Got milk? Oh yeah.

pictured: the sheep making their way to the barn in the morning - for milking and feeding

Done in a dim room swarming with flies (sounds really gross – it is), milking the sheep, goats, and cows takes about 2 hours. It’s the main business (they make and
sell butter and cheese in addition to fresh milks) so there’s even a special milking house -equipped with a long “treat trough” (my own term) filled with corn pellets and a seemingly medieval-inspired head-lock (like what they used to lock criminals heads and arms in to publicly embarrass at the town square) to keep the animals facing forward. it’s a very simplistic, yet efficient set up.

pictured: the cows at their designated milk stations

The animals know the routine (because they know what’s in the treat trough). Immediately they line up at the door – which when opened, creates a stampede of jumping, pushing, greedy animals (obviously stupid, since they will all eventually be fed and milked…funny enough, it’s just like some humans also possess the same pointless “rush” instinct – ie airplane boarding.)

pictured: where the magic happens - milk station // sheep awaiting their breast pump fitting

The actual milking is done primarily with pumps (just like a breast pump…I think), but you have to massage the utters and pull on the very long nipples to help stimulate milk flow. Sometimes there’s a special sheep/goat that must be milked by hand – so both alex and I have had that opportunity. It’s pretty fun, I guess, and we even thought we were pretty good at it – after all, milk was coming out in a nice stream. But when one of the apprentices (think big minnesota farmer girl/woman) took over, she showed us what was what – cause when she squeezed, that milk was pouring out – splashing even.

By the way, it;s amazing how warm (hot even) those sacks of milk are.

Turn fat into fun - with butter making 101!

Making butter is pretty simple, with the right tools.

pictured: the fat // the whipped fat // fat becomes fresh-made butter!

1. First if you’re using fresh from the cow milk you need a centrifuge. This seemingly house-hold appliance separates the fat from the rest of milk – leaving you with the heaviest cream possible and skim-milk. I’m not sure what the readymade product is called in-store.

2. The heavy cream (heavier than whipping cream) is then cooked (to kill bacteria) and then cooled.

3. Next, you whip the cream (maybe it’s churn) with the help of a machine and this leaves you with little solid pieces of butter and buttermilk.

4. After you filter and save the buttermilk (I always wondered why it was called that) you then must “wash” the butter by kneading it under cool running water.

5. The last step is filling a butter-mold with the soft butter and tada – butter!

It’s pretty fun, but I imagine it being more fun if could experiment with adding herbs and spices to the butter (mmm…garlic).

Animal farm

pictured: bavaria in the morning // Die grüne Ecke (farm)

Oink oink, baa, moo, neigh, meow, bark, hallo…this place is filled with animals – and germans.

upon starting work promptly after our arrival we knew we had gotten ourselves into some serious shit (literally and figuratively.) unlike plants (which is secondary), animals can’t wait. They need to be fed, cleaned up after, and milked – twice a day. And within an hour we were thrown (no introduction or any real explanation) into it all.

pictured: cows have really big heads

Alex took care of the feeding – wheel barrowing over lots and lots of green grass for the sheep and goats to chomp on, while I helped with the milking – something I really wanted to do – once. But the milk keeps on coming (it takes roughly 12 hours for the goats and sheep to make a full bust of milk) as does the poo - which of course is powered by food.

pictured: sheep and goats meet in the middle to feast on greens and flowers

And with so much milk being produced on a daily basis, there’s lots left over for butter and cheese making. Today I got to make some butter (see blog entry: Turn fat into fun - with butter making 101!). And while we haven’t yet made any cheese, we sure have been eating it! In the refrigerator is the biggest plate of specialty cheese I’ve ever seen (it’s probably worth hundreds of dollars if you were to get something similar in ny.). And because our diet is mostly bread here (breakfast and dinner are bread meals, lunch is the only “hot” meal) we have had the chance to try many cheeses. They are all good, but I kind of wish I knew what sort of cheese it is that i am enjoying.

