Today’s topic is how the keto diet and dairy fit together. The keto diet is catching on more and more it seems to me. That might be because it works. Today I want to share some of my story and how I use dairy and still stay in ketosis. I’m even going to share a keto chocolate ice cream recipe with you.

But first, let me say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast every week. I want you to know how much I appreciate you. And I’m going to ask a favor.

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I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the farm this week. Let’s get started.

Today’s Show

• Homestead Life Updates
• Keto Diet and Dairy
• Keto Chocolate Ice Cream

Homestead Life Updates

Things are getting back to normal at the homestead after our internet outage. It will take a while longer to get caught up again, but we will get there eventually.

It was Thursday afternoon before we got out internet back. Scott and I have discussed how to manage this issue. This is not the first time we have had to put business on hold due to lack of internet. This time we came up with a solution. It was simple. Purchase a spare modem and keep it on hand to be used as needed. When the modem blows out as it inevitably will, bring out the spare. Easy peasy. No waiting for days to find out if that’s all we needed in the first place. Once we get the replacement modem, the spare goes back into storage until needed again. I’ll let you know how that pans out.

Canning

Canned today: 13 qts whole milk, 6 pints peas, 16 pints goat broth, 5 quarts goat meat. Still to come is blueberry pie filling.

I have 36 quarts of cream canned and 26 quarts of ground beef canned. Those projects took lots and lots of time. I have skim milk to can also in the line up.

Storm Damage

Trees down all over. Scott estimated 3 dozen trees down. Yeah, 3 dozen. One fell on the orchard fence and still needs to be repaired.

Last week I think I forgot to mention that the beehive was blown over. Scott got dressed up in full protection and put the hive back together. Those bees were hopping mad. Even with all that coverage, he got stung four times.

It has been many days since then and the bees are doing well after their incident.

Garden

I have had little chance to set foot in the garden other than a quick walk through to see what might need attention. Here’s what I found.

The onions need to be harvested. The tops have fallen over and that means they are ready to be pulled and set out to dry. The green beans are doing well. The dried beans are doing even better. The Mississippi silver cow peas are doing the best. They always do. That’s why we like to grow them.

I have one tomato that is starting to turn. There are many, many tomatoes that are green. I have those conical cages around my tomato plants for support. Many were blown over during the storm. I set them all back up right and the plants are doing well.

I’m so excited. This year I’m going to can lots of tomato sauce. In the past I’ve canned whole tomatoes, or crushed tomatoes, or chopped tomatoes, or diced tomatoes. Last year, late in the season, I watched a YouTube video on how to make tomato sauce. The last batch of tomatoes I harvested from the garden were used to make a few jars of tomato sauce. It was much easier than I ever thought it would be, and again, I’m so excited to do an even better job this year.

Grass-Fed Beef

We took a steer to the butcher for processing. Almost all of that is sold. Let me know if you are looking for good grass-fed beef. We still have a steer or two that you can snag. A quarter is about 100 pounds of meat and would cost you around $600.00. Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Breeding Season

It’s on. Breeding season is upon us. We wanted to do artificial insemination. That would allow us to have greater control over our genetics, and we could also get sexed semen which would allow us to dramatically increase the probability that our cows would have heifers, or girls. The timing for getting the semen that we desired did not work out. So, we will continue to pursue this option, getting the semen now for next year.

Buttercup

Buttercup was the first of our girls to show obvious signs of being in heat. I’ve noted the date in my spreadsheet that automatically calculates her projected delivery date. For cows, the gestation period is between 279 and 385 days. My spreadsheet calculates the 279 days as that would be the earliest time that she would have her calf.

Claire

Claire is Buttercup’s older sister. She may have been in heat a few days earlier, but I’m not sure. I recorded the date anyway. If she shows signs of heat in a month, I will simply change the date to reflect the new likely delivery date.

I’m not sure I’ve introduced all of our cows to you so I’ll take a moment to fill you in on them.

Butter

I know I’ve introduced Butter. She is our Jersey cow recently purchased from a nearby farm. She is a registered Jersey and produces A2A2 milk. If you’re not familiar with A2A2 milk, check out my podcast, “What is A2A2 milk?” Link in the show notes.

About 50% of Jersey cows in the United States have the A2A2 genetic trait. While we haven’t had our Normande cows tested, about 88% of the breed carries the A2A2 genetic trait. And since we will be using artificial insemination, we can breed for the trait. All of the sires that we have to choose from via our supplier are certified A2A2. Our goal is for our small herd of dairy cows to be 100% A2A2 certified.

Violet

Next up is Violet. She is a beautiful cow. And she is interesting. She only has one horn and she has a big round belly. Like all of our cows, she’s really friendly.

Cloud

Lastly is Cloud. Cloud is only 75% Normande cow. She is one quarter black Angus. Her frame is tall—taller than all the rest.

The Wheel of Time and the Calves

Then there are the four calves. They are all named after fictional characters from a fantasy novel that both Scott and I enjoy listening to over and over. There are 14 books in the series, The Wheel of Time. I saw a Facebook post just this morning that Amazon is rapidly moving forward with a TV series that will be streamed to Prime members. Filming to begin later this year. If you like Game of Thrones, you might like The Wheel of Time as well. It is not nearly as dark and the central theme is more esoteric—a battle between good and evil.

Butter’s calf is Egwene, also a purebred Jersey with A2A2 genetics, and she looks like a little deer. Claire’s calf is Matrim. Buttercup’s calf is Perrin. And Dora’s calf is Rand. We lost Dora 3 days after Rand was born. Violet’s calf was named Galad. He now resides at a new home in Eastern Virginia.

