FarmToons

I thought I'd share some farm/animal cartoon that Jacki Palmer-Boyce sent to me a few days ago. I, by far, like the first one best. By sharing, it brought a smile to my day so I thought I'd pass some along to you. Thanks Jacki!

The Exodus

Last night and today we've had a good size snow storm come through. I just measured the stuff on the sidewalk and so far, as it's still snowing, we've gotten 9" of the heavy wet stuff.

Ye Olde Cow Path, Watch Thy Step......

Have you heard that saying before? It's true, cows do have paths.... and ours are no different. They are creatures of habit. Ours have a path from the pasture barn to the bigger pasture area where John feeds them everyday when they can't get to the grass themselves. We can see them walk this path from our kitchen window. We've seen them do this many times but today was rather unique. It was 11am and still snowing but apparently they were tired of waiting for us so they made the trek out themselves hoping we'd notice and bring lunch. Sometimes these guys act just like children!



Gabriel (our bull) lead the way this time plowing through the snow for the crew...and it really did look like he was plowing. I missed getting a pic of that before he went behind the trees. Everyone is in single file with their heads down headed for the food area.....moving no faster than the one in front of them.
This is what they call herd mentality....one leads and the rest just follow--following and not really thinking about what they are doing.



Still coming.....



First part of the herd coming out from behind the trees on the left with the tail end still on the other side.



Coming into the area where they get fed.




Still coming.....

Then they stood there waiting for the food to come. If we opened the window, we could hear them calling us. John when out a bit later. They will munch for a while then, as they usually do, make their way back to the barn using the same path that got them there.

It a Boy!

Well, we knew ahead of time it was a boy but now it's official.

Our 4 generation farmer (we hope he enjoys farm life) has finally arrived! He was 11 days late and it took 36 hours to get him here....mom and dad were exhausted. Owen's debut was Jan 19th, weighing 8 lbs 2 oz.


A proud mom and dad



This one cracks me up as when Chad and I arrived at the hospital the 2nd day, we found him wrapped up tight like a mummy. The look on his face almost says "help me"---'AH... Grandma, finally--get me out of this straight jacket!'



So, of course, we had to help....and we let him go free. Seems happier doesn't he?!?!

He was actually quite interactive while we were there. It wasn't long after freedom that he found his hand, fingers and thumb, then he tried to get them into his mouth. Uncle Chad helped coach him though the process in getting the thumb in there and not the knuckles. He did OK for a beginner but still needs practice.


Then it was time to leave, so we had to give him back to dad. I think after we left, he then got that mummy wrap again. We hope he enjoyed his time while being out and about.

Making Strawberries

I know the snow if flying as most of you read this right now but I thought I would post this entry in hopes that talking about strawberries would bring summer on sooner. Think it will work?

Here are some of the processes we need to go through to get strawberries ready to have an berry harvest to offer you the following year. I didn't get the planting part, so you will have to imagine that.

Want to know what is better-- organic or conventional? Be sure to go to the end of this post to see the organic vs. conventional strawberry study.




Here we have the beginning stages after planting. We had it somewhat 'easy' this summer as we didn't have much rain and as you can see we don't use black plastic (for various reason) so the lack of rain did keep the weeds at bay for a time. Because we don't use weed stray, we need to keep the weeds out manually so this was a God-send.
Since you don't want to get berries the first year , we did have to come through here periodically and pick off blossom stems. After a while the plants start to send out runners (and this year they seem to have sent out a ton!). We need to clip most of them off because if you don't it will be too thick come next year and that will cause the berries to rot and it actually cuts down on productivity if things are too tight. While down there pulling, we needed to reset the runners we wanted to keep and place them were we wanted them (if they weren't already there) as they grow whatever way they feel like it and that is not always where we want them to grow. In this pic the runners hadn't started very much yet....we were still picking blossom stems.




We have runners now. Our lack of rain ended in September and everything (that being the weeds) took off even more. Between the runner overgrowth and the weeds can you still tell where the rows are? It was a jungle in there!




We were all assigned 2 rows a piece to de-weed and de-runner. Somehow Chad seemed to get out of his 2 rows but my mom was willing to come out. Chad did offer to rototill when we were finished so we let him do it. You can see in the 2nd isle all the runner that were pulled out....and remember this is not the first time we had pulled runners




Starting to look a bit more respectable.....5 rows done and 3 to go (1 Nathan's and 2 Chad's) . I took the last 2 rows on the right as that was by the garden and while I was already over there clearing things out for that, I just worked on those while I was there.




