Onions!

Grow onions!

We spent yesterday afternoon figuring out the profit margins from vegetables. To make 50,000 gross income on 2 1/2 acres, you need $500 per bed. Onions give you $1,200! Woot!

Assuming, of course, that you can sell all of them...

Every time we do this, I feel this hope welling up in me that farming will, in the end, turn out to be secretly very profitable. Alas, that is never, ever the case.

Animals and Engines Are Actually The Same

WARNING: Graphic images of animal and engine internal parts. If you can't handle a combustor and/or rumen, stop reading now.

It's a little known fact that animals and engines are actually the same thing. What follows is a photo essay illustrating such.

We dissect both of them:

We inspect both of them:

And the carburetor and rumens mix up fuel (and air) and transfer it into other forms of energy.

In conclusion, there's no discernible difference between the two.

Chicken Livers!

In one of the best treats of the holidays, my cats got to spend a few days living in my parents barn. I was able to see them whenever I wanted which was amazing. What precipitated this was inviting Rebecca and Anthony to New Years- never travel with your cat sitters! Just kidding: we had our third amazing New Years together.

When we got home with Hobbes and Pippin (Hobbes is the closer one and no, they're not related), it turns out that Mom had some chicken livers from Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds. They turned into a Christmas treat for some very happy cats. Hobbes was so excited he couldn't choose his bowl or Pippin's.

Also, in big news, they caught their first mouse while we were gone!

Tenderloin?

Right when we got home from the farm, Theo and I volunteered to cook a big dinner the one night the whole family would be home. As we don't have unlimited access to meat here, we opted for some good old fashioned beef.

So commenced the hunt for grass-fed beef. It's good to know that there's a serious market in the greater boston area for it, since it was impossible to find. No Whole Foods around us had it and all they could offer was grass-fed lamb from New Zealand (talk about a carbon footprint!).

We finally found some at a small shop downtown. While paying, I asked where the beef was from. Lo and behold, he tells us it was from Adam's Farm. The same Adam's Farm that we can see from our farm.

I had a few competing thoughts at that point: I'd seen their pastures and wasn't super impressed, I'd seen their cows and wasn't super impressed, and I knew their reputation and wasn't super impressed. What to do, what to do.

We bought it anyway and served up a great dinner of tenderloin with bone marrow, swiss chard souffles, braised leeks, garlic mashed potatoes and tiramisu. But I really can't wait until I have my own farm where I know how everything is raised and don't have to hesitate at the cash register.

Remoras Are Pretty Awesome

Who knew? Remoras attach themselves to the bottom of sharks and eat the scraps that are left behind. Apparently, they also really like bread. Awesome.

Caribbean Getaway

Theo and I had the most amazing/exciting/relaxing/enjoyable/etc vacation ever. We went with my family to the BVI and spent ten days sailing, swimming, snorkeling and celebrating the holidays.

I had meant to catch up with things I wanted to write before I left but never got around to it. I did, however, clean out my room at my parents house for the first time in years so that counts for something. The next few days might be a bit of a mash of vacation and farm related stuff as I catch up.

We decorated the boat for Christmas (there was a tree down below but we didn't get a picture).

After carols on Christmas Eve, we had our traditional sweet rolls (quite a feat when cooked in a galley!) on Christmas morning. We did a secret santa this year instead of lots of presents. I got Anomia from Mom, a new card game which is really really fun.

Theo and I spent Christmas day collecting firewood. Nothing like limbing and bucking on a beach!

After grilled lamb chops for a mid afternoon dinner (so good!), we built a fire for hotdogs and s'mores. Quite the Christmas.

On New Years Eve (locally called Old Years Night) we went to a great beach party. A local artist makes huge steel figures (this idol was complemented by giant balls and cubes), fills them with wood and lights them on fire for New Years and Full Moon festivals. Right at midnight what you see below was doused in kerosene and lit. The circles were fire crackers and behind all this were torches. All was well and good, except the wind was blowing from the water right onto the beach. We spent the first few moments of 2011 dodging smoke and embers.

We're Back!

Our Winter Break was also a break from writing because this happened:

Not just the pelican landing (and pooping) on the boat, but a spectacular vacation. Theo and I are currently doing laundry, getting used to the cold again and heading back to the farm. More to come!