Pasta, Pork and Potential

It is so refreshing to see our children following in our footsteps of producing home-made food. Our oldest daughter is beginning her first season of producing hand-made pasta. It is slow going, taking about an hour to produce a couple of pounds. It is interesting to consider all of the "business" decisions that she has to make. Who is her market? How much can she produce? How does she package? How long will it stay fresh? How much to charge? On and on....and then the actual discipline that it takes to return phone calls regarding orders and deliver orders on time! What an opportunity to learn these things before a mortgage or business loan burdens her with the need to succeed...or else total failure! The pasta needs to carry a warning label that says something like "WARNING...eating of fresh pasta causes the consumer to NEVER eat store-bought pasta again...EAT at your own risk" This stuff is delicious!

Pigs are amazing animals. They are fairly predator-proof, they work hard tilling up my summer garden, and in the end, they taste delicious! The 3 little pigs that we are "hosting" at the farm are growing steadily. They have figured it out that the Bessettes bring good things to them, so they are getting more and more friendly!
I've been thinking about the great life that these animals have and it makes me happy to watch as they root around and just act like pigs! I look forward to the 150 pounds of fresh pork that each will provide our family...(ribs and bacon are my favorites).

Finally on the topic of "POTENTIAL"...Holly is our Jersey heifer, who currently is full of potential! We watch her girth expand, as her calf inside grows. We watch her udder steadily increase, as it prepares to feed the new arrival, and hopefully us! We love our milk RAW and with full cream (no skim milk in the Bessette house)! We have "invested" over 2 years into the potential of this animal...she stayed "on" her momma for as long as her momma let her. I have read that the quality of the milk that a dairy calf is fed will affect her future potential for cream production. If a calf is fed "milk-replacer" they will develop "leaner" cream-producing cells. If they are fed full-cream momma's milk, their cream-production increases. We incurred an "expense" of giving more milk to Holly instead of using it ourselves..we'll see if the investment was worth it!

Good food takes time. Good food is SLOW food, verses "fast-food"...Ahh...pasta, pork and potential!