Baby Chicks

Slaughtering my first chicken felt like a rite of passage. We put it off for weeks and when it came time to do it, I felt both exhilarated and totally humbled by the experience. Suddenly it seemed so silly that I've eaten meat my entire life and had rarely even witnessed an animal being slaughtered, let alone done it myself. It felt important to finally experience it, to be entirely present for the moment in my body, mind and spirit and to feel that close to the life that would feed my family. We slaughtered three chickens and just a few days later, three little baby chicks hatched in the coop!

Loaves, Fishes and Greens

Greens! I'm curious what our hemtocrit levels must be by now.
I don't think I've cooked a meal without greens for two weeks now. But not just greens. LOTS of greens! Piles of them in fact. Still the boys munch on them raw while we work in the field. There is nothing more satisfying for a mother than to watch her little ones eat collards, kale and chard enthusiatically straight from the garden.

I cherish the harvest days when the radishes that have been steadily sneakily growing under the ground finally reveal themselves and the peas that seemed too small to pick just yesterday are suddenly completely filled out. I am always so surprised by how much food comes from each little patch which doesn't seem like much until it's harvested. It always feels a bit like the loaves and fishes.