Category: Words from Tristan

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The Year in Review

Supporting Local Farms Since the inception of our home delivery business in1999, we have always focused on purchasing our fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers first. Every week, I contact my farmer friends to find out what they currently have available that I can add to our boxes. If I need to find more produce, I then source it from farms outside our area. As your personal farmer, I really appreciate your dedication to the local farm community. With your box of good purchases this last year, you have blessed several local farm families:

Bartella Farm, Beld Family Farm, Blue Heron Farms, Bunny Lane Fruit, Camano Island Egg Company, Filaree Farms, Hedlund Farms, Motherflight Farms, Munks Farm, Paul & Janice Madden Orchards, Ponderosa Orchards, Ralph’s Greenhouse, Rents Due Ranch, Skagit Flats Farm, and of course, the Klesick Family Farm.

Helping Local People Another core principle at Klesick Family Farm is to give back to our community. One of the ways we do this is by offering our customers the opportunity to donate a box of good to a local area food bank (Stanwood/Camano, Everett, Marysville, Monroe, Snohomish, Edmonds). For every four boxes donated by our customers, we donate an additional box. This year, with the generous support of our customers, Klesick Family Farm delivered over 808 boxes of good (approximately $19,950 worth of quality organic fruits and vegetables) to local area food banks! There is no way our farm could meet this need without your help. This is one of the most satisfying aspects of our business. I love meeting local needs with local resources! Thank you for partnering with us to meet this local need.

If you would like to join us in helping provide quality organic produce to local food banks, either give us a call or order a food bank box under the Boxes category of the Product page of our website.

Thank you for a great 2011! We look forward to next year!

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Holiday food, family and finances

Oh, the joys of eating our way through the calendar. The big holidays alone make it hard to eat healthy, but toss in all the anniversaries, birthdays, soccer parties, etc., whew! Our whole lives are spent around food—buying, eating and hopefully enjoying it. Honestly, eating is a good preoccupation, but we still have to think before we eat or before we take the next bite.

Now, to find the balance, especially during the next five weeks. Many of us will be busy at various functions like office parties, family gatherings and church socials, and it will be really hard to eat healthy during this season. Not impossible though. When you are out and about, opt for salads and veggies for snacks, you can find these at most restaurants. When you are at the office party or church social, fill up on veggies, fruits, meat and cheese offerings first, then head for sweets. Refresh yourself with water whenever possible and always be a gracious guest. If you are heading to or hosting a party, bring/offer the veggie and fruit tray or a fruit basket. I guarantee that other people will be thankful you did.

And in-between parties and the big meals, eat as healthy as possible to compensate for the other times. Your digestive system will thank you and you will have more energy to enjoy this season.

And lastly, enjoy the people in your life. A few years ago, our dinner table was busting at the seams. Over the years we had slowly been filling up our eight foot farm table, watching the children grow up and grow in number, much like the tide coming in. I was considering building a bigger table, but now, a few years later, with the older children coming and going, it appears the tide is going out and the table seems to be too large, sigh. I am really looking forward to having my farm table bursting to capacity with my children and family at the holiday meals. This season is a joyous season, and wouldn’t it be fun to not have the indulgences of these next five weeks show up on our bathroom scales and our credit card statements, ugh?

Let’s make a commitment to indulge as wisely and graciously, as possible, this holiday season. And while we are at it lets commit to having a debt free Christmas, too! If you want to join me in making this holiday season healthier and debt free, sign below and put this on your fridge! Sign below!

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Thanksgiving Healthy Eating Tip: Slow Down

Article by Darya Pino at SummerTomato.com (edited)

