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.