Looking for Milk in the Weeds
Here at Elderslie we are passionate about pasture, browse and fresh air for our goats. First of all it’s just a basic belief that keeping an animal in confinement its whole life is something you might do if you were desperate, but it’s not lovely, and as studies continue to show, it’s not good for …
Berry-pampering
On the Edge of Joy
I am drawn to slow processes that create beauty. It’s why I adore agriculture, why fermentation is a something I am awed by and surround myself with. At the turning of spring, the human world is keeling and reeling, buffeted by the waves of uncertainty, fear and change. All of us feel it. My children …
In the Wet of Spring
Wednesday we had an idyllic Grand Cheese Tasting with twenty guests on a perfect evening and I left about 8:15 pm to go home. I had been watching the weather for a week and I knew we were right on the edge. Rain was forecast to return in the middle of the night. Rain again. …
A Creamery Door
A door is what stands between two worlds separating them and uniting them. Practically a great invention, symbolically also a rich one. I learned long ago that my wife is much more talented than I am so I have her do my layouts, which take her 15 or 20 minutes. Then I get to carve. …
Mangle Board
My wife is more talented than I am. I have a plodding methodical creativity and work ethic that has served me well through periods of stress but has not always been productive of real creative output. My wife on the other hand is electric and fast-moving; difficult to contain in her velocity and volume of …
Not Done
Dining Room With Snow, Please
This morning at 6:50 my children lost their minds. They went running out the door in their pajamas with no shoes screaming “snow, snow, snow, snow!” They ignored my pleas and my commands for some time until my son came to his senses and said “I am cold. Let me inside.” But on the …