Monday, March 24, 2008
Thomas Jefferson, President, Statesman, Farmer
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Gentlemen, start your seedlings!!!
Some of the other lettuces I have this year are imported heirlooms. Many of them are Italian because of the great diversity of heirlooms available from two of the oldest Italian seed companies, Bavicchi Sememti (since 1896)and Franchi Sementi (since 1783). Obviously, these two companies have been around a LONG time. I believe that Franchi Sementi may be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, seed suppliers in the world, so I guess it is an heirloom, too. Another very old seed company is Vilmorin in France and while many of the heirlooms you see in the marketplace today were originally introduced by them, they are a very modern company and produce many modern varieties as well.
While, there is not quite so much clamor to come up with new hybrids in other countries, seeking to improve varieties is something all seedsmen worldwide try to do. In other places in the world, the approach to the seed trade is a little different than here in the U.S. Lots of older varieties have been continuously offered by these companies since they opened their doors. Also, I think it is kind of thrilling to have the original strains of heirlooms from the location where they originated. Sometimes heirlooms are "improved" strains of these oldsters and so even though they may be old enough to be considered true heirlooms, I want the "granny" strains if I can get them.
Some of the lettuces we are planting this year have marvelously descriptive names. For example, there is one lettuce that has long slender leaves that grow in a rosette and resemble ribbons. The name of this lettuce is "Cocarde" which is a spelling of the French word for "the ribbons adorning a woman's hat". And if you stretch your imagination, you picture why this lettuce was so named. It grows a about 12-14" or higher and it probably does resemble ribbons that might be fluttering atop a ladie's hat.
Our lettuce selection this year contains Batavian, Bibb, Butterhead, Cos (Romaine) and Leaf lettuces. Most of these types are never seen in supermarkets because they do not ship well and need to be eaten as freshly picked as possible. These lettuces make that wimpy iceberg lettuce pale in comparison, in flavor, texture and nutrition. More about that in a later blog. I keep falling off the subject of seeds today for some reason.
One thing that is different this year is the number of onions we are planting. Last year, we planted around 2000 sets and most of them made small onions. With the drought, we simply could not provide them with the 30+ inches of water that is recommended over their long growing season. We ate the last of them in January but they were starting to sprout a little....
Anyway, this year, we decided to plant alot more onions, since we are going to be able to water them regularly.
So instead of ordering 2000, we ordered 5400. That is a whole bunch of onions. But the kicker is that we got the wrong ones. Two cases were the right ones and the third case was a different type of onion and we are not sure that they will grow in this area (onions are finicky about where they are grown. Has to do with the # of daylight hours, etc.). When I called to company, they were very apologetic and said that kind of mistake doesn't occur very often but it is their busiest time of year and stuff happens.
The grower then very kindly sent us a case of the proper onions, "gratis and sorry we goofed up" so now we have 7200 to plant. Oh! my aching back, one more time. We hand plant the little buggers, so each one has to have a hole punched in the dirt, the onion "set" into the hole and then the hole filled in and tamped down. Big onion growers have crews and machinery to do this job which is why supermarket onions are so cheap. You plant them once, irrigate them and then pull them up a couple of months later. Not much labor after the initial planting. We have to hand plant, hand weed, hill up, hand harvest, then dry, sort and store the harvest. Big difference. But the ones we grow taste so much better!
The sugar snap peas that were planted several weeks ago have already sprouted and are coming up. We should start harvesting those in early May. These are succession planted, which means every 2-3 weeks, we plant a few more rows, so that the harvest will be extended over a longer period.
The eggplant and tomato seeds have been planted in flats and are coming up now. In 4-6 weeks, we will have strong healthy seedlings, ready to plant at the proper time, which is late April. Hot weather varieties can't be put out until the last chance for a hard freeze is definitely over, so we wait about a week past our last average frost date, which is April 14th. We generally have at least grape tomatoes by the last of June but usually the first real tomato comes off the vine around the Fourth of July.
Some of the early season varieties might come in a week earlier, but they are usually the mealy, pithy, tasteless red globs that pass for tomatoes in the supermarket. Heirlooms make these imposters pale in compairson, so it is definitely worth the wait. Once our own homegrown tomatoes are done for the year, I usually don't eat another tomato until we have our own again. Call me silly, but tomatoes are my absolute favorite veggie and I have zero tolerance for those horrible "shipping tomatoes" that supermarkets try to pawn off on us. Yick!!!Blechk!PTooey!!!
The eggplants are going to be widely varied again this year. As usual, we will have the big old "Black Beauty", which is of course an heirloom and a classic Italian variety. There will be several other colors, shapes, sizes and origins. The peppers will abound this year, with almost 15 varieties in the running. Some of them have names like "Ram's Horn" and "Sheep's Nose" and come in colors like "rosso" and "giallo", in addition to "verde". Some are sweet as an apple and some are hot as a volcano! I can hardly wait to make my first batch of salsa!!!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Everyday miracles and natural magic!
One of the neatest things about these oak sprouts is that they already have the beginnings of bark. Notice the pattern on the sprout. It is a tad smaller than a pencil in diameter at this point and about 4 inches long if I could stretch it out. I imagine this sprout is about a week old. I pushed back some leaves to finds these sprouts. There are literally hundreds under the blanket of leaves but squirrels, birds and other wildlife know they are under there and only a few will survive. Life feeds on life.
This tiny nest belonged to a hummingbird. We were taking a walk in the woods last fall and as I stepped over a fallen log, I happened to look down and there, attached to a broken branch was this tiny nest. It stayed attached to the branch for a couple of months, but I guess it dried out too much and fell off. I put it in the branches of our Christmas tree and it fit on the limb perfectly. (Those tiny feathers came from another bird, by the way. Probably some type of wren.) I wish you could see how intricately fashioned this nest actually is. There are layers upon layers of thin sheets of what appears to be pieces of dry leaves. There is also some kind of animal fur lining the inside.
Here, beside the hummer's next is another nest I found recently. It is most interesting to me because it is made almost entirely from the long stiff hairs from the tails of the dairy cows that live in the big pasture just on the back side of our farm. At first, I thought it was from one of my Jack Russells, but I pulled one out and immediately recognized that it was from the cows. There are lighter colored ones on the top and darker ones on the sides and bottom. This next is as soft as a blanket. This one is a little bigger than the other one. The quarter is for reference as to the size of these tee-tiny nests.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Oh, my aching back!!!
Things are heating up around the Farm these days. LOTS of stuff going on. Well digging, plowing, hoeing, furrowing, planting, you name it, it is happening. And that can only mean that the season will be in full swing in another 4-5 weeks.
On Monday, The Farmer and I planted 10 rows of snap peas (remember that our rows are 100 feet long when you are reading this post) and, 6 rows of Kennebec potatoes (more about planting taters below...). We also planted several yard wide swathes of mixed lettuces and likewise planted mixed mustards, spinach, endive and escarole. There are 60M carrrot seeds in the ground as well. We were keeping our fingers crossed that it would rain, which is why we planted in such a fury, so we wouldn't have to be watering everything in. It worked out perfectly!
