Today, Red Hat Matt, one of the American builders who worked on The Coupe, is coming back to pick up his two piglets. He has bought the gilt (female) and one of the little barrows (castrated male) as company for her. So I am training them to like the Black Mariah that he will borrow for their trip.
Red Hat Matt was inspired by The Farmy when he was working here. He was living in a small town with his wife and children. Every other weekend he has the children from his previous marriage to stay and all winter an idea grew amongst them until they decided to buy a wee farmy of their own. He planted a big vegetable garden around his little house and put it on the market , and they sat in the garden and ate tomatoes with sticky fingers until he had swayed them all to the world fresh food and country living.
Around here the farm houses, often with outbuildings and sheds and even barns are very cheap to buy. Very cheap. Most of them are empty, they stand denuded of trees and gardens and laughter, with the crops planted to their doors and await a new beginning or the ignominious end of being burnt to the ground and then buried in their own basements. The big machines smooth the soil back over the imperceptible mounds that are the only evidence of their existence and plant another couple of rows.
But Red Hat Matt has saved one. He has saved a little white farmhouse. It needs a little attention but he is a builder. That is no problem. He has four acres, a lovely house, an old piggery (which he is going to turn into a glass house) and a solid small barn that he has prepared for his pigs. He has researched raising pigs and chickens and dug 18 inches of old manure out of the stable the pigs will live in (and put it carefully aside to mix with compost for his garden), repaired gates and made an outside run for them. He carries the scars and tattoos of some very hard years but I am so proud of him and his family. Taking this wondrous step to secure their own source of food and their own lifestyle. Taking control. They moved in yesterday but he cannot wait any longer.
Today he is going to borrow the Black Mariah and take his piglets home. Isn’t that grand.
The Home Grown September Challenge starts today. My objective is to see how well I can eat using only Home grown ingredients. For the month of September. Every meal every day will be from my own fields and gardens. Don’t worry, I am not going to knit blankets from dog hair, or go without electricity, or grow a beard and sleep under a canvas fly in the garden. I won’t give up my travels or my red lipstick or my heels. I am not going to start shooting rabbits and pheasants for dinner or park up the cooking oil car for the month. Though I could do all those things. I don’t have to lose weight or overcome some terrible health threat by only eating clean food. I just want to try it. And prove that I can.
We have all kinds of meats here and piles of vegetables. Mostly there will be little variety. No chick peas, oatmeal, avocados, or orange juice. No raisins, or flax seed, or yeast. No chicken or fish.
But I have sourdough starter, kefir, eggplant, beans, tomatoes, capsicums, peppers, cabbages, swiss chard, celery, courgettes, potatoes, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, apples and pears and more in the garden. I have beef and lamb in the freezer. (Though the beef is almost finished) I will have milk from down the road so I can make fresh cheeses, yoghurt and ice cream. And wine and cider and the peach brandy in the basement.
From my pantry I will allow flour, (for pasta, pastry, bread and pizzas), salt, coffee and Olive oil. And I am going to find the ingredients to learn to make beer (just to jazz my days up a bit!). Though technically this is not part of the challenge!
Thank you all for your most excellent ideas and input yesterday. I wil not bore you with the details but I will keep you up to date. The ingredients will be about the same most every day so maybe you can come up with some exciting new ways to prepare them.
Good morning. The hay is still laid in its rows in the field. I rolled it over again but the Hay Man and I agreed that it was still too wet after the rain. He does not work on Sundays (today). So we will bale on Monday instead. But we avoided the last rash of showers and it will be ready to go on Monday if all goes well. He said if it gets rained on again he will swap my hay for a hay rack full of his own hay that he said is perfect. Isn’t that kind. His offer cranked down the knot in my stomach. One way or the other we will get hay in the barn.
Now off I go to feed the piglets in the Stock trailer again. Then when I load the two travellers today they will come running in without out any problems. It is getting the ones who are staying back out again that might be the problem. I have a plan for separating them in there. Wish me luck. Have a lovely day.
your friend celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
66 responses to “Piglets leave home and Day One of the Home Grown September Challenge.”
It’s a shame to see them go, but how brilliant that they are going to someone you know and that he’s starting his own farm 😉
I did hear myself asking him if he wanted to settle in first, not wanting to see them off, but he is excited to begin.. morning mad!! c
With pigs that nice, I’m not surprised. He’s probably worried you’ll change your mind 😉
True!! c
I like Red Hat Matt, he sounds like a darling.
C, I have no doubt you will sail through Septembers challenge without a hitch and we are all here cheering you along!
Have a beautiful week ahead.
😉 Mandy xo
Thank you mandy, you have a lovely day also!! c
Kudos to Matt and his family! How wonderful to be able to save an old farm with his own skills and labor…Best of luck on your own challenge. I know you’re up for it 😀
It is already creating clarity actually. To dream of something is one thing to actually do it is another! Still my breakfast of fried tomatoes and basil won’t change. c
How wonderful that you and the farmy have inspired someone to take up a similar life-style! Wonderful too that Matt has rescued an old farm, such a shame that so many become lost forever. Good luck with the challenge!
Christine
As well as that so many of them were built by the farmers themselves they really do need some care to keep them standing! He is the man for the job! c
I can see why you’re proud of Matt and his family. I hope you’ll give us updates from time to time on their progress. I wish them well! As for the September challenge–I know you’ll do just fine. We’ve been traveling for ten days, and so we need to get back to a much saner way of eating when we get home today–not self-sustained, mind you, but very much like what you’re talking about–clean, simple, good food! So I’ll “sort of” be taking the challenge along with you! I’m off to one last hotel breakfast and then to hit the road. Ah, home. Even after spending a week with a beautiful new grandson (did I tell you? This is # 7 grandchild for me, and my husband and I now have 10 between us!), I’ll be glad to be home and settle back into my routine.
