It was a Friday night and we were driving down Main Street. There was a COW ambling down the opposite lane. No one was behind her, no one trying to get her back into a corral, she was just on her way up the block. This gives you an idea of how rurally imbedded we …
100 Brazilian Dishes: Vaca Atolada
My husband and his construction crew are proving themselves to be excellent cooks. Although most of their recipes seem to demand large amounts of meat and the world’s largest pressure cooker. This week’s menu selection was vaca atolada. I did a little, hidden dance of joy over behind the sacks of plaster because it was on …
Munchies
She came to us because her mother died in a tragic accident. Our relatives couldn’t raise her, so they brought this little orphan to us. How could you say “no” to those big brown eyes? Veadiniha (“Little Deer”) is too young to put straight out into the pasture to feed. She’s been living within the …
Día de matanza
By request, this post is a translation of a poem that appeared a few months ago. Susana, so sorry it has taken me so long! Also thanks to Sandra, who helped proofread my wilting Spanish. Junto ramas secas bajo un cielo de un gris color plomo. Buitres circulan sobre nuestras cabezas sobre el campo …
Watering Can
They ask: What do you do for a living these days? I answer: I’m a farmer. Yes, really! Me, the career professional. We’re milk farmers now. Really. No kidding. Yeah, huh? Isn’t life wild. But the real answer only works in Portuguese. If you raise cows you say, Mexo com leite. I mess around with milk. If you grow things, Mexo com roça. I mess around in the countryside. …
Killing Day
I pile brush under a sky pewter gray. Vultures circle overhead over the field one hill away where a cow past her prime is being laid to rest. Beef which forms income to purchase the next generation. I pile brush dry and crackling so that we can burn it; hours of labor gone in fiery …
Animal Farm
In a rural world where there is more than enough work to go around, even the animals have jobs. The cows are The Breadwinners, beginning their work day early to provide the milk that is the backbone of our income. On Sundays when there is no milk delivery they instead give us cheese and doce …
