I received this email this afternoon. Right up front, this is not an organic farm. I can explain why later if anyone is interested. We don’t use petrochemicals, Round Up ready corn (but we could, it was offered to me last March) or anything like these but we’re not organic.
I hadn’t heard of Dr. Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak until now. I’ll do a little research on them tonight. We are going to the Ag Trades Show tomorrow and will try to get into this workshop for a little while. It’s a long drive there and back so we’ll leave early to come home. I wish I were going to be there for the reception after so that I could hear organic and natural farmers’ thoughts.
What do you think? Can genetic engineering and organic growing co-exist well? I don’t hesitate to say genetically engineered “food-like substances” (thanks to Michael Pollan for this term) have no place at my dining room table.
Robin
From: Braswell, Sarah
Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 3:22 PM
To: reports@mainenature.org (She must have googled my name to find this address)
Subject: Organic farming and ag biotech bring food to same table at Maine Ag Trade Show
Dear Robin,
I thought you may be interested to know about an upcoming event of interest to the Maine agriculture community. Tomorrow, as part of the Maine Agricultural Trade Show, there will be a workshop featuring a discussion among conventional and organic farmers working together for the common good. While genetically-modified crops have traditionally had little support in the organic community, the workshop is focused on how the two agricultural practices can coexist. The workshop goes from 1:00 – 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 13, at the Augusta Civic Center.
Keynote speakers at the event include Dr. Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak, the husband and wife team who co-authored “Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food.” Pamela is a plant geneticist at UC Davis, while Raoul is an organic farmer.
For more information, visit our blog or you may contact John Harker, Agricultural Resource Management Coordinator, Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, at 207-287-7620. I would also be happy to provide you with more information.
Best,
Sarah Braswell
on behalf of the Council for Biotechnology Information
202-585-2903
I watched, waited, listened, hoped for better than predicted and then quietly endured 16″ of very wet, very heavy snow fall. We still have snow to move. So much built up around the north side of the biggest high tunnel that we’re still not done cleaning it up. I moved all the snow off the tunnel but that means it’s all sitting on the ground now. Steve used the snow blower to mov then I went out to pull more down so that it isn’t too deep for the blower. I’ve raked the roof a couple of times, shoveled, shoveled and shoveled more. There’s so much snow compacted into a 3′ x 3′ x 10′ strip right now that it’s been declared “tractor work”. It slid off the roof and landed in front of the back porch soon after I finished shoveling out in front of the back porch. Timing, eh? Steve will deal with it when he gets home.
It’s 38* and sunny. Is this January thaw?
I’m still working on the seed order a little at a time. Leslie’s been very helpful tracking down the snap peas I want. Ali’s already posted her list so I’ve looked to see what she’s doing this year. My biggest challenge now is to figure out how much of what I want to grow. Before I can finish the Fedco order I need to speak with two wholesale customers. I’m not sure they understand how much is in “as much as you can grow”.
I’ve applied for a grant that will help buy a high tunnel through the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food program. It’s highly unlikely that I’ll be awarded one of only 18 grants for the state of Maine but hey, you never know. I know I was one of the first to get my app in. Maybe that will help. I don’t get bonus points for being socially disadvantaged (Asian, Indian), a new farmer or low income. I’ve avoided opportunities open only to women because I never felt like not having a penis (pause for choking to subside) was a disadvantage. I’ll leave it at that.
What perennials do you grow? I want to start a new flower garden or three and quickly admit to knowing little about flowers.
I’m fighting off a sinus thing that’s making my head want to explode so I’ve been lazy all day. I’m watching videos and looking at seed catalogs. Here’s a video of my favorite farm and farmer, Gloria Varney of Nezinscot Farm. I went to an experiential weekend at Nezinscot several years ago. Gloria helped me polish my bread baking skills by inviting me into her kitchen at 4:45 am. Other women joined us and we had a great morning. I had to leave before my bread was in the oven because my morning chore that day was to work in the dairy. I fed bottle calves.
Yup, you read that correctly. The laying hens are leaving. They’re packing their bags and heading over to Lone Moose Farm in Carroll. It’s another of the farm’s changes. I can buy eggs from Jan or Joe and Wayne @ Rising Phoenix Farm for less money than I can raise them. In the spring I’ll buy a few bantam chickens and put them to work. I’m thinking about offering the mallard pair to Randy (Lone Moose) too. I’ll also be buying runner ducklings. They’ll be my new egg producers. We still have all seven Bourbon Red turkeys. What I’ll do about that is up in the air. They’ll probably live to be 100 years old. I’d be happy to re-home three of the hens.
I don’t know what kind of bantam I’ll be using. I’m going to choose only one breed. Do you have suggestions?
