I Heart Farms

Honest Meat: Ruminate on this

Pictured here: a new face to the world of weblogs, my friend, Rebecca Thistlethwaite.

She has just launched her new weblog, HonestMeat.com, and I think she is going go be a fabulous addition to the blogosphere—because the blog is basically about the good, the bad, and the ugly of raising livestock. She knows the right questions to ask, and she knows the answers to all your questions about raising meat: both humanely and inhumanely. And she hopes to get lots of comments, but none of the "non-anonymous pinhead" sort.

Rebecca and her husband, Jim Dunlop, run TLC (Tastes Like Chicken) Ranch out in Las Lomas, California, just a little past Watsonville. For several years, she was working with a non-profit, ALBA, for six years. Now she is going to be consulting, as well as taking time to garden with their little girl, Fiona, whose photo is below.

I had the pleasure of spending several days in Rebecca's company: we sat at opposite ends of my big dining table, working on our laptops. I designed her banner (we love it, because it's all about the grass), and helped her with some technical stuff.

Page Load Error: Grumble, Grumble, Grumble

Hey, everybody: a quick note.

I transferred my domain from Hostway.com (NEVER use this service, EVER, details to follow) to Aplus.net, and now "www.iheartfarms.com" is in limbo. I'm setting up what's called "Domain Mapping" with Aplus.net, which means that soon, when it's complete, you will see "www.iheartfarms.com" in your browser Location window (the actual URL) instead of "smallfarms.typepad.com." But it takes a day or two for that to happen, so meanwhile, if you go to "www.iheartfarms.com", you will get an error message.

Hang in there with me, please. I'm paddling as fast as I can.

Following: a short rant about why not to use Hostway.com followed by something completely wonderful and wonderful that I've been watching a few times a day ever since someone sent me the link.

Found a Peanut

Okay, this is not a post about a farm, but maybe a farmer can solve an ongoing mystery for my family.

We live on the central coast of California, where peanuts are not likely to have been planted, as they need conditions that don't really exist here. I know that they ripen and grow underground, as well. And that a peanut has to be attached to a plant to grow, just as any legume would.

I have asked some of the smartest people I know in two different forums (Readerville.com and MouthfulsFood.com) to come up with an explanation, and none have been able to answer the question I am about to ask you all.

Time's Running Out: Raw Milk ACTION ALERT!

SHORT AND TO THE POINT:

Make 17 phone calls to save raw milk in California, please.

LINK.

These are some of Jean and Bob's cows out in Watsonville at the very beautiful Deep Roots Ranch.

News from the Vanilla Queen, Patricia Rain

Patricia Rain, summer 2005, at a farmers market.

I heard from Patricia two days before my birthday, and promised I would publish the letter she sent out to friends and family, in its entirety.

Dear Beloved Friends,

Although it drives me a little crazy to send a group letter rather than to write individual notes or phone each of you, time and energy in our crazy, hectic world seems to often be in short supply. Also, some of you have heard various parts of this note already and I apologize for boring you twice. But frankly, I didn't get holiday notes out this year between holiday business demands and the loss of four friends between Thanksgiving and the second week of February, so I'm writing a "one size fits all" note. So, Happy New Year, Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day Easter, Passover, Mother's Day, Memorial Day and Father's Day. :-) Hopefully I can pick upo again by the Fourth of July.

Getting through the holidays was difficult as I spent many days in hospitals and at memorial services. There were some wonderful special moments with Theo and Zane, especially Christmas morning when they walked into the living room and couldn't believe that Santa had not only come but that he knew they would like a big boy bicycle and tricked-out tricycle even before they knew they wanted them. The looks of amazement and joy were a huge antidote to the difficult hours of helping friends through their transition from life to death. By January I was pretty burned out.

Blessedly, I had a magnificent trip to look forward to, one that I had initially booked through the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce. However, due to my contacts throughout the world, the next thing I knew was that I was having a two-in-one journey to China! The first part was the tour, and the second was eight days with a research scientist on Hainan Island in the South China Sea. As often happens when I travel, nothing was firm about the second part of the trip until days before I left, but it all came together into one remarkable adventure.

Whole Lotta Somethin' Goin' On

 These Orange-Red apricots are delicious, and beautiful, and Farmer Al at Frog Hollow Farm was kind enough to give me a couple to bring home from the Santa Cruz farmers market yesterday. Drippy almost down the chin, they were.

Orange-Red: today's theme, in a certain way. At least the theme of the hot and smoky afternoon in Santa Cruz, where yesterday I ventured from the vast distance of six miles away. Thirteen if you count the trip to the Community on the Hill, as UCSC is known: that is where I went to retrieve my beautiful daughter for a visit to the market.

An Afternoon with Kirsten Roehler at Everett Family Farm

NOTE: something about this entry is wackadoo in its layout, so apologies while I try to debug it.

Pictured here: Kirsten hugging her little pet goat, Audrey. I have so many photos of the tender-hearted Kirsten without a face, because she is so often hugging a critter on the farm.

Logan and I spent an hour and a half with farmer Kirsten this afternoon: we haven't visited she returned to the farm, replacing my wonderful friends, Mike Irving and Teresa Kurtak, in running the farm. (Here they are, pictured at the last farmers market of the season last year. Mike's moving to Washington to get a farm started up there, and Teresa will join him when she finishes her master's degree program at UCSC.)