Introducing the From the Shaker Column! Each Friday Salt from the Earth will feature a best investment in sustainability for your family, farm, or homestead. We believe that the best targets for sustainability in our lives should be: less expensive, earth and health friendly, soul-satisfying, easy to do! Inspired by theContinue reading “Best Investments in Sustainability”
Author Archives: Laura Parker Roerden
Humpbacks Feeding
by Laura Parker Roerden We first see the humpbacks at the surface, their mouths ballooning open, unfolding in pleats like a girl’s skirt caught in the wind. Seawater and herring is caught now as soup meeting hunger. There are nine whales, I’m told. Their mouths seem to open up as if the hinge that holdsContinue reading “Humpbacks Feeding”
This Old (Farm)House
by Laura Parker Roerden This morning, I awoke to a simple pale orb moving in a confused pattern in the window of my bedroom in the farmhouse. Bits of morning were reflected in flashes off wings like patches of hope in a stretch of darkness. I must have rubbed my eyes too hard in aContinue reading “This Old (Farm)House”
A Baracuda and Boa
by Laura Parker Roerden I once saw a torpedo of a barracuda rake through a school of fairy basslets, gorging on the smaller fish as if they were kernels of popcorn at a movie. The barracuda was all torque and fang; the fairy basslets a delicate purple and orange, like a fragile glass vase createdContinue reading “A Baracuda and Boa”
The Water Awaits
by Laura Parker Roerden A river of loss can still bring one home to an ocean, where brine buoys and anchors us, as if connected to a larger vessel by a line. A pond in a clearing can mirror our hearts like a palm extended connects to arteries and carries blood from places deep and well hidden.Continue reading “The Water Awaits”
All Creatures Bright and Wooly
by Laura Parker Roerden It’s been an eventful time around here with three weekends in a row of crises, both human and animal. The crisis du jour this week was sheep acidosis or grain poisoning of both of our Leicester Longwool sheep on Friday night. Sheep can not eat anything that contains copper (a common element in many grainsContinue reading “All Creatures Bright and Wooly”
A Way of Life
by Laura Parker Roerden “Farming is a way of life,” was one of my father’s oft repeated phrases. Sometimes he used it to explain why he still farmed in a year when he didn’t make any money or when the work demanded more of him than any sane person would give, like during haying season when he’d riseContinue reading “A Way of Life”
A Separate Peace
Welcoming Lulu by Laura Parker Roerden Last week the ordinary stuttered into extraordinary: our first lamb was born. My eldest son Eli delivered the news in a phone call to me when he went to the barn to close up the animals. “Mom, I think there’s someone here you’ll want to meet,” he simply said, without offeringContinue reading “A Separate Peace”
Losing Ground
by Laura Parker Roerden I saw a pair of ducks this afternoon, a male and female mallard. A hard, northwest wind had just begun to bow the smaller pines; clouds were gathering as the sky suddenly became a drop ceiling. A storm was coming down the river. The ducks seemed stalwart against the wind, though youContinue reading “Losing Ground”
The Bluebirds are Back
And Other Good News by Laura Parker Roerden I was drinking coffee while doing chores in the dairy barn this morning when the vet, Rosario, showed up. “Thank you for coming!” I said, stepping out into the frigid air to greet her, clutching my mug to warm my hands. Rosario looked up to introduce herself, offered an outstretched hand, and hitContinue reading “The Bluebirds are Back”