The Donkeys

I want to take a moment to introduce our donkeys as well. They are all miniature donkeys, 36” tall or less. We keep them as livestock guardian animals. Well, they are also pets. Donkeys love human interaction.

We have Daisy, the matriarch. Her daughters, Sweet Pea and Cocoa. And then there is Johnny, sire of Cocoa. He can no longer sire and we keep him paired up with Sweet Pea and the boy sheep and goats. Daisy and Cocoa guard the girls.

Sheep and Goats

I’ll refrain from naming all of the goats. That would take a long time. The does all have names, but the 2 kids from this year and the 9 from last year do not. And only one of the sheep has a name. Remember Lambert? I suppose we will name them all at some point. We’ve just never gotten around to it. We identify them by number because we had around 70 and the numbers were the best way to keep up with who was who.

They are all healthy and happily eating grass is those green pastures. Now moving on to my eating habits.

Keto Diet and Dairy

There is a picture of me and Scott on our website. It’s on the “About” page. That picture is very out of date. I weigh 45 pounds less than that picture indicates. Ideally, in the next year or two, I will have dropped another 45 pounds. How did I do it? A variation of the keto diet.

In order to get to my topic of the keto diet and dairy, I’ll have to fill in the basics of the ketogenic diet. At least the one I use. Dr. Eric Westman’s Duke University Diet Clinic videos are my source. And “Go Keto with Casey” is my support resource. That’s Casey Durango from Greensboro, NC—right down the road from me about an hour and a half. I’ve met her in person.

Basics of Keto

I’ve tried many diets in my life. Until October last year, I had given up the idea that I would ever be able to be small again. The keto diet involves reducing carbohydrate intake to a minimal level. When I started in October last year, I reduced my carbohydrate intake to less than 10 g per day.

Let me briefly describe my current protocol. I consume fatty sources of meat and take in 20 g or less of carbohydrate daily. Ideally, I eat only when hungry and stop when I’m satiated. Those last two points I’m not really that good at. I still tend to eat at the same time every day because I always eat at that time. Or I eat dinner because I always had eaten dinner. Those are not reasons for eating.

That’s it. Eat fatty sources of meat. Keep your carbs under 20 g a day. Only eat when you’re hungry. Stop when you’re satiated. Four simple steps. There are many amazing things that have changed in my life over the past eight months.

Keto Results

The first thing was the reduction of inflammation. At my age I thought I would always wake up with sore joints in my hands. My back was stiff. That went away within a few days. Where before, I absolutely could not close my hand in the morning because of the inflammation, now, my hands close easily.

The best thing I have experienced is that I don’t think about food anymore. Anyone out there who has struggled with their weight will know what I’m talking about when I say that my day used to revolve around food. Before I would do anything, I would first evaluate whether I needed to eat first, or if I was going out, what was I going to eat, or would I wait to eat until I got back home. While eating, I might be evaluating what I was going to be eating at my next meal. I spent a lot of time planning meals, thinking about what food I was going to cook, when, and for which meals. I have a new problem. Very often, I haven’t planned at all. Dinner comes around, and Scott doesn’t have anything to eat. I can throw a burger in the pan and have a meal in 15 minutes.

I literally have to make myself think about food. Planning meals has become a task on my calendar. It is the most radical and bizarre change in thinking I have ever experienced in my life. It’s a great diet plan that fits very well with our traditional homestead. We raise animals and we have dairy. We also have quail now that are providing eggs. They will also provide protein. These are the basics of my diet at this point. Meat, dairy, eggs.

Keto Diet and Dairy

Dairy is where I have to be the most vigilant. It is not unlimited. Milk has a significant amount of carbohydrates. I actually poured a glass of milk today. About 8 ounces. If it was 3.5% milk from the store that would be 12 g of carbohydrates. Still under my goal of 20, but leaving only eight as wiggle room. That’s the first time in the last eight months that I’ve poured myself a glass of milk. I would have a sip here and there, but not a full glass.

Aged cheese on the other hand, has less than 1 g of carb. Still I must be vigilant. Cheese is a calorie dense food. Cream is great. Also, very calorie dense. While I only track carbohydrates, in the end, calories do matter.

Dairy products can fit very well into a ketogenic diet. What matters is keeping your body in ketosis. That means your body is burning fat for fuel. Your carbohydrate intake is so low that your body stops looking for carbohydrates and transforms itself into a fat burning machine.

Carb Cravings Gone

Carbohydrate cravings completely disappear. That part was not quite as easy as I would’ve liked. I went through a time where the carbohydrate cravings were quite cute. The way I made it through was to increase the fat and protein that I was eating. Every time I would want a cake or cookies or some other sweet, I would go and eat another hamburger. I was aware that I was over eating. But it got me through. I got to the point where I couldn’t stuff another mouthful in or I would burst. That overrode the carb craving.

And after a few days, they stopped. I could literally sit and watch Scott eat some sweet dessert and not feel compelled to reach over there with my fork and grab a bite of it. Those of you that are listening that have had issues with weight may find it hard to believe. I know I did and I was experiencing it.

So, on the keto protocol I have to be careful with dairy. But it is totally the greatest part of my diet. And I’m going to finish up here with the recipe for keto chocolate ice cream. As I said, cream is great and there are some great artificial sweeteners out there that keep this very low-carb.

Keto Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe

This recipe does not use an ice cream maker. With heavy whipping cream whipped to soft peaks, the result is similar to a fluffy chocolate mousse.

