Basketball all around

Sunday, March 11, 2007

It seems that March is basketball season around here. The local teams dominate the headlines of the Greensboro paper. The Atlantic Coast Conference dominates broadcasting in North Carolina. Duke, Wake Forest, Carolina, and N.C. State. Naturally, the locals really support their teams. Cars whiz past with flags of Carolina blue or Wolfpack red dangling from their windows. Grandpa rooted for Duke.

Today is my day off. I drive to Greensboro in order to support the local economy. I have a sweater to return so I've got to go to The Friendly Center, a local mall with shops like JJill, Talbots, Ann Taylor, Coldwater Creek, REI, and Pier 1, among others. There are also lots of chain restaurants, too. Why is it called Friendly Center? I have no idea. Perhaps it is because there are a couple of Friends Meeting Halls nearby. The Quakers are still very active around here.

First order of business is lunch. I go to Ham's on my Aunt's recommendation. It is a local chain that has good burgers and sandwiches, as well as homemade potato chips. It also a sports bar. I walk in and every face is glued to the flickering screens all around the room. The first half of the ACC championship is on television. Carolina vs. N.C. State. This is a BIG DEAL, I think.

I order and watch a bit of the game. I'm not much of a sports fan, but I can see that the blue team is clearly controlling the ball more than the red team. Translated, Carolina is dominating the game.

My fellow patrons consist of the elderly, college kids, and families dressed up for church. The potato chips are on every table. A good choice.

I don't have a problem eating by myself. I keep myself busy with a book, or today I'm scribbling in my journal. Perhaps the wait staff thinks I'm a food critic. Let them guess. My waitress is extremely polite and attentive. I love how nice everyone is around here. I had a woman call me hon (as in "Just a minute, hon"). I like the South.

After lunch, I spent a few hours at the mall, indulging in shameless commerce. I feel like such a rebel. The farm is so serene and self-sustaining, yet I still crave restaurants and boutiques. I rounded out the day with a movie. Saw Wild Hogs. I say give it a pass. It was pretty lame.

I headed for home as the sun was setting. Lee let me drive her Honda van around town. Drives fine, but it has no overdrive. Sure keeps me from speeding, though, since the engine is racing when the van hits 60mph. It handles a bit better than their son's Civic, and it has better head room. I hit my head on the roof of the Civic. It is built for short people. I'm just grateful that they let me drive their cars. It has been a long time since my wings were clipped like this.

A dream (and belly) fulfilled

Saturday, March 10, 2007

A quiet day around the farm. It is just Lee, Little Carrie and me to tend to the kids and work in the garden. Jessie works the Curb Market, a farmer's market in Greensboro so she was not around for the first half of the day.

I got to sleep in today. Little Carrie was on call for the morning kid feeding, and it's too chilly to work in the garden at that hour. I rolled out of bed around 8:30! I grabbed a quick breakfast and met Lee and Little Carrie around the garden shed. This morning we cleared the asparagus bed. Henbane and chickweed had overrun the two rows of shoots, so Carrie and I spent an hour and a half pulling weeds. We finished just in time to feed the goats again.

The little goat who refuses to eat did drink a bit of milk this morning. Lunch is not so successful. We still don't know what's up with him. After they were fed, I watched him for a few minutes. He was walking around the pen, socializing with the other kids, and he pooped. I noticed that he may have worms. I went inside and asked Lee if that could be his trouble. She looked thoughtful for a moment and said, "Yes, that just might be it." She went and found a dewormer and gave him a dose. Let's see if this helps. He's a bit young for worming, but if he needs it, he'll get it.

Now it is time for our lunch. Since we're small in numbers, Lee decided to go out to eat. We all changed into clean clothes and drove to the Blue Mist for BARBECUE! My not-so-subtle hints have been heard and my needs are being met. We went to the newer location in Randleman, a bit closer than Asheboro.

The Blue Mist is a classic BBQ place. It is an aluminum-sided building with a smoker in the back. It is on the edge of town along a busy road. We walked inside and looked around. The walls are covered with old flour and cornmeal sacks from local mills tacked to the dark wood. Tables are booths built from dark stained pine. On each table is a basked filled with Smucker's jelly, sugar packets, Texas Pete's hot sauce, and a plastic squirt bottle filled with barbecue sauce. The smell of cigarettes fills the air. I see several tables filled with people young and old, cigarettes propped in their fingers, a halo of smoke rising above their heads. Every table has an ashtray on it. No such thing as a no-smoking section here. Somehow it makes the meal more authentic.

