Cheese for sale!

It was a busy spring weekend for us!

On Saturday, Rob, Liz and I helped celebrate West Lebanon Feed & Supply’s huge Annual Spring Sale.  Rob and I were there to serve up some sugar on snow to benefit Good Beginnings of the Upper Valley  as well as to sample and sell our cheese.  And Liz sampled and sold Garfield’s famous smoked cheese and pepperoni.  Thank you to Curt and Sharon Jacques for including us in your big weekend. 

Sugar on Snow

On Sunday, Rob headed over to the Flavors of the Valley, a local food sampling and buying extravaganza.  People enjoyed samples of our Mill Hollow gouda and Evelyn’s Jack cheeses, as well as our yummy maple roasted peanuts.   The turnout was good – even though we were competing with a gorgeous summer-like day.  Check out this video clip from WCAX TV.  About 38 seconds in, you may recognize a certain Meriden farmer.  (Hi Steve!)

Sweet, happy calf . . . and man!

Frankly, I’m not quite sure how to take the news I woke up to this morning.  Apparently, dairy farming is ranked (best to worst) number 199 out of 200 jobs to hold or pursue in 2012.

 I’ll admit my initial reaction was a defensive one.  “What criteria is this list based on?  Don’t ‘these people’ know I left a successful, financially secure career to work on a dairy farm less than a year ago?  Don’t ‘they’ know there’s more to life than a big paycheck?”  (My nostrils flared, followed by an indignant sniff.)

 Then, I was sad.  Stereotypes abound about many vocations – but farming is among those that bear the brunt of some of the least flattering.  I’ve heard negative assumptions regarding everything from a farmer’s level of intellect to general state of personal hygiene.  Ouch.  This new ranking – quoted in the Wall Street Journal, no less – will not help to dispel those myths.  (My shoulders slumped, my head lowered, and frustrated tears welled.)

 However, I quickly rallied and the fire in my belly was stoked.   Here’s my opportunity to speak a small piece about how I see farming.  Farming is about the happiness you feel while watching calves hop and buck across the barnyard.  It’s about knowing how to build a barn and repair a broken down tractor (or backhoe or skidsteer . . .).  It’s the satisfaction you feel after receiving perfect scores on inspections done by government and commercial agencies that rate your farm on everything from the health of the herd and the cleanliness of the milkroom, to the handling of milk and personnel safety.  It’s standing at the edge of a newly mown field dotted with round bales and the sweet scent of fresh grass on the breeze.  It’s about the rush you feel after saving a calf’s life, or nursing a sick cow back to health.  It’s greeting your children off the school bus each day.  It’s the sense of deep pride that comes with knowing that what you and your family do every day (cows don’t take a day off . . .ever) creates a comfortable, safe and – I’ll go there – compassionate environment for your animals.  In turn, your charges reward you with companionship, endless yarns to tell friends, and of course, milk. 

A view from our offices

Are there hazards?  Absolutely!  (I only had to blubber my way through Court’s death scene in The Man in the Moon once to have that point driven home many years ago.)  After “I love you,” the last thing I say to Rob when he’s heading out to work is, “Be careful.”  There are dangers, there are risks, but the rewards trump them.  Farming is about keeping a piece of living history; food diversity, safety and availability; and vital rural landscapes alive and thriving. 

I guess it all boils down to this:  I arrived to work this morning to learn that two calves had just been born.  Two bulls, both from the same sire but different dams, one the spitting image of the other.  Perhaps a nice set of “twin” oxen for one of the kids to show at the summer fair.  I’m 199% sure I made the right career – scratch that – life choice.  (My shoulders straighten, my head rises, tears of joy well.)

Rob (right) with friend, Thom Lappin (left) at last summer's 250th Anniversary Celebration

Rob and Taylor Brothers appeared in both the local and regional media on Monday this week.  He made the cover of our local newspaper, The Valley News, and was the featured guest on WGIR AM 610′s morning show.  Who says Mondays are bad!?

The Valley News feature  detailed the shortened sugaring season we’ve experienced.  As the thermometer now routinely reads 80 degrees and the night time temps are well above freezing, Monday was the last day we boiled.  Given the reports of fellow sugarmakers, we’re lucky to be at roughly 50% of last year’s production.  Sometimes spring – or should I say summer? –  comes too early!  But not to worry – keep your syrup orders coming, we can fill them!  (Problem with the link? Valley News Article 19March2012)

Rob’s interview with WGIR AM 601 gave a little bit of fun Taylor Brothers history and addressed the shortened season.  Have a listen!  (Trouble listening?  Click here: WGIR AM 610 – Rob’s Interview 19March2012) 

 See you this Saturday and Sunday from noon ’til 4pm for our OPEN SUGARHOUSE!  Come enjoy syrup and cheese samples, demonstrations, and meet a friendly calf.

Check out the article and don’t forget to plan on visiting us Saturday, March 24 or Sunday, March 25 for Maple Producers Weekend!

