On the way home last night from picking up Brian's daughter Kacie, my cell phone rang.
"Where are you?" my husband asked. Not pausing for an answer he added, "All the cows are out!"
We were over 15 minutes from home. He hung up. I drove faster.
Meanwhile with the help of my two brothers, a bucket of feed and a large piece of white spunbonded row cover my husband somehow convinced the cows to head back through the gate. By the time we pulled in the driveway the cows were back where they belong. The horses were not.
A quick switch to barn boots and I was off to find something handy for a lead rope. Dog leash- yep- that would work. It's a good thing we have light colored horses. I don't see very well in the dark. It's also a good thing that Bonnie will follow Clyde anywhere- even in the dark.
It didn't take long to get them back in the pasture.
You should have heard all the mooing and bellering going on. Those cows did not want to be penned up they wanted out to room around looking for tasty tidbits we might have missed in the garden.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Freeze
Well it was bound to happen and last night it did. The temp dipped down to 27 and brought our CSA to a screaching halt. When I came home at 5 am everything was a covered with icy diamonds. And this afternoon all the tender green things were black and wilted.
I really enjoyed all the folks who took part in our CSA this year, but I do have to admit I am glad it is over for another year.
Now my efforts will be focused on cleaning out the greenhouse and high tunnel, building a barn, applying compost to the garden area for next year, playing midwife to Red Wattle hogs, planning for next year and cooking on my woodburning cookstove. :)
Ahhh the "slow" season.
I really enjoyed all the folks who took part in our CSA this year, but I do have to admit I am glad it is over for another year.
Now my efforts will be focused on cleaning out the greenhouse and high tunnel, building a barn, applying compost to the garden area for next year, playing midwife to Red Wattle hogs, planning for next year and cooking on my woodburning cookstove. :)
Ahhh the "slow" season.
Monday, October 12, 2009
New Blog: Piglet's Progress
We have a bottle baby pig right now.
She has her own blog!
You can follow her progress @
http://pigletprogress.blogspot.com/
She has her own blog!
You can follow her progress @
http://pigletprogress.blogspot.com/
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Feeding the world one small farm at a time.
At the end of the article I mentioned in the previous blog post, there is a little sidebar it says:
"Organic methods can produce almost as much yield per acre as conventional ones but require more human labor. In a time of scarce jobs, a return to the farm can help both the land and the economy."
When we started our working shares in our CSA, people told us we were just creating our own competition by teaching people to garden. I sure hope so. There is room for everyone when we work with the earth not against her.
Nothing would make me happier than having a network of small farmers in our area to feed our community wholesome, sustainable food. We really want to help others realize their dreams of becoming farmers whether it's with a small garden and few hens or 10 acres and a goal of independence.
"Organic methods can produce almost as much yield per acre as conventional ones but require more human labor. In a time of scarce jobs, a return to the farm can help both the land and the economy."
When we started our working shares in our CSA, people told us we were just creating our own competition by teaching people to garden. I sure hope so. There is room for everyone when we work with the earth not against her.
Nothing would make me happier than having a network of small farmers in our area to feed our community wholesome, sustainable food. We really want to help others realize their dreams of becoming farmers whether it's with a small garden and few hens or 10 acres and a goal of independence.
"THE REAL COST OF CHEAP FOOD"
Last week I was in the dentists office browsing through magazines when I came accoss this title on the cover of Time for August 31, 2009. WOW!
I turned to the article on page 31. The article points out the hidden costs of producing cheap meat and grain: soil degredation and erosion, rising concern over antibiotic resistant bacteria in farm animals, global climate change. It goes on to point out that this style of farming uses up 19% of US fossil fuels. That's a lot!
It points out that the current "a food system - from seed to 7-eleven- that generates cheap , filling food...is also a principal cause of America's obesity epidemic."
The article was accompanied by a little chart with a dollar bill on the left and on the right what that dollar could buy:
1200 calories of potato chips or 875 calories of soda or 250 calories of veggies or 170 calories of fresh fruit
Geez! But would you feel better and be healthier if you ate the veggies or the fresh fruit? Yes.
One of our CSA shareholders explained his family's philosophy on food like this: He said, they would rather pay more for better quality food. This approach means they eat less, but much better. No one in their family is overweight.
Hmmmm.
You can read the article for yourself by clicking here: http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=54765
Let me know what you think.
I turned to the article on page 31. The article points out the hidden costs of producing cheap meat and grain: soil degredation and erosion, rising concern over antibiotic resistant bacteria in farm animals, global climate change. It goes on to point out that this style of farming uses up 19% of US fossil fuels. That's a lot!
It points out that the current "a food system - from seed to 7-eleven- that generates cheap , filling food...is also a principal cause of America's obesity epidemic."
The article was accompanied by a little chart with a dollar bill on the left and on the right what that dollar could buy:
1200 calories of potato chips or 875 calories of soda or 250 calories of veggies or 170 calories of fresh fruit
Geez! But would you feel better and be healthier if you ate the veggies or the fresh fruit? Yes.
One of our CSA shareholders explained his family's philosophy on food like this: He said, they would rather pay more for better quality food. This approach means they eat less, but much better. No one in their family is overweight.
Hmmmm.
You can read the article for yourself by clicking here: http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=54765
Let me know what you think.
Finding the golden triangle
The farming version of the isosceles triangle.
I used to think about farming in a more linear way. More like a time line. Now I think of farming in more interesting geometric shapes.
Now I think of our farm systems are made up of interlocking/interdependent circles. The circle of the seasons, weather patterns, animal growth and reproduction, plant growth, decomposition, the wildlife on the farm and under the soil. It all fits together in an ever shifting pattern interlinked circles.
