Wwoofing on our farm

 We are a stable couple, into sustainable agriculture & practicing ecologically sound organic farming methods. Our names are Christopher (48) and Rebecca (63), see picture above. Rebecca has been farming for 45 years. Christopher for 20 years. Very occasionally we host 'wwoofers' who seriously want to learn about farming and hone their farming skills (though we did not host any in 2015, due to the California drought). Must be registered with WWOOFUSA.org, and at least 21 years old to apply. 

We are located in the Sierra Foothill country of Northern California, we call our place a "subsistence farm", that is, we subsist on it. It is, at present, economically solvent, we make our total living farming, living close to nature. We sell beef steers and Pure Bred Angus bullocks and replacement Angus heifers, an occasional Angus breeding cow and Duroc weaner pigs, plus veggies and fruit at our farm stand. We are nine years into the process of rehabbing, with limited funds, an old farm into a small, bio-diverse, non-certified but organic operation, moving in the permaculture direction. Sir Francis Bacon said" One can only command Nature by obeying her". Studying the lay of the land and how Nature works on our piece of ground, in order to enhance that, has been like faceting a diamond, employing ART as well as science. There is still much to do. Some times we have opening for registered,'wwoofers' on our farm.

The two of us raise many farm animals, Rat Terrier dogs for organic vermin control. Rats and gophers are a real problem for us as we do not use poisons on our farm. Bees for honey. We usually have a flock of chickens in summer for eggs and meat. We have Duroc hogs (five sows & a boar). We have a grass fed beef program... with 12 purebred Angus beef cows and an Angus beef bull plus calves. We have a dairy operation that pushes everything along, with three Jersey, a Holstein and some Holstein/Jersey cross milk cows, along with

their calves & 3 Alpine dairy goats we milk in summer. We use the milk for our home use, making home made cheese, feeding our calves, pigs and chickens. Chris helps out part time on an exotic animal ranch near-by, helping care for camels. 

The main thrust of our farm development at the present time is soil improvement. Presently crops come and go with varying degree of success, however if the soil is developing in a positive way, crop success is not so important to us. Animal manure is spread directly on the soil or is mixed with other carbonaceous compost components, to be broken down further, until it is ready to become proper plant food.

The compost feeds the soil, the soil feeds the crops, the crops feed us and the animals. We do our best to facilitate the turning of a holistic self sustaining cycle. 

Through the summer (our busy season) we have a small farm stand, in front of the farm, every

Our farm stand

Thursday, where we sell locally grown vegetables and fruits, it starts in Spring and ends when the weather gets bad. The stand is attended by a small, slowly expanding, local customer base. It is exciting to explore anew, old ways of creating legal local community food sovereignty, by working together with other local producers and consumers, in the spirit of cooperation and trust... rather than in the out dated spirit of greed and competition typical of corporate style public food sales...so refreshing. 

This area is very rural, it has a post office and a gas station-country-store-video-combo and that's about it. There is no TV reception here (thank goodness). This is a pastoral foothill country, dry in summer and wet in winter; a classic Mediterranean climate, we can grow grapes, olives and apples, lemons and even hardy oranges. Irrigation water is normally plentiful; (though the last few winters have been exceptionally dry and we have  had drought to deal with in 2014 and 2015) soils are deep clay loam types, very productive. There are tracts of wilderness close by, full of wildlife. There is swimming in wild rivers, hiking and camping within a half hour drive. Grass Valley and Nevada City, Ca. are about 45 minutes away where there are many cultural events every summer...a bluegrass festival, a world music festival, a Celtic Festival, Draft horse show and more. The people in our community are friendly, interesting and generally ecologically minded. There are two award winning olive oil producers, three excellent vineyard w/wineries, and several organic farms, a farmers market, as well as a number of active artists and musicians, in our small community.

In 2011 late winter, our 1st wwoofer helped us for three weeks, which was an exceptional exchange of work and understanding for all of us, we are still in touch with him (thanks Marc).

Our first wwoofer

At this point we have had many wwoofers help us develop different aspects of our farm and are very thankful for the wonderful energy and enthusiasm that they have contributed to making a difference in our lives and on our small farm. We are looking forward to meeting more wwoofers in the coming years. 

Accommodations for 'WWoofers' are very modest. Wifi is available. We have an outside social area, where we hope to build a cob pizza oven/bench come summer (yum pizza). 

