Toluma Farms has many layers to it besides just goats. They include enterprises like pasture management, growing oat hay, giving lots of public tours and raising beef cattle. One of the Farms most profitable layers quite literally lay a variety of beautiful eggs. Here is a look at the fowl of Toluma Farms and the valuable little nuggets they produce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Buff Orpington rooster - no eggs from him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Welsummer hen - lay the beautiful brown speckled eggs (my favorite).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Black Sex Link hen - lay brown eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Golden Laced Wyandotte hen - lay brown eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Rhode Island Red hen - lay brown eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Barred Rock hen - lay brown eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Light Brahma rooster and hens - hens lay brown eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ameraucana hen - lay the green eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ancona hen - lay the white eggs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And while our resident peacock is not much of an egg layer, he sure is a stunner ... too bad the goats don't really appreciate his display! 

So the reality is, people eat goats. Just like people eat cows or chickens. And meat is the fate of many a male goat (and bull calf). We will raise about 40 meat goats this year and sell them mostly to restaurants in the San Francisco area (perhaps have one at my wedding in May?).

We pull the intended boys from their mothers after 3-4 days, when their mother's milk is clean enough to go into the milk tank and sell. The boys then learn to drink from a beer bottle filled with milk from other freshening does. (Freshen means a doe (cow, horse) has babies and starts producing milk.)

Nature's nectar

Then the meat boys graduate to the bucket. The bucket has ten nipples sticking out of it, so it is like a milk buffet free-for-all; easier and faster for the farmer and the kid. These guys get 2 buckets a day and they certainly loudly demand their meals.

It has been a quiet couple days on the kidding front; only one set of twins in three days. Some of the youngest kids finally aren't so much white. This soft little guy's dad is our other herdsire, Sting, who is an alpine buck.

We are resting up for a kidding storm to match our long awaited rain storm - 26 does are due to kid in the next week!

 
The playpen 

Since my last post 29 kids have been born to 13 does...it is definitely the year of the white goat! Dairy goats are very prolific animals; most of the does have at least two kids, many have had triplets and two have had singles.

It's interesting to compare kidding this year to lambing at Flying Mule Farm last year. Here with the goats at Toluma we usually kid in a barn, then move the moms and babies into their own freshen pens for 24 to 48 hours so they can bond, eat and not get trampled, stressed or mixed up. It is labor and capital intensive. 

 
Some of our freshen pens, kind of like my cubicle in a past life. 

When I helped with lambing last February, it was out in a leased field with no structures around. The ewes were expected to make sure their lambs were cleaned off, nursing and ready to go within 20 minutes of hitting the ground. If an ewe wasn't a good mother and her lamb died or had to be bottle raised, she usually didn't get to stay in the flock.

The goats I am working with now have not had selection pressure to be good mothers. We keep replacement does based on the amount of milk their mothers produce as well as the length of the mothers lactation cycle; a good udder, general good health and mild temperament (i.e., no kicking in the milking parlor) are also important factors.

Two thirds of the kids born this season have been male...we are still hoping for the female tally to catch up!

Well my clothes are a little stiff with birthing fluid today ... picking up slimy newborns and moving them into freshen pens with the mothers never promised to be a tidy job. As of right now 4 does have kidded today, three sets of twins and a set of adorable half-Boer triplets:

Mom Melissa with her 3 half-Boer babies

So far this season we have had twice as many male kids as female ... which leaves us feeling a little unimpressed with our buck Lars. When you are trying to build a herd of goats (or a flock of sheep), genetics are incredibly important. We need to retain females from our best does to breed and milk in the future in order to build a good business. But if none of our best does have females ... that is a major problem. 

But our best does have yet to kid this season. And some of these males we can raise and sell as meat goats.  Also, if you are interested in having a goat eat blackberries in your backyard, many of these cuties are for sale; leave me a comment if you are interested.

In the same vein as the Lambing Journal my friend and mentor Dan Macon kept last year, I thought I'd loosely keep a Kidding Log while here at Toluma Farms, if for no other reason than for me to look back at, after this surreal time as an intern is over.

