It was Monday morning and the sun was beaming like she’d just had a date with an August afternoon. I pulled up to the barn in my dirt coated truck and waited as the other interns piled in. We had the morning to ourselves (well, sort of) and we were about to leave the farm.

Truth be told, us Oxbow interns don’t get out much. But thanks to the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT), we spend a few hours each month visiting other farms around the Snoqualmie Valley to learn about different practices, skills, equipment, and techniques that may differ from our Ox-curriculum.

On this particular morning, we were headed for Dog Mountain Farm, just down the road and up the hill in Carnation. Owned and operated by Cindy and David Krepky, Dog Mountain Farm provides our valley and its surrounding communities with raw goat’s milk, meat and poultry, eggs, fruit, herbs, flowers, bread, and even baked goods! Lucky for us, Cindy and David are also wonderful and passionate teachers who are always willing to share their knowledge with those who are eager to learn.

Arriving at the farm, we all felt as if we’d travelled to an entirely different part of the world. Seemingly far from the bright, marshy lowlands of Oxbow, we now were surrounded by towering evergreen trees to the north and south, and a mountainous easterly horizon that harkened back to some interns’ memories of Colorado. At the farmhouse, we met Cindy. Smiling and ready to work, she led us to the chickens and began demonstrating her processing method straightaway. Dog Mountain is fully equipped with a certified processing facility which allowed for us to see how the meat we eat gets from the field to our forks. This experience was extremely special for all of us because it intensified the already intimate relationship we hold with our food.

Cindy also toured us through her brand new, sparkly milking parlor and processing plant for her newly certified raw goat’s milk dairy. We even got to meet the celebs themselves, the darling Kinder goats!

After gleaning some of Cindy’s vast knowledge and skill, it was time for us to repay her. (Well, first it was time for a potluck lunch in the orchard, but then, straight to work!)

As is CRAFT tradition, us interns spent the afternoon helping Cindy and David with some projects that needed doing around the farm. In the heat and the light and the shade of the pines, we pounded t-posts to mark out fence lines and hammered nails to frame raised beds.

And after a day of learning, working, and, of course, eating some delicious food, we said our goodbyes to Cindy and David and made our way back home to the golden-green acres of our own Oxbow Farm.

Stay tuned for more reports of our CRAFTing adventures!

Farmer Dana