Under review

Sorry I haven't updated this in so long. I am trying to decide where to go with this blog. So for now all adventures (of the cottage-y and not so cottage-y type) will be chronicled on the other blog.

I'll keep this page up for now though, because people seem to be finding a few select older posts by googling those topics.

Fishing

First of all, sorry to not update in so long. So much of what I do in life could fit into this blog or the other blog and I instinctively blog there instead.

The biggest development in my life lately is that I've been really pursuing a fishing hobby lately. This is the perfect activity for an Urban Cottager. It makes you get out into the wild and gives you an opportunity to acquire your own food.

Not that I've caught anything yet. I've been fishing twice so far and the first time was a learning experience of sorts and the second time was sort of an afterthought.

I've fished before, of course. A decent amount as a kid and once recently at Glacier. But this new round of interest started because of the Father's Day dream weekend Nikki planned for me. She took me on a fishing weekend to Shenandoah. She had even gotten me a license and a full complement of trout lures to go with the beautiful spinner reel and rod set she picked out.

Our actually fishing experience was a little frustrating. We chose to hike along the Rose River to find a fishing spot. I guess I've been biased by my past fishing experiences at Canyon Lake in Texas, on Michigan lakes, or on the Texas coasts. I expected to find a large, deep, open area to fish at. We hiked the entire length of the Rose that had trails and never found what my pre-conceived notions would define as a 'good spot.'

It was still a nice outing with Georgie and Nikki in the woods, but as a fishing expedition was a bit of a failure. (And kind of an exhausting hike.) Then we got back to the parking lot and I talked to another fisherman. He asked if I caught anything and I told him only tree branches. He said he was there last week and was 'knocking them dead.' I couldn't believe it. I asked him where exactly he was casting and he named the two areas where we had been.

Since that time, I've come to understand the trout a little better. These are shallow, cool mountain streams and I guess trout actually thrive in them. The streams have brook, brown, and rainbow trout, and with a little more patience I think I could catch something for sure. I'm hoping we can head back soon, maybe with waders on.

The other thing I've realized lately is that I just have to learn to fly fish. Trout eat flies and such so it makes sense to present to them that way. Mr. Successful Rose River Fisher was fishing with a fly rod. And, as I can count on regular trips to Montana for the foreseeable future, it just makes sense to learn.

I should mention that my current bible of fishing knowledge is a book called Freshwater Fishing Tips and Techniques. It's an incredible book full of wisdom about natural conditions and settings and tackle and presentation. It's not too gear-focused though. It's a lot more focused on what the fisherman needs to know about his or her natural environment and how he or she is interacting with the fish. Highly recommended.

Oh, and the other fishing experience of late was at Ft. Washington, just south of town on the Potomac. Georgie and I had a little hike and then cast off for only about 15 minutes from the shore. Didn't catch anything and our water was interrupted every few minutes by a passing speedboat's wake.

Which brings me to something I've already realized. I'm a trout guy, not a bass guy. Put differently, I like the idea of fishing in a cold stream a whole lot more that fishing in warm water for big ole trophy fish. I think the natural setting is better, and my early impression is that the fish will put up more of a challenge to find. We'll see if that gets old.

South Mountain Creamery farm visit

We've been getting milk deliveries for a few months now from South Mountain Creamery. So I thought it about time I visited their farm. I took my one-year-old daughter and we had a splendid time.

As a farm, it in a very lovely setting. Lots of nice rolling hills for pasture and lots of big, old trees. I am sure the cows here have grass to eat all but a few months of the year. We did see a baler and a wheel rake though too.

As a business operation, the place was even more impressive. They must serve thousands of households, and they do so without looking at all corporate. They definitely have a lot of hired help, especially for handling the cows. But a lot of the people working there were clearly family and it definitely had a family-business feel.

The milking parlor was especially industrious. I didn't count but it looked like there were about 30 stands and they were occupied the whole time we were there. The cows definitely seemed to have the drill down and registered no complaint as they were hooked up to the machines. There was even an open pen behind the parlor where the next squad of milkers was waiting patiently for their turn. And all of that was done without any kind of bribe grain being offered.

The creamery also has a nice little farmstand, where they sell their delivery products as well as fresh ice cream. We had a scoop of blackberry and it was very good. It tasted richer and had more mouthfeel than your average scoop.

