters and hay chafe?  Well, today in the cheese house we salted the camembrie.  So my hands were covered in salt.  It was a really terrific experience, overall.  But actually, the camembrie is my favorite cheese to make.  The curds are really fun to pour and when you are salting the cheese it's all round and cute and feels like some sort of strange sea creature...in a good way.  

I feel like a gymnast again!  My hands are all blistered and my biceps are nice and sore.  

I worked in the cheese house from 8-12, salting and then wrapping and pricing for the market tomorrow.  I ate lunch and then made some vegan peanut butter oatmeal cookies.  They're pretty good...but I am not going to put the recipe up, because I don't remember it.  I kinda just made it up.  I really must start measuring when I bake.  I don't have dry measuring cups with me, so I keep eyeballing everything/substituting/making things up.  That's fine for cooking, but with baking it's a bit more dangerous.  After my cookie adventure, I had afternoon chores.  A week-ish ago a big tub came in the mail, containing these crazy contraptions that measure how much milk each girl is producing.  It helps you figure out if your goats are "earning their keep."  We used them tonight, so after each goat was done milking, we took a milk sample and recorded how much milk they had produced.  We have to do it tomorrow morning as well. 

My favorite part of the day?  When Hannah chased the goats up into the parlor yelling, "THIS IS NOT A PETTING ZOO!!!"

After chores, Tucker told me what he was doing during chores...half the baby goats got out of their pasture and he had to get them back in the new barn.  He got them in the barn, but not inside the fence.  So we spent about 15 minutes fighting with these little kids, shoving them through a door without letting any of the other ones out.  I would compare the experience to wrestling with an octopus.  Not that I've ever wrestled an octopus, but imagine it would be similar.  Then one of the milkers, Ember, got in with the non-milkers, and we spent about 20 more minutes trying to catch her and put her in the correct pasture.  GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY!  JESUS MARY AND JOSEPH!  CRAZY TOWN!

Then I made dinner...I had broiled zucchini and potatoes with some LaLuna on top and some sauteed spinach and kale.  Just lots of vegetables today.  I actually don't think I had any protein today...hmm.  I'll have to have lots of beans or lentils tomorrow.  Tomorrow is farmer's market day!  WOOOOO.

As Cool As I Am

I'm tired.  So I'm not putting up pictures or writing what I ate or doing any of that superfluous nonsense.  

Today I woke up.  At 7.  And then I worked from 8 until maybe 2 or 3 (?) salting chévre, washing moulds, and pouring camembrie.  When I emerged from the temperature controlled cheese house I found that it was a beautiful day!  Breezy and in the 70's.  Now that's what I imagined a Vermont summer would be like.  I weeded the garden for about 45 minutes...I could have seriously done it for a few hours, but that was when the first wagon of hay arrived.  Duh duh duhhhhhh.  I'd unloaded hay once at my horse farm camp, SMA, and it was not the most pleasant experience.  Although they did take us out for ice cream afterwards.  Hey, Hannah and Greg, why didn't you guys buy me ice cream?  Oh, that's right.  I'm a vegan.

Anyway.  

One person has to stand in the hay wagon and load bales onto the belt that carries the bales up into the hay loft.  Two other people are up in the hay loft, grabbing the bales and stacking them.  I wasn't really too much help because I can only lift one bale at a time and each bale is almost as big as me.  I got some cool haying blisters, though.  And some lovely hay chafe on my arms.  It's really attractive.  And I got to ride in the hay wagon!  Hay rides never get old, apparently. 

In other news, I climbed halfway up the silo.  It was a beautiful view.

I ate some stuff for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  It was good.

Good night.

Burlington

Picture 1 : I stopped at a pick-your-own-strawberries farm on the way up and bought some strawberries.  They were yummy and pretty and sadly not organic.

Picture 2 : IT WAS SO GORGEOUS.  I almost drifted into cars in the other lane because I couldn't stop looking at the views.  So beautiful it was nearly deadly.

