Local, Natural, Non-GMO
Back a while ago, The Farmer found this book by Peter Burke in his local library and took a long gander. (Here is the link to the local library. The author also has a website with supplies and an outline of his method.)
In the book, Mr. Burke shows a simple way to grow sprouts on soil, without the need for grow lights or other expensive equipment.
This is The Farmer’s second winter using the method, and here is what it looks like for him.
Christmas is a special time for many people. The Farmer has very pleasant memories of going to Grandma’s house for Christmas. Besides playing with the cousins, The Farmer loved Grandma’s nut tray, cracking shells and enjoying tastes that he did not get at home.
As an adult, The Farmer wanted to shape Christmas to his own liking, and since The Farmer’s Wife was willing, a unique format for our meals has developed.
Have you visited the windy.com website?
Windy.com is a nifty weather-related site that (among other things) shows the direction and relative speed of the wind. Here is a screen shot showing that the wind is at 18 knots as this post is written.
The wind is an amazing force, as The Farmer found out on the morning of December 5, 2017.
Many of the pole beans we grow can be eaten as a dried bean. This means that you don’t harvest the bean when it is young and green. You let it grow full size.
As the beans mature, the seeds inside the pod get much larger. The pod drys out in the wind and sun, leaving the bean’s seeds as the part of the plant that is eaten.
A while ago we posted about work we were doing on a new mobile chicken coop. That new coop is now in service.
It took several days for the chickens to learn that they had to walk up the ramp to get back inside the coop. The first few nights they would walk around the coop knowing they had to get up in there, but unsure how. It would have been comical except that we had to try and herd them to the ramp. Now they all routinely go in as the sky starts to darken at night.
We designed the coop to hold 60 chickens comfortably, and we have about 45 at present. By moving the coop regularly, the chickens don’t find alternate places to lay their eggs, which means we are not spending time searching for clutches behind trees or under weeds.
Sometime in November we will give the coop a good cleaning while the chickens are out. Then we will park the coop near the barn so that the chickens can have some artificial light. (This helps keep them producing eggs.) When snow arrives, they will be limited to this coop and a covered outdoor eating area.
When the weather warms, the coop will get another good cleaning, and the chickens will be off to the pastures again.
Both the chickens and the humans are enjoying the benefits of our chicken Taj Mahal. Our thanks to the Farmer’s father for the idea and to the father and the Farmer’s sons for building it. Excellent job!
Our second son is currently working on his Ph.D. in mathematics. But his humble roots include being a pig farmer. He loved his pigs like some kids love their dogs. He would play with them and ride on them.
Back in those days, we had sows that we would breed to raise a litter of piglets.
Now we buy our piglets in from farms which raise their pigs outdoors. Know why is this important? Continue reading “Sty Guy”
Have you ever thought about trying to grow something in a garden? Garlic would be fairly easy to start with.
Why garlic?
Preserving food is work.
We like to put up food each year. Here you see (clockwise from upper right): dried apples, beets, beef, apple sauce, and green beans.
Preserving food is easier with some specialized equipment, Continue reading “The High Cost of Home Preservation”
Just like any profession, farmers need a way to keep up with the news in their field. One of the sources we use is Country Folk’s Grower newsletter.
The Grower newsletter is free (paid for by advertising) which makes it accessible to any size farm. It covers topics such as notable farmers, social trends affecting farmers, and ag-related issues, like pest control and soil fertility.
The September 2017 issue pictured above featured stories about farms ranging from a 3-acre vegetable farm run basically by one person to a much larger farm with 10 – 15 employees. It also covered trends in Christmas Tree production, common crop pests, and factors affecting growing in a high tunnel.
There were two take-aways for me.
One article featured Jim Sollecito and his Syracuse nursery/consulting business. It reminded me that he has a series of podcasts that I want to check out.
I also learned about an online resource I can use to identify pests in the garden.
What resources to you use to stay updated in your fields of interest?
Our egg-laying chickens have been housed in various structures contraptions built cobbled together by The Farmer. Here is an example of these finely constructed barely workable chicken coops:
Well, the times they are a-changing.