We eat healthy, tasty, organic locally grown foods whenever possible, we are not heavy meat eaters ourselves, finding it healthier, we tend to cook a lot of cheese and veggie loaded

dishes when we cook. While we do have family style sit down dinners, once or twice a week, guests will need to be able to cook for themselves and others on a regular basis. We have home grown eggs, farm produced meats (beef, lamb and pork), locally produced olive oil, cornmeal, tomatoes, lots of fruits, leafy greens, beans, home canned goods, salad stuffs, root crops, all in season of course, we buy bulk rice, bulk noodles and bake most of our own bread. Providing food for omnivorous or vegetarian meals is not a problem. 

Depending on the time of year, activities others can get hands on experience with include, garden work, planting, watering & irrigation management, seed saving, thinning and pruning fruit trees, propagating plants, grafting, composting and soil feeding, building and maintaining garden beds, roto-tilling, fence maintenance, daily feeding and caring for the critters,

working with horses, helping birth animals, bottle feeding baby animals, calves and goat kids, pasture management, herding, goat care, daily milking cows, daily cleaning and care of milking machines, the 'ins and outs' of how to daily handle milk for home consumption. Meat processing, sausage making, & in summer weekly farm-stand preparation of fruits and veggies,

packaging farm grown veggies. Then there is, processing and making cheeses, we make various hard cheeses, for home use. Mozzarella, provolone, cottage cheese, feta,& goat's cheeses, you can learn how we do it.

We do periodic soap making, pickling in summer, we dry fruits, mushrooms & herbs, can fruits and veggies, pressure can meats and soups, brew beer all for our home use; we also help our vintner friend make wine and manage his (legal) small vineyard; we make home made breads and more. There are lots of things to do and learn. 

Work can be hard sometimes, moving soil, building fences, etc., when it is, it is that kind of work that makes you feel "good", like you got something done at the end. Days are full... still we do take time to enjoy life, have a beer or glass of wine (in moderation) at the end of the day, relax, listen to or make music, read, do art work, have fun with others, engage in exchanging ideas and developing true friendships. We have found that balancing fun & wholesome play with the effort it takes to do farm tasks, is a big key to living the "good life". 

If you apply for a 'wwoofing' stay our farm and are accepted... we are looking forward to working and playing, together with you, on our farm, should you be our guest. 

                     ~Rebecca and Christopher

  

Milk : Miracle Substance

Milk is amazing stuff. Full of protein as high in quality as any meat, and laden with delicious cream and sweet milk sugars, formulated by Great Nature herself to be a perfect food. Fresh raw milk, the kind straight from a healthy cow or goat, is a true "super food", incomparably better than the stuff you get in a carton or plastic jug, from the super market . 

Fresh milk straight out of the cow, is warm, sweet and creamy, effervescently alive, it comes with it's full compliment of enzymes in tact, to help digest it, plus it is full of beneficial bacteria that protect it, from pathogenic invaders, like a kind of "mini army". If you pour fresh milk, the top of the milk glistens with golden sparkles of cream, when you pour it, the surface literally jumps with energy...bing, bing, bing. The cream naturally swirls on the top in delicious little creamy curls, yum. One sip, and you are hooked.

Add a milk cow or goat to your farm!

Processed commercial milk gets really beat up, long before it gets onto our table. As soon as it leaves the cow, it begins a long journey. First it is pumped from the cow through long lengths of pipe, swirled through an in-line filtering system, on its way into huge storage tanks, where it is cooled and agitated along with the all the other milk, from multiple cows at a big dairy.

There it awaits pic-up by the creamery truck. When the truck arrives the milk is pumped into the creamery tanker, through yet another set of pipes. On its journey to the creamery, it is sloshed along in the truck, then pumped out of the truck once more into an automated creamery system. (To learn about how commercial milk gets to the creamery click on the link below.

http://thedairymom.blogspot.com/2011/11/milks-journey-from-cow-to-table.html

After being tested for purity, the milk is pasteurized in the creamery; a process, designed to kill any bacterial contamination it may have picked up from being exposed to so many surfaces during all that pumping, mixing with other milks, lying in bulk tank storage, & sloshing around in the tanker truck transit (one does wonder how how thoroughly all those pipes, pumps and various tanks are cleaned, personally, I think about the potential human error factor here). This process is quite important to commercial milk production profits, because it extends the sell-able shelf life of commercial milk, well beyond that of natural raw milk, which would sour, rather quickly, after all that contamination. Really, pasteurization is all about making money. 

During pasteurization milk is cooked at very high temperatures, which effect it in many ways. Cooking hardens the milk on a molecular level, it gets chalky, looses it's effervescence, high heat destroys its enzymes and kills any bacteria it may contain, beneficial and pathogenic alike. 