AAHH! now that looks A LOT better. Done and ready for straw after they harden a bit from the cold. John got a few new mid-season varieties this year to try and they didn't get as big as the rest of the varieties. You can tell which ones they are just by this pic. We are curious to see how things go with them when it's picking and tasting time.




Finally time to cover them for the winter. Covering them helps to keep the weeds out for next year as we won't be rototiling again and also protects the berries from ground diseases and helps keep the bugs from getting into them as bad.






Here comes the last of the straw. Leftovers from a church hayride we had this fall.





Done and ready for the snow.
We'll uncover them come spring so they can get sunlight and start to grow again and probably (well it just about a given) that at some point we'll cover them with frost cover to protect the blossoms from frost damage.
Then we'll pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick and pick some more until you can't stand strawberries anymore. Funny how that works.


So why go to all the work to make berries like this? A few months ago I can across a study that was done on the quality of organic vs. conventional strawberries. It was nice to see something in print that we had known already.

If you want to see the whole study you can go to:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0012346

but if you want the condensed version, read on....

Strawberry Study
Side-by-side comparisons of organic and conventional strawberry farms and their fruit found the organic farms produced more flavorful and nutritious berries while leaving the soil healthier and more genetically diverse.

"Our findings have global implications and advance what we know about the sustainability benefits of organic farming systems." said John Reganold, Washington State University Regents professor of soil science and lead author of the paper published in PLoS ONE.

The study is among the most comprehensive of its kind, analyzing 31 chemicals and biological soil properties, soil DNA, and the taste, nutrition and quality of 3 strawberry varieties on more than 2 dozen commercial fields--13 conventional and 13 organic.

Among their findings: the organic strawberries had significantly higher antioxidant activity and concentration of ascorbic acid and phenolic compounds. The organic strawberries had longer shelf life. The organic berries also has more dry matter, or, "more strawberry in the strawberry".

Vermont Says No to Food Bill

In case you haven't heard, the "food safety" bill we have been telling you about (S.510 that became H.R.2751 after the House stuck it into another bill) has sadly passed.

I found this article fitting since the passing of that bill. Maybe Ohio will follow suit. Maybe not though as the Rep. that sponsored this is from Ohio, Betty Sutton, and there was a good handful of Ohio Reps. (ours included) co-sponsoring it too. http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h2751/show

Before we continue to story, I'd like to thank all those that took the time to contact your congressperson(s) to tell them you believe you have the right to food freedom and want to keep supporting your local farmer and opposed this bill!

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Vermont Drafts Food Sovereignty to Protect Health, Food Freedom

In response to the recent passage of "food safety" bills S. 510 and corresponding H.R. 2751, the Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty has drafted its own resolution called "The Vermont Resolution for Food Sovereignty." Crafted to declare and protect the food and health freedom rights of all Vermont citizens, the resolution is essentially a warning to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that it does not have jurisdiction over the food choices of the People of Vermont.

The resolution declares that food freedom is a "fundamental prerequisite to life," and that individuals have every right to save seeds, grow what they wish, and buy and sell the fruits of their labor without interference from an over-zealous, tyrannical government. And if any federal official tries to infringe on these rights, the People "shall resist any and all" of them.

Additionally, the resolution declares that, on the basis of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the People of Vermont completely reject any and all "Federal decrees, statutes, regulations or corporate practices that threaten our basic human right to save seed, grow, process, consume and exchange food and farm products within the State of Vermont."

The recently-passed "Food Safety Modernization Act" essentially hands over control of the nation's food supply to the FDA. The legislation gives the agency free reign to mandate food recalls at will and require even small producers to jump through burdensome regulatory hoops in order to buy and sell their goods. The entire scheme has nothing to do with food safety and everything to do with giving the FDA more control over the food supply.

The Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty is encouraging concerned citizens to review the resolution and encourage their local and state politicians to co-sponsor it, both in Vermont and in other states.

From: www.naturalnews.com
Sources for this story include:
http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2010/12/21/most-likely-secede-vermont-resolution-food-sovereignty

Visiting with Joel

I am a bit late posting this, I know, but I have a love-hate relationship with this computer. Sitting here very long does give my body issues....and I've had issues lately. As they say, better late than never.
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On Nov 8, Malone University (a Christian college in Canton Ohio) held a Worldview Forum. The topic of this forum was "You Are What You Grow: Food Systems & the Human Soul. Guest speakers were Joel Salatin (for the food systems part of course) and Dr. Laura Yordy ( human soul part).

