Here are a few examples of how to pick one out of a crowd.......
1. white eggs are a mystery found only on flashcards….
In telling this story I’m
admitting that it’s not all farm fresh eggs in our house but we’re only human
and well….. we simply needed eggs that moment…..currently we’re
transitioning out of old hens into new hens that haven’t started laying yet…. so
SHUDDER there is an egg shortage in the house and unfortunately commitments to
customers take priority over the farmer…. this is something we've tried to reverse but we have yet to entirely succeed. ......Anyway.... I’m putting
away the groceries and Forrest is sitting on the counter helping me. She grabs
the eggs, opens the carton to count them (as she does everyday for dad) and all
I hear is….
YES!!! WHITE EGGS! ……I KNEW IT!!!
after literally laughing out loud.... I suddenly realized she had
NEVER seen a real white egg before! In her world she had finally found the
truth about the elusive white egg she’d seen and heard so much about in all
those toddler books. It was some sort of 'holy grail' moment. HAHA!! I couldn’t stop laughing!!!! What a poor sheltered
farm life this girl leads….. next I suppose she’ll want a subway ride. Too
much!! And of course this inherently evolved into an experiment with one of our eggs and a
white egg to note the differences…….only a farm kid.
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| farm fresh eggs 101 |
2. the need to tell the farmer what to do…..
As I said.... Forrest has grown up
on the farm and because of that her 3.5 year old mind has developed a certain
skill set…. accompanied with confidence….. to farm with the best of them!
She has no worries about getting into the chicken tractors and feeding the
chickens or collecting the eggs... there is no fear in her running with the
sheep in their pen or herding escapees from the tractors. The innocence and
connection that little person has with this adventure is completely and utterly
endearing to me. It’s what makes her the epitome of a farm kid. In all her
3-year-old tenacity she has been known to literally scold and correct the
farmer if he has not done something to her expectations…. it’s kinda adorable in a "I can't believe that kid just said that to me" kinda way.
At a recent birthday party she came running over to me... put on her shoes.... paused
long enough to say “I’m going to see the chickens”..... and off she ran. About 10
minutes later I watched her run across the lawn right up to the owner of the
house, tap her on her arm and hand her an egg. She then promptly turned around and
ran off to play with the kids completely unfazed. Yup. Farm kids.
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| Forrest explaining how we get eggs |
Click below to see a video prepared by Mr. Fab Finn about our cows without any preparation or prompting.... just a simple "Hey Mom video this!".... LOVE IT!!
3. dining in the backyard is preferred....
We have a large raised bed garden
at home where I grow all my herbs for the farm and a healthy supply of fruit
and veggies for the family. It really is a grocery store in our backyard. There
is a point in the summer where I’ll just blankly enter the garden and come out
with three dishes for dinner.... including seasoning! It’s pretty cool and those
meals ALWAYS taste the best. There is also a point in summer where that lovingly
prepared entrée becomes an appetizer to the garden grazing dinner buffet. I
honestly don’t know why I bother cooking sometimes…. I should just send them out
to graze… less dishes! The routine thus far has been to head outside after they have picked away at the dinner I prepared.... once outside they head straight for the garden..... the kids begin grazing on everything from ground
cherries to peas; beans to strawberries; raspberries to tomatoes. In between
bites and foraging Finn mutters things like, “this is the best food anywhere;
it’s so crunchy and tasty! I love our food garden” [I kid you not ~ this kid says some crazy cool things sometimes] .....and Forrest doesn’t stop and
talk as she’s too busy chomping down as many ground cherries as she can find. Our
kids can identify everything from a tomatillo to an apple cucumber, they can
pick arugula, kale and lettuce without being shown, their world of veggies
includes yellow cucumbers, striped egg plants, purple….. beans, tomatoes, peas
and potatoes, they’ve seen and tasted over 12 varieties of heirloom tomatoes
and almost as many varieties of potatoes… and..... they think nothing of trying
everything! ....of course they don't always like it.... Farm Kids.
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| Finn chomping on beans circa 2011 |
We never set out to have farm kids and we certainly haven’t
forced it on them either. They come with Farmer Luke when they want and
participate if they are interested. You’d be amazed at how often one or both
are tagging along. To us the farm is just an extension of our home and lives
and if you want to hang out with mom or dad then come along for the ride…. I
love the fact I can’t enter the garden gate without them following close behind
and chewing instantly.
so yup... these little people are 100%....
FARM RAISED ~ FARM FED ~ FARM KIDS
.......and we couldn't be more proud!
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| Summer 2014 |
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