After pasteurization the lifeless white fluid is pumped through a series of pipes again, centrifuged at high speeds so the cream separates out from the skim milk, from there the skim and cream are piped some more, finally, the skim and cream are mixed back and beaten together under incredible pressure to homogenize the milk so that is has a uniform texture. 

Homogenization changes milk structure, in this unnatural process, the fat globules in the milk, get coated on the outside with protein, this is done to make milk texture "look" better and to give it a smooth "mouth feel". Coating the fat molecules with protein allows the cream globules to stick to, instead of repel, the watery part of the milk and thereby stay emulsified in suspension, instead of floating to the milk surface, in a thick layer, as cream naturally does. 

The recombined cream/milk it is then pumped through even another set of pipes, cooled and then its filled into cartons and plastic jugs, which are jostled down conveyor belts, boxed, stacked and tossed onto trucks, bounced down the road for miles, unloaded, put into a grocery store and finally put on the shelf for the milk consumer to buy. We put it in a cart, pay for it, haul it home to our houses and put it in the 'fridge, so we can have it on our coffee and cereal come morning. After all those temperature changes and all the pumping, bumping, whirling, swirling, whipping, cooking, killing & cooling, is it any wonder that commercial modern milk is tasteless, flat and chalky, by the time we drink it, cooked and altered molecularly, as it has been, to the point that it sometimes makes our stomach hurt after drinking it?

Curds and whey, home made cheese in the making.

What is milk anyway? What is it made of, how does it become cheese, yogurt or kefir? Why does it change from a liquid into a solid? 

Milk is composed of water and "milk solids". While we all know what water is; what are milk solids? Milk solids consist of two kinds of protein, known as casein and albumin, plus of course, fat in the form of cream and also milk sugars or lactose, along with various enzymes and micro nutrients. 

A good source of calcium, casein is what makes milk white, it is a flexible protein that becomes harder and tougher with heat. Casein is the main component of your average cheeses, like cheddar, cottage cheese, mozzarella, Monterrey Jack etc.  the word "casein" is where the name "Cheese" comes from. Albumin on the other hand, is the same protein as is found in egg whites, which also turns white and toughens, but only a little, with heat, it is the main component of whey cheeses like ricotta.

 Milk becomes solid when it coagulates, this can happen in various ways, through enzymatic action, by acidification of the milk, or a combination of both. Most cheeses are coagulated by rennet, an enzyme which occurs naturally in the stomach of all mammals, Rennet can also be synthesized from some mushrooms. Other enzymes found in sap of many plants also coagulate milk, these saps are usually thick and white, like in "milk weed" or "milk thistle" or even the fig. Adding these enzymes to milk will cause it to coagulate. Another way to coagulate milk is with acid, add enough vinegar or lemon juice even citric acid will coagulate milk very quickly. The beneficial bacteria in raw milk produce lactic acid, given the right temperature and enough time the lactic acid they put off will also coagulate milk. Cheese makers the world round have learned to combine various enzymes and acids to create the whole range of different tasting cheeses.

 A "broken" milk coagulation, see the yellowish whey in the break?

 From coagulated milk we get both "curds" and "whey". In coagulated milk, separation between the watery part of the milk and the milk solids happens easily. When the solid jell of the coagulation is "broken", the casein proteins naturally draw together with most of the fats, forming clumps which we call "curd", they are isolated into lumps, because where ever the coagulant is "broken" the albumin proteins readily precipitate out, into a watery solution, taking  along with them most of the milk sugars, this forms a clear yellowish liquid called "whey", the "whey" simply leaves the "curd" behind. Little Miss Muffet of nursery rhyme fame, like many children of by gone eras, ate a combination of curds and whey, a very tasty (especially with a little honey), nutritious snack. It was something mothers gave their children, while they were in the process of making their family's weekly staple: farmstead cheese made from RAW MILK they got from their own cow. 

Little Miss Muffet

What happened to that simpler way of living, where RAW MILK was a part of everyday life? My great grandmother was a "Victorian Lady" back in the day, she wore silks and feather hats, yet she had her own Jersey cow, and milked it everyday, or had it milked. She wanted the best quality food for her family. Milking your own cow was part of life for people of the past. Everyone who was "someone" had a good family cow...what happened to change us? Why has RAW MILK been given such a "bad rap" by the corporate media and milk world? Is it really so dangerous as it is made out to be? I don't think so.

Louisa Miller McCarty, my Great grandmother, 
Victorian 'Lady" & a graduate of Vassar College. 