Worrying about carbs, calories and diets is one of the most unproductive things you can do on a holiday that celebrates thankfulness. Instead of giving you a list of healthy side dishes or tips on how to cut out calories, this Thanksgiving I offer just a single piece of advice: slow down.
The actual content of your Thanksgiving dinner matters very little in the grand scheme of things. A few hundred calories here or there can make a difference when projected over weeks and years, but for one meal the impact is negligible. Your body will adjust naturally and you’ll burn off those extra calories the next day, so don’t worry about it.
But for people trying to get healthy or lose weight, not worrying about food can feel very strange. There is always the fear that if you aren’t vigilant and conscious of what and how much you eat you may gorge yourself stupid and all your hopes of fitting into your favorite jeans by the end of the year will be ruined.
Overeating is certainly a possibility when food anxiety is a constant force in your life, but Thanksgiving is a perfect opportunity to start getting over it. Really. It may seem counterintuitive that such a food-forward holiday can be stress free, but let’s not forget that the real point of Thanksgiving isn’t turkey or pie, but being thankful.
…With the emergence of modern media, there are other essential pieces of our lives that we can no longer afford to take for granted. Free time is one. Exercise is another. But most important of all these is our real, human, non-Twitter relationships, particularly those with family and friends. It is far too easy to neglect these basic elements of our existence when we have so many other obligations and distractions, but failure to nurture them can severely affect our overall quality of life.
If you care about your health and want to keep your eating under control on Thanksgiving, why not focus your attention on strengthening relationships and spending time with the people you care about? Instead of worrying about yourself and what you want to accomplish, ask people about themselves and discuss mutual interests. Let food be part of the celebration, but not the purpose of your day.
Once food is no longer the center of attention the only thing you need to keep in mind is to eat slowly–it is pretty tough to overeat if you are biting and chewing at a snail’s pace. Slow eating helps you eat less food and appreciate it more. It also helps you make wiser food choices, since decisions about what to put on your plate are made less impulsively.
But slow eating does require some conscious effort. If you are in the habit of shoveling food in your mouth without taking time to put down your fork and chew (or breathe), it is easy to slip back into this pattern. Also, if people around you are all guzzling their food in a fury, you might feel a natural compulsion to keep pace and match their eating speed.
…Start by actively trying to keep conversations engaged while you eat. Chewing and talking are (hopefully) mutually exclusive, so the more you converse the longer it will take you to get through your meal. Making an effort to put your fork down between bites is another effective way to slow your pace at the dining table. To give your hands something to do between bites, reach for your glass and take regular sips of your water…or wipe your lips with your napkin. And don’t forget to chew.
Trying to eat slowly is much easier than trying to summon the will power to skip the mashed potatoes and biscuits…
Spend time with people, enjoy your meal and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
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Thanksgiving Holiday Planning

Every year for the Thanksgiving holiday we offer an additional special Holiday Box ($35) full of traditional Thanksgiving meal items for your celebration. Not only can you schedule a Holiday Box to be delivered the week of Thanksgiving, but also the week before and the week after. You can have this box delivered along with your regular order or in place of your regular order. The box menu is as follows (*denotes local):

Holiday Box Menu

Granny Smith Apples, 2 lbs.*

Cranberries, 8 oz.*

Satsumas, 3 lbs.

Breadcubes for Stuffing, 1 lb.*

Celery, 1 bunch

Acorn Squash, 1 ea.*

Green Beans, 1 lb.

Garnet Yams, 2 lbs.

Carrots, 2 lbs.

Yellow Potatoes, 3 lbs.*

Onions, 1 lb.*

Remembering Neighbors in Need

If your celebration includes helping the less fortunate who live in our community, we would like to partner with you by giving you the opportunity to purchase a discounted Holiday Box for $25, to be given to local food banks the week of Thanksgiving. Last year 174 Holiday Boxes were donated and this year we’d love to have a greater impact. The volunteers at the food banks have expressed again and again how wonderful and satisfying it is to be able to supply people with fresh produce. Please call or e-mail us to set up this donation.

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Organic, Conventional, and Chemical

I was reading in one of my farm papers and I was drawn to an article about biotech sugar beets and how this massive farm company (19,000 acres) was so thankful that the USDA had deregulated GMO sugar beets. I have actually met the president of this farm company a few years ago, which is also why the article caught my attention. I have been following the GMO debacle for years. What really set me thinking was a new shift in thinking.

