There is something deeply satisfying about eating a meal from your own land, in a room you created. Home grown, grass fed steak, with asparagus from down the back and hollandaise using my own eggs and butter, a salad from the garden, cheese from Daisy’s milk followed by rhubarb from the garden and home made ice-cream sweetened with our honey. 
Wonderful. The first meal in the Coupe. It was not really ready for visitors, there was white dust everywhere but we snuck in while the builder had a day off and spent Mother’s Day in there amongst the tools and ladders.
As you know my main objective is to have free days, when the farm feeds the farm, us included. Yesterday was such a day. We fed ourselves and the animals from the fields. From now on we will have plenty of days like this. I note the free days on my calender. I am very proud of these days.
It such an old fashioned thought. I know that the grower thinks I am modern and pedantic growing all this new organic stuff but really I am just old fashioned.
The wind was howling and it was cold.
But the farm fed the farm. A free day.
The more days we have like this the closer we get to self sufficiency. By living within our means we are able to sustain ourselves and not overload the land.
Of course this is not always going to work. Sustainable is more of an objective than a reality. It is very hard to sustain for long periods of time. There is always something I need from off the farm. But every now and then everything falls into place.
After lunch yesterday, the grower who crops the fields in front of our house, came swooping in with his enormous space ship of a planter and sowed the fields in field corn. He is also very kindly going to plant me a big patch of NON GM sweetcorn (that people can eat we certainly cannot eat field corn! ) right here by the lane. This has taken some negotiating. He is annoyed that I am being so demanding about Non GM sweetcorn because there will be weeds! Ah well. I said. I will walk the rows for you. Then he said, what do you have against GM sweetcorn. I just shook my head at the question. Where does one begin. I do it for my health, I said. And the health of my family and animals. I just do the best I can. Do you want some honey? and don’t forget your eggs when you come out to plant.
Good morning. In the old days (they were still doing this in the seventies when I was a foreign exchange student here) the rows were a little further apart and once the corn was about 6 inches high the farmers would run a cultivator behind a tractor between the rows, hoeing all the little weeds. This was precision work. But they seldom dug up their own plants. After a while the corn would just shade any other weeds out. The post-mistress was telling me the other day that when she was young (not so long ago) they would Walk the Beans. The local teenagers would work in the early summer walking the soybean fields with a hoe, knocking out the weeds until the beans got big enough. Even John walked the beans each summer when he was a kid. They would start early and work until it got too hot then off they would go and buy hamburgers for lunch and have the afternoon off.
I hope you all have a lovely day. I can see clear sunny skies appearing out of the dawn. I do hope that is it for the cold days.
your friend at dawn, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
53 responses to “Free days – when the farm feeds the farm.”
It must really be satisfying in more ways than one to have grown/made every part of your meal. You know where it came from and what’s in it for sure! Good morn to ya, Miss c.
So happy to see you feeding yourselves at the windows of the coupe!
Congratulations to the farm … 🙂
You are such an inspiration for all of us that are trying to live a simple, sustainable life. Thank you for your daily “gifts” to all of us. I read your blog first thing every morning even before I drink my first cup of coffee.
I will thank you not to ruin my mascara again! Don’t know why this one has me in tears too. Maybe it’s the idea of self-sufficiency as we drown in bad economy and bad governance over here in Italy…or maybe it’s that perfect picture of a dog in grass or the happiest pig I’ve ever seen…it all seems so far away and I am very homesick for good old American “you can do it, chin up, kid, nothing’s gonna get us down.” I need that. Love it that you offered honey to Mr. GM. You’ll get him yet. Have a good day, C.
How long have you been away? I know absolutely how that feeling of homesickness can swamp you sometimes.. … It lives in a little box in my brain.. take care honey.. c
Fifteen years and some. Left for love. Stiff price.
I know it. I do. c
Oh, to dine at that table, in that light, with that view, with food from the farmy. What a treat.
Tell Our John that I walked plenty of beans in my day, too.
It must be a wonderful feeling…I’m always happy when a meal can come from the combination of our gardens and my neighbor’s livestock – though good local beef is hard to find (the Woman Up The Road is trying to raise black Angus on pasture alone, rather than finding a breed that was suited for it. Tastes awful…)
Hoping the cold is done for all of us – one more 39 degree night here, then the tomatoes are coming out of the basement! Fingers crossed that tonight is the last!
Wishing you many and more Free Days!
yes, the modern Angus is not so suited to pasture however if she has plenty of alfalfa to finish them on that does the trick sometimes, she could cross them with a hereford .. that makes a nice foraging beef cow.. but you do still need to finish them properly on massive amounts of excellent high legume feed…c
Draw up a petition for the Farmy Fellowship to sign for Mr GM – we can try to make him change to organic. Hope your sweetcorn won’t be sprayed as the season goes on? I am envious of your free days – congrats. Laura
Farm feeding the farm days must be the best.( I am slowely working in that direction.)
But feeding us with great posts is pretty darn good too. And feeding the grower with constant kindness and notions of sustainability just might work.
What a noble goal! It’s great the way you manage to do all your work and still make time for living out high goals for the proper way of doing them. I very much admire you!
Most days we have at least something we’ve produced ourselves. Until we can grow a grain crop we’re still too dependent on the feed store. But we continue to do our best to move forward with buying less and producing more. We were under frost warning here last night but thankfully it didn’t freeze. My green beans just popped up the last two days. One more cold one, down into the 30’s again tonight, then much warmer. Have a great day, Celi!
Good morning Celi ; the three bears windows setting looks fantastic just wait till the walls are painted what a nice post. just what i needed! spent most of the day cutting hay; more today! pray that it gets hot and no rain please. have a blessed day mike
What a perfect free day you enjoyed Celi – LOVE that you enjoyed a meal in the coupe.
Have a beautiful week ahead.
🙂 Mandy xo
Good Morning,
We must be around the same age, I spent all of the 70’s as a student. I earned my first bicycle by walking beans for my dad. A green Schwin with the banana seat and a basket. Was around 10 or 11 yrs old. Later earned a 10-speed as a teenager the same way (that and baling hay). The state highway cut right through our farm so there was always a visible bean field and it had to be kept clean. Many a time I had to grab a hoe and walk out to clear a wayward weed. Of course it was usually in the far end of the field could some times be close to a mile round trip for 1 pesky weed. Good thing I like to walk, I envy you the fresh asparagus, love it. My little garden patch is giving us fresh lettuce and spinach, Couldn’t wait any longer last night and pulled up the first radishes, only about the size of a marble but so good. My youngest wants to plant sweet corn, I tried to explain that we really don’t have the appropriate space in our little garden, But the cost of a packet of seed is cheap, and considering that kid’s luck, we will probably have a bumper crop. Today is to start a warming trend have a beautiful day.
Beautiful morning to you!
From one country girl to another….Happy day-lovely post, thank you!
A free day!! Sounds so wonderful. Those days when you are tired and sore and a little down seem very worthwhile when even one free farm day occurs. Oooo the windows and sunlight peeking in to the coupe, It looks like a spot of heaven!