Today is Wednesday, and it was my day off.  (So, have you memorized my schedule yet?)  I woke and up and had breakfast...I'd run out of rice milk and cereal so I did this weird thing where I took leftover brown rice and mixed it with organic peanut butter, maple syrup, and ginger.  It was pretty good.  Then I got in the car and made my way north on Rt. 7.  I was heading toward Shelburne (about 40 minutes away), where there is a gym that offers $5 open workouts.  (That's a ridiculously good price, btw).  It took a while to get there, because 1. it's far away and 2. they were paving and painting lines on the road.  Once I got there...funny story.  I walked in the door and the first thing I saw were five 3-year-olds bouncing on a trampoline.  The second thing I saw was that the ceiling was about 9 feet high.  And the third thing I saw that the "gym" was about the size of the cheese house.  And it was at that point that I realized this was a gym for people that do not exceed 3 feet.  AKA small children.  AKA not me.  So I kind of giggled to myself, and then walked right back out.  I sat in the car, a bit miffed, and then called my dear mother, who always knows what to do.  She told me the addresses of three other gyms in the area (at this point, I wasn't just going to drive back to the farm) and I plugged them into my handy dandy GPS and went on a tour of the Burlington area.  The first gym I stopped at was Champlain Valley Gymnastics (CVG) in South Burlington, and they had a nice sized gym with all the equipment.  They don't currently offer open workouts though, but they might call me about working out with their team.  I left and went to Hruska Gymnastics Academy in Winooski...but they were closed.  They do offer open workout on Sunday from 1-3, and it's the home gym of the UVM club team.  They're kinda a bit deal.  After Hruska's I went to Green Mountain Gymnastics.  I almost gave up on finding it, but I'm so glad that I didn't.  It was a clean, beautiful gym that's set up very much like my gym at home.  The woman I met there, Robin, is probably the nicest person on the face of the earth.  They have an open program for middle and high school students on Tuesday and Thursday nights that I could come to, and she gave me the forms and the prices and all the information and I'm totally set EXCEPT that I have to call Head Over Heels in Rutland to make sure it isn't just for little kids.  Because it's way closer than Green Mountain.  But yay!

 I headed into downtown Burlington for lunch.  I ate at a restaurant called Zabby and Elf's Stone Soup.  It's mostly vegetarian/vegan (which is why I ate there) and it was really quaint and delicious.  It's buffet style with lots of different options.  I had a tempeh stew, kale, brown rice, sweet potatoes, and a little bit of salad.  I was in macrobiotic heaven!  I walked around after lunch and shopped a bit...it's the biggest city in Vermont but it's probably smaller than Penn State's college town.  I walked into the Burlington co-op but it was so big that I got really overwhelmed and fled.  I stopped at the Middlebury co-op on the way home and got some miso paste.  

For dinner, I had a bowl of homemade miso soup, some seaweed salad, and some quinoa salad.  The miso soup recipe...I think either I need to perfect it, the recipe isn't very good, or that's just how traditional miso soup tastes.  I'm thinking it's option 1 or 3...I trust Christina Pirello, although sometimes she scares me a little bit.  Either way, I'm not going to post the recipe quite yet.  

Barn Swallows

Seaweed Salad

Arame (soaked 3 minutes, boiled for 10)

Sesame seeds

Toasted sesame oil

Soy sauce

Brown rice vinegar

Red pepper

Combine everything.  And eat it.

Quinoa Salad

1/2 cup quinoa

1 cup water

Tomato

Peas (fresh or frozen)

Scallions

Olive oil

Sea salt

Nutritional yeast

I tried SO HARD to resist putting in curry powder, but I succumbed.  I love it too much.

Bring quinoa and water to boil, simmer for 15 minutes.  Dice tomato.  Slice scallions.  Boil or steam peas until tender, then drain.  Mix all ingredients together.  

Such a busy day!  I left at 10 and got back at 6.  Craziness.  

