You will have to squint your eyes and look very, very carefully. Pania has come back…
… with One teensy weensy peachick. Of course his/her name will be Chickpea. However it is a dangerous world out there so we will only whisper that name for a while. When she calls him she has a TockTock sound and she is very careful to watch him, making sure that he is keeping up. What a surprise. Not that she is a good mother but that she is a mother at all. I could not find them again yesterday evening so I hope she has him well hidden.
I went to visit another farm yesterday where they raise and sell organic pork and raw milk. Organic pork from grass fed milk. Just fantastic. We had some of their sausages for dinner last night and OH they were good. The farm is called South Pork Ranch (cool aye!) and it is a good old fashioned farm run by hard working people. Donna also has a blog, I discovered yesterday, where among other things she keeps us up to date on her legal battle to keep Illinois a state where we can buy and sell raw milk.
Like you and I, they love good food. It was a tonic for me to see first hand how other people do what I do on a larger scale. They have a wee store too where you can buy the milk and the pork products at a reasonable price so if people choose to eat well they certainly can.
Old fashioned farming in a modern setting is very hard work. There is little generational support. For me there is No Gran in the kitchen. No daughter to take over. This is a big loss on a farm. Often people have no old people to work with us and teach us as they go. No grandpa pottering about in the workshop out the back. No grown children who live in a farm cottage and help out in the day time. So the people who are working these little old fashioned farms need tons of community and peer support. We need to shift our thinking to accomodate this gap. I really hope that this farm has solid support.
The fellow who is managing this farm with his wife said to me that he is looking at selling this farm as a going concern, then buying a smaller place so they can farm on the same small scale as The Kitchens Garden. I said, why. He said: you just can’t get anyone to work as hard as this anymore. We all paused and thought about this terrible statement. This is a successful operation. Beautiful and productive, a real bonus find for me while Daisy is dry. But the workload is phenomenal.
Then I thought of the teenager in this house who is due to leave for the army on Sunday who I have never seen upright for more than an hour usually a lot less. He darts into jobs or training when told to and does them fast, then throws himself back on the couch or in front of a device. He certainly could not work as hard as these farmers do. So once again we need to come back to ourselves. How can we train the next generation to work as hard as we were trained to.
Maybe saving our children and our children’s children is just as important as saving the bees or the butterflies. Am I being simplistic? And now that we know that there are teenagers and young adults out there who have never worked a whole day in their lives what do we do?
I do not know these people yet, though I hope to. And to achieve what they have they surely must have a great network of family support. But I am sure there are many small farm owners who are struggling along in a modern world, wondering exactly why this just got so hard. Is this one of the reasons we are losing our little farms? Young people cannot work as hard as they used to?
Good morning. Speaking of bees, as I suspected Nefertiti’s hive was failing. They tried to raise their own queen but I could not find a queen in the few trays that they have covered with honey. No brood. So I spread a sheet of paper over Cleopatra’s bursting at the seams super and laid Nefertiti’s on top. The bees will nibble through the paper and by the time they have joined they will be used to each others scents, Cleopatra will have huffed her powerful pheromones through the new hive and they will become one.
I need them to have piles of honey for the winter this year, so maybe I will not be taking any honey this season. My plan is to add another big super or even two over the next few months and then next spring I can divide these back up again.
Like many of you we are going to be hot, hot again today. The Bobby is doing much better now that I have corralled him in the deep cool of the barn. That little steer is not a good doer.
The new puss is still up the top in the barn. He is not ready to come down yet which is fine. I am feeding and visiting him up there.
The painter thinks he will be finished today. How fantastic is that!
There was one other thing I was going to tell you but it has dropped straight out of my Paddington Bear brain. Maybe I will remember and pop it in the comments as we go along today.
Have a lovely day.
Your friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
82 responses to “Look what I found yesterday morning!”
Beautiful liitle chickpea – we will keep our fingers crossed! Your words were thought provoking, many people here in Spain (my family included) tend to smother their children, I know that work is very hard to find right now but their response to this is to pay for expensive education until their children are almost 30, then buy them a flat and a car and continue to support them. Luckily I have a niece here with a talent for English. She is desperate to get to the UK and find a job, any job, to pay for her own Masters Degree and fund a flat share – good for her I say, but I’m having a hard time convincing her mother that her daughter needs roots (which are well established) but wings too!
I was just wondering the other day if Sid had left for Basic yet…where will his be? I grew up just outside Ft. Sill, OK, and remember lots of the kids that came through there… Mom’s still there, so if he needed someone in an emergency, she might be able to help.
(Not speaking of the peachick…not yet…but a quiet little “Woo-hoo!” won’t hurt, I think… 😉 )
I feel tired just reading about your days.:) Chickpea is so cute.
Farm is tough, I love it, I love the land and the work that it requires, but as you know, what goes on on the outside takes away from the housework, although, I do get it in sometimes and this time of year is the canning and all the prep for winter. Sometimes things slide…it is what it is.
I love your little Chickpea…what a cutie.
As for Nefertiti she had a very short but glorious reign herself…maybe Queen Elizabeth the First might be a good name for the next hive.
Have a good one!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Ruled by an iron hand then!!! c
My son and his friends were in 4-H. They learned to work hard and to work together. At the same time, they were plopped in front of their computers as often as possible. That was part of their social life, playing games together because they were all linked. I know so many parents who would have shipped their teenagers off to a labor camp in a minute if there were any available. The good news is, they figure things out eventually because they have to.