We also went across the street the calf stalls. There were about 15 calves in stalls, including one that looked born in the last day or two. Once a day they allow kids to come give the calves bottles. This was fun for everybody and it's free labor! The guy that actually worked there just drove up in a Gator and dropped the milk off in front of each stall. The kids did the rest.

When we got back, I told Nikki about the place and we both agreed that it would be really fun to have a similar business somewhere like Missoula. In fact, we thought Missoula would be the perfect place. I bet you could put up a stand at the farmer's market and sign 50 people up the first day.

The only problem, and this is something I don't know too much about, is it seems like to do this you have to breed pretty much year round. That might be weather-prohibitive in Montana. On the other hand, maybe you can just calve for, say, 8 months, and have the timing work out. It might work better somewhere like Portland, where you could theoretically calve all year round. But again, I don't know how long you can milk a cow after you take her calf off, so my math might be way off.

The thing that really appeals to me about this kind of dairy operation, is that I've never met a milk-based value-added product that I didn't like and didn't like to make. I've made cheese, butter, yogurt, and ice cream and I'd love to try my hand at cream cheese, sour cream, and cottage cheese. I'd even like to try the Central Asian delicacy kymyz (fermented mare's milk), though milking a horse isn't at the top of my list. Anyway, they don't have kymyz at South Mountain, it just got me thinking. Here are some pictures:

Here's the milking parlor.

And here are the calf stalls.

Here are some of the girls returning to their pasture.

Here's Georgie getting nibbled and licked by a hungry calf.

And here's my bottle-feeding a calf. This is the first time I've ever done this. The calves really can tug hard on the bottle.

Bull Moose Hunting Society

Here's a neat article about a hunting group in the Bay Area. I wish a similarly-minded organization existed in this area. Actually, it might, I haven't really looked. I should look into it, because this is really the kind of thing I'd like to do.

Work

There's an article in tomorrow's NY Times magazine about the value of working with your hands in a 'knowledge worker' world. The article does a much better than I usually do about explaining the general inclination I have to transition from an office job to a 'real' job.

It made me kind of reflect on what it is that I've been good at in the past and enjoyed and what I would like to look forward to. I have always enjoyed, and I think succeeded, at jobs with the word analyst in the title. I was once an intelligence analyst and now I'm something like a media analyst and I think I'd do well as a policy or political analyst and maybe even as a business or financial analyst.

What I'm starting to realize, and I think this article helped make this more concrete, is that this general desire to figure things out, piece things together, and plan and execute ideas, is a desire at least as well, and probably more, suited to something like running a small farm. When I plan my farm I think of it as a complex system that I am the manager. I want to have a number of different animals and a diverse market garden all working together. Plant waste feeding animals (like pigs) and animal waste (as fertilizer) feeding plants. Time and labor thoughtfully organized to make sure that nothing is picked too early or too late and that every piece of machinery is in good repair when I'm ready to use it.

How much more fulfilling of a use of mental energy that would be. Talk about analysis. Everything working in sync is the ideal but probably never the reality. The analysis would come in constantly trying to figure out why some aspect isn't working and trying to devise a way to fix it with out upsetting the rest of the system.

That to me is the appeal of farming. Or the mental appeal anyway. I also physical rather enjoy the smell of trees and grass and water and manure. Not to mention the wonderful feeling of laying down for the night physically exhausted. That's a feeling a I haven't felt much in the last few year, maybe only when I've been moving furniture or something.

But back to the mental side of it. A good question might be, "If farming likely requires the same mental processes you enjoy now in office jobs, why change?" Well, aside for the aforementioned physical aspects, there's an element of independence I lack right now. I have some liberty to use my judgment on certain aspects of my job right now, but generally I am working to meet standards set by others to create a product fulfilling the needs of others. I've always been a little bit more independent-minded than that. I need to feel like I can just decide to grow rhubarb one year if I want and then never grow it again if I don't want to.

Also, the stakes aren't that high in the average office job. Sure, I could really screw up and maybe even publicly embarrass my employer. But the worst that could happen is a stern talking-to or a write-up or, at worst, termination. Negligence on a farm means living things, as well as the profits they could bring, can die. Somehow I think that pressure keeps your mind sharper.

Now that NY Times article is actually more focused on motorcycle repair, but I started the above train of thought so maybe it's worth a read for you too.