What You Need

• 5 oz 85% or 90% dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 2 oz cocoa butter
• 4 large eggs, separated
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ½ cup powdered erythritol or Swerve
• 1 tablespoon sugar-free vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cups heavy whipping cream

What to Do

1. Melt the chocolate and cocoa butter in a double boiler over medium heat then cool to room temperature.
2. Separate egg whites from egg yolks. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar. As the egg whites thicken, slowly add the powdered Erythritol. Beat until they create stiff peaks.
3. In another bowl, beat or whisk the cream until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed.
4. In a third bowl, mix the egg yolks with the vanilla extract.
5. After the chocolate has cooled, using a rubber spatula, add about a third of the fluffy egg whites and mix with the chocolate. Add the remaining egg whites and gently fold in without deflating them.
6. Slowly stir in the egg yolk and vanilla mixture.
7. Finally, fold in the whipped cream using the spatula, creating fluffy chocolate mousse.
8. Transfer chocolate mousse to a 9 X 9-inch baking dish lined with parchment paper. Freeze at least 4 – 6 hours, or until set.

Notes:

You can use 1-cup, single-serving containers for portion control. If the ice cream is too hard, leave it at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Nutrition

Serving size:         ¾ cup            Calories:   267              Fat:    25g

Carbohydrates:    5.5g               Protein:     5 g

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed getting to know our animals a little better. We love them and hope you do to.

The keto diet is working for me and I am so glad that I can still use my dairy products. Wouldn’t that have been a hoot if I had found something that improved my health dramatically and it completed contradicted my life’s work. That didn’t happen. Meat and dairy are the center of our lives and the center of my diet.

You’ll have to measure that keto chocolate ice cream, but I think it will be well worth your time. A serving is ¾ of a cup and contributes 5.5 g of carbs.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please hop over to Apple Podcasts, SUBSCRIBE and give me a 5-star rating and review. Also, please share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content.

As always, I’m here to help you “taste the traditional touch.”

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

References

What is A2A2 Milk? – Peaceful Heart FarmCast

Dr. Eric Westman – LCHF Treatment for Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome

Casey Durango – Go Keto with Casey

Recipe Link

Keto Chocolate Ice Cream

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It has been a wild and crazy few days and there are more to come. Today’s podcast will be short. We do not have internet and won’t have it for 5 more days for a total of 8 days. If you are new, welcome. Thank you so much for tuning in and I hope you’ll engage and comment as we go along. And as always, welcome back to the veteran traditional homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast every week. I appreciate you all so much. I have so much to share about the farm this week that it is the topic of the day.

Today’s recipe is MIA, missing in action for reasons I will detail later.

Today’s Show

• Homestead Life Updates
• The Storm
• No Recipe

Homestead Life Updates

I’m wanted to start out with the ordinary, the usual. The animals, the garden, the orchard, the creamery, the cheesemaking. I wanted to speak in general terms and fill in details later in the main body of this podcast. However, I can’t really cover it even in general terms without the overlay of the wake of the storm we had three days ago. It is coloring everything at the moment and will continue to do so for quite a while into the future. I’ll start with describing the storm and the initial damage and the move into how it affects the animals, the orchard, the creamery, and the cheesemaking.

The Storm

It was late afternoon on Tuesday. The second day of several days of predicted storms was upon us a couple of hours before evening milking. The wind picked up and the trees were whipped about like twigs. It was strong. It was sudden. The rain began to pelt down in sheets. I don’t know if I have ever seen it rain so hard. Well perhaps some of the rains in Florida could match it. Anyone driving would have had to pull over. There was no way to see even a few feet in front of you. The torrent of rain and small hail went on for quite a while. We were late getting started with evening milking and even so, it was still raining steadily as we proceeded with the evening. We didn’t get far.

Evening Milking Plan A

There are two directions to bring the cows up to the milking shed. Scott created what he calls a “travel lane” in several places around the farm. It runs along the edge of the front fields to a wooded area. From there we can get the animals across the driveway with the nifty gate set up that makes a path across. The lane proceeds down the side of the two fields on the other side, past the creamery in progress to the milking shed. That lane also continues past the orchard and across the creek bottom to the fields in the back. So the cows can get to the milking shed (and later the milking barn when it is finished) from either direction. Scott’s first task is to get the milking shed set up for the cows. Then he comes down the travel lane and ideally meets me in the middle. Ideally means, I’ve finished my first task of feeding Lambert (he’s just over two months old and gets a bottle in the morning and in the evening) and gotten the cows to the driveway crossing. At the very least, I would have them moving in the right direction. Scott joins me, takes Butter with a lead rope and I bring along the rest of the motley crew. For my task, I head straight up the driveway to where the gates can be opened across the driveway. It is the quickest route to the front pastures where they are all currenting residing. This particular evening, I ran into the first problem. A very large tree was directly in front of me across the driveway. I’d say it was nearly a foot in diameter in front of me and larger at the base. The top branches were laying on top of the tool shed just to my left. I checked briefly but could not tell if the roof was damaged. (Later, Scott said it wasn’t.) My biggest concern at this point was that, not only could I not get to the gates to open them across the driveway, that tree was laying directly across the travel lane to my right. I would get the cows across the driveway, but not very far up the lane. I yelled for Scott. He came up to assess the situation and immediately went for the chainsaw. I circled around behind the shed, went out to the pasture to feed Lambert and bring the cows up. I was hoping that Scott would have a path cleared by then. But realistically, it was going to take a little while to get that tree cut up enough to get the cows through. Chin up, let’s get ready anyway. That was my thought.

