To Kill a Roasting Bird

I walked down the dirt road to the processing room with camera in pocket, eager to document our first experience of transforming a living animal into something recognizable as "dinner". I love taking pictures and envisioned shooting beautiful and arresting images of the process. They would be respectful of the animals giving their lives to feed us, while at the same time, unflinchingly direct and honest. 

Err...right. When all was said and done, that camera didn’t come out of my pocket until the very end of the day, after I had washed all of the blood from the killing station and taken a good reflective break in the brisk air outside. The photos I took were rushed and sheepish - some even frantically blurred. With the camera in my hand, I suddenly felt like a voyeur, cheapening the solemnity of the act we had just participated in. I was embarrassed to even pull the camera up to my eye and shot blindly at the machinery, deciding that would be sufficient.
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Going With The (Milk)Flow - Visualizing and Mapping Flow In Our Creamery Design

creamery design, work flow, cheesemakingMilk Flow in green + Work Flow in red = cheese for all at the end!As we get closer and closer to the next milestone of closing on our farm, we’ve been tailoring our to-do timeline (it’s a long one!) and sussing out what to focus our energy on next. One of the biggest projects on the horizon is planning and building our creamery. We dove in at the middle of September armed with books and photos from visits to actual small scale creameries. Since then we have tweaked the design several times as a result of learning of a better practice and additional knowledge of the land it may be built on.

I've learned that one of the most important concepts to keep in mind while planning any structure is flow. The two most important “flows” I’ve been focusing on for our creamery are Milk Flow and Work Flow. Visualizing and mapping flow is an easy (and free) tool anyone can use to aide in their creamery design, or any other building for that matter.
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Maple Bourbon Autumn Butter

sweet dumpling squash, winter squash, apple butter, squash butter, autumn butter, bourbonIt's that time of the year again! Our CSA share is overflowing with braising greens and root veggies, winter squash and apples. The leaves have turned and it's time to snuggle up indoors with a hot cup of tea and toast with.... Autumn Butter! What the hay is Autumn Butter? It's one of my half-cocked experiments that, thankfully, turned out to be a delicious treat. It is a cross between apple butter and pumpkin pie with a spicy twist and a boozy kiss - great on toast, meat, cheese, and ice cream. I made it in the crock pot where it simmered away for 6 hours, filling the apartment with the most delicious seasonal perfume. Give it a try! 
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