Fall Weekends Rock (Lots of Photos)

I love love love Fall. And I love love love Fall weekends. There's always something going on, and I'm living in a place that has cool Fall temperatures.

This weekend we visited a farm we buy food from through the Nebraska Co-op, and we had good friends over to carve pumpkins with us.

Kvam Family Farm is about an hour and half drive away, down a dirt road, amid other farms. It's a comfy setting of a few barns, a few cows, a few chickens, and a lot of cats. They think it's important that you know the farmer you buy from, so they held an "Open Farm Day" on Saturday.



This farm isn't that old, and the Kvams haven't come from a farming family--they've learned it all on the job, so to speak. They decided to live a healthier life, so they wanted to produce their own foods without preservatives and so forth. This didn't go over well with their pre-teen daughters, but they seem to enjoy the farm. Now older teens, they are polite, knowledgeable and well spoken as they gave us a tour of the farm.

We toured the different barns,

pet the calf, who decided I was tasty, so she kept licking me,




while the other cows were being milked,


scratched the dog's ears,


escaped being pecked by the chickens and gathered eggs,




and gave up trying to count all the cats.




The turkeys started out being penned up, but they grew tired of that, preferring their free roaming ways.




We also learned how to make vinegar cheese and keifer (a sour, yogurt-like milk drink made from raw milk) and just enjoyed hanging out with the family. I'm fascinated with artisan cheese makers, so I probably wore out my welcome asking questions about the milk and cheese. They aren't cheese makers, she's learning though.

We also carved pumpkins this weekend. I love carving pumpkins, and when you can do it with a group of friends, it's even more fun. Our friends and their two daughters came over for a lunch of red beans and rice and cornbread and an afternoon of cleaning out pumpkin guts.

This was dessert. It's a very rich and thick fudge-like cake. If you would like the recipe, I can email it to you. It takes a little work, but it's worth it.



Outlining the face


This is a precariously hanging bat


Finished products


So, how was your weekend?