Below there is a picture of the actual potatoes that I planted. I know that almost everybody reading this blog has had at least one potato in the bin too long and it started to sprout. That is the part that we very carefully save to plant. Each eye on a potato is a potential sprout and so we go thru a process of encouraging our seed potatoes to sprout. Once that happens, the potatoes are cut into a small piece everywhere there is an eye or a sprout because each one is a potential potato plant and seed potatoes (organic, that is) are VERY expensive. Mostly it is expensive to ship them but that is still part of the cost because there are NO suppliers of organic seed potatoes any where evenly remotely close to this area. So, mostly we save our own potatoes from year to year so that we can guarantee that we have what we need to plant in the spring.
Anyway, here is the picture of the cut potatoes that I planted. After they are cut, they have to dry out for a while, so these were sitting in the sun, doing just that when I snapped the pic. I cut these potatoes in the early morning and we planted them that evening.
Each little piece has to be set into the furrow with the sprout pointing up, so they have to be done individually, hence the title of this blog today.
For reference, there are about 750 pieces in this container or roughly 3/4 of a bushel of potatoes, cut into 1-2 inch pieces. Sound kind of like KP duty, doesn't it? Anyway, next time your potatoes are sprouting in the cupboard, remember that is a potential crop of potatoes. In fact, you could cut them up and plant them in your yard or in a big container and grow some for yourself!!!
We also planted carrots, lettuces, mustards, kohlrabi, Asian greens, spinach and a couple of other really early varieties. It has been really warm here this winter and I think some folks don't realize just how early in the growing season it actually is. Most of these varieties take about 50 days to maturity and we are right on schedule.
There are already several things we planted earlier that were already up and going strong, mostly things that take more than the 50 or so days we have until CSA starts up. Some things like radishes, arugula and some of the other spring items take less than 30 days to produce, so it is a little early to plant those. We could still have some really cold weather (the last average frost date in this area is April 14th...remember the killing frost at Easter last year?) so we are a little cautious about what we plant this time of year. Timing is everything in our weird spring weather and since we are such strong proponents of seasonal growing and eating, this season is our hardest to manage, in terms of planting schedules.
Another thing we planted yesterday was SUGAR SNAP PEAS!!!! This is one of my absolute favorite spring treats. There are 10 rows in the ground now and there will be another 8-10 planted in about 2-3 weeks, so that they don't all mature at the same time and we can have a little longer harvest period on those.
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Since I originally started this entry, three days have passed and it has rained quite a bit. As I mentioned earlier in this post, we were trying to get these seeds, etc. in the ground in anticipation of the rain and it worked out great!!! Nothing washed away, everything is well watered in now and the only thing that I am concerned about are the potatoes sets.
Of course, this is the nature of farming as I always remind everybody. Not for those who have to have every "T" crossed and "i" dotted. We just never know what will happen when Mother Nature is in one of her "moods". If you can't take the heat (or cold or rain or drought or snow or flood or wind, not to mention the bugs or the weeds), you'd best stay our of the garden.
So, now this round of planting is done. The rains came, the weather was warm and most of the seeds are probably starting to pop out. And it is gonna be 26 degrees here tonight.....moody, moody, moody Mama Nature. (heavy sigh....)
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Thought for today
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Important update for Volunteer Post Open from May thru October
We are looking for one or two volunteers to help out here at the Farm one day a week from May thru October. This is obviously not a paid position, but we do reward our helpers with generous sharing in some of our produce and usually a nice healthy (and usually organic) lunch if they are here at lunchtime.
The position that we are looking to fill is as a picker/packer for CSA shares and will include such duties as culling produce, weighing, counting, packaging and packing vegetables for CSA share holders. It will also require someone who can lift 25-30 lbs minimum for loading vehicles. Volunteers need their own transportation to and from the Farm.
Volunteers also need to be dependable and able to commit to the position, even though it will only be for one or two days per week, for approx. 4-6 hours each time. In other words, anyone who wants to come and do this once in a while is not the person who will be chosen.
This is an excellent opportunity to spend a little time on a real organic farm, learn about how things are done here and to experience first hand what it takes for food to get from the field to market.
If you are interested in this position, please email me at willworkforfood@alltel.net with a paragraph or two about yourself and why you think you would like to participate here at the Farm. Call backs will begin sometime March or April, with interviews to follow. This is a great activity for an older teen but our insurance will not cover anyone under 16, so no one under that age would be considered. And, while we would love to be able to have folks come here with their kids for a day and "help out" this position is not conducive to that situation.
About 2 weeks ago we noticed that some of our hens were acting a little strange. After the cold of December and January passed (well, not really all that cold, but colder than the last 2 weeks) and with the days getting longer, our young hens are starting to come into their egg cycles for the first time. I have mentioned in previous posts, etc. that our chickens are very closely related to the wilder jungle fowl that are the ancestors of all modern chickens and they have habits that more closely relate to a wild creature.
For example, they are masters (mistresses?) of concealment. The other day, I reached under a shelf in one of the sheds to get something and got peckedby a hen laying in the top basket on the stack that is stored there. In the same area, there are some other baskets that we use to keep odds and ends and which are stacked on the other wall of that same shed. One of the hens is laying her eggs in there. Another hen is laying in the rosemary bush and another in a bramble thicket. I have been doing some outside work recently and sat some of my work tools, including a black trash bag, in a box on the front porch and there were 4 eggs in the box the when I went out to finish my project.
So far, we have gathered about 2 dozen eggs, some of which we have had for breakfast or used in some other recipe. While this may sound pretty cool - and in some ways it is very cool - the problem is that we have 12 laying hens right now and I have only located the preferred nests of 4 or 5 of them. Where the heck are the other ones laying their eggs?
Most of them are probably laying under our giant boxwoods, under the garage or some place similarly discreet and will never be found. The biggest clue to where they are laying is watching the roosters pace around the nest site like an expectant father in a waiting room or to listen for the cackles the hens make when they have laid an egg. The roosters patrol around the hens while the laying is taking place and the hens make a huge fuss when they are done. Maybe they are just excited or maybe they are letting their babydaddy's know they are doing a good job! Unfortunately, who has time for all that watching and listening when there are potential nesting sites spread over 30 acres?
Skunks, snakes and other varmints will find many of these nests at night and will have a feast and later I will find piles of broken shells. The hens will keep laying on the same nest site for a couple of days or even a week or more but will give up eventually and move to a new nest site. I just hope that the critters find all of the errant eggs and that I don't have to find them this summer when they have been sitting in the 90 degree heat for weeks...that is not a pretty situation but one that I have encountered on more than one occaision. Did I say YUCK!!!!?
These little hens we have now are our "pet" chickens that I write about frequently. They are a little too wild to be considered productive farm poultry but their enjoyment factor is very high and we like them alot. The eggshells are hard as rocks and very small but the yolks are as orange as a tangerine. We very much appreciate these plucky little hens making the effort to do their part here at the Farm.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Progress report from the Farm.
We are getting ready to start our planting, which signals the beginning of the "season" so I will finally be able to start posting more info about how that is progressing. I think a lot of people look at this blog for that info anyway and I look forward to sharing that with my readers.
I will be trying my best to post something weekly from now on, so check back at least once a week and see how things are progressing here at the Farm.
Later....
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Ordering Seeds
If a conventional seed is to be used, documentation must be maintained as to how it was determined that there was no organic source available. That means I am required to call/email at least 3 suppliers, keep a log of conversations, etc. and present that with my certification documents. I generally go about it in another fasion but with the same end result. If I find a variety I want to grow but only see it as a conventionally grown seed, I get online and do a search for sources for the seed.
