Slowdown Farmstead

In part one of the Q&As I answered questions about natural building/home materials, cows, birthing in a hospital, building community, my “non-negotiables” in a home, having children sooner rather than later, athlete’s foot, good salt, paying off our mortgage and financial stuff, and a bunch more.

Further resources:

Birthgap, Dr. Stephen Shaw’s documentary on the results of the push to tell generations to hold off on having children.

“The Epidemic That Dare Not Speak its Name”

Institute for Family Studies

Antifungal powder recipe (you can mix up the essential oils - I found oregano oil very potent). I also added some borax to ours.

Mold in sea-salts study

The full, written essay along with reader comments can be accessed via the homepage.

Earlier this week, we had the fourth, and likely last, calf of the season. Little Mugwort was the first calf of our Jersey heifer, Dolly. I wrote in the chat of some of the special considerations we take with a dairy heifer having her first calf. It’s more work at the busiest time of the year, but it’s well worth it. I use the first colostrum milkings to set aside that precious elixer for any possible calving problems in the future. The rest of the colostrum goes into our freeze dryer. I will add that nutrient rich powder to my pemmican bars and ice cream.

I’ve been picking the yellow roses to make an amazing syrup, simply honey or sugar infused with rose petals, that tastes like nirvana mixed with some bubbly mineral water and, if you’re down for it, a little tip of good gin. Yes, it’s a treat best suited for a moment of time relaxing on your porch, listening to the loons on the lake calling in the night.

Along with the syrup, I’ve been making an infused organic sugar that I will pull out come Christmas time, some oxymels, and dried petals for teas and desserts with the yellow roses. I dry great big batches of them in the solar dehydrator. In the following video, you can see me putting on a fresh batch and how much it shrinks (seen via the previous dried batch in the corner near the end of the video). Note: Don’t be alarmed by the poor little Goldfinch in the solar dehydrator. We found him dead on the road and put him in there to desiccate so we could keep him like taxidermy. You can do that with small birds. We’ve done it with a bluebird that got trapped in our wood cookstove and wasn’t found until later in the summer when we cleaned it. He lives forevermore on a mountain of dried peony heads in an antique glass cloche. That’s where this little bird is going, too. My house is full of bones and dead things and rocks and dried flowers and wasp’s nests and bird’s nests and that’s just how I like it.

Along with the yellow roses come the peonies. I’m such a sucker for peonies. I’ve ordered bulbs from all over the place over the years. They last but a week before drooping under their own bountiful beauty, but I prolong their pleasure by eating them. We use peonies in tea after drying. I find them best mixed with other herbs in a lively blend that seems to work better chilled - think sumac and lemon balm and or wintergreen. Those lighter, spriggy, bright type plants. Maybe a few sprigs of mountain oregano or hyssop.

We also like peonies made into jelly and syrup. I won’t be making those until later this weekend or early next week. I will take some pictures when I do and share them. We don’t eat bread so jelly might sound like an odd thing to make, but when you consider how I like to use my preserves, as bases for sauces and as a sweetener in pies, with savoury meats or other treats, it makes sense. Also, peony preserves are delicious on ice cream or pavlova as well as on terrine and as a side on a good charcuterie board.

The bedroom renovations continue along nicely. I bought a pair of antique linen/cotton curtains from Hungary that came in this week. They’ll be used on the back side of the bathroom French doors we installed, after I paint said doors. Speaking of paint, I’m agonizing over the paint colours for our bedroom. I’m going to paint the beadboard with the Pure and Original lime paint. For the top portion of the wall, I’ll be using their lime plaster paint. I’ve used this paint throughout my house and love it. That, along with the linseed oil paint, are my favourite. I’ll use linseed for the doors as it seems more durable. I’ve given up on the bathtub for now. The one I want, just a plain jane enamel over steel, is $11,000. I’m not paying that. Our tub will stay while I await the universe to catch up with my desires.

