Just Plain Rosanna - Day In The Life - Part I - Morning

BY ROSANNA BAUMAN – PART I

Editors' Note:  This is part I of a three-part series about a typical day on the Bauman farm.

When folks first get introduced to our family farm, they are sometimes suspicious of its diversity, wondering how our family can truly do all these different things on one farm. The important thing is, our farm is all interconnected, both people and projects are woven together that we function only as a whole. To try to compartmentalize our lives or ventures would be disaster. Here, I have attempted to record what happens in my life on a typical farm day:

Morning: Prayer, Proof-reading, and Commute: It’s Friday morning, and I roll out of bed around 6:30 because today isn’t a butchering or market day. On those days I peel myself out of bed at 5:00. I am, unfortunately, neither a morning person nor a coffee drinker. Therefore, the first thing I do after my eyes pop open is pray for wisdom and courage to do the tasks I need to do today, and then I try to remember what needs done! Ivin and Dad are at the shop for their 7:00 meeting with the rest of my brothers, where they are also strategizing about who does what today. My mother is starting laundry and Joanna leaves for the Butcher Block, to assist with meat-cutting today since they are short-handed. In the relative quiet, I critique my column that I wrote the night before and make adjustments and additions. I am ferocious about proof-reading my writing because it’s important to me that the words I choose convey what I intended. Finishing this, I load my laptop in the basket of my bicycle to bike the quarter-mile to the farm. I love the short bike to the farm, but the spring has been so late coming that I haven’t gotten to enjoy it much this year. But now, the sun is rising, and I bike with great contentment past our pasture filled with spring-green grass and munching cattle. I notice that the Canada geese have taken their goslings out for a pasture stroll…

Rosanna tends to her flock in the early morning...

Mid-Morning: Poultry, Paperwork, and Planning:  Rolling into the farm at 8:00, I meet a farmer from Missouri  named Dan who is here to pick up his chickens we processed and some livestock feed. I pull his chickens out of the freezer and discover that he actually wanted them kept fresh, but it wasn’t written on our packaging order. Oops. We discuss the state of the local food-system for a bit, comparing notes on farmers of mutual acquaintance and their farming practices, as well as consumer-advocacy groups. We both know that there’s room for all the farmers at the local-food table, but we need to collaborate more.  Dan loads his chickens in coolers, then pulls out to the feed mill for Ivin to load his non-GMO feed. We stand in the sun, discussing his future piglet supply. We don’t have piglets here, so we have to work closely with farmers who do have sows so that we can purchase quality hogs for our own customers.

Granola is a common breakfast food in the Bauman household

Here is a great recipe to start the day!