Yesterday, the 8th of January, three does kidded; there were two sets of triplets and a set of twins; six boys and 2 girls, all white. Eric, the herd manager, said white coloring is a dominant trait in goats and over half our herd was bred by our white Saanen buck, Lars.

 
Two does in labor 

 
Nubian mothers with their bunny-like offspring 

Here's a short little video full of goaty cuteness.

 

So far today, one kind of sad, little La Mancha doe has been born.

 

Her mother was not too interested in her, so I spent some time rubbing her down with straw to dry her off and get the blood flowing in her legs so she could stand up. I also helped her find her first drink of colostrum heavy milk to get her going. Thus I deservedly earned the seasonal title of 'pathetic goat nurturer,' which is ok with me; I have definitely been called worse.

 Today while out in the pasture, Brown Maggie had the first kids of the season! 

 
Brown Maggie + 2 

Brown Maggie wasn't due to kid until the 10th but nature decided she was ready today. She had triplets, two boys and a girl but one of the males didn't survive. The other two were nursing and having a sunny, warm first day on earth, despite it being the middle of winter.

 

 
Lars the proud papa 

Lots and lots more to come!

This time of year is difficult on a goat dairy, there is very little milk being produced as the goats are at the end of their lactation cycle. Thus there is not much product to sell and not a lot of income. And input costs are still high with alfalfa for the goats to eat, straw for bedding and labor costs. So to produce a consistent stream of milk year round, Toluma Farms is doing some out of season breeding.

Goats naturally breed seasonally; as the days shorten in the fall, does naturally cycle and can get pregnant. In order to breed out of season it becomes necessary to simulate that shift into shorter days.

To accomplish this, we have a string of bright lights that we hung in one side of the barn. We rigged up pens held together with twine for the youngest group of does (all born early in 2011) and for two bucks so they would be exposed to the lights.

 

 The lights are on a timer and are on from 5am to midnight each day, simulating summer-like length of light. After two and a half months we will turn off the lights completely and totally separate the does and bucks. And within six weeks of removing the lights the does should come into heat. We'll introduce the bucks back in with the does and out of season breeding commences.

The bucks in their own"summer" pen

A lot of our farm is held together with twine

If all goes according to plan, these does will breed in May and kid in October, supplying the farm with a fresh wave of milk for the winter months. While this will make the farm more financially viable, it also means increased labor and no slow down in the winter months.

Toluma Farms bred out of season several years ago and had a 100 percent conception rate; I am very interested to see if those results will be repeated.

While the general public is totally unaware of how the milk in the carton in their shopping cart got there, I have had an up close and personal view of this process. Let me welcome you to the...

Milking involves a human intervention and extension of the natural lactation cycle of an animal. At Toluma Farms, the does kidded from January to April 2011; they raised their kids on milk until they were old enough to be weened between 2 and 4 months. During that time the mother does also were milked twice a day and that milk was sold. The does continued to be milked twice a day until October, when the herd manager decided they were not producing enough to warrant twice a day milkings. Since switching to once a day milking, the butterfat content of the milk jumped. Bulk goat milk is paid for based on the amount of butterfat; the farm actually earned more money on less milk, doing less work. How's that for working smarter?!

The eager (hungry) does

So to milk, we bring the does into a holding pen that is covered. Then they funnel through a gate, twelve at a time, to get into the milking parlor. They climb up a couple steps to reach the milking platform.

Headlocks

Once the goats are on the milking platform, they stick their heads in these "T" shaped headlocks because they know there is a tasty grain treat in the green trough. Once everyone has picked a spot, they are rolled back by a large hand crank so their udders can be reached for milking.

There is another kind of headlock that is cascading, it forces the first goat (or sheep) in to go to the furthest stall, which then triggers the next stall to open up. With a cascading system, you don't get animals wandering around looking for an open spot and it also means your platform doesn't have to be as wide, there is no need to roll them back. Here is a video of one in action (not from our farm).

