Popcorn!!!!

Yummy popcorn...and I am not talking about the kind form the microwave bag either.  I am talkin, pan full o butta, popcorn kernels and high flame...and away you go....a big heavenly bowl of popcorn...This food is definitely one that makes me recall past experiences for sure....It was a staple snack in my family always made from a big bag of kernels in the air popper..., melted butter on the stove drizzled on the warm popcorn, then salted to high heaven...a most amazing and delicious little snack....I can remember as a child going to visit relatives in Niagra Falls, NY and my uncle used to put this amazing cheese on his popcorn,  it turned the ends of your finger orange, but you couldn't stop eating it till the little unpopped kernels showed at the bottom of the bowl.  There also used to be this popcorn when I was growing up, that started in Beans Corner in North Jay...it was a glazed candied corn type thing and it was amazing....If I could get some of that corn right now I would be in heaven.....Such an easy relate able snack, kicked up or laid back makes no difference to me.....I love it in all way shapes and forms...sometimes I love a popcorn ball, all mashed together with molasses an such....or just plain with a little butter and salt...
Sometimes it just has to be about something easy...get up and pop some corn....sit down and share with someone...and that includes the dogs and cats, cause ours go nuts over it..
Hey PS not every blog is gonna be DEEP........ROFL!  Ya'll Enjoy your evenings...
xo...the friendly female farmer.........

My itchy green thumb!

Doesn't it seem counter intuiative to be shoveling snow and thinking about growing things?  I mean seriously, we have just had what has amounted to be the first "real" snow storm of the winter and I can't stop thinking about pretty green houses full of herbs, greens, fruits and veggies.  Ah the abundance that is the greenhouse.  This time next winter, I will be goin out to the green house for fresh greens for salads..This winter is the dreaming and longing stage.  I was lucky last winter, close to a wonderful farmer market in Saco I was able to wonder around looking at the booths, but always stopped at the booth that had the best greens, I am apalled, but the name of the farm escapes me now, and I can't find it on the vendors list..I will however figure out who it is and let you all know, especially you southern Mainers....The greens were amazing, and lasted forever in the fridge because of there hearty nature and freshness.  Unlike the organic greens you find at Hannaford and shaws that are sent from California, already weeks old.  I just love green houses, atriums and such...They make me feel witchy and natural, and make me want to play in the dirt all day...For me this place is a temple, my place of worship.  Where I have an opportunity to be one with the wonderful planet.  NOW there is nothing wrong with a hoop house, made from galvanized pipes and heavy miled plastic, but when I imagin my green houses, they are elaborate framed monstrosities with real glass windows that crank open to allow for air flow.....One that comes to mind might be the green houses in the Harry Potter Movies....Or the one that I love the best and strive to achieve someday is the lovely room off the house of the Practical Magic Witches.  A place to cast spells and mix potions, even if they are only sore throat remedies from the medicinal plants growing inside....Oh the magic of growing things, and being able to do it when mother nature intends you not to...Soon I will be browsing the pages of Jonny's cataloge and hoping onto the heirloom seed websites to loveingly pick out this years crops.  Oh I can't wait for spring....even though its a ways away I am joyful and excited for the garden prospects this new year is going to bring me.....
Ever thankful and abundant in life.....I wish you all the same....
Till tomorrow peeps.
The friendly female farmer!

A sick farm girls work is never done....

