Read the news from Essex Farm directly from Kristin Kimball‘s blog below:
“Had a lovely farm walk with Mark this morning, just as this front was coming in. The earth and plants are so deeply asleep. The mighty asparagus, thick enough to hide in over the summer, is reduced to piles of crackly brown sticks underfoot. We pushed through the raspberry canes that snagged us all season, so devoid of life now they rattled together in the wind. We checked on the kale, which is still conspicuously green in a field of white and brown, and still good to eat. The mice have dug a bunker in the old parsnip furrow, and are gleaning the frozen roots. We crossed the swamp and walked through seventeen acre field, which is crisscrossed with coyote tracks.
At the metal barn we contemplated the disturbingly fast rate at which we are going through hay – two bays of the barn are empty already, only two bays to go, and we are not even close to halfway to grass. We will be reducing the herd size every week, but we will still have to buy hay before May. At least we have plenty of bedding, so the cattle are dry and comfortable.
The temperature was dropping by the minute and the wind seemed to come from every direction in strong, sudden gusts. We stopped to check on the horses, pressed our faces into their thick fur and good smell, and then turned toward home. We are at the point in the year when it feels like the cold can’t touch us. We are adjusted and we are prepared. Let it blow.
Many thanks to Kelly E. who brought us a load of good used outerwear yesterday, along with her delicious coffee cake. Those gifts made me think of the interplay between independence and interdependence in our community. There is a strong tradition of independence in the North Country. We cut our own wood and hunt or grow our own food and work hard at our own businesses and we are stoic in the face of adversity. But there is not a lot of extra fat in this land. It is a place with a small economy and a big winter, and the only way it works for all of us is to be frugal and take care of each other. I have lived here for eleven years now and I am still moved by the way this community takes care of each other. Person to person, family to family, farm to farm….” Continue reading this Essex Farm Note.
Related articles
- Essex Farm: Water and Ice (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- The Essex Sunburst (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Essex Farm: The Last Week (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
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