I also use my own resources. I have compiled a list of over 150 organic/op and untreated seed suppliers (more than the USDA NOP lists...) that have organic seed and I also refer to that before I begin any search online. I don't leave it at just looking at 3 sources. I WANT to use organic seed, so it is more my own ethics that make me do this research than the requirement of the USDA NOP. I try to stay away from printed catalogs (save a tree and all that) but sometimes companies having the printed page is necessary, especially if I am working on this away from home. Whenever we go anywhere for more than a couple of hours, my backpack is filled with my notebooks, a selection of seed catalogs and lots of pencils. Clothes and other items are not necessities for me. I learned to travel light a long time ago.
It is really hard to narrow down what we want to plant each year. We trial at least a couple of new entries every year and have discovered some gems that way. Also we have uncovered some real stinkers whose descriptions in the seed catalogs made them sound like they came straight from Eden. Wasting space on something like that is a no-no, so I have to present my case for each new item to The Farmer and we jointly decide to trial or not.
When we are looking at new heirlooms, I spend an amount of time looking up its history. Growing historical heirlooms is pretty cool...living history, actually. It just makes it fun for me, to eat something that may have been on the table of my ancestors in Europe and again when they came to these shores in the late 1600's. Talk about connecting with your food source!
I am particularly attracted to ethnic varieties also. This country is such a melting pot of cultures that I find it fascinating to delve into the foods that are not part of the Southern fare I grew up on.
Mexican food is a big favorite with us so we try to grow whatever we can that would be ingredients in a typical meal in Mexico. Regional varieties are also a great interest and I love ordering seeds that are produced in the actual places where they are favorites. I order lots of seeds from Italy, many of which are narrowed down to specific places in Tuscany or Sicily. It really brings home my firm belief that I am a citizen of the world, not just my country.
Some regional and ethnic varieties simply won't grow in our climate but if you research their origins carefully, you can usually find a portion of our long spring/summer/fall season where they might thrive or a variety that could adapt somewhat. This takes a lot of research and a lot of patience.
If you are looking at a catalog, for instance, that is targeted at the New England states, many of their varieties just will not survive the heat and humidity here. However, if you pay close attention to our own seasonality you just might find a window of opportunity where you could give it a shot and see what happens. The worst thing that can happen is that it doesn't work. If it does, you may have discovered a new family favorite.
While I am on the subject of growing for the right/wrong climate, I might pass on a word of advice. Because I grow things for a living, I am asked alot of gardening/growing questions. By far, the number one is about tomatoes. In this area, tomatoes are probably, like the rest of the country, the number one favorite things to grow at home. And why not? When they do well, they are easy to grow, prolific and taste 100 times better than store bought 'maters.
What could possibly be better and getting a fresh tomato off you own vine just before you eat it? That is a gastronomical delight that should not be missed. HOWEVER, you have to pick a variety that will actually produce something in the heat and humidity of our sometimes brutal summers or you won't be experiencing your own homegrown tomatoes.
The heirloom tomato boom is still going hot and heavy with such enticing varieties coming to market as Paul Robeson from Russia or Soldaki from Poland. Problem is that neither of these tomatoes will produce anything even remotely close to a bumper crop because they are cool, short season tomatoes.
And tomatoes don't like it too hot either. When the temps are in the 90's for days and days and days, the plants either stop blooming and/or setting fruit or the green tomatoes that they have produced just sit there and never turn. The secret to growing heirlooms is to see where they originated, determine if the climate there is close to your own and choose varieties that do grow successfully in similar conditions.
Another thing is to make sure you know whether or not you are growing a determinate, semi-determinate or an indeterminate variety. Determinate tomatoes make tomatoes for a short while and then stop producing. I don't know what semi-determinate means because I have only seen about 2 varieties that were designated as such and didn't really look any further. Indeterminate tomatoes will bear until frost if conditions are perfect, although harvests slow down as the plants get a little older. If you want to extend your harvest, you can always break off a "sucker" and root it for a new plant. The new plant will be an exact copy of the parent and will be younger and so, theoretically will bear stronger later.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
NOTE: This is a compilation of links to some of my favorite websites, discussion groups and topical articles that I will be adding to on a regular basis, so bookmark this page and check back periodically. Click on the underlined text to go to these sites. You will need to use your back key to return to this site.
The Great News Network The great news network is a news site that reports only positive news stories. News is submitted by its members and voted on by its members. If a news story receives enough votes, it automatically gets promoted to the front page.
I love this website!!!
EcoChoices Natural Living Store
Create a home that is beautiful, natural and a safe environment for you and your family's enjoyment. The best earth-friendly products available at the lowest prices possible without lowering the quality of the products. Shop more than ten web sites with one shopping cart!
The Frugal Life -Living well with what you have
-This site provides information on how to live frugally with the resources you have. Get ideas for more creativity in your finances and meet a community of wonderful people willing to help you.
Organic Consumer's Association
The first link here is probably one of the most important ones on this page. It will take you to the website for the Organic Consumers Association. While some of the subjects on this site may seem a little over the top, the information posted here has proven to be correct more than 95% of the time. The originator of this site is outspoken and radical in many ways, but the subjects and issues they cover are some of the most serious and compelling of our times. A must for those of us serious about having safe food supply for ourselves and future generations.
The Cornucopia Institute "The Organic Integrity Project acts as a corporate watchdog assuring that no compromises to the credibility of organic farming methods and the food it produces are made in the pursuit of profit. We will actively resist regulatory rollbacks and the weakening of organic standards to protect and maintain consumer confidence in the organic food label." You should especially check out the "Who Owns Organic" link on this page. It is a chart of who actually owns and controls the mainstream organic labels we see in supermarkets.
Ideal Bite "The concept behind Ideal Bite is an easy one — if we all knew what to do in our day-to-day lives to help impact the planet and our communities positively and painlessly and without preachiness), we would all do it. And if that know-how came to us in a fun, pithy, sometimes irreverent way — so much the better. " Join their email list for your daily "green bite". Good info from a hip source.
Mindfully.org "The more taboos and prohibitions there are, the poorer the people become. The more deadly weapons there are, the more our fears turn us numb." Interesting information on an array of topical issues.
Food Not Lawns This is an interesting site for those of you who are interested in something other than growing grass in your yards. They also have an online forum. Most of the members here are in Oregon, but their points and info apply any where.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
LET IT SNOW!!!
I got up at 5 a.m. today to take the puppies outside and I wish I had gotten my camera. They are always more than ready to go out in the mornings and this morning they were feeling the call much earlier than usual, for some unknown and never revealed reason. I took them out the kitchen door, which opens onto the back porch and when I opened that door, which leads to the outside, it was covered with a cold white blanket. They started to run out like they usually do, which is kind of like those shots of kids running out of school when the final bell rings (you know the ones).
They literally skidded to a halt and slid and tumbled out the back steps. Then they immediately turned around and ran back insde. They stood at the threshold barking and looking up at me like I had done something to their yard. It was hilarious. If I had been just a little more awake it probably would have been even funnier. I had to pick them up and take them outside one at a time and sit them down in the snow. Once they figured out they could walk on this new stuff, they ran around like usual, did their thing and then we went back into the house and went back to bed for a couple of hours.
