Wild blackberries

When I went out to milk this morning, I discovered a day so yucky outside that the goats hid in their shed glaring at me. It was a bit like a scene out of Children Of The Corn, had they been goats in a shed avoiding the rain rather than creepy looking blond kids in a corn field. The damp, enhances the earthy smell of animals on a farm. It creates an unpleasant grungy environment for all living things except the garden. Even the chickens were unimpressed as it poured down, though they were still outside in their run going crazy in the mud in search of worms. Our usually cranky rooster was beside himself miserable and wet. The dog hid in the house like a president hiding from a big ugly list… The sky was grey, it wasn’t even particularly warm and the humidity was suffocating. I could feel my lungs gasping and begging for death with every breath of damp sludge masquerading as air that I took in.


Later, the rain let up. The sky didn’t clear immediately but some of the humidity did. Dr. Farmer Moomin, has returned from his trip home to see his family for his brother’s wedding. Congrats guys!!! So sorry farms are prisons. I would have loved to have been there. I was sending all my best wishes. I hope they find you both. As the air cleared of humidity, we got to go out with Pikku, Dr. Farmer Moomin lead the way. Pikku, was strangely jumping out of her skin and needed to release some dog zoomies. Dr. Farmer Moomin, got her running then she ran till she was spent and once again the lazy couch potato she usually is.

While he got Pikku moving, I did a bit of foraging at the edge of the woods. It’s blackberry season!!! They are growing wild going crazy here. So I made a small harvest. Tomorrow I will go back out for more. They were absolutely perfect and delicious. Packed with nutrition as wild foods always are. That piquant tart sweet berry flavor… The flavor of acidic New England earth colliding with the flavor of damn I am glad I’m alive, fusing in my mouth all at once. The taste of the tiny postage stamp of wilderness that lays along one side of our little homestead. It was thrilling and so joyful to make such a lucky find at the edge of our woods. This is one of those sacred homestead moments I wouldn’t trade for anything. As I stuff blackberries into my mouth… The sky magically begins to clear…

This moment is part of a life I once dreamed of but never expected or believed that I would ever get to live, expecting I would admire photos of homesteading on the internet, till a stroke of evil known as sudden onset allergies struck. Destroying my life and forcing me to find a new way to live in order to avoid unbelievably serious reactions. I never knew when looking at the photos of this life on Pinterest, that living it tastes like blackberries from the edge of the woods after a passing rain shower. I could taste the rain the berry bush had just soaked up in the juice of the berries. For one precious moment I was part of the wildness of nature simply fulfilling my roll in it taking advantage of my natural nitch. I got more than a moment from those berries. More than a big hit of fiber. More than berry juice. I got to truly be alive and a part of the natural order. This is the best part of homesteading. Moments of connection, in which you are part of nature simply happening… Then, I saw the sun, hazy in the sky as the clouds continued to clear… 

Thank you for reading
Amanda Of Wildflower Farm