In the past, farmers have been categorized as either conventional (those that use synthetic chemicals) or organic (those that don’t). But this president was also thankful that the USDA allowed GMO sugar beets, because one of his field managers said, and I paraphrase, “I was going to quit if I had to go back to conventional farming.” What this means to me is we have moved from two types of farming paradigms to three. We now have organic, conventional, and chemical farmers now! That field manager didn’t want to go back to using plows, discs and mechanical weeding, he just wants to plant, spray, and harvest. Talk about having to reread and reread and reread that statement. I am so grieved by this thinking. We are moving farther and farther away from the ability to farm without Monsanto’s GMO laced poison crops. Sure there are pockets of farmers like ourselves, but there are literally hundreds of millions of acres of acres now being farmed chemically and using GMO crops that it will be harder and harder to turn the tide on this trend.

We need to win this battle for good food. There are two ways to win this fight. First, don’t buy GMO products. This alone would cause these companies to change farming practices. Right now the money is too good to change. Hit them in the pocketbook and we will see change. And second, labeling. MANDATORY LABELING of GMO foods will “encourage” farmers, processors, and marketers to change more quickly when the public shies away from GMO products.

Future generations of people deserve the right to eat real food, from seeds that are not injected with pesticides and herbicides, grown in soil that is alive and fertile. That is what we believe and that is how we farm.

Thanks for being co-laborers in this fight for good food.

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What a Hit!

Alright, truth be told, I didn’t know what to expect when I announced to my team that we were going to have a Squash Fest. Having never hosted an event like this and with such short notice, I was thoroughly blessed to see so many of our customers on Friday and Saturday. An even bigger shocker to me was the turnout of seniors and super seniors.

In my mind, I imagined several young families coming out to “see” where their box of good comes from. While young families did show up, it was our “more mature” customers who wanted to buy squash, and lots of it. We even had repeat shoppers. Three customers in particular came back the second day for more of their favorites. As a farmer, it really blessed my heart to know they wanted more of the food that I grow and that it was worth the second trip in order to “stock up.”

Saturday was also a production day for us, so we had a crew out harvesting squash and bunching spinach. With all the activity of my crew working, customers picking, and tractors in the field, one customer commented that the picturesque scene remind her of Norman Rockwell’s artistry.

To help sort and accumulate the pumpkins into nice piles, I enlisted the help of a few young strapping boys. My crew, after handling several thousands of pounds of squash, was thankful for their help. So, thank you Caden and Chase for your help. And, of course, thank you Brenda for bringing your boys out to the farm.

For those of you who couldn’t make it, we harvested lots of squash that we will be sending your way over the next few months.

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Cover Crops, Soil Fertility, and Labeling

We have planted all of our open ground to cover crops this fall. Cover cropping is the practice of covering your fields or gardens with a living crop. It can be wheat, vetch, rye, peas, clover, and even weeds. The purpose is to maintain organic matter in the soil, which helps hold nutrients in the growing zone areas of the soil. Another purpose is to prevent erosion.  Down here where it floods, a lot of bare soil can move around quickly, but ground that is covered rarely erodes.  Also, the cover crop will take nutrients up into the growing plant and hold those nutrients all winter in the plant, preventing them from leaching away in the soil.

In particular, with our rainy winters, nutrients can migrate out of the upper six inches of soil and be lost. The loss of nutrients is a big deal because those nutrients represent lost money to the farmer and in the spring more fertilizer will need to be purchased to replace what nutrients leached away. But even more importantly, our environment is impacted when minerals are leached away and end up in rivers, streams, lakes, the ocean, and even work their way down to aquifers. And polluting our drinking waters with excessive agricultural chemicals and nutrients is not wise.

While farming can be a culprit for water table issues, in areas like the Puget Sound  our urban neighbors have a huge impact with the use of lawn and garden fertilizers and chemicals. Sadly, agriculture usually gets targeted for this issue because a lot of the urban chemical use is upstream of farmers and is filtered through the flood plains on their way to the ocean. Another reason the regulators sometimes blame farmers for water pollution is because, quite frankly, farmers represent less votes (approximately 1% nationally) than urban corridors.

On our farm we plant cover crops so we can grow healthier food, prevent erosion and feed our soil microbiology in the spring.  Without healthy soil, you can’t have healthy food. And if American’s health issues are an indication, American farmers should change their farming methods!