Since Joel was 'in town', we decided to go listen and do some catching up with him as it's been a couple of years since Nathan has been back down to visit Salatin's Polyface farm. Even though Nathan does keep in contact with both Joel and Daniel, it was good to do a face-to-face visit! I had not chatted with him since we picked Nathan up at the end of his year-long apprentice program at Polyface.

Most of what Joel said I had heard before but at the end of his allotted time, he did go through what the Biblical model of a farm should look like. Hadn't heard this one before from him so that was interesting to hear.




During the forum...Joel, Joel & Laura taking question from the crowd after their speeches.

Moderator for this forum was, ironically, Joel Soza, a professor at the college and a former pastor of the church both our parents go to here in town. We spent a little bit of time catching up with him and his wife while there too.



Of course you gotta get a picture! Nathan, Joel and Jessica(carrying baby Joppeck)


A chance to meet the speakers.... Joel is a popular guy.

We did get to visit with him before and after the forum. It was a nice visit.

Update on S.510.... now H.R. 3082

Here is an update on the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act that I have posted an Action Alert for these past 2 posts.

This is getting a bit confusing as S.510 did pass the Senate, then went to the House which seem to act like they were going to stall it, THEN today we find out they (House Democrats) put it into another bill altogether! This is NOT good...or honest!!! While it was somewhere (I think the Senate) there was an added amendment to it called the Tester-Hagan amendment which did help small farmers in some ways, but even with this, the bill has serious problems....and ramifications to us all.

I have put 2 different Alert emails that have come through about this bill below to help you wade through this if you have not kept up to date about this.

Your attention is needed on this issue- NOW- if you want to keep your food freedoms.

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From..........Alliance for Natural Health USA

On December 8, the House of Representatives passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) H.R.3082. A CR is supposed to provide temporary, stopgap funding for the government while budget bills are worked out. But this CR included the language of the Senate food safety bill—language that will still affect small food producers (organic farms, small farms, mom-and-pop roadside stands, etc.) most of all. It will completely transform the food and farming industries—for the worse.

Putting the text of another bill into a CR is a prime example of the way Congress operates. It is ethically wrong; indeed it is an example of corruption. We saw this kind of slight of hand in the passage of the health reform legislation, and the American public should be fed up with it.

Now this House CR goes back to the Senate, which is expected to pick it up by the middle of next week. The rumor is that instead of dealing with the CR directly, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) will introduce the Senate’s own omnibus bill (even larger than the CR) that will also contain the food safety language along and who knows what else.

This is a bad bill, on its own or attached to another piece of legislation. We are grateful that the changes we lobbied for have stayed in the bill, including the exemption for supplements from Codex language and the Tester amendment that protects small farms from some of the bill’s provisions. But the bill still gives the FDA much too much control over farming in general and small producers in particular.

Three specific concerns remain, all major:

1. The bill mandates that every registered facility must be inspected by the FDA: high-risk facilities will be inspected initially within the first five years and then every three years thereafter; low-risk facilities, initially within seven years, and then every five. The FDA will need to hire an additional 5,000 employees to do all the inspections. Big companies love this, because the FDA will be so bogged down inspecting all the smaller operations that they won’t have time to focus on the big guys—where the actual food safety problems arise. Food safety legislation should be targeted at the large industrial farms, but, no surprise, this bill does just the opposite.

2. Language in the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act currently reads:

An officer or qualified employee of the Food and Drug Administration may order the detention, in accordance with this subsection, of any article of food that is found during an inspection, examination, or investigation under this chapter conducted by such officer or qualified employee, if the officer or qualified employee has credible evidence or information indicating that such article presents a threat of serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals.

Under this bill, the boldfaced text above would be changed to:

if the officer or qualified employee has reason to believe that such article is adulterated or misbranded.

And remember, as interpreted by the FDA, a food or supplement may be deemed “adulterated” if there have been any record-keeping violations. “Misbranded” can mean that the producer makes a completely true statement about the product but without FDA permission.

So when the FDA is inspecting a facility, if they merely believe an item is misbranded or adulterated—no concrete evidence is required—they can confiscate all of that product. If there is a suspected record-keeping error for a supplement, the entire stock can be taken by the FDA.