By the time I got up for good at 8 (yes, we slept in...not much to be done outside today so we took advantage) it was raining and the snow was turning to slush. We didn't have quite as much drama on this trip out as previously, but watching 5 Jack Russells trying not to get their tushies wet and cold was yet another round of hilarity. Diva almost stood on her head, Turtle ran around in a circle about 40 times and Piglet got under a bush where there was a patch of bare ground still available. Maggie and Callie are a little more accustomed to adverse weather, but until a that first time it rained back in late December, the pups had only experienced dry ground and they were not all that keen on the whole concept of getting wet at first. They will stand still for their baths, but I guess they figure that the outside should always be "puppy friendly" which in their case, is warm and dry.
Today is going to be a great day to cook up some goodies in the kitchen although I don't know what it will be yet. Probably some kind of flat bread or foccacia.I need to find some easier recipes for this type of bread so it will be like a laboratory in our kitchen today. The Farmer's loves it when I am in my mad kitchen scientist mode. At least most of the time. I occasionally end up with something that even the dogs won't eat. Which is another project I am working on...the ultimate organic dog cookie! I am getting close because I have a panel of 6 experts to test my concoctions.
This past week, I did something I had never personally done as a cook. I made my own butter, using organic sweet cream. I have participated in living history demonstrations in the past but to have ever made butter for our personal consumption was a thing I had wanted to try for a long time but just never did it.
Anyway, the process is not that hard...a little time consuming but the results are FABULOUS!!! I have never eaten butter that tasted like the cream it was made from, even the best organic butter I have had. If anyone is interested in how I did this, email me at simplysustainable1@gmail.com and I will send you the instructions. This would be a great project for homeschoolers and another way to help connect your kids to their food supply/source. I did it because I was curious and because I know EXACTLY what was in the stuff. I am going to make some more and then make "ghee" with it so I will post how that goes later on.
The butter didn't last long because I shared it with some other family members. Oh and it didn't hurt that my mother-in-law was making her delicious sour dough bread the same day. Now that was a combination. For breakfast yesterday, we had homemade bread toast, the butter I made, honey from our hives and eggs that our hens laid.
The eggs, by the way, were the same color as the OJ we had with this breakfast. Next time I crack some, I am going to take a picture of them next to "store bought" organic eggs. Even those pale in comparison to these.
Back to what I was talking about with making some goodies today...I have a whole lot of organic strawberries in the freezer from our 2006 harvest that need to be used and to make some more room in the freezer. I am going to make a round of strawberry butter (not jam or jelly because I want to omit the added sugar as much as possible).
Making fruit butters is a very simple process. This particular recipe only requires that I cook the berries down for a couple of hours on really low heat. I cook them down until they are mushy at first and then use my emersion blender until the pulp is a smooth consistency, with no large pieces of berry left. Then I add a couple of fresh lemon or lime slices, so that the pectin in the peeling and pith can help thicken this up a little. I remove the flesh before doing this because I am not going to add much sweetener and don't want the butter to be too lemony/limey.
This project requires that you be home to stir unless you want to do it in a crock pot, but that takes at least overnight with the lid off and you run the risk of scorching the product. Once the cooked berry pulp is at the exact thickness I want it (it will thicken slightly as it cools but not "gel" like a jam or jelly. At this stage, I add about 2 tablespoons of organic cane sugar or honey to every 2 cups of pulp.
Mostly I taste it until it has the proper sweetness. Butters don't require the chemistry of sugar, pectin, etc. to create the product so you can experiment a little with soft fruits like apples, berries. Pears have a lot of water in them and hardly ever get to the consistency of a butter, but you can make "pear honey" the same way, just expect it to be "runny". Pear honey is actually my most favorite one and we use it on waffles/pancakes/ice cream/French toast/etc.
Butters should retain the flavor of the fruit, not be sweetened to death. I can't stand jelly for that very reason. Even the jams I make tend to be made with recipes that are a low in sugar as possible, but I lean toward butters because of the sugar thing. If your fruit is a little overripe and too sweet to eat, it will probably make a fine butter as long as it is not bruised or damaged in some way. Or you can add some ripe banana, although you will taste the banana flavor. The most interesting butter I have made in a while was cantaloupe butter. It tastes exactly like a ripe cantaloupe. Because I used melons that were too ripe to eat the butter is incredibly sweet and has not one grain of sugar added.
If you want to make just a pint of this it will keep in the fridge for about 2 weeks.
To make butters for the long term, find a recipe with isntructions on how to process for storage. It is really easy to find them on line or in cook books. You don't need fancy equipment to preserve like this.
Gotta go now, I hear the kitchen calling.
Later.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
The Flip Side
Of course, the very nature of simple living prescribes cutting down on one's wardrobe but it is really hard to do that in a place that has such changable weather so much of the time. We lived in the Pacific Northwest where the weather is pretty much the same year round, except for the rainy season, so nobody has seasonal clothes. I loved not having to decide what to wear every day...just opened the closet and pulled something out. Living there was a great lesson in learning that you don't have to have something to wear for every day, occasion, weather event, etc. And it everybody is very relaxed about what they wear. In fact, I don't think I saw anyone wearing a tie in all the years we lived there.
While the weather was nice this week, we took advantage of the time to get some of the more mundane chores done around the farm. When things are really busy around the Farm, there are lots of things that just get pushed to the side for when you aren't busy. If you are the kind of person who has to have everything "just so" around the house, do not get into farming. There are lots of times that things don't get done for weeks, if they are things that can wait. There is a lot of "weighing the consequences of inaction" around here.
For example, we just now had time to put the water barrels in the barn. We use 55 gallon drums to spot water the garlic that was planted back in November and since there was no rain coming, we had to water the rows before mulching them. Since we didn't know when it would rain we chose to leave the watering barrels in the field. Fortunately, it finally did shower enough recently and so it was time to bring the barrel trailor in and unload it, so we can use it for some other projects. Which leads to the next project.
We live on a very old farm and there is lots and lots of detris that was left behind over the years. Back in the "good old days" you didn't throw away anything that might be useful later. The motto "reuse, rebuild, reclaim, recycle" is nothing new to farmers. It is like a litany to them.
Since going to town was a 2 hour each way mule ride hanging onto things was a matter of prudence. (The Farmer's great grandparents, whose farm was across the road from this farm, never owned a car and never learned to drive.) If the plow broke, no work got done so it had to be fixed. Unless the damage required welding or other major repair, the farmer fixed it himself. Having spare parts to glean through was a necessity.
Unfortunately, all those old tractor parts and other items start to collect over the years and since they are generally outmoded and useless, they need to go. But we can't just throw them away, since there might be something useful after all, so each item has to be considered. There are 4 outbuildings here on the farm that have everything from old black cast iron wash pots (with holes in them...) to an ancient machine that resembles a lawnmower. Many of these items are now considered "farm antiques" and have value, so we can't just haul them to the dump.
We have been working on clearing out these buildings for nearly 7 years now, gradually and when we have time. And we also use them for storage of our own farm equipment, etc. which makes it harder, because we have to work around our own stuff. Plus, I refuse to work in any of these buildings when it is warm enough for spiders and wasps to be active. Someday, I envision those buildings cleared out but I may never live to see that day....but its okay if it happens and okay if it doesn't. Priorities have to be realistic on a farm and those old sheds and their contents have been sitting there for close to 40 years. Guess they have never been high up on anybody's list...
Friday, January 4, 2008
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
When it is this cold, there isn't much to do outside without bundling up like Ralphie in "A Christmas Story" so we tried to do stuff in and around the house. Mostly we sat by the fire and relaxed which is almost unheard of for so much of the rest of our time that we just decided it was worth as much to get in a little R&R as it was to work. The chores that had to be done got done and those that could wait are still waiting. It is supposed to warm up considerably over the next couple of days and we will have to make up for lost time.