 

One other interesting option for milking is a rotary milking machine. A huge investment, but you can sure milk a ridiculous amount of animals.

 

Back to my milking parlor...

The above is the lovely view you have most of the time you are milking. The platform is raised so the people milking have everything easily reachable. Some parlors have the animals at ground level and a cement pit is put in for the milkers to descend into – two different approaches. The black hoses are called claws, which are attached to the goat's teats by a vacuum which pumps the milk into our 600 gallon bulk tank, seen below.

The milk is then pumped into a delivery truck twice a week.

Then there is cleaning, cleaning, cleaning to keep in mind with milking...the whole milking parlor setting, as well as storage and transport of milk is highly regulated, the milk regularly tested for bacteria counts and randomly tested by milk inspectors.

Well that is an overview of the milking process. Obviously, most people in this country drink cow's milk, with goat's milk gaining in popularity, while sheep's milk is still mostly novelty. I hope this gave you some sense of where your milk is coming from and an appreciation for the animals and people who are involved in bringing it to you!

Whiney Lars wearing his green chalk

Here at Toluma Farms, the fall breeding season is wrapping up. Like sheep, goats naturally breed as the days get shorter. The females go into heat every 21 days for about 24 hours. You can usually tell who is in heat because they wag their tails, are more vocal and will hang out next to the male goats. The male goats that are used for breeding are called bucks. Bucks come into rut when the does are in heat, which is displayed by curling their upper lip, flapping their tongues and -brace yourself- urinating all over themselves. This creates a pungent goaty musk that the doe's find irresistible; thus breeding commences.

At Toluma we have five bucks of different breeds used for different purposes. A single buck can impregnate a lot of doe's and consequently provides half the genetics of a herd (the other half provided by each doe). Choosing bucks with traits that will benefit your herd (such as coming from milky mothers with quality teats and good parasite resistance), is very important.

So without further ado - the Toluma Farms buck lineup!

Lars (pictured above) is experiencing his first breeding season and by all appearances is doing a great job.  He is Saanen buck and currently ranked the #1 Saanen buck on the American Dairy Goat Association Young Sire list (a statistical ranking for bucks that haven't sired any babies yet).  Lars is wearing a harness with green chalk on it which helps us keep track of who he is breeding.  When he is doing his job well, there should be lots of chalked up doe's.

The does get chalked when the buck breeds them

Sting

Sting is a big Alpine buck who looks kind of scary but is actually a pretty sweet guy, when he is not trying to rub is goat musk on you. He is the father of many of our good milkers.

Kazeem the Lamancha

Neptune the Lamancha

Kazeem and Neptune are Lamancha goats and despite their European sounding name, this minimally eared breed was developed in Oregon. These two bucks will likely be used to breed the yearling does (that were born early 2011) as they tend to sire small babies - with the intent to give the first time mothers an easy kidding experience.

Fred the boer

Fred is a boer goat, which are generally used for meat and are quite a bit smaller than the milking goats. Eric, the farm manager, was interested in having some multipurpose goats by breeding Fred to some doe's but truthfully, Fred was more interested in eating than the ladies this year.

The first babies are due January 7th and the kidding storm will continue on into April. We offer public tours the first Sunday of every month, starting in January ... come check out the farm!

Today marks one week since I started work at Toluma Farms, a small goat dairy in Marin County (a mere 5 minutes from the Pacific Ocean).  Marin County is an hour northwest of San Francisco and fast becoming a "foodie" haven, where folks attracted to locally sourced food can find it in variety and abundance. The region has a long history of dairying due to it's mild weather and abundant pastures; it is host to many small scale farms which are still making livings in cow/goat/sheep dairying and cheese-making businesses today.  

Toluma Farms is currently selling bulk milk to other producers but plans are in motion to start making and selling artisan cheese in 2012. Here is a quick tour around the farm. 