Breathing Tornado

I actually caught a picture of the lightening!  After maybe, 45 tries.
It was another crazy Tuesday!  I milked in the morning, so I was up before the sun...probably a good thing, because it ended up being about 1,000,000 degrees again.  I'm really starting to like the goats.  Once you get over the fact that they're stubborn and sometimes very unintelligent, you see that they each have their own distinct personality and are often reminiscent of people that you know.  Or maybe it's that most days, I see more of the goats than I do of people, and they are becoming human in my mind.  Either one.  Anyway, after I milked, I fed the pigs.  It was getting quite balmy by that point and I was all sticky and gross.  While I was filling buckets of water and whey for the pigs, I poured all this cold water over my head.  Greg noticed that I was soaking wet and asked me if I was okay...I think he thought I was dying of heat stroke and sweating to death.  But no.  I had just stuck my head under the spiget.  I gave the pigs lots and lots of water because it is so hot, and I gave myself a nice workout bringing those buckets back and forth about 10 times.  I took a break and then helped Hannah bring the goats out to the woods where it's nice and shady.  Some silly goats refused to come with us and they stayed in the barn all day.  After that I worked in the cheese house until 1:30 packing restaurant tubs, wrapping Lake's Edge and crottina, pouring chévre, washing moulds, and cleaning the bulk tank.  
We heard there was a tornado warning in the area, so we brought the goats in from the woods early.  Right after they were safely in the barn, the wind really picked up.  Every unlocked door kept banging open and shut...I felt like I was in some sort of goat farmer horror film.  You could actually see the wall of rain coming towards us.  Pretty creepy.  It ended up being a short-but-intense thunderstorm and then it was sunny again.  No worries.  And now it's a lot cooler and it's supposed to be in the high 70's tomorrow, I think.  That would be great, because I'm planning to head up to a gym (as in gymnastics, not like, treadmills) in Shelburne and take advantage of their hour of open gym.  I'd rather not have it be like PGC where it's 100 degree in the gym and the bars are dripping wet BUT WE STILL HAVE A 5 HOUR PRACTICE.  Yeah...fun times at summer workout.  
So after the non-tornado, I made dinner.  I feel like I've made something exactly like this, but it was really good.  So I'm going to post the recipe anyway.
Barn Swallows
Brown Rice With Many Things In It
A handful (literally, I took a handful) of cooked brown rice
Kale of any sort (I used some from the garden...mmm)
Arame 
Mushrooms(shitake would be more authentic, probably, but I used button)
Onion
Garlic
Fresh Ginger
Sesame seeds
Nutritional Yeast
Sesame oil
Red pepper
Soy sauce
Cut the stalks out of the kale and drop leaves into boiling water.  When they turn a vivid shade of green, fish them out and put into an ice bath.  Take them out of the ice bath and slice into strips or smaller pieces.
Cook arame according to package...soak in cold water for 5 minutes, drain, and boil for 10.
Dice onion, mince garlic and ginger.  Put in pan with sesame oil and sesame seeds.  Saute until onions are soft.  Add mushrooms, saute until soft.  Add kale, arame, and rice.  Cook until everything is hot.  Add soy sauce, nutritional yeast, and red pepper.  It would be good topped with avocado...don't know what I didn't do that.  Oh well.  Yummy healthy goodness!  SEAWEED...CRUCIFEROUS GREENS...FIBER...EAT IT....
 
I hear thunder in the distance.  When I was little, I used to call it "wonder."  Wasn't I cute?

Cinnamon Bell

I WANT TO GO TO SLEEP so this is going to be short.  I hope.  

Daily Blue Ledger:

I woke up at 7 and went out to the cheese house at 8.  I flipped crottina in RECORD TIME and then put together some Lake's Edge.  It was weird, I've worked with the ash at least 3 other times, but today I could smell it.  Very odd.  Then I wrapped camembrie until 12.  After that, I ate some of the camembrie that I'd be saving in my refrigerator since last weekend; it was so perfect and delicious!  I'm glad I waited.  I kinda moseyed (that's actually how you spell the past tense of "mosey"...does that look strange or is it just me?) around until it was time to milk.  I think that's what I did, at least.  The heat may be affecting my memory.  I had Tucker to help me milk, which was lovely.  It's easier with two people.  Feeding the pigs, especially, is so much faster.  We had no major mishaps, although when I looked in during the 2nd to last group, there were 5 girls instead of 7 in the holding area.  I don't know where these girls go!  It's a mystery!  Anyway, I went out and immediately found the two that were missing.  Finding them, however, is one thing.  Catching them is quite another.  One of them is really old and adorable and wears a bell around her neck and just submitted meekly to being led back inside, but the other one decided that she didn't want to be milked today.  So I ran around after this goat in my spotted boots for a little while.  She tried to hide herself in a group of three goats.  Really?  Three?  Like I'm not going to see you?  So I caught her then and brought her back in.   In general, though, it was very successful.  I had a light salad for dinner...