We all have the same thing: a BBQ plate, served with cole slaw, hushpuppies and chopped pork. I get a side order of friend okra because they had fried okra. We all had sweet tea, to wash things down.

A few minutes later, the waitress comes back with three Chinette paper plates. She sets them down in front of us and puts the basked piled high with fried okra in the middle of the table. Oh boy! I don't know where to begin. It all looks so tasty! I drink in the scene in front of me. My plate is filled with a big pile of slow-cooked pork, lightly dressed with barbecue sauce. The cole slaw is finely chopped, practically minced and dressed lightly as well. The hushpuppies are golden-brown and crescent shaped like fried prawns. The okra are piping hot and lightly breaded. Lee tells me, "Eat the huspuppies while they're hot. That's when they're best." I agree with her so I took a hushpuppy and bit off half. Crunchy outside with light, moist texture in the middle. Slightly sweet like good cornbread. Just right. I then devoured a bunch of okra because they're best when hot, too. I like to dip mine in hot sauce, so I ate a couple of hushpuppies in order to have room for a pool of Texas Pete's (made in North Carolina).

The majority of the plate was filled with pulled pork. I took a bite. The sauce is red, tangy, and slightly sweet with a hint of pepper. The pork itself is smoky and moist. Together they are a marriage made in heaven. No bun to get in the way of the barbecue goodness. I added more sauce because I wanted every bite to be dressed in this specialty of Eastern North Carolina. I had grin on my face throughout the entire meal. I'd take a forkful of barbecue, add some coleslaw to it and plop it in my mouth. Yum! It was not the best barbecue I've ever eaten, but it was mighty fine and a great way to get my appetite whet again. Now I want to go to Greensboro and try Stamey's. I've heard that it is THE place around to get barbecue.

Go Go Goats!

Friday, March 09, 2007

Another frosty morning. I walked up to the barn and noticed that everything that we planted was ghostly pale with frost.

Steve, Ginnie, and Nathan left very early this morning in order to catch a plane from Charlotte. They had the sad task of transporting Norma's ashes back to Illinois for her funeral on Saturday.

Today we divided the day between tending the baby goats and weeding in the garden. The goats were pretty good today. Most ate eagerly. A few are bloated and have upset tummies. They got a bit of special treatment and got warm goat milk as opposed to warm Jersey cow's milk. Lee thinks that the cow milk might be a bit too rich for the kids. Goat milk is thinner and has fewer solids that cow milk. Cow milk is also harder to digest and has larger fat globules. Some of these kids are having trouble taking the cow milk. One little buck is not doing so well. Ruthie, a friend of Lee's asked her if she could get this buck to eat. Ruth had trouble with him and let him nurse from his mother. He's never been able to drink from the lamb bar or a bottle. Lee hasn't been able to get him to nurse at all. He sucks halfheartedly and milk dribbles down his chin. She's never seen anything like it. He seems sturdy and healthy, but he won't eat. If he doesn't eat, he'll die. Don't know what else to do.

I got to name a few goats. My favorite is a little alpine that I've named YoYo. Then there's Maeve, a dark-faced alpine. Coco is a dark brown Nubian with big floppy ears. The have distinct personalities. Some are pushy, others are more reserved. All of them are very curious and love to explore. Now that their enclosure has been expanded, they love playing goat games. Running from one end to the other and back again seems to be a mid-day favorite. Some just like to jump and spin in mid-air. King of the Mountain is another favorite. Two goats have figured out how to climb through the stock panels that line their enclosure. Violet, a white saanen, and a nameless little alpine love to explore outside their fence. If they see you, they'll run over to you and jump up on you. They'll follow you around like puppies. These guys are very happy and friendly. I kept putting them back in their pen and they'd turn around and walk right out. They just wanted to be near people. If their friends began to play games, they'd walk back inside and join in the fun. It's good to be a goat, I guess.

Every couple of days, people show up hoping to buy a baby goat or two. Lee is happy to sell her excess goats. Nubians seem to be the most popular. They are the cutest, but they are also the most noisy. They like to make a fuss, whining and bleating. Kinda like Siamese cats. They produce very rich goat milk. Good for cheesemaking. The people who come by are looking to expand their own milk herd, they're looking for a pet, or they want one for supper. Lee is quick to sell the bucks. Does will be sold if their mothers are weak milkers or if there is an excess of certain genetics. Tonight a Hispanic family stopped by and wanted to buy a Nubian buck for a pet. Their son had visited GLD during a class field trip and fell in love with the baby goats. There was a week-old buck ready to go home with them if they were willing to bottle feed it. No problem. They have a nanny goat to provide milk. I hope the boy loves his new friend.