Coastal morning fog

 

Home uh, sweet, home

 

The milking parlor and grain tank

 

The soon to be converted creamery

 

The goat barn

 

The kids - replacement does

 

The morning commute - up the hill for fresh air after milking

 

The sheep love to tag along

 

Kids solving their arguments

 

In coming weeks I'll detail tasks and chores that go into operating a goat dairy. It has been a whirlwind change from working full time in an office, and I am looking forward to sharing it with you!

 

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the 17^th Annual Dairy Sheep Symposium. For the first time ever the Symposium was held on the West Coast, in Petaluma, California (lucky us!) There were easily over a hundred people at the conference and plenty who couldn't make the trip…it is surprising to see how many people are interested in this sheep milking/cheese making niche!

An ewe being inseminated in the "cradle of love"

The symposium also included a day of touring three local sheep dairies; Marin and Sonoma counties have a “Cheese Trail” and the largest (growing) concentration of artisan cheese makers in California. We first visited Bellwether Farm and Artisan Creamery , which produces several sheep milk cheeses, sheep milk yogurt and cow’s milk cheese.

Bellwether's ewe lambs

Bellwether's cheese aging room

Bellwether's milking parlor - this is where milk comes from!

Their small pasteurizer and cheese vat

To be honest, the more I heard and saw at this symposium, the more overwhelmed I felt. Sheep dairying and cheese making is far from an easy or cheap profession to get into. It seems to me that there are three way’s a person gets into it – by inheriting a working dairy, by having a large amount of off farm income to dump into starting a dairy, or - for those with neither of those options - by going into substantial debt to follow an internal passion.

  

Last weekend we skipped selling lamb and beef at the farmer's market in order to attend a day of border collie school with Ellen Skillings, a skilled trainer. Border collies are energy filled, work oriented dogs. They have been bred over the past several hundred years to subdue their wolf-ancestors kill instinct and to gather flocks of sheep towards their handler (called fetching); most other breeds of dogs will drive flocks away.

 

Border collies control sheep with what is called "eye," essentially an intimidating stare straight at the animal as well as a lowered stance – a dog with a strong eye can get stock turned around and moving without any other force. If the eye isn’t working on a particularly stubborn sheep, the dog will escalate its use of force by nipping at the sheep's heels, and a confident dog will “grip” the sheep, giving it a bite on its nose to get it moving. It takes a lot more confidence to grip a sheep head on, rather than go for an easy bite on the flank!

  

Border collie puppies aren't necessarily very interested in stock – as they get older most will "turn on" to stock and enjoy chasing, scattering and herding animals with out any direction from their handler. This is the point that training really starts, in short sessions once or twice a day. They will eventually learn commands like "come by" (go left to fetch the sheep),  "away" or "away to me" (go right to fetch the sheep), "walk on" (move slowly straight ahead) and "lie down" (meaning stop right there).

 

Because of their intelligence, great desire to work and extremely high energy levels, border collies do not make good pets for people who aren’t willing to spend several hours a day physically and mentally challenging them. Border collies do make great partners for shepherds, farmers and dog trainers who have stimulating work for the dogs to do. From watching and listening during the training, it is easy to see that there is a trusting relationship that handlers must build with their dog. Once that relationship is established on both sides, I think a better buddy, partner or employee would be hard to find.

 

 

 

 

Between preparing to leave for my internship on a goat dairy, working a desk job, interning on a farm Saturdays, planning my wedding and making and eating desserts, I find myself falling a little behind on my posts. But this one is still timely...

 

 

 

With the popularity of snapping photos of children wading through fields of fleshy orange orbs, sampling apple cider and spending a crisp fall day on a farm, pumpkin patches around Sacramento have become increasingly urbanized and crowded. While visiting Apple Hill and Bishop's Pumpkin Farm since I was a little girl have provided many happy memories, this year a friend told me about a place I suspected would not have hour long lines of traffic for parking spots a half mile from the farm; a family farm and kitchen in Chicago Park called Bierwagens and the Happy Apple Kitchen. 