Plan B

It was still raining. Not heavily at this point, but steadily. As I brought the cows up, I could hear Scott with the chainsaw. I could see he was working on the upper part of the tree first. The part that was across the driveway. That made sense. However, the chain saw was giving him issues. It wouldn’t stay running. He persevered, got the tree cut up into 3 or 4 pieces on the driveway side, left them laying there and moved into the travel lane. The plan was to cut the part in the travel lane into a few pieces and roll them to the side, just enough out of the way to get the cows through. All of the debris could be removed later. Tomorrow. But the chainsaw really started acting up. The tree originated in the field to the left and was pushed over with the roots sticking up in the air. The part of the tree trunk in the travel lane was the larger diameter portion of the tree nearer the base, more than a foot wide. Plan B gets set into motion. Let’s take them across the driveway and into the field instead of the travel lane. Hopefully we could move them all the way down the field to a gate that came out into the travel lane coming up from the other end, at the corner of the orchard. We would then drive them up the travel lane from that direction. I hurried into the field to open the gate. As I approached the gate, low and behold, another tree lay across the travel lane smashing the orchard fence. These were big trees. They were living trees. It was hit and miss with which ones toppled over. I have no idea why these two trees fell and the others didn’t. The entire travel lane is lined with many trees of the same size and relative condition. I immediately turn around and head back to the way I came, heading off Scott and the cows. Back into the travel lane they went. Maybe a half hour or 45 minutes has passed and now it is pouring rain. We are drenched, the chainsaw is faulty and we are stuck. We decide to take a break. We left the cows in the travel lane, closed in where they couldn’t go back across the road or into the next field. Then we trudge back to the house to wait a little bit for the rain to subside at least a little.

Plan C and Success

On the second try, Scott chose to work on the smaller diameter tree that had crushed the orchard fence on the lower end of the travel lane. He was able to keep the chainsaw running enough to get a section cut out of the middle wide enough for the cows to pass, maybe 6 feet or so. Whew. We finally got the cows to the milking shed and things proceeded nicely from there. Only a couple of hours later than usual. Scott finished up with cleaning the equipment shortly after 10:00 pm. Dinner was really late and we got right up again at 6:00 for the morning chores and milking – and to assess the extent of the damage.

After the Storm

There are still trees down everywhere. We will have plenty of firewood this winter. The tree with the bat house came down. The bat house is smashed. There are a bunch of trees across the path from Field 10 to Field 14. The boys have been hanging out back there. The rams and bucks were in Field #10, but the Steers and bulls were trapped in #14. Either the chainsaw gets repaired and the trees cut apart and moved – OR the fence has to be cut. On Wednesday Scott took the chainsaw into town to be repaired. On Saturday he finds out it is going to be a week or more because they had to order a part. Big sigh. That means the fence will have to be cut. We need to get the boys out of there. One of them has an appointment at the meat processing plant on Tuesday. And another has an appointment with Butter and Cloud. Being creative, Scott cut the fence between two trees, moved the steers and bulls out to field #11 and temporarily repaired the fence with some old downed branches and small trees. That should hold them for the moment. Well perhaps not the goats. We shall see. However, they may get through but they can also get back by the same path.

The Internet

Those were Scott’s most pressing issues. Mine was the internet. At the start of the storm there was a lightning strike that took out the DSL modem, my monitors, and later my network card. I’m sitting there minding my own business when the first peals of thunder can be heard. A mere five minutes or so later, a flash and an immediate boom outside produced a pop and the smell of burning circuits just to the right of me. This is not the first time we have lost a modem to lightning. That brief light and sound show let me know I should have stopped at the first sound of thunder and unplugged the phoneline from the modem. I have a spare modem and wireless router from the last incident, so I hooked them up. No luck with the DSL. I have the home network working via the router, but the modem for the DSL and the internet do not connect. I opened a ticket with our internet provider late Tuesday afternoon and was assured it would be resolved by 2:00 or so on Thursday. Around five pm on Thursday, I called and received a new automated message. That’s when I learned there was an issue in the area that would be resolved by Friday 7:00 am. Great, I could live with that. I even got a call at 8:00 on Friday morning that the issue was resolved. Wrong! At least for us it was not resolved. We are three days without internet at this point. I call again and find out that my original appointment for resolution had been moved to a different date and time. Wednesday next week. I spent another hour on the phone trying to get it escalated. I need my internet connection to publish my newsletter and this podcast. The agent was polite and helpful but no luck. The repair schedulers wouldn’t budge. And they wouldn’t give me the contact information for the local office so I could try and plead my case to the actual repairman. In the end, I’m still stuck with no internet for another 4 or 5 days. I’m recording this and have no idea how I am going to get it published. It requires hours and hours of online time to get the audio post created, the recipe created, and to connect all of the details to the various podcast distribution sites. I have contacted a neighbor that has offered assistance with internet, but I need to save that favor for uploading the podcast after getting all of the background work done at a public Wi-Fi location. It has been a rough week on the homestead. Around here we like to be prepared for just about anything. One saying we repeat often is two is one and one is none. We only have one source for internet and when it is out, we have none. There is no decent cell phone signal here, so that cannot be a backup. Maybe you guys have some ideas on how we can come up with a backup internet system. Let me know. On to the normal farm updates.

Herd Shares

Please let your friends and loved ones know about our herd share program. Raw milk, yogurt, raw milk cream and butter, and raw milk cheese. These are all available via our herd share program. If you are near Winston-Salem or Greensboro, North Carolina, we can serve your needs as well. Contact me and I’ll get you started on the path to healthy dairy consumption. Go to www.peacefulheartfarm.com and select “Herd Shares” from the menu. You can also call us at 276-694-4369 or send an email to melanie at peacefulheartfarm . com. The cows are providing A2A2 milk. Check out my previous podcasts on A2A2 milk and Why We Drink Raw Milk. Click on the links in the show notes or go to our website and select “podcast” from the menu to find and listen to those podcasts.