If you are in our area, you must take some time to swing through Woodstock, VT to visit the Billings Farm & Museum.  Lovingly restored to its near-original state, the complex boasts a wonderful maze of historic buildings.  The 1890 Farm House, Ice House, Wagon Barn, Cow and Horse Barns, creamery, chicken coop, and much more transport you back to a time when life was far less automated and work was not only manual, but a way of life.

I was enchanted by the Farm House.  Its vintage cook stove baking fragrant cinnamon and molasses cookies for visitors, its numerous ornate wood or coal stoves, its gas lamp fixtures, antique furniture and bamboo floor coverings.  And the many old photographs that lined the walls and filled albums on the table.  My favorite had to be the pantry.  Oh, what I could stock in there!

We soaked up brief patches of sunlight and dodged intermittent raindrops and snowflakes (this is New England afterall, so the weather obliged by changing every five minutes) and made our way down to the animal barns.  Two massive Milking Short Horn Oxen, Harv and Will, rested comfortably in their stalls until it was their turn in the paddock.  Their handlers came in to exchange them with the farm’s two Belgian Draft horses, Tom and Jerry.  The Beligans were impressive, but I have to admit, my mouth dropped when I saw the mass and height of Harv and Will when they stood.  It was as if two buffalo were standing an arm’s length away from us!  And we’re used to seeing big animals around these parts . . . amazing and humbling.

Billings milks Jersey cows, so we stopped by the nursery to see some of the newest additions to the herd.  The bull calf pictured here is just about a week old.  Get a load of those soft eyes and that wet nose!  Jerseys sure are sweet.

The kids left, full of ideas about what we could do at our farm.  We’ll do our best to keep up with them!

A recent visitor reached out to us to share her experience and a photo:

“Last Sunday my husband and grandson visited the friendly cows at Taylor Farm.  The title of the attached could be “Getting to Know You”!    Thank you all for a great first visit!   BW”

We welcome visitors during all seasons, and we encourage you to visit a New Hampshire dairy farm!  Check out our hours on Facebook or contact us for more information.

I’m in the thick of planning this summer’s garden and got a crash course in crop rotation and building asparagus beds thanks to avid gardener bloggers.  I grew up with a vegetable garden in the backyard, but have never really paid much attention to the art of gardening.  Weather permitting, I’ve always had great luck with my vegetable gardens over the years.  A bumper crop of winter squash, as well as carrots, bush beans, tomatoes, and cukes that seemed to like what I had pulled together for them (Taylor Brothers Farm composted manure doesn’t hurt!).  But at the end of last season, I was bitten by the “canning bug.”  That makes planning this year’s garden a whole other thing.

A few varieties of tomatoes, slicing and pickling cukes, more carrots than last year (they stay nice and crisp when pickled).  And then there’s the chest freezer to fill:  shell peas, snow peas, green beans and Brussels sprouts for starters.  I’m also going to try my hand at storing onions and garlic.  Plus there’s the fresh salads and sauteed zucchini to enjoy during summer dinners on the patio.  Hopefully the rhubarb will be happy after transplant – my son’s looking forward to strawberry-rhubarb pie.  As for the asparagus, I’ll have to be patient for a couple of years as it establishes itself. 

Now I wait longingly for our local growers to open their greenhouses.  Edgewater Farm is one of my favorite places to go for seedlings, herb plants and annual flowers, and of course strawberries in June.  Then later in the season, I skip up the road to Riverview Farm to pick raspberries, apples and pumpkins.  How is it my mind has already wandered into fall?  Soon enough.  For now, I’ll keep up with the sugaring season and dream of green.

In my book, if it’s going to be winter, there had better be snow.  Not just because it’s pretty to look at and the kids and animals love to play in it, but it also serves practical purposes as well.  A nice layer insulates the ground, moderating its temperature, preventing the frost from going too deep or melting too quickly.  It also protects the earth from drying winds.  Cold, dry ground brings with it sufficient concern that our maple season will be significantly impacted and sap production will be too early or stunted.  We’re tapping this week and into next . . . let’s hope the weather cooperates.

Our local ski areas have suffered, as well.  Fortunately, the cold has lasted long enough at times for snow making, so all is not lost.  But it has been nothing like the last few seasons – we had more snow than we knew what to do with then.  This year, we’ve missed 3 out of 5 ski program sessions due to lack of snow or poor weather.  People are getting restless!

Regardless of the weather, we’re on task and hopeful for a good crop.  In that vein, mark you calendars:  Saturday and Sunday, March 24 and 25 is Maple Open House Weekend in New Hampshire.  Stop in to see us!

So why, you may ask, did we name a cheese after Evelyn?  Simply put, she’s a sweetheart.  She’s very friendly, generally first in line to be milked, and engages you when you’re near.  Because of her outgoing personality, Rob quickly developed a special relationship with her.  Each morning as he’s feeding the cows their grain, Evelyn will poke her head out from the side wall of one of the free stalls and ask for a special treat.  Of course, Rob obliges – as he did in these photos taken this past summer.

 Way to go Evelyn!