So it seems my work is never done...which is totally fine with me because my work is something I love and wouldn't trade for the world.  My work consists of lugging buckets and mixing grain, trimming hooves and hauling hay....Its the job of a friendly female farmer....except right this very moment I am sick.  I have snubbed up nose, a sore throat and a cough.  It sucks, I HATE being sick, and come to think of it, don't honestly remember the last time I had a cold.  I am a really healthy person normally, so why has this happened.  STRESS...and I let it get to me.  Lots of things are transitioning here at Black Horse Farm, all of them are for the best, but still its change and sometimes change for me is difficult, I am stubborn and hold onto things that do not support and uplift me in my future endeavors, but Alas its a process that I am working on.  So tonight in the blustery wind and snow, I bundled myself up to go and visit the goat ladies, fluff them up a big bale of hay and sit and scratch away anyone who was interested.  Gigi of course is interested, she is the extremely vocal cashmere goat who is friendly to a fault and wants to talk your ear off, until that is you start to scratching.....she takes on this mesmerized look that says in a language only the one doing the scratching can understand...OOOOHHHH Yaa baby that's the spot....all animals have a look when you get the sweet spot, the spot they just can't reach on there own.  She bounces away contented and begins to munch the freshly fluffed hay....Then comes Mae, she is our Alpha goat, and is persistent about how and when and how much you scratch her and no matter how long you do it, the look she gives says...you can't possibly think you are done....She paws you with determination, insisting you continue.  She makes me smile, they all do...all 11 of them, we are adding 2 more does with babies in the belly to our herd after the first of the year, giving us 8 does in milk this spring.  We really need to win the powerball so I can get my dairy and commercial kitchen set up...
Even when I am sick and not feeling my best, I feel better by going out to do the nightly check on the ladies, for taking the time to sit down in the hay and scratch and love on them.  To observe the herd and see the dynamics of their hierarchy.  To make sure no one is sick or has a injury of any sort.  Its a time to just relax myself for the day and chill with my goatie girls.  They make me smile and laugh and not take anything to seriously....Yesterday morning we went out and played...I ran around in circle and they all followed me round and round, jumping and kicking and bouncing into each other...taking the moment for what it was worth..a moment of release, fun and laughter....I know I feel much better when I take these moments every day.....lessons learned from a goat and their farmer....
Till tomorrow peeps!
-the friendly female farmer

Tonight its all about family Ya'll....You know you can't pick em, and sometimes you do...family!  So defined as the people who gave you life and raised you...for most of us it is well beyond that, its friends and loved ones beyond mom and dad.  As we raise up...its aunts and uncle and sister and brother in laws..friends that touch your life in a way no other has, strangers who do the same, its a set of children given to you by new opportunities and fate, mature wonderful individuals who inspire me.........I love them, Its great having them in my life.  Family does such things to you...turns you inside out, makes you mad and sad and sometimes glad...(heheheh)  But imagin if you didn't have your father or mother to turn to any longer...or your surrogate mommy and daddy.  If you didn't have your bestie to call at the very moment shit went to hell ina handbasket.  I know one of the biggest regrets I have in my life right now is that I didn't have a wonderful relationship with my grandparents.  First it was because I didn't know who I wanted to be when I was young, so I didn't know that sitting with them and listening to their stories would some how benifit me, would some how help me when I was grown and beginning my quest as the friendly female farmer ( picture girl in jeans with a patchwork cape, long brown braids and a straw cowgirl hat) Oh yeah that's it...  Anyhoo, If I had only known to brave the fear of my big bad grandfather, who in fact was just a sweetie on the inside.  Thankfully one of my cousins has named their sons after him, ROMEO, I love you and miss you very much...I Oh so wish I could sit and talk to you about farming, about what you would do now with what we had to work with...How your perspective on the day you lived in could have helped me, also some of your skills or tips.  I say this and my grandmother is very much alive and well and I MUST Get over to visit her, its just what needs to be done or years from now I will be writing regret notes in my blog....Family is honestly what you make of it, Its the effort YOU put into it.....If you think its anyone else fault that you don't have a relationship with them then think again.  You have the ability to make any relationship a reality.  If you want an amazing relationship with your husband, find a way to make it happen, if you want one with your mother, then find a way and make it happen....YOu can make anything you want happen...especially with people you love and have a vested interest in.  Before its all to late and you have regrets....and you have to write about it in a blog and hope some one you know is haunted and that haunt knows your grandfather in heaven, and they tell him about the blog and he See's it and somehow.......OK seriously......LOVE your family, do what it takes to have a relationship with them...you will look back on your life and fondly remember them....Love you all out there my family!!!!!

nighty night....the friendly female farmer....

