farming and cooking

So, here is my first blog entry! Gaelan is participating in the WNC Chef's challenge tomorrow night! I think I am more nervous than him! I keep having anxiety dreams about it, like we're late or that I can't get in to attend, etc. He seems surreally calm. Nate from Knife and Fork invited him in the late winter when he got notified he would be invited to compete. He and Gaelan have formed a nice bond. Gaelan learned a lot from him last winter when he worked there. He has really developed these last years into a fine cook. Doing the dinners on our farm I think have given him a lot of confidence and he really likes to use his creativity. He is also so confident when he  cooks now! And he bosses me around a lot more now in the kitchen too- one downside to every upside!
So..one the farm. We don't have any help yet which is starting to seem like a poor move. I am still homeschooling each morning and Gaelan is at the farm. So this week mini "spring break " from schooling to put the hands in the dirt and get a bunch of delayed projects done! I am looking forward to it. I get cranky when I am not active enough. I've done lots of seeding and helped with all the planting out, etc, but I'm feeling the need to "get into the groove" again.
We had our first market on Saturday. It rained like hell the first 2 hours and felt like it would be miserable. But customers still came and then  the sun shone and it felt like another world. I sold everything and wished I had more to sell! Carmella ate a ton and teased our neighbor farmer a lot.
Today she and I walked down to the farm and had some fun chats. We saw some ladybugs along with some bumblebees on some iliagnus plants. She said , "They're probably eating the aphids! " She went on to explain how the ladybugs were good bugs and it was good to eat the bad aphids. I guess she was listening last year when we roamed the tomatoes! She also loves to chase and wrangle the lambs in the barn. She loves to open their mouth and look at their teeth. She said they are smiling when she does that. We hung out with the piglets and they were more "friendly, now that they're settled in" she said. THey did in fact nibble and sniff her hands and clothes today. She picked some parsnips and radishes and fed it to them.
We also said goodbye to Gerda's calf yesterday. Gerda mooed and bellowed for him after he left. We didn't feel we could eat him. Somehow cows are so different seeming to us than the other animals we raise. Maybe it's the eyes. Carmella was sad and said "he loved me" about Gadjo. She is such a sensitive little farm girl!