Pie in the Sky

Today I was preparing a turkey pie for our supper and my stream of thought took me to thinking about pie crusts and their purpose. Preserving food was a very difficult task before refrigeration, freezers and canning. These are all very recent methods of keeping our foods fresher, longer. Food had to be dealt with quickly and eaten within a very short time. 

Pie crusts became a way of keeping the food within them a few days longer. They were made with lard and usually in a heavy, deep dish. The crust would be thick and heavy as to envelope the food and protect it. It was most often a meat dish. Usually hunted game or pork. It was baked in a wood fired oven and then set to cool. 

Pie cupboards were created to keep the vermin out of the food. They were made mostly of wood with holes (vents) drilled into the sides to allow air to flow through. The vents were tacked with bits of metal grating so no creatures could get in. 

These pie safes, as they were called, are very collectable now and often found as decorative furniture in some homes. 

My mother tells of a story when she was young. The pie safe was full of goodies as Christmas was near. My grandmother had a lock on it. She was out and so my grandfather conspired with the children to enter the cupboard from below and remove some of the tasty morsels. He was positively delighted to be conducting this prank with the children and all anticipated how my grandmother would react once she discovered the theft !

I don't think you have to imagine too hard how my grandmother reacted. At first she just couldn't figure it out but once she did she was angry. Problem was, she couldn't get mad at the children because their father had set them to it. 

Needless to say they didn't try it a second time. Its always interesting to me how food got to be presented the way it is. There is always a story, usually practical and makes perfect sense. 

By the way. Our turkey pie tonight was delicious. 

Plan Now, Reap Later

By now many of you will have ordered seeds or even begun working in your gardens or greenhouses. It is a great time of year, before it gets much busier, to do a little planning.

Plan on paper. Draw out your area. Label the beds and rows and determine what is going where according to your crop rotation cycle.

Plan for your needs. Order/ purchase seeds/ plants. Look at your tools. What needs fixing, sharpening, replacing? Can I get something new ? Have a look at your irrigation needs. Are hoses, pipes, sprinklers in good working order ? Has anything changed with water tables, wells ? Is the pump in good repair ?

 Plan to assess and walk your garden more this year. There is an old saying "THE BEST FERTILIZER IS THE FARMER'S SHADOW." This could not be more true ! Walk through your garden regularly at every time of day to properly "SEE" and inspect what is going on. Are the plants thoroughly watered ? Are there too many weeds? Are the plants disease free ? Are there any pests evident ? By walking about on a regular basis you will notice what needs to be taken care of and dealt with quickly before it becomes a problem.

Most of all PLAN to enjoy every moment you have in your gardens and they will reward you abundantly !

Manifesting Your Dreams

I have started FLAMENCO dance lessons. On Tuesday was my second class. Its hard but so much fun. It is a very technical dance form and it has a structure. It got me to thinking about how this relates to other things in my life, especially the farm.

I realized that I actually like doing things that are hard, not for the feint of heart. After over 15 years of farming I am still practicing, still learning, still improving, still facing challenges. That is what appeals to me. I don't ever want to think that I know it all, that I can't improve, have mastered it.

Whats wonderous to behold is that when you do something for a long time, keep at it, you look behind you and see the structure that it has become. It has taken on a form, a shape. Something that is real and tangible. Your thought, dream, idea has been manifest.

Now that it has a consistency and a shape you can manipulate it, play with it, change it back if you wish. Its kind of like baking a cake. You want a cake but now you have to get all the ingredients together and get it to become a cake. Then you can start to decorate it, the fun part !!

The challenges are just that, challenges. They force you to "think" and out of that thinking process come ideas, opportunities and solutions. At 20 years of age I never could have imagined how my life was going to look at 54, the only thing "I" knew was that I liked challenges and wanted to be involved in something that would make me think for myself and present me with an arena to practice, learn and improve on my dream.

The farm now has an energy and life force of its' own as it draws people from all over the world to come and participate in its' growth. There is a real "hunger" for being in a place that "allows" you time to think and contemplate your dreams. It is shocking to me how many young people come here and tell us that they have never experienced enough "unstructured, unsupervised, downtime" to contemplate on their own thoughts, dreams and ideas.

It makes me very happy that the farm has become this kind of place, a kind of refuge and school for ideas and dreams to become manifest. This is the part that has surprised me the most and it has shown me how when you give form to something it will eventually begin to "live" on its' own and show you what it has in mind. It has opened ever greater doors for us and all who journey through.

Your dancing steward,
Barbara :-)))))