Our first week at the farmer's market Seth and I met a couple named Tammy and Skip who were selling their homemade soaps. They have a wide variety of scents (40 to be exact) ranging from fruity to floral to earthy to clean. Some are water based. Others are made from goats milk.
The five of us farmers quickly struck up a friendship with Tammy and Skip, and last week they invited us to come out to their home to see how they make their soaps. So, on Tuesday morning Seth, Hailey, and I (along with a friend Jason) headed out for a trip to Tammy and Skip's that would prove to be so much more than we bargained for.
Around 9:30 we arrived at their house, which was about as "in the middle of nowhere" as you can get and nestled snugly into a thick parade of trees and fences. We were immediately greeted by a hoard of dogs, chicken clucks, and friendly calls and hellos from Tammy and Skip as they came down off the porch to shake hands with us. After a quick hello Tammy ran back inside to tend to her soaps (she'd already started making them - we were a little bit late), and Skip guided the four of us over the the chicken coop.
Now, since I've been here I have seen about a dozen different chicken coups - some up close and some in passing drives. This chicken coup was in a class all its own. First of all, it encased something like 50 chickens in total along with 6 roosters. The coup itself was about the size of a large, two story, children's playhouse, and the accompanying "yard" area where the chickens run around outside was a good 20x25 feet. The whole thing was fenced in around the perimeter, but it was also netted on top. It looked a lot like one of those bird habitats you see at the zoo. Very tall and cone shaped. And yes, Skip made the whole thing himself, a detail that would continue to pop up everywhere we went on their property. Skip explained that he liked to have the whole chicken yard enclosed because it keeps out the critters who eat the chickens and/or the chickens' food (raccoons, etc.). He also told us about how he spreads the bottom of the chicken pen with his horses' manure so that the chickens will eat out all the bugs (pest control) and spread the manure around with their feet thus beating it into the beginning phase of some pretty amazing fertilizer. After the chickens have their time with it, Skip scoops all this soil-in-progress into a pile outside of the pen and lets the worms at it for awhile. The worms work the dirt even more, aerating it and mixing it further. After the worms have done their part the soil is black and rick and heavy, and Skip uses it to fertilize his garden. While we were at the pen Skip also explained to us about the chickens' mating habits, social habits, and egg laying habits as well as the genealogies and national heritages of the different breeds. Did you know that what we think of as a standard chicken was brought over by the English? And that there are chickens that are native to America, but they look more like hawks and lay bluish and greenish eggs? It was so interesting to me. I mean, who knew you really could have green eggs and ham!
After we learned all about the chickens Skip corralled us over to take a look at the famous goats. Tammy and Skip have about 15 different goats. Some are little babies. One was as big as a small horse with horns that curled back like cinnamon buns. Oh, and besides horses, chickens, and cute goats, Tammy and Skip also have a llama. At the goat pen Skip and Tammy told us about the goats' milking schedules, their diets, and their necessary maintenance while we pet all of their sweet little heads and fed them grains from our palms. Next to the goat pen Skip has built a milking workshop. He took us inside and showed us how he built the whole thing from the ground up. He also designed and built a goat milking station based on a picture he saw in a magazine. It's a little complicated to explain, but suffice it to say that it was verrry cool and very practical. Skip and Tammy use the goats milk for their soaps and for their personal milk consumption needs. They are currently working on getting certified to be able to sell their raw goats milk. Did I mention that on top of the chickens, goats, horses, llama, soaps, milking, and building things Tammy and Skip are also learning to make cheese? Yum!!
Part II
After a long and educational outdoor field trip, we eventually made it into the house where Tammy was busy in the kitchen making up her famous soaps. I would have never guessed it was such a complicated, exact, and scientific endeavor. It's funny to me when I remember that this whole summer project was supposed to be all about the "simple". I have found that there is nothing simple about the amount of work involved in the food community here. It is unbelievable to me the amount of knowledge, skill, and precision that goes into everything I've witnessed here. From making cheese to making soaps to running an organic farmers market to harvesting your cucumbers at the right time to regulating a plant's water intake. It's an art. And these people are movers and shakers, doers and thinkers. They create and build. They use their hands as well as their minds. Old simple Ray Daley has a BA in Biology and Masters Degree in Animal Science! Tammy is an absolute chemist as she measures oils and fats and lye down to the smallest particle and heats everything with incredible accuracy to create a creamy soap instead of a massive explosion. Spending so much time with all of these eclectic, earthy, do-it-yourself, self sustaining people, I can't help but be not only impressed but intensely inspired. It truly is wonderful the amount of life these people put into their days!
In the kitchen Tammy fed us some homemade mozzarella and blueberry cheeses along with some homemade kiwi and peach ice cream! She enlightened us on the very precise step-by-step process of soap making. She talked to us about her childhood, how she was raised, and her belief in that old saying about idle hands. She never allows herself to get bored. She learns. Constantly. She shares. She reads. She makes tea. She grows a garden. She makes soaps. She teaches special ed. She is superwoman.
When it was finally time for us farmers to head out, Skip and Tammy loaded us up with 4 dozen fresh eggs from their chickens and two quarts of fresh goats milk. They also sent us off with three or four jars of homemade jams and compotes made complete with fruit from their trees as well as the Jamaican rum they brought back from their vacation. Before we left we finished up our coffee while Skip showed us the magazine pictures of an outdoor bread oven that he will be building for Tammy for her birthday (the llama was a Valentine's Day gift). As they walked us to our car Skip gave a whistle, and his two horses came galloping through the woods to let us rub their noses and feed them peppermint candies. A very sweet send off.
On the drive home we passed by thier son's log cabin that he and Skip built together, and I thought about the heaping helpings of partnership, teamwork, support, creativity, fun, and giving that are so apparent in Skip and Tammy's marriage.
It was a lovely day spent with lovely people. And it was just another one of those perfect little moments when I felt so incredibly blessed to be exactly where I am.
