Now Accepting 2011 Season Members

Email us at littleflowerfarmcsa@gmail.com
for an application.
Info and order forms for our MEAT and Cheese Shares available as well.

Adventures in Bread

"Good bread is the great need in poor homes, and oftentimes the best appreciated luxury in the homes of the very rich."
A Book for A Cook', The Pillsbury Co. (1905)

Petit Pain Poilane...a whole wheat sourdough bread

Ciabatta

Vienna Bread New York Deli Rye

Baking bread reduces one's grocery bill considerably! Maria Monetessori suggested as a breakfast food for small children nothing more than a piece of bread with milk...and indeed in the morning few things make for such a heart-filling contented sunrise feast than a wedge of any bread slathered with butter or jam.

For mid-day repasts there are the parade of sandwiches...grilled cheeses, especially the mozerella sandwich saute'd in olive oil and dipped in marinara....and for deserts we cannot omit the mention of drizzled honey and Nutella.

[Breadmaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread." — M.F.K. Fisher (The Art of Eating)

"Bread is Better than the Song of Birds"

-Danish Proverb-
Bread baking in Winter is the continuation of the Farmer's romance with grass.
In a kind of patient passion, after the grain has been harvested and threshed and stored, after the grasses have long since died back and lie under a heavy blanket of Winter snow...the farmer mixes and kneads and causes to ferment grains in a warm kitchen...buoyed by a hot oven and many cups of tea.
The world of Bread is fascinating.
Peter Reinhart speaks of this tousle with the grain in his book "Artisan Bread Everyday":

" The baker's mission is to learn how to draw out the full potential flavor trapped in the grain...(he) accomplish(es) this by understanding the effects of time and temperature on the ingredients..."

He goes on to describe slow processes of cold fermentation (stick your dough in the refrigerator and go to sleep, letting the yeast work it's magic...) as a kind of "manipulation of time".
There is so much Romance packed into this way of speaking about Bread making. Everyone - bakers and non-bakers alike instinctively sense the historical signifigance of a loaf of freshly baked bread...there is a kind of continuity that is experienced
when one samples a loaf of home made bread, a continuity of experience that spans across the ages...linking all nationalities of human beings. Bread is the stuff of Life. A representation of the year's harvest. It is the universal food. Christ chose it to partake in His great Sacrament. It is the food of peasants and kings alike...It has sparked Revolutions, ("Let them eat Brioche") and it has been present at many a romantic Parisian picnic beside a bottle of wine.
We have been enjoying our foray into the world of Ryes, and Seed Cultures, Pane L'Anciene (the unbelievable experience of a truly french baguette, complete with crackling crust and airy crumb,)and other worthy adventures in persuading the grain to reveal itself...It truly is the perfect study for a farmer in Winter.

New Faces on the Farm

Love is in the air on little flower farm. It's breeding season for the sheep and goats, and two fellows have joined us just in time for the season's pairing off.

Olaf is our new creamy Oberhasli/Sanaan grade. He has a sweet disposition, and as a buckling is not as stinky as some of the bigger fellows can be. He rounds out our genetics now to include all of the major dairy breeds: Sanaan, Nubian, Toggenburg, Alpine, and Oberhasli. Hurrah for all that lovely cross-breed vigour! No ribbons here, folks, just delicious milk and fresh Chevre!

We are breeding our purebred Icelandics to a larger breed of sheep...in the interests of our lamb fans! Finnbar will bring some very nice wool genetics to the herd, and a boost in size too. He looks like a nice big fuzzy dog in amongst our ewes.

This is such a satisfying time of the year. The CSA field is put to bed...little shoots of Vetch and Rye are starting to sprout...the animals are all content with their Fall adventures in Amore, and the promise of Spring is tangible. The Hogs are putting on some last pounds...and the whole farm begins again its self sufficient cycle of new life. These are the best parts about farming...the parts that involve nothing else on the farmer's part....but contemplative enjoyment.

Thank you to those

members who are signing up early for 2011. Your memberships are making the improvement of our herds possible now-right when we need it.