I think we could change the health of the American food supply by doing two simple things: first, start requiring labeling for GMO foods and secondly, before any farm subsidy is given out, the farmer needs to demonstrate that their soil fertility is being maintained by submitting soil samples. By doing these two things we would radically change the direction of our food supply for the better.

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Right2KnowMarch.org – A MOBILIZATION FOR GMO LABELING

I have been thinking about the state of our national health and the health of our national food supply. Frankly, it is really pretty poor. We (the government) have been incentivizing corn, soybeans, cotton, and canola for far too long. Ironically, these are also the crops that the biotech industry has been promoting for years. And one could draw a parallel between the health of our people and the health of our food supply.

Sadly, legislative change is the only solution to America’s nutritionally void food crisis.  Farmers need to be encouraged to stop planting GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) crops and start planting more fruits and vegetables—more real food with real nutrients for the dinner plates of Americans. It is then that we will see the health of Americans improve. But this is no easy task. Half of the senators in DC are have constituents in the regions that grow GMO crops and the USDA is pro-biotech. And if half of the senators are going to vote favorably for GMOs in their district, it is nearly impossible to make meaningful legislative change.

What is the solution? Labeling, labeling, labeling! The only thing that will stop GMOs and this nutritionally poor USDA food policy is labeling. Give consumers the right to know what they are eating and stop hiding the GMOs in processed foods. We deserve the right to know if our food contains GMOs or not.

Starting this week, on October 1st, there is going to be a “Right to Know” march from New York City to our nation’s capitol.  For 16 days, concerned citizens are going to be marching to bring awareness to the importance of labeling. This is truly a fight, a good food fight, and our children’s children are beneficiaries. The biotech companies of the world do not want this to happen. They are adamantly opposed to labeling, but this is America and Americans should have the right to know if their foods contain GMOs or not!

You can follow along at right2knowmarch.org

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What a Season!

I am thankful for this Indian Summer. It seems like we haven’t had one for a few years. And this is the craziest of all seasons. Our fields are literally bursting during this harvest season.  I usually think of spring as the busiest season, but with spring the weather is heading towards summer, but with fall it is the opposite. With fall coming, we are trying to get the farm to bed for the winter. Which means that, unlike spring, when winter comes the game is over.

So as we get ready for our last dance with nature this year, we are harvesting, applying compost, and planting cover crops, as well as the last plantings of vegetables. I will be praying for a mild first frost this year. Oftentimes, with warm weather like this, the first frosts can really do some damage, especially to the squash, beans, cucumbers, and, of course, tomatoes. But on the flip side, the frost also adds a measure of sweetness to the greens and does signal that my family will get a winter’s rest.

Oh, but the frost is still to come and we have lots of harvesting to do. This year we have had the most beautiful green beans and incredible basil. Our corn crop is plumping up and our fall raspberries are coming on. Potatoes are ready to dig and the winter squash crop is late, but gaining steam. We are going to have lots of beautiful Cinderella pumpkins and sugar pie pumpkins, in addition to our favorites: delicata, acorn, and carnival squashes.

While the spring was difficult this year, as soon as the weather warmed up our farm has never produced better. We have healthier plants, more fruit set, and flavorful crops. After three years of compost, soil microbe applications, and cover crops, we are starting to see our field fertility management kick in.  It is very rewarding as a farmer to know that the long-term investment in the health of our land is paying off with healthy food for you and your family.

Our farm is a part of the Good Food Revolution and it is because of customers like you who care, we are encouraged to press on – and press on we will!

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Feathered Friends & Farming

As I sit to write this newsletter, I have to stop and marvel at a pair of hummingbirds. I wonder at how fast those wings beat to stay stationary in one place (up to 80 times per second with the smallest species). Talk about amazing creatures! This year we have had an explosion of feathered friends. Multiple species are now calling this place home. The other day, when I was mowing some hay, I had a bald eagle land not more than 15 feet from me. Shoot, around here, those birds are about as domesticated as my chickens. I think my favorite neighborly bird is the American gold finch—what a striking color contrast to the green backdrop of the apple trees.

Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I set up my irrigation it rains and, boy, did it ever! I will have to try that trick more often. The rain is both a blessing and curse. For many of my friends, it means they are unable to make hay and they have hundreds of acres to put up. We have been fortunate this year and  been able to get our most “pressing” hay fields cut, tedded, raked and baled between rain storms. If you need hay this year, talk with your farmer and let them know you are interested, it looks like it is going to be a tight year.

This week we are finally harvesting lettuce and spinach. With this cold season, things are not coming (growing) quickly, but now we get to harvest. YEAH!  On the flip side, the weeds are loving life and living large, so this week I am bringing a big crew to weed the carrots, basil and beets. The beautiful thing about the rain is that it makes weeding a ton easier. When the ground is dry, it is almost impossible to pull the weeds and get their roots, but with this rain the roots will come easier.  Conversely, so will the roots of the carrots and basil, so the crew will have to be slow and steady. And the last blessing about weeding and the rain is that the dirt clods will be easier on our knees, much appreciated after a few hours of crawling around.

Farming is so much about managing the weather you get. Hopefully we will get some sunshine to go with this moisture and the crops will really start to come (grow).

I hope you have our farm day on your calendar. For this year’s event (August 20th) we are adding music. I have several friends coming to play and if you have a fiddle, violin, guitar, banjo or djembe, bring it along and maybe you can getting in on the jamming. As always, our farm day is a blast—part old fashioned picnic, part educational and part historical.

Farming really slow food this year!

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Parenting for the Next Generation

Joelle and I have been raising, homeschooling and hanging with our children for the last 20 years. It hardly seems possible that our eldest, Micah, is nearly 20 years old. Surely it couldn’t have been but a few years ago that I was teaching him to ride a bike. Alas, it is true, our children do grow up with or without us. I now find myself teaching Stephen, his four year old brother, to ride a bike—without the training wheels!

Stephen wants to ride with the rest of the clan to the top of the Pilchuck tree farm and go mountain biking. If he only knew how much uphill there was compared to downhill he might change his mind! The other day we stopped into see Mark at the Arlington Velo Sport to pick up a bike and Stephen got the vision for some new wheels. Funny, it seems that Micah got the vision for some new wheels as well, ones that could generate a little more horsepower than his legs could—a 1979 black Chevy T-top Camaro. Hey, that was the car I wanted when I was in high school! Now, 30 years later, they are affordable for him, but for me impractical. Hmmm??? Maybe things really don’t change, just their price tags do.

One of the first lessons I learned as a parent was to teach our children “no” early and that it is not negotiable. Many parents argue with a two year old and far too often the two year old wins. If a child learns “no” early there will be less arguments (now I didn’t say no arguments, just less), which means there will be more pleasant interactions. Doesn’t that sound nice?

As I enter into this new phase of transitioning children from parent-dependent to independent, I have been learning a lot. When I chose to farm, back when we had six children, I did so because it gave me the opportunity to be more involved in the raising of my children and to have them work with me. Our focus was family—we did things as a family and with other families. It was easier as a parent to navigate this world of young children because they were totally parent-dependent. As my oldest is moving on and his 18 year old sister and 17 year old brother are close on his heels, Joelle and I have had choices to make. Do we hold back or do we release? We have learned to do both—to hold where they want us to hold and to release where they want us to release. The goal of parenting is not to keep our children back for ourselves, but to launch the next generation, to see them stand not fall, succeed not fail, to love that which is good and do good. This is not easy for us, but it is easier because we built a relationship early, played together, worked together, laughed together and went to church together. And now that they are adults we still do those things, just less often together.

Sure we miss them, but aren’t they supposed to grow up, hopefully marry, have their own families and their own lives. My job is to impart whatever I can into them for the short time I am privileged to parent them. I understood the process, after all, I went through it. But now that I am experiencing it as a parent, I have been thinking about it more intentionally. If I am going to be a successful parent and raise children that become good citizens, who are focused on blessing others, I need to not only model that but also involve them in it—at the grocery store, gas station, ball field, church, etc. And I need to gradually decrease in their lives and they need to increase. They need to make more decisions as they get older, yes good and bad ones. But I want them to practice making those decisions while they are still at home, so when they do move out they will have already been making life type decisions for awhile.