Is RAW MILK dangerous to human health? The answer to this question is: it all depends. It depends on many factors. Cow health, the cleanliness of the milking process, how the milk is handled after it is out of the cow. The speed at which it is cooled, the temperature the milk is stored at, the length of time it is held in storage. All these factors combined, determine the quality of RAW MILK. If the standards governing these factors are kept high, then, no, RAW MILK is IS NOT DANGEROUS to human health, (barring allergic reaction to it), in fact many people experience improved health from drinking it. In fact raw milk is a low risk food, new studies on raw milk bear this fact out. No one denies that milk is an excellent medium for bacterial growth, if it is contaminated with pathogenic ones, they will grow in it, if you consume contaminated milk (raw or commercial), it can make you sick. So if you drink milk, any milk, make sure it is handled properly. Pasteurized milk is actually a better medium for the growth of pathogenic bacteria than RAW MILK, because it lacks the protection of the beneficial bacteria which naturally inhabit milk. More on this later...

Let us recoup. Raw Milk is a quality food. Delicious, healthy, and nutritious if handled correctly. It was an everyday staple of early Americans, and it's unregulated private use is part of our American heritage.

Feeding the calves the extra milk.

Beautiful Bossy, the dairy cow

Our matron cow, Sue, grazes peacefully in the meadow.

What would our farm be without cows? They add so much to our lives, these great teachers, so enhance us with their quiet wisdom. The cow placidly grazing, or lying in the sun, chewing her cud is the perfect example of simple contentment. We love our cows, they give us milk, cream, butter and cheese for our home use. Excess milk feeds calves, our pigs, chickens, to produce eggs, baby goats, which we latter market or process for our own use. All in all they help our farm stay solvent.

Did you know a cow chews her cud about 30,000 times a day? She woofs down her grass, tanking up her preliminary stomach, by yanking off fist full amounts of the course stuff and swallowing it down, more or less, unchewed. After, she lies down, quietly, in a comfy spot, and chews it all, contentedly crunching away the time, until it is all done, then she goes for more, and does it all over again. This is the way she takes grass, yep, plain ol' grass of the meadow and transforms it into milk and cream. By this laborious & monotonous grinding up of this substance, weedy stems of the field, which we can not even begin to digest, into a pulverized pulp, she is able to release nutrients locked in the stuff and make it into milk, it is all that work she does chewing that makes it possible for us to have yogurt, cheese, kefir, butter, cream in our coffee and let's not forget... mozzarella for pizza. It is really miraculous if you think about it.

Some days I get up early before the sun rises, and sit outside with my coffee. I look across the dew soaked meadow, and there are the cows, munching away at the wispy green, in the cool of the morn. As I watch them, I wonder, "will that mouthful be cream for my coffee tomorrow?"

Waiting to be milked

Later they mosey down to the gate, waiting to come across the road, to be milked. Bugling a mooie hurry-up to us if we are late opening the way before their "Majesties". Swinging pendulous bags of milk, they sway across the road to the barn, stopping traffic, heedlessly indifferent, to the rush most people are in. 

Their calves, the night's warm-barn dwellers, greet their stately moms with enthusiasm. "Mooeeee, mooeee, meeee, meee, me..." they say, anticipating throat fulls of warm, creamy milk sliding down their gullets. Yes, with them it is all about "me". The mamma cows, though, know the routine. They slide gracefully into the milking parlor one by one, after waiting their turn. Happily eating a bit of grain for breakfast while they deliver their precious load of milk to us.

We always leave enough for the calves. After breakfast, mamma and babies spend time together, sequestered together in their own little safe haven, till satiation occurs.

Then mamma troops back out to the gate, wanting to re-cross the road, ready to amble among the thick, green Forbes and grasses waiting for her in the meadow, luscious and succulent. Milk in the making.

"Buttercup" peacefully grazing

Becoming a wwoof host farm

Harold from Switzerland

"What is "WWOOF"?" People ask... now the acronym stands for "world wide opportunities on organic farms", originally it stood for "willing workers on organic farms". The movement was started in Great Briton, by a small group of people wanting to support and promote organic farming, they started making connections between organic farmers and want-to-be organic farmers. It has grown from humble beginnings into an international force of wwoof host farms and wwoofer helpers to be reckoned with. A god send for people participating in it. To learn more about Wwoof go to: wwoofusa.org

We learned about wwoofing, quite by accident. My brother (who now hosts wwoofers in Fla. at his farm/nursery, Simonton Farms), met a wwoofer through one of his buddies who was a wwoof host. This wwoofer fellow, "Marc", was a remarkable young lad hailing from Quebec Canada. He had ridden his bike all the way from Quebec, to Florida, "on adventure", to his destination wwoof host farm in Florida. Marc ended up helping out at my brother's farm. In the course of a few days he told my brother about the wwoof program. My brother was impressed and excitedly told me about the program also. 

