Monday, May 19, 2008
Food Makers
When you get a block of really good cheese, do you:
Taste it, savor it, and enjoy it?
Or
All of the above, then do a quick calculation to figure out what amortizing the cost of keeping a milk cow over a year comes out to per pound of cheese, of course with the assumption that your time is free? Followed by scouring the internet for real region-specific cheese cultures, since in the past you’ve discovered that readily available domestic cheese cultures make nasty tasting cheese? Followed by trying to decide if getting a wholesale importers license to get cheap bulk cheese cultures from Europe is worth the hassle?
If you picked option number two, you’d be insane. You’d also be describing a typical day in the American Farmer household.
We get a little obsessive about our food. It all started because of various health problems, in that some members of our family are restricted to only food of the highest quality. Running down to the store for a pound of bacon, a gravy packet, or even some milk is out of the question. Once we figured out how to manage the diet to minimize the health problems, we started getting used to the good food.
That’s dangerous. Good food is addicting, and it reduces one’s tolerance for other lower quality foods that aren’t subject to the health restrictions.
Now, two milk cows, four milk goats, six chest freezers, and a bazillion mason jars later, here we are. We eat extremely well. We’re not completely food self-sufficient, but we’re close, and getting closer.
We’re a little strange that way too. We produce much of our own food in part out of necessity, as to buy food produced like we produce it would be prohibitively expensive. However, in addition to that, we enjoy it. We enjoy the lifestyle, we enjoy the work, we enjoy the challenge, we enjoy learning new things, and we enjoy the economic benefit and freedom associated with being somewhat insulated from market fluctuations.
As diesel prices skyrocket, we look to invest in horse power. It’s slower, but it has the advantages of elegance, simplicity, and reliability. As feed prices skyrocket, we look to invest in equipment to raise our own feed grain. It’s more work than driving to the grain elevator and buying it, but it has the advantage of stability and convenience.
As I get older, I find myself becoming more of a user in some things. For example, I used to really like playing with the guts if computers. Rebuilding them, upgrading them, tweaking them, etc. These days, if it doesn’t work immediately and let me get on with the task at hand, I get quite irritated. I don’t want to fix it, I was to use it. I feel the same way about most of my tools and facilities.
To me, food is different for some reason. We will never be a truly self-sustaining farm, as I have no intention of learning to mine, smelt, and smith to make the knives used on my hay mower, for example. But we can get close to being truly self-sustaining. Animals and plants automatically replenish themselves – grass pastures are the ultimate solar collectors. Grass uses solar energy to build plant matter, cows use plant matter to build meat and milk, meat and milk are used to sustain us in our endeavors to keep the whole system contained, functional, and efficient.
There is a certain beauty in the concept of a self-contained farm that I find irresistible. The quest for that beauty is addicting, and I’m not at all eager to give up being a maker. Maybe when I’m old and grey…. but then, maybe not. The reality is, I’ll probably be out in the orchard or working the bees until the day I die.
Comments
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I dream of what you have. I’m not sure I’m the man to make it work, though. I tend to indolent, and I don’t think that mixes well with farming.
Weetabix | 5/19/2008 03:02 PM CDT -
I too dream of what you have. But at 54 years old, I am way too heat-intolerant to endure the many hours in the fields required to sustain the lifestyle you describe. So I’ll just keep on trading what I know and can do - electronic engineering - for what you know and can do - food production.
I think that sort of trade off is the bedrock that civilizations are built on.
Roy | 5/19/2008 07:40 PM CDT -
the only problem with horse-power ... at least from my experience up north in Alberta ... is the amount of feed you need to raise just to provide fuel for the horsepower that is enabling you to use horsepower to farm.
There is a reason why it was mostly subsistence farming until machinery made it possible to do more and more.
Yep, groups like the Amish still do it, and well, with horses ... but they don’t do it as single farms or farmers ... it takes a community to make that lifestyle work.
If I recall from my Mother Earth research (and talking to neighbors), a Belgian needs about 100 pounds of grain a day when working ...
That said ... I am shopping for enough land to make myself as self-sufficient as possible when I retire in a year or two ... or however long it takes to buy the place once I find it (and can suffer the excessive taxation most states cannot seem to live without)pete in Midland | 5/21/2008 05:18 PM CDT -
Our horses are small draft Haflingers. They don’t eat much, and they work nearly as hard as larger horses. And they eat about 99% grass and hay. We have about 17 acres of pasture, which gives us enough room for pasture and hay for everyone with quite a bit of hay left over to sell.
I suspect the further north you go or the less fertile your soil, the less horses are a possibility. If I get twice as much hay off the same acre of land, the horses “pay” for their upkeep twice as fast.
American Farmer | 5/22/2008 07:18 AM CDT -
heh! That’s why we’re looking at taxes ... and land ... anywhere south of the Kentucky northern border. Alberta was bad enough ... with 2 cuttings of hay in a good year ... Michigan is better with 3 and sometimes 4 ... but Carolyn still complains about winter even with the few mojnths of cold weather we get.
When I was looking into using draft horses, and this was some 30+ years ago ... so don’t quote me ... the general feeling was that you needed grain for the energy when working them, grass would sustain them but didn’t provide enough enegy for the heavy pulling. Of course, I ave to admit to little actual experience ... my hayburners barely come up to my waist, LOL ... and the most work they do is nuzzling my pocket for treats.
pete in Midland | 5/22/2008 07:31 AM CDT -
count me among the envious. In recent years, I’ve been saying that if I had one more lifetime to live, I’d sort of like to do a small farm with animals for wool production and artisanal cheeses. Yes, it would be a tough life in many ways, but one I imagine to be the most supremely sweet, as well.
phlegmfatale | 5/22/2008 09:43 PM CDT -
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http://www.stallingspainthorses.com/horseappraisal.htmlKecia Gutierrez | 5/30/2008 12:55 PM CDT -
Where is farmers?
Abba | 6/8/2008 02:32 AM CDT
