Missing Willow Farm

Lambstock was over on Tuesday and I am still recovering.  I didn’t get a chance to take photos until the last day, here are a few of my favorites.  VA wine and cheese, oysters, kobe beef burgers with lamb belly from a food truck, lamb cooked asado style, succotash,  lamb ribs, boudin.  And that was just Monday.  The chef who made us biscuits with lamb sausage gravy on Monday was on the Today Show yesterday morning for their cooking segment.   I’m already looking forward to next year!

We were fortunate enough to be present for the premiere of a beautiful short documentary film about our friend Craig last Saturday night.  It took place in one of his sheep pastures and was projected onto some sheets with straw bale seating.  How perfect is that?  Nicole Lang and Christophile Konstas, the lovely ladies from Pared Pictures, did an amazing job on the production.  If you’d like to see it yourself, you can find it here

We found these blackberries growing in our back yard in a spot where they definitely were not growing last year.   They are thornless and close enough to be able to pick them from the back deck.  I am thinking the birds are responsible.  Thanks birds!

Someone recently asked me why I am only milking one goat this season.  The answer is I get this much milk (those are quart jars) from one goat.  Every day.   Hermione is my most favorite goat to milk, but lost her kid back in December.  I was super bummed because there was no way I was going to milk in the dead of winter and she would dry up without a baby to keep her milk supply going.  But it didn’t happen.  When I started milking Mina and Bella in April, Hermione still had milk.  So Mina and Bella get a pass this year, and we have a freezer full of cheese.

My nose is constantly running because I’ve been drying hot peppers in the dehydrator.  We’re living in a fog of capsaicin vapors.  Totally worth it!

Are the only kind we grow.  We were picking peppers from the greenhouse until January when we had a heater failure, which killed off our plants.  We immediately started new plants from saved seed and now are harvesting again.    We grow ghost peppers, red caribbean habaneros, joe’s round, joe’s long and added jalapenos to the mix this year.  The real reason we added them is we wanted something we could stuff and grill that doesn’t take the top of your head off with heat.  I think they cross pollinated with something else, they are super hot!  What do we do with super hot peppers?  I pickle them and make the most wonderful flavorful pepper flakes.  I’m super happy to have them to play with again.

Before I retired from one of the top 20 Fortune 500 corporations, I spent time as the company’s Project Management Profession Leader.  Now I happily spend my days with my goats, sheep, chickens, dogs and gardens.   But… once every summer for the past three years… I drag out my spreadsheets and manage the hippest foodie insider event on the East Coast for our good friend Craig.   His three day party in the sheep pasture is coming soon and I, for one, can’t wait!

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Here’s a little piece of art I just sent off for a sideshow themed swap on Craftster.  My partner likes oddities, dark and disturbing things.  I came up with a fetal pig in a jar because… well why not?   I grew up in Florida where the sideshow was a big part of the midway at the Central Florida Fair.  It’s long gone now, but a really vivid memory.  Many thanks to my daughter Tracy for her Photoshop expertise!

I guess this is what the sheep see coming at them, which is why they run away.  Every time.  🙂