Sheep Farm Visit!

We had a number of food classes while in Italy and one of them was a visit to a farm where they make cheese from sheep's milk. It was really neat to eat fresh sheep's cheese since it's so heavily regulated in the US that you can't buy unpasteurized cheese aged less that 60 days. And, they had the cutest lambs!

We had quite the spread of cheeses and it was absolutely delicious.

They also had a white board with this drawn on it:

Translation? Apparently, this sheep is thinking that as long as there is grass, there's hope. He's, of course, lucky to be an Italian sheep. Our sheep have two feet of snow between them and grass.

Siena

The farm is near the town of Siena, which is about an hour south of Florence. It never grew as large as Florence and retains a lot of its medieval charm. We spent a few lovely afternoons walking around the city. Perhaps what's most important is that they sell deep fried rice balls. Delicious.

Spannochia

Well, we just got back from Italy last night. I'm pretty tired and we're all adjusting to life back at the farm school which means a lack of tuscan dinners every night and a plethora of creature comforts like internet and cell phones. We had a pretty good trip (details of which I'll post in the coming days). It was fun to spend so much time in Italy, although we weren't totally enamored of the farm. They raise a lot of pigs for cured meat (delicious!) and they were treated really well. The beef cows, donkeys and horses didn't have such a great life. They hay was a bit questionable and their living conditions weren't great.

We had some days of doing really neat work in the vineyards and making wine but most days were spent simply stacking wood. On the one hand this was fine, but on the other I'm not sure we totally understood before going that the curriculum wasn't going to be as fully fleshed out as we were used to.

All told, however, I'm really glad I went. We were living in a freaking castle (with the coolest tower ever) and there were stunning views of the countryside from every angle.

Italy!

We're heading off to Italy! There's not much to do around the farm during the winter, so us student farmers are headed to a farm near Siena to learn how the Italians do it. We just finished up a week of vacation (skiing! woo hoo!) and are packing feverishly before heading to Logan. We'll be back at the end of February so there might not be much blog-action happening between now and then.

See you all in March!

NOFA NY

Even though it was a while ago, I still want to write about the conference that we attended. Northeast Organic Farmers Association New York (also known as nofany) hosted a three day conference in Saratoga Springs. After a harrowing drive through yet another snowstorm (go subaru go!) we arrived around lunch time. I went to a lecture on brambles which was pretty interesting, especially learning about how the three farmers speaking set their pricing and how they decided wages. One of them paid health insurance, which is pretty rare, while another thought that enough fresh berries is all the health insurance you'd need. They had a variety of marketing strategies, including pick your own, farmers markets and CSAs.

A few of us went to Friday night services with Betsy at a local temple which was pretty great. The next morning I went to a presentation by Half Pint Farm near Burlington, VT. They seemed really happy with their farm and their life and gave me a lot of confidence in farming as not just a profession but a lifestyle.

I also went to a fascinating talk about cost of production tracking and farm records. Definitely makes me want to get a book on small farm business management since there seems to be lots and lots to learn.

Over all, it was an interesting, well done conference. Hopefully I'll be able to go back someday!

Housesitting

Don't get me wrong, we love living at the farm. The company is amazing and it's really fun to be living with so many different people. At the same time, when Kim and Reid mentioned they were going on vacation and needed someone to watch their house, we were more than happy. We just spent two weeks walking their dog, feeding their cat and watching movies on their huge TV. A wonderful, winter break from our normal farm lives.

I Need You in My Life

I don't think I can go another day without owning a Great Pyrenees. If anyone visits my future farm you'll probably find a pack of them with me as their leader.