I'd love to write the full story of how we finished haying, but I just can't in one sitting. I will share some of the highlights. The rest will just have to perk in my mind until I can pour you a strong cup of memory brewed from the experience. Maybe some winter day when I'm half crazy from being locked in by the cold. The details would curl your hair, involve compassionate neighbors, a divine intervention and two 14 year old boys driving my Ford pickup full of hay bales without adult supervision.
For now my story will focus on the old hay baler I named Senora. Senora is probably as old as I am. An antique as farm machines go. But she's still game to bale a field and has a language all her own.
The problem is, I don't speak her language fluently. Yes, we've worked out a few things over the years but she has secrets nobody really understands. And the men who know how to translate are getting harder to find. Senora glided through about 4 acres of hay field that was neatly cut and raked, missing a bale about one in a hundred.
Now what you need to know is that Senora picks up the dry, raked hay from the field, sweeps it over into a plunger that compacts loose hay into a square, cuts the ends off with a knife and squeezes each section she picks up into the bale. At the same time she pulls a length of the baling twine that wraps around the bale and, get this, ties a knot and cuts the twine for each bale. Except when she doesn't.
Talk to any farmer with a square baler and you can go on for ours about the knotters. These are the twin mechanical features that must simultaneously tie a knot and cut the twine. This is mechanical voodoo. You can't do it in hand and the mechanics are baffling.
Senora had it down until she choked near sundown with a hundred bales to go.
So I called a neighbor. "Hey Adam, you remember when the pickup reel on your baler got jammed and you had to clear it? What did you do?" Adam said, "I'll be down in half an hour".
Mean time my wife had seen the delay, called neighbors and the kids in and they were picking up bales off the field and pitching them up into the barn loft. The 14 year olds were delighted to be given a pickup truck to load with bales in the field and return to the barn. Yeah, and dad learned to keep his mouth shut as junior learned to back the truck down the lane to the barn. Both outside mirrors are still intact.
The neighbors who dropped everything on their own farm came running to help and loaded our loft.
And then Adam drove up and took Senora in hand. You can't know all the tricks of an old farm machine. And you can't know what a farm hand knows about desperate repairs with hand tools. I learned a lot from the local hands in a few hours about how not to be beaten at sundown with rain on the horizon. It was pretty damn impressive.
All told we got the hay in. Not as much as we wanted. Not with the ease we expected. But we won. When we were stuck, people came and helped. Not because they had to, not because there was money in it. But because we needed them. We might be poor in hay this year, but we're rich in friends and neighbors. What a blessing.
PS-
You might wonder about Senora. Well, she did her best up until she broke a drive chain on some heavy clover hay. That's alright. We'll get her a new chain and we'll pick up a few more bales another day. And like I said. she's got her own language. She hums though a light windrow of dried grass, and when we hit the heavy cutting she complains, "There's no Room. There's no Room. There's no Room."
She might be an old thing now, but she once was a dream in red paint and I named her after a 1961 hit by Harry Belafonte. This link below should explain it all.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Sunday, July 20, 2014
A few Words From the Farm Before Bedtime.
Some notes.
The sheep have grazed their way through ready pasture. Yesterday Susie wondered where to put them. I pointed to the front yard. Our shady lawn was looking shaggy and the weeds are up under the cherry and the apple trees. Today the view from the kitchen is of sheep grazing on the lawn and dozing in the shade and there isn't a weed to be seen under the cherry tree. One of our regular customers came to get a box of farm produce with her daughter. She laughed when she noticed the sheep were mowing the lawn. I said, "The John Deere runs 'till it's empty. The sheep run 'till they're full."
I started cutting hay yesterday. I have a formerly broken but newly reformed cutter bar mower, older than I am, to do the work. It won't do on a modern farm. To small, too slow, too fussy about ground speed and the angle of the bar. Unlike today's machines this one is full of secrets and peculiarities a man has to know if he wants hay in the barn. But it's nimble in small plots of grass and clover, compact enough to get down an over-grown lane and forgiving when a turn at the end of a row doesn't go just right. I hooked the end of the bar on a thick stand of weeds and the built-in mechanical precaution of a friction bar released, a design included to prevent damage when striking an obstacle in the field. Push as I might It would not go back into place. I drove home with the mower on the tractor, reversed into the Maritime Electric pole in the yard and heard a satisfying "click". It's taken me 4 years to learn how to cut hay with a mower everybody used to know.
I'll finish cutting hay tomorrow. Then I'll use an old hay rake to turn the hay to finish drying and set it into windrows for baling. That's when my cantankerous old baler "Senora" enters the scene. Dowager that she is, one never knows exactly what she will do so I'll save the rest of this story for a full report on her behavior and let you get some rest.
Goodnight.
The sheep have grazed their way through ready pasture. Yesterday Susie wondered where to put them. I pointed to the front yard. Our shady lawn was looking shaggy and the weeds are up under the cherry and the apple trees. Today the view from the kitchen is of sheep grazing on the lawn and dozing in the shade and there isn't a weed to be seen under the cherry tree. One of our regular customers came to get a box of farm produce with her daughter. She laughed when she noticed the sheep were mowing the lawn. I said, "The John Deere runs 'till it's empty. The sheep run 'till they're full."
I started cutting hay yesterday. I have a formerly broken but newly reformed cutter bar mower, older than I am, to do the work. It won't do on a modern farm. To small, too slow, too fussy about ground speed and the angle of the bar. Unlike today's machines this one is full of secrets and peculiarities a man has to know if he wants hay in the barn. But it's nimble in small plots of grass and clover, compact enough to get down an over-grown lane and forgiving when a turn at the end of a row doesn't go just right. I hooked the end of the bar on a thick stand of weeds and the built-in mechanical precaution of a friction bar released, a design included to prevent damage when striking an obstacle in the field. Push as I might It would not go back into place. I drove home with the mower on the tractor, reversed into the Maritime Electric pole in the yard and heard a satisfying "click". It's taken me 4 years to learn how to cut hay with a mower everybody used to know.
I'll finish cutting hay tomorrow. Then I'll use an old hay rake to turn the hay to finish drying and set it into windrows for baling. That's when my cantankerous old baler "Senora" enters the scene. Dowager that she is, one never knows exactly what she will do so I'll save the rest of this story for a full report on her behavior and let you get some rest.
Goodnight.
Friday, July 18, 2014
A Few Words From the Farm Before Bedtime
If you have a cat, a dog, a pet iguana, a patio pot with a tomato plant, an award winning rose, a few rows of potatoes or a million acres of wheat, sooner or later Nature will tap you on the shoulder and remind you of the facts. "Hey bud. We have a deal."
I was reminded of that today by our otherwise carefree barn cat, Sean. Sean can't read the fine print but he knows the terms of our agreement. Man says, "You are a barn cat. We hired you because rodents steal food, damage buildings, eat baby chicks make a mess generally and aren't contributing to the program here. You seem to be pretty good at hunting rodents, cat. Here's the deal. We'll give you enough food and health care to keep you strong and able. You'll be free to come and go as you please and use your talents at will to eat rats, mice, voles and whatever else comes your way. One more thing, we'll be clipping your junk." So cat looks at the deal and says, "Sweet. Feed me on schedule, don't act crazy and don't try to pick me up or turn me into one of your stupid, fat, house cats and I'm your barn cat." Sean is as free as Huckleberry Finn.
Last fall the fur trappers in our neighborhood legally set traps in the neighborhood. Trapping for furs goes on here as a traditional way of earning income sometimes for bounty and varmint control. I don't have much to say about it. But I do appreciate it when a trapper comes to me and lets me know his traps are out and we're good enough neighbors to exchange the courtesy of allowing trappers to work by asking them to keep traps away from our farm yard, kids and livestock. Seems rational enough. But Huck Finn can't read a map and Sean disappeared.
We were out in the barnyard in the morning 2 days later when Sean came home. He slunk weakly into the barnyard and made a dizzy beeline to safety in the hay loft. We were glad to see him and realized pretty fast he was in trouble. Panting, starving, one eye bulging out but ever so grateful to be home. He was bundled up, taken to the vet, tested and observed and then released home for care with a guess that maybe a glancing blow from a car on the road had nearly done him in.
A few days later a neighbor came by and mentioned that he'd found a cat in a trap in a neck hold and set him loose. Turns out it was Sean. The type of trap used and a neighbor gave him a chance. And when he was set free he came home.
Sean was let into the house for the first time ever and closed into the bathroom with everything he'd need to recover. He was patient with being confined. He was fed and loved and nursed back to health and was eventually more than happy to go back home to freedom in his barn.
Afterward, last winter, Sean would show up on the porch in the bitterest cold, visit and talk with us, take a bit of petting (Not too much because rubbing his fur pushed the warm air out of his coat) and then off he'd go to his lodgings in the hay loft. Sean lost the rounded tips of his ears to frost bite last winter. But he never asked to be let in the house. He knows the deal. Some day, if we're both lucky, Sean and I will retire. I suspect we'll both earn a spot by the fire and have no regrets. Until then, we both have work to do.
This is just a short story about a cat. It's also a story about all of us. We have a deal with Nature and Nature holds the stakes. We promise to care for and look after Nature in return for what we need and we take what we get. We're a wife and husband, nurturing the little lives we are given and as long as we recognize the terms of our survival all is well. But If we hold ourselves apart from Nature, if we forget that people spent 10,000 years negotiating a living and if we believe we cannot be held to account for ignoring the contract, we'll lose everything. Even a silly barn cat with squared ears knows the facts. He's free to come and go as he pleases. But he follows me everywhere. And I admire that little cat.
I was reminded of that today by our otherwise carefree barn cat, Sean. Sean can't read the fine print but he knows the terms of our agreement. Man says, "You are a barn cat. We hired you because rodents steal food, damage buildings, eat baby chicks make a mess generally and aren't contributing to the program here. You seem to be pretty good at hunting rodents, cat. Here's the deal. We'll give you enough food and health care to keep you strong and able. You'll be free to come and go as you please and use your talents at will to eat rats, mice, voles and whatever else comes your way. One more thing, we'll be clipping your junk." So cat looks at the deal and says, "Sweet. Feed me on schedule, don't act crazy and don't try to pick me up or turn me into one of your stupid, fat, house cats and I'm your barn cat." Sean is as free as Huckleberry Finn.
Last fall the fur trappers in our neighborhood legally set traps in the neighborhood. Trapping for furs goes on here as a traditional way of earning income sometimes for bounty and varmint control. I don't have much to say about it. But I do appreciate it when a trapper comes to me and lets me know his traps are out and we're good enough neighbors to exchange the courtesy of allowing trappers to work by asking them to keep traps away from our farm yard, kids and livestock. Seems rational enough. But Huck Finn can't read a map and Sean disappeared.
We were out in the barnyard in the morning 2 days later when Sean came home. He slunk weakly into the barnyard and made a dizzy beeline to safety in the hay loft. We were glad to see him and realized pretty fast he was in trouble. Panting, starving, one eye bulging out but ever so grateful to be home. He was bundled up, taken to the vet, tested and observed and then released home for care with a guess that maybe a glancing blow from a car on the road had nearly done him in.
A few days later a neighbor came by and mentioned that he'd found a cat in a trap in a neck hold and set him loose. Turns out it was Sean. The type of trap used and a neighbor gave him a chance. And when he was set free he came home.
Sean was let into the house for the first time ever and closed into the bathroom with everything he'd need to recover. He was patient with being confined. He was fed and loved and nursed back to health and was eventually more than happy to go back home to freedom in his barn.
Afterward, last winter, Sean would show up on the porch in the bitterest cold, visit and talk with us, take a bit of petting (Not too much because rubbing his fur pushed the warm air out of his coat) and then off he'd go to his lodgings in the hay loft. Sean lost the rounded tips of his ears to frost bite last winter. But he never asked to be let in the house. He knows the deal. Some day, if we're both lucky, Sean and I will retire. I suspect we'll both earn a spot by the fire and have no regrets. Until then, we both have work to do.
This is just a short story about a cat. It's also a story about all of us. We have a deal with Nature and Nature holds the stakes. We promise to care for and look after Nature in return for what we need and we take what we get. We're a wife and husband, nurturing the little lives we are given and as long as we recognize the terms of our survival all is well. But If we hold ourselves apart from Nature, if we forget that people spent 10,000 years negotiating a living and if we believe we cannot be held to account for ignoring the contract, we'll lose everything. Even a silly barn cat with squared ears knows the facts. He's free to come and go as he pleases. But he follows me everywhere. And I admire that little cat.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
A few words from the farm before bedtime.
It was payday today. For a farmer that means selling at the market. The big farmers are in a whole different game than we are, but the facts on the ground are the same. You plant, grow, and try to meet your buyers price in the market. When we go to market and sell crops for cash we get paid for our work. It's that simple. But it's not that easy.
