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.”
Oh Celie, that is the most delightful story about Matt: Just think what an infectious idea you are spreading around you, nibbling away at the edges of monoculture and big business farming. Pray that more folk are inspired by your example. We always used to feed the ponies in the trailer for a week or so before we needed to transport them, and never had any trouble.
Morning Viv, The piglets rush into the trailer for their dinner, so i do not envisage much trouble, other than separating the girl and one other from the others, very fast. But i am sure the first time will be the learning time for this kind of thing. They are way too heavy to carry now.. c
So happy for Red Hat Matt and his new adventure! You are contagious, and in a very wonderful way.
Morning darling.. c
Good luck, Celi…you are training the pigs the right way! I have a hope that many others will be able to buy up some of those farm houses and save them…also the families who are now learning to live on them (if they can purchase)
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Wouldn’t be a fantastic thing if the country started filling up with people again.. oh that would make all the difference in the world..
What an inspiration you are, and have been to Red Hat Matt for him to make a life change for his family. Wishing them all the best on their new farmy. The hay man sounds like a dear, I like how farmy folk look out for each other.
Hmm, you don’t have any grains but corn on the farmy, do you? Otherwise you could make breakfast puddings. I made a rice pudding yesterday to die for! It’s a great thing to add variety from a simple farmy lifestyle. Rice, milk, egg, sweetener (sugar). That’s it! It was delicious!
Good luck with your challenge.
Cinders, you are like the little pebble in the pond…you have touched, influenced, inspired so many people…me included! I love this story of Red Hat Matt! Would he let you show us a photo of his little farm? How about vinegar in your tomatoes instead of the lemon juice for the acidity?…did you say you had some in your basement….that could be homemade! 🙂
Re missing lemons, could you plant a couple in trees in pots and keep them under glass in the coupe through the winter? I know people in the uk have all sorts of poly tunnel systems with underfloor heating (usually powered alternatively to keep costs down) so they can grow citrus in a frost free environment. There is lots of technical stuff on the internet re poly tunnel under floor heating. The hay man is a keeper, how sweet to offer you his hay. Good Luck with the beer.
Would that there be more Celi’s – lawns would become vegetable gardens and the world would be a better place. V.
I doubt you could have found the piglets a better home nor a better purpose, Celi. They’ll help Flat Hat Matt realize his dream. Not bad for a couple of mischievous piggies! You picked a beautiful day to start your challenge. It’s an omen of good things to come. I’ll be leaving in a few minutes to get some jars. I’m going to put up a batch of tomato jam this afternoon. Hope you’re having a great day!
Just finished reading a great book – Gaining Ground by Forrest Pritchard. It is about a young man just leaving college and decides to ‘save the family farm’. It has some hilarious bits in it – especially the section describing how he and his fathers first attempt in building a portable coup for the chickens turns out. Just a hint – he wasn’t as clever as you Celi regards putting wheels on it!
It really speaks to what we have all said above about how great it would be if there were more people like Matt around.
What a wonderful challenge for Matt and his family, Celi. I wish them great success, but most of all the happiness and serenity it seems to bring you.
Good luck with your September challenge!
How fortunate for Red Hat Matt and his family that he landed the job of building a Coupe for a Kiwi lady farmer… Life changing moments look just like any other, it’s what you do with them 🙂 You are an amazing inspiration, and Matt is a star for going for it and making a wonderful opportunity.
Big challenge darling, but I’m sure you’re up for it! I was happy to read that you’re allowing flour and coffee – I was worried how you’d make bread! And all power to Red Hat Matt, may his new lifestyle be everything he hopes it to be!
Good luck to Matt and good luck to you on your challenge. I’m so pleased when I can say just a portion of our meal is home grown/made. Check out this link, http://www.northernbrewer.com/ for your beer making. They have beginner/starter kits. It’s something I haven’t gotten to yet but hope to.
Thank you Sherry, i shall have a look, anything with Beginner on it would suit me!! c