clean food

A dozen or more gmo labeling efforts are gaining steam in cities and states across the nation a week before the election.  Huge amounts of corporate cash are being used against them, as the food giants who have been piggybacking on the farmers' good name are fearful of losing their gravy train.  From the farmer angle there is news:  Our seed dealer tells us to get corn seed early for next year because a certain number of more conventional farms are buying up the supply, seeing no reason to pay exorbitant prices for "patented" seed that will result in a corn crop that sells for just three dollars.  And,  a well established local concern selling meat to those careful of what they eat is seeking funds to build a gmo free feed mill.  It seems as if some "voting" is happening ahead of the election!

Jim

corn

Once again we are midway through fall wondering about the maturity of the corn.  Part of the difficulty is that we have given up corn drying on the grounds that the equipment is too expensive, so is the fuel and it is hard on the environment.  But when the heating degree days are short in number as this year, we sometimes hold our breath hoping the crop matures enough to keep.

On the plus side, the pastures have been ahead of the cattle all season due to the frequent rains and the reduced cattle numbers.  Also, the hay is in surplus and high in quality.  We will have a chance to push the sow herd on forages and see how far we can back up on their grain ration.

All this is about bringing the farm and its production into line with a changing climate.

Jim

Fall

This fall, even more than usual, carries with it a sense of urgency.  Coming off a summer of near constant rain we now hear predictions of a hard winter including, I suppose, a lot of snow.  It leads to the suspicion that September and October are about to disappear into a routine of rain every other day making very difficult the fall's important farm work, including grain harvest, making bedding for the animals and generally getting the facilities ready.

It is tempting indeed to hope that the weather reports are wrong.  They often are.  I revert to my Dad's approach:  What is the weather now?  And is the wind southeast and the sky clouding up(meaning rain)?  Probably more accurate and certainly more personal and calming than the constant televised chatter about weather and everything else.  The geese, at any rate, are getting restless.  They know. 

Jim

August Fairs

August is fair month.  The grandchildren have been involved in county fairs.  Some of the younger ones had projects at the Brown County Fair in New Ulm and the older grandkids, here on the farm, were at the Kandiyohi County Fair.  Everyone worked hard on their projects and won several blue ribbons.  Granddaughter, Kirsten, won a 4-H state fair trip with her Ewe Lamb and will be there the first weekend.  The last weekend grandchildren, Jake, Andrew and Kirsten will go for the FFA State Fair Shows with their hogs and sheep.    Sunday, August 24th  at 11 am  Pastures A Plenty will be participating in the MN Cooks Event in Carousel Park near the grandstand.  This event has been going for over 10 years and from 9 am to 4pm every hour on the hour MN chefs and farmers will be on stage demonstrating and talking about local foods.    Hope to see you at the MN State Fair! 

cool

The cool nighttime temperatures for the last week or so, and predicted for another week are going to be a problem for the corn crop.  We can expect wet grain, I think, and perhaps a slightly reduced yield.  This shows the wisdom of diversifying a northern (or any) farm, making sure that the income streams in from a goodly variety of sources.  Nature runs her economy this way, using a great variety of plants and animals.  Diversity offers safety.

Jim

hysteria

Comes the word now from our professional governmental nannies that fist bumps, in the style of the somewhat younger (than me) set are a safer greeting than the old fashioned handshake.  I suppose this is because the palm carries more e-coli than the knuckle skin.  Somehow, it doesn't occur to these types that slowing down our homeless human drifting around across the globe, carrying with us our microbes as well as other fauna and flora would do more to arrest our drift toward serial epidemic hysteria than any amount of worry about which method of human greeting carries with it more risk.

And a butcher block came up yesterday in our endless conversation among ourselves here at Pastures.  I remembered one from my childhood sixty years ago that I greatly admired just for the amount of human effort that had been expended over it.  I claimed that it was sufficiently dished on the top from years of wear due to an endless series of knives cutting meat that it would hold without spilling a drinking glass of water.  Now, of course, such a tool is not allowed in any food production area due to the porousness of the wood.  Somehow, we do not worry about the integrity of the private inspectors hired by the chicken killing companies to substitute for the public inspectors they claim to no longer need.  Wood, in the service of cutting meat is suspect, but companies hiring their own inspectors is not.  Progress, I guess.

Jim 

Eliot

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to return to the place we started and know it for the first time."

T. S. Eliot is not in any sense an agricultural or rural writer, but this sentence of his has always seemed an apt description of a farming life.  We live our lives, we who love farming, as a kind of continuous experiment with new procedures, new products, new machines, only to discover as we age that we forgot to start by asking our farm what it could produce well, without reduction to itself or to us.  With age may come the patience to listen to what the land wants to do.  A long, busy, mistake filled life finally comes to the chance for wisdom, if we can but recognize it. 

Jim