Living Kitchen Farm and Dairy

This week I am attending the Urban Ag workshop. Today was the second of the workshop and they took us out to a working farm and goat dairy.  We loaded a charter bus and took the ride to Depew Ok where the Living Kitchen farm and Dairy is.

When each one of us got off the bus we had to get a piece of paper that would divide us up into 4 groups.  There was honeybees, forging, dairy, and 3 sisters.  I had 3 sisters and my friends were in two different groups.  The person in charge of our group walked us out into the fields were the crops were.  There is a Native American story about the 3 Sisters which in short each sister ended up being corn, beans, and squash.  She told us the story of the sisters and explained to us what we were going to do.  We were the workers of all the groups.  We got to plant the beans and a melon along with a companion flower next to each corn sprout coming up.  We had to do three rows and these rows were long lol.  I got to plant the beans while the other ladies each helped with the others as well.  And oh by the way it was about 93 degrees today and we were in the middle of a field and our only shade was a tent they put up for us.  After planting and a glass of water (which they provided us with Mason jar cups of water that was cool)  We then had to harvest beets, cabbage, and potatoes, which we were going to be eating these for lunch.  I really loved digging for the potatoes with my hands.  I usually garden with my hands and I don't use gloves.  It was to neat to see how potatoes grow and how u harvest them.  We got to harvest red, white, and purple, yes I said purple, potatoes.

Since we were finished we had a few questions and drank more water before walking to the cabin for lunch.  We walked up the road to the cabin.

Well after I got all hot and sweaty walking to lunch I finally arrived at the cabin.  There was cooking demonstration going on with the foods we harvested.  One group got to milk the goats which by the way produce a gallon of milk a day per goat (I need a goat cause my boys drink a gallon a day).  That group then made cheese, which they later told us after lunch that process.  My group brought the cabbage, beets, and potatoes, the third group got to work with honeybees.  They learned a lot about the bees.  We had fresh honey for our tea.

After a few questions we moved to the dinning room for lunch.  We had family style lunch.  I tried a beet for the first time not too bad.  All the food was very healthy and good.  After lunch we got back into our groups to share what we learned with the other groups.  We all had to walk back to the bus and then head back to Tulsa.  Today was truly much better and a very fun day more than yesterday, where we just sat and listened to speakers about how obese we are as a state etc.