3-D circles.
When I imagine it I think of it in space time. 2 dimensions just seems too limiting.
Oh yes... I did start out talking about triangles. Best to get back to that.
The golden triangle of farming. That perfect balance between number of animals, cost of production, return from product that allows the farmer to make a living. Why a golden triangle? Because if one element is out of whack the whole thing falls apart and the farmer has to struggle to put it all back in balance.
For example: We fell into the more must be better way of thinking about our laying flock. We grew to 200 laying hens. We sold our eggs at $2.25/doz. We often had excess eggs which we could not sell and we would feed them to our pregnant sows for the added calcium and protein.
At the end of the day, we were losing money and we were working ourselves to death.
We had lost the golden triangle. So we scaled back with the help of a near miss tornado and some pretty severe culling. Now we have one little hen pen with 45 birds. They are just starting to lay consistently. Our feed costs are in line with our output of eggs. We don't have any surplus eggs now. In fact, we often don't have enough eggs for everyone that wants them. We are taking the advise of several of our egg customers and increasing our per dozen price to $3 in 2010. We won't be wholesaling to the feed mill anymore. Still our triangle is a little lopsided.
We're working on that. We plan to grow our flock of layers slowly. Stopping often to analyze whether we have created the golden triangle. At the point that we have just enough eggs to sell and feed ourselves balanced with the feed costs and housing costs we'll stop.
That will be our golden triangle for egg production. I'll keep you posted on how we're doing.
I used to think about farming in a more linear way. More like a time line. Now I think of farming in more interesting geometric shapes.
Now I think of our farm systems are made up of interlocking/interdependent circles. The circle of the seasons, weather patterns, animal growth and reproduction, plant growth, decomposition, the wildlife on the farm and under the soil. It all fits together in an ever shifting pattern interlinked circles.
3-D circles.
When I imagine it I think of it in space time. 2 dimensions just seems too limiting.
Oh yes... I did start out talking about triangles. Best to get back to that.
The golden triangle of farming. That perfect balance between number of animals, cost of production, return from product that allows the farmer to make a living. Why a golden triangle? Because if one element is out of whack the whole thing falls apart and the farmer has to struggle to put it all back in balance.
For example: We fell into the more must be better way of thinking about our laying flock. We grew to 200 laying hens. We sold our eggs at $2.25/doz. We often had excess eggs which we could not sell and we would feed them to our pregnant sows for the added calcium and protein.
At the end of the day, we were losing money and we were working ourselves to death.
We had lost the golden triangle. So we scaled back with the help of a near miss tornado and some pretty severe culling. Now we have one little hen pen with 45 birds. They are just starting to lay consistently. Our feed costs are in line with our output of eggs. We don't have any surplus eggs now. In fact, we often don't have enough eggs for everyone that wants them. We are taking the advise of several of our egg customers and increasing our per dozen price to $3 in 2010. We won't be wholesaling to the feed mill anymore. Still our triangle is a little lopsided.
We're working on that. We plan to grow our flock of layers slowly. Stopping often to analyze whether we have created the golden triangle. At the point that we have just enough eggs to sell and feed ourselves balanced with the feed costs and housing costs we'll stop.
That will be our golden triangle for egg production. I'll keep you posted on how we're doing.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Support heritage pork with your fork!
Do What?
That's right. To save our critically rare Red Wattle hogs from extinction we need to eat them. You see if there is no demand for RW pork then there is no demand for RW's. That would mean the end of RW's forever.
So this month we took 4 of our pasture raised, hormone & antibiotic free RW's to the processor. We got them back today. Every nook and cranny in every freezer we own is full of RW pork!
One ham never even made it to the freezer. I put it right into the slow cooker. Unfortunately, I had to go to work before it was done, but Brian called a bit ago. He said I shouldn't count on there being any leftovers after tomorrow. :)
I can hardly wait to cook up some pork chops and make sausage gravy and biscuits. This is pork the way I remember it. Back when hogs were raised on pasture not on concrete. When pork wasn' t "the other white meat". This is real pork for real people- juicy, flavorful and filling.
We are offering a limited amount of our RW pork for sale by the pound @ $4/lb.
You can check available cuts, reserve your cuts and arrange for pickup at the farm by emailing us at: kissmygrassfarm@hotmail.com or call Brian @ 812-521-1063.
We invite you to join us for a walking tour of the farm when you come out to pick up your heritage pork.
Help save the RW's and eat well too!
That's right. To save our critically rare Red Wattle hogs from extinction we need to eat them. You see if there is no demand for RW pork then there is no demand for RW's. That would mean the end of RW's forever.
So this month we took 4 of our pasture raised, hormone & antibiotic free RW's to the processor. We got them back today. Every nook and cranny in every freezer we own is full of RW pork!
One ham never even made it to the freezer. I put it right into the slow cooker. Unfortunately, I had to go to work before it was done, but Brian called a bit ago. He said I shouldn't count on there being any leftovers after tomorrow. :)
I can hardly wait to cook up some pork chops and make sausage gravy and biscuits. This is pork the way I remember it. Back when hogs were raised on pasture not on concrete. When pork wasn' t "the other white meat". This is real pork for real people- juicy, flavorful and filling.
We are offering a limited amount of our RW pork for sale by the pound @ $4/lb.
You can check available cuts, reserve your cuts and arrange for pickup at the farm by emailing us at: kissmygrassfarm@hotmail.com or call Brian @ 812-521-1063.
We invite you to join us for a walking tour of the farm when you come out to pick up your heritage pork.
Help save the RW's and eat well too!
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