Our prize-winning cows, pastured on organic grass, are right in our own back yard!  Stop in to meet the Ladies today, and be sure to register for our milk club – buy ten gallons and the next one is free.

Winter is closing in.  The tree branches are bare, and the vegetable garden has been gleaned by both cows and chickens. Meadow grass is turning brown, and the cow barn is full of hay. We make the beds with flannel sheets now, and as the nights get shorter and colder, we start to feel the first twinges of excitement for the coming of Advent and the Christmas holidays, a happy, busy time of bringing in greens and dried herbs to decorate the house for the holiday season.

Maggie is baking Christmas cookies, and we are gathering inspirations for winter breakfasts.  We look forward to fireside teas (and chats!), long tasty breakfasts and brisk outdoor walks to visit the animals. For lighting the candles on the Advent wreath the first Sunday of Advent, here’s a breakfast menu that includes ham, buttermilk, jam, applesauce and eggs, all produced on the property at Thyme in the Country.  I celebrate with the St. Stephen’s Scrambled Eggs in From a Monastery Kitchen, by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourette.

Advent Breakfast Menu

Buttermilk Ham Steak

St. Stephen’s Scrambled Eggs*

Brioche with homemade jam

Cranberry Applesauce

Wishing you the joys of anticipation and inspiration!

In From a Monastery Kitchen by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette

One recent guest wrote this review, which beautifully captures what we are trying to convey:

After the whirl of summer and calving, harvest and putting up the prolific fruits of our labor for winter, Fall is a welcome opportunity to say thank you to all our guests, both children and grown ups, who participate in the growing Thyme in the Country experience by offering suggestions and insights that we never would have thought of or even noticed on our own.  Conversations shared over coffee stay with us long after you leave.  We appreciate your insights  and generosity so much.

 So thanks again to all our guests for an outstanding, unforgettable summer, made possible by all of you.  We hope to continue the conversation for many years to come.  

                                                                        — Mary Koch

Photo by the Flatbush Gardener

The “cream” of every breed is at the fair, but it’s hot, crowded and noisy there.  I would never go if I wasn’t involved with the cows.  It’s fun to walk through the fair at dawn, though, when there are no crowds and the Ferris wheels are still, and I like being in the dairy barn.  We love learning from the exhibits.  It’s also fun to meet the many people who come to see the cows, and to meet other Dutch Belted cattle farmers – this year there were about 50 Dutch Belted cows at the fair!

The one who enjoys the week at the fair most is our 14 year-old son, Teddy.  He takes on the responsibility of preparing our cows for the show ring, so he meets all the other kids who participate.  We’re amazed by how competent, responsible and fun-loving these farm kids are.  Every morning, they rise at 5:00 a.m. to milk cows, shower them from head to toe, clip their coats, clean their ears, shine their hooves and horns to make them look their absolute best, all while keeping their bedding meticulously clean and answering the multitude of questions fairgoers ask.  They  think of it as fun, and I never hear a complaint from any of them, including Teddy. 

We had such a good time and learned so much by showing our cows, now we’re sold on the whole Fair experience. We love talking to the farmers, from whom we learn about the different definitions of “sustainability.”  A farm with a thousand cows has a totally different definition of sustainability than we do.  The farm community has shown us such kindness, considering we are not experienced farmers. They make no judgments, teach us anything we ask and encourage us to keep it up.  Bill likes the opportunity to network with other farmers.  We’ve made good friends from farms all over New York through our fair experience.

Photo by Chris Krasselt, The Flatbush Gardener

Last year, Dixie won Best Heifer in her age class, and this year Hilda B., whom we call “Mama,” won Best Udder!

Thanks so much to everyone who played Name our Baby!  I didn’t look until afterward to see who suggested each name; it was so fun to see what you chose!  Thanks for being part of the blessed event.

Naming calves is quite a study in geneology, since their “official” name includes their birth farm, their parents’ names, and their parents’ farms (like when I say, “of Rocky Fresh”) – all so buyers have some idea of what they’re getting beforehand.  It’ll take me a while to add up this calf’s whole name; when I know it, I’ll post it here.

And stay tuned for another chance to win a night’s stay at Thyme in the Country – Pepe’s first calf is due any minute!

