Backyards, Concepts, Sheep Shearing and fun...

A few weeks back I was a little disappointed that I could not attend the press event launching the book - Over the Rainbeau, a lovely coffee table book about Rainbeau Ridge farm written by Lisa Schwartz, Judith Hausman and Karen Sabath, but I knew I was planning to go up to the farm for their annual sheep shearing event, so I figured I would be able to get the book at that time.

The sheep shearing event is a really fund day for the kids to see nature in action, all while the farm is in operation. Other than a very cold day, which did not make the outdoors very conducive, it was a fun thing to do on a Sunday. One of the sheep that the kids watched, decided to kick up a ruckus in the middle of his beauty regiment, this thrilled them to no end.



There were other crafts and fun things for them to do. The highlight of it for them of course, was to decorate a sheep cookie, which entailed licking loads of icing.

The farm is a simple concept that is quite a small social enterprise right in our backyard - a concept of a working farm, that supports itself and its operations. A concept that cannot help but appeal to a business minded, green loving foodie like myself. If you travel around the facility it feels just like you are in someone's backyard - a large, peaceful, lovely backyard, that inspires you to get closer to nature. If you have actually tried their cheese, this is not a difficult thing to do.

Over the Rainbeau is a lovely hardcover volume, that has a little bit of everything for the food lover, memoirs, seasonal ideas and a section of lovely recipes. I have not yet tried any of them, but a "goat goddess dressing" using goat milk and a quiche with sorrel leaves are rather intriguing and shall the first on my list to try.

The book begins with a lovely dedication to, re-discovering the pleasures in our own backyard, somthing that I cannot tout more myself. Vividly illustrated by the third author and Lisa's sister the book has a plethora of natural and stunning pictures. The book tells a lovely story, a story of success and following a dream, the story of the Rainbeau Ridge farm. It would make a lovely gift for the food or nature lover in your life.
The book is currently being offered at a 20% discount on the Rainbeau Ridge website. It is also worth checking out the impressive line-up of book talks and attending one of these.

Back to the kids and the farm today, they also saw the llama's and would like one as a pet. As if the cats are not enough for us. I shall just have to put my foot down on this one, since even if I knew where to get a llama, our backyard is not not quite the farm they would like to think it is.