Somebody once said that Farmers are the only business people expected to make a profit buying retail and selling wholesale. What that means is that farmers pay fixed retail costs for seed, machines, fertilizer, bank loans, hardware, mechanics, clothing, electricity, food and fuel. But the price for the animal or vegetable crop can be set by the buyer - before it's produced for market. In Iowa, the State has just redefined the laws to make it clear that a farmer, working on contract for a big agricultural corporation, is actually an employee of that company.
What does that mean? Let me give you an example. If I were a hog farmer under contract with ABC Corporation, the corporation would buy and own the little pigs I raise for them to market. They would give me explicit instructions about the conditions under which I would raise their hogs. The stock barns and buildings, infrastructure, drugs and antibiotics applied, feed requirements. It would all be spelled out and the price set in advance. If they decide the farmer hasn't met their contract - they can cancel it. In essence firing the farmer "employee" before delivery. And the State has mandated that the farmer is a contract employee who agrees to take all the risk. Win or lose. You can see where this leads.
And then there is our farmers' market. I've had several people ask, "Will you please grow chickens for me?" A lady at the market began scolding me because there were no more organic eggs for her to buy. I apologized and explained I'd sold all I had in the first 2 hours. My hens lay the only certified organic eggs in the county. "When will you have organic new potatoes?" Next week I said.
We sold out our stock of everything we brought to market today. And we got the retail price.
If you want to know how to create local food security, I believe I've got some ideas.
Goodnight.
It was payday today. For a farmer that means selling at the market. The big farmers are in a whole different game than we are, but the facts on the ground are the same. You plant, grow, and try to meet your buyers price in the market. When we go to market and sell crops for cash we get paid for our work. It's that simple. But it's not that easy.
Somebody once said that Farmers are the only business people expected to make a profit buying retail and selling wholesale. What that means is that farmers pay fixed retail costs for seed, machines, fertilizer, bank loans, hardware, mechanics, clothing, electricity, food and fuel. But the price for the animal or vegetable crop can be set by the buyer - before it's produced for market. In Iowa, the State has just redefined the laws to make it clear that a farmer, working on contract for a big agricultural corporation, is actually an employee of that company.
What does that mean? Let me give you an example. If I were a hog farmer under contract with ABC Corporation, the corporation would buy and own the little pigs I raise for them to market. They would give me explicit instructions about the conditions under which I would raise their hogs. The stock barns and buildings, infrastructure, drugs and antibiotics applied, feed requirements. It would all be spelled out and the price set in advance. If they decide the farmer hasn't met their contract - they can cancel it. In essence firing the farmer "employee" before delivery. And the State has mandated that the farmer is a contract employee who agrees to take all the risk. Win or lose. You can see where this leads.
And then there is our farmers' market. I've had several people ask, "Will you please grow chickens for me?" A lady at the market began scolding me because there were no more organic eggs for her to buy. I apologized and explained I'd sold all I had in the first 2 hours. My hens lay the only certified organic eggs in the county. "When will you have organic new potatoes?" Next week I said.
We sold out our stock of everything we brought to market today. And we got the retail price.
If you want to know how to create local food security, I believe I've got some ideas.
Goodnight.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
7.10.14 A Few Words From the Farm Before Bedtime
Well, I won't go into detail about today. Let's just say it's 10:15 PM, there's still light in the sky, it's humid and about 80F. It's Eastern Canada, where winter comes from the North Pole and summer comes from Louisiana.
My California friends will be surprised to find the water here is warmer than summer in So Cal. And my Canadian friends doubt us when we describe the beaches in So Cal and say, "There are no biting bugs".
The bugs are biting here tonight.
I'm taking a friendly word of advice and moving my words to the blog. Sort of against better judgement really. It's easy to sit on facebook and poke out a few words. Kind of like writing a letter to you. And that got me thinking...
If you're my age you remember getting letters. And if your're my age you probably have letters, saved by your family that you've never read. Somewhere in my mom's house is a box of letters my mom and dad wrote to each other in 1944-45. I've never read them. A record of who my parents were as young marrieds in World War II. And I'm not sure I want to know...what's in them. I'd like to leave them their privacy and innocence.
When my older brother went to Viet Nam, he wrote infrequent letters home. I remember my mom wrote him back asking him to please just write about the ordinary things he did. We were hungry for news about him. Not about the war.
On my birthday, I often got a small gift and a letter from my Dad's father. It is the letters I remember.
When I was young, my mothers' family had spread far and wide. They wrote letters to each other as uncles and cousins and brothers and sisters. A package of letters would be forwarded to us with a new letter from the sender. We got the family news in California by post from mom's family in the east. A very old school format dating back to when my mom's family were immigrants on the plains with roots in the east. And when we arrived here in PEI the old folks came to visit and shared local news on Sunday after church. In the States, years ago, the home folks sat down after church and wrote letters with local news to loved ones "far from home". We received them at our house into the 1970's. And I recognized the same tradition on PEI when I moved here.
I appreciate that some think my words are important. But really, they're not. All I'm doing is writing a letter to you every few days. I'm writing letters to you as your family used to write to you. I'm sharing the news like our families once did so we can stay close. That's all.
Goodnight.
My California friends will be surprised to find the water here is warmer than summer in So Cal. And my Canadian friends doubt us when we describe the beaches in So Cal and say, "There are no biting bugs".
The bugs are biting here tonight.
I'm taking a friendly word of advice and moving my words to the blog. Sort of against better judgement really. It's easy to sit on facebook and poke out a few words. Kind of like writing a letter to you. And that got me thinking...
If you're my age you remember getting letters. And if your're my age you probably have letters, saved by your family that you've never read. Somewhere in my mom's house is a box of letters my mom and dad wrote to each other in 1944-45. I've never read them. A record of who my parents were as young marrieds in World War II. And I'm not sure I want to know...what's in them. I'd like to leave them their privacy and innocence.
When my older brother went to Viet Nam, he wrote infrequent letters home. I remember my mom wrote him back asking him to please just write about the ordinary things he did. We were hungry for news about him. Not about the war.
On my birthday, I often got a small gift and a letter from my Dad's father. It is the letters I remember.
When I was young, my mothers' family had spread far and wide. They wrote letters to each other as uncles and cousins and brothers and sisters. A package of letters would be forwarded to us with a new letter from the sender. We got the family news in California by post from mom's family in the east. A very old school format dating back to when my mom's family were immigrants on the plains with roots in the east. And when we arrived here in PEI the old folks came to visit and shared local news on Sunday after church. In the States, years ago, the home folks sat down after church and wrote letters with local news to loved ones "far from home". We received them at our house into the 1970's. And I recognized the same tradition on PEI when I moved here.
I appreciate that some think my words are important. But really, they're not. All I'm doing is writing a letter to you every few days. I'm writing letters to you as your family used to write to you. I'm sharing the news like our families once did so we can stay close. That's all.
Goodnight.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
What's in your Eggs?
We're starting an egg delivery route for our friends in Kings County, Prince Edward Island. Once a week we'll deliver organic, free range farm eggs from heritage breed hens to our local customers.
So, the point of this blog post is to explain the value of our organic eggs and share factual information with our local customers. But there's more in this post for our friends who are too far for me to serve. I'm going to share information for other small growers, consumers and shoppers and perhaps most importantly mothers and grandmothers who are interested in choosing healthy food for their families. I'm going to explain how improving the way we eat and live can be a community effort wherever you live.
The Egg Route
When I told a neighbor I was going to start an egg route, she said "Oh, Glen did that years ago". Glen is the retired farmer across the road from us. He's lived here all his life. A few days ago I asked him which breeds were here when he was farming. He said barred rocks and white leghorns. I'm just the next farmer to continue an old neighborhood tradition. That's an honor. And I'm determined to give it my best.
The Chickens
We "hired" Buff Orpington and Delaware chickens last spring (2012). We chose these dual purpose heritage breed birds to establish a breeding flock which will keep birds on our farm year 'round. This can only work for us economically if we fully integrate the flock into our operation as a whole. These chickens must work to create new life, soil fertility, pasture improvement, fresh meat and eggs. And their work can only profit us if we consistently treat each animal in a responsible and humane way.
Organic Eggs
Dunn Creek Farm is certified Organic by ACO, a non profit organization that inspects and certifies that we are in compliance with Canadian Organic Standards. These standards define what organic means and what producers must do to be certified. The organic standards support a system that is clean and sustainable in the environment, humane in it's treatment of animals and of greatest benefit in terms of quality to consumers.
For example, the standards state that feed for organic chickens cannot be exclusively grain based. In winter, when there are no fresh grasses or pasture, we sprout legumes and grains to provide fresh organic greens. Our chickens get increased Omega 3, amino acids and natural hormones from fresh fodder with no chemical spray or pesticide residue. And unlike conventional systems or even chickens raised as "free range", organic certification prohibits the use of grain feeds that contain genetically modified materials, antibiotics, and pesticides (like arsenic).
Nutritional and Health Benefits
But it's more than just what organics don't contain, there are numerous published studies that document the additional nutritional benefits of pasture raised eggs. Mother Earth News published this summary of its findings when comparing pasture grown eggs from 14 farms with USDA standards for commercial eggs:
• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene
Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Tests-Reveal-Healthier-Eggs.aspx#ixzz2GqUoB7cZ
Partnerships That Secure Local Food
You buy organic eggs and we buy the feed to grow those eggs. We are all in community in this venture.
We have found a local farm family to provide local organic feed. Mark and Sally Bernard grow organic grain on 500 acres. They roast their own soy beans, mill their own grain and we buy our feed directly from them. Then we share the cost of driving and hauling feed home with a neighbor. We do this to give you a better price on a better product and support another farm.
When you buy our product you support us and our partners with the dollars you spend. We do our own work and pay our own way to provide for you. We help secure a healthy local food supply, maintain healthy farms, raise our children and work to feed our neighbors. Manure is not the problem, it's the answer that gives us more fertility. Chickens aren't grown for slaughter, they're grown for life. Eggs aren't grown for profit, they are the fruit of nature that supports all of us. The better we all care for life, the better we all live.
We All Need Mentors
We all seem to know where we want to go. But sometimes we need a word of encouragement to change direction, adopt new habits, set new goals and follow a new course. I spent considerable time working on a previous post which formed the basis for my presentation at the ACORN Conference in November. I knew what I wanted to communicate, but I had (have) so much less experience than so many of the people to whom I was appointed to be speak. Being the son of a family of academics I went to work on research. And thank God I found Harvey Ussery of Virginia. The man not only recognized my dispute with conventional farming adapted into organic systems, he wrote a book that can help all of us move in a better direction. So I will link this blog to a video of Mr. Ussery as an introduction to someone who has captured our vision. In my opinion he is the next step forward for those of us who were mentored into pastured poultry by Joel Salatin.
The Egg Route
When I told a neighbor I was going to start an egg route, she said "Oh, Glen did that years ago". Glen is the retired farmer across the road from us. He's lived here all his life. A few days ago I asked him which breeds were here when he was farming. He said barred rocks and white leghorns. I'm just the next farmer to continue an old neighborhood tradition. That's an honor. And I'm determined to give it my best.
The Chickens
Organic Eggs
Dunn Creek Farm is certified Organic by ACO, a non profit organization that inspects and certifies that we are in compliance with Canadian Organic Standards. These standards define what organic means and what producers must do to be certified. The organic standards support a system that is clean and sustainable in the environment, humane in it's treatment of animals and of greatest benefit in terms of quality to consumers.
Nutritional and Health Benefits
But it's more than just what organics don't contain, there are numerous published studies that document the additional nutritional benefits of pasture raised eggs. Mother Earth News published this summary of its findings when comparing pasture grown eggs from 14 farms with USDA standards for commercial eggs:
• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene
Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Tests-Reveal-Healthier-Eggs.aspx#ixzz2GqUoB7cZ
Partnerships That Secure Local Food
You buy organic eggs and we buy the feed to grow those eggs. We are all in community in this venture.
We have found a local farm family to provide local organic feed. Mark and Sally Bernard grow organic grain on 500 acres. They roast their own soy beans, mill their own grain and we buy our feed directly from them. Then we share the cost of driving and hauling feed home with a neighbor. We do this to give you a better price on a better product and support another farm.
We All Need Mentors
We all seem to know where we want to go. But sometimes we need a word of encouragement to change direction, adopt new habits, set new goals and follow a new course. I spent considerable time working on a previous post which formed the basis for my presentation at the ACORN Conference in November. I knew what I wanted to communicate, but I had (have) so much less experience than so many of the people to whom I was appointed to be speak. Being the son of a family of academics I went to work on research. And thank God I found Harvey Ussery of Virginia. The man not only recognized my dispute with conventional farming adapted into organic systems, he wrote a book that can help all of us move in a better direction. So I will link this blog to a video of Mr. Ussery as an introduction to someone who has captured our vision. In my opinion he is the next step forward for those of us who were mentored into pastured poultry by Joel Salatin.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Real Egg Nog: Christmas With a Punch
Which of the above items is most dangerous?