Jan’s comment is similar to that which I was going to say… I despaired of my younger sisters and brother, with a gap of 17+ years they didn’t have to nor had the inclination to do near as many chores as me, but they all worked part-time jobs while at school. Their down time was very down though. They all are now in their 20’s & 30’s and have good jobs and lives. Lifestyle has changed, in some ways not for the better. It appears to be more complicated and expensive to hire people, especially for smaller concerns where profits aren’t high and on-costs are. The industrialization and corporatization of food has also wiped out a whole lot of local employment opportunities. As has the cost of insurances, and incidence of litigation… more big corporate money makers… At the same time, we still have generations who feel they sacrificed their youth to hard work. I appreciate many parents want a better legacy for their children but as with everything there is an economy of scale…
It would be so good if the universities, colleges etc could lead the way with internships, apprenticeships and make it viable for valuable farming skills, and others, like in the earthmoving and construction industries to be handed on. I suspect though lots of corporate interests there also.
Clever Pania hatching her one chick 🙂
Coming on late as usual I have read each and every sentence your readers have written and all of us, whether rural or urban, methinks basically do agree that only too oft the generations we raised in love hoping that they were going to have an ‘easier time’ than we did now really too often feels entitled to it. The rapidly developing IT and the ridiculously many social networking sites have concomitantly not made the parents’ role easier. And yet many of the youngsters seem to be unaware why they are not really deep down contented. Don’t know what the A is: as always perhaps the first step taken by each and every one of us ‘mentoring’ just someone to a more real and mature lifestyle. OH, DO hope this little one survives 🙂 ! And good luck to the young man: boot camp, yikes: that will be a wakeup call!!!!!
The Army discipline will be good for your young man. Maybe he will see the world differently.
Personally, I think most young people today are too glued to their technology (iPod, iPad, computer, nintendo, tv, dvd and so on). Their lives revolve around technology. Every job in the city (except for manual labour like cleaning and rubbish collecting and restaurants for example) involves technology. We don’t even have the big back yards or time to grow veggies & fruit (like my parents did).
The poor farmers are having to sell up, as cheap imports (oranges from south america and many foods from China) means it costs them more to grow the Australian crops, than they receive when they sell them to the supermarket. Floods, droughts and global weather patterns have changed. GMO crops have not been scientifically tested as to the long term results on humans or the environment. They say that if the bees become extinct that will be the beginning of the End (of the world). And bees, butterflies and certain birds are dying out as pesticides and introduced species kill our native flora and fauna.
Eventually, there won’t be anyone left to grow our food as the world’s population expands. Fewer couples are choosing to have children (who will then go on to pay the taxes that support the elderly and infirm of the future).
When I go on public transport, about 85-95% of commuters are glued to their computers, iPads or electronic devices – so I wonder if we will eventually lose the ability to talk and communicate face to face. Perhaps my last sentence is not so far-fetched as it sounds. Young people are not encouraged to play sport, actively get involved in community service or take care of those around them. There aren’t the jobs for the young people either, so they are content to live at home or on social service payments.
Despite the high cost, I continue to try to buy organic to support the fledgling organic growers in Australia, but I’m struggling as organic is about 2 1/2 times as expensive as commercial supermarket foods. I live on a Disability Pension since forced to take ‘early retirement’ due to chronic illness, but at least I know how sew a button on and make do with limited resources and clothes etc. My only luxuries are my DSLR, lenses and my computer (and my organic fresh food diet).
Even fresh food, organic or not is a major step up from the boxed foods. When I have to go to the supermarket I only shop the outsides. Cooking your own food is actually cheaper in the long run. I think there is a swing back to self sufficiency. I want to think this anyway. You touched on a very relevant point about Making Do with limited resources. People generally have too much stuff. Stuff we really do not need. So when we are forced through a financial situation to Make Do, I believe we are actually doing The Best then. Maybe everyone actually needs a little less money and a little less stuff and a little more time. You and I have lots of that at least! Time. This is why we can sew on a button and grow herbs in the window. I hope you are felling well at the moment. Chronic illness must be such a bore!At least all your healthy food will be helping that situation..Thank you for your excellent comment.. c
Chronic pain, fatigue & illness is the most boring subject in the world, Cecelia, but sometimes it just has to be faced and dealt with. I keeping surviving in my fantasy world by reading your blog and other country pursuits on the internet.
No, not well at the moment, I’m only able to walk with a walking stick around home at the moment – looks like no photography excursions for the rest of winter at this rate. Ankle surgery may be on the agenda depending on last week’s X-rays and ultrasound. Just waiting to see my GP to discuss the results (which I know because the ultrasound technician told me most of it).
Pania’s chick is a delight. Your words on the lack of hardworking family on the small farms gave my heart a little tight tug. This is so sad, but maybe the wheel will turn and young people will want to return to the land. Meanwhile you do what you can; you keep the seat warm.
Cecilia, I am still on holiday but checking on the farmy family. Great news about chickpea, I do hope s/he survives and grows in strength to play a part in the grand scheme.
He is still there this morning! All good so far! c
I’ve noticed that there is a certain level of entitlement that some younger people have; not saying thank you when a door is held open, or even holding up traffic because they are ‘budding’ into a queue so they can be two cars ahead. Not all of them, of course, just enough to make a bad impression.
Glad the pea hen returned and what a special surprise, but we won’t talk about that little garbanzo for a bit!
I do hope the chickpea thrives!