Serenity Yoga Farm

…until this week, that is.

I always call myself a farmer.  I guess we all have our own thoughts on what these things are, but for me I didn’t feel like I was “well rounded” enough to call myself a homesteader.  In my mind a homesteader wears many hats on the farm…err, homestead.  Though we have a lot going on, my attention is primarily on goats.  Christine does about 99.9% of the chicken and bird care; I’m not a bird person but I help out when she’s out of town.

I also haven’t seen birds as a good way to make money.  They are so expensive to raise and feed, and then selling the eggs seems pretty difficult because “everyone” is doing it.  Austin, which is the closest city to us, allows people to have backyard chickens in city limits, and so there’s just a lot of competition there. And where we live there is not a big market for organic eggs; people want what is going to be most affordable.  Not everyone, true, but it’s going to be a hard way to actually make money.  If the ducks would hurry up and start laying I know they would bring in a bit more income, but even still.

I have had dreams, on and off since living here, of becoming a real dairy farmer.  Some days it slips out of my mouth that I am a dairy farmer.  Heck, I milk goats twice a day and care for goats and breed goats.  11 goats may not be a big dairy size (or even a medium dairy, ha) but it’s more than most homesteaders seem to have.  And it’s where my heart has been on our farm.  I LOVE goats.  And I LOVE milking.  If it were easier to have a dairy and sell milk, you can bet I’d be doing it. Truth is it would require us to build a $60,000ish barn with a milk room made of all stainless steel appliances and I just don’t have that kind of money, nor do I want to get a loan for that, knowing how hard it STILL would be to actually make money on dairy.  You know who wins in the dairy industry?  Factory farms that mistreat the animals, have terrible conditions, and horrible quality of milk with hormones, antibiotics, and unnaturally fed animals.  This is why I URGE people to consider the farmer’s market and buying from local humans.  Support those farmers doing good in the world, not big companies just trying to make money.  Put your dollars where your heart is.  All of this matters.  I’ll do another longer post about this soon.  Anyway, I feel like a goat farmer at heart and that’s where I put my attention.  We have been doing herd shares, in which people buy into our goat herds and reap the benefits without having to care for goats, and that’s helped us to cover the cost of feed for the goats.  It helps.  It’s not a money making business though.  Really nothing about good farming practices is.

So I say farmer, Christine says homesteader.  She embraces that term in a way I have not.  Well, until this week…

I’ve obviously been making cheese and kefir for a while now.  And then about a month ago I made 5 batches of soap in one week (and haven’t made any since).  This week I’ve added in kombucha (it can taste like soda or vinegar depending on how you make it!) and sauerkraut.  Yay for fermented foods, full of probiotics and gut healing magic.

I’m also making horchata (a cinnamon rice almond drink), which is a popular drink down here but not something I’ve ever made before.  And later this week after the Azure Standard’s order comes in, I’ll make bread, something I used to make and sell along with -bagels, when I lived in a co-housing community in New York.

And I’m actually putting in some effort to make real dinners; I’m the kind of person who is happy to just have a bowl of fruit or a smoothie for dinner, much to the upset of my other half.  I’m not super organized when it comes to meal planning…I either under-buy and we don’t have what we need or I decide to make like 7 fancy dinners in a week which I then get too tired to go through with and the ingredients go bad in the fridge.  Perfect wife I am not; I often joke that Christine should find another wife who could cook us dinners and do dishes for us.  But hey, I’m trying.  Two nights ago, pad thai.  Last night, sweet potato black bean burritos, and tonight…creamed vegetable pasta.  Christine could have done worse.

And with all of this making of foods and cool drinks and such…I am finally embracing the homestead label.  It finally feels like it just might fit.  We’ve got local (from our own yard) milk, cheese, eggs, kefir…I mean, that’s pretty cool!

And (how many paragraphs in a row can I start with “and”? I guess I’m just *that* excited!) I have discovered what fun bartering is!  On Friday a friend I’ve only met once before but spoken to extensively on Facebook came to visit and to do a private session of yoga with me (she teaches a different style which is something I greatly need at the moment) we also exchanged our goods!  She and her hubby brought a SCOBY and some fresh kombucha for us and I gave them some fresh eggs, garlic chevre, raw milk, and goat milk fudge.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE SHARING WHAT I MAKE.  I LOVE it.  Though I’ve never enjoyed cooking dinners, giving and exchanging gifts that come from my farm makes me so extremely happy.  Especially when people give feedback (good or bad, I don’t care…I just want to know!).  The fudge was a hit with our visitors and on Saturday when we went to visit my grandmother we took her some too.  She tried one piece, grabbed the bag it was in, and hid it from her other visitors in the fridge.  She texted me Sunday and said:

 

 

This is how life should be lived.  Sharing and exchanging with others.  It really makes my heart sing!