3. A company has to be registered to operate. Under this bill, if the FDA finds there to be a reasonable probability that a product may cause serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals, the FDA may suspend that facility’s registration, effectively shutting it down. This seems reasonable, but there is only one informal opportunity for companies to reinstate registration, with no opportunity whatsoever to appeal—they are at the mercy of an FDA inspector’s whim. This should not be allowed in America.

Why does all of this matter? Keep in mind the FDA has consistently done Big Pharma’s bidding and has attacked supplement companies and small food producers (such as the cherry and walnut growers). The bill gives the FDA unbridled authority to ratchet things up even further. The FDA needs to focus on large producers, not get its tentacles onto small producers.

Please contact your senators TODAY and ask them to oppose the food safety bill language that is currently in the CR (though it might be found in the omnibus bill next week). This may be our last chance to defeat this bill—please take action immediately!

TO SEND YOUR MESSAGE TO YOUR SENATORS Click THIS LINK to go to the Action Alert page. Once there, fill out the form with your name and address, etc., and customize your letter. We have a suggested message for you, but please feel free to add your own comments to the letter.

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From....... Farm-to Consumer Legal Defense Fund

SENATORS, Vote "NO" on Cloture for H.R. 3082 & Oppose the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act By a 212-206 vote on December 8, the House passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (formerly S.510) as an amendment to H.R. 3082 (the "Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011" to fund the government through September 2011). A food safety act should not be part of a spending bill. House Democrats attached what was S.510 (as passed by the Senate on November 30) to H.R. 3082 because they were worried about Republican opposition to it as a stand alone bill. The next step for H.R. 3082 is to go to the Senate for a vote. As this is the Senate, the first vote on H.R. 3082 will be on a cloture motion to limit debate before there is a vote on the bill itself.

TAKE ACTION People need to contact their Senators now to tell them to Vote "NO" on Cloture for H.R. 3082 and Oppose the "FDA Food Safety Modernization Act" (Division D of H.R. 3082). STEP 1 - Send a live fax message to your Senators through the online petition at www.ftcldf.org/stopS510 even if you've already used the petition this week. STEP 2 - Call your Senators and be sure to give your zip code Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121; ask to be connected to your Senator's office. OR Go to www.Congress.org; enter your zip code on the right side under "Get Involved" and click "Go". Click on your Senators' names then click the "Contact" tab to get office phone number(s). If you get voicemail, leave a brief message with your zip code. If the line is busy, keep calling until you get through.

TALKING POINTS The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act is fundamentally flawed and is not in the best interest of small farmers, especially those who produce raw milk. 1. FDA does not respect individuals' rights to obtain healthy, quality foods of their choice. The agency has stated as a matter of public record, that: "There is no absolute right to consume or feed children any particular food." "Plaintiffs' assertion of a 'fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health, which includes what foods they do and do not choose to consume for themselves and their families' is similarly unavailing because plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish." FDA has even participated in armed raids on small-scale co-ops and membership organizations. This agency should not be given any additional power. 2. FDA has adequate powers under existing law to ensure food safety and effectively deal with foodborne illness outbreaks. FDA has power to inspect, power to detain product and can readily obtain court orders to seize adulterated or misbranded food products or enjoin them from being sold. The problem isn't that FDA needs more power; it's that FDA does not effectively use the power it currently has. The agency has power to inspect imported food yet inspects only 1% of food coming into this country from outside our borders. 3. The Act does nothing to address many significant food safety problems in this country, such as those resulting from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and various contaminants (e.g., BPA, pesticides, herbicides, etc.). 4. FDA has used its existing power to benefit the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries at the expense of public health (e.g., allowing the overuse of antibiotics in confined animal feeding operations and refusing to require labeling for genetically-modified foods). This Act does not address the fundamental problems at this agency in order to truly protect public health. 5. The Act will expand FDA's involvement in regulating food in intra-state commerce, further interfering with local communities. State and local governments are more than capable of handling any problems related to food in intrastate commerce. All the major outbreaks of foodborne illness involve either imported food or food in inter-state commerce. 6. The Act will hurt our ability as a nation to be self-sufficient in food production because it has more lenient inspection requirements for foreign than domestic producers creating an unfair advantage for food imports. Giving an advantage to foreign producers will only increase the amount of food imported into this country that does not meet our domestic standards. The Act does not address food security--the ability of a country to produce enough food to meet its own needs.