Still in Montana

I haven't updated here since I got here but I've been chronicling our trip on our other blog. I would have cross-posted several posts if I knew how to do that in a quick manner. So far though, we had a number of interesting experiences, including finding some grass-fed beef from a heritage breed and using Nikki's dad's smoker to make some beef brisket.

Being in Montana makes me even more motivated to get out of the city and onto a farm somewhere.

One more thing

I was going to add this at the end of my last post, but it is already t0o long. Nikki sent this to my phone yesterday with the message: EEE AAAWWHH

When I asked her where she saw a donkey, she wrote back that it's a "free-range rez donkey."

In Defense of Food

I'm not really reviewing In Defense of Food, as I am only a little past the halfway point, but I did want to discuss it. Nikki got it for me a while back but she also got me another Michael Pollan book (A Place of My Own) and I started that one and left In Defense of Food by the wayside. Well Nikki and Georgie have been in Montana almost two weeks without me and the only thing good about that is I have had a little time to read.

Anyway, if I had had to give you an outline of what I thought the book was going to be about, I would have been totally off the mark. I thought it would be mostly a manifesto of what you should eat, not what you shouldn't. So instead of an entreaty to grow vegetables in my backyard and support local farmers (which would have been fine), it's actually a very thoughtful and biting critique of the entire development of nutrition science.

Well if I had known that I might have read it even sooner. It actually does get into what you should eat but the 150 pages I've read so far are about how we've managed to radically shift away from centuries of eating tradition, what the health effects of that shift are, and how industry, government, and "science" have helped the process along.

The health effects he discusses are all conditions (diabetes, heart disease, etc.) that have shown up in my family and that mother has strongly warned me about, so I take a keen interest. I feel like I am kind of halfway through a journey of remaking my diet and lifestyle and that this book will help inform me, or at least motivate me, down that path. So it had me reflecting on how I want to eat:

The model diet of my life is how I ate when I was in Russia. I lived in St. Petersburg for a month and I was in a homestay where the family left breakfast for me and cooked me dinner. I can't remember everything I ate, but I remember always feeling really good, energy-wise and intestine-wise. Breakfast was definitely a carb and dairy fest but I also always had some juice. There must have been something else but I can't recall.

Dinner was always amazing - usually some kind of small meat cutlet with a starch and some green vegetables and tomatoes. Also, everyone in the family ate several cloves of raw garlic with dinner and insisted I do likewise. I grew to really like this.

What I liked about that diet was that it was simple and very attainable. The 2 parents and one adult son in this family were all very busy professionals on a budget. Most of the food they bought was either picked up daily at small stores on the way home from work or was grown at their dacha. America doesn't have old ladies selling fresh produce outside of subway stations, but otherwise the basic tenets of this way of shopping and eating should be feasible throughout the US. And actually, I haven't only experienced this kind of eating in Russia. All of Europe seems to leave my stomach feeling the same way - satisfied. Of course, those are my roots so it shouldn't surprise me.

So that's part one of my food plan - eat like a European (when said European isn't eating at their local Pizza Hut). The other thing I would really like to do it get more food for free, either by raising it or hunting it. Neither of those are literally free but you know what I mean. Right now, this part isn't going so well. The only thing I am growing right now is hops, though I do intend to drink them this year. And hunting is a problem because I don't have a rifle (nor could I even keep one legally anywhere in my county) and I don't have anyone to hunt with. I wouldn't mind going alone except I could use a few pointers, especially in the field dressing department.

The third part of my plan is to eat a wider variety of meats and a wider variety of cuts from meat I already eat. This is going a little better. I have ready access to goat and buffalo, two of my favorites, from our local farmer's markets. I've yet to try Hugh-Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe for tail and tongue of beef with rich red wine sauce though, and that's where I'd like to head next.

Well that's where I'm at after reading half of the book. We'll see where it goes from here.

Back to the book, I had a funny lightbulb go off last night. I was reading some salon.com article on raw milk and it mentioned Weston A. Price, a Canadian dentist who wrote about nutrition. Only then did I realize that this Weston A. Price, who Pollan talks about extensively, is the same one whose foundation's website I read a lot last year. I remember it because, altough it's a great organization that produces a lot of sensible information, they need a serious makeover. When I first went to their website, I thought they must be affiliated with the Dr. Bronner people but was pleasantly surprised.

