Farming in the shade

What can be produced on one acre* of land? 11,500 pounds of sweet corn or 