The Animals

The breeding schedule for the cows is starting. We are still working out the details of learning how to do artificial insemination. That project is currently delayed because we want to get “sexed” semen. I have no idea how they do it, but they have narrowed the likelihood of having bulls with “sexed” semen. It worked with Butter. We bought her just 11 days before she calved and she had been artificially inseminated with “sexed” semen. It worked. She had a lovely heifer. We really need some Normande heifers. The problem is the supplier for the Normande semen tells us it may be several weeks before we can get what we are looking for, hence, Butter is going to be bred with the Normande bull that we have on hand. It is important that we have calves in late March to early April so milk for herd shares and cheesemaking is available well before the first week of May. Who knows, maybe she will have another lovely little heifer. With the others we will take no chances. The sheep and goats are all healthy and lively. With the storm I was worried about trees falling on them and injuring them, but all are safe and sound. The quail, born just 7 weeks ago have started laying eggs. We tried some yesterday. They were delicious. It takes 4 quail eggs to make one chicken egg sized portion. Additionally, we have scheduled thinning out the roosters. There are three cages full of quail. About half in each cage are male. We will thin that down to one rooster to five hens. At least that is the end goal. We shall see how close we get to that number. In a few weeks I will begin gathering their eggs over a weeks’ time in preparation for incubating the second batch. Likely the second batch will fill out our breeding stock. Six sets of six birds. Again, one rooster and five hens in each of six cages. So far it has been easy. We lost one bird to a snake a week or so ago. I think I forgot to mention that. It was necessary for me to enlist Scott’s excellent help to get that snake out of the cage. A small black snake was in one of the cages and one of the birds was dead. I have no idea how it killed the bird. There was no way it was going to be able to eat it. Anyway, Scott grabbed it with some pruning shears, pulled it out of the cage and – snip – that was the end of that snake. Normally we would leave a black snake alone as they eat mice and a relatively harmless. However, this one was small enough to get in the cage. He had to go. Earlier, a much larger one was perched on one of the braces at the back of the cage. He got relocated and we haven’t seen him since. His head and body were far too wide to get through the ½” hardware cloth cage. I’m excited to see how this quail project progresses. It’s a new adventure and so far has been a really fun one. They didn’t seem to be affected at all by that storm. Scott did a great job on their shelters.

The Garden and Orchard

The garden is producing peas. The potatoes have been dug. The early onions are ready. The tomato plants are loading up. We are going to do very well there, I think. The dried beans are blooming and producing lots of bean pods. Those we will let grow and grow and then leave them on the plant until they dry out. That comes much later. The Mississippi Silver cow peas are coming along nicely. We eat those before they are dry. If you are not familiar, they are like black eyed peas without the eye – an little more rounded. Black eyed peas are somewhat oval. Anyway, we pick those after the peas have formed in the pod but before they dry out. We also pick a few that do not have the peas filled in. Those get snapped and put in with the shelled peas. It’s a wonderful dish. We are getting blueberries out of the orchard and the blackberries will be ready in a week or so. Yum, yum. I’m going to can both the blueberries and blackberries. I’m going to try my hand at making pie filling. It will be so handy to be able to pull out a jar and pour it into the pie shell and toss it into the oven. Your mouth is probably watering right now. I know mine is.

The Creamery

Finally, the update on the creamery. With all of this craziness going on, Scott has been hard pressed to make any progress there. But he is persistent and the walls are rising. He also makes cheese once a week, as do I. It’s a lot to fit into our days and weeks, but we make it happen. It’s as great life. Busy, busy, busy all the time. No time for boredom. No time for getting caught up in social media scandals or endless watching of television. It took us three days to watch the movie Sherlock – the one with Robert Downy Jr and Jude Law. An hour – sometimes less – and we are off to sleep.

No Recipe This Week

I apologize for not providing a recipe this week. Due to the issues we are currently having with internet access, I have opted to leave that part out of this week’s episode. It requires an additional hour and a half of internet time when our high-speed connection is functioning. As I mentioned earlier, my plan is to only impose a little on my neighbor for uploading the completed project. The hours and hours of prework will be done at a public Wi-Fi location. Wish me luck.

Final Thoughts

That’s it for this week’s adventures on the homestead. Next week all will return to normal, right? Not likely. I’m sure there will be some new adventure that will arise. As I’ve said many times, we never get bored here. Life comes at us fast and furious sometimes as we kayak this river. We just move along with the current and try not to get too battered by the rocks in the rapids. If you enjoyed this podcast, please hop over to Apple Podcasts, SUBSCRIBE and give me a 5-star rating and review. Also, please share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content. As always, I’m here to help you “taste the traditional touch.” Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Is a peaceful heart and peaceful mind possible in this wacky world? I’m waxing philosophical today. I hope you find this podcast educational and entertaining at the very least.

As always, I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast every week. I truly appreciate you all so much.

Today’s Show

• Homestead Life Updates
• Peaceful Heart – Peaceful Mind
• Parmesan Peas

Homestead Life Updates

Herd Shares – When you purchase part of our herd you will benefit from fresh milk and yogurt in the summer with cheese and butter available year-round. Your cows graze each and every day on lush green pasture and freshly baled hay in the winter. They live a life a peace and tranquility in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Plan a trip to the farm to visit them and see how we care for and manage them. Go to www.peacefulheartfarm.com/virginia-herd-shares for more information.