I am sore again. Weeding took a lot out of me. I also have a rash on my forearms. There must be something I'm allergic to in the garden. I hate having such sensitive skin.

Making a bed and planting it

Carrie, Steve, and Lee hard at work in the garden.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

I'm sore tonight. Spent many hours in the garden today.

Our morning began with some of Norma's homemade granola. Really fills you up and is super-tasty. Served with raw Jersey milk. I could get used to this. Then Carrie and I washed and turned a bunch of aging Providence. Not too much cheese work today. The rest of the day we spent in the garden planting seedlings and seeds.

We knocked out a large bed of leeks fairly fast. Then we planted a raised bed full of purple and yellow onions. Steve planted a bed of cabbage. Everything got covered with wire cages. An ounce of protection in order to keep the dogs and humans from treading on tender plants. A white cloth barrier went over the cabbages to prevent cabbage moths from laying eggs on the plants.

Sara the dog oversees our work.

I can't remember the last time I was on my hands and knees with my hands in dirt. Sometimes I would squat and plant, then I would stoop and plant, then I would kneel. In the end, I was covered with dirt. My hands, jeans, shirt, and shoes all had rich soil imbedded in them. It is quite rewarding to look out over the garden and see how much work we got done today. The upper garden is getting in shape. Don't know when things will ripen, but it looks good now and will look even better in a few weeks.

Lunch was amazing today. Ginnie loves to cook and every meal is a reflection of her passion. Today's menu featured pork goulash with sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, and collard greens. Larry, a local organic veggie farmer showed up with a delivery of fresh molasses. He joined us for lunch. Steve and Larry talked about the politics of the farmer's market and we all devoured our goulash. Every meal that Ginnie prepares as a "secret ingredient" that we are supposed to guess. Today's secret ingredient was smoked paprika. I loved the dish.

Some new faces joined us today. Three young cows appeared in a field next to the garden. They looked very happy to be joining the family. Life isn't bad for these guys around here.

Goats, goats, and a pint of ice cream

Adored by my new friends.

Wednesday, March 7th, 2007

I woke up to a cloudy sky. No rain, just overcast and cool. Lee and Steve were feeding the goats this morning when I walked up to the barn. Little Carrie and Jessie were assisting a friend with kidding.

Lots of care and maintenance of young cheese today. First order of business, unhoop Providence. Trim Providence. Brine Providence. Apply a thin coating of clear wax to last week's goudas. I like Providence. The gouda I need to explore some more.

Noon feeding for the baby goats went smoothly. Most of them understand how to use the lamb bar, so feeding them is easy. The newborns need to be bottle fed and then trained on how to feed from the lamb bar. A lamb bar is a bucket with holes drilled in it. Nipples are stuck through the holes. Tubing stretches between the nipples and cups that hold warm milk for the kids. When the measured amount of milk is consumed, the kid is picked up and put into a holding pen. This routine is repeated until all baby goats are fed. This allows us to monitor the health of the kids. If someone isn't eating well, Lee may give them something to settle an upset stomach. She treats them first with homeopathic or natural remedies first. A little baking soda works well if someone has indigestion. She also has a probiotic powder that she’ll sprinkle in the milk. Seems to help ‘em digest the rich cow’s milk.

After feeding 40 baby goats, it was time to feed myself. Ginnie decided to take me to "the truck stop" over on Liberty Road. It is a restaurant called the Four Winds Café, former truck stop, but now it has white tablecloths and serves better quality food. I had a salad with shrimp on it. I've been craving seafood, so this was my chance. Naturally the shrimp was lightly breaded and fried. I suppose customers around here would send it back if the shrimp were not encased in a little jacket of breadcrumbs. It was good. Ginnie joked that they don't eat much seafood around the farm. Since they were raised in the Midwest, they never had fish. Norma hated it, so they rarely had it in the house. She asked if I could teach her how to cook fish. Sure! But I've got to find some fresh stuff. And I won't bread it unless I'm making fish tacos.

Miriam joined us for lunch. Miriam is about five years older than Ginnie and is one of Ginnie's closest friends. She's full of energy and is quick to give you a big smile and warm hello. They attend church together and Miriam is a fixture around the farm. She helps clean up the cheese room and Ginnie's house for some extra money. She's got many stories to tell and has a great the gift of storytelling. She loves to talk. Like most folks around the farm, she'll share her opinion about any topic. I like Miriam.