Which brings me to the lack of communication we are (I am) experiencing. Even though the germans here know a decent amount of English, they forgo using it and only speak to alex – leaving me to stare at my feet or the flies during meals. It’s pretty tough - for me to just totally sit out of conversations – but there’s not much I can do (sometimes they even speak german to me as if maybe I’ll understand. – ie saying “we can speak English now” in german!) it’s not much better for alex. Even though he can understand what’s being said – sometimes we aren’t even told what to do, or why we’re doing it – so we end up just standing around until someone tells us a small part of the task (“move this there”). It’s really a bummer, cause this place is very interesting and there’s lots to learn – especially since is totally different from any of the other farms. Regardless, I do think we’ll still learn lots…it’ll just be like an ikea manual.

pictured: three pigs // pigs have strong noses

Anyway, I like the animals. The pigs are especially funny – I don’t think I’ve ever seen pigs like these. They look like animatronics since their eyes are skin are so human-eque. It’s a bit creepy, but I can’t help but want to give them a big fat hug. That is, if they weren’t rolling around in mud (typical) all day. Oh, and there’s a bunch of piglets that are free to roam around – and always look like they are up to something mischievous – in that cute happy pig way. Their noses feel nice.

pictured: horse and alex - horses have really nice noses as well

In addition to the pigs, there’s also: a horse, 3 cows, maybe 10 goats, 50 sheep, 2 dogs, a cat, and about 9 germans (we’ve only seen 3).

tschüß! - part one

pictured: the meal routine - cook & clean

today is our last day in treplin, germany. and i can say i'm pretty happy about that. to think of the showers and mosquito-free toilets that lie in our future is really, really - exciting.

and i really just wish i had spoken german. i think it would have been a bit different. or i wish that i hadn't felt so awkward here. this is the first place that on the last day, i feel no more comfortable than the first...

even with all my complaints, it has actually been a pretty nice time wwoofing on the barenfang biohof. i especially enjoyed harvesting day (even though it's much harder than one would think). even more, i really grew fond of harvesting food for lunch and dinner. there's nothing like a meal cooked with ingredients from a few meters away. mmm...

to celebrate the last day alex and i decided to bike across the country and see what fun poland has to offer (it's really not that far - 15 km - but still, sounds cool).

pictured: poland and germany separated by the oder river

first up was checking out frankfurt. not the frankfurt you've heard of. the other one. the one that has to have a parenthesis of the bordering river whenever it's mentioned - frankfurt (oder). the one that you won't ever visit. because there's nothing to do.

a small, working town, it actually felt very big compared to treplin. there were grocery stores! and there were malls (ek, but oooh, air conditioning). but that's about it. it's a bit of an ugly town. but at least they have pretty good bike paths!

and poland is just across the oder river. a town with an ugly looking name - Słubice - seems to be nothing more than a place for germans to get cheap cigarettes, petrol, and haircuts(?) because that's all there is when you cross over. store after store of that. and we couldn't even buy anything even if we wanted. they don't use the euro (yet) and the people apparently speak german, but don't like to (i get it).

pictured: alex in poland // me in poland

so, you can see why we didn't stick around long.

back to frankfurt (oder) (seriously, parenthesis every time...sad, sad, sibling city). we cooled off in a really big, nice looking church for a bit. took some pictures of the nicest buildings (really, nothing else even slightly resembles the old, nice buildings). then headed back to treplin for a swim in our favorite lake.

pictured: people really try to make things nice in frankfurt (oder) - not easy, but funny! // the nice buildings of frankfurt (oder) - museum of young art and city hall

a nice day. but our legs feel like jello (a description my friend katie once came up with - and it's so accurate!)

tomorrow it's berlin time. for a day. for the world cup final (unfortunately germany lost, so maybe it won't be as fun as we were hoping). then we are off to bavaria to see if the stereotypes of round bellies, suspenders, and all that german kitsch is really true.

pictured: the barenfang meadow at sunset

bean there, done that

pictured: clippers looks so cute and friendly - but they aren't

the end of the week ended up with a few surprises.

on thursday we luckily didn't have to shovel sheep shit from one pile to the next. instead we were given possibly the worst branch clippers (sorry, i don't know the technical name) known to man. and we were told to go out into the meadow and cut down the "big weeds". big weeds aren't weeds. they are trees. and these trees are growing...everywhere. there are minitrees that come out of previously cut trees. and there are big trees that somehow were overlooked during the last "big weed kill". and no matter the size - there's lots and lots of very tall grass, and other weeds that block your view and your cutting opportunity of the weed-tree's branch.

this job was bad. but we decided it wasn't as bad as shoveling shit. 6 hours of tree killing isn't fun though. a weed whacker would have been the choice tool. but they don't have that here. just very old branch clippers.

then friday - harvest day - rolled around and we were surprised with very few strawberries - sadly, that's now a good thing for us.

we were told not to waste our time on the small ones and only pick the big ones. so i took it upon myself to just eat every small one i came across. that was good. also because there weren't as many berries to harvest - my arm was a little less itchy (but the damn bushes still gave me a rash - so i was/am kind of itchy). and we had Nils helping us (he's the apprentice) so we were done picking strawberries in two hours or so. maybe less.