 

 

 

The Bierwagen family has farmed on this same land since 1902. The farm is cute with festive displays; there are sandboxes filled with hard, yellow corn kernels and little tractors, hay bales to climb on, chickens to cluck at and a pygmy goat that will let you scratch its head and giggle at it. There is also a little museum with family heirlooms and farm equipment on display that is worth a look. They sell fresh cider, plums, pies, caramel apples, tri-tip sandwiches and of course pumpkins of all sizes, shapes and colors 

 

And one amazing old tree

If you are looking to start a new family tradition or just do something off the well beaten path, the Bierwagen's farm is well worth the trip into the festively decorated foliage of the foothills.

Farm to fork ... pasture to plate ... no matter how it is dressed up with attractive alliterations, eating meat involves the demise of what is being eaten. It happens all the time, breakfast, lunch and dinner, in the animal kingdom, in the human realm. That most of us are completely removed from any experience of what life and death is like for the meat we eat speaks to the reason we have massive monoculture factory farms in this country. If we knew the whole story of each item of food on our plates, I believe we would make more sustainable, health supporting choices.

Three weeks ago my fiance, Matt, joined Dan (the sheep herder I intern for) and myself on a work day sorting lambs. Matt purchased a market lamb back in May. A market lamb is a sheep that is younger than one year old, generally a castrated male. It could also be a female whose genetics a farmer doesn't want contributing to their future flock. A market lamb is also by definition destined for the dinner table. By late September Matt's lamb weighed 90lbs and was 'finished.' Finish is the amount of fat cover on the animal and is decided most easily by feeling the loin area on each lamb.

 

We sorted all the lambs; those under 90lbs got to go back out to pasture. Those over 90lbs were loaded in the trailer and taken to the nearest lamb processing facility about 55 miles away in Dixon.

The next week, we picked up our meat, a freezer full and seasons worth of roasts, racks and chops.

 

It might be crass to show these pictures. But in this case, the truth is a bit crass. The transition of living animal to "meat" is a reality many eaters shy away from. My point is, I know my dinner's story, from when and where it was born, to where it grazed and lived, to where it eventually met its end. I know it had a pleasant life in a sun soaked pasture, plenty to eat and drink and was well cared for. It is also one of the most local and sustainable options I could choose for my dinner. The purchase of this meat will hopefully help a small-scale, local farmer stay in the business of feeding his community.

I realize not everyone cares to be this involved in the preparation of their dinner but I hope you care enough about what you eat to find out where your food is coming from...check out a co-op, visit a farmer's market, join a CSA and ask some questions!

For the second time in as many weeks, we chugged up the Northern California foothills to the woodsy Nevada County Fairgrounds. This time - less equine gentility...more medieval debauchery! 

 
 

It was the 15th Annual KMVR Celtic Festival and the debauchery was actually pretty minimal (sorry to disappoint). But there was plenty music, full medieval costumes (heaving bosoms and all), period games, sheep dog demos and lots of interesting food. Here's a sample of the sensory stimulating day... 

 

Tempting to spend a small fortune on authentic garb

Unique hats, elf ears, kilts and capes aplenty

The spinners guild - turning wool and roving into yarn!

Music was one of the main attractions of the weekend, with three or four stages going simultaneously.

Whiskey and Stitches

Pirate ship with startling cannon demonstrations

Claude the fire-breathing dragon

Hand made spoons

Stone engraving

The ultimate contest of grunting manliness - the caber toss

Dan the sheep-herder and Taff doing a herding demo

Sheep-herders pie - I need to learn how to make these!

 

All in all a pretty good way to usher in the California fall - in a Celtic kind of way!

  

 

 

"Land yachting" is the term that came to mind while watching draft horses and fancy wagons compete at the 25th(!) anniversary of the Draft Horse Classic in Grass Valley. Talk about horsepower! These massive, muscular and beautiful animals have largely become obsolete with the invention of railroad, cars, military vehicles and tractors. Those that have taken care to see that draft horse breeds don't disappear use them for different purposes these days, mainly showing them or for pulling contests. They are also still used on some small farms, mostly by the Amish, as an organic and renewable source of power.

