i'm high on cooking - tomfarmery for all!!!

no drugs were harmed in the making of this blog.

[highoncooking]

new ihoc

the new site is up and running at www.imhighoncooking.com!!!  going forward THIS site should only be used as an archive.

if that's what you typed, and you reached this---empty your cache, and try again.

-ihoc admin

[highoncooking]

that's a wrap

so that’s it.  a whole ‘nother year.

i’m sitting here, scratching for what to say—what could possibly sum up what has happened this year?—and i decided to check the im high on cooking archives for some inspiration. 

this time last year, i wrote: my last day of work is in two days.  two more wake ups.  two more taxis and two more subways.  ten or twenty more metal detectors, bag checks and id scans. thirty more case sensitive passwords.  two more mail runs and two more coffee runs.  two more bagged lunches and two more suits.  four more cuff links and four more bells.

holy.  moley. 

i quit my job as a trader on the floor of the new york stock exchange.  i moved to the south.  i learned to farm.  LEARNED TO FARM. 

LEARNED TO FARM!!!

represented the united states at the biennial slow foods conference in italy.  asked my love to marry me—she said yes.

and this is only a bird’s eye view.  day-to-day, this has been the most educational, incredible, life changing, inspirational, and encouraging year of my life.  a lifetime has passed this year, and to picture myself just a year ago today is difficult to do.  in two thousand nine i dreamt a dream, and today i am awake inside it.  the dream is a reality, and the reality is mind blowing. 

this will be my last post of the year.  as numbered as the changes in two thousand ten appear on paper, the changes that lie ahead of me seem to dwarf them.  things are happening, and two thousand eleven is upon us. 

what are you passionate about?  what do you love?  hone in on your passion and trust the signs.  everyone is a teacher, and when you are ready, the lessons will unfold before you. 

when i return, im high on cooking will be reborn.  a sexy new body, same burning passion.  i can’t wait to share in the new year.

love, and peace,

jared 

[highoncooking]

pig in a truck

one of the berkshire/tamworth piglet runts didn’t make it through last night.  He was acting a little weak the last few days, and was dead in their hay nest this morning.  in an effort to isolate our fragile newborns from the sick piglet who has been hiding in their nest (see yesterday), we plucked him out of general population, and inserted him into our sow pen.  hopefully the individual attention from his mother will help him recover.  it’s clear that he’s feeling sick, because no healthy piglet would have been so easily carried and held.  he had nothing in him.

on the whole, this litter of tamworth/berkshire crosses has proven incredibly hardy.  at birth, every piglet who was born alive survived.  the normal stats for birth on pasture is probably closer to a seventy five or eighty five percent survival rate. until this week, we were batting a thousand.

the rescue operation was not so much for this sick tam piglet, because the truth is, he may, or may not survive another cold rainy day, and there's not much we can do.  but our new piglets, with their growing immune systems, are probably happy to have little-mr-coughs-a-lot out of their bed. 

[highoncooking]

piggus pileus

you’ve never really seen a pig pile like this.  they scatter when i approach, so the photo isn’t representative, but believe me, fifty pigs of a rainbow variety of sizes and colors and personalities, lying one on top of another and trying to keep warm, is a memorable site to walk on in the woods.  it's a good ol' fashion pig pile. 

they have really been utilizing the hay we put out, and it seems to be making a big difference.  the newest piglets, and the new mama, have established their own side nest, and over the last few days we have added several feet of insulation surrounding them.  as you can see in the video yesterday, mama uses her nose and some grunts to keep the piglets in the warm zone she (we) created.

and then there’s this guy.  do you see him?  which one of these is not like the other one…

this runty little tamworth piglet, who is most likely between six to nine weeks older than our newborns, is holing up in the nest as well.  he’s smart i guess, and found himself a pretty cushy little spot. 

he's a little weak, and has a minor cough, which i’m hoping is not something the piglet’s can catch.  the forecast claims tonight is the last viciously cold night (for now), so hopefully everyone will bounce back stronger and warmer on the other end.