Our ride home included a detour to Bowman Dairy, home of Homeland Creamery in Julian, NC. A local dairy, they make delicious ice cream. Ginnie has a fondness for ice cream, so we had to pay them a visit. She got a chocolate milkshake, and I got a butter pecan cone. I brought home a pint of coffee ice cream for a good test.

Liberty is the town at the other end of Old Liberty Road. Goat Lady Dairy resides at the intersection of Jess Hackett Road and Old Liberty Road. Food Lion, a local grocery store, is in Liberty and so is the bank. Ginnie was kind enough to drive to Liberty so I could cash my stipend check. I don't have anything to buy, but it is nice to know where I can take care of business should I need to do so. Liberty is home to a chicken processor, a furniture manufacturer, a hardware store, a Mexican restaurant, and a small theater. A Johnny Cash tribute band is playing there on Saturday. There is a nicely restored old railroad depot near the center of town. It is about six miles to Liberty from GLD.

Ginnie had one more errand to perform so she took Old Liberty Road past the dairy and on to Asheboro in order to pull a plumbing permit. I really like Ginnie. She's got some great stories to share about her life, and we seem to share similar points of view. She is incredibly smart, outspoken, and doesn't put up with close-minded people. She seems to like being "the Goat Lady" and a local character. She went to school in Boston and got a masters degree in nursing. She's lived in Chicago for a while before she moved to North Carolina in the early 1980's. She purchased the Goat Lady Dairy property in the mid '80's and began restoring the old Blue House. Today she's retired from nursing and works primarily around the dairy. She's also quite active in a small informal church that provides a lot of outreach to the homeless and poor. The amazing thing is that she suffers from several health issues and lives with a great deal of pain. She moderates the pain with medication, but I haven't heard her complain, she laughs about it. The Tate family does not dwell in drama. They are very level-headed and matter-of-fact about everything.

We returned to the dairy, I threw my pint of coffee ice cream into the freezer and painted the six goudas with another layer of wax. Steve returned from town with new clothes for Saturday's funeral. As he put it, he had to get some new "going to town" clothes. Not much call for them, here in Climax.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Southern comfort

A house up the road from the dairy.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Today we're reaching critical mass. Flowers are decorating the kitchen. People are showing up, some strangers, but all connected to Norma somehow. And like good friends who want to express their love and sorrow in some way, they seem to show it with baked goods. There has been a parade of sweets arriving in the kitchen. Peanut brittle, coconut cake, blondies, chocolate chip cookies, and a magnificent pound cake are scattered all around the formica table. Norma was well known for her skill as a baker, so this is a very fitting tribute.

Little Carrie got to fetch milk at Sammy's this morning. She was up before dawn to experience the glory that is Sammy and his 24 cows. A cheese called Providence is on today's to-do list. Steve describes it as a taleggio-style cheese. It is a washed rind, square-shaped cheese. The texture is a bit chewy, semi-firm with an amazingly complex yet approachable flavor. It has sweet chocolate notes, as well as crème brulee. I pick up some custardy overtones, too. Imagine eating a cheese flavored tootsie roll and you might come close to Providence. I love it.

I observed Steve and Little Carrie transforming the raw milk into Providence while Carrie Carrie and I wrapped the chevre logs that we made yesterday. Some we seasoned with herbs like dill and peppercorns. Some we cut in half. We also make some goat milk chocolate truffles. I would have been tempted to eat a truffle, but I was so full of sugar from all of the other sweets, that the truffles were not a temptation. I might have to force myself to eat one. I've gotta know what the things taste like, I suppose. They look good. They just don't call to me like the peanut brittle does. I'm happy to say that I am not a chocoholic.

A sign of spring: we planted the onions and leeks today! Steve prepared a bed by tilling the winter groundcover of henbane into the soil. Little Carrie, Lee and I set to work, planting the Vidalia onion seedlings. Hundreds of them went into the soft soil. It was almost a mesmerizing task. Make a hole, plop a seedling into it, pat it down, make a hole, plop a seedling into it, pat it down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. By sunset we had a bed of onions put in as well as a bed of leeks. I had no idea how satisfying planting onions could be. The only stress came from the dogs. Dickie, the big fluffy goat guard dog likes to waltz across a freshly planted bed and flop down on the straw nearby. We had to replant some sections of the bed several times.

