Milch Cows & Dairy Farming: An 1860's Book to be Remembered

Me and my little sister posing with cute smiles (surely in the middle of a battle!)
Among my favorite wedding presents was a book my sister gave us. The book is called Milch Cows and Dairy Farming, authored by Charles Flint and printed in 1860. Charles Flint dedicated the book to The Mass. State Board of Agriculture, the Mass. Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and the Various Agricultural Societeies of the United States, Whose Efforts Have Contributed So Largely to Improve the Dairy Stock of Our Country.
 
All in all it’s a well-maintained book, especially given the fact that it’s 150 years old! I love reading old books for the sage advice about how it was done in the old days. How things operated before a significant amount of outside inputs were required. Back when you would sit on a plank to press your cheese.
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End of the Summer CSA Season


The vegetable fields at our CSA group's farm, Garden of Eve on Long Island in NY
Our CSA ended its summer season last weekend and it made me think of how much has happened since we first started sourcing our food intentionally. Our farm dream was largely influenced by our self-education on the industrialized food system. Combine that with our desire to start a business and pursue a different life together and you have our vision of Little Seed and sustainable farming.
 
For those not familiar with CSAs, the acronym stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Customers pay a lump sum at the beginning of a season (usually winter and summer) and then pick-up the goods over the course of a specified time-period. Our summer CSA runs from June through mid-November. CSAs can pretty much offer any farm product, including veggies, fruits, eggs, milk, cheese, meat, flowers, grains or any combination therein. We did veggies, fruit, eggs and flowers this year.

We first joined the CSA exactly two years ago with what’s called a “winter share”.
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