One thing led to another, the young man, Marc, wanted to continue his bike adventure, and planned to ride across the USA to the west coast, then peddle up the west coast back into Canada, where he planned to take a bus back East to Quebec. When he found out my brother had a sister with a farm in California, he wanted to hook up. My brother called me and told me the story, could Marc stay with us and "wwoof" if he made it out to California. Little thinking he could make it, I said "yes", I figured anybody who could bike across the country deserved my notice. Too my surprise, two months latter I received a phone call from Marc, in his thick French Canadian accent,  he conveyed to me that he had made it to San Francisco, three days latter he was knocking at the door. Wow, what a top quality person Marc turned out to be!

Marc from Quebec

 Marc didn't speak much English, being  French Canadian, but he was eager to learn more. He was in college, a biology major studying forest fungi. He was keen to learn about organic farming and threw himself, with gusto, into farm living.

Marc's bike at our front door.

Marc became like the son we never had. For six weeks we worked and played together. He helped so much, and brought the joy of farming back into our life with his gung-ho attitude and intelligent enthusiasm. It was great. We were hooked on WWOOF & registered as an official usa-wwoof host farm, its been rewarding!

Marc wheel barreled loads of compost and double dug our hill garden, what a feat!

Since then we have had many wwoofers helping us out, we have got so much done with their help, and more importantly, we have made some truly lasting friendships and learned so much from them. Below are some of the wwoofers we have had the pleasure of working with.

Matt from Sacramento 

Vanessa from France

Christin and Albin saved the day,
helping out with everything,when Chris was in the hospital

Wwoofers bring a refreshing energy to life on the farm...

Matt has been on the farm helping out for quite a while. Here he is feeding "Fridge" with his little nephew. He has been instrumental in getting many of our projects off the ground, so to speak, and has been helping with the milking in a big way.  Sweet Vanessa from France stayed with us for 6 weeks in the summer of 2013, she taught us some yummy French cooking. David, Naomi, Daniel and Marissa helped ever so much with milking, canning baking and packaging stuff for the market. Kevin & Sara were great team players, helped feeding calves, making cheeses, drying fruits, and canning, and with constructing our new meat locker, among other things.
Anastasia pruned and thinned apples, planted seeds, harvested veggies, canned fruits and more. Jeff, Nick and Harold all worked on our gardens, installed fences and more. Wwoofers have helped work with our bees, brewed beer, built sheds, canned fruits and veggies, dried herbs and fruit, made candy, planted gardens, turned compost, worked on raised beds, harvested apples, harvested black berries, put in strawberries, pruned fruit trees, thinned apples, made all kinds of cheese, helped with our farm stand, milked, cleaned stalls, trained horses, fed our critters...and the list goes on! All in all, wwoofers are great. A REALLY BIG THANKS  guys& gals!

Anastasia, Nick, Rebecca, Chris, Harold & Jeff

August, David, Naomi, Vanessa, Daniel & Marisa

Matt, Andy bottom
Rebecca, Chris, Sara & Kevin top

We look forward to meeting new Wwoofers in the                                  coming years!

Oak Meadow Progress

Oak Meadow Farm Fall 2013

     The farm has come a long way from the early days. Many improvements have been added. Barn improvements to the dairy parlor, a new loft, an addition to the north side, have turned the barn into a more functional farm building. Rebuilding much of the deteriorating siding on the barn, and adding a foundation prepared the way for a new coat of red paint. It looks great!

original color

the new red

Soil improvement include liberal amounts of compost and manure spread over much of the land which had lain fallow for years, and perhaps had never been fertilized. 


                                                                                                                                                                                                      We added more fruit trees, and brought the ones already on the property back into shape, we put in strawberries, raspberries, black berries, currents, blue berries and more. 






We fenced and cross fenced, installed a new watering system which we are still working on. We put in walk ways, built a meat locker, and a nice green house. There are still many more projects planned for the future. It is amazing what two people can do,(with a lot of help) plodding along over time, taking it one step at a time.

Today we have five milk cows in our line up, and some young heifers getting ready to step up. We make cheese twice a week, and are beginning to get quite good at it.                                                      

Mozzarella, Italian style

We have five Duroc hogs now; a boar and 4 sows producing lots of little piggies, they make good use of the leftover whey from cheese making, plus the garden and fruit tree wastes. We have a draft horse in training to do work around the farm, we built a chicken pasture, pens for our milking goats, and are working on a fodder system. We put in a worm bed, constructed several garden areas, dug a new pond, converted some closet space into a nice pantry, and we are working on converting our laundry into a cheese making room, building an out door pizza oven and much more. It has been quite exciting.