...and what if we mixed 'em all together and served 'em to company?
Eggnog. We've all had the stuff that comes in a milk carton. Thick, sickly sweet. Drinking it is kind of like drinking custard. In fact, that's basically what it is. It's not eggnog. Not really. Not in a 19th century, Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol" kind of way. Not even in a 1940's, "It's A Wonderful Life" kind of way. Eggnog is not of the modern world. Look at the ingredients above. Everything here is something your doctor and law enforcement have told you to cut down on...or avoid entirely if you want to live to see the New Year. It's high octane booze, pure sugar, heavy cream and eggs. Raw eggs. A salmonella crap shoot. A bonafide cholesterol bomb. This is Christmas before seatbelts. Before fire retardant jammies and smoke detectors. For heaven sake this is an artifact from when we put burning candles on dead pine trees inside wooden houses. Celebrating Christmas took guts back then. Maxing out a credit card at the mall pales in comparison to the risks people used to take to welcome the baby Jesus into the world. And presented here, with a disclaimer, is a truly authentic Eggnog recipe. Try it at home. At your own risk. Driving will be out of the question.
So...What IS the most dangerous ingredient shown above? It might be the eggs. Now. We grow our own organic eggs so we know they're fresh, clean and properly refrigerated. Even so, that's no guarantee. Salmonella is nasty. And it's possible that it's happily active in a raw egg, which is why it would most likely be illegal to serve this recipe in a commercial venue in North America. Modern standards require pasteurization of raw eggs. (So much for real alfredo and hollandaise.) There's more on reducing the risk of raw eggs from the US CDC. The hangover might be worse. But that's totally up to you.
If I haven't scared you back to the milk carton full of goo, please proceed (at your own risk) to:
Virginia Egg Nog
You'll Need:
6 eggs
1 1/4 Cups of Sugar
1 1/2 Quarts of cream (6 cups - use lighter cream or cut heavy cream: 4 cups heavy cream to 2 cups whole milk)
Pint of good rye whiskey
Dash of Rum (whatever that means - I like using a shot of spiced rum for flavor)
Nutmeg
Directions:
(OK - my ancient cook book assumes you know your way around. I'll add some notes that might help you.)
You need to separate the egg yolk from the whites. Here's a cool little You Tube tutorial on separating eggs with a water bottle. I just crack the eggs and use the shells to separate them myself.
Once you have the eggs separated, you need to beat the yolks with 1 Cup of the sugar so that the sugar melts into the yolks. Add the cream and the whiskey alternately (a little at a time, keep stirring to mix) then add the rum and mix. Season with ground nutmeg. Notice it doesn't say how much, so try this to taste. I'm going to suggest 1/4 teaspoon for starters.
Next, beat the egg whites until they're stiff and then add in 1/4 cup of sugar. An electric hand mixer, egg beater or a good whisk and elbow grease will do the trick. The whites should form a nice peak when you pull your mixing tool up.
Drop the egg whites on top of your mixture in the bowl. It will float on top. Dust with a bit more nutmeg on top for celebratory splendor. Chill for one hour and serve, making sure you have received signed releases from everyone in the vicinity.
Merry Christmas!
(A few more notes and observations...)
This is eggnog. And it's awesome.
If you use grocery store eggs, get the freshest, best quality eggs you can find.
Use good liquor, cream and spice.
Chances are you've never actually had eggnog.
Take it easy. This is a rich dessert combined with a stiff drink.
Cheers!
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Industry Gave us "The Bird"
"In the mid-1900's Prince Edward Island farmers were practicing a predominately grassland agriculture, with over 60% of the land in hay or pasture."
- David Weale "Pride in Small Places"
We started raising heritage chickens in our backyard in Santa Barbara, California. When we moved to our farm on Prince Edward Island, we were excited to try our hand at raising organic eggs and meat for our farm customers.
Last year I wrote "Free Range Chicken? Pastured Poultry is Better" a blog post that describes how we began raising chickens on grass here on Prince Edward Island. Now, over a year later, there's a lot more to the story. So I thought I'd take a seat at the kitchen table before daylight and log in a few of the things we've learned since starting out. If you're a small grower you might find some of the links and information handy. If you're a consumer, well...keep reading.
And Now - The Rest of the Story
My son Spencer and I walked down the lane onto the pasture early one morning in late summer 2011. We were on our way to crate up 50 Meat King chickens for processing at a small family owned slaughter facility just 10 minutes away. This was the end point of a project I shared with my son. The idea was that we'd raise 100 chickens for our customers and he'd make a few dollars to take back to University in the fall. As I got closer to the mobile pasture pen, a design made famous by Joel Salatin at Polyface Farm, I saw the unmistakable outline of chicken feet in the air. I knew we were in trouble.
We'd lost all the birds to a predator who'd torn open the wire and attacked every last bird. The chickens were left either dead or dying on the ground. Spencer dispatched them to end their pain while I got the tractor and dug a pit for burial. We were wiped out and we were getting a tough lesson. Meanwhile, word of our disaster got around fast and we made the local newspaper. Talk about having your wings clipped.
But that wasn't the story it was the kicker. The story was that we'd been less than delighted with what Meat Kings are. The breeding of this bird made it's shortcomings as a pastured animal obvious. We had birds drop dead, get sick, develop deformed legs and generally be content to dine in filthy feathers without ever leaving the feed trough to browse pasture. This is the bird common wisdom says you must raise for meat. But I'd seen enough to know these animals are not bred to live in nature. You might as well drop a pack of fat Cub Scouts with an unlimited stock of junk food into the jungle. You'd get the same result.
After the famous Dunn Creek Farm chicken massacre of 2011 I had an interesting conversation with a Buddhist monk. He helped me look at things I hadn't considered. I found my intentions weren't quite level with my values and beliefs. My practice was intended to make money and I wasn't really centered on the living animals in my care. I also wasn't asking any critical questions about where these birds come from, what created them, what their job is on our farm or how we'd make them a life-long part of the sustainable local agriculture we're trying to create. Yes I was looking to make a quick buck. And karma bit me on the grass. This was our responsibility. What were we going to do about it?
What is a Meat King?
The Meat King (Cornish Cross) is a hybrid of the double breasted Cornish and the White Rock. It was developed for commercial meat growers. The original cross was made in the 1930's and the breed rose to dominance in the 1960's. As of 2012 there are just a handful of companies worldwide that own and control the genetics that produce the breeding stock for the Meat King. Ongoing genetic modifications continue to increase the size and the speed at which these birds are ready for market:
During the last 15 years, the time it takes to get a broiler to a 5.0 lb (2.3 kg) live weight has decreased by more than a week. Birds get to target weights 16.3 per cent sooner than they did in 1992. The industry continues to see another day of improvement every two years. The benefit of better growth rate is improved feed conversion. The sooner birds get to desired market size, the higher the percentage of feed consumed goes to muscle development instead of body maintenance.
- Mike Donohue, Feb 2009
When Joel Salatin wrote "Pastured Poultry Profits" in 1993 he focused on the methods he developed for pasture raising the Meat King, It was clear to him that he couldn't argue with success:
"For feed conversion and quick cash turnaround it is unprecedented. Consumer acceptance is tremendous and processing is much easier because the hair has been bred off these birds and they do not require singeing after feather picking."
- Joel Salatin, "Pastured Poultry Profits"
As a result of this success the Meat King has become the only broiler chicken you can buy in the grocery store or from any food service. And the advantages it gives growers make it the only bird they buy. But since "body maintenance" is steadily being bred out...well...other results are coming in.
Even in 1993 it was clear to Joel Salatin that there were some real problems. He took a practical approach. He writes, "Bred up to perform at a totally unnatural gain rate, this bird is prone to all sorts of diseases and structural deformities." Something we observed ourselves. His answer was to produce his own very specialized high energy feeds and add several commercially produced supplements. But could we really do this and call it organic? When does breeding make pasturing impossible if not irrelevant?
"Twenty years ago, the industry grew a chicken to a 4.3 lb/1.95 kg live weight at processing. By 2007, the average live weight at processing increased by 37 per cent to 5.9 lb/2.7 kg as more and more chickens were used for further processing using big birds."
- Mike Donohue, Feb 2009
Consumer expectations are being inflated as fast as the chickens themselves are bred up. There is no end in sight. And every year pasture farmers see birds less willing or able to benefit from grazing.
"I think it's unfortunate that we have created a chicken that is so far removed from a normal chicken's ability to forage and fend for itself in the barnyard. There ought to be some middle ground. But the fact is that we are dealing with a chicken that was bred to eat high-calorie, low vitamin and mineral feed without fresh air and sunlight, on antibiotics and hormones. We can do many things to make this bird worth eating, but there is a limit to what we can do."
- Joel Salatin, "Pastured Poultry Profits" 1993
Bringing Expectations Back to Earth.
"Them birds are some small!"
Lorne McDonald was behind the counter at L&C Poultry. He'd slaughtered my chickens that morning and I had come to pick up the Delaware roosters we had culled at 13 weeks from our flock. He looked kind of sorry for me as he handed over my little birds in their loose bags. Below them on the shelf were rows of Meat Kings looking like over-stuffed pillows, the plastic poly bags stretched tight over their fat carcasses. I felt kind of deflated too. Who would want to pay top dollar for my little birds? They averaged between 2.5 and 2.75 pounds. Well, nothing to do but try one for supper. The proof will be in the tasting.
I decided to cut one up, bread it and fry it in a pan. We have a pretty good library of old cookbooks. I got one from the 1940's and looked up a recipe for fried chicken. "Take about two and a half pounds of chicken" it said. And that's when the light dawned. My Grandmother never had an 8 pound chicken. What I've got here is a normal fryer.
The fat was creamy yellow not white just as eggs from pastured hens are bright orange compared to the pale grey/yellow egg yolks in the store. The meat had a fine texture, not grainy or mealy. And the flavor was superb. This was Grandmother's Kansas farm, after-church, Sunday supper, fried chicken. And yes, I licked my fingers.
I had been prepared to be disappointed by this little rooster. But my expectations were all wrong. And here is where the bottom line rests. Modern hybrid chicken genetics, factory growers and processors needed less than 50 years to change what we think chicken is. And the idea that this is what consumers demand isn't quite equal to the facts. Processors are doing the demanding because a higher carcass weight makes higher profit for them. We aren't making chicken fingers, popcorn chicken or McNuggets for our customers. We're interested in producing a whole chicken raised in nature that satisfies you at your table.
Industry Gave us "The Bird". We Need To Breed For Pasture.
There is a clear consensus among small farmers who direct market to consumers that we need a breeding effort to produce chickens that are better suited to our farms and our customers. Phrases like "structural failure", "disease prone", "taste challenged" and "fragile" pop up across the internet. But perhaps this summary written by Harvey Ussery sums it up best:
We in the pastured poultry movement have turned our rhetorical guns on the Tyson’s and the Frank Perdue’s of the broiler industry. We have blasted the waste, the pollution, the lack of sustainability, the inhumanity, and the contamination of both our groundwater and our food supply that flow from a debased production system. Striving for a model which both protects natural and agricultural resources and offers our customers poultry fit to eat, we have rejected all that—all, that is, except the very heart of the industry’s flawed system: the Cornish Cross chicken.
- Harvey Ussery, "The Cornish Cross: What is Wrong With This Picture"
Susan and I decided we couldn't grow Cornish Cross chickens again. "They're pathetic. I just feel sorry for them." she said. If we are what we eat then the Meat King is surely the emblem of animal based junk food.
We re-considered what we wanted and revised our plans. Not on the basis of what's available, but on the basis of what needs to be accomplished. Crazy as it sounds, we've decided that our goals can't rest entirely on cash for meat value or on the unrealistic expectations of consumers who no longer know what chicken tastes like. And we think we are in the perfect position to work with other small farms, our customers and the local culinary community to find some answers and make changes that take all of us in the right direction to healthier food, better farming and more humane relationships with our animals.
Choosing A Heritage Breed
There are many good sources of information about heritage breeds and I encourage you do to some study before you choose. I've included some recommended culinary-based choices below. Before we chose, I called several poultry breeders, talked to local farmers, looked at hatchery selections and found what looked best for us. We were looking for birds that would thrive on pasture, provide meat and eggs and carry over through the dark, cold winter months in Canada with a minimum of fuss. We ordered Delaware and Buff Orpington chicks from Performance Poultry in Ontario to begin our hands on learning about these two dual purpose "heavy" breeds. They arrived strong and healthy and we brooded them up to be ready for pasture.