The well diggers will be here in a couple of weeks and we will have that project done in time for our first spring crop to go in. Construction of the new greenhouse may have to wait a couple more weeks. Until we decide exactly where the well is going, we can't place the house and we won't know where the well is going until the dowser comes. If you don't know what a dowser is, it is the person that locates the best place to dig a well. While it may seem a little like mumbo-jumbo to use a dowser remember that water, especially large concentrations, has magnetic properties and the dowser simply locates the strongest pull, which should indicate water that is either closer to the surface or in larger quantities.
I have been pouring over seed catalogs for a couple of weeks now, trying to decide on which new varieties we will trial this year and trying to locate organic sources for our seeds. Since our farm is certified, we have to follow strict guidelines. To ensure that no GMO (genetically altered) seed is used in a certified organic operation, one of the rules involves the use of only certified organic seed wherever possible. We are not restricted to which varieties we can grow because of this rule, but rather have to make and document a concerted effort to locate seeds from an organic source. No treated seeds are allowed and conventional seed has to be the last resort, which is not a big deal for us. We are a little over the top with how we do things here anyway. GMO's are one of my soapbox topics (I will save that for another post, soon) so you would never find one on this farm anyway, even if there was no rule about it.
Since we grow a lot of heirlooms, we save a good many of our own seeds. We make our own seed potatoes, sweet potato slips, etc. which saves us a ton of money. Last year we planted over 3000 sweet tater plants and we grew the starts ourselves. Since organic sweet potato plants run about $25/12 and are extremely hard to locate, you can see why we are motivated to grow our own. Certified organic seed potatoes are not nearly as expensive and you can get a lot of potato plants from one potato (the potato eyes are actually sprouts and we cut the potatoes in many pieces and plant those, which turn into potato plants). 50# of certified organic potatoes run anywhere from $50-100 but the shipping doubles this price. Last year alone, we planted about 2500-2800 potato plants, from the eyes cut from potatoes that we saved from the year before. If you do the math on the potential cost of sweet potato slips and seed potatoes, you can see that we save a great deal of money by growing our own plant stock this way.
The same is true for some of the other crops we grow. We can save the seed from varieties that we only grow one kind of or that we can isolate so that no accidental crossbreeding takes place, to keep the strain true. For example if we grow red and green okra, the green okra is grown at one end of the farm and the red is grown at the other, which is about 1/2 mile apart, which is an acceptable distance to keep them from crossing up.
It is very easy to have varieties cross, especially peppers, when they are planted in close proximity. If you aren't saving seed, it is not such a big deal. Having a green zucchini cross with a yellow one doesn't mean much as far as flavor, etc. but there are cases where it becomes a big deal. Several years ago, before we expanded the farm to the size that it is now, we had only one very small plot (about 1/2 acre). We were growing green bell peppers and jalapenos that year and for some reason, I planted them side by side, not even remotely thinking that this would affect the fruits. I was wrong, however, and occasionally we would get a green bell pepper that was as hot as a firecracker and many of the jalapenos didn't have any heat at all.
Problem with that was you couldn't tell by looking at them, only by tasting them, so we had to take a little taste of each one to see if they were hot or not. At that time, we were only growing for our own families, so it was not big deal, but it was a valuable lesson learned by me. But we did have a lot of fun with those hot bell peppers.....
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
I Love My "Job"
I think that one of the very best things, for me at least, about living and working on an organic farm is that I don't have to commute to get to work. I pretty much get up, get ready and then I walk out the back door and bam! I am at the "office". No backed up traffic or rude drivers to spoil my morning, no timeclock to punch, no stress about being late for work. I can wear whatever I want, take a break anytime I feel the need so I work at my own pace and can concentrate better without distractions like waiting for someone to cover for me just so I can go take a peepee. If I need to go, I can just go. No worries, no complaints.
It is also very freeing to be able to develop and experiment with my own methodology and to come up with creative ways of doing things. Since I know exactly what the end result should be, and with nobody looking over my shoulder, my efforts can be deliberate and meticulous or I can push the envelope into new realms. With my creativity released, I am able to meet an important need...the need to express myself.
The work that I do must meet certain standards. Those standards are high because they are my own and so my failures, when they do come, have to be looked upon as opportunities to learn. Instead of stressing about possible points lost toward my next performance review, I take on those experiences to expand knowledge about both my subject and myself. I am able to learn much more these days than I ever did in any formal learning environment or on the job training and that ever expanding data base is very important to me.
The struggle to achieve balance is one of Nature's most basic principles. It affects human beings just like anything else. Much of the stress that people endure is brought on by that constand fight to hold onto something that is completely out of balance with the Universe. Learning to let go of things that don't matter and to flow with your surroundings is something that is very hard for most of us.
If your job is a source of unhappiness, stress or discomfort to you, even if you are making big bucks, is it really worth it in the long run? I personally think it is not. I worked in an industry that was about as soul sucking as it comes and now that I am free of it, I have not regretted my decision for a instant, even though I have a fraction of the income I had then.
I have written about this subject before, in a much earlier post, but I will reiterate one more time that if I was able to escape the clutches of the corporate world, you can do it. The hardest part is jumping off your particular cliff and then being ready for where you land. A controlled landing is obviously what you want to shoot for but free falling is okay, too, if that is where your path takes you.
Of course, not everybody is in a position (or are as incredibly lucky as The Farmer and I are) to be able to just chuck their job. BUT, don't sell short the idea that you can make a good living doing something you love.
Monday, December 10, 2007
A Day in the Life (This story is a long one....read on.)
First of all, we get up with the chickens or in our case, the puppies. That means it is just about the time the sun comes up. If the puppies sleep in, so do we. Since there is no time clock to punch we pretty much take the day as it comes. Most summer days we are up at 5 am or earlier, but at this time of year, it is too dark and cold to get up that early, so things move at a little slower pace.
I get up first, usually, unless the Farmer has something to do. I am one of those people whose eyes fly open early and then they are AWAKE. No lounging around in the sack or going back to sleep. That drives me crazy and I don't know how people can do that. Anyway, I get up and immediately get dressed because there are 6 dogs waiting to go outside for their morning constitutional.
For the most part, our dogs are outside, but once it gets to around 45 degrees at night, they all come in for the night. Because we follow a routine that is almost a ritual, getting everybody out is not a big deal. Of course, we aren't quiet, so the Farmer is not far behind. Usually all this is happening about 6:45 and it has been COLD for the past couple of mornings. We come back in and the big dogs go back to bed and the puppies get to run around the kitchen and play with us, get their breakfast, wrestle and then go back to their kennels until it is "outside time". Soon as it warms up enough, they go to their outdoor kennel to run and play some more. Maggie and Jack are usually wherever we are and Callie goes into her outdoor kennel. She is the official guardian of the chickens, so she spends her day patrolling the perimeter of her kennel (which is right by the chicken lots), taking long naps in the sun or barking at those big, funny looking dogs in the back pasture (they are actually dairy cows from the organic dairy next door).
After the dogs settle in for the rest of the day, it is time to feed the chickens. That doesn't take but about 20 minutes and is so boring a chore it doesn't warrant more than this sentence. After the chickens, I feed the barn cats their breakfast. Like the dogs, if it is cold, they are huddled up in a pile and reluctant to come out, so they get fed later in the morning.