Also, I found out last night that Michael Pollan is the brother of Tracy Pollan, Michael J. Fox's wife. Small world.


Finally, here's some reading to get you through your day:

• First a blog post: This is from my sister-in-law Darla's friends who live in Montana. They describe (in both text and photos!) their first experience slaughtering their own chickens. I haven't met these people but I think they are really neat. You'll see why when you realize that the post entitled 'chicken butcherin' day' is immediately followed by one called 'the contemplative element of love.'
• Google is using goats as lawnmowers. Here's a Chicago Tribune article about it. I really need to get into this rent-a-goat business.
• Also from today's Washington Post Home section has a fun read about big agribusiness kind of freaking out about the White House's organic kitchen garden and the inconvenient message it sends to people about the need for fertilizer and pesticide.
• Yesterday's Post Food section had an interesting article on sourdough starters. But the really exciting article was in the Style section, about a trip to Polyface. Why they didn't put it in the Food section I don't know. I can't believe I haven't visited Polyface yet. It's a little bit far with a baby, that's part of it I guess. I am hoping Adam can visit sometime soon and I can take him.

Wednesday food sections

Today the Washington Post had a very interesting article on bourbons. Or at least it was interesting to me because it introduced me to something I didn't know about bourbons -- anything made with 51% corn in the mash can be called a bourbon. So the other 49% of the mash that is not corn (or more typically 30%, according to the article) is up to the distiller. As a homebrewer there is a lot of appeal in having that wild of flexibility in choosing mash ingredients. Of course until I learn how to weld (and I guess until they legalize it as well), I won't be designing my own amaranth bourbon recipe.

The Post also had an article on a food service company putting pressure on the tomato growers in Florida to treat their farm workers humanely. This is an issue that's been going on a long time. I remember protests at the Taco Bell in the UT food court when I was in school. So it's nice to see someone finally doing something about it. And the food service company isn't exactly being wishy-washy about it. Here's a great quote:

The growers "can do the right thing, and our five million pounds of business can go to them," said Fedele Bauccio, Bon Appetit's chief executive. "Or they can let the tomatoes rot in the fields."

The New York Times had a good article on how meat scientists, on a quest to market some other cut of beef to consumers, came up with the Denver steak.

In personal news - I bought a tri-tip steak, a pork rib chop, and some bacon from Eco-Friendly this past weekend. I seared half the tri-tip and ate it as a steak and I am marinating the other half as fajitas right now. Nikki ate half of the butterflied chop and the other half is waiting for me. The bacon went in the freezer for some future breakfast.

Back

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. I should have at least cross-posted my post on our trip to Middleburg, which included several pork delicacies.

Not much is new. We have been getting a lot of rain and it's been wonderfully timed. Just when I think I need to water the hops, it rains again. The vines are about three feet long now. I'll get a picture up soon.

In other news, we are headed to Montana for a few weeks next month. Nikki and I have considered a variety of ag-related tie-ins to this trip, including buying another quarter of beef from Land of Grass. I don't think we'll do that but we'll find something fun to bring back.

In the meantime, enjoy a video on the hunt for razor clams:


John Wright Hunting Razor Clams from River Cottage on Vimeo.

More on goats

Here's a very fun article on goat meat from yesterday's Times.

Also, here is a very interesting article on a fuzzy Hungarian pig breed. Nikki called them sheep-pigs.

Makes me hungry. I am hoping to find some kind of exciting meat-eating experience this weekend. Hopefully I will and can write about it here. I am going to grill some peanut satay chicken skewers today. That would qualify as an exciting meat-eating experience if I hadn't originally intended the marinade for rabbit, a la Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

My brother Adam had quite the exciting meat-eating experience this past weekend (goat-eating actually, to bring back on topic). He has chronicled it here.

Jealous

I just got this picture message on my phone from my brother Adam. That's a wild goat in a smoker. They hunted it on his friend Matthew's ranch. They are also going after turkey and deer this weekend from what I gather. Lucky guy.

Daily reading

The Washington Post food section has an interesting article about a guy from Iowa (with political skills honed in Washington) trying to influence farm policy.

Our weekly delivery

Alice Waters on 60 Minutes

I meant to post this earlier in the week but forgot. It's Alice Waters on 60 Minutes this past Sunday. Watch it and you'll see it's directly related to the article in my prior post.