When the day came to move them to the grass we used our pre-built Salatin style pasture pen and shortly after that we bumped into reality. These birds were too active to stay in a pasture pen. Every time we took off a roof panel to feed and water, they scattered and we had to call in our Australian shepherd dogs to hold them until we could catch them. A pasture pen that would have contained 100 sedentary Meat Kings was inadequate to a healthy, active flock of 70 heritage birds.
We were building a mobile coop on wheels for the laying hens. So with Susans urging I sped up construction and we put about 50 birds in it and put the whole rig onto the pasture using a mobile electric fence to keep everyone safe. We began moving the coop every 3 days, then went to 2 days to give better pasture to these active grazers and foragers. Essentially we had found Andy Lee's Day Range concept. It worked brilliantly. All is well for now. But we know that in order for us to use heritage chicken on the farm the challenge in the long run will be learning how to breed, grow and sell heritage chicken on its own merits at a reasonable return.
Exploring the Margins, Finding the Benefits AND Being Sustainable
We know that the economics of small flock heritage chickens are not the same as large commercial growing or even small flock production of hybrids. We're still working out the numbers, but we found ourselves looking at some unexpected benefits that help us stay rational about what we're doing and where we're going. The thing is, pasture raised birds, whether they are heritage-bred or Meat Kings, come out smaller when they are grass fed. There is less meat to sell. But there are benefits to growers and consumers not to mention the birds themselves and the pasture we farm.
Organic fertility is a key issue on an organic farm. For example I've been concerned about continuing to harvest hay as we build up our soils and pasture elsewhere on the farm. In other fields we grow green manure and cover crop, we make compost and spread it in our row crop fields. I had the idea of ordering in a ton of pelletized organic chicken manure to feed the field. That didn't work. Turns out I'm too small to hold the attention of a fertilizer salesman.
Adam King (ADK Farms on facebook) is a young conventional farmer who started farming by cutting hay for neighbors in our area. Adam helped me find the older, small scale farm tools I needed to make my own hay. And so after haying this summer I asked his opinion about managing our hay field. "John, I wonder. Could you put your chickens out on that field?"
Duh, right?
When we moved our chickens and our sheep onto the hay field we were solving several problems and helping to balance accounts. Organic feed is expensive, but we were getting eggs, developing sustainable mixed production and converting all of the above into fertility valued at hundreds of dollars (if you can get it!}. And the animals were doing most of the work of "manufacturing" and "application".
Information about the multiplier effects of heritage animals on pasture make things look even better. Working on this post I came across Gundaroo Tiller, an organic garden farm supply company in New South Wales, Australia, which posted, "Changing the Way We Think About Poultry" on it's website. Joyce Wilkie and Michael Plane talk about the many benefits of this system, including "stacking" the pasture with herbivores (such as our sheep and horses) first. Allowing them to graze the grass down to about 4 inches.
"Chickens are then moved onto the grass which is at optimal height for them. They clean up any parasite eggs and pulverise the herbivore manure which, when combined with chicken droppings, is the ideal pasture fertiliser. To use that dreadful modern phrase a "win-win situation"."
- Gundaroo Tiller
Vertical Stacking is like doubling the size of your pasture. And it's ideally suited to heritage breed animals.
New tools like flexible electric fence make it possible to create rational grazing almost anywhere. Now we need the right animals for that job.
Genetic diversity allows us to have more than one answer to finding the right breed for the right purpose and there are now many growers working with heritage breeds. There are new hybrids being tried and there will be new standards set for pastured chicken flocks. For now there is no single alternative. Which means that small farmers around the world are working on breeding up the chickens that work for them. Some believe that we can recover and improve the qualities that made heritage breeds commercial favorites years ago. And many people have come to the conclusion that a one size fits all solution designed by industrial producers (who own the genetics) is not the answer. We've already seen the pinnacle of industrial breeding and it can't stand on its own two legs.
Growing meat and eggs with heritage chickens includes the potential of growing breed stock. Livestock growers of every kind use sales of breeding and breed stock as part of their revenue stream. Chicken farmers have been shut out by corporate-owned genetics and one dominant hybrid. But if growers create demand for birds that perform best on pasture, we can also grow breeding stock, much as "open software" if you like, to sell to other farmers, backyard growers and hobbyists. We can get back to growing for life and a long road ahead instead of settling for a fast buck and an annual dead end followed by a re-up from the factory.
To re-cap:
On Farm Benefits of Raising Heritage-Breed chickens on Pasture:
* Pure bred chickens can allow us to naturally breed and maintain our own flocks of layers and meat birds.
* Heritage birds are active foragers who are better at supplementing simple grain ration with pasture feeding.
* Birds who are naturally sound also have better immune systems and are better suited to live outdoors.
* Chickens who aren't bred to eat a grain only diet, don't need special supplements.
* These birds actively scratch on the pasture surface, aerating turf and mixing in valuable fertility.
* Using mobile coops with screen floors directly applies chicken manure across the pasture.
* Converting organic feed into organic fertility helps increase the value of expensive feed.
* Consumers want high quality, humanely raised food direct from their farmer.
* Culinary professionals are calling on us to produce high quality local food to feature in their restaurants.
* We aren't raising chickens for death and profit. We're raising them to sustain life on our farm.
So - why not do the same thing with a Cornish Cross? Well, you can with some extra effort. We did. But we think now is the time to put our effort in another direction starting on a small scale. Others are moving in the same direction and there are some who advise caution. Including Harvey Ussery:
We must of course keep Andy Lee’s warning in mind: That the wing-walker makes sure of the new hand-hold before letting go the old! Certainly those who have worked so hard putting into place a model which works for them should not abandon any element of the system—including its foundation, the Cornish Cross—without due care, experiment, and thought. In the long run, however, we must adopt the goal of producing a better bird. Let Perdue and Tyson have the Cornish Cross—we can do much better than that!
Marketing A Heritage Chicken...With All The Fixin's
The successful sales side of creating a better product comes down to creating and meeting a higher expectation. And that really happens at the table. These birds ARE different. And we think the quality will win the sceptics. But because they are different, they require a more traditional approach in the kitchen. I started by looking at some of the old cookbooks I have. Recipes that pre-date the ubiquitous broiler are very useful. And I found this great post by Mary Lou Shaw online from Mother Earth News called, Cooking Heritage-Breed Chickens. What Mary Lou finds is an important way forward that also identifies specific heritage breeds and their use.
Broilers: Sources differ for the exact age and weights, but that’s probably because heritage breeds vary in size. In general, a broiler is less than two-and-a-half pounds and up to 13 weeks of age. Their meat can be cooked other ways, but because it can be cooked hot and fast and still be tender, they’ve earned the name “broiler.” The Silver Laced Wyandotte breed has the reputation of being excellent for broiling.
Fryers: These birds are about 13 to 20 weeks of age and weigh about 2½ pounds. The meat is still tender and is beginning to get some fat, but using high heat and fat for cooking is best. Voila—fried chicken! Take care that you choose the right cooking oil for high heats. Refined safflower, sesame or sunflower oils are best. As to the breed of heritage bird that’s best for frying? Orpingtons and Barred Rocks lead the list.
Roasters: This should be my specialty, but there are many options for how to successfully roast a bird. These birds are about three-and-a-half pounds and are five to 10 months old. At this age, the meat has developed wonderful flavor, but has lost tenderness because the muscles are developed and firm. Rather than brining the meat, it can be cooked in moist heat at 325 degrees for 25 minutes per pound. If roasted dry, they need basting. I can confirm that cooking them breast-side-down works well. A clay cooker or crock pot also does a good job, and rubbing oil all over the bird before cooking helps. The Black Jersey Giants make good roasters.
Stewers: “Stewers” may not be a word, but there’s a category for the older-than-roasters that require stewing. These may be the hens that are too old for egg-laying that we don’t want to feed all winter. It also includes the cockerels that weren’t yet culled. What these older birds require is an even-longer cooking time, and “coq au vin” recipes abound for this category. In the winter, these birds can be found in our well-seasoned cast-iron pot on the wood burner, making the house smell like there’s a real cook present, and promising us a wonderful meal of tender chicken with vegetables from the root cellar.
By varying our cooking techniques and breed of chicken, we can enjoy nutritious and diverse meals all year. Heritage birds from your local farmer or your own backyard will provide you with meat that is more nutritional, tasty and economic than supermarket chicken. It’s a treat to sit together at the dinner table enjoying such fantastic food.
Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/the-happy-homesteader/cooking-heritage-breed-chickens.aspx#ixzz2Cp0YAX5S
Simply put, linking our product to people who love food and enjoy cooking is crucial. And we plan to introduce samples to those in the local culinary community to get their feedback.
Marketing Benefits to Consumers
* The flavor and texture of organically pasture raised and processed birds is superior.
* The nutrional and therefore health value is significantly higher.
* This is heritage chicken for traditional cooking. "Like grandma used to make" is literally true.
* No pesticide, animal based supplements, antibiotics, hormones, or performance enhancing drugs.
* Waste is naturally recycled into fertility.
* Buying Heritage-Breed chicken keeps your local food supply healthy and growing.
Making it to the Grass
David Weale is a historian of the Province of PEI, Canada. He has collected the oral history of islanders who lived in a time that seems so far away. He wrote about the small mixed livestock and crop farmers of PEI before 1960:
"...they represented a long tradition of rural intelligence and aptitude, which promoted feelings of competency, even mastery; and was the source of both identity and pride. They might not have had a very wide experience, but on their small parcels most farm folks knew exactly what needed to be done, and how to do it. They were in charge."
- David Weale "Pride in Small Places"
We hope to be in charge again when it comes to choosing how we go forward. And we can work together on the basic principle that breeding sustainable, heritage-breed livestock is the proven alternative to factory farming. Barely organic mono-culture animals are failing even committed stockmen and women. The answer to this nagging problem may lie right in front of us. We are working to find the answers in a job that has been left up to us. The proof that it can work exists in many small places.
Delaware Chickens - PEI, 1945 David Weale, "Pride in Small Places"
"...whenever I hear people say clean food is expensive, I tell them it’s actually the cheapest food you can buy. That always gets their attention. Then I explain that, with our food, all of the costs are figured into the price. Society is not bearing the cost of water pollution, of antibiotic resistance, of food-borne illnesses, of crop subsidies, of subsidized oil and water—of all the hidden costs to the environment and the taxpayer that make cheap food seem cheap. No thinking person will tell you they don’t care about all that. I tell them the choice is simple: You can buy honestly priced food or you can buy irresponsibly priced food."
- Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm
- David Weale "Pride in Small Places"
We started raising heritage chickens in our backyard in Santa Barbara, California. When we moved to our farm on Prince Edward Island, we were excited to try our hand at raising organic eggs and meat for our farm customers.
Last year I wrote "Free Range Chicken? Pastured Poultry is Better" a blog post that describes how we began raising chickens on grass here on Prince Edward Island. Now, over a year later, there's a lot more to the story. So I thought I'd take a seat at the kitchen table before daylight and log in a few of the things we've learned since starting out. If you're a small grower you might find some of the links and information handy. If you're a consumer, well...keep reading.
And Now - The Rest of the Story
My son Spencer and I walked down the lane onto the pasture early one morning in late summer 2011. We were on our way to crate up 50 Meat King chickens for processing at a small family owned slaughter facility just 10 minutes away. This was the end point of a project I shared with my son. The idea was that we'd raise 100 chickens for our customers and he'd make a few dollars to take back to University in the fall. As I got closer to the mobile pasture pen, a design made famous by Joel Salatin at Polyface Farm, I saw the unmistakable outline of chicken feet in the air. I knew we were in trouble.
We'd lost all the birds to a predator who'd torn open the wire and attacked every last bird. The chickens were left either dead or dying on the ground. Spencer dispatched them to end their pain while I got the tractor and dug a pit for burial. We were wiped out and we were getting a tough lesson. Meanwhile, word of our disaster got around fast and we made the local newspaper. Talk about having your wings clipped.
But that wasn't the story it was the kicker. The story was that we'd been less than delighted with what Meat Kings are. The breeding of this bird made it's shortcomings as a pastured animal obvious. We had birds drop dead, get sick, develop deformed legs and generally be content to dine in filthy feathers without ever leaving the feed trough to browse pasture. This is the bird common wisdom says you must raise for meat. But I'd seen enough to know these animals are not bred to live in nature. You might as well drop a pack of fat Cub Scouts with an unlimited stock of junk food into the jungle. You'd get the same result.
After the famous Dunn Creek Farm chicken massacre of 2011 I had an interesting conversation with a Buddhist monk. He helped me look at things I hadn't considered. I found my intentions weren't quite level with my values and beliefs. My practice was intended to make money and I wasn't really centered on the living animals in my care. I also wasn't asking any critical questions about where these birds come from, what created them, what their job is on our farm or how we'd make them a life-long part of the sustainable local agriculture we're trying to create. Yes I was looking to make a quick buck. And karma bit me on the grass. This was our responsibility. What were we going to do about it?
