My first experience milking

Happy Monday everyone!! Today I am going to share with you my first experience milking Lucy (The Jersey cow at Broadturn Farm)

I met Megan at the farm at 8:00 am and Lucy was ready!! The above picture is of Lucy getting a little annoyed that we were taking so long... she was hungry and full of milk!
When we opened the gate Lucy went right to her milking area, it was amazing! (The grain might have helped)
She stood there and let us clean her up, I am pretty sure she enjoyed this as any girl loves getting pampered.

Megan showed me how to get the milking machine ready, I am sure there is a more technical term but I like milking machine better. This thing is the coolest!!! Once all the cylinders were on Lucy's teats the milk just started flowing. I could tell Lucy loved this part as well, as any nursing mom knows the release of milk after many hours of building up is heavenly!!

These are Lucy's friends looking pretty jealous of Miss Lucy... don't worry they got some love and affection when were done milking.

After the milk is done expressing there is the fun task of getting Lucy back in her fenced in area and not letting out the calf or the sheep, thankfully Megan was there to get a nice picture of that and to help me guide her in. Megan told me about all of her fun stories she has from her many times getting Lucy back in her area. One of the stories included baby lambs and chaos, I wish I could have been a fly on the wall that day.

The rest of the time was spent giving Lucy praise and love and then clean up. I got to take home a big gallon jar of the tasty raw milk, if you have never had the pleasure of a having a big glass of fresh raw milk or putting some of the yummy cream that settles to the top in your morning coffee then you my friend are missing out!!  I cannot wait to see Lucy again this week and bring home some more tasty milk to make yogurt and cheese with. I feel so lucky to have discovered Broadturn Farm and all of their awesomeness!!!
Check out their blog http://broadturnfarm.blogspot.com/
Support local farmers, buy local milk and keep Maine awesome!!

SOUP SOUP SOUP!!!

I made this soup yesterday and it rocked!!! Layla cannot get enough and it was soo easy!



Italian Pasta and Bean soup.

•1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

•1 medium onion, chopped

•2 Tbsp minced garlic

•6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

•1 1⁄2 cups farfallini (small bowtie pasta), tubettini or other small pasta

•2 cans (about 15 oz each) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

•1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes in juice

•1⁄2 cup chopped parsley

•1⁄4 cup grated Parmesan

Recipe Preparation

1.Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a 3-qt saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté 5 minutes or until light golden. Add garlic and cook, stirring for 1 minute.

2.Add broth and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook 5 minutes.

3.Stir in beans and tomatoes; cook 4 minutes or until pasta is tender. Remove from heat.

*I also added kale and mushrooms

MOVING AGAIN!!! A Greene Family Update

We are moving again, this is my 1000 time and Layla's 2nd move already!!!GRRRR
We are moving into an apartment which is not what I thought I would be moving into. We tried to purchase our first house but we applied for a loan through the USDA Rural development. They called last week and informed us that they did not receive a work verification from my job at Casa Novello and they could not process the application.... AND they ran out of funds....this is not helping my winter blues one bit. We have been dealing with this application process since November!!! So we have decided to rent again, save our money and try again in a year.

On a good note Layla is almost walking!! She has taken many steps.

                                                     Layla and daddy waiting for their Pho
She has also started saying a few words. Kitty, Thank you, Mamma, Dada and she also growls like a lion.

Greene Baby is going well!! The website is looking great thanks to my friend Mara. http://www.greenebaby.com/
We just had a photo shoot last week with my brother in law Jon. He did such a great job and I cannot wait to share them with everyone.
That is it over here!!! We are all very excited for Spring!!