“The health of soil, plant, animal and man is one and indivisible.” -Sir Albert Howard

We have been on a long, family quest towards real food.

The more I have discovered about modern farming, the less I wish to eat the trash commercial farms are producing. From degraded soils to ripening wheat by spraying with RoundUp, I am sick and tired of being poisoned. Add to that the chlorine and fluoride in our water, the toxins in our drinking containers, the pollutants in the rivers… what a mess!

Since you almost can’t buy good food anymore (raw milk bans, anyone?) we are fighting back in our own little way by trying to produce the best food possible on the ground available to us.

A key to this has been our little dairy cows. One is in milk now, and the other is very pregnant and will be in milk within weeks.

We currently get 1.5 gallons of milk per day from Brandy, our current milker. Rachel milks her morning and evening, every day.

Her hands are the right size for the cow’s teats. When I try to milk, it’s ridiculous – I literally can’t pull it off.

From the milk Brandy provides, we now make all our own yogurt and butter, and are expanding into cheesemaking, thanks to this excellent book by David Asher.

Here is a piece of homemade mozzarella:

And some homemade butter:

And, a good breakfast combining both with some farm eggs from our chickens and some pickled vegetables:

The only items on that plate not produced on the homestead are the Chinese cabbage in the live-fermented veggies and the spices Rachel added.

The peppers, eggs, tomatoes, butter, cheese, beets and cucumbers were all ours, thanks to the Providence of God.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” -Psalm 103:1-5

We are truly satisfied with good things.

It’s been a long road to this point. We started with growing some of our own vegetables long ago, then moved on to fruits and herbs and roots, then to chickens and goats, and now cows. We also learned about the dangers of sugar, of seed oils, of poor mineral content in soil and more.

Cows are one of the best choices we have made, and we are blessed to have a pasture we can borrow to house them in. They turn grass into wonderful food.

I walked through the meat section of a local grocery store yesterday afternoon and looked at the prices of meat, then remarked to Rachel, “You know… I think we could almost just get by with dairy, eggs and chicken at this point.”

A little milk, a few eggs, the occasional chicken for the pot and some cheese and butter go a long way, especially when paired with homegrown potatoes, greens, beans and more.

I also know that I’m not eating unpronounceable chemicals and pesticide residues, or foods that are dead from processing.

What a blessing! Soon, the second cow will be in milk and we’ll get about three gallons per day. I’m looking forward to expanding our experiments with dairy.

Even if you don’t have space for cows, I encourage you to replace factory-produced junk with your own homegrown food as much as possible. There is a lot of joy in eating what you’ve earned through hard work.

Cheetos may be tempting, but good food is truly satisfying and makes you feel great.