 

Horse shoeing competition

 

 

Draft horses were used to deliver daily dairy products!

Part of the appeal is the many restored wagons folks bring to the show.  For the Americana competition there was a hearse, Santa's sleigh (and Santa!), a dusty stagecoach filled with travelers and luggage, a beer delivery wagon, a fire station wagon and more.

The setting of the Nevada County Fair Grounds, recognized as California's most beautiful fairgrounds and the onset of cool fall weather made this an event to remember.

Wishing I had more locally made Lazy Dog ice cream

And a bit of exciting news that is about to change my life...I was chosen for a 6 month internship at Toluma Farms, a goat dairy on the California Coast-I'll be heading there in November!

As I spend time selling lamb, beef and sausage at the Auburn Farmer's Market each Saturday, I become more aware of the seasons and what I am eating. I also see the profound effect the seasons have on what I am eating. The end of summer provides an abundance of fruits, vegetables, meat and flowers. There is so much that economical eaters will freeze, jam, dry and preserve the bounty, saving some of the glorious summer flavors to be enjoyed in less prolific winter months.

Currently the locally grown produce available to munch on in considerable quantities includes plums (bad year for plums, too much late rain), Asian pears, apples, raspberries, honey, a large variety of melons, okra, sweet corn, patty-pan & spaghetti squash, peppers, beans, tomatoes, lamb, pistachios, beef and more. Below are a couple of my favorite seasonal creations made using ingredients found at the Auburn farmers market and the Sacramento Co-op:

 

Green zebra heirloom tomatoes from the garden

Pistachio Basil Pesto Bruschetta with Tomatoes
-2 cloves garlic
-1/2 cup shelled pistachios
-2 cups loosely packed basil
-1 tablespoon lemon juice
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
-1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Put garlic in food processor (ie blender); pulse until chopped.  Add pistachios, basil, lemon juice and salt; pulse until nuts are finely chopped. Add olive oil gradually through food shoot and process until well combined. Add cheese and pulse 2 or 3 times.  Makes one cup.

1 baguette, sliced
Broil in oven until toasty, about 4 minutes

Slather the toast with pesto, top with a slice of tomato, savor the taste and the moment.

Frozen Honey Cream - a lighter ice cream option, but a warning: it is so good you just might eat it all in one sitting!

In a medium bowl, using n electric mixer, beat 1 3/4 cups heavy cream into stiff peaks, then refrigerate. In a small pot, bring 2/3 cup honey to a boil over medium-high heat and cook 2 minutes.

In another medium bowl, beat 4 egg yolks until pale yellow.  With mixer running, add honey in a slow, steady stream. Beat on high until mixture has cooled to room temperature, about 5 minutes.

With a rubber spatula, fold in whipped cream. Transfer to a 5x10 inch loaf pan. Cover with plastic. Eat it soft, or freeze until set, about 2 hours (or for up to a week).
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Growing up in a culture where almost any kind of food is available at any time of year (Mango's in California. In January.) I never really connected food with the seasons in which they naturally grow. As I slowly gather and retain knowledge about local, seasonal produce, I have discovered that food picked in season, when it is ripe (ie locally, not shipped in from Argentina) is vastly superior to the blemish-free, taste-free produce found in supermarkets across the country.

In California it takes marginally more effort to shop at a farmers' market rather than a big grocer but the tantalizingly tasty rewards are well worth it. There is also great joy to be found in meeting and supporting directly the people who grow your food (and flowers). Farmer's markets are also an excellent opportunity to meet like minded folks...farmers as well as other shoppers, and to start to see what a wonderful sense of community these markets can build.

 

A decorative red eggplant for fall-courtesy Ueki Gardens

  

This weekend my fiance Matt and I were provided a wealth of occasions to enjoy, learn from and consider for the future.

We were invited to visit Toluma Farms, a 200 acre goat dairy in the small coastal town of Tomales (about a 2 hour drive southwest of Sacramento). The drive provides views of sun-baked rolling hills (and pleasant cloud cover), plenty of cows and the smell of eucalyptus to fill our lungs.

