Down on the Farm

This Sunday, we spent a very special day with our landlords, their family and a few of their friends on a farm in Suzhou.  On the farm they had dogs for breeding (from Tibetan Mastiff s to Huskies, extremely well kept), goats, chickens, ducks, a fishing pond and vegetable gardens.  Reid just wanted to play his DS, but I’m pretty sure Riley wanted us to leave him there.  Rowan delighted all of the ladies by letting them open peanuts and bananas for him.

They said the food grown there was just for their consumption.  I thought it interesting that it was surrounded by a 12 foot concrete wall, with a large gate and a guard post.  We were pretty sure that none of the owners of the farm actually lived there; only maybe the guard and a farmer or two.

We had an excellent lunch there as well.  I’ll digress for a bizarre food sideline:  most of the dishes served were very straight forward fish, pork and vegetables.  The one that really bothers me is the dish referred to as “fish seed”, which is in season now according to the group.  I’m going to pretend its fish eggs, although I have a sneaking suspicion it was “harvested” from the male of the species.  Let’s move on and never speak of this again.  I’m closer to getting someone to give me a few pointers on how to cook real Chinese food.  Our landlords’ daughter speaks fluent English and she mentioned that her mother is a great cook!  

Below are some of the shots taken with a few comments.

Headed out to the kennels.

A crowd favorite.

In the chicken coop.

Reid in front of the living / cooking / dining quarters.

The range has an entire entrance to the back (left in picture) where fire wood is loaded.