First Garden

The Obamas are starting an organic vegetable garden on the White House grounds. That's about the coolest thing I've heard in a while. Here's an article about it.

Pork enthusiasm

So I got called a 'Pork Enthusiast' this weekend. I took it as a compliment as it was coming from the very nice Eco-Friendly Foods lady at the Arlington Farmer's Market. Though I've bought plenty of chicken and goat from them I guess she remembers my enthusiasm for their delicious pork products the most.

The reason she was calling me names was to tell me about an interesting Wall Street Journal article on Bev Eggleston's pork. Check it out, especially the slideshow.

Speaking of Eco-Friendly, we had a delicious breakfast today featuring their meats. I made both their bacon (which they finally had!) and their breakfast sausage that I bought a few weeks ago. That was coupled with eggs from, and pancakes made with buttermilk from, our first dairy delivery. What a nice breakfast! You can really taste the farm-freshness!

NAIS for Dummies (like me)

I didn't really understand until today what all the hullabaloo over the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) was about. That changed when I read this article by Shannon Hayes, a New York grass farmer. I honestly always thought the opposition was from a fear-of-the-nanny state. She lays it out from the perspective of the small farmer and what the economic costs would be to her operation. My thoughts were that if you were already putting ear tags on, then slightly more expensive ear tags wouldn't be a deal breaker. But she goes into a lot of things I hadn't thought about like computer fees and scanners.

The other pre-conceived notion I had was that this would create a lot more accountability among factory farm operations. And it might but that ignores a central tenet of her argument -- the factory farms are for the most part the ones creating the health problems by intensively raising meat (esp. swine and chicken) in such squalid conditions. And they are also the only ones who can absorb the cost of this attempt to fix the problem they created in the first place. So the small farmer get pushed out because of a problem he or she had nothing to do with. Not really fair, is it?

Of course, none of my synopsis here will be news to any small farmer that is confronting this issue, but I was glad to finally understand it a little better.

The Milkman Cometh

We recently found out that there is a farm near Frederick, MD, that offers milk deliveries throughout the area. It all comes from pasture-raised cows. And the most surprising thing is that their prices were really reasonable. I set up a regular weekly order of milk and eggs and then we can also add on from a huge inventory of meat and dairy and bread and such with each week's order. I thought we'd probably go through 1.5 gallons a week for now (prob. more when Georgie starts drinking it). So I ordered a gallon of homogenized 2% and a half gallon of creamline whole. I'm really excited about that.

We'll stick with that for now but eventually I'd like to try their meats. Also, you can visit the farm so we can do that soon.

One man's trash...

I dumpster-dove a new grill today! Well, new to me I mean. When we moved in here there was an old gas grill by the patio. I asked if it came with the house and the property manager said, "If you can get it to work, it's yours."

Well I got half of the burner plate to work but I think the other half was too rusted out. So I've been looking for a bargain on a gas grill and not finding one. I would just get a charcoal grill (I'm a charcoal man anyway) but then I'd be stuck with a brand new propane tank.

Well anyway, I was driving home today and saw it sitting on the curb at the end of the street. I walked back down to see what it looked like and decided it was a keeper. The only bad thing was the 6am wake-up I subjected my neighbors to while rolling it up the hill.

I got it started up and it seems to work fine. The ignitor doesn't seem to work but I think those are often bad. My parents and brother will be here in a few days and now they can expect some tasty grass-fed meats grilled outside.

The hops are in the pot

It got into the 70s this weekend so I planted my rhizomes. I put the Wye Viking in the big pot and the Centennial in the ground below the deck. Now I just have to hope it stays so warm.

Hop order is in

Well, I've placed my hop rhizome order with Freshops. In the hop pot, I'll be growing Wye Viking. I also ordered one rhizome of Centennial to stick in the ground and let be.

Two years ago I planted Cascade, Centennial, and Willamette. Cascade was the most prolific but as the most common American IPA hop, it just seemed kind of boring to plant. Centennial did the worst but it was poorly located. I am going to try it again in the dirt below our porch.

The main variety I am growning though is Viking. I can't really find out much about it, which is part of the attraction. I don't even know when it will be ready for harvest, which is part of the reason I am also growing the early Centennial.