 

Tomales consists of 204 residents, a cute deli and bakery, a couple churches, post office, an inn and general store. Mostly it seems to be a coffee stop for folks traveling through on their Bay Area weekend excursions.

A view of half the town of Tomales

Toluma Farms is another two miles off the Tomales main drag. The Farm offers one internship opportunity about every 6 months; my interest in this internship is the reason we made the visit. There we met Eric, who lives on the farm, is the goat herd manager and general caretaker. He has a BS in Animal Science from UC Davis, so it is no accident that he is the manager of this expanding farm. We also met Anne Marie who was recently hired for her cheese making skills – pending permits from the county, Toluma Farms will produce and sell their own cheese.

Only a small portion of the 200 acres is currently used for the goats; a good amount is rented out for cattle running and dry potato farming. There is a large barn packed with straw for the goats, an outdoor penning area in which the goats commit mischief, a machine milking parlor with a milk storage tank and a building soon to be converted into a creamery. There are approximately 200 milking goats (not all milking at the same time) and the Farm has recently added a flock of ten East Frisian dairy sheep – right up my alley and the same type of sheep I have hand milked (really one of the only kind of dairy sheep available in the United States).

An internship at Toluma Farms appears to be an exceptional opportunity for me to increase and acquire skills in dairying small ruminants and cheese making.

The nearest city to the Farm is Petaluma, a rural, rolling 30 minute drive. We spent some time wandering around their Old Town. One of the neatest businesses we visited is the Seed Bank which sells 1,200 varieties of heirloom seeds out of the historic Sonoma County National Bank building. The Bank is part of the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company; I am happy to say we have some heirloom melons grown from their seeds ripening in the garden as I write!

Besides these most agreeable tours of farm and city, we also enjoyed a folksy, mellow rock concert by Fleet Foxes at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley - a cool outdoor Acropolis style venue. The stone steps throughout the venue provide good views for the vertically challenged.
 

All in all, a successful and full weekend ... I look forward to whatever opportunities and challenges the future brings.

Number 9 – It is possible to back up a large truck with a sheep cage in the back down a very narrow dirt road without bringing harm on truck, person, animal or environment (you do end up with sweaty palms though).
 

Number 8 – Setting up electric fence in parched, rocky earth takes a long time, a mallet, a good hat and some personal fortitude.
 

Number 7 – A tired shepherd and a determined intern can lift a large, sick ewe up a hill and into a truck – just barely.

Number 6 – An unexpected ladybug colony at first appears creepy, but makes your heart smile when you realize they are gentle ladybugs and not giant, pinching ants.

Number 5 – Blackberry bush stalks continue to reach out to rip your skin and clothes to shreds, even after sheep have relieved them of their leaves.

Number 4 – Crowding sheep remind me of what it feels like at the Outside Lands concert.

More than one similarity to sheep

Number 3 – Very important – DON'T open the gate unless you know the plan or Dan the shepherd tells you it's ok.

Number 2 – If you open said gate without a plan or ok and sheep make a run for the hills, two clever border collies and a confident shepherd can fix your mistake pretty quick.

Number 1 – Farming is an incredibly difficult profession that at times offers very little reward.

This weekend felt like a dose of reality to mix in with my idealized farming ambitions. Farming is physically, mentally and emotionally taxing and doesn't always provide the financial return desired for time, effort and labor put in. I can't help wondering, am I cut out for this? Can I be successful at this? Should I scale down my aspirations?

By late summer most small farmers in this area are run ragged from a long, hot season of watering, feeding, protecting and harvesting whatever their farm is producing. We can show our support for them by buying from them at farmers markets, sure, but what are some more ways we can show support and appreciation for our local farmers? The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op has a program to raise money for local producers and to preserve future farmland; it's called Once Farm at a Time. If any farmers are reading, what are some ways in which you would appreciate support from your community?