We still have little ones to raise and they will be gone before we know it, but I am committed to seeing them develop into what they were created to do with their lives, which means that I have to recognize their strengths and strengthen them and recognize their weaknesses and strengthen them. But I can’t do that if I am still heavily pursuing my own personal dreams, passions, hobbies. At some point my own personal goals have to decrease and my children’s goals (not my goals for my children) need to increase in my life. And at the same time I have to recognize when it is time for me to decrease in my parental role to allow them to pursue their dreams.

Many of you are parents, I want to encourage you that it is not a mistake that you are raising children and the children you have are going to need your insights, perspectives and experiences to negotiate the adult world and no one is more qualified than you to help them succeed. They are a gift to you and you are a gift to them.

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Summer Camping

Last weekend was one of those weekends where there was way too much to do to get it all done. Joelle was busy going to a baby shower on Saturday and hosting a baby shower on Monday, which meant she would be preoccupied with those responsibilities and could use some concentrated time. So, on Saturday, I made the bold snap decision to gather up the five youngest and head to Oso to camp for the night. I knew that this was going to be an adventure camping with our younger children, ages 15 months and 4, 6, 9, and 13 years.

My grandparents used to live in Oso and I have been going to the river property for family outings since I was in the womb. I called Aunt Linda to check on availability and got the go ahead. I quickly scratched out a packing list and my son Andrew gathered everything, even two tents just to make sure we had enough poles to get one up! As Andrew was busy gathering and loading the van, I was busy planting beans, corn, fennel, and dill. Everybody got their clothes and pillows and we were off.

An hour later we were all alone on the Stillaguamish River, putting up the tent and making camp. We built a fire, had some dinner, and waited for the bats. Yes, bats! As long as I can remember I have enjoyed watching the bats fly in front of the campfire from our vantage point overlooking the river. That night I was excited to show these flying marvels to my children. Just as planned, at dusk, they started darting to and fro. And then we watched the stars appear; one by one, starting with the North Star, the sky began to reveal its majesty.

As you can imagine, we have a large tent – you know, the 10-12 man size. Usually we need every square inch, but with only six of us it seemed, well, downright palatial! So as the temperature dropped and daylight diminished we headed for the tent. It was cold and for some reason the ground seemed harder than when I was a kid?!?!

Finally, we were all tucked in. Although the baby wasn’t excited about the change in routine, because she was tired she eventually nodded off next to me. About an hour later, Maleah, the 6 year old, got up and, walking over everything and everyone, joined the baby and me in my sleeping bag. Another hour later, Stephen, the 4 year old, popped up and said in earnest, “Daddy, I got to go to the bathroom!!” In my hurry out the tent door, as one can imagine, I caught my foot and fell back onto the tent from the outside and landed on Andrew, who was sleeping. After making sure Andrew was okay I grabbed Stephen who, thankfully, was still waiting to go to the bathroom. Mission accomplished, I crawled into another, more roomy sleeping bag and for some reason the ground was hard in that spot too!?!

In the morning, we had breakfast around the campfire, had a devotional, and went for a long bike ride, played some ball, built sand castles, and went to the Oso General Store for some ice cream, just like I did when I was a kid.

It has been somewhat of a taxing farm season and I think I needed that connection with my heritage more than my kiddos did. For them it was a fun time with dad, away from the crops, cows, weeds, and work. But for me, it was about sharing the past (the river, the bats, the stars) with the future.

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Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)

Recently, I gave a talk on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Sometimes GMOs are referred to as Genetically Engineered (GE) foods or more boldly labeled as Frankenfoods. GMOs have been on the market since 1996. Remember the famous Starlink corn that found its way into corn chips and caused a huge uproar? Why is the whole GMO debate so intense? After all, GMOs help farmers grow more food (supposedly), farm more acreage (definitely), and use less labor (absolutely true).  Ironically, not a single GMO has been developed to increase nutritional content in crops being grown.

GMOs are developed by chemical companies who profit from selling the seeds that are Genetically Modified and also the chemical they are resistant to. There are two primary types of GMOs on the market: those that are resistant to herbicides (the most popular herbicide is Round Up or Glyphosphate) and those that actually have a pesticide placed in the plant (Bt or bacillus theringensis is pretty common). And, of course, there is the combination of both.

