On Guard
Want to get to know our big dogs better? You'll find lots more Daisy photos here and Marta photos here. A pileup of 2010 snow photos is here.
© 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the well patrolled foodie farm blog where there's nothing better than a big white livestock guard dog, except two big white livestock guard dogs—or one big white one and one sorta white one. Her full name is Marta Beast, her latest nickname is Marta the Mess, and as soon as the weather warms up she's getting sheared. Unfortunately our sheep shearer says he doesn't do dogs. In the meantime, my hunky farmguy Joe likes to point out the bright side: "If you were a coyote, wouldn't you be terrified of her?" Definitely.
On the Move
I love when our wet weather creek is running:
3/18/06: Meandering By The House
3/26/06: The Bigger The Water Dish, The Happier The Dog
5/5/06: View from the Middle of the Creek after Six Inches of Rain
5/13/06: Morning Mist Rising off the Creek
5/13/06: Cat Fishing?
5/15/06: Sheep Crossing
1/15/07: Running Water, Rubber Boots, & Mud
1/19/07: Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Life Is But A Stream
2/25/08: A Rare Winter Sight—And Geese!
3/19/08: Flood Watch
4/7/08: Who's A-fraid of the Big Bad Creek? The Big Bad Creek?
4/8/08: A Fresh New Day Full of Morning Mist (and lots more hazy photos)
4/10/08: Surf's Up!
5/16/08: Splish Splash!
1/18/09: Crossing Over to Bigger and Better Things!
4/24/09: Creek's Up!
10/28/09: Where Did that Creek Come From?
© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the gently flowing foodie farm blog where you have to cross the creek to get from The Shack to the sheep barn. After a while this starts to be somewhat of a pain, especially if you're heading out for a walk on the ridge above the farm, because then you have to wade across in rubber boots, change into hiking shoes on the other side, and then change back for the return trip. If the creek ran year round (something I often dream about), we would simply build a little footbridge—and do a lot of refreshing hot summer skinnydipping.
And the Winner of Keeping the Feast!
Fortunately a Little Snow Doesn't Affect the Flavor
The best part of doing a book giveaway is reading all of your entry comments. I always ask you to answer a question that somehow relates to the book (and often involves food), and you never disappoint. Memories and stories, dreams and recipes, laughter and tears—you share it all. Thank you. In case you'd like to go back and read back through these wonderful collections, I've included links below to previous book review/giveaway posts.
For this giveaway, I asked you to tell us something about how food or cooking has in some way, big or small, helped you or someone else heal or survive a tough time. Your responses were so moving you even inspired Keeping the Feast author, Paula Butturini (whose recipe for Italian White Soup is here), to leave a comment:
After sitting quietly in my dining room banging away on my computer for the last couple of years, it's amazing to 'hear' people talking through the Internet about both the book and what food means to them. I'm cheered by the review and comments. Read through till the end; it may not be a Hollywood happy ending, but it's a real one.
And the winner of the advance copy is: Julie!
Eating has always been one of my favorite things. Cooking has become one. To me, it's just another creative outlet. We have suffered financially over the past few years. As a result, we have not been able to go out to eat hardly at all. This has forced me to up my cooking skills to a new level to satisfy my palette. I have had a great time doing it. However, nothing beats the joy of cooking for a grateful, friendly crowd. I love that food brings people together.
Thanks to everybody for entering. I already have some more fun book giveaways lined up. In the meantime, Keeping the Feast will be released in hardcover on February 18th. The cover price is $25.95, and you can pre-order it from amazon.com for $17.13.
Other book reviews on Farmgirl Fare:
The Laws of Harmony (and readers share favorite food novels)
Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant (and what readers eat when alone)
Local Breads (and my favorite Four Hour Parisian Daily Baguette Recipe)
Cooking with Shelburne Farms (& Lamb Burgers w/ Red Pepper Olive Relish)
Comfort Food (readers share favorite comfort food stories & recipes)
The Cornbread Gospels (readers share cornbread memories & recipes)
The Artist's Palate (a beautiful cookbook for food and art lovers)
Falling Cloudberries (Greek Leg of Lamb & readers talk food/travel)
The Vegetable Gardener's Bible (my favorite gardening book)
Astrological Gardening: The Ancient Wisdom of Successful Planting & Harvesting by the Stars
© 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the always feeding somebody around here foodie farm blog where reading and eating go together like freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and glasses of ice cold milk.
Nobody Comes In, Nobody Goes Out (Well, Except for Us Going to Do Chores)
I love our little front yard gate:
6/16/05: The Front Yard Gate
7/7/05: Robin at the Front Yard Gate
3/1/09: Snow! (Again!)
© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the blanketed by beauty and silence (and six inches of snow) foodie farm blog where we could probably get up our very steep, half-mile-long driveway if we really wanted to, but we don't really want to. Besides, we always spend Saturday Date Nights at home—especially when there's a bottle of champagne chilling outside and a gorgeous full moon shining up above.
Sheep Don't Tweet—We Bleat
I know, I know. I'm the only person who isn't on Twitter—well, besides my hunky farmguy Joe (and don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen). Even now I'm not really on it. Since I'm already constantly behind replying to e-mail and blog comments—not to mention posting all those backlogged recipes!—I don't think starting to tweet would be such a good idea.
But some of you have asked me to announce each new blog post on Twitter, and I'm happy to oblige. You'll find Farmgirl Fare on Twitter here, and In My Kitchen Garden here. I'm also hoping to post much more often on In My Kitchen Garden this year, but of course I said that last year, too (and probably the year before).
In other exciting organizing news (it doesn't take much to get us excited around here), the 'Visit My Kitchen Garden' link in the upper right sidebar on Farmgirl Fare, which currently is a close-up lettuce photo, now goes directly to the In My Kitchen Garden homepage, for those of you who wanted to be able to easily pop over there. And the 'Visit My Food/Farm Blog' link in the upper left sidebar (with the lamb sitting in his 'boat' photo) on In My Kitchen Garden still goes to this homepage.
As for those of you wondering about this photo, that is indeed my baby Cary, who will be (gasp) turning four years old in May. She's happy and healthy and still enjoys haughtily ignoring me most of the time, though she's well aware that she still holds special priviliges and will break away from the flock and storm the treat room door any chance she gets.
I decided not to breed Cary again this year because of the traumatic experience with her first pregnancy. As much as I'd love to have a Cary baby, I just don't want to take the chance of losing her—and since there's no reason I have to breed her, I'm not going to, at least for now.
© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the way beyond nippy foodie farm blog where it's no suprise that the incoming water pipes are frozen and there's a mound of ice sprouting up from the shower drain in the bathroom—the thermometer outside read minus six degrees this morning. Brrrrrr! But as long as we don't have to do this again (and I use 'we' in the most general of terms here), things should be fine.
Tana is Thrilled
More snow photos coming soon. Need a bigger blizzard right now? You'll find links to lots more snowstorms here (scroll down past the playful pups). I've also just added the cute half to Tuesday's heart rock post, which was the whole reason for it in the first place, yet I somehow completely spaced it out until that crazy Sylvester kept walking into more photos this afternoon. And here I was hoping to be more organized and on top of things this year!
© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the three inches of snow covered foodie farm blog (which makes that white Christmas already seem like nothing) where the sheep have so much wool (or hair) to keep them warm in winter that they often choose to sleep outside during snowstorms, but you just get the sense that for some of them, this is definitely not their favorite time of year.