Barn Swallows:

Avocado Tomato salad with Lemon Ginger Dressing

Avocado slices

Tomato slices

Cooked/canned chickpeas

Any kind of sprouts...alfalfa, pea, sunflower, etc

Lemon

Olive oil

Salt

Fresh Ginger

Nutritional yeast

Put avocado, tomato, and chickpeas in bowl.  Top with sprouts.  Grate ginger, squeeze juice into a small bowl.  Add lemon juice, olive oil, and salt to ginger bowl.  Combine.  Pour dressing over salad and sprinkle some nutritional yeast on top.  

Night night, my vast readership.

A Taste Of India

  

Picture 1:  Oh, those Vermantas, they do what they want ta.

Picture 2:  This shirt says "America's Pastime."  I, of course, read "Erica's Pastrami." 
Have I mentioned that I don't have air conditioning?  I could have it, but I'm just masochistic like that.  Just kidding, I like the heat.  Although, less humidity might be nice.  I'm a bit too sticky and sweaty to really be seen in public.  

Daily Blue Ledger:

Woke up at 7, cheese house by 8ish, poured curds until 12ish.  Then I went from cheesemaker to housewife and made lunch, took out the trash, did my laundry, hung everything on the clothesline, washed the dishes, and folded my dry clothes.  Afterwards, I went for a little walk to a bridge that overlooks a creek/river/stream and read my current book while other people were fishing.  When I got back to my little apartment, I realized 1. I didn't feel like cooking dinner and 2. I had an intense craving for Indian food.  So I went out for dinner!  By myself.  Which was an interesting experience...I've never done that before.  Not sure I want to do it again, but I'm glad I did it.  I got Aloo Chana Saag (Potatoes and Chickpeas in Spinach) and Garlic Naan.  The best thing about Indian food is that you can always take some home with you and have the leftovers for lunch.  Or breakfast, if you're me.  Oh, I forgot to mention that before I went out I did a Zumba (I obviously just discovered you could link things on the blog) tape and danced around like a fool in 95 degree heat for about 40 minutes.

Now I'm going to sleep!  Because on a farm, that's what you do at 9 PM.

HOT

I had such great pictures for today but I can't put them up!  UGH blogger.com fails me sometimes.

I feel like in Philly, the temperature doesn't go from 60's to 90's in the space of a day.  But that's what it does in Vermont!  It was rainy and cold yesterday, and today it is humid, hot, and sunny.  

Daily Blue Ledger:

I woke up at 4:30 for morning chores.  The day started off on the wrong foot when I was herding the girls into the barn.  Three of them were having some kind of epic goat battle and apparently they were too engrossed to listen to me.  So it took quite a while to even start milking.  And then once I'd started, two girls in the fourth group jumped off the platform, pulling off one of the units that mechanically milks the goats.  Connie (the dog) tried to help me by attacking the goats, which was obviously not very helpful at all.  And then in the last group of girls, there were only 6 (as opposed to 7, the correct number).  AHHHH goats.  They make me go crraaazzzyyyy.  After that, I fed the pigs.  At this point I was sweating because it's so lovely and hot!  Yay heat!  

I worked in the cheesehouse for a little bit and then weeded in the garden.  We're trying to turn a patch of grass into a garden, so it's a constant struggle against the encroaching weeds.  I made one row of spinach/beets look pretty.  It took 2 hours to do it.  

In the afternoon I went to the co-op, where I discovered the spice section!  THEY HAVE EVERY SPICE IMAGINABLE!  I could have sat there for hours, I swear.  They even have flowers and medicinal herbs.  Things like "skullcap" and "slippery elm."  I got out my camera and took a picture, and some lady walked by and looked at me like, "Um...what are you doing?"  She apparently couldn't relate to my love for spices.  I came back from the co-op and started to make dinner really early because it was kinda elaborate...I made these crazy veggie burgers.

