Homeostasis

This time of year, farm work seems to be all about maintenance.  Weeding, harvesting, cleaning, feeding and watering are the orders of the day.  The rabbits are getting big & happy and hopefully come March our does will be the proud mamas of some fuzzy grey kits.  The chicks that hatched a few weeks ago have gotten enormous and their days are spent following mother hen about the farm, pecking at the dried skins of harvested garlic and searching through the rubble for delicious bugs to snack on.  The farm is in balance.

Production is through the roof.  We’ve got melons, peppers, onions, basil, eggplant, garlic, tomatoes, tomatillos, cucumbers, apples, plums, and all types of summer squash coming out our ears!  Seriously, I’m pretty sure a cherry tomato just escaped from my ear canal.  No joke.

I just finished listening to the Botany of Desire on audiobook (lots of driving turns quickly into education).  The central theme of this excellent book is that the domesticating nature of many plant/human relationships is a reciprocal one.  In other words, that we have selectively bred plants to be a certain way says just as much about us as it does about them, and in turn they have a degree of evolutionary agency that frequently goes unnoticed.  One of the myriad ways plants’ evolutionary destiny expresses itself is through its unstoppable and prolific growth.  Left untended for a few days, a small section of the farm will all-of-sudden turn into a jungle at this time of year--overflowing with greenery (both crops and weeds).    Maintaining homeostasis on the farm at this moment means constantly harvesting and weeding, because the ground is so rich with fertility.  It’s exciting!  I am fascinated by the idea of homeostasis, and I believe it’s a metaphor for how all aspects of life should be carried out.  We must always strive to maintain equilibrium, on the farm and within ourselves.

Since it’s Monday, I’m going to quickly go over some goals I have for myself this week that keep me in equilibrium.  I will make kefir out of goat milk.  Kefir is a fermented milk drink that is very good and good for you.  I intend to puree some of the thousands of blackberries growing around here and add them to my kefir.  Hopefully I will also do some “Coffee Goat Management” this week and continue to learn to be a goatherd.  Goats rock!  I will finish the process of renewing my passport (sorry Dad, it turned out to be slightly more difficult than originally expected but I’m on top of it, I SWEAR).  I will also stick the loaf of Rye bread I’ve been letting rise for the last 2 hours in the oven now.  We’ll see how it turns out!

Tooodles,

Lucyyy