The feline matriarch at our farm is Garbo and she is mother to anything and everything that comes around. She even catches mice for the puppies. The first time I saw her do that I thought she was just playing with them (pups)through the fence but when I went closer, she was actually pushing the mouse into the pen with the puppies, just like she would do with her kittens.
A couple of years ago, she stole a litter of kittens from another cat and when I went to check on her kittens in her box on the back porch, there were nine kittens instead of 4. She raised all of nine of them. The mother of those kittens was a little sad stray somebody put out and she was wild as all get out and a terrible mother. I think Garbo sensed that and decided to step in. She has never done anything like that, either before or after that time.
Garbs is also a great big cat, bigger than most toms. She is not called Garbo because of shyness but rather because she has given new meaning to aloof and haughty, even when referring to a cat. Also, IF she is in the mood to let you pet her, you better be prepared to do so at your own risk because if you don't pet properly or for the amount of time she has allotted for your attention, she will grab your hand (or anything else handy) and hold onto you until you start up again. While I don't think she means to do any harm intentionally, a 15 lb cat can hurt you with their love. The good news is that if you never start petting her, she will accept that and leave you alone. And when I said she was 15 lbs, I might add there is not an ounce of fat on her anywhere.
Garbo is also our miracle cat. Back in the summer, I was out in the backyard hanging up clothes when I saw her coming across the yard. She wasn't walking or moving any different that normal but as she got closer I noticed a gaping wound all the way across her chest.
I have to be graphic to make a point to this story, so skip this next part if you are squeamish.
The only way to describe this wound is to say that it looked like somebody had flayed this cat open. The wound was at least 4 inches long and it was so deep that you could see the bones in her chest moving as she walked. Miraculously, there was not another mark nor was there any blood on her anywhere. She just walked up to me and me-meowed like she always does when she is feeling social. Because it was late on Sunday afternoon and my vet was out of town, we decided since she wasn't debilitated or in any pain, we would wait until Monday and take her to our regular vet instead of the emergency clinic. Since she loves to be indoors, I put her into one of our pet crates, fed and watered her and made her as comfortable as possible. She purred and just rested quietly for the rest of the evening.
First thing, the next morning, I took Garbs to the vet. The first comment everybody who saw her made was that they had never seen anything like it before. The muscles were severed in two, the skin peeled back and you could still see the white bones of her sternum and her front legs moving when she walked. It was an amazing thing to see.
The prognosis from the vet was pretty bleak. She said that the wound couldn't just be sewed up because of the damage to several layers of muscle and the angle of the cut. Garbo needed major surgery to repaid the damage and then she would have to have meds, lots of follow up and a long recovery period. The bottom line cost was estimated at about $500-600 if no complications. My heart sank because I knew we couldn't afford to spend that much on a barn cat, no matter how much I loved her. The alternative was euthanasia which was something I couldn't even consider.
Shaken, I called The Farmer and he said to get some antibiotics from the vet and bring Garbo on home. The vet hooked us up with antibiotics, pain meds, something to irrigate the wound and something extra for the last moments. I brought Garbs home and we again put her in the kennel and made her comfortable. This was mostly for my benefit because she still acted like nothing was wrong. I brought her home to die but she seemed to be in complete denial.
But then the miracle continued. I tried to give her the pain meds but she resisted to the point that I decided it would hurt her more to be jumping around so I put that away. When I tried to clean and irrigate the wound, she let me know very quickly that she could do a much better and efficient job and so that item, too, was put away. I did crush up the antibiotics into her food because I knew that trying to shove a pill down her throat would be worst than the other two "treatments" I had tried to administer.
(Let me point out here that this is the way it is on a farm. Taking every sick or injured animal to the vet is usually not an option. You have to learn how to treat wounds, deliver meds, give injections and so on, so this is not something I recommend for you to try with your pets at home. I know what I am doing and have been an animal rehabber. The Farmer is also a licensed general falconer and we have kept a red tailed hawk for the past 9 years, so our combined experience and varied knowledge is way past the average person's.)
By the next morning, I was beginning to have a little hope, although I figured that she would be damaged beyond having a normal life and would spend her days sitting around the house. Of course, Garbo had other ideas. She finally decided that she was hungry enough to eat the food with the crushed pills in it and didn't object after that point. She simple spit out any pieces big enough for her to detect. Her tongue must be ultra-sensitive because there was dust in the bottom of her bowl. I tried dissolving the stuff in some milk, which she hates anyway and that was just a waste of a pill and a bowl of milk.
Finally, after about 3 days of trying to trick her into these meds, I gave up. She looked fine, the wound was starting to heal and I figured what the heck. If she was doing that well with the relatively small dose of meds I had managed to get into her, we'd just chance it.
On the fourth day, she wanted to go out and stayed out for most of the day. The other cats came up to greet her and she warned them off with a hiss, which is all it has ever taken, so there was not a major confrontation in the backyard. She hung around the back steps and lounged on one of the yard chairs and came back in to eat, etc. a couple of times when I came in from the field to check on her. At the end of the first week, she was almost completely back into her regular daily routine, except she was smart enough not to go out hunting or stray too far from the house and yard because that gaping hole in her chest remained. Every day she seemed to be a little more her old self, just a little more restrained. After 3 1/2 weeks, there was little sign that she had ever been injured so severely, just a little bare patch on her chest and a little pink spot that took a while longer to heal over.
Garbo is now 100% back to her old self. There is not even a scar where she was hurt. Her beautiful soft white fur has completely grown back in and you can barely feel a little bump under it where that awful wound was. We can only speculate but think that she may have jumped up after something and gotten caught on a barbed wire fence and her weight caused the barb to slice through her. We haven't come up with anything else that makes any sense because that wound looked very much like an incision.
We will never know what really happened, but I am just thankful that we made the decision not to have her put down. She is totally Garbs again, the Queen of the Farm and everybody knows it. Now, she is as powerful and graceful as she was before the accident...the tiny lioness once again.
She is also the keeper of a secret that we will never have the answer to. The miracle of her recovery from what should have been a devastating injury is something to ponder. Was it the incredible healing power of a predatory animal, or her instinctive knowing what to do to heal herself that saved her life? Who knows? The fact remains that she showed us just how much faith she had in her own ability to recover and she never waivered in that. There was a profound lesson to be learned here and it was not wasted on me.
This is Garbo today. 
Garbo showing her love.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
NO EAT! NOT FOOD!
What a great kid's book!!!
What a great kid's book!!!
I’ve just finished reading a WONDERFUL new book that I’d like to recommend to
This is a story about the “search for intelligent food on planet earth” and
tells the adventures of a hungry alien looking for some REAL food here on earth. Although
I’m sure anyone would find it a delightful romp
through the principles we hold so dear: biodiversity, sustainable
farming practices, food ethics and a healthful, natural lifestyle for all.
The book is funny, sweet, informative and the artwork is excellent.
The book has won two national level book awards, and I personally give it
the official “New Moon Farm Sustainable Stamp of Organic Approval!”
-Suzanne
Thursday, November 29, 2007
I'm dreaming of a green Christmas (Kwanzaa, Hannakah...)