In the middle of planting, a truck pulled up with a small trailer. The piglet are here! We're gearing up now! Twelve little guys will eat the whey from our cheesemaking. They'll get huge, fast. Then off to the butcher to be turned into bacon, country ham, spareribs, tenderloin, pork chops, and sausage. But for now, they are a bunch of smart and cute little piglets. They are so little, and a couple of crafty ones found a way to slip through the fence. We were planting onions when we saw two little pigs racing towards us. "Pigs are out!" I yelled. Little Carrie and I chased them back to their paddock a couple of times. I think Bobby came back and fixed the fence.

Jessie and Nate invited us over to their place for supper. Braised short ribs finished on the grill. Big, primal slabs of beef. We went over to their house and eagerly ate the grassfed beef with a couple of their friends. It was fun getting off of the farm and hanging out with a bunch of folks in their 20s. Lot of youthful enthusiasm. The ribs could have been cooked a bit longer, but it was fun tearing into these large, fatty, meaty, slabs. There was a lot of food. We devoured the locally grown beef ribs and sat around in a communal food coma. Little Carrie and I left early because every day we have to get up early and get a start on the day's tasks.

Life cycles

Steve and Lee feed kids at the lamb bar

Monday, March 5th

I wake up to a very cold morning. I look out upon a crispy landscape. There is a very hard frost blanketing the farm. As I walk up to the barn, the grass crunches underfoot. Every blade is coated with a fine layer of blue-white ice that crackles as I make my way up the hill. The sky is light, but the sun hasn't risen above the trees to the east. The barn is a hive of activity, everyone is already hard at work.

Life and death are a part of the farm experience. Animals die, cattle are slaughtered, pigs are butchered, roosters are culled, garden plots get tilled. There is a give-and-take relationship. You make cheese from the cows and goats, the leftover whey goes to the (soon-to-arrive) pigs, the chickens eat the table scraps, all of the animals provide manure for the soil, and the compost helps make the garden florish. The compost pile is in the chicken yard so the chickens scratch at it all day long, helping to turn the surface of the compost. The flies like the compost pile too, and the chickens love to nibble on fly larvae. The farm has very few problems with pests because life is lived in balance. It is a great place to observe, learn, and be a part of this highly orchestrated dance.

Even though the Tates are grieving over the loss of Norma, there is work to be done every day. Nothing can be ignored, even for one day. Things cannot stop because every moment counts on a busy farm. Life goes on whether you like it or not.

Right now, we are playing a waiting game. Steve ordered a new pasteurizer this winter. It is due to arrive this week. The fresh goat milk is scheduled to arrive on Monday. Steve's sweating because the new equipment needs to be plumbed and tested before any milk goes into it. We'll probably be making some raw milk cheeses before we can pasteurize the milk and make fresh cheese. The old pasteurizer has been sold to someone in Venezuela.

Even though we're waiting for the milk and the machinery, there is ALWAYS something to do. Steve's wife, Lee is a great organizer. She is good a delegating chores as well as managing the livestock around the farm as well as the goats over at Sammy's farm. The week begins on Monday with a "staff" meeting. Everyone checks in and the week's work is assessed. Two people tackle the feeding of the kids three times a day. Raw cow's milk needs to be picked up at Sammy's so the kids have milk to drink at meal times. This week, the kids are being disbudded. A hot iron sears the horn area and prevents it from growing. If allowed to grow, the kids could hurt themselves or others. The kids scream bloody murder during the process, but recover in about five minutes and behave as if nothing has happened. They smell like burnt flesh and bone for the rest of the day. You have to be a bit sadistic to enjoy disbudding baby goats.

Preparing the garden for spring is another major undertaking. The upper garden and lower garden are still full of winter veggies and edible flowers. Kale and collard greens are still producing, but this week, some beds are being turned and planted with the first spring crops. Vidalia onions and leeks have been waiting to be planted for a few days. The soil has been drying out and is ready to take on new plants. I can't wait to see this stuff grow during the next few months.

I got to make cheese with Carrie, the other cheesemaker. I call her Carrie Carrie, because she is the original Carrie around here. Little Carrie doesn't mind being dubbed 'Little Carrie'. Carrie Carrie showed me how to make fresh chevre logs. We cranked out about 100 one pound logs, set them on a rack in the walk-in refrigerator and prepared orders for wholesale accounts. Carrie is fun to work with. Since she grew up in the area, we spent the entire time talking about our favorite North Carolina topic: food. She's a big fan of Bojangle's, too. I've gotta get me some chicken here, soon.