We have only three lambs this year. Speak up now and claim a half or a whole or forever hold your peace. Well at least until next year.  

Same with the beef. This may be your last chance for beef raise on our homestead. We are streamlining our cattle operation to be strictly dairy. In the future, you’ll have to purchase a young calf and raise it up for beef on your own.

Choices, choices, choices. We are constantly faced with hard choices these days.

Should we get more Jersey cows or stick with the Normandes? New opportunities seem to continually present themselves. I’m leaning more towards sticking with the Normandes. Sure, Butter, the Jersey, is giving more milk, but we can breed for higher milk production. It is the temperament of the Normande that is so compelling. And the dual milk/beef characteristics. We have the option of selling every single calf we birth on the farm. But we can also keep one as needed for our own use as beef. Normande beef is superb. Yeah, I’m leaning toward keeping the Normandes central and the two Jersey girls will be the cream on top. (That’s a dairy pun.) Corny, I know.

Choices again. As we move forward at the farmer’s market, the interest in lamb is increasing. That’s another dilemma. I only have so much time in a day. At this point, my days are consumed with milking, making cheese and marketing milk and cheese. Scott and I have discussed significantly reducing the other animal populations. Specifically, the goats and sheep. It’s another task in my already overcrowded schedule to market those specialty meats. Who knew we would be faced with these kinds of choices? We love all of our animals. However, I have 10 lambs to sell next year. Will I have the time to do it effectively? Or will we fall into the trap that so many other small farmers do? Will we end up selling them at a loss just to make room for more that get sold at a loss again? Not likely. We are aware of the dilemma and are addressing it. But there it is. The choice is always before us of what we do with our time.

How much garden is the right amount of garden? If I don’t have a garden at all, then I must spend money at the market to make up the difference. Part of the choice of living the homestead life is the simplicity and living on less. It becomes like drinking water, a necessary part of your life. Else you go back to the rat race of spending the hours you currently use to garden with working for someone else. Nah, I think I’ll pass on that. Yeah, the garden will likely endure.

Not much in the way of updates there. We continually have choices to make, but for right now we have Normande cows, goats, sheep, donkey’s and quail – and a very large garden and orchard. Those will remain as they are and we will power through. Oh yeah, we can’t forget the bees. But we do. They are going fine on their own. One day we will rob some honey. But not today.

I’ll bet you guys have similar choices. Should you move to the country and build a homestead or create peace in your life right where you are and visit us every chance you get? Either will bring peace to your life. It’s always your choice is it not?

Peaceful Heart – Peaceful Mind

How does one get a peaceful heart? That’s a deep subject. I’ve worked on it for years and I continue to work on it. Maintaining peace, both inner and outer, is a full-time job – a lifetime job. There are techniques that help. Different choices can be made that will help. Self-discipline with your thoughts and mind helps. There are lots of things that can be done.

Here at Peaceful Heart Farm, we are constantly reminded of the desire for peace because of our name. What you think about becomes your life. We think about peace a lot. Living in the environment we do helps also. But it is not required. Not everyone can live the life we do – or even desires to live as we do. Having peaceful surroundings is not a prerequisite for experiencing peace. I must say, for us, it certainly helps. Whenever you get tired of the rat race and just want to escape to the country, you might have to make plans, drive a certain distance, hope that it is as you remembered, and so on. For Scott and me it is a matter of waking up in the morning and going outside to do morning chores and we are immersed in it – for the most part. We have awakened to disasters – animals we love may be ill and die. We lost Dora earlier this year. That was not pleasant and it disturbed my peace. But we move on.

Technique and Practice

One technique that I believe helps more than any other is maintaining a positive attitude. Looking on the bright side is another way to put it. I know it sounds trite and it is. The reason it is trite is it is ancient wisdom that works remarkably well. The idea has been passed down through the ages. Maintaining a positive attitude has endured because it works.

With practice, it becomes more and more a daily routine. Something happens, you choose to the see the positive. I know, I know, it’s easy to get caught up in the negative. And truly there are some experiences that have no easily identifiable up-side. The loss of a loved one comes to mind. Sure, you can intellectually tell yourself over and over that they are in a better place. They are no longer in pain. The suffering is over and so on. But that does not take away the deep grief that grips your heart for quite a long time. But these are the exception to the rule. Most of our negative ideas about anything in our daily life are interpretations that we put on events. These interpretations are based on our beliefs, perception of the facts and past experiences. Yes. They are choices we are making. And you can get out of it.

A key phrase I put in there is “perception of the facts”. Likely you believe that facts are facts. (And there is truth in that.) Yet there is so much that we accept as fact that in reality is based in false perceptions. Our senses can fool us but we believe them anyway. It can become a kind of mind-reading that we believe to be fact. We make our belief that something is true into absolute knowledge that something is true. Confirmation bias is the common way of identifying the resulting misinformation.

Let’s say you are sure someone frowned at you because they don’t like you. Or you assume they are judging your weight, or your appearance, or your whatever. It is an illusion. One hundred percent of the time, it is an illusion. Truly, you have no idea what they think of you. In fact, they may not have even be truly aware of their surroundings and therefore are not thinking of you at all. Here’s an example.

Many years ago, I was standing in line at a grocery store. At the young age of 20 something, I had very little self-awareness. My thoughts ran wild and I lived in my own little world, often completely unaware of those around me. Surrounded by people, I would be in my own bubble of thoughts, floating along like a bit of flotsam on a river. Rolling along merrily without a care in the world – or at least completely unaware of what I cared about.