Photo by Thyme in the Country WWOOFER Tovia Narva

Can you come up with the best name for our new little Dutch Belted bull?

Enter the contest by posting the name you would give him in “Comments,” below, and win a chance for a free night at Thyme in the Country B & B!

I’ll choose my favorite name on August 1, with the most beautiful month of country summer left for you to come meet your namesake.  Or choose any night’s stay – the prize is valid for a year.

Good luck!

Mary Koch, Prop.

Photo by Jo Rasi of Washington, D.C.

It’s a boy; we have a bull!  And he’s a beauty, too, with a beautiful belt.  All his feet are black, a big deal with Dutch Belteds, and he’s very healthy.

Near the end of June – right before July 4th weekend – we knew our baby was going to be born soon.  All day, I didn’t take my eyes off our original “Mama” Dutch Belted, Hilda B., until someone came to the B & B and needed to talk.  I walked out the door afterward and Teddy said, “Well, we have four cows now.”  Way down in the long grass – it’s like a swamp down there!  I guess Mama noticed no one ever goes down there, because that’s where she chose for her baby to be born.

Nobody saw the baby pop out.  There are no signs of labor – no panting, no grunting, nothing – just eating grass and wandering around.  One of my guests, Jo Rasi, had a cell phone camera and was snapping pictures of the newborn (thanks, Jo!).  We were worried because baby was coated with a lot of meconium, a sign of distress in humans, but Mama didn’t seem worried.  She licked off her calf – ai-yi-yi, the flies!  Newborn calves must be magnets to millions of flies in the world.  Terrible.  But Hilda B. licked the baby off, and the flies dispersed a little. He started nursing about 5 minutes after he was born.  Got right up on his feet, and worked his way down to her udder.

Photo by Jo Rasi

She kept him out in the long grass about 3 days.  I couldn’t find him when I looked, but every now and then, Mama would moo a special moo, and baby popped up out of the grass.  She nursed him a few times a day; the rest of the time she would go off and graze. We estimate he was drinking about 2 gallons a day, because that’s how much more milk we got when we stopped him from nursing, about 10 days later – a heavy milk can!  You have to separate them early, because they grow quick and it gets harder.  He’s got all the immunities from the colostrum, so he’s in good shape.

Of course, he still gets his Mama’s milk to drink, only now we feed him.  He smells our pants, and knows it’s his second mothers!  We give him a half gallon bottle at milking time morning and night, and one in the afternoon.  He likes that bottle of milk!  Takes him about 2 minutes to drink it down.  He doesn’t actually come to us unless he’s starving, because he loves to run.  I put him on a 30-foot chain in the meadow, where he can’t wrap himself around trees, just to let him prance around and play, but he still doesn’t jump and run as much as he naps in the shade.

Photo by Jo Rasi

My little boy’s going to grow up to be an ox. Dutch Belteds grow into sturdy bulls, useful to people who plough their fields with oxen, and I plan to raise him for that purpose.

We’re getting milk from Hilda B. for our personal use now, and will start the chilling and bottling process as soon as electrical is in place in our milking barn, the well water is double checked and the inspector approves all the work, in the next week or so.  Then we’ll have ice cold fresh Dutch Belted milk for sale in our little Thyme in the Country Store!

Hammock Thyme

Looking for ways to stay cool without cranking up the air conditioning?  Once again, we can look to our foremothers, those ingenuous women who kept a sweating pitcher of iced tea or lemonade on the front porch during scorchers.   I imagine a trip to the ice house to dig a block of ice out of the sawdust was a welcome treat on hot summer days in the 1880s, too.  Ice-cutting was a major industry along the Hudson River then, providing work to get families through the winter, and ice to get them through the summer!

Here are three cooling drinks I make for my family and guests.  I hope a hammock under a shady tree, where you can catch any breeze, and perhaps a dip in the pond, will get you through summer heat waves until the next thunderstorm.

