Homegrown Freedom

Four milkings yesterday have left us with fatigued hands and arms, but the mastitis has gotten a lot better.  The milk is filtering faster and the clots are almost gone.  We still have to be vigilant, but we are on the right track.  We didn't end up giving any medicine, so we can still use all the milk.  I guess I'd rather buy the medicine and not use it than buy it and use it.  The extra milkings have brought up production — Christina gave a full four gallons yesterday and two this morning. 

Jerky is a week old today. I'm amazed how much bigger he is already.  He's strong and energetic, a spaz.  As we've gone through this week of worry, it's been a week of new life for him.  He has a wonderful exuberance to just be alive. It's a reminder that God always has something else going on besides the worry in front of us.

Jerky "helps" with milking. He gets one quarter and we get the other three.  With aching hands, it's nice for one hand to have a break and he gets his milk.  We still have colostrum from last week so he also gets a bottle in the middle of the day.

My cheesemaking life starts up with making starter cultures.  After sterilizing the milk by water-bath canning it, I heat water up in a crock pot and then culture it all day long.  Tonight I'll pour it into ice cube trays and each cube will be an ounce for cheese recipes. I have three different starter cultures to make — one for italian cheeses, one for cheddar & colby, and another one for cottage cheese.

Some friends came over yesterday to see our "farm."  I asked what they were interested in and they said, "just everything."  So I started showing them around and watched the sparkle in their eyes turn to fire. 

I feel deeply called to this life, but it amazes me how much it touches and inspires others.  I think there is something about actually seeing it done that makes it seem possible, and they never knew it was possible.  Just a year ago there were big pieces of this that I thought were impossible too.  Somewhere along the line I concluded that feeding yourself was just too hard to do without a grocery store. 

Where did I get that idea?  It came from stories, but I think it came mostly from advertising: you can't raise your own food, you have to buy it.  We lost the link with the past that held the knowledge for raising food.  Today the advertising even goes further: you can't cook your own food, you have to buy it.  Something as basic as baking bread is seen as super-human today.  Deep down I think we all know that living with that kind of dependence on commerce is an oppression.  We are kept in our places by forces stronger than ourselves.  In these circumstances, an economic recession is a genuine threat to survival, not just something to be waited out. 

I think that when people see our "farm," they see freedom.  They see freedom from the grocery store, and therefore freedom from dependence on money and occupation.  They see freedom from systems that are raping the earth and freedom from helplessness to change it.  Jesus said, "the truth will set you free."  I think that homegrown food also sets you free.