Barn Swallows:

Oddly Sweet California Veggie Burgers (makes 4)

1/2 medium sweet potato

1/2 cup quinoa or millet

1/2 medium carrot

1/2 small onion

1 large garlic clove

sesame oil

1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas

1/2 cup cooked or canned chickpeas 

salt

garam masala

cumin

cayenne pepper

curry powder

ginger powder

1/8 cup whole wheat flour

1/8 cup sunflower seeds

1 Tbs lemon juice

alfalfa sprouts

avocado slices

your favorite salad dressing

Bake sweet potato at 400 F for 40 minutes, or until soft.  Peel and mash, when cool enough to handle.  Cook quinoa in 1 cup water for 15 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed.  Mix with mashed potato.  Finely chop carrot, onion, and garlic (or pulse in food processor).  Saute with sesame oil until onion is translucent.  Add to millet mixture.  Boil peas until tender but firm, about 3 minutes.  Mash peas and chickpeas and add to millet mixture.  Add lemon juice, sunflower seeds, and spices.  For into 4 patties.  Cook patties in skillet with sesame oil for about 7 minutes on each side.  Put on bun or bread or lettuce leaf or nothing at all, top with avocado slices, sprouts, and dressing.  Complicated and possibly not worth the work, but interesting nonetheless.  

I just checked the weather and it's going to be in the 90's or high 80's for the next three days.  The only problem with that is that I have to wear long pants for both milking and the cheesehouse.  That sucks.  Ah, well, it's part of the job.  Hope it's not too hot where you are, readers of my blahg!  Readers of my blog who don't post comments anymore.  I'm going to have a question at the end of each post that you can answer through a comment.  If you don't know how to post, I'm pretty sure all you have to do is click on "post comment," type your comment, write in that wiggly word that shows you're not a robot, and hit "publish your comment."  Maybe it's more complicated than that, I'm not sure.

Here's todays question, which is not in the form of a question.  It's more like a mandate: 

Think of a new kind of chévre...so far we have cranberry walnut, herb, and pepper.  Ready...go!

Banana Pancakes

Picture 1 : My fingers yesterday after washing moulds

Picture 2 : My starter

This morning when I looked out the window I saw the it was going to be a grey, chilly, rainy day.  So after I worked in the cheesehouse wrapping chévre from 8-12, I went back in my apartment, turned up the heat a bit, put on my pajamas, and put on the song "Banana Pancakes," by Jack Johnson.  And then I realized that I needed to make banana pancakes.

Barn Swallows

Vegan Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

1 large banana, sliced

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 Tbp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup rice/soy/hemp/almond milk

2 Tbs oil or melted Earth Balance

3 Tbs agave nectar or maple syrup or honey or juice

VERMONT MAPLE SYRUP

Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then combine and mix until just combined.  A few lumps okay...don't overmix.  Heat pan with oil or Earth Balance and pour batter to form 4 inch circles.  Place banana slices on top.  Cook until the edges look dry and you see bubbles.  Flip!  Cook for about 2 minutes on the other side, until golden brown on each side.  Serve with VERMONT MAPLE SYRUP, smile at the rain, and eat up.

Another thing that I noticed this morning, besides the rain, is that my sourdough starter has doubled in size!  It's so cool.  I wish I had taken a picture of it yesterday, so that you could compare, but just know that yesterday it was half the size and looked like goo.  Now it's bigger and frothy!  Excitement.

After lying around in my pajamas and eating banana pancakes, I changed into dirty jeans and a fleece and went to milk the goaty goats.  When I was on the third group of goats, Chris came to deliver a bunch of goat's milk (we buy milk from a farm nearby).  So I stopped milking for a little bit to help him pour these huge metals cans of milk into a tank.  Fun fact: Chris is left handed too!  I get really excited when I meet other left handed people.  Anyway, I went back to milking and for the first time, there were no crazy problems!  WOOOO!  I did spend about 5 minutes trying to get one girl in the last group up onto the platform, but eventually I succeeded.  Then I fed the pigs and made dinner.  I sauteed spinach with garlic, onions, and sesame seeds and brown rice.  I topped it with avocado slices, soy sauce, and nutritional yeast.  Yum yum.