TEN grandchildren, how on earth do you keep up with them all! And a beautiful new grandson, how lovely.. drive safely .. it will be so good when you finally get yourself back home to your beautiful back door view and your own desk.. c
In the years I have lived here I have seen many fine old farmhouses bulldozed, buried and corn and beans planted above them. But worse, I have seen many fine old farmhouses gradually disintegrate from disuse. They sag and become occupied by animals until they, too, disappear underground. Either way, it’s sad.
It is, and miserably they can be bought and kept alive by nice families. If only the farmers would sell them. And if only we were able to encourage our young families to come back out to the country.. It is a tough one.. c
Well done Matt – oh I wish I could find me a man with that kind of dream/outlook! But after three marriages I guess I am meant to be on my own LOL
I just know you are going to have fun this September Celi, with your imagination I can only guess at the ways you’ll come up with eating what you have on hand. You said you had plenty of tomatoes, peppers and garlic, so I am going to send you my favorite pasta sauce I make every year. Will send it via FB. Hope you make it, you wont be disappointed.
Have a great Sunday and Labor Day (is John home an extra day?)
I would love your recipe, i have a big bucket of tomatoes waiting (like every day) to be cooked up. i will await your recipe! How wonderful.. c
It is so sad and wasteful that these farmhouses and outbuildings are being demolished when it seems so many Americans are homeless and many are searching for a more nature-based way of living. It’s great to see someone living out their dream of such a life. The ripple-effect through his children will be tremendous too.
Interesting to note though that the homeless are in the cities, not the small towns.. we do not have a housing shortage out here, many are empty and for rent or for sale, in the small towns there are even more little houses for sale, some gorgeous, some terribly ugly but lots of places to live that is for sure. I heard of a fellow buying a house for 17,000 dollars the other day with a big section for his kids. And no it was not derelict. So why be homeless in the city? I don’t know. It can’t be staying for a job because they don’t have jobs either.. There would be no waste if people chose to live in the country. Its right here. Waiting.
Morning, c!! Just been out picking blackberries from the field across the road. It’s next to the old Worth church, so I reckon I did the church bit too by osmosis. I don’t see blackberries on your list. Don’t you have any in your parts?
No i don’t, there are no areas of wild growth here, it is ALL corn and beans and sometimes wheat. along the ditches and banks is well behaved wild grasses, not one tiny corner is missed out here.. I remember when i lived in Somerset, we would go for a walk each day to the Dairy up the hill to buy fresh milk and eat the blackberries straight off the bushes on the way there and on the way back. Wonderful.. c
‘Don’t worry, I am not going to knit blankets from dog hair, or go without electricity, or grow a beard and sleep under a canvas fly in the garden.’
Damn it, I wanted to see the homeless lady with a beard covered in dog hair 😉
LOL thanks for the giggle
Lisa you are too funny! have a great day.. c
Good for Red Hat Matt! Please let us know how he and his family are getting on from time to time. He is fortunate to have you as a guide and mentor, and your piglets will be the perfect start to their adventure. Also, what a nice hay man you have to trade hay if yours doesn’t dry! It seems a very generous offer.
It is a very generous offer, and he has a big family so i am throwing in some bacon! By next year he might bale the hay for bacon and chickens, You never know! c
How wonderful for him! I am always glad to hear that people are interested in agriculture. It was a dying art but the younger (that’s me, I think) generations are getting back to it. Now, if we could just make land not so prohibitively expensive, maybe more people would scratch their own little patch of dirt.
buying big tracts of land is awfully expensive, but around here a house and a coupe of acres is quite literally dirt cheap. but this is not a pretty area, I can see why it would not fit peoples idea of ‘country’ living. c
Glad he found a great home to move into and start his farm. I really hate the large corporate farms so it’s great to hear of a family making a go of it. Fingers crossed for him!
he is a very good solid builder and this is such an advantage when taking on a project like that.. have a great day, I am all into making beer now, do you have a site you visit for advice and kits? i need to start small.. Homework first though.. c
Here is a link to one of my posts for brewing. A very simple one. http://ourgrowingpaynes.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/home-brewed-hefeweizen/ Also, check to see if there are any brew stores near you. It’s gotten quite popular now. It is very easy to start, just need a few things for equipment. I don’t use a site as such as we are very lucky to have a store within walking distance that sells everything. How lucky!
Thank you i shall check it out, I have never seen a store around here, it is a long way to anywhere and even then it is all walmart strip malls, you know what I mean! But I will find something! OK I am off to check your page.. many thanks, c
It is really heartening to hear of someone restoring a home to its proper self and getting a garden going. And I’m looking forward to seeing how your challenge unfolds. I have a feeling it will be a real motivator for a lot of us fellowship folk!
I hit my first hitch this morning when putting tomatoes in jars ready for the water bath, i always add lemon juice… hmm.. what did they use to increase the acidity in canned tomatoes before they trucked lemons across the country? c
I think i will exempt preserving from the September challenge, we have the winter to think of after all!.. c
Possibly you could try apple cider vinegar, wine vinegar, or verjuice (the juice from unripened grapes essentially)..
aha, i must look into it, I still have quite a bit of home made apple cider vinegar!
Yay for Red Hat Matt! That is so wonderful and what a great way to start off his own farmy with two of your piglets. Best of luck and happiness to him. And I don’t think your challenge diet sounds like little variety at all, but know this can sometimes be in the eyes of the beholder…or eater. All those fresh veggies, your own meat and fresh dairy sound wonderful to me. Happy Sunday!
It will not be terribly different from normal, i am just cutting out the items that would the extras and it gives me a good idea of what i should be growing next year. Tasty healthy research.. c