What is a Meat King?
The Meat King (Cornish Cross) is a hybrid of the double breasted Cornish and the White Rock. It was developed for commercial meat growers. The original cross was made in the 1930's and the breed rose to dominance in the 1960's. As of 2012 there are just a handful of companies worldwide that own and control the genetics that produce the breeding stock for the Meat King. Ongoing genetic modifications continue to increase the size and the speed at which these birds are ready for market:
During the last 15 years, the time it takes to get a broiler to a 5.0 lb (2.3 kg) live weight has decreased by more than a week. Birds get to target weights 16.3 per cent sooner than they did in 1992. The industry continues to see another day of improvement every two years. The benefit of better growth rate is improved feed conversion. The sooner birds get to desired market size, the higher the percentage of feed consumed goes to muscle development instead of body maintenance.
- Mike Donohue, Feb 2009
When Joel Salatin wrote "Pastured Poultry Profits" in 1993 he focused on the methods he developed for pasture raising the Meat King, It was clear to him that he couldn't argue with success:
"For feed conversion and quick cash turnaround it is unprecedented. Consumer acceptance is tremendous and processing is much easier because the hair has been bred off these birds and they do not require singeing after feather picking."
- Joel Salatin, "Pastured Poultry Profits"
As a result of this success the Meat King has become the only broiler chicken you can buy in the grocery store or from any food service. And the advantages it gives growers make it the only bird they buy. But since "body maintenance" is steadily being bred out...well...other results are coming in.
Even in 1993 it was clear to Joel Salatin that there were some real problems. He took a practical approach. He writes, "Bred up to perform at a totally unnatural gain rate, this bird is prone to all sorts of diseases and structural deformities." Something we observed ourselves. His answer was to produce his own very specialized high energy feeds and add several commercially produced supplements. But could we really do this and call it organic? When does breeding make pasturing impossible if not irrelevant?
"Twenty years ago, the industry grew a chicken to a 4.3 lb/1.95 kg live weight at processing. By 2007, the average live weight at processing increased by 37 per cent to 5.9 lb/2.7 kg as more and more chickens were used for further processing using big birds."
- Mike Donohue, Feb 2009
Consumer expectations are being inflated as fast as the chickens themselves are bred up. There is no end in sight. And every year pasture farmers see birds less willing or able to benefit from grazing.
"I think it's unfortunate that we have created a chicken that is so far removed from a normal chicken's ability to forage and fend for itself in the barnyard. There ought to be some middle ground. But the fact is that we are dealing with a chicken that was bred to eat high-calorie, low vitamin and mineral feed without fresh air and sunlight, on antibiotics and hormones. We can do many things to make this bird worth eating, but there is a limit to what we can do."
- Joel Salatin, "Pastured Poultry Profits" 1993
Bringing Expectations Back to Earth.
"Them birds are some small!"
Lorne McDonald was behind the counter at L&C Poultry. He'd slaughtered my chickens that morning and I had come to pick up the Delaware roosters we had culled at 13 weeks from our flock. He looked kind of sorry for me as he handed over my little birds in their loose bags. Below them on the shelf were rows of Meat Kings looking like over-stuffed pillows, the plastic poly bags stretched tight over their fat carcasses. I felt kind of deflated too. Who would want to pay top dollar for my little birds? They averaged between 2.5 and 2.75 pounds. Well, nothing to do but try one for supper. The proof will be in the tasting.
I decided to cut one up, bread it and fry it in a pan. We have a pretty good library of old cookbooks. I got one from the 1940's and looked up a recipe for fried chicken. "Take about two and a half pounds of chicken" it said. And that's when the light dawned. My Grandmother never had an 8 pound chicken. What I've got here is a normal fryer.
The fat was creamy yellow not white just as eggs from pastured hens are bright orange compared to the pale grey/yellow egg yolks in the store. The meat had a fine texture, not grainy or mealy. And the flavor was superb. This was Grandmother's Kansas farm, after-church, Sunday supper, fried chicken. And yes, I licked my fingers.
I had been prepared to be disappointed by this little rooster. But my expectations were all wrong. And here is where the bottom line rests. Modern hybrid chicken genetics, factory growers and processors needed less than 50 years to change what we think chicken is. And the idea that this is what consumers demand isn't quite equal to the facts. Processors are doing the demanding because a higher carcass weight makes higher profit for them. We aren't making chicken fingers, popcorn chicken or McNuggets for our customers. We're interested in producing a whole chicken raised in nature that satisfies you at your table.
Industry Gave us "The Bird". We Need To Breed For Pasture.
There is a clear consensus among small farmers who direct market to consumers that we need a breeding effort to produce chickens that are better suited to our farms and our customers. Phrases like "structural failure", "disease prone", "taste challenged" and "fragile" pop up across the internet. But perhaps this summary written by Harvey Ussery sums it up best:
We in the pastured poultry movement have turned our rhetorical guns on the Tyson’s and the Frank Perdue’s of the broiler industry. We have blasted the waste, the pollution, the lack of sustainability, the inhumanity, and the contamination of both our groundwater and our food supply that flow from a debased production system. Striving for a model which both protects natural and agricultural resources and offers our customers poultry fit to eat, we have rejected all that—all, that is, except the very heart of the industry’s flawed system: the Cornish Cross chicken.
- Harvey Ussery, "The Cornish Cross: What is Wrong With This Picture"
Susan and I decided we couldn't grow Cornish Cross chickens again. "They're pathetic. I just feel sorry for them." she said. If we are what we eat then the Meat King is surely the emblem of animal based junk food.
We re-considered what we wanted and revised our plans. Not on the basis of what's available, but on the basis of what needs to be accomplished. Crazy as it sounds, we've decided that our goals can't rest entirely on cash for meat value or on the unrealistic expectations of consumers who no longer know what chicken tastes like. And we think we are in the perfect position to work with other small farms, our customers and the local culinary community to find some answers and make changes that take all of us in the right direction to healthier food, better farming and more humane relationships with our animals.
Choosing A Heritage Breed
There are many good sources of information about heritage breeds and I encourage you do to some study before you choose. I've included some recommended culinary-based choices below. Before we chose, I called several poultry breeders, talked to local farmers, looked at hatchery selections and found what looked best for us. We were looking for birds that would thrive on pasture, provide meat and eggs and carry over through the dark, cold winter months in Canada with a minimum of fuss. We ordered Delaware and Buff Orpington chicks from Performance Poultry in Ontario to begin our hands on learning about these two dual purpose "heavy" breeds. They arrived strong and healthy and we brooded them up to be ready for pasture.
When the day came to move them to the grass we used our pre-built Salatin style pasture pen and shortly after that we bumped into reality. These birds were too active to stay in a pasture pen. Every time we took off a roof panel to feed and water, they scattered and we had to call in our Australian shepherd dogs to hold them until we could catch them. A pasture pen that would have contained 100 sedentary Meat Kings was inadequate to a healthy, active flock of 70 heritage birds.
We were building a mobile coop on wheels for the laying hens. So with Susans urging I sped up construction and we put about 50 birds in it and put the whole rig onto the pasture using a mobile electric fence to keep everyone safe. We began moving the coop every 3 days, then went to 2 days to give better pasture to these active grazers and foragers. Essentially we had found Andy Lee's Day Range concept. It worked brilliantly. All is well for now. But we know that in order for us to use heritage chicken on the farm the challenge in the long run will be learning how to breed, grow and sell heritage chicken on its own merits at a reasonable return.
Exploring the Margins, Finding the Benefits AND Being Sustainable
We know that the economics of small flock heritage chickens are not the same as large commercial growing or even small flock production of hybrids. We're still working out the numbers, but we found ourselves looking at some unexpected benefits that help us stay rational about what we're doing and where we're going. The thing is, pasture raised birds, whether they are heritage-bred or Meat Kings, come out smaller when they are grass fed. There is less meat to sell. But there are benefits to growers and consumers not to mention the birds themselves and the pasture we farm.
Organic fertility is a key issue on an organic farm. For example I've been concerned about continuing to harvest hay as we build up our soils and pasture elsewhere on the farm. In other fields we grow green manure and cover crop, we make compost and spread it in our row crop fields. I had the idea of ordering in a ton of pelletized organic chicken manure to feed the field. That didn't work. Turns out I'm too small to hold the attention of a fertilizer salesman.
Adam King (ADK Farms on facebook) is a young conventional farmer who started farming by cutting hay for neighbors in our area. Adam helped me find the older, small scale farm tools I needed to make my own hay. And so after haying this summer I asked his opinion about managing our hay field. "John, I wonder. Could you put your chickens out on that field?"
Duh, right?
When we moved our chickens and our sheep onto the hay field we were solving several problems and helping to balance accounts. Organic feed is expensive, but we were getting eggs, developing sustainable mixed production and converting all of the above into fertility valued at hundreds of dollars (if you can get it!}. And the animals were doing most of the work of "manufacturing" and "application".
Information about the multiplier effects of heritage animals on pasture make things look even better. Working on this post I came across Gundaroo Tiller, an organic garden farm supply company in New South Wales, Australia, which posted, "Changing the Way We Think About Poultry" on it's website. Joyce Wilkie and Michael Plane talk about the many benefits of this system, including "stacking" the pasture with herbivores (such as our sheep and horses) first. Allowing them to graze the grass down to about 4 inches.
"Chickens are then moved onto the grass which is at optimal height for them. They clean up any parasite eggs and pulverise the herbivore manure which, when combined with chicken droppings, is the ideal pasture fertiliser. To use that dreadful modern phrase a "win-win situation"."
- Gundaroo Tiller
Vertical Stacking is like doubling the size of your pasture. And it's ideally suited to heritage breed animals.
New tools like flexible electric fence make it possible to create rational grazing almost anywhere. Now we need the right animals for that job.
Genetic diversity allows us to have more than one answer to finding the right breed for the right purpose and there are now many growers working with heritage breeds. There are new hybrids being tried and there will be new standards set for pastured chicken flocks. For now there is no single alternative. Which means that small farmers around the world are working on breeding up the chickens that work for them. Some believe that we can recover and improve the qualities that made heritage breeds commercial favorites years ago. And many people have come to the conclusion that a one size fits all solution designed by industrial producers (who own the genetics) is not the answer. We've already seen the pinnacle of industrial breeding and it can't stand on its own two legs.
Growing meat and eggs with heritage chickens includes the potential of growing breed stock. Livestock growers of every kind use sales of breeding and breed stock as part of their revenue stream. Chicken farmers have been shut out by corporate-owned genetics and one dominant hybrid. But if growers create demand for birds that perform best on pasture, we can also grow breeding stock, much as "open software" if you like, to sell to other farmers, backyard growers and hobbyists. We can get back to growing for life and a long road ahead instead of settling for a fast buck and an annual dead end followed by a re-up from the factory.
To re-cap:
On Farm Benefits of Raising Heritage-Breed chickens on Pasture:
* Pure bred chickens can allow us to naturally breed and maintain our own flocks of layers and meat birds.
* Birds who are naturally sound also have better immune systems and are better suited to live outdoors.
* Chickens who aren't bred to eat a grain only diet, don't need special supplements.
* These birds actively scratch on the pasture surface, aerating turf and mixing in valuable fertility.
* Using mobile coops with screen floors directly applies chicken manure across the pasture.
* Converting organic feed into organic fertility helps increase the value of expensive feed.
* Consumers want high quality, humanely raised food direct from their farmer.
* Culinary professionals are calling on us to produce high quality local food to feature in their restaurants.
* We aren't raising chickens for death and profit. We're raising them to sustain life on our farm.
So - why not do the same thing with a Cornish Cross? Well, you can with some extra effort. We did. But we think now is the time to put our effort in another direction starting on a small scale. Others are moving in the same direction and there are some who advise caution. Including Harvey Ussery:
We must of course keep Andy Lee’s warning in mind: That the wing-walker makes sure of the new hand-hold before letting go the old! Certainly those who have worked so hard putting into place a model which works for them should not abandon any element of the system—including its foundation, the Cornish Cross—without due care, experiment, and thought. In the long run, however, we must adopt the goal of producing a better bird. Let Perdue and Tyson have the Cornish Cross—we can do much better than that!
Marketing A Heritage Chicken...With All The Fixin's
The successful sales side of creating a better product comes down to creating and meeting a higher expectation. And that really happens at the table. These birds ARE different. And we think the quality will win the sceptics. But because they are different, they require a more traditional approach in the kitchen. I started by looking at some of the old cookbooks I have. Recipes that pre-date the ubiquitous broiler are very useful. And I found this great post by Mary Lou Shaw online from Mother Earth News called, Cooking Heritage-Breed Chickens. What Mary Lou finds is an important way forward that also identifies specific heritage breeds and their use.
