Thoughts on Clean Living

What does clean living mean to you? The phrase “clean living” likely conjures different images for everyone. Since I’ve been devoting my full time to the farm, I’ve been searching for a way to describe this lifestyle. This is what it means to me.

The first thing I learned is that life on the farm is definitely not “kinda laid back”. As much as I love the song from John Denver, this description of farm life is simply not true.  Often, we are up before dawn and don’t get to sit down until almost bed time. There is excitement, laughter, worry, lots of “hurry-up and wait” and always more than one thing that needs to be done right now. 

The way I would describe farm life is clean living.  This doesn’t mean we stay physically clean. In fact, I’ve never been dirtier! You know you’re a farmer when there is hay in your hair, pockets, undergarments and you consider using a pitch fork instead of a vacuum cleaner on the floors in the house.  I get dirt in my boots, under my finger nails and when the rains start again there will be mud mixed with the hay that gets tracked everywhere I go. 

So, what’s clean about life on the farm?  Every day I find more and more ways to know exactly what’s going into and on to my body.  I have the resources to make almost everything we eat from the farm. I can’t describe the feeling that comes from knowing the steak I am grilling to go with the garden salad covered with buttermilk dressing, and the greens sautéed in sweet cream butter, followed by Creme Brule made with fresh cream and eggs, is completely grown and produced in my own back yard. Clean eating at it’s finest!

Producing clean food also means I must be clean.  When you have a dairy, you wash your hands a lot!  Clean, sanitary practices mean it’s necessary to get all that farm dirt off our hands, so we can then clean and sanitize our equipment with food grade, concentrated chlorine and acid.  You know what dry skin is when you have your hands in that twice a day, every day, seven days a week.  Early in the process, I heard how wonderfully moisturizing goat milk soap and lotion is and decided to try making my own.  I can honestly say Matt and I have not had dry skin since we’ve been using my own, hand-crafted soap and lotion.  I know exactly what is going into these products because I’ve developed my own recipes with simple, all-natural ingredients. Many produced right here, on the farm.

If you’d like to experience a bit of the great life we have at Cottage Hill Dairy, give our goat milk soaps and lotions a try.  You don’t even need to get as dirty as I do to appreciate what it means to enjoy clean living.

As always, leave us a note and let us know what you think!