In America we spend approximately 15% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care. Americans don’t live as long as other “developed” nations like Japan, England and Switzerland who spend upwards of 8% of their GDP on health care. We have a higher infant mortality rate as well. And if you factor in that about 30% of our population is obese, one could conclude that Americans spend a lot of money on health and don’t get very good results!

So what is the rub? I think America’s health problems are directly associated with its food and farm policies.  Presently, I believe Americans are a part of a large experiment. The USDA wrongly assumes that just because GMO corn or soybeans look like non-GMO corn and soybeans everything is okay! Of course, the chemical companies developing these products control the testing and the reporting. And to no one’s surprise, all is well and a few of us radical organic environmental types are out to lunch.

There is no way on earth that any corn or soybean is ever going to naturally become a pesticide or herbicide host. It is against the laws of nature! Sure some seeds may be able to tolerate an herbicide application, but there is no way that an application of an herbicide transfers into the seed and becomes a part of its DNA. That only happens in a laboratory. Hence, the name Frankenfoods. Sadly, GMOs are in the mainstream food supply and Americans are now a part of the experiment that will take a few generations to tabulate the results.  However, I believe we are beginning to see the results in our nation’s health now.

The only solution to stop this foolishness and this human experiment is labeling. Every person should have the right to full and honest disclosure about how their food is grown. Has it been irradiated (I’ll save this topic for another newsletter) or has it been corrupted by a GMO? If 5% of Americans, about 15 million consumers, would stop buying foods that have GMO ingredients in them, these multinational companies would take notice and respond to the consumers. Why? For the simple reason that these companies are driven by profits, and diminishing sales speak loudly!

Thankfully, vegetables and fruits are easier than processed boxed foods, since most of the GMOs have been developed for corn, soy, cotton and canola. Read your labels carefully and only buy those foods that are organic or non-GMO certified.

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Pancakes

The other day, I set out to make pancakes and scrambled eggs for the family.  Most of the clan was home, maybe 9 out of 11! So I went to allrecipes.com and found the perfect recipe (you know, the one with 4000 reviews and a 4+ rating), read a few comments to see if there were any important changes recommended and then went for it.

I don’t know how my wife does it. Trying to get that first batch of pancakes not too runny or too thick. Do I double, triple or quadruple it? Let’s triple it. Get out the mixing bowls, one for dry and one for wet ingredients. Oops, I picked out a mixing bowl that was too small for the tripled recipe. But instead of washing another dish, I prudently chose to mix carefully!

Before I headed out to feed the horses around 5am, I checked the quantity of milk in the fridge – “A half gallon, we’re good.” Came back in and started to pull it all together. Got all the dry ingredients together, started on the eggs, oil and milk. Oh no! Between my feeding the horses and other chores our #3 son had gotten up, had breakfast and headed off to work, and in the process had used up most of the milk for his breakfast – the milk that I was planning on using for pancakes! Those teenage boys can consume a lot! Well, he had saved enough for almost the amount I needed. Hmmm…now what? Okay, improvise. Back to the fridge. Oooh, we have some half and half! Catastrophe diverted.

Now comes the challenge for me. How do I get the eggs and the pancakes to be ready at the same time to feed my army of eaters? The eggs are on stove and the electric griddle is on the breakfast bar, about six feet from each other. I have decided this time to cook them slower at a lower temperature. Start the first batch, get out the butter, jam and syrup, turn on the oven to “keep warm,” finish the first six pancakes and start on the eggs. Next, wake up the kiddos, get them to set the table, say grace and start eating. I would have never thought that sleeping was a strenuous activity, but those kiddos polished off 30 pancakes and a plate of eggs. One would have thought they had worked a full day on the farm!
What is your favorite pancake recipe?

Happy Father’s Day!

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Barn Swallows

I love those voracious consumers of insects. Often when I am working with a tractor or my horses there will be squadron of swallows following me around the field.  I notice them more when I am clipping (mowing) pasture. These beautiful birds are fun to watch. It almost reminds me of a Star Wars movie. Here I am on this big tractor motoring my way through acres of grass and my squadron of swallows usually six or seven swooping here and there, darting this way and that.

