This here photo is of yours truly taken by Mauro Vallinotto at Terre Madre in Italy. I am still unsure as to what the purpose of this photo is to be but I thought I would share it with you. This is me. I have a rounder face (due to pregnancy) and my teeth aren't perfect, I was jet legged and confused as to what was really going on and I don't quite understand why I was asked to pose with my hands folded like that (isn't that the pose of the dead?). You can look at the photo and start to see my age (which I am okay with... really I am) and I know that by looking at this photo there is really two of us present and that we went on a world wind trip together. I don't take great photos but I don't mind this one, this photo is an honest picture of who I am.
My name is Laura. I live in the Kawartha Lakes in Ontario, Canada. I am a farmer who loves her chickens and turkeys. I love food and I love to produce it. I love family and rural life. This is me! Now who are you?
It has been an unforgivable amount of time since us sistas have written a blog entry. Life has gotten the better of us and farm life has swallowed me whole. So much has happened, many highs and some lows but life keeps on truckin’ that is for sure. I am writing from my kitchen, looking down at a belly full of baby, yep that’s right, kid number three is on the way (February to be exact) and my lovely sister, Amelia is not too far behind with her first due in March. Oh yeah, and her and Simon tied the knot on 10/10/10, it was a beautiful warm, sunny autumn day.
Photo credit: Megan Ward
Lets just call this the icebreaker blog where I attempt to explain the total time warp that happens when kids and farm life blur together.
The farm is finishing up. The weather this year was great, my ambition on the other hand lost to the whirl of being a tired, sick momma. Some successes have managed to pull through the fog though; it has been a great season for certain produce. I had a bumper crop of green house poblano peppers, green zebra tomatoes and just finished pulling in the last of the most beautiful heads of raddichio that I have ever grown. The zucchini’s were free flowing in their prime and the basil was picture perfect. The turkeys have grown beautifully into adults and I am excited to continue breeding them for next year. Looking after a rafter of turkeys is a part time job though, those suckers can really fly! Some turkeys are finishing up to be sold just in time for Christmas.
The chickens are maturing as well with the new hens laying their tasty pullet eggs and the roosters have begun the start of their journey into maturity with their incessant crowing, fighting and the like. I will keep a rooster of each variety and try my hand at breeding chickens next year.I have already started thinking about next season and which direction I will steer the farm, keeping in mind that I will have three children next year and one will be a newborn.
I just got back last Tuesday from Terre Madre, which is a large Slow Food conference in Turin, Italy where I was a delegate from Canada, the Toronto Slow Food Chapter to be exact. It was a whirlwind 5 days in which I met some inspiring like-minded people in search of change when it comes to food. I was lost a little in translation and being a traveller with a belly maybe didn’t suit me, as there was a lot of walking and lack of sleep. I am glad to be home though, every time I go away it just solidifies where I was meant to be. I ate some super yummy tangerines, salumi, gellati and cheese! I love that Europeans LOVE food, the support for quality food almost brought me to tears. So, so much food culture is lost on us in North America, where the majority of our population choose commodity over artisanal/sustainable products any day. Italy opened my eyes to see an unabashed love for food. No calorie counting or “lite” products here. Just a prociutto that melts in your mouth and a wedge of parm cheese cured eight years. I attended seminars on food policies, setting and communicating fair prices, women’s rights and the right to land, amongst others. I am still trying to wrap my head around that. Like I said, it was a whirlwind and I am just shaking the last head nod of jetlag. It was indeed an eye opener, but was it necessary for hundreds of people to be flown into Italy? I question whether it was the most sustainable choice to educate people.
Well, I will let you chew on this entry for the time being. Hopefully this was the kick in the butt I needed to get back on the blogging train!
Woodstove warmth to all, as the weather turns and winter starts to settle in (at least here in the Kawartha Lakes)!