It’s 34* today, there isn’t a cloud in the sky and the wind isn’t blowing. I’ve opened the barn door to let the ducks out if they’d like some freedom. I haven’t seen them waddle out yet. The hen house…poultry house I guess it’ll be called now, is open too. I moved the water bin outside to force the birds out into the sunshine and get them moving. The turkeys took off to explore the path Steve made with the tractor.
I think I’ve found someone to hire for the 2010 season. More on that later!
…does it take to raise a pound of beef? All too often people go off on tangents about beef being nearly equal to the devil. Little do they know. No, that wasn’t a sentence cut short. How about, how little they know. All beef is not created equal. Here’s a good read on the subject.
A friend asked for this recipe and I thought someone else might be interested too.
Enough evoo to sautee onion and garlic until golden
2 TBL butter
1 medium onion
1 large apple
1 cup apple cider
4 cups chicken stock (veg is ok too)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 two pound squash, peeled, seeds removed and cut into 2″ pieces
Sautee diced onion and garlic until golden. Add cider and simmer five minutes. Sautee apple in butter until tender. Add chicken stock and squash, cover and cook until squash is tender. Add apple to the pot. Puree either in a blender or with an immersion blender until smooth. Stir in cream. Serve warm. This stores in the fridge for up to a week.
I used butter and cream from Houlton Dairy, an apple and an onion we grew, cider from western Maine, chicken stock from chickens we raised, garlic from The Maine Potato Lady (cloves too small to plant but great to eat) and squash from Stonewall Farm in Lincoln.
My friend Elaine’s sister, Ellen, is in Haiti. Elaine posted a link to Ellen’s blog this morning and I’ve been reading with a cup of coffee while I wait for it to warm up outside.
Winter arrived yesterday afternoon. Steve and I worked outside most of the day. Around noon the air changed it became noticeably colder. By the time we came in I was starting to realize I’d gotten chilled. What feels chilly when you’re moving is cold within minutes of standing still. I called it a day and we came in for hot coffee. This morning we woke to 4-5″ of snow (haven’t measured yet). It’s sliding off the metal roof now, creating THUDS when it hits the ground that send the 30 pound cat scrambling for shelter.
I lucked out this snow! I don’t have to clear snow from the greenhouses. The sun is bright, the breeze is mild and the houses will warm quickly and shed the snow on their own. They’re off to a good start now.We have three this winter, by the way. The new house isn’t finished and isn’t going to be finished. I made the decision to leave it uncovered for the winter. There’s no sense in exposing poly to the elements on an empty house. We’ll cover it early in the spring, put plastic down to warm the soil quickly and fill it full of tomatoes in April.
Taylor has today off and we’re going to get the Christmas tree. It’s a little tricky with snow on the trees but today’s the only day we can go unless we wait two weeks. Enjoy your day!
This year’s weather has slightly complicated my seed order for next year’s crops. I’m looking at the list of seeds I can’t order from Fedco this year.
Double Gem corn: Discontinued by supplier.
Sugar Ann snap pea: Crop blown away by hurricane. (say it isn’t so! Noooooooooo!)
Telegraph Improved cucumber: No crop. (gasp!)
Turk’s Turban squash: Dropped for slow sales.
Winter Bloomsdale spinach: Crop failure.
Oliver brussels sprouts: Dropped by the trade. (gasp!)
Wakamine cabbage: Crop failure.
Dominant cauliflower: No longer available.
Moon Lily: Slow sales. (love this when the moon is full)
Pro-cut Lemon sunflower: Crop failure.
This is the last year I can order Buffalo hybrid tomato because it’s been dropped by the supplier. I knew this last year. I like this tomato in the greenhouses so I’ll order early and buy as much as I’ll use in two years or am allowed to order. It holds up to cold weather in the spring and keeps producing until I pull the plants out to make room for fall crops. Sugar Ann peas and Telegraph Improved cucs are my biggest loss. Sugar Ann is my personal favorite and Telegraph goes nuts in the greenhouse. I hope someone else has Sugar Ann. They have Bodacious corn. I’ve grown it before and was happy with it so I’ll try it again this year. New on my list will be Opalka tomato and cumin! I’m excited about cumin.
We had a nice Thanksgiving here with family and friends. It’s my favorite holiday because it’s the only holiday that my entire family is together. We all enjoy Christmas but none of us make a big to do over the day. We had a lot of laughs on Thanksgiving. Kristin and Robbie cut down Kristin’s Christmas tree. Jon, my bil, turned it into a free range tree that ran back to the woods while Kristin took Sebastian for a ride. Have you ever played I Spy in a forest while looking for a tree? Fun stuff!
Thanks to Tish at Rural Ramblings for the Best Blog Award! If I’ve chosen the recommended 15 bloggers it’s purely coincidence. I chose the first blogs I read when I hope Google Reader in the morning.