The following websites are some of the best I have seen for green and organic products. High ideas, high standards and high quality merchandise are hallmarks of many of these companies. If you still have Christmas shopping to do or if you just want to start shopping in a more environmentally friendly way, this is a good place to start. Good luck. Suzanne
These links are live, so just click to visit the websites.
http://www.rawganique.com/aboutus.htm
http://www.worldofgood.com/catalog/index.php
http://www.grinningplanet.com/5005/environmental-products-green-products.htm/
http://shopthefrontier.com/VFstore/
http://www.greensak.com/page5.html
http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
WHAT'S SHAKIN' AT THE FARM
There has never been the need for us to go the the expense of putting in a new well before because the rainfall and our planting methods, soil condition, etc. has always been sufficient for a very productive season. Next year, however, the drought is expected to continue and possibly even into 2009. For that reason, we will have to take on the financial burden of putting in a well and irrigation system if we are to continue to run the Farm.
Putting in a well means we will have to tighten the belt yet another notch (I personally am running out of notches) and make the best of it. That is the nature of farming. A farmer doesn't have the luxury of feeling secure or complacent about much of anything, especially when he/she is an organic farmer. You just have to accept things, deal with them best you can and move on. There is nothing that we would rather do, though, so we will continue to make every effort possible to continue to make this work.
The drought has been a humbling experience for a lot of people in this region, because it has shown us that we simply cannot take our resources for granted anymore. Environmentalists and ecologists have been making dire predictions about these types of things for years and years, but until it finally hits close to home, it is easy not to pay much attention.
AT THE FARM
The Farmer, in particular, has worked so very hard this year to keep things on track. Adverse conditions, while not something one desires, must be looked on by us as a learning experience. Because of the extreme conditions of this summer and fall, we have had to completely rethink how we do some things. Some of these changes will enable us to better manage our resources and give us the ability to still continue to work the Farm with just the two of us.
We can't afford outside labor and need to have things at a level we can maintain with just our 2 strong backs and 4 willing hands. And while we love to have volunteers come to work at the Farm, the majority of them just can't make enough of a time commitment to reduce our workload. Mostly our volunteers/apprentices/interns are here for the learning experience and we love having the opportunity to share our knowledge and passion with them. Part of the good stewardship of an organic farmer is to pass the torch onto the next generation and that is something we take very seriously.
Our farm products are marketed through a CSA (See "What the heck is a CSA?" posted 10.10.07). Because the spirit and structure of a CSA means that everyone shares in both the bounty and the risk of a farm we are not the only ones who have all been affected by this year's extreme weather conditions. Record cold, a record heatwave, a record drought...we had it all this year. Our CSA members have been given a close up view into the day to day trials of being a farmer.
It has meant a great deal to us to have had so many words of encouragement and support throughout the past several months from our memberfriends. If anything positive has come from this situation, it has given us all the time to stop and appreciate just what it takes to get our food to the plate and to be more aware of the fragility of all of our food sources.
This year has also been an eye-opener for Americans about the dangers of imported and non-local foods, with food safety issues cropping up on almost a weekly basis. It only takes one catastrophic event to affect our food supply, no matter what the source. Belonging to CSA has gives you access to one of the safest food supplies available (unless you are growing it yourself). Even our handling methods are geared toward food safety (it is a requirement of our certification).
Next year, we are going to go back to making home deliveries. After making a study of the logistics of this plan, it is actually more environmentally friendly for us to drive 100 miles per week to deliver than to have many people driving to one location to pick up their produce. (I calculated the number of miles that our customers drive and it is considerably less for me to do the driving.) We have a small gas sipper that will be used for this purpose and so we will stand by our commitment to Mother Earth.
THE NEW AGE OF POULTRY
Next year, we will be producing our own eggs for our CSA. As I have mentioned on several occasions, we already have about 50 chickens that we have for our own usage and making a transition to a larger laying flock is just a matter of renovating the chicken house, obtaining the chickens and setting up nest boxes for them, etc. which will be one of our projects for the winter months.
This project is very exciting for us for many reasons, not the least of which is that we will be attempting, over the next 2-3 years, to establish a breeding flock of two critically endangered breeds. As defined by the American Livestock Breed Conservancy Critical means: Fewer than 500 breeding birds in the United States, with five or fewer primary breeding flocks (50 birds or more), and globally endangered. This has been a goal that we have had in our long range plans since we started and we are finally ready to make this happen. Anyone who participates in our CSA in the future will be a key part of this project.
Bringing a livestock breed back to the role for which it was originally intended is necessary to ensure that the breeds are truly viable again and so stabilize their status. The work of the ALBC and small breeders have rescued many breeds of livestock from near extinction. We strongly believe that these animals are part of our history (human history...not just American history) and should be respected and appreciated for the role that they have played in that history. Preservation of our past can certainly help to shape our future, if we are willing to learn from that past.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Keeping it Real...
No less important is our belief in seeking harmony in everything around us. We strive to maintain the natural habitats and riparian areas of the Farm. We build habitat to encourage birds, insects, animals and other native species to grow and flourish here. Sections of what appear to be weeds and brambles is a planned sanctuary for birds that nest close to the ground, as well as a place for beneficial insects to lay their eggs or burrow in for the winter. Certain crops are allowed to go to seed or winter over because they produce blooms early in the spring, giving the bees a source of nectar earlier than they might find it otherwise.
Instead of fighting to conquer the natural elements around us, we seek to find that balance which allows us to live in accord with them. These simple but powerful ideas are the foundation on which New Moon Farm was built and that touch everything we do.Here at the Farm, we try to promote not only a peaceful, healthful, natural lifestyle for ourselves and others, we also employ many of the tenets of simple living. By producing as many of our needs as possible on the farm and practicing voluntary simplicity wherever we can, we limit our dependence on other sources for our comforts and necessities. Sustainability is key not only to our farming methods, but to our daily life.
One of our specialties are the heirloom varieties we grow here at the Farm. These "antique" vegetables and flowers are literally a living historical link to our past. Many of the heirlooms we grow have their origins within the cultures that brought them to America during the settling of this country. Some of them are even indigenous species that grew wild in our region and were harvested by the native people who populated this area before the Europeans settled here. This fascinating aspect of what we do is something that is both intriguing and exciting. Not only are we able to grow our own food, we are able to make a connection between the past and present in a very tangible way.
Biologically, the human body responds to things in its immediate environment...we get allergies in spring, are more lethargic and have cravings for protein rich foods in cold months, things like that. Humans have always coexisted in the same environment as the plants that they used for food, until we started using the industrial food complex for our food supply. The rise in disease and other conditions related to diet have tracked a path right along side the evolution of our modern food systems.
We believe that eating local organically grown produce, in season, is one of the best ways to provide optimum nutrition and to feed both the body and the spirit. Government intervention has made our food supply about commerce instead of good health and nutrition and now as a nation, we are all suffering. It makes more sense to me to eat foods that grow in the same area or region where one lives than to consume something the came from thousands of miles away (or even from another country half way around the world...) not only for the sake of the environment but for our own good health. And there is an almost spiritual result from eating food that you know is good for you. If one truly believes in a Higher Power, how can that person not treat their body as a temple. How can one believe that human beings were made in the image of God, yet treat the body with such contempt? "You are what you eat" is one of the truest axioms ever put to paper.
Namaste
Friday, November 16, 2007
A day in the life (This post is a long one....)
First of all, we get up with the chickens or in our case, the puppies. That means it is just about the time the sun comes up. If the puppies sleep in, so do we. Since there is no time clock to punch we pretty much take the day as it comes. Most summer days we are up at 5 am or earlier, but at this time of year, it is too dark and cold to get up that early, so things move at a little slower pace.