So, I’m in the grocery store checkout line and behind me a lady accidentally bumped into me. As a natural reaction, you would turn around, right? Just to see who it was. I turned around to look at her. I will never forget her reaction. She apologized profusely. Over and over she apologized. I frightened the bejesus out of her because of the look on my face. She said I looked so angry that she thought I was about to hit her. I apologized to her. To this day, I have no idea what I was thinking but it had absolutely nothing to do with her. Who knows what negative idea was roaming around in my head that day?

Two things came to my awareness from that experience. Number one, I saw that I needed to pay attention to my thoughts and how I displayed them on my face. Open anger at the world displayed in an unconscious manner was not how I wanted to live my life. It was not how I wanted others to know me. And number two, I began to wonder how many times I had assumed I knew what someone was thinking based on the expression on their face as they looked at me – or looked in my direction. What if they were not even looking at me but at someone else, or simply staring blindly in my direction. What if I was the farthest thing from their thoughts? How many times had I judged myself based on an inaccurate perception? And today, I recognize how self-centered that idea actually is. In reality, the most normal thing in the world is for every person to be spending so much thought energy on worrying about what someone else thinks of them to even consider making a judgement about what to think of the person in their field of vision.

One positive effect of that experience was that I purposefully trained myself to automatically smile at everyone I meet. It made an amazing difference in my life. I wanted to reflect to others that they are loved. No matter what they are thinking inside their very busy head. I wanted them to know that they are loved and that life is worth smiling about. Not everyone responds positively, but most do. Perhaps I made a small difference in their life. I can hope.

Personal Responsibility and Judgement

To make the transition to living a peaceful life, you have to stop thinking it’s somebody else’s fault. You have to stop thinking it is anyone else’s fault. There is no fault. Your life is a continuously playing video in your head. Whatever you think and believe shapes your reality. Think on something long enough and believe it hard enough and it becomes your reality. The good, the bad and the ugly. Take a care. The risks you take, the actions you perform, and your everyday experience of reality shape your life.

If you spend your time judging everything negatively, your life will continually reflect that negativity back to you. Here’s an example. A small one. Let’s say you are having a wonderful day. You are optimistic. Life is going along as you planned and you are content and peaceful. Now you stub your toe. Not enough to break anything, but hard enough to make you yelp. Perhaps you will take a moment to sit down and examine the damage. No blood, but perhaps a bruise will arise later. In this circumstance, the pain will dissipate fairly rapidly.

Now imagine you have that angry face that I just described. You are not even aware of the negativity that is boiling just under the surface. And you stub your toe in the same way. What is the result? Perhaps you start cursing to high heavens. Perhaps you scream loudly. You sit down and cradle your foot and begin to examine your toe. You howl and moan and curse because of the pain, your stupidity for not watching where you were going. Maybe someone left something in your path, you weren’t paying attention, and it caused you pain. But in your mind, it is the fault of the person who left it in your path. The pain, the wrath, the unhappiness, the negativity, the lack of peace can last a long time. Perhaps you feel a momentary jolt of happiness. Someone else did you wrong and that makes you right or righteous. But this is a very, very short-lived and fleeting experience. You may not even be aware of it, yet it is there. That brief experience – that split second of feeling good about yourself because you are better than someone else or they were wrong and you were right. Petty, egoic ideas that so often run wild in our minds.

That guy is fat. Her dress is rumpled. This other person is really stupid and slow and so on. He or she is a loser. Who left that tricycle in the walkway right where someone might trip on it? The more you make these kinds of judgements, the more you are going to separate yourself, the less peace you will have. And yes. You will feel good for an instant, a split second, because you’ll feel good about yourself. You will think, “I’m better than that” or “I’m better than them.” But later you are going to feel lonely. Later you are going to continue to see negativity everywhere. Your world is constantly reflecting your own negativity about yourself back at you. It is a never-ending cycle until YOU change. Not the other person. YOU.

Reality is neutral. Reality has no judgements. Reality simply is. To a tree or a chair or that door you stubbed your toe on, there is no concept of right or wrong. There is no good or bad. You are born. You embark on a journey of sensory experiences. There are lights, colors and sounds. And how you choose to interpret that is up to you. How you interpret them IS your life. You have that choice.

Happiness is a Choice

Peace and happiness are choices. Love is a choice. If you believe it’s a choice, then you can start working on it. You can affect your life. Life is peace because you choose to remain peaceful. Because reality is neutral, I can’t tell you how to find peace. It is your own conditionings, judgements and out of control thoughts that create the experience of unhappiness. You have to fix it for yourself.

Start with believing it is possible. Just because you are miserable today, does not mean that you must be miserable for the rest of your life. Perhaps you have dreams that seem out of reach. You may believe you will never get what you want in life. Sure enough. You will never get what you want in life. Your life will continually reflect that negativity back to you. “See, I knew I would never get that job,” you say. While all the while you unconsciously presented yourself as a loser to the interviewer. After all, in order for you to fulfill your vision of negativity, the pieces must be in place. On the other hand, if you went to the interview with confidence (even if you were faking it), your chances of landing the job just improved 10-fold or a 100-fold.

Let’s say you are looking for your dream property to live your idyllic life in the country. You have a specific budget in mind. There are specific activities you want to do on your homestead so infrastructure to support that ideal need to be in place. And then there are the optional things that you would like to have but they are not absolutely required. Once you have that idea in place, you set out on your journey to find the perfect place. You may look at fifty or a hundred or more properties. It’s easy to become discouraged. This one is the right price but no buildings. This one has buildings but they are not usable. The perfect one comes up and someone underbids you and steals it right out from under your nose. These things can lead to greater negativity and more feelings of “I’ll never get what I want.” The cards are stacked against me. And so on.