[highoncooking]

if i had to describe moses' usual behavior around the cows, it would be that of mutual ignoredness.  he is always around them, and never really notices them. 

it's poo he's after. 

but today, with the wind chill feeling a bit northern for my new tastes, everybody was a bit randy.  the cows were freezing and a bit harder to move, and moses was getting up in their grill a bit.  moments after this video cut off moses got what was coming--a swift and hard blow to his face by the hammering rear kick of an eight hundred pound steer. 

shocked, he walked in a large arching semi circle away from the cow and sat at my side.  he seems to have learned his lesson.

[highoncooking]

twenty five degrees, hunker down time.

babies look good.  mama is being good. 

it's all good.

[highoncooking]

cow butts

[highoncooking]

when it’s nine am, twenty eight degrees, and you’re in your backyard sawing down twenty-five foot bamboo shafts to build a floating pig shelter in the woods—you’ll be smiling too.  raising animals on pasture, or in the hog’s sake, on woodlot, means to have the ability to adapt to completely unexpected scenarios—constantly!—and to react to them through the most efficient, smartest, and cheapest (ideally $zero) manner possible.  over the next two days we are expected to have the coldest weather this region has experienced in over one hundred and fifty years (this early in the season).  considering the small size, and young age, of many of pch’s residents—including our surprise newborns—we have decided to take a little preemptive action and provide some quick hay nests for the herd to nestle into. 

using the bamboo from my backyard as a frame, and some scrap metal we found on the property as a roof, we used simple metal wire to attach the metal to the bamboo, and the bamboo to the tree.  This is over in the sow pen, where the animals are many hundreds of pounds and can definitely handle any condition jah earth has to throw.  the makeshift roof was added simply to keep the hay underneath a little dryer and provide some respite from the forecasted freezing rain.  although the hogs don’t need this to survive, survival of these animals is not our only goal—their comfort is of paramount importance.  stressed animals—stress of any kind—retards weight gains, inhibits sexual productivity, and wastes our money. 

over in general population, where we have about thirty very young piglets—including some that are just a few days old—we wanted to build something that will help and hold in some warmth.  the floating bamboo is great since it doesn’t allow the huge sows to destroy our creation, but it’s open walls do nothing for heat.  bales of hay, stacked two high, were used to create a wind-breaking wall for the new mama and her babies to hunker into.  within a few days the hay fort will most likely be totally destroyed, but at least it will bridge us through these next few nights of extreme temperatures. 

in other parts of the country, producers who raise hogs year round outside most likely have large, very stout huts for the hogs to take shelter in.  our hogs, however, due to georgia’s usually mild winter, survive year round with absolutely no structure or housing in sight.  just pigs in the woods.  that’s it and that’s all.

and here's a shot of my bro, in for the weekend, falling for the oldest trick in the book.  i told him if he dropped trow and shat in the woods the pigs would consider him one of their own.  classic. 

[highoncooking]

a channukah miracle

completely out of the blue, and with no signs of being pregnant, one of our lady hogs due for slaughter next week just gave birth to four piglets!  they are healthy looking, although i’m concerned that the mother’s teats aren’t as swollen as the last few mothers i’ve witnessed.  the piglets, however, look nothing like oprah’s milk-less and dying piglets i saw this past summer, so i will assume for now that all is well.

[highoncooking]

me, personally?  the way i act around the pigs is always very calm and mild mannered.  if they are going to remember only one single thing about me, i’d prefer it to be that they are comfortable with me in their space.

as the video footage documents, chef francois takes a slightly different “approach” to managing the hogs.  if you listen closely, you can hear him justify this assault with “i gotta get a quick weight on brutus.” 

poor brutus.

[highoncooking]

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[highoncooking]

seventh grade math

a lot of times on the farm little projects are constantly getting put off.  it’s a good idea, of course, and the intention is in the right place, but right at the last second something more pressing will appear and reprioritize it.  building this fence.  cleaning that shelf.  but then, you know, i’ll end up having to sprint through a suburban neighborhood after a five hundred pound calf instead.

and so today--after four months of seeing that long cardboard box with the impressively heavy plastic roll inside sit in the corner of our equipment shed and wonder when we would use it—today, we put the cover on the hoop house.

great success!

some serious on the fly action today, performing a potentially troublesome task.  once the massive sheet-ninety six feet by forty eight—is attached to one side of the hoop house, and pulled up and over towards the other, it becomes an enormous wind sail capable of all sorts of mishaps.  the worst of which, would probably be that it could be torn or punctured.  the idea is for it to keep heat in, so a total lack of gaping holes is definitely a quality we value highly.

the job was done with a few improvisations—such as the trowel tied to a rope trick to launch up and over to the other side—and was accomplished pretty seamlessly.

at the end of a long day, working hard in the almost freezing air, i realized i somehow forgot to eat or drink a single thing since i left the house this morning.  something about being cold—like a pitcher icing his shoulder—i don’t feel the same triggers which normally remind me to hydrate, or have a snack. 

another task off the list.

another great day.

here i am, thirsty and tired.

