Down on the Bauernhof

Well howdy there or should I say Guten Abend. I haven´t even attempted to learn any German, it is way to complicated for my little pea brain, especially at this stage in the game...but I can´t help but want to learn a few words here and there.

So...I am in Bavaria, way in the Southland of Germany, I can see the Alps from the kitchen window here, that´s how far south I am.

I am living on the farm of Monika and Ullrich Leiner for at least another few days; I arrived here last Wednesday and have been happy as a clam (giddy as a goat?) ever since.

They have been on this particular piece of land for twenty years, have a herd of 60 milk goats, and churn out wonderful, organic goat cheese which they sell at the local market here twice a week and make their living here in this way.

Having me here is not unusual for them at all as they have practicum students here frequently from the local agricultural college. They don´t usually have folks here for such a short time, and normally Monika wouldn´t have allowed it as you can´t really learn anything in ten days and it can be more trouble than not to have someone ghosting around. But...they´ve never had anyone here from the States and they were interested in the cultural exchange, and she knew how interested I was in the farm operations and the cheesemaking, so she allowed it.

So far it´s been an incredibly cool experience. I have mostly been in the cheese making room, watching fresh milk turn into both soft and hard cheeses, a process I have never seen. But twice a day the goats get milked, and I have hung around the stable on a few occasions to watch them clamor around.

(see video of this if you like...)

Monika and Ullrich are incredibly good at this, very efficient...they have to be since it´s just the two of them (they have 3 children who are all grown and aren´t interested in farming...two of them still live at home and are in college). I keep thinking about Gwen when I´m watching the cheesemaking, because I know she would absolutely appreciate the speed at which Monika moves around and how spotlessly clean every aspect of her operation is.

She makes cheese every day because there´s milk every day. That is, until February when all the goats give birth (all sixty of them are pregnant). It doesn´t add up to tons of cheese, but it´s enough for them to sell, and have plenty left over for them to eat. they aren´t interested in expanding their market, they have plenty of work already, but they easily could.

I have really enjoyed being in a home, with my own little room that I don´t have to check out of every day.

I generally get up around 6, and am in the cheesery between 6:30 and 7:30. We work until around 10 o´clock and then have breakfast. Yay for real breakfast! The Germans eat wonderfully, and the food here is mostly from their farm. In the mornings we have cheese (there are about 7 to 10 kinds to choose from), a few slices of meat (usually goat and\or ham ´cause that´s who lives here on the farm...) homemade bread (wheat and rye...no white!), fruit and tomatoes with butter and jam, coffee and tea. Real food! I have grown so accustomed to the non-existent breakfasts of Portugal and Spain that I forgot about actual breakfasts!

Lunch is their big meal, a soup followed by some sort of meat and two or three vegetable dishes. We have mostly had red cabbage cooked with cinnamon and cloves, and a really nice beet dish. There are usually potatoes as well. And they have dessert at this meal...we have been having stewed apples from their tree with fresh cream.

Dinner is pretty much a repeat of breakfast with slightly different additions, like pickles, coming to the table. It´s been...lovely to eat such nice fresh food, so it´s been a real treat.

Anyway, I´m gonna sign off for now...there is only one computer here and Johanna, their youngest needs to use it...as does Ullrich...so, I´ll write you again before I leave (I will go into Munich for a little sightseeing on Friday and then head back to Madrid a week from today).

I just read over this post and it seems really scattered...ugh, my brain. I keep thinking that when I get home I want to sit at the computer and clean up this writing, egads...

okey doke...talk to you soon...