Our fruit trees are all growing their sweet little fruits and nuts. I just find these baby fruits so adorable. Everything from the saskatoons, black raspberries, black caps, currants, pears, apples, cherries, and strawberries have been born. How in the world does that happen? A tree with a leaf and then, suddenly… a round little fruit. Like the tree just goes into labour over night and voila, there it is - a sweet, round babe growing in the sunlight! What a marvel!

Three or four years ago, in an attempt to diversify from the mono-offerings of strawberry plants out there, we decided to try growing strawberries from seed. I’ve mentioned before that I am not someone that starts seeds inside. I find that whole deal monotonous and wholly uninspiring. If you do it, my hats off to you. So, with the strawberries, we just direct seeded like everything else around here. That first year, it looked like they might just grow. The second year, those berries were so miserable - pasty and small, that I was going to rip everything out. I’m glad I didn’t. It’s been four years now and they’re tasty and plump and juicy - everything a strawberry should be. We’re going to sow a few new strips of strawberry seeds in our orchard this year. The choices and varieties are so much broader when you leave the strawberry plant monoculture behind. It takes more patience, but I think it’s worth it.

And with that, I bid you adieu. I leave with this short little video of Harold and Maude and their lovely goslings, all seven, round and plump.

Enjoy this beautiful day,

Tara❤️

What I see now, that I couldn’t quite see so clearly then, is that in each of those scraggy valleys, we were gathering seeds to plant. We didn’t see the fruit of our efforts right away. What plant blooms in an instant? Instead, over time, we saw that the beautiful hilltops were growing more and more wildflowers that brought more abundance, more warmth from the sun and joy from the wildlife. Different birdsong filled our ears. Trees heavy with fruits and nuts grew thick, offering us shade and leisure. We could see down, into those valleys that once felt so hopeless and dark, and notice from our vantage point that it was only a blip and what felt like forever was simply us climbing forward. Onward and upward! We had to use our muscles to propel us and we had to feed our hope. Even in those darker times it was especially important to hold our marriage as sacred, more important than our own comfort or desires.

Oh boy, here we chat about everything from new health revelations, dental cavitations, milk, farming, mentors, and who knows what else. It’s all a blur! Oh, I did promise to share one of our summer Friday night party playlists. Here you be:

Santa & the Easter Bunny, dehydrated kiddos, eating out with kids, feeding chickens, flies on cows, fish oil, thoughts on God, false emotions, wild foods, eating carnivore, and my latest health revelations.

I had a conversation with a friend about this type of thing last week. He and his family have an old farmhouse sitting on a lovely little farm, too. They own a natural building materials shop and participate in a lot of training and education around their paints and other products. No, not “products” - scrap that. We were talking about the differences between that word, “products”, and the word “materials”. Products being the mysterious, trademarked concoctions of businesses, overseen to be good for us and this world by mostly nobody. Products are anonymous, marked by logos. And there’s that relationship thing I’m always talking about. Materials, in contrast, are the raw, honest things we can use around our homes and in our lives. Materials are mendable and restorable. They can fade and chip and wear and we can do something about that. They come from the earth, not the by-products of the chemical industry.

"It’s not that we’re powerless, it’s that we’re looking for some control and some power in our lives in the wrong spots. What we are here to do, each of us in our own unique way, is in that meadow. It’s in our dominion over self and the gifts we can offer to others. Our power comes through relationships. They know this. It’s why great atrocities and injustices happen through the division of people from one another, from the land, from the very meaning in their lives. Meaning can never be pacified by the material. Not for long. Not for real."

“A slice of humble pie is good for the soul.”

“I don’t need to know what’s happening there. We have no phones. No way to be contacted or to contact. We don’t need them. Our security is held in us and in faith that all will be well. There’s nothing we need outside of this little pocket world. I am here with my man in my little tent in the woods. We are guarded by the ents and shrouded in the love of…