But you have to believe it’s possible. For much of my life, I was miserable and now I’m happy. I’m content. For the most part, I’m peaceful. And it’s not just the homestead. I got most of the way there before moving here permanently. I think that on the outside, it didn’t look like it. There were so many challenges. Listen to my podcast “Our Virginia Life” where I talk about the crazy path we took to get here.

Effecting Change

How did I develop greater peace before the homestead? One thing was getting older. I just realized that life is short the time to live is now. Each step toward my ideal is where peace and happiness exist and nowhere else. I can see the future when I reflect, but I don’t focus there exclusively else I miss the wonder of today.

Confucius has a great saying. “Every man has two lives and the second starts when he realizes he has just one.” It’s your unlimited desires that are clouding your peace and happiness. Have desires, of course. But be mindful of your life as it exists today. Marvel at it. Fill your mind with the wonder of this moment. Isn’t it truly amazing that you even made it this far?

Change is gradual. It’s ongoing. It’s very personal. You have to decide it’s a priority. In everything that happens you can look at the bright side of things. Literally train yourself to think positively. There are always at least two ways you can see everything. As I mentioned earlier, there are some things that create acute suffering. Let’s put those aside for the moment and focus on every day experiences.  You have the ability to slowly work through every negative judgement that you have until you see the positive in it. As you practice, it becomes second nature to you.

A Clear Mind. What’s That?

What you want to have is a clear mind. You want to let go of thoughts. Here’s an idea that you may not have noticed. Happy thoughts disappear out of your head automatically. It’s very easy to let go of them. On the other hand, negative thoughts linger. They play themselves out over and over and over. Normal daily experiences will trigger them and the record starts playing again. Over and over and over. We don’t let go.

When you develop the skill to interpret the positive in everything – and you learn to do it quickly, you let it go. You let it go quickly and easily and you are on to the next joyful and positive thought. How do you do that? The usual stuff you have likely heard throughout your life. Get out in the sun. Spend more time in nature. Learn to smile more. Learn to hug more. Create outward representations of happiness. These actions are feedback loops. You are literally choosing to experience happiness and your world reflects it. Reality still contains every single aspect of negativity also. All you have to do is look for it. Reality contains it all, but it is your mind that is judging it all.

Watch your mind. Watch your mind all day long as often as you think of it. Do not judge it. Do not try to control it. This is literally what it means to meditate 24/7. Watch your own thoughts like you would watch anything else in the outside world. Ask yourself, “why am I having that thought?” “Does that serve me anymore?” “Is that conditioning from when I was 10 years old?”

Beware of “why am I having that thought? Is there something wrong with me? Should I be thinking something else?” And so on. That’s not the same thing. That kind of thinking is a disease that keeps you from being happy. Let’s say your mind is just running and running, imagining what you are going to say to this person or that person when next you Meet. Perhaps you start rehearsing what you will say to that person – you may even rehearse speaking to them about how your mind is running on and on imagining what you are going to say to them. This is kind of thinking indicates a habitual thought pattern. You may think it is out of your control. It is not.

This line of thinking comes from the desire to sound smart. Not the desire to be smart. The desire to sound smart whether you know what you are talking about or not. It is a skill that was perfected at an earlier time in your life. That practiced skill hardwires you to always rehearse things to ensure you always sound smart. Literally, it’s a disease that keeps you from being happy. When you can see it – when you can realize that truth, when you understand it, your mind will naturally calm down. When you get there, you will stop rehearsing as much, though it will still be a trained habit. It will still clutter your mind from time to time. Keep at it. Note it. Be happy you noted it and it disappears.  

You don’t have to live out in the country on a lovely homestead to be peaceful and happy. I won’t deny it makes it much easier for me. It makes it much easier to maintain, though there are still many things that can disturb my peace. Scott and I chasing escaped goats comes to mind. We often disagree on the best approach to getting those guys back inside a fence. Afterwards, I choose to love him and he choose to love me – even though we both may have treated the other poorly during the crisis. Peace in our hearts is regained – re-established.

Maybe someday peace will never elude us. I don’t know. Would we be bored then?

Parmesan Peas

Peas are not exactly peace but close. Especially peas straight out of the garden. And don’t forget that wonderful cheese. You can use frozen peas if you need to. However, this time of year, fresh peas make all the difference in the world. Here’s what you need.

What you need:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 small shallots, sliced 
• 1-pound fresh peas, (14 oz bag of frozen, thawed)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• black pepper to taste

What to Do:

1. Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and a pinch of the salt and cook until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes.
2. Stir in the peas and remaining salt and cook until the peas are soft but still bright green, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add the lemon juice and toss.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the Parmesan and black pepper. Serve hot.

That’s it. Let that flavor of fresh peas bring peace to your tongue and tummy.

Final Thoughts

Life is about choice. We choose happiness. We choose peace. We choose love. I hope my words helped you gained some insight into how you can add just a little more peace to your life. And you’ll certainly want to add those lovely fresh peas to your life. Visit us at the Wytheville Farmer’s Market. We have dairy not peas, but others will be there with their lovingly grown products. Visit us and visit them. We look forward to meeting you.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please hop over to Apple Podcasts, SUBSCRIBE and give me a 5-star rating and review. Also, please share it with any friends or family who might be interested in this type of content.

As always, I’m here to help you “taste the traditional touch.”

Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

Recipe Link

Parmesan Peas

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