so then we moved on to the fields of beans. where were the beans??? oh, there they are. green beans. nice, long, fresh, crisp, yummy green beans (i grew up calling these string beans...does anyone else call them that?) i hadn't ever seen a green/string bean plant. when i had first seen these plants two weeks ago i thought they were peppers. oops.

pictured: green bean plant // me and my hotness // my collection of beans

it was pretty fun to pull beans from their plants - but it was really hot. so my legs were dripping in sweat - so i rolled up my pants. then spiders started to crawl on me. but it was too hot to bother.

and after all that bean pulling i went to pick the first tomatoes of the season and alex went to harvest radishes.

and then we picked flowers again. with three people it took 3 hours. not as bad as 4. but could have been better. i think motivation was running low. and flowers were running low. they were all burned up. poor guys.

and then it was the end of our last day of work here - yipee!

repeat week

pictured: me...i've truly let myself go here (with no shower, no mirrors, and no one around, it's inevitable really) // the tiniest carrot ever

running a farm is a bit repetitive. you plant, you weed, you water, you harvest and then you start all over. sometimes nature throws you a curve ball and then you have to rethink your cycle. but when you're only at a place for two weeks you can expect to do things over and over.

and that's what this week has been like.

monday we harvested the left over strawberries that will be turned into jam (see entry from last monday - it was exactly the same). and we pruned the tomato plants and helped them grow up their string in the plastic tunnel (a little different because there are red tomatoes now - yum!)

tuesday we picked at plants. for some reason, people plant carrots with some push-seed-wheel device and in most cases, it over-seeds the plants. meaning instead of one carrot plant every inch or so, you have 5 in one inch. meaning someone has to go back and pick away at the 4 extra plants to make room for that one carrot. that someone was alex and i. and it wasn't just a foot of carrots. it was 6 very long rows of thousands of tiny carrot plants. better than weeds - but kinda the same. and i like it, but my back and neck don't like it. and it kinda drives you crazy...cause your brain just drifts and you focus and focus and pull...whew. at least we got to pull up carrots - even if they were only a few centimenters long and translucent instead of orange. they still tasted like carrots.

and today, wednesday, we planted some more plants. flowers instead of herbs. my fingers are once again chewed up and dirty.

tomorrow, thursday...i don't yet know. i fear tomorrow nature will throw us a wild card and a truck will dump off tons of sheep shit. which will need to be shoveled to another area by some naive city dwellers. i really hope that possibility (mentioned on monday) falls through. i don't want to sit, stand on, or shovel shit.

friday is harvest day. there will be some more strawberry picking and many more hours of flower picking.

saturday is another free day. we think we might ride our bikes to poland! just so we can say we've been to poland.

sunday we leave for berlin to watch the world cup. too bad germany just lost to spain. now it won't be as fun. thanks for nothing germany.

bike trip! - free day #2

pictured: the area to be explored // alex on bike // animals in the area

with a pair of bikes awaiting our bums and the sun shinning at a brilliant 85 degrees - alex and i headed off on dirt roads, cobblestone paths, and smooth bike paths.

our destination? falkenhagen
why? ice cream
why's that special? because there's only one restaurant (meat-centric, no thanks), one grocery store (the one that's seldom open), and one crappy ice cream stand within miles and miles. and markus said there was ice cream in falkenhagen, so we figured we should go (even though we were just hopping for something along the lines of baskin robbins)

but we found so much more. the ice cream place is an ice cream palace. they have all sorts of flavors and combination sundaes and shakes and yummy yum-ness. they even have haribo marshmallow ice cream! unfortunately we didn't get that, even though i REALLY wanted to try it. and this ice cream palace was hopping - the parking lot was full and the bike racks were kinda full. there was a tacky, small-town vacation-ness to the whole place - but it was great, and it really made us feel as though we had escaped into a dreamworld.

i had a strawberry bowl - with strawberry and vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and of course, strawberries. alex went for the banana bowl with banana and chocolate ice cream, whipped cream and yep, bananas! we swapped some scoops, hoping to get that perfect banana split ratio. it was divine.

pictured: the ice cream palace's cheesy, yet welcoming entrance // i'm a strawberry kind of girl (i wear red) // our magical scoops with apple drinks // alex is a banana man (he wears yellow)

then we headed out into the woods for an adventure. we found nothing more than sheep poo, lots of bugs, and sandy roads - not very bike friendly. no wild boars or other fun animals were spotted :(

pictured: land, lots and lots of land

and after out falkenhagen exploration we headed back to that oh so special, clean lake for an evening dip and bath. it felt so nice.