[highoncooking]

as the winter air turns georgia cold, and the thermometer cracks forty, people aren’t the only thing that act cold.  the pasture slows too—billions of living things beneath the surface of the grass decrescendo to a crawl.  the grass seems to grow ever more green by the day, but can't muster the energy to grow upwards—sort of like, ok boys, hold your ground now--we'll get through this.  

the herd remains content growing fat on endless hay.  today we spent a few hours, in those early-winter gusts, finishing off a fence line we started a few weeks ago.  the job is done, the cows are happy, and the pastures are resting over @fowlerfarms.

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the foreground is the pasture we are utilizing for hay feeding, and the background is a resting pasture

[highoncooking]

association

              farm to table.  that’s what they say.  but not like this guy, they don’t.  these pictures are obviously related, but not in the “we just ground this pig up for sausage” sort of way.  in fact, he’s just a wee little guy.  that’s our buddy brutus, the swollen bellied offspring of our late sow oprah.  we bottle fed him once his mother died.

the association—not brutus—has to do with the jolly faced assaulter violating the little fella.  farm255’s farmer-sous chef jacobia o’françois.  a new breed, in my opinion.  like all the benefits that come from enjoying a local food system, the closer you are to the source, the higher quality product you can obtain.  the higher quality product you desire, too.

and so this post is an appreciation of monsieur francois—the chef, the farmer—and the balancing act between growing food, and serving food—the very line i one day hope to blur away completely.

  ———————-

the second pic is from chef francois helping me make my very first batch of sausages from scratch.  cranberry, hard cider, bacon (mine), and onion.  dee.  lish. 

[highoncooking]

tee dum, tee dee a teedle ee do tee day we're out for fun and this is the game we play: come on, join in and sing your troubles away with a teedle ee dum a teedle do tee day we're following the leader, the leader, the leader we're following the leader wherever he may go.

[highoncooking]

the cows suspiciously circled as he shoveled their poo into the wheelbarrow.  why now, they moo'ed?  after all this time.  but the man was dertermined, and not even an encoraching herd could stop him from shoveling poo.

soon, though, like all people, he left.   minutes later, and the cows returned to the poo man's freshly shoveled pasture and shat all over his work.

[highoncooking]

tonight feels like winter.  the cows have grazed full circle around our pasture land and found themselves dun’ run outta grass.  taking a little winter vacation from daily rotations, our herd has put the breaks on, and hay feeding has begun.  this time of year—the temperatures drop, and the grass is growing at a creep—it is better for us to let our pastures breathe as opposed to beating them down.  the cows, although missing out on the mysterious magical goodness contained in the green of a leafy green, seem happy enough to munch down on the dried stuff for the time being.

since the herd is holding a zone, as opposed to rotating, i have taken to shoveling up some of their excess manure for use as a soil amendment.  what amazes me, is the fact that our cows—who are still on pasture, with plenty of grass to roam—generate enough excrement for a pile up to appear noticeable after just a few days of eating in the same place (fifty lbs a day/cow).

imagine a cow factory—a cafo—the feedlot.  imagine how those cows never move—EVER—and imagine how many of them are in the same place.  imagine the manure! lagoons full of the toxic, fermenting, poisonous sludge. 

all the dumb time i hear people talking about how cows are the biggest contributor towards greenhouse gasses.  but it’s not like a cow—a single cow, or a single healthy herd—farting in the wind is causing global warming.  if, however, you pile thousands of them all in a single grass-less, soil-less parking lot, you bet your ass some fumes are gonna generate.

sometimes it just seems people are asking the wrong questions and solving the wrong problems.  not—how can we control the toxic gasses leaching out of shit lagoons.  how about—why raise livestock in a manner that causes toxic shit lagoons?