It's currenty snowing outside, so I guess I'll be starting these indoors.

The Hop pot is ready

Here's the container I am going to grow my hops in. I mixed up some soil and put these bamboo things in for it to vine on. I am still not sure what variety I'll be growing. Freshops is going to start selling rhizomes tomorrow, so I'll see then.

It was nice to get my hands dirty.

Goodbye Beef

When we moved to Montana last fall, we bought a quarter of a beef from Land of Grass, a local producer of grass-fed beef and lamb. I've just put the last of it in the crock pot for some chili. What a sad day. I do have one package of soup bones left but this was the last of the actually meat.

Our quarter of beef served us very well. We had a number of steaks, stews, beef soups (including a South American one with olives that was amazing), stir-frys, and about a billion hamburgers.

If you've ever thought about buying meat by the whole, side, or quarter animal, I'd highly recommend it. I'm still considering buying a deep freezer for out here and doing it again, maybe with a half hog. It gives you an incredible sense of being stocked up and helps plan meals because you have something to plan around.

It was also nice to buy from someone right down the road. We would frequently drive by the Land of Grass pastures on the way to Conrad. The cows always looked so at peace. We thought that must be why they meat tastes so good.

A setback

We went to the county extension office today. They are the ones that run the community garden program. I put in my application and talked to the lady that manages it. She told me it would most likely be next year before a spot would open up. So that seriously curtails my vegetable growing potential this year.

Our next stop was to the county solid waste division, where I bought a compost bin for $17. The 'bin' turned out to be a roll of thick, perforated plastic. It comes with plastic bolts and you sort of fashion it into a round bin. I did so and it's pretty big and might be a little ridiculous on an apartment balcony. I'll see if I can't modify it somehow.

Plans

These are subject to change I suppose but here is what I have on tap for the coming months:

• Hops. I am going to order rhizomes in a few weeks. I bought a really large planter at Costco and I think it will more than adequately accommodate the roots. I am going to run twine up to the second floor to let them vine. I am thinking I will use Willamette, though when I last grew them I had the most success with Cascade. I am assuming Cascade will be hard to come by though.
• Herbs. Going in window boxes on our balcony will be herbs. Sweet basil, cilantro, chives, marjoram...not sure what else.
• Garden plot. I am hoping to get a 20x20 (or possibly 10x20) plot at one of several nearby community gardens run by the county. A community garden near Adam has a community chicken coop. I'm jealous of that. If I can get it I'll grow tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, beans, and some kind of salad green.
• Hunting. I am hoping to go hunting this year. Not sure when, where, with whom, or for what quarry. I don't know anyone here who hunts. I am thinking rabbits would good. A deer would be good too. I'd like to make sausages and venison stew.
• Meat. I am hoping to branch out a little this year. I guess we've already started by buying goat meat from time to time. I'd also like to experiment a little with offal, especially liver.
• Fishing. This is a tricky one. Our waterways seem fairly untrustable. And I'm not the throw-it-back type. Last fall my father-in-law offered to take me out for a deer and now I feel kind of like an idiot for not taking him up on it.
  
• Husbandry. I'm not sure how this can happen. I'm not interested in getting a gerbil. :) I think some farmers might take a fee in exchange for pasturing an animal for you. If so, I'd like to find a bottle baby lamb and pasture is somewhere nearby where it would be with other sheep and we could visit it. Then we can take it to slaughter at the end of the year, maybe for Christmas lamb.

The Modern, Urban Cottager

My Modern Cottager blog is laying fallow right now but in the interim I present you with its cousin -- Urban Cottager.

So our dream of a family farm is probably a little ways off but I am keeping busy in the meantime. Call it skills aquisition if you will. I'm intending this blog to mostly chronicle my little projects and learnings and fun that I feel are helping to prepare me for my future as a cottager.

Two years ago I started the blog Modern Cottager and mostly discussed beer making and cheese making. Last year we lived in Montana and I had my first experience raising animals -- for a few months we kept two meat goats.

This year I intend to start learning the ins and outs of herb and vegetable gardening. I am going to do some herbs and some hops on our small balcony and I am trying to get a 20'x20' plot at a community garden down the street.

I'm sure there will also be more homebrewing and cheesemaking this year as well. Probably no goat-keeping though -- we are in a townhouse.