Now the rules:
Anyone awarded with this one must pass this “BEST BLOG” Award to 15 bloggers who he/she thinks have the best and greatest blogs.
For the new awardee… To receive and accept this award, copy and save the award, then…
Make a post in your blog about the award, like this one, but write in your own words, or at least a reasonable facsimile.
In your post, mention the name of the blogger who awarded you, and include a link to their blog.
Some of my favorite blogs are: (they open in new tabs/windows)
The ducks are still spending most of their time at the pond. It’s unusual that there isn’t a little ice on the pond by now. We had a warmer than average November. I saw heads popping up over the bank early this morning so I went in to get the camera.
Let’s get breakfast!
Single file! No pushing!
Forward! March!
Hey! I’m a mallard. I can fly…
Hey! Maybe I can do that too!
Ooops. No flying for me. There’s a reason I’m called a runner. It didn’t go well for him either.
It’s hunting season again. Last year I dragged readers through a dismal season. I didn’t see a deer during legal time. I’m hunting again this year. It’s better this year though. There are fewer deer but I’ve seen three during legal time. They’re does and I can’t shoot a doe, but I’ve seen them! I’ve seen a buckling eating peas in the back of the field. He’s too small and isn’t legal anyway.
A doe came in to eat under the apple tree during the night. I’m not sure if there’s more than one. There are photos from the game cam taken over night of three does coming in but I have no way of knowing if it’s one that leaves and comes back, two or three.
And then came the buck. I’ve been watching his tracks. There isn’t a photo of his antlers but look at the size of his neck.
WANTED: One friendly rooster, preferably a barred rock but a desperate woman can’t be fussy. Must be friendly.
I was reading Tish’s blog this morning when I realized I was smiling…again. The entry I read this morning showed photos of her critters. All of my animals are pet. I don’t even have a rooster. The last rooster was mean. He’s been gone to mean rooster heaven (aka the compost post pile) for nearly two years. The rooster we thought we were going to get didn’t appear. I miss having a hen clucking around with a clutch of chicks now and then.
I’m going to order bbw turkeys soon. I’ll have them delivered in early July so that they’re 20 lbs +/- at Thanksgiving next year. Four of our Bourbon Red turkeys are going to freezer camp later this month. We’ll have Tom and Henley, our eight year old original birds, and Sweetie, the hen that was raised with her four badass brothers that went to freezer camp because of their horrid behavior.
Ducklings are welcome next spring! This was my year for drastically reducing the duck population. We’re down to seven now and I’m good with that. I’m going to separate the pewter colored runner drake, a white hen and a fawn/white hen and start a new batch of layers. I miss having duck eggs for baking. I haven’t yet decided where the ducks are going to live from spring to fall. They’ll be wintering in the hen house with the remaining three turkeys and 11 layers.
Once I figure out the details for the farm next year (and fill Steve in) I’ll fill you in.
I’m feeling more like my real self, the person who loves farming, teaching and being close to the soil. For months I’ve felt like farming was sucking the life blood from my veins. It certainly drained my heart. On top of the third consecutive shitty growing year (I grow and harvest year round so it’s not just a season, it’s the overall amount of the time I work) we dealt with Steve losing his job for five weeks, adjusted to Taylor leaving home for six weeks and the sad loss of what I thought would be two great new friendships. I stopped saying “next year will be better” because I didn’t have any hope that it might be true. Instead, I thought about being trapped because I have four greenhouses and a tractor that have to earn their keep.
Late blight showed up early and took the majority of tomato and a third of the potato plants with it. There are weeds that will grow in spite of seven weeks of rain. They thrived when many vegetables died. We bought the tractor to turn it all under so that I didn’t have to look at it anymore.
I quit farming. I did. I really quit. I’m not a quitter but I quit. The fourth greenhouse is still in a pile. Steve started the ground stakes and one rib is up and standing guard all by itself. That’s all. I didn’t do any of the work. There’s lumber up there lying uselessly on the ground and I didn’t give a damn. I kept telling myself today was the day I’d pick up the effing sledgehammer and pound a few stakes in. It probably would have made me feel better if I had because I could have released some of this pent up frustration, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I don’t even walk up there anymore. When I go out to look for raspberries I go around instead of cutting through the garden and having to be near that stack of steel ribs. I avoided that area so well that I didn’t know there were a dozen bright orange pumpkins up there. Steve picked and loaded them into the tractor bucket and brought them down to the house for me. I was almost excited to see them. Almost.
I’ve been sad for months. (Editing to add: Although farming sucks, life is great! It could be much worse.)
I’ve noted the dent in the weed seed bank as weeds germinate and are tilled in. A few days ago I was happy to see that more weed seeds have germinated since the field was last tilled. Happy. Not just noting the fact, happy. We’ve been working on decreasing the weed seed bank by tilling the top two inches of the soil. I think between us we’ve tilled four times. There aren’t many new seeds being deposited this year. The only new seeds have blown in from outside the garden, a problem I can’t control. That’s progress.