I get up first, usually, unless the Farmer has something to do. I am one of those people whose eyes fly open early and then they are AWAKE. No lounging around in the sack or going back to sleep. That drives me crazy and I don't know how people can do that. Anyway, I get up and immediately get dressed because there are 6 dogs waiting to go outside for their morning constitutional.
For the most part, our dogs are outside, but once it gets to around 45 degrees at night, they all come in for the night. Because we follow a routine that is almost a ritual, getting everybody out is not a big deal. Of course, we aren't quiet, so the Farmer is not far behind. Usually all this is happening about 6:45 and it has been COLD for the past couple of mornings. We come back in and the big dogs go back to bed and the puppies get to run around the kitchen and play with us, get their breakfast, wrestle and then go back to their kennels until it is "outside time". Soon as it warms up enough, they go to their outdoor kennel to run and play some more. Maggie and Jack are usually wherever we are and Callie goes into her outdoor kennel. She is the official guardian of the chickens, so she spends her day patrolling the perimeter of her kennel (which is right by the chicken lots), taking long naps in the sun or barking at those big, funny looking dogs in the back pasture (they are actually dairy cows from the organic dairy next door).
After the dogs settle in for the rest of the day, it is time to feed the chickens. That doesn't take but about 20 minutes and is so boring a chore it doesn't warrant more than this sentence. After the chickens, I feed the barn cats their breakfast. Like the dogs, if it is cold, they are huddled up in a pile and reluctant to come out, so they get fed later in the morning.
The feline matriarch at our farm is Garbo and she is mother to anything and everything that comes around. She even catches mice for the puppies. The first time I saw her do that I thought she was just playing with them (pups)through the fence but when I went closer, she was actually pushing the mouse into the pen with the puppies, just like she would do with her kittens.
A couple of years ago, she stole a litter of kittens from another cat and when I went to check on her kittens in her box on the back porch, there were nine kittens instead of 4. She raised all of nine of them. The mother of those kittens was a little sad stray somebody put out and she was wild as all get out and a terrible mother. I think Garbo sensed that and decided to step in. She has never done anything like that, either before or after that time.
Garbs is also a great big cat, bigger than most toms. She is not called Garbo because of shyness but rather because she has given new meaning to aloof and haughty, even when referring to a cat. Also, IF she is in the mood to let you pet her, you better be prepared to do so at your own risk because if you don't pet properly or for the amount of time she has allotted for your attention, she will grab your hand (or anything else handy) and hold onto you until you start up again. While I don't think she means to do any harm intentionally, a 15 lb cat can hurt you with their love. The good news is that if you never start petting her, she will accept that and leave you alone. And when I said she was 15 lbs, I might add there is not an ounce of fat on her anywhere.
Garbo is also our miracle cat. Back in the summer, I was out in the backyard hanging up clothes when I saw her coming across the yard. She wasn't walking or moving any different that normal but as she got closer I noticed a gaping wound all the way across her chest.
I have to be graphic to make a point to this story, so skip this next part if you are squeamish.
The only way to describe this wound is to say that it looked like somebody had flayed this cat open. The wound was at least 4 inches long and it was so deep that you could see the bones in her chest moving as she walked. Miraculously, there was not another mark nor was there any blood on her anywhere. She just walked up to me and me-meowed like she always does when she is feeling social. Because it was late on Sunday afternoon and my vet was out of town, we decided since she wasn't debilitated or in any pain, we would wait until Monday and take her to our regular vet instead of the emergency clinic. Since she loves to be indoors, I put her into one of our pet crates, fed and watered her and made her as comfortable as possible. She purred and just rested quietly for the rest of the evening.
First thing, the next morning, I took Garbs to the vet. The first comment everybody who saw her made was that they had never seen anything like it before. The muscles were severed in two, the skin peeled back and you could still see the white bones of her sternum and her front legs moving when she walked. It was an amazing thing to see.
The prognosis from the vet was pretty bleak. She said that the wound couldn't just be sewed up because of the damage to several layers of muscle and the angle of the cut. Garbo needed major surgery to repaid the damage and then she would have to have meds, lots of follow up and a long recovery period. The bottom line cost was estimated at about $500-600 if no complications. My heart sank because I knew we couldn't afford to spend that much on a barn cat, no matter how much I loved her. The alternative was euthanasia which was something I couldn't even consider.
So, I called The Farmer and he said to get some antibiotics from the vet and bring Garbo on home. The vet hooked us up with antibiotics, pain meds, something to irrigate the wound and something extra for the last moments. I brought Garbs home and we again put her in the kennel and made her comfortable. This was mostly for my benefit because she still acted like nothing was wrong with brought her home to die but she seemed to be in denial.
But then the miracle continued. I tried to give her the pain meds but she resisted to the point that I decided it would hurt her more to be jumping around so I put that away. When I tried to clean and irrigate the wound, she let me know very quickly that she could do a much better and efficient job and so that item, too, was put away. I did crush up the antibiotics into her food because I knew that trying to shove a pill down her throat would be worst than the other two "treatments" I had tried to administer.
(Let me point out here that this is the way it is on a farm. Taking every sick or injured animal to the vet is usually not an option. You have to learn how to treat wounds, deliver meds, give injections and so on, so this is not something I recommend for you to try with your pets at home. I know what I am doing and have been an animal rehabber. The Farmer is also a licensed general falconer and we have kept a red tailed hawk for the past 9 years, so our combined experience and varied knowledge is way past the average person's.)
By the next morning, I was beginning to have a little hope, although I figured that she would be damaged beyond having a normal life and would spend her days sitting around the house. Of course, Garbo had other ideas. She finally decided that she was hungry enough to eat the food with the crushed pills in it and didn't object after that point. She simple spit out any pieces big enough for her to detect. Her tongue must be ultra-sensitive because there was dust in the bottom of her bowl. I tried dissolving the stuff in some milk, which she hates anyway and that was just a waste of a pill and a bowl of milk. Finally, after about 3 days of trying to trick her into these meds, I gave up. She looked fine, the wound was starting to heal and I figured what the heck. If she was doing that well with relative little of the meds in her, we'd just chance it.
On the fourth day, she wanted to go out and stay out. The other cats cams up to greet her and she warned them off with a hiss, which is all it has ever taken, so there was not a major confrontation in the backyard. She hung around the back steps and lounged on one of the yard chairs and came back in to eat, etc. a couple of times when I came in to check on her. At the end of the first week, she was almost completely back into her regular daily routine, except she was smart enough not to go out hunting or stray too far from the house and yard.
Garbo is now 100% back to her old self. There is not even a scar where she was hurt. Her beautiful soft white fur has completely grown back in and you can barely feel a little bump under it where that awful wound was. We can only speculate but think that she may have jumped up after something and gotten caught on a barbed wire fence and her weight caused the barb to slice through her. We haven't come up with anything else that makes any sense because that wound looked like an incision.
We will never know what happened, but I am just thankful that we made the decision not to have her put down. She is totally Garbs again, the Queen of the Farm and everybody knows it.
She is also the keeper of a secret that we will never have the answer to. The miracle of her recover from what should have been a devastating injury is something to ponder. The incredible healing power of a predatory animal, her instinctive knowing what to do to heal herself and the fact that she showed us how to help her are as inspiring to me as anything I have ever experienced and the lessons are not wasted.