 

 One of my major flaws is a fanatical fondness for anything containing sugar (sweet tooth courtesy of my Gramps). While I am pretty good at avoiding processed sweet things (except frosted animal crackers), quality desserts are a staple dietary contribution at my house, right up there with water and cheese.

An over abundant recipe collection roams my counter tops, getting wet, crinkled and covered in food splatters. Lately I have been trying different seasonal desserts from various recipe sources and have yet to hit a dud. So here is my latest sweet concoction, from Martha Stewart's cute little food publication: 

  

Peaches with cornmeal shortcakes

Cornmeal shortcakes
1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk, plus more for brushing

Homemade whipped cream - I had no idea how simple making my own whipped cream is, knowledge can be dangerous!
1 cup cold heavy cream
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

Fruity filling
1 1/2 pounds peaches, halved, pitted and cut into 1/4 inch slices (5 cups)
5 ounces blueberries (3/4 cups)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and granulated sugar. Using the large holes in a cheese grater, grate butter into flour mixture, mixing and breaking it into even smaller pieces with your fingers. With a fork, stir in buttermilk until dough just comes together. Lightly flour a rolling pin and work surface (I usually roll dough out between 2 sheets of wax paper, less of a mess) and roll out dough into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle. Cut into 6 squares (or rectangles).

Place dough squares 3 inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush tops with buttermilk and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake until shortcakes are golden and puffed, 17 to 20 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. (Store shortcakes tightly wrapped in plastic, up to 2 days).

In a medium mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat cream and confectioners' sugar on high until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes. Cut shortcakes in half horizontally. Divide peaches among bottom halves, top with whipped cream and blueberries and sandwich with top half.

Then put on a pretty plate, take a picture for your blog and chow down!

Farming requires a great deal of flexibility as I have mentioned before. A farmer can't get too attached to a place, way of doing things or a particular outcome because inevitably something uncontrollable will change everything, and adjustments have to be made, sometimes very quickly.

 

I saw this illustrated again this weekend when I met up with Dan. We drove to Highland Farm, a tree farm in Colfax. Dan, along with Allen, the owner of the farm and Roger, the UC Davis livestock extension agent, assessed the property and vegetation to see if it would support 300 ewes through breeding season.

 

Dan had planned to have these ewes much closer to his home farm on an irrigated pasture. He discovered however, that the pasture was not going to be able to support his ewes, much less enable them to gain weight through breeding, so he had to find an alternative pretty quickly.

Highland Farm it was; Dan is friends with the owners and had previously been interested in grazing their property. After a bumpy tour up and down the ridge and about ten million 'begger's lice' later the three men decided there was enough vegetation and variety to support the ewes at least for a couple months though maybe not through the entire breeding season. I could see being forced to be flexible is not so bad if you have good friends who are willing to feed your sheep! Actually it works out well for Highland Farm as well. Instead of having to manually remove brush that is a fire hazard, the sheep will clean it up.

As I mentioned, we are preparing for breeding season. When breeding ewes, most producers want the animals to be on a rising plane of nutrition (gaining weight) because this increases the likelihood of twins. This management technique is called "flushing" and is the reason Dan keeps his ewes on rough feed (like star thistle) most of the summer. It is desirable for the ewes lose some weight during the summer because they are not producing milk for lambs and they are not breeding or pregnant. But in preparation for breeding, which will begin October 1st, they need to be on feed that will allow them to start putting weight back on (but not too much weight, a fat ewe doesn't breed well).

 

The management of the ewes is opposed to the lambs, who have been on lush pasture since they were weaned in May/June. For the lambs going to market, the idea is to get them gaining as much weight as possible as fast a possible, so they can be finished and sold at the market as they are a Dan's main source of income. It turns out to be a constant test of flexibility, keeping all the sheep on the right kind of feed during different times of the year, a difficult task for someone with nearly 500 sheep who only owns 3 acres of land!

 

And a final note, Matt's market lamb is doing well, he weighed 76 lbs at last weigh in and is gaining about a 1/4 lb per day!  And my ewe lamb has been separated from the market lambs, she gets to stick around and probably bred next year.