Sausage and Potato Soup

1# sausage
2 medium onions-chopped
5c. potatoes, sliced thick
2c. stock, I use homemade chicken
1t. salt
1/4 t celery seeds
pepper
2 1/2c. creamy milk
3T chopped fresh parsley
1T fresh minced marjoram (1/2 t dried)
Saute' onions and sausage, drain the fat, and remove sausage, add potatoes, stock, salt, celery seeds and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer until the potatoes are done. Approximately 20 min. Add sausage, milk, parsley and marjoram. Simmer over med-low heat about 10 min. Mash it slightly with a potato masher, not all of it, so it thickens but there are still chunks.

This is quintessential Olde Sow Chow, if you ever wonder what the farmers' cook for dinner. The fun thing with this ,too, is that you can change up the mood of this soup by which sausage you use, Garlic, andouille, sweet italian, it's all good. I love making soup and stock in the winter, it just wouldn't be winter without hardy soups and stews and juicy chunks of roast meat!
Our little girls 4 and 2 years old are "wicked" as we say in Maine, wicked carnivores. Dante and I joke that they went straight from momma's milk to meat. It's not far off the mark.
Gotta go wash dishes so I can start dinner and run out to the barn to fluff the girls beds, and make sure they are tucked in.

Teeny Tiny

Teeny Tiny is a lapdog kind of cow. We really adore her and she gives delicious creamy milk. She is pretty small, hence the name Teeny Tiny. The story from her previous owners, I believe is that she was born on a small organic dairy in the winter, and got chilled. So naturally they moved her into their house, where she lived in a playpen, for a couple months. She does have a slight identity crisis, but is always the first to greet you and to see what's happening.

Last night when I went to milk her, she rewarded my efforts with a couple rapid fire kicks right to my shin. "What the heck?" This isn't like Teeny. More careful observation from a different ( safer) angle revealed some kind of wound to her udder. Not good. I couldn't get that quarter milked out all the way. I don't know if another cow stepped on her udder while she was laying down, or if Gale, resident Diva cow with soon to be removed horns had a go at her. I'm not a happy farmer, need to go out and clean it with some tea tree oil and slather some pure Vit E oil on it. Poor Teeny.

The gorgeous children in the photo are 4 of our 5 little ones. The baby, Ida May, wasn't in the photo. She was too busy ripping out my hair, from her perch on my hip while I attempted to take photos. Need to fill the cows water trough, and then head into Machias for some supplies and to see if the kelp we ordered is at the feed store. The cows sure need a lot this time of year. To meet their Vit A requirements I'm sure, with the lack of green grass st this time.