Mmmm, Mint-Apple water

Mint-Apple Water (served at Thyme in the Country’s Day in the Life of an 1880s Farm Family)

Ingredients:

• Apple mint (or experimint with other varieties!) – about 6-7 leaves or stems
• Juice of a whole lemon
• Apple juice, bottled, or frozen concentrate + water

Put all ingredients in a blender, or use a hand blender wand — if you make it right in the apple juice bottle, pop the whole bottle in the freezer until slushy.  You can also save energy by making your own ice in a baking pan. Giant hunks of ice keep drinks cool for a long time without watering them down.  Makes one quart.  Very refreshing!

Lemon Balm Water

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup lemon thyme
• 10 – 12 6-inch long sprigs lemon balm (melissa)
• 10-12 sprigs lemon verbena

Add ingredients to 1 gallon boiling water. Cover with a plate and steep overnight. Strain, pressing leaves and stems to release flavor. Pour into jug or pitcher, add honey and lemon slices; refrigerate until cold.  Makes one gallon.

One cup sugar to one cup lemon balm water makes a great lemonade base to keep in the refrigerator.  Add water and sliced lemons for the best lemonade ever.

Fresh Herbs for Steeping

Mint Water

Any variety of mint, steeped in boiling water as with the lemon balm water and then strained, makes a cold drink of water even colder.  Try washing your face in it to counteract a sticky day!

*A Note on Herbs

All of these herbs grow beautifully in a pot, so if you don’t have a garden, a sunny windowsill will serve you well all summer, with a few small pots from your local farm stand, garden center or discount store.  Or mail-order organic seeds, and sow them in pots yourself. Mint is prolific: for those of you with plots of dirt, plant your mint pot and all, so it doesn’t overtake the whole garden.

Sustainability goes hand in hand with “old-fashioned” ways. Recycling, reusing, eating locally and organically – many of the efforts we make on our family farm resemble every day practices of the 1880s.  (The clothes are very different!  We were talking about this during the day: New York farm women of the 1880s wore dresses that could accommodate pregnancies, or be fastened up for vigorous activity.)  I dry my clothes on a line to keep from using oil – not an option in the 1880s.  I make my food by hand because it tastes better.  We even use a wringer washer from time to time; it was designed to work well, uses less water and is just as versatile and effective as ever.

Thyme in the Country is eco-tourism with a spin: we want to show the value and practicality of our regional heritage.  Columbia County is becoming more agricultural again, so learning how to live on an 1880s farm blends into that aspect of life here, as well.  The New York Heritage Association promoted this weekend statewide, so we took the opportunity to explore our relationship with our heritage, starting small, with a few guests and a lot of fun.

Our country breakfast was one you could have eaten right here in Claverack in the 1880s.  With many women serving, there was authentic hustle-bustle in the kitchen.  I bet that’s an 1880s term right there: hustle-bustle!

• Baked ham off the property, from a pig we raised;
• Baked beans, which were common, and added a lot of starch to your diet.
• Pickles from our garden, including “dilly” beans pickled last fall;
• Corn relish that we put up at the end of last summer, when corn was plentiful!
• Herb bread from our kitchen (with thyme, chives and our own pesto), and homemade butter.
• Just like people in the 19th century, we got a big bag of coffee beans from the local coffee roastery, and put it through a hand-cranked coffee grinder.
• Strawberry shortcake – my daughter imported organic strawberries from down south.  Two more weeks of sunshine and we’ll have some from our back garden.  We used an eggbeater to whip up cream for the shortcake!

We made “whirlygigs” (spinner toys) with the children, and when it began to rain, sat around the kitchen table making sachets out of dried flower petals, essential oil (lavender, bergamot, lemon balm) and cinnamon sticks, tied into antique embroidered handkerchiefs; we marveled at the tiny, perfect stitches.

My favorite part of the day was the evening campfire.  We all wandered down the field near the pond; somehow Bill’s bonfire weathered the afternoon rain, and at dusk – magic! – the rain stopped; everyone gathered on benches around the fire, and watched the reflection of our Dutch Belted cows cropping grass along the edge of the pond, our little white and black rat terrier, Cree, walking with them.  As it grew dark, Laurie Portocarro told the story from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Farmer Boy about what happens when Almanzo dares to ask his father for a nickel for lemonade at the Fourth of July celebration in Malone, New York – just a few years before 1880.

Stay tuned for recipes from the weekend, and my 1880s gardening tips!   Happy Summer!