This week I hauled my tractor to a local consignment auction. The machine was eight years old, and still running well. But issues were starting to surface at an increasing rate, so I made the decision to bring in a replacement tractor. There are other pieces of equipment on the farm that I’m willing to […]
Taking the Tractor to the Auction Read More »
This was calf week on the farm. On Saturday our neighbor Mike brought twenty-four newly weaned calves across to our side of the fenceline. And then on Friday, Josh, another cattle farmer in the area, brought six more calves and a couple of yearlings. Within a few days, the herd more than doubled in size,
Calf Week, Partnerships, and Rethinking Small Farming Read More »
This year’s drought has laid additional stresses on the farm. Everything is harder without water. The well for our house has been completely dry for two months. The pasture plants didn’t produce anywhere close to normal growth, so our grazing season ended prematurely. We needed to dip into our winter stores of grass hay earlier
Looking for Silver Linings to Drought Read More »
I enjoy leafing through discolored and spotted old magazines, studying the advertisements. There’s something special about old ads, because ads are only effective during a narrow temporal context. They don’t age well. Cultural signifiers change. Time tempers the urgency of messages that once were so insistent. Even the most successful campaigns now feel exposed, blinking
What is Healthy Anyway? Read More »
Foliar sprays. Biochar. Compost tea. Kelp. Apple cider vinegar. Good luck amulets. Chances are, if you’ve spent any time at any organic farming event, you’ve been hounded by hucksters, all eager to impress upon you the transformative power of the thing they happen to be selling. The sales pitch will be reminiscent of the dusty
Potions for Pastures Read More »
This year we’ve been running an on-farm research project, and I’m excited to share results. Just to set expectations: no, this isn’t the kind of research with clipboards, double blind controls, and all the rigor necessary for peer review. This is informal, but it still has great value. We’ve learned new things. In fact, I
How We Use Chickens as No-Till Seed Planters Read More »
Turkey, particularly the white meat, seems always to do well when brined in the juice from naturally fermented vegetables. I stumbled into this idea with my Fried Turkey Wings recipe. At first, I thought I had discovered something new. But I’ve come to understand that great cooks have known this forever. So much for any
Kimchi Brined Turkey Breast with Kimchi and Herb Sauce Read More »
Six months ago I was enthusiastically reporting the beginning of our poultry season. And now we’re at the end of the poultry season. Turn, turn, turn. This Thursday, well before daylight, Rachel and I loaded the year’s final batch of turkeys onto a trailer for their trip to the butcher. Each fall, as we latch
Turning the Farming Clock Read More »
This spring we bought a secondhand ATV to replace our old, beat-to-death machine. We’ve found that a four wheeler, properly set up, makes a tremendous difference in our efficiency for all sorts of daily tasks related to rotational grazing for our herd of grass fed cattle. Here’s a video I produced highlighting the special modifications
How We Set Up an ATV for Rotational Grazing Read More »
It’s a pleasure to check another job off the list, particularly one that’s been in the works for a few years. This week I finished construction on a mud-season feeding area for our cattle. From late April through November our cattle are grazing grass directly from the fields, and then during the winter we bring
Building a Fenceline Feeder for Mud Season Read More »
