New Beginning

With our new website about to go up with a link to the blog, I figure I'm going to have to find some new ambition. Good intentions only get one so far, I guess.  Hard work gets you the rest of the way.

Here in Vermont the leaves are starting to change and I believe it will be a beautiful foliage season. Most of the week was clear and sunny - the feel of fall was really in the air - and as I drove around the earliest  trees were changing.  Corn is coming in, the last cuttings of alfalfa are laying in windrows - yup, summer is over.

This week my work varied from a calf health consult on one of the premier purebred farms in the country where the calves are worth 6 figures to a family cow at the top of the mountain in Lincoln, VT.   I operated on a 3 year old cow on a commercial dairy making over 100 pounds of milk a day, neutered some piglets, and treated a pet goat that escaped from her pen and, as goats will do, found the grain bag and overindulged. That's the kind of variety that I enjoy and keeps me loving the work I do.

 

 

 

Fresh Ricotta, courtesy Peaches

I really enjoy the the gifts my clients and patients share with me frequently.  This week I was able to bring home some cheddar cheese from Shelburne Farms, winter squash from my friends at Conant's Riverside Farm and some fresh milk from Peaches the cow in Lincoln.  The squash and cheese wait for some inspiration, but Peaches' milk went into homemade frozen custard (with fresh eggs sold me by the 10 year old son of a dairy client) and fresh ricotta cheese that will be used in a stuffed pepper recipe with peppers and zucchini from my garden. 

 

It's nice to be back at work after a long weekend away at a big meeting where I was able to spend time with some great friends, sit in on some cutting edge presentations, and generally soak in the vibes from over 1200 enthusiastic bovine vets and students.  More about that in my next post. 

   

Frozen Custard