Category: ranch life

That’s A Nice Farm You Got There, Little Lady

Karen3 Comments

So the NY Times has a feature about women farmers up online. I read it because I, too, am a woman. And I like farms. (And because it’s been slow at work this week. I’ve been reading anything.)

The article…left something to be desired. Do you think a journalist would use the following sentence when talking about a male farmer? “[She] flits effortlessly between trimming vines and fixing the tractor, a farmer at heart.” Um, wouldn’t the fact that she’s trimming vines and FIXING A TRACTOR make her a farmer in actual PRACTICE, too? Seriously, “flits”? Come on.

And get this sentence from the intro:
“Whether raising heritage livestock, combing the woods for exotic morsels or coaxing delicacies from the ground, these women forge new bonds between field and table, strengthening the connection between things we love to eat and the stewardship that makes them possible.”
Awww, who knew farming was so nurturing? And did you know WOMEN are good at NURTURING and these are LADY FARMERS we’re talking about? God.

I would expect this from, well, a women’s magazine (with a little sidebar about “Get The Farming Look!” telling us to buy an Hermes headscarf); but not from a newspaper. Farming is hard work. I bet any of these little ladies could have told the reporter that.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Back In The Saddle Again

Karen

I was wondering last week why I felt so thwarted (creatively speaking) and realized I haven’t finished any new sewing projects in a month. (The denim dress I was working on the last few weeks did not work. Goodbye, denim dress.) I also realized I hadn’t had a day off just to be home and sew in a month, so I took Friday off to pick up the bike and make a dress.This reminds me of cowboys, for no particular reason. Maybe it’s the topstitching, which is getting lost in the print but can be seen if you click on the picture below.

On a roll from the Friday/Saturday dressmaking (that worked! and was cute!) I made some placemats on Sunday from oilcloth:

They’re reversible, although my camera didn’t like taking pictures of all that blue and tried to make it pink:

So a good weekend. I can wear my cowboy dress and serve huevos rancheros on my placemats and sing Gene Autry songs.

Agricultural Monday

Karen

Continuing the “Where Does Your Food Come From/Are We Doomed?” theme of the past few weeks, here’s an an article by Michael Pollan for the New York Times online titled, “Why Bother?“–which was part of the angst of that trip to the Midwest:

The realization that all my efforts aren’t doing anything–that no matter how much I try to eat eggs from happy chickens, or buy organic parsley, that there will be thousands more people buying the cheapest eggs and parsley, with no thought as to where they come from–was really discouraging.

So imagine how happy I was to find an article telling me why I should still bother. Read it and see why you should bother, and we’ll resurrect the 1970’s back-to-the-land movement!

"The Grapes Of Wrath" Is One Of The Best Titles Ever

Karen

I took The Grapes of Wrath with me on my trip last week, thinking it would be a good mix of travel and agriculture. (I had forgotten how sad it is, though; I had to stop reading in the Denver airport because I was getting weepy.) Reading it now, right after all my other books about alternative farming and eating locally, and after visiting the family farm that miraculously still struggles on, I’m really struck by how current it is–Steinbeck saw the writing on the wall in 1939:

“…crops were reckoned in dollars, and land was valued by principal plus interest, and crops were bought and sold before they were planted. Then crop failure, drought, and flood were no longer little deaths within life, but simple losses of money…[until the landowners] were no longer farmers at all, but little shopkeepers of crops, little manufacturers who must sell before they can make. Then those farmers who were not good shopkeepers lost their land to good shopkeepers. No matter how clever, how loving a man might be with earth and growing things, he could not survive if he were not a good shopkeeper. And as time went on, the business men had the farms, and the farms grew larger, but there were fewer of them.”

Wednesday Project Roundup: Dresses For The Prairie Edition

Karen2 Comments

I was able to finish the both dresses I wanted to make and wear to the family reunion this weekend–yay for days off prior to camping trips!

The plaid dress is for the airplane and has handy big pockets. (It was inspired by this version from A.P.C. for $120.)

And the beige linen check dress was inspired by meandering poetically through the pasture land, avoiding cow pies and thistles:
I used my new initial labels on it, too. Because it’s important to have a monogrammed linen muumuu in which to wander the prairie. Just ask the pioneers.

Agri-Literature

Karen

I never gave a final review of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that I was reading a month ago, but I have to report that I haven’t bought an imported banana or a tomato since I finished it, and I started making bread regularly and even homemade pizza. (I haven’t been able to get true local food yet, for reasons of weather and budget, but I’ve tried to not buy anything from farther away than California.) I think that’s a good indication of the book’s sticking power right there. The prose is excellent, too.

Yesterday I picked up another book that might stick with me: The Year of the Goat: 40,000 Miles and the Quest for the Perfect Cheese. It’s about two New Yorkers who take a year off and research goat farms to see if they want to buy their own. I got three chapters into it and thought, “I don’t want to read this if they don’t end up with a farm,” so I skipped ahead and whew–I can read it.

It’s well-written but it’s not as masterful as Kingsolver, and there’s a certain amount of irritating New York self-consciousness (along the lines of, “Look, we are at a goat chariot race! How quaint! We are so daring!”), but I’ve already learned that La Mancha goats have no ears and are the only American-developed dairy breed, and that Boer goats are for eating. (That’s not an option on my ranch, of course.)

Next question: How do people afford to take a year off and learn about farming, and then manage to have a successful farm? Maybe that’s the next book I’ll have to find.

Tuesday Project Roundup: I Know What I’m Wearing To County Fairs And Derbies This Season

Karen6 Comments

I’m wearing gingham, like generations of farm women behind me!
My gingham has a mandarin collar and a 70’s feel (I modified the duck dress pattern), which hopefully keeps it from feeling too literally farm-like.

I’m extra pleased by how I got the checks to match on the front: They match horizontally across the collar and across the front inset, and (mostly) vertically from the inset into the body. That’s a lot of 3/8 inch checks to keep track of while cutting out.
Toby, however, was underwhelmed by it last night:

(He’s on the ironing board here. Yes, I give my cat plastic bags to play with and let him sit on the ironing board while I’m ironing. It’s a good thing he’s not a human baby.)