Broilers: Sources differ for the exact age and weights, but that’s probably because heritage breeds vary in size. In general, a broiler is less than two-and-a-half pounds and up to 13 weeks of age. Their meat can be cooked other ways, but because it can be cooked hot and fast and still be tender, they’ve earned the name “broiler.” The Silver Laced Wyandotte breed has the reputation of being excellent for broiling.
Fryers: These birds are about 13 to 20 weeks of age and weigh about 2½ pounds. The meat is still tender and is beginning to get some fat, but using high heat and fat for cooking is best. Voila—fried chicken! Take care that you choose the right cooking oil for high heats. Refined safflower, sesame or sunflower oils are best. As to the breed of heritage bird that’s best for frying? Orpingtons and Barred Rocks lead the list.
Roasters: This should be my specialty, but there are many options for how to successfully roast a bird. These birds are about three-and-a-half pounds and are five to 10 months old. At this age, the meat has developed wonderful flavor, but has lost tenderness because the muscles are developed and firm. Rather than brining the meat, it can be cooked in moist heat at 325 degrees for 25 minutes per pound. If roasted dry, they need basting. I can confirm that cooking them breast-side-down works well. A clay cooker or crock pot also does a good job, and rubbing oil all over the bird before cooking helps. The Black Jersey Giants make good roasters.
Stewers: “Stewers” may not be a word, but there’s a category for the older-than-roasters that require stewing. These may be the hens that are too old for egg-laying that we don’t want to feed all winter. It also includes the cockerels that weren’t yet culled. What these older birds require is an even-longer cooking time, and “coq au vin” recipes abound for this category. In the winter, these birds can be found in our well-seasoned cast-iron pot on the wood burner, making the house smell like there’s a real cook present, and promising us a wonderful meal of tender chicken with vegetables from the root cellar.
By varying our cooking techniques and breed of chicken, we can enjoy nutritious and diverse meals all year. Heritage birds from your local farmer or your own backyard will provide you with meat that is more nutritional, tasty and economic than supermarket chicken. It’s a treat to sit together at the dinner table enjoying such fantastic food.
Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/the-happy-homesteader/cooking-heritage-breed-chickens.aspx#ixzz2Cp0YAX5S
Simply put, linking our product to people who love food and enjoy cooking is crucial. And we plan to introduce samples to those in the local culinary community to get their feedback.
Marketing Benefits to Consumers
* The flavor and texture of organically pasture raised and processed birds is superior.
* The nutrional and therefore health value is significantly higher.
* This is heritage chicken for traditional cooking. "Like grandma used to make" is literally true.
* No pesticide, animal based supplements, antibiotics, hormones, or performance enhancing drugs.
* Waste is naturally recycled into fertility.
* Buying Heritage-Breed chicken keeps your local food supply healthy and growing.
Making it to the Grass
David Weale is a historian of the Province of PEI, Canada. He has collected the oral history of islanders who lived in a time that seems so far away. He wrote about the small mixed livestock and crop farmers of PEI before 1960:
"...they represented a long tradition of rural intelligence and aptitude, which promoted feelings of competency, even mastery; and was the source of both identity and pride. They might not have had a very wide experience, but on their small parcels most farm folks knew exactly what needed to be done, and how to do it. They were in charge."
- David Weale "Pride in Small Places"
We hope to be in charge again when it comes to choosing how we go forward. And we can work together on the basic principle that breeding sustainable, heritage-breed livestock is the proven alternative to factory farming. Barely organic mono-culture animals are failing even committed stockmen and women. The answer to this nagging problem may lie right in front of us. We are working to find the answers in a job that has been left up to us. The proof that it can work exists in many small places.
Delaware Chickens - PEI, 1945 David Weale, "Pride in Small Places"
"...whenever I hear people say clean food is expensive, I tell them it’s actually the cheapest food you can buy. That always gets their attention. Then I explain that, with our food, all of the costs are figured into the price. Society is not bearing the cost of water pollution, of antibiotic resistance, of food-borne illnesses, of crop subsidies, of subsidized oil and water—of all the hidden costs to the environment and the taxpayer that make cheap food seem cheap. No thinking person will tell you they don’t care about all that. I tell them the choice is simple: You can buy honestly priced food or you can buy irresponsibly priced food."
- Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm
Friday, August 3, 2012
At Grandmother's Table
"Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food."
- Michael Pollan
There are lots of things in the Dunn Creek Farm CSA box this week that your great grandmother would recognize. And she'd be pleased to have fresh produce picked and ready for her family. Chances are you
have a food memory about a grandmother, aunt, neighbor or someone else close to you who knew how to
have a food memory about a grandmother, aunt, neighbor or someone else close to you who knew how to
put love into every bite. It's amazing how durable those memories are and how they become part of us.
They are the opposite of the empty and forgettable calories that never fill us up.
My Grandmother was a fine cook who came by her skills the hard way. Her mother died when she was 12
and as the oldest girl she took over the kitchen and fed her family. That was in 1892 on a farm in Kansas.
As a boy, I remember her being very old in a gingham apron making boiled frosting for a birthday cake in our suburban kitchen. She talked about the food she used to love. She would become rhapsodic about shelling peas and string beans, tomatoes and corn. Every July she asked to have home made vanilla ice cream from a hand cranked freezer.
As a child of progress in the city I was raised on the convenience food served by my working mother.
Frozen peas.
Canned green beans.
Frozen corn.
Ice cream (without cream) came in a box.
My farmer was the Jolly Green Giant.
I could not understand why my Grandmother looked so satisfied by the memory of...vegetables.
This morning I was picking the last of our shelling peas. I popped open a shell and tasted that tender burst of
sweet green flavor. We've been picking snow peas and digging potatoes, harvesting amazing zucchini and
fashioning these veggies into our meals with friends and neighbors this week. Simple meals made special with
a fresh potato salad. Or greens so good guests compliment us the next day. Simple. Clean. Satisfying.
Memorable!
Grandmother would have put on her gingham apron and shelled the peas in the time it took me to write this.
And in just a few minutes you can create a feeling of lasting satisfaction no processed food can deliver.
It's a richer way to eat and live.
Cheers!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Ladies First: Local Women Launch Our Farm CSA
Susan and I are husband and wife for 23 years as of last week. We're also farming partners. One day we were walking down the lane into the field and we were having another skirmish in an ongoing debate. What should we be doing next on our chore list and how should we be doing it. Each of us was becoming frustrated with the other. There was a pause as we walked. Then she said, "You know, if there were two Dunn Creek Farms in different universes and you ran one and I ran the other one, they would look completely different." I was tempted to mutter, "you're damn right" but instead I've thought about that comment. What would my farm look like? What would hers look like? What would we be missing if we didn't have each other? Well, that sort of thinking leads into some recent experiences and an important insight into creating fundamental change.
A few weeks ago we put out a flier and made social network connections to invite a limited number of local people to join our farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture - members buy a weekly share of veggies, fruit, eggs and meat directly from our farm) and the results are now in.
The primary membership of our CSA (those who contacted me for membership) is entirely female. I realize that our members will be feeding their men and boys. And I know that more than a few of these gents have an interest in healthy food, pride themselves in being able to appreciate quality, have an understanding of the uncertainty of the sustainability of our food supply and can handle themselves in the kitchen (and the backyard grill) when the menu suits their skills. But it was local women who sat down and sent a note to me that said, "Is there room for me in your CSA?"
Big difference. And a light went off in my head. I know how to speak to the issues that men have identified in economic and political terms. But really, our farm is serving local women, which should not be surprising. And yet...it was to me. So. Why are women leading the way? And what do I do to serve the female consumers who are driving the change Susan and I have invested everything in? They'll decide what they want and how they want it. What will that Dunn Creek Farm look like?
A few weeks ago we put out a flier and made social network connections to invite a limited number of local people to join our farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture - members buy a weekly share of veggies, fruit, eggs and meat directly from our farm) and the results are now in.
The primary membership of our CSA (those who contacted me for membership) is entirely female. I realize that our members will be feeding their men and boys. And I know that more than a few of these gents have an interest in healthy food, pride themselves in being able to appreciate quality, have an understanding of the uncertainty of the sustainability of our food supply and can handle themselves in the kitchen (and the backyard grill) when the menu suits their skills. But it was local women who sat down and sent a note to me that said, "Is there room for me in your CSA?"
Big difference. And a light went off in my head. I know how to speak to the issues that men have identified in economic and political terms. But really, our farm is serving local women, which should not be surprising. And yet...it was to me. So. Why are women leading the way? And what do I do to serve the female consumers who are driving the change Susan and I have invested everything in? They'll decide what they want and how they want it. What will that Dunn Creek Farm look like?
Friday, March 30, 2012
"Community Supported Agriculture"
Creating a CSA for Eastern PEI
There are more small organic farms selling directly to customers every year. We joined a CSA in California back in 1997 and that experience helped lead us to our own farm in Prince Edward Island! This year we're pleased and excited to launch a farm share program of our own.
What is a CSA?
CSA means Community Supported or Community Shared Agriculture. The model generally is that local customers agree to buy an annual share of farm produce. Shares are then boxed and delivered each week. Payment is made in advance and the farmer then has money to invest in seeds, fuel, labor and production. Our model is slightly different and follows an example set by Brian McKay and Kathy Ware at Red Isle Farm.
What Does it Cost?
Each CSA member will be asked to pay their first and last week and then week to week for the season. This year we expect our program will start June 23rd and run for 17 weeks. Weekly shares start at $25.00 and should provide enough fresh produce for a family of four. We're specifically interested in serving people on a budget, families, moms and kids and anyone who loves having locally produced fresh organic produce. We're here to be your farmers.
What Do You Get?
Our goal is to provide things that families (including ours) like to eat in season. So there will be fresh mixed greens, carrots, potatoes, asparagus, lettuces, chard, spinach, sweet peas, onions, broccoli, summer squash, winter squash, herbs and dried beans. We'll also have summer favorites like juicy heirloom tomatoes, fresh yellow beans and those delicious cucumbers! We also plan to add fresh organic eggs from our pastured laying hens.
How Do You Sign Up?
A good place to begin is by joining the Dunn Creek Farm group on Facebook. That's where I'll be updating our CSA members about the farm this year. Just drop a note and we'll get you going. Or leave a comment on this blog.
There will be more news on this but for now, I'm encouraging you to sign up. We have a very limited number of CSA memberships available and we'd hate to have you miss out!
Creating a CSA for Eastern PEI
There are more small organic farms selling directly to customers every year. We joined a CSA in California back in 1997 and that experience helped lead us to our own farm in Prince Edward Island! This year we're pleased and excited to launch a farm share program of our own.
What is a CSA?
CSA means Community Supported or Community Shared Agriculture. The model generally is that local customers agree to buy an annual share of farm produce. Shares are then boxed and delivered each week. Payment is made in advance and the farmer then has money to invest in seeds, fuel, labor and production. Our model is slightly different and follows an example set by Brian McKay and Kathy Ware at Red Isle Farm.
What Does it Cost?
Each CSA member will be asked to pay their first and last week and then week to week for the season. This year we expect our program will start June 23rd and run for 17 weeks. Weekly shares start at $25.00 and should provide enough fresh produce for a family of four. We're specifically interested in serving people on a budget, families, moms and kids and anyone who loves having locally produced fresh organic produce. We're here to be your farmers.
What Do You Get?
Our goal is to provide things that families (including ours) like to eat in season. So there will be fresh mixed greens, carrots, potatoes, asparagus, lettuces, chard, spinach, sweet peas, onions, broccoli, summer squash, winter squash, herbs and dried beans. We'll also have summer favorites like juicy heirloom tomatoes, fresh yellow beans and those delicious cucumbers! We also plan to add fresh organic eggs from our pastured laying hens.
How Do You Sign Up?
A good place to begin is by joining the Dunn Creek Farm group on Facebook. That's where I'll be updating our CSA members about the farm this year. Just drop a note and we'll get you going. Or leave a comment on this blog.
There will be more news on this but for now, I'm encouraging you to sign up. We have a very limited number of CSA memberships available and we'd hate to have you miss out!
Friday, March 23, 2012
A Post Card From the Farm
Welcome to Dunn Creek Farm, Murray Harbour North PEI!
I call this photo, "rooster of doom" just because of the way the light caught his eye. But really, he may be a "rooster of the future". He's a chanticleer, the only registered Canadian breed and he was hatched last spring. We've decided that developing our own breeding flock of chickens is the sustainable choice for our farm and our customers. We're interested in finding and breeding our own heritage birds for pasture raised meat and eggs.
Coming in June 2012: Introducing The NEW Dunn Creek Farm CSA
A CSA is a "Community Supported Agriculture" program designed to connect consumers and farmers.
We've been selling fresh produce from our farm gate for the past few years. Now, you and your family can have a box of the best our farm has to offer each week through the Summer and into the Fall of 2012. This offer is limited to 10 memberships this year and we're suggesting it primarily for resident of Southern Kings County. Boxes will be available for pickup here at the farm or at the Cardigan Farmers' Market this season.
More details are available, please leave a comment if you'd like more information.
Dunn Creek Farm Hosts SOIL Apprentices
We pleased to be hosts this summer for 2 young people from Charlottetown who will be living and working here on the farm. The SOIL Apprentice program is supported by ACORN (Atlantic Canada Organic Regional Network) and PEI Adapt and connects those who are interested in living and working on small farms with local farmers.
Spring is HERE!
Please follow along with our story on the blog this year!
I call this photo, "rooster of doom" just because of the way the light caught his eye. But really, he may be a "rooster of the future". He's a chanticleer, the only registered Canadian breed and he was hatched last spring. We've decided that developing our own breeding flock of chickens is the sustainable choice for our farm and our customers. We're interested in finding and breeding our own heritage birds for pasture raised meat and eggs.
Coming in June 2012: Introducing The NEW Dunn Creek Farm CSA
A CSA is a "Community Supported Agriculture" program designed to connect consumers and farmers.
We've been selling fresh produce from our farm gate for the past few years. Now, you and your family can have a box of the best our farm has to offer each week through the Summer and into the Fall of 2012. This offer is limited to 10 memberships this year and we're suggesting it primarily for resident of Southern Kings County. Boxes will be available for pickup here at the farm or at the Cardigan Farmers' Market this season.
More details are available, please leave a comment if you'd like more information.
Dunn Creek Farm Hosts SOIL Apprentices
We pleased to be hosts this summer for 2 young people from Charlottetown who will be living and working here on the farm. The SOIL Apprentice program is supported by ACORN (Atlantic Canada Organic Regional Network) and PEI Adapt and connects those who are interested in living and working on small farms with local farmers.
Spring is HERE!
Please follow along with our story on the blog this year!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
It All Comes Back To Manure
We need all of our farmers. I firmly believe that. Trial and error and ten years of trying to learn how to manage something resembling a farm has taught me that no one can wave a magic wand and make a professional who can wisely manage natural resources, operate and maintain machines, fix buildings, design and construct infrastructure, supply field labor, deliver lambs at 1 AM, fix a leaky kitchen faucet, push a teenager to get the chores done and drive an 11 year old to hockey. We need all of our farmers because they know something about everything.
When I came back from the ACORN conference in Halifax last week, pumped full of information until it was leaking out of my pores, I called on a young farmer in my neighborhood to share the information I'd learned with him. You see, one of the things I learned at ACORN was that this potent and highly concentrated input needs to be spread around. It's no good just keeping it in a bag in the barn.
So we talked about soil and seeds and fertility for about an hour when this young conventional farmer said, "You know, I've been looking at it. And it all comes back to manure". He'd just this year produced the best corn crop he'd ever had by loading up his soil with manure from his cows instead of buying in chemical fertilizer.
In 1969 an oil well blew out in the Santa Barbra Channel and flooded our beaches with crude oil. It was an environmental disaster that created the first Earth Day. The students of the new environmental sciences, our "alternative" neighbors and people all over the world woke up and saw that we were making a mess and something had to be done about it. Lines were drawn. The politics of the environment were born. Many good things came of that movement but something went wrong.
Santa Barbara County is an agricultural area on the coast of California that also has fishermen and oil production. We have old cowboys from families that go back to the Spanish and Mexican land grants of the colonial era. These families worked to manage grazing and pasture for beef and tended their lands responsibly for generations. They weren't ready for the kind of people promoting Earth Day in 1970. When the lines were drawn around the ecological movement, these "descendientes" excluded themselves and there was no effort made to include them in. That was a mistake on both sides.
When I was 24, I volunteered to help work 350 head of range cattle on a family "brush ranch". I met a rancher who was the descendant of people who had worked that land for 130 years. The owner had been educated at UC Berkeley. This was not the red-neck cowboy I had imagined. And in fact I later learned that our University system had been supported by families like his so that their sons and daughters could get a first class education in their own state and bring that education back home to the farm and their communities. It turned out that that old cowboy was the one who lost the family ranch a few years later. I know for a fact that he later died of a broken heart. I was at his memorial with his stetson, his riata, his work saddle and his family who no longer had the home their grandfathers and grandmothers built.
The young farmer I was visiting last week was interested in the material I brought back from Halifax on soil science. We started talking about biological farming. And we talked about an old man in our neighborhood, recently departed, who farmed naturally all his life. Not because it was the thing to do, but because it was something he'd proven over a lifetime. The young farmer and I talked about bringing up seaweed from the shore for mineral supplement to feed the fields. And we talked about pellet fertilizer. The young farmer thought for a moment. "The old man said, 'You don't need to put that "hail" on the field. Everything you need is right here. We never put that stuff on and we always had a good crop'." The old man put kelp and manure on his fields and rotated his crops. "It all comes back to manure"
We need our farmers. All of them. The young farmer and I have listened to and learned from "Los Viejos" - the old ones. When we lose a farmer we break the chain of generations of knowledge on the land. And as the young farmer and I can tell you - it's a long hard row to hoe getting it back. But the old men still try to tell us, "Don't lose what we worked for. Nature is giving you everything you need right here".
When I came back from the ACORN conference in Halifax last week, pumped full of information until it was leaking out of my pores, I called on a young farmer in my neighborhood to share the information I'd learned with him. You see, one of the things I learned at ACORN was that this potent and highly concentrated input needs to be spread around. It's no good just keeping it in a bag in the barn.
So we talked about soil and seeds and fertility for about an hour when this young conventional farmer said, "You know, I've been looking at it. And it all comes back to manure". He'd just this year produced the best corn crop he'd ever had by loading up his soil with manure from his cows instead of buying in chemical fertilizer.
In 1969 an oil well blew out in the Santa Barbra Channel and flooded our beaches with crude oil. It was an environmental disaster that created the first Earth Day. The students of the new environmental sciences, our "alternative" neighbors and people all over the world woke up and saw that we were making a mess and something had to be done about it. Lines were drawn. The politics of the environment were born. Many good things came of that movement but something went wrong.
Santa Barbara County is an agricultural area on the coast of California that also has fishermen and oil production. We have old cowboys from families that go back to the Spanish and Mexican land grants of the colonial era. These families worked to manage grazing and pasture for beef and tended their lands responsibly for generations. They weren't ready for the kind of people promoting Earth Day in 1970. When the lines were drawn around the ecological movement, these "descendientes" excluded themselves and there was no effort made to include them in. That was a mistake on both sides.
When I was 24, I volunteered to help work 350 head of range cattle on a family "brush ranch". I met a rancher who was the descendant of people who had worked that land for 130 years. The owner had been educated at UC Berkeley. This was not the red-neck cowboy I had imagined. And in fact I later learned that our University system had been supported by families like his so that their sons and daughters could get a first class education in their own state and bring that education back home to the farm and their communities. It turned out that that old cowboy was the one who lost the family ranch a few years later. I know for a fact that he later died of a broken heart. I was at his memorial with his stetson, his riata, his work saddle and his family who no longer had the home their grandfathers and grandmothers built.
The young farmer I was visiting last week was interested in the material I brought back from Halifax on soil science. We started talking about biological farming. And we talked about an old man in our neighborhood, recently departed, who farmed naturally all his life. Not because it was the thing to do, but because it was something he'd proven over a lifetime. The young farmer and I talked about bringing up seaweed from the shore for mineral supplement to feed the fields. And we talked about pellet fertilizer. The young farmer thought for a moment. "The old man said, 'You don't need to put that "hail" on the field. Everything you need is right here. We never put that stuff on and we always had a good crop'." The old man put kelp and manure on his fields and rotated his crops. "It all comes back to manure"
We need our farmers. All of them. The young farmer and I have listened to and learned from "Los Viejos" - the old ones. When we lose a farmer we break the chain of generations of knowledge on the land. And as the young farmer and I can tell you - it's a long hard row to hoe getting it back. But the old men still try to tell us, "Don't lose what we worked for. Nature is giving you everything you need right here".
Monday, November 14, 2011
Occupy Soil - A Micro Revolution
I've just returned from the ACORN conference in Halilfax, Nova Scotia. ACORN is the Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network and it represents and embodies organic agriculture in the Maritime Provinces.
First of all I have to thank ACORN for the fine job they did to bring such a diverse group of people together to represent the organic community in our region. I spent three days totally absorbed in seminars collecting valuable information, not only about how I'll work my farm, but to see that more small farmers are putting local agricultural products and farming careers within reach of more families, individuals, partners and local communities.
And I do have to comment on the diversity of participants. We're all aware of Occupiers and Tea Partiers and the social and political differences rabidly promoted by our spectator media. But this gathering included those who defied those definitions and divisions. I met an evangelical Christian, a home schooling mom, a Libertarian, a small business owner, a wealth manager looking for a change in life, a dogged small farmer in pursuit of agricultural profits, a young person interested in shaping their own alternatives, an artist who was engineering his own technology solutions, a "hippie" looking for independence from corporations. These people of diverse ideology were not in opposition to one another, nor were they actively protesting anything. They were embracing the means to take peaceful action with their own hands. It was civil. It was orderly and it was radical. We weren't there to protest the status quo. We're already changing it literally from the ground up.
And speaking of ground. The seminars on soil biology, plant health and permaculture left my eyes wide open. I had previously read Gary F. Zimmer's book, "The Biological Farmer". And this summer I was browsing in Michael Phillips book, The Apple Grower, both of which provide detailed information relating the science of soil biology to plant health. But Av Singh's presentations at ACORN really bridged the gap for me between science and field experience. His description of a holistic approach based on science plus farmer observation and experience made my day. He gave me the scientific keys to unlock what I see in my own fields.
Now. There's more than one way to do just about everything. And I was very interested in the seminars on organic standards and allowable inputs. But the magic happened when a theory I hadn't really understood was explained. Everything your plants need to be healthy can be found in a biologically healthy soil system.
The key - is making everything available to your crop - at the right time. This is master level stuff.
But think of it like this. If you drink too much on Saturday night and your system is out of balance, you won't be at your best on Sunday morning. Which, by the way, is why airline pilots aren't allowed to fly with a hangover. Now, you can treat the symptom by taking a few Tylenol, or you can work on putting your whole system back into balance and decide not to put too much alcohol into your system again. You can imagine what's going on in our soil body when we don't keep it in balance. We're trying to grow plants in soil that has a hangover.
Going for optimal soil biology is probably the hardest way to go about optimal plant health. It's so much easier to dump in some organically allowed inputs imported from who knows where and call it good. But then we're just practicing the same bad medicine that got us in trouble in the first place.
So yes, I learned some things about why our crop yields aren't what they could be. And yes, I 've learned how to apply organic corrections to my soil. But I'm motivated to face this new challenge of growing healthy soil from start to finish because I know that the only "sustainable" agriculture comes from the micro-biological level up.
Tip O'Neil is famously quoted as saying, "All politics is local". I guess the same can be said for soil.
Our land has been farmed for 200 years and I'm now 52 years old. Our short term goal is to take a living from our farm. But our long term goal is to leave good soil for the next farmer.
First of all I have to thank ACORN for the fine job they did to bring such a diverse group of people together to represent the organic community in our region. I spent three days totally absorbed in seminars collecting valuable information, not only about how I'll work my farm, but to see that more small farmers are putting local agricultural products and farming careers within reach of more families, individuals, partners and local communities.
And I do have to comment on the diversity of participants. We're all aware of Occupiers and Tea Partiers and the social and political differences rabidly promoted by our spectator media. But this gathering included those who defied those definitions and divisions. I met an evangelical Christian, a home schooling mom, a Libertarian, a small business owner, a wealth manager looking for a change in life, a dogged small farmer in pursuit of agricultural profits, a young person interested in shaping their own alternatives, an artist who was engineering his own technology solutions, a "hippie" looking for independence from corporations. These people of diverse ideology were not in opposition to one another, nor were they actively protesting anything. They were embracing the means to take peaceful action with their own hands. It was civil. It was orderly and it was radical. We weren't there to protest the status quo. We're already changing it literally from the ground up.
And speaking of ground. The seminars on soil biology, plant health and permaculture left my eyes wide open. I had previously read Gary F. Zimmer's book, "The Biological Farmer". And this summer I was browsing in Michael Phillips book, The Apple Grower, both of which provide detailed information relating the science of soil biology to plant health. But Av Singh's presentations at ACORN really bridged the gap for me between science and field experience. His description of a holistic approach based on science plus farmer observation and experience made my day. He gave me the scientific keys to unlock what I see in my own fields.
Now. There's more than one way to do just about everything. And I was very interested in the seminars on organic standards and allowable inputs. But the magic happened when a theory I hadn't really understood was explained. Everything your plants need to be healthy can be found in a biologically healthy soil system.
The key - is making everything available to your crop - at the right time. This is master level stuff.
But think of it like this. If you drink too much on Saturday night and your system is out of balance, you won't be at your best on Sunday morning. Which, by the way, is why airline pilots aren't allowed to fly with a hangover. Now, you can treat the symptom by taking a few Tylenol, or you can work on putting your whole system back into balance and decide not to put too much alcohol into your system again. You can imagine what's going on in our soil body when we don't keep it in balance. We're trying to grow plants in soil that has a hangover.
Going for optimal soil biology is probably the hardest way to go about optimal plant health. It's so much easier to dump in some organically allowed inputs imported from who knows where and call it good. But then we're just practicing the same bad medicine that got us in trouble in the first place.
So yes, I learned some things about why our crop yields aren't what they could be. And yes, I 've learned how to apply organic corrections to my soil. But I'm motivated to face this new challenge of growing healthy soil from start to finish because I know that the only "sustainable" agriculture comes from the micro-biological level up.
Tip O'Neil is famously quoted as saying, "All politics is local". I guess the same can be said for soil.
Our land has been farmed for 200 years and I'm now 52 years old. Our short term goal is to take a living from our farm. But our long term goal is to leave good soil for the next farmer.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
A Conversation With Coyotes
I walked the lane from our home, almost a quarter mile to the gate that opens on the pasture closest to the house and peed on the gate posts. Then I walked along the fence line to the gate that leads to the next field above the house and peed some more. I was leaving a statement for the coyote pack that counts our farm as their territory. Don't cross this line. This is mine.
That's what I did as we put our first batch of 50 pastured chickens into pens on the pasture. And we had no trouble from coyotes. But when we put our second batch of 50 on the pasture, we lost them all.
Coyotes aren't native to PEI. Like us, they are CFA's (Come From Away's) who are variously accepted, tolerated, hunted and trapped. We know there is a an active pack in our neighborhood. They make themselves known on a regular basis in an interesting variety of ways. Coyote is a sensible dog. In native lore he is, "The Trickster". He is part fool, part shape-shifter, part devil.
When the pack is in our area, it moves, not in a bunch, but as a picket line through the woods. Rabbits and ground animals beware, if coyote flushes you from cover, the pack will finish you and a wild celebration of howling will mark victory. About 4:00 AM some days ago I heard a scream that sounded like a child in pain in the woods. It was followed by the celebratory yip and howl of a coyote who had just taken down a good sized rabbit. My dog, Annie heard it too. If you've ever heard a rabbit scream, you know what I'm talking about.
In the days that followed all was quiet.
Then, last night there was the sharp yip and howl of a lone voice just behind the house in the woods. It was an announcement. "I Am HERE!" But "here" was a little too close for me. So I walked into the dark and gave a series of deep throated barks at intervals. As I moved up to the tree line I pinpointed it's position. Coyote shouted back. Now not so certain and then giving ground back into the field behind the trees.
We never saw each other. But communication was being made and it was plain enough. I was saying,
"STAY AWAY!" And he backed off.
After quiet was restored, I went back into the house and went to bed. About 20 minutes later, I was paged through the closed windows of my room by a faint high wailing that sounded like a cell phone in my sleepy state. I got up to open the window and heard coyote's latest broadcast now very close to the edge of our field. I barked back which set my dogs into a few minutes of growling and boof-ing at the intruder. Then we all settled down and the night was quiet again.
Last summer, I read Farley Mowat's 1963 book, "Never Cry Wolf". He details his experiences living with and observing a wild wolf pack in the far north. He learned the rules that determine the territory of the hunting wolf packs and observed the disciplined social behavior that guarantees survival of hunting groups and preserves peace between them. It was his book that encouraged me to take the initiative of communicating with my wild canine neighbors by marking my boundries.
I have two dogs. I love dogs. And I understand dogs. The canine in the wild is not the babied simpleton we raise as pets. It is a canny, wild hunter. It belongs to a society that has rules and it understands a lot about its environment. And I'm convinced, after thousands of years of proximity with man, it knows exactly who we are.
This morning I walked the lane from our home almost a quarter mile to the gate that opens on to the pasture closest to the house. I was getting ready to move the horses out to graze when I saw a little green tootsie roll on the ground in the gate way. Right on the line I had peed last summer. It was a message from coyote.
We knew coyote in suburban southern California. He would come out of the fog draped foothills to patrol the empty streets before dawn with a scornful swagger surfing for cats and backyard bowls of free dog food. But here on PEI this local wild dog had left me a note full of animal protein, fur and slim white bones. And the message was, "Chill out man! I know where your boundry is! No need for threats, bro."
We lost our second batch of 50 chickens on the morning we were planning to take them to be processed.
Something tore through the poultry wire and tore up the the backs of the birds between their wings (a relatively small bite mark), leaving them dead and dying on the ground - but none were taken or eaten. We never knew what got them and I didn't find clear tracks. But the holes in the wire, the size of the holes, the size of the bite marks and the fact that the birds weren't killed for food told me it was probably raccoons that did it.
Coyote is a trickster. And he's a hunter. But the message he left me said that he's well fed on wild game. He knows where I've marked my ground. And he assumes that he's free to hunt the wild hare that would destroy my garden if the population was left un-challenged.
I have to agree. Even so, this evening I walked the lane from our home up into the fields and "refreshed" my marks. I offered a howl into the woods that went unanswered. And I went home satisfied that I had answered coyote for tonight.
That's what I did as we put our first batch of 50 pastured chickens into pens on the pasture. And we had no trouble from coyotes. But when we put our second batch of 50 on the pasture, we lost them all.
Coyotes aren't native to PEI. Like us, they are CFA's (Come From Away's) who are variously accepted, tolerated, hunted and trapped. We know there is a an active pack in our neighborhood. They make themselves known on a regular basis in an interesting variety of ways. Coyote is a sensible dog. In native lore he is, "The Trickster". He is part fool, part shape-shifter, part devil.
When the pack is in our area, it moves, not in a bunch, but as a picket line through the woods. Rabbits and ground animals beware, if coyote flushes you from cover, the pack will finish you and a wild celebration of howling will mark victory. About 4:00 AM some days ago I heard a scream that sounded like a child in pain in the woods. It was followed by the celebratory yip and howl of a coyote who had just taken down a good sized rabbit. My dog, Annie heard it too. If you've ever heard a rabbit scream, you know what I'm talking about.
In the days that followed all was quiet.
Then, last night there was the sharp yip and howl of a lone voice just behind the house in the woods. It was an announcement. "I Am HERE!" But "here" was a little too close for me. So I walked into the dark and gave a series of deep throated barks at intervals. As I moved up to the tree line I pinpointed it's position. Coyote shouted back. Now not so certain and then giving ground back into the field behind the trees.
We never saw each other. But communication was being made and it was plain enough. I was saying,
"STAY AWAY!" And he backed off.
After quiet was restored, I went back into the house and went to bed. About 20 minutes later, I was paged through the closed windows of my room by a faint high wailing that sounded like a cell phone in my sleepy state. I got up to open the window and heard coyote's latest broadcast now very close to the edge of our field. I barked back which set my dogs into a few minutes of growling and boof-ing at the intruder. Then we all settled down and the night was quiet again.
Last summer, I read Farley Mowat's 1963 book, "Never Cry Wolf". He details his experiences living with and observing a wild wolf pack in the far north. He learned the rules that determine the territory of the hunting wolf packs and observed the disciplined social behavior that guarantees survival of hunting groups and preserves peace between them. It was his book that encouraged me to take the initiative of communicating with my wild canine neighbors by marking my boundries.
I have two dogs. I love dogs. And I understand dogs. The canine in the wild is not the babied simpleton we raise as pets. It is a canny, wild hunter. It belongs to a society that has rules and it understands a lot about its environment. And I'm convinced, after thousands of years of proximity with man, it knows exactly who we are.
This morning I walked the lane from our home almost a quarter mile to the gate that opens on to the pasture closest to the house. I was getting ready to move the horses out to graze when I saw a little green tootsie roll on the ground in the gate way. Right on the line I had peed last summer. It was a message from coyote.
We knew coyote in suburban southern California. He would come out of the fog draped foothills to patrol the empty streets before dawn with a scornful swagger surfing for cats and backyard bowls of free dog food. But here on PEI this local wild dog had left me a note full of animal protein, fur and slim white bones. And the message was, "Chill out man! I know where your boundry is! No need for threats, bro."
We lost our second batch of 50 chickens on the morning we were planning to take them to be processed.
Something tore through the poultry wire and tore up the the backs of the birds between their wings (a relatively small bite mark), leaving them dead and dying on the ground - but none were taken or eaten. We never knew what got them and I didn't find clear tracks. But the holes in the wire, the size of the holes, the size of the bite marks and the fact that the birds weren't killed for food told me it was probably raccoons that did it.
Coyote is a trickster. And he's a hunter. But the message he left me said that he's well fed on wild game. He knows where I've marked my ground. And he assumes that he's free to hunt the wild hare that would destroy my garden if the population was left un-challenged.
I have to agree. Even so, this evening I walked the lane from our home up into the fields and "refreshed" my marks. I offered a howl into the woods that went unanswered. And I went home satisfied that I had answered coyote for tonight.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Small Plot Organic Grains and Local Farming Gains
While some farmers have "gone big", we've decided to "go small". We're working with small equipment, heirloom seeds and our neighbors to meet our needs on our terms.
Here's a short video I made in September while cutting our barley with an old International Harvester sickle bar mower and our John Deere tractor. (UPDATE: hahaha - blogger and youtube don't like my .mov video! So, think of it as a briefly animated still and imagine a really great video! - JQ)
In north america, grain production has gradually evolved from being part of the small mixed family farm into a major element of industrial agriculture. Farms now produce hundreds or even thousands of acres of grain with huge energy, tilling, spraying, harvesting and storage costs.
It costs a lot of money to operate a modern grain growing operation. We don't have the resources to build the farm infrastructure for industrial grain growing. I'm not sure we would want to. But we were encouraged to believe we could meet our own needs with a book written by Gene Logsdon of Ohio, by making traditional homestead grain farming part of our farm crop rotation. The Book is titled, "Small Scale Grain Raising: An Organic Guide to Growing, Processing and Using Nutritious Whole Grains for Home Gardeners and Local Farmers.
The point is that while most small organic farms focus on niche vegetables or high value produce, small grain plots can create big benefits on small mixed farms. The book opened my eyes to the amazing yield potential of small plot organic grain farming, the market potential of growing grain for our animals and selling good whole grains directly to consumers.
Space Requirements
So how much space do you need to produce a bushel of grain? (Notice that bushel weight varies, though each weight is considered a single bushel measure)
Some examples from the book:
Corn = 10' x 50' = 56 lbs
Oats = 10' x 62' = 32 lbs
Barley = 10' x 87' = 48 lbs
Wheat = 10' x 109' = 60 lbs
I don't know about you, but 56 pounds of dried corn turned into meal would pretty much meet my household needs for a year. Same with 60 pounds of flour.
Tools
We have no grain drills or combines. We broadcast seed, harrow it into the soil and harvest by mowing and then hand thresh on the barn floor and winnow in the barn yard. I've found some good ideas for do it yourself small threshing and cleaning equipment on Youtube. This is not as easy as using heavy equipment...but the yield costs less and the bank doesn't take a cut. Plus we get a hand made, hand graded and selected product.
Milling
There are a wide variety of home mills available for turning whole grains into cracked grain or flour. We aren't there yet. But once we get better at growing and harvesting it would make sense to buy a mill and sell whole or milled grains in household quantities as a value added organic product at the farmers market.
Let's Talk Beer...
So, a guy could grow his own barley and small batch malt the grains for brewing. In our case, we selected a two row barley that grows well in our climate. Two row is easier to grow and this variety serves as a malting barley but can also be used for feed grain. While it is not as good as other barley for animal feed, it will serve as animal or human food and most importantly, the basis for beer. And 48 pounds of barley from a plot the size of a large suburban yard will make a lot of beer.
Working With Neighbors
We bought in our organic chicken feed this year at a about $35.00 for 50 lbs from the local co op. It cost us roughly twice as much to buy organic feed over conventional feed. We broke even on our meat chickens. We've contacted a local organic grain grower and are planning to work directly with the producer to buy what we need. This is important. We'll continue to grow small plots of grain because of the direct farm and eventual market benefit. But we've learned that it's better to go to local people who specialize in a product and support their effort rather than try to carry everything ourselves.
Next up - Using a Home Made Flail on the Threshing Floor
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