We continue to work the land and to harvest abundantly. Our intentional peasant lifestyle means daily labor and “honest” food (meaning food to which we have contributed our life energy) on our plates. The farm dictates our schedules and guides us through the seasons. As agro-ecological peasants, we grow around 80% of the food we consume, while enriching our direct environment with life and beauty to the best of our ability.
We grew triticale (a mixture between wheat and rye) and harvested enough for at least two years of home-baked bread. The potatoes, pumpkins and corn grew superbly in a field that had been resting for more than 20 years. We had plenty of apples for storage and juice as well as an abundance of plums for brandy. We fermented cabbages, turned grapes into wine, and filled many many jars with delicious preserves. We ate our last tomato at Winter Solstice and even now there are winter greens growing both in and outside the greenhouse.
Our herd of 10 goats continues to bring forth milk and cheese, while also providing us with the meat we choose to consume. To both our dismay and joy, the wolves still living in the mountains just beyond the village also took their share and managed to kill two goats this summer.
Our draft horse Dutsu is as strong and co-operative as ever, loyally pulling the cart and also our new hay-raking machine! This last one is the new big addition to the farm: imported from Italy and now converted for horsepower, it does an amazing job relieving us from days and days of manually raking hay during the very hot summer months. See video below!
Sometimes we wonder what our lives might have looked like if we had chosen to follow the pathways set up for us in our birth families/countries. And still we choose to recommit ourselves to the path that we have chosen. We celebrate the choice that we made to stay together running a family farm, where all barriers between “work” and “home” are gone. We are working toward establishing systems that we hope will help us and also all of humanity to come home to ourselves and our natural world. That we all may do our life (enriching) work.
Check out this video with the new horse drawn hay raking machine !
Write a comment: