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FROM THE FARMSTEAD<br />
task is complete, my back<br />
will stiffen and I’ll begin<br />
to question my sanity, but<br />
after a few good stretches,<br />
I’ll finish the job and tote my<br />
buckets to the house.<br />
That’s when Nancy and<br />
I – and whoever else I can<br />
sucker into it – go to work in<br />
the kitchen, breaking beans,<br />
blanching them, jarring them,<br />
adding a teaspoon of salt,<br />
and then putting them under<br />
10 pounds of pressure for 25<br />
minutes in the canner.<br />
Because they are faster to<br />
pick and can, sometimes we’ll<br />
pack a canner of tomatoes on a weeknight.<br />
(Yes, Nancy and I live exciting<br />
lives!)<br />
The carrots, cabbage, and sweetcorn<br />
we freeze, and the onions we keep in a<br />
dry, dark place until we need them, usually<br />
in early October when I kill my first<br />
deer of the season with my bow.<br />
That’s when it all comes together.<br />
EASTERN IOWA FARMER PHOTOS / TREVIS MAYFIELD<br />
(Above left) Trevis Mayfield displays some carrots pulled fresh from his garden. They are just<br />
one of the ingredients for vegetable soup he grows each summer. (Above right) Nancy Mayfield<br />
keeps an eye on the temperature gauge on the pressure cooker to make sure it stays at a<br />
constant 10 pounds.<br />
Killing that first deer on a Friday<br />
evening is always best, leaving two days<br />
available for processing the meat and<br />
roasting about 20 pounds of it. Using our<br />
oven and two electric roasters late into the<br />
evening, the venison will be cooked and<br />
ready to use the next morning.<br />
The next step is to pull bags of<br />
sweetcorn, carrots, and cabbage from<br />
the freezer to thaw. Then we open jars of<br />
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