I’ve established a new wholesale customer for 2010 and will be contacting another. The vegetables I’m growing for the first customer can be grown in a controlled environment – the greenhouses. I’m getting very excited about that.
Attention Fedco – I’m ready for the 2010 catalog now.
It feels a little bit like a farm here today. We processed 22 eight week old Cornish rock chickens today. We set up, did the deed and dumped the offal in about two hours. The birds came from Welp. We are exceptionally pleased with the quality. We’d have had 100% success if it weren’t for the damned raccoons. We didn’t gut any of the birds this year. We removed legs and breast meat. It meant losing a small amount of meat in the wings but we’re ok with that. The trade off for time saved is well worth it. The birds were raised on grass, slept in one of the greenhouses at night and fed minimal commercial food. One bird, a hen, was too fat but the rest were perfect. The birds were excellent foragers. I’ve done so little farm work this year that it felt good to do something farmy today.
The greenhouse that’s planted is doing well. The small gh housed chickens at night but is now empty. I’ll turn on the water to soak the bone dry ground and get it ready for the planting. The new gh isn’t going to be planted until February.
Bird count – seven turkeys, six ducks and 11 laying hens. We’ll process four turkeys before Thanksgiving.
Pest count – two bears, 10 raccoons and one skunk. They’ve moved on, some under their own power and others with help.
Seriously. What a summer. August was nice so what’s left of the garden is producing well. The tomatoes that haven’t been wiped out by late blight are doing well and ripening. The potatoes didn’t fare as well. It killed all of them but I think they had a chance to produce well. We’ll see soon. I’ll start digging later in the week. The eggplant is gorgeous. (I started this several days ago, the Red Pontiacs are fine.)
The meat chickens are remarkable. They’re smart. Raccoons killed three the first night in their pen so we moved the chicks into a lobster crate and kept them on the sun porch over night. They quickly learned to come to the front of the pen and wait to be put in at night. In the morning they started flying up to the edge of the crate, jumping down and putting themselves in the pen. They’re friendly. I wish my dumbass layers were this friendly. If the butcher will take them the meat birds are going out to be slaughtered. I remind myself every time I see them that they are not pets. They’re always on the move and growing well. They came from Welp. I’ve been very pleased with their birds both times I’ve purchased them.
Three of the four coons have been trapped and killed. We have a male and two kits so far. The mother is still out there. Nasty nasty animals.
Animal count : two bears, a young moose that meanders through even if I’m outside, raccoons and the latest, coyotes that yapped 200 yards from the house. The coys were here two nights ago. The kitchen door was open and the screen door wasn’t locked. The dogs heard the coys and all three went after them. I didn’t hear them last night. A flock of turkeys passes through but aren’t doing any damage yet. The poults are young and small for this time of year. The bears have disappeared. Someone told me the problem bear was shot but I don’t know that it’s true. There are plenty of apples for them now so they shouldn’t show up again.
Taylor’s back in school and working. Her coarse load is wicked this year. She’s taking a college history course, trig, CP chem, honors English, advanced art and more. She’s making good money at Nook & Cranny. She earned enough to buy herself a very nice laptop that will be delivered tomorrow and more school clothes. She’s an excellent shopper. She paid $106 for $262 worth of clothes from her favorite brand name.
We’re working on the new greenhouse. We’ll have ribs up and baseboards on this weekend. I’m ordering baseboards and wiggle wire today.
I still love the tractor. Steve’s used it for some town work. He’s donating the equipment and his time to save the town some money. I’m getting the weed seed bank under control and making the ugliness of this year’s growing season disappear.
I’ll be supplying a new wholesale customer next year. I no longer go to farmers market. I have enough poly to make 1,250 sq ft of low tunnels for the winter.
I’m making the transition from full time farmer to full time writer several months earlier than normal. I usually spend six weeks writing full time in the winter. I’m doing that now. The first children’s book is waiting to be put into an envelope and sent to publishers. The weather is too nice to figure that out right now. The ten day forecast is incredible. Clear sky, warm to hot days, cool nights, low humidity.
It’s hunting season again. Last year I dragged readers through a dismal season. I didn’t see a deer during legal time. I’m hunting again this year. It’s better this year though. There are fewer deer but I’ve seen three during legal time. They’re does and I can’t shoot a doe, but I’ve seen them! I’ve seen a buckling eating peas in the back of the field. He’s too small and isn’t legal anyway.
A doe came in to eat under the apple tree during the night. I’m not sure if there’s more than one. There are photos from the game cam taken over night of three does coming in but I have no way of knowing if it’s one that leaves and comes back, two or three.