You would all be so proud of me.  I am kinda proud of myself actually, I have been toting around my cool leather bound, recycled paper inspirational idea holder.  In anticipation of a neat idea, or humorous saying to readily pop into my head, yet inspiration only sees fit to show her cute little face, when I am up to my elbows in bread dough or whoopie pie batter.......How is it the ideas that come to my mind driving down the road or lathered from tip to toenail...can not be rewound and recorded at a later date.  Oh well I guess I will just have to find a good recording app for my iPhone. 
Today has been one of those introspective days for me.....where most of the day I have been giving myself a pep talk about my attitude and its affect on my life.  Positivity can sometimes be a challenge for me, I have to really work to keep my thoughts,  especially from going down to  the deep dark pit of self doubt.   I can hear my own arguments....I listen and I simply say...Self you need to tighten up....Ask, Believe and Receive right....its truly as simple as that.  I have felt it happen in my own life and know it will again and again....if I can just get the believe part down.  Believe that I am worth it, believe that what I am asking for isn't out of the ordinary or over the top, believe that having what I want out of life isn't asking to much, believe that actual happiness is in my control....Believe that I have dump trucks of money....believe believe believe.......Changing the way that I think is the key.  I can understand how people who are enlightened from a young age are so much better prepared to receive than others, like myself who have started on the path to enlightenment, quite a bit later in life.  I have accomplished a great deal in the short time I have been reading about the power of positive thinking and seeing our "hippy"....( this is what the husband calls him ).  Its a journey that I am happy to be on and hope to be on for the rest of my life.  Only positivity can make the dreams in my head a reality here on earth.  Blah Blah Blah...ya ya ya....
On that note folks...

The friendly female farmer is signing off..........

Howdy....Today feels like one of those days that is never going to end....How does one start this silly little blog post anyway....Lets start with looking out the window at 430am and seeing snow covered roads and sideways percipitation.....by 8 drizzly and warm....Lets fit in a run to gorham to get three of my goats who had a nice long visit with their big bad boyfriend..3 large goats travel nicely in the back of a dodge durango...1130 back home to my outdoor walkway covered over by a foot of water....and water pouring in the beautiful stacked granite basement...sump pump...sump pump....sump pump...please don't let the power fail....Wind is blowing crazily.......

settled the goats, cleaned the house, and proceeded to begin cooking...Gingerbread cookies, which I am not all the impressed with, I am personally a gingerbread bread kinda girl.   Then onto Pane Francese, which is what seems like an all day process, but good bread usually is...God that little roll is amazing, and so simple to make....A perfect project for the beginner to bread making.  Then onto egg pasta from scratch, with a eggs from the Baker's Dozen.  Probably the best pasta I have made so far, and I am giving most of the credit to the eggs.....Shiny orange yolks...smiling up at me from the well of flour...OH the joy of fresh eggs.  The eggs were payment for my Farm Consulting...a little tip that made a chicken coop warm up, got me a dozen fresh eggs thank you very much.  Beautiful linguini noodles from the kitchen aid attatchment I borrowed from Kelly and may never give back...( I will Kelly I swear ) The perfect wild mushroom cream sauce with fresh herb garnish. ( still have herbs in a bucket in the wood shed ) Dishes done, goats tucked in...glass of wine for the farmer girl...
Seems the life of a REAL farm girl is never done...
Rewarding this challenge is turning out to be....( I kinda feel like Yoda when I talk like that...hehe)
So much accomplished in this day...even though I wish there had been a bit more accomplishing.going on....Its nice to sit at the end of the day and see a tidy crossed out list, for me at least..cause I am a list girl. Time to take up the sketch pad and finish the wine..cause its early to bed and early to rise for this Friendly Female Farmer...
Night Ya'll

 Really...a blog, my husband says?  What are you going to write about in a blog?  Initially I thought, well I have a lot to say....then after really thinking about it, was crushed with an overwhelming sence of inadequacy and I hadn't even started yet.  I do have a lot to say, and its not going to affect world peace or anything, but I hope some people get a laugh and even learn a thing or two....
I am no writer, I do have moments of linguistic excellence, but mostly I write like I talk....plain.  This blog is meant to be fun, and a opportunity for me to release....
I intend to write about things that make ME..happy.  For example.... the search for the perfect pickle........PICKLES are my favorite food and I must have recipes and samples of the bestest in the whole wide world pickle....We will delve deeper into the world of the pickle as the blog progresses...
What I would do if I won the power ball, or @Ellen gave me her check book for the day.  I know this sounds crazy to most of you, but I would go grocery shopping, for every ingredient I have ever wanted and couldn't afford.  Then I would stop and buy the biggest stainless steel fridge I could find, call my friends and invite them over to eat....I Love to cook and entertain. 
What the goats say when I go to the barn in the morning........Goats are incredibly talkative....
Farming and how to do it with the least amount of impact on the earth......Living and how to do it the same as farming...with as little impact as possible. 
The power of positivity, and how it has changed and continues to change my life....

Sweet Dreams Ya'll.....From the Friendly Female Farmer...