Pens to Pasture ~ Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm

Do you peruse the newsletter delivered with your weekly CSA share or subscribe to the e-mail list of your favorite farmers at your local market? I do, and I savor them. So many of my friends and family also love the stories their farmers share...it seemed like a good time to share these stories more widely. Farming provides abundant fodder for writing and consumers provide a natural audience...and hence the perfect environment for brief, well-articulated pieces highlighting the thoughts and daily life of farmers. At Pens to Pastures: Fodder from the Field we celebrate the agricultural life, the hard work of farmers and the grace and openness with which they share it all through writing. Dig in, enjoy and be sure to share the writings of your farmers by sending an e-mail here.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm
Robin & Gigi
Harris, MN
www.nittygrittydirtfarm.blogspot.com & www.nittygrittygoods.blogspot.com


It's obvious there are thoughtful and creative women behind Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm from the name alone. The words and pictures on the farm blog only make this clearer. In this case, the crispness of the words speak for themselves, and I especially admire the stillness conveyed in this short end of season message - a brief pause to relish before the cycle begins again. There is plenty more to read and see at both the farm and wool blogs mentioned above, just be sure to scroll to the bottom of the blog to access the archive.

December 9, 2011

Happy winter, holiday and solstice season to all of you from Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm.

We have had a pleasant time with the long fall getting pens ready for the animals, lights hung for the poultry, heated buckets set up for winter watering and round hay bales moved for feeding the sheep and putting up wood for the woodstove.  The feeders are hung for the wild birds and Robin made a batch of suet, a mix of lard, peanut butter and bird seed for the woodpeckers and flickers and an occasional cardinal. 

It seems quiet at mealtime with just the two of us but before we know it, our first two interns will arrive in time for lambing and goat kidding.  Soon after that, we will be pulling out the equipment for collection maple sap, and setting up the cooker to turn it into syrup.  In the meantime, we are still milking one goat, Novel who is giving us a very rich quart of milk a day, just enough for milk on granola, in our coffee and Gigi's favorite - goat milk white russians.  

The seed catalogs have begun to arrive with colorful pictures of mouth watering varieties.  The fields are not completely covered in snow yet but we are hopeful for a deep snowfall over the next few months to help provide much needed moisture for next spring, (not to mention good cross country skiing).  
We wish you joy in this holiday season in what ever way you celebrate.  Blessings to you all.

Robin and Gigi 

Below is the membership form for the 2012 season. 

We are reducing the number of shares so sign up early.