Andy cannot let a new year's day go by without partaking in the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of pork, sauerkraut and potatoes. It is said: pork and sauerkraut for good luck and a prosperous new year. It is said: eat sour cabbage for a sweet new year. It is said: pork because pigs root forward with their snouts, signifying progress. Of course, there is the fact (in which tradition is so often rooted) that pork, cabbage and potatoes are what have historically been available in the belly of winter. Armed with the lovely stories beget of humble facts, here we are, hoping that a simple meal will heap good tidings on our endeavors. Our meal was quite cobbled together, and not in keeping with tradition, but there were potatoes, albeit fried (in lard!) for breakfast; there was Milkhouse pork, albeit of the pulled variety, and there was sauerkraut, albeit from Morse's by way of Hannaford. The story of that last one is our cabbage seedlings got toasted in the greenhouse, we never planted more, we haven't gotten any storage cabbage from farmer friends and even if we had, odds are we wouldn't have fermented any given our track record for putting food by this year. But really, I'm fine with all of that, because I love Morse's sauerkraut.

And now we're happily eating pulled pork sandwiches for the next few days. Not a bad beginning, especially given the wicked cold these days. It has been a harsh and beautiful winter so far. In between telling of their power outage woes, everyone who talks of the ice storm marvels at it's intricacy, its entirety. There is great allure to a landscape which shines so brightly we can hardly look at it.

I am talking of this season's winter like I know it well when really my time outdoors has been much lessened by Andy's and my son, Linus. Our homebound days with him have been some of the sweetest of my life, and one of my favorite of many short eras. We're on the other side of that time now, for the most part, and learning how to juggle baby, business, our little homestead, and Andy's time at Two Loons Farm. Some days are hazy after little sleep, and on others, Linus sleeps like a champ through the night & day and we are unabashedly impressed with our once run of the mill daily accomplishments.

A few updates from the Milkhouse: we've got winter pigs in the works, our yogurt and milk is now MOFGA certified, we're going to be the Belfast Coop's featured vendor for January, we're picking up some new equipment to make our yogurt processing more efficient and we're now selling yogurt and milk at a few new locations: Fresh Off the Farm in Rockport, and the Good Tern Coop and Terra Optima in Rockland.

We've had a wild year and are looking forward to another year of many changes and much progress. Here's to a happy, healthy, bright, prosperous, and sweet new year.

Series 1

Series 2

These pig babies arrived shortly after Linus.

The Hobart. Revolutionizing our methods. Our new favorite thing, after Linus.

Snowed in.There are many hoop structures out there if you can spot em.

The pigs keep in warm in the hoophouse. Note the steam.

Snow pigs. This fella is always in front.