Tag Archives: coyotes

A Winged Elm Farm Alphabet Book: “G”

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“G” is for Goose  

Guardian of the farm, savage frightener to children of all ages, centerpiece on the holiday table, loyal spouse and provider of a most excellent fat, this is the goose.

Its stately presence navigating the swathes of green grass is not unlike the pictures of a Spanish Galleon sailing the ocean. That noise from a flock, indicating a threat, whether coyote, pickup truck or child, inspires awe at high decibels. The roasted breast is as red and finely grained as the best beef. A confit of legs preserved in their fat is well served shredded over pureed green peas. These are the tastes of our holiday farm table.

And the final gift of a quart of fat from one bird, browning our roast potatoes for the next year, makes for an appreciative farmer.

A Winged Elm Farm Alphabet Book: “E”

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“E” is for Evening Sounds

The sun sets. And our neighbor’s dinner call to her children echoes out of a nearby holler. The clang of our own dinner bell and the whir of the coffee grinder, the bleats from sheep demanding their due and bellows of cattle from farms up and down the valley all signal a change from day to night.

Deeper in that evening the frogs join the chorus by booming a query for love and answered in summer by locusts in the millions. The owls curiously hoot in a secret language exchanging tips, we imagine, on which field has the plumpest mice. We move out of the kitchen and settle into chairs on the front porch and listen for the night to begin. The sun’s final glow, hours after sunset, is claimed by the stars and moon which were waiting for their showier cousin to exit. On cue coyotes enter the valley singing to each other with weird triumphant yips. The evening ends and night begins.

Farm Poetry

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Farm Poetry: There is a tradition in literature of setting out an agricultural calendar in a sort of poem. Hesiod’s “Work and Days” dates to around 725 BC. He advises you to hire a mature plowman of 40 years of age. A younger man plows ill while dreaming of his social life.

One of my favorites is Thomas Tusser’s “Hundred Points of Husbandry” (mentioned previously), farming advice set to rhyme was published in 1557: A truly wonderful and instructive text that was the basis of one of my favorite books “Lost Country Life”. The author, Dorothy Hartley, used the poem to explore medieval village and farming life.

Last week, while reading some of Wendell Berry’s poetry from his “Sabbath” collection I discovered his contribution to this form of literature: “The Farm”. An instructional walk through the year on his farm it contains some true gems. He tackles in one section one of the thorniest issues we deal with in our life on the farm, competition with predators.

…Or old Coyote may

Become your supper guest,

Unasked and without thanks;

He’ll just excerpt a lamb

And dine before you know it.

But don’t, because of that,

Make war against the world

And its wild appetites.

A guard dog or a donkey

Would be the proper answer;

Or use an electric fence.

For you must learn to live with neighbors never chosen

As with the ones you chose.

Coyote’s song at midnight

Says something for the world

The world wants said. And when

You know your flock is safe

You’ll like to wake and hear

That wild voice sing itself

Free in the dark, at home.

By Wendell Berry: from “The Farm”