At one time swallows built their nests in caves, but now they have an affinity for man-made structures. Hence the name barn swallows. I have been systematically adding habitat for wild life on our farm and the increasing populations and variety of feathered friends is impressive and beneficial.  Most birds have a specific function, whether it is an affinity for weed seed, grubs, or flying insects.  Swallows love flies and mosquitoes, and their babies love to eat about every 15 minutes or so.  Some swallows will fly over 600 miles a day on their feeding missions to try and stay off their young ones’ appetite.

My only challenge with swallows is that they have now discovered my front porch! Eeeeeeek! They are welcome to the sides of my barn, the rafters of my stables, but the front porch is not going to work. I definitely don’t want swallows hanging around and making a mess on the front porch, but I definitely do want those insect eating machines living on the farm.  I also know that once that nest gets built, it will be inhabited for generations to come and when those critters have babies they will be dive bombing us every time we leave the house trying to protect their little ones.

So I have been conflicted over how to handle this invasion of good on my porch. We keep knocking down their front porch nesting efforts, but those critters are more determined than a strong-willed two year old! For now, I am going to treat them like a two year old and keep persisting one more time than them.

Working with nature to raise good food,

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Potatoes, Beets, Chard, Spinach and Radishes

Last week we were able to get a few crops in the ground and are hopeful to get a few more this week. It hasn’t been easy timing our efforts with the weather. Our first planting of beets had to be replanted. I planted them before the last deluge a week ago and that amount of rain so saturated our soils that there was no way for even the mighty beet seed to break through that crusted over layer of soil. Thankfully, I only planted a few thousand feet. I usually start out with smaller plantings in the spring and then work my way up to larger plantings as the season and the weather stabilizes.

We were able to plant potatoes on Saturday. We are planting four varieties this year. Satinas and Yukon Golds are yellow potatoes and Red Lasodas and Chieftans are two red varieties. They are inter-planted (Yukons, Red Lasodas, Satinas, and Chieftans) so I can keep them straight. It also makes for a beautiful planting because the flowers and plants, although all potatoes, have a different hue to them.

We also use soil microbes when we plant our seeds and potatoes. Our strategy is to pre-inoculate the soil and crops with the good bacteria. Soil microbes (aka, good bacteria) are essential to healthy food production. Not only do I not use herbicides or pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, I am proactive in feeding my soil with lots of minerals and soil microbes. Soil microbes are essential for plant health, because they break down the minerals so the plants can absorb them. If the minerals are not in the soil, then they won’t be in my crops and, consequently, not in your food. Soil microbes make sure the plant has the minerals available to uptake.

Our BioGarden line is the same concept, but in home garden quantities. The BioGarden Soil Conditioner is an excellent product for lawns, flower beds and garden areas. We have several products for home gardeners that will help you produce healthy and beautiful landscapes and gardens (foodscapes).

Here’s to a successful growing season going forward!

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Oh my!

I just looked at the extended forecast for this week and there is no rain in it for the next four days. Four days without rain! Somebody pinch me! There hasn’t been four days without rain since September! Truth be told, it hasn’t been the rain itself that has been the problem, but the volume of rain and the lack of sunshine. A spring shower here and there is normal, but these every other day torrential downpours mean waiting a long time before the soil is dry enough for us to get back out into the fields.

I was visiting with a retired farmer and I said, “I bet you are glad you are not farming this year?” He smiled and responded, “It is going to take a whole lot of equipment and man hours to get the crops planted this year.” He understands that in a year like this all the work stacks up and when the weather breaks, every farmer will be working around the clock trying to get two months of work done all at once!

We are really far behind in our plantings. Last year we planted our first lettuce starts on April 6th and our third planting was this same time last year. This year we had to compost the first lettuce starts. On Saturday I planted our second and third plantings of lettuce at the same time! What I planted the starts into would be considered “mudding” them in. Hope they make it!

I hope my headlights are working on my tractors and nothing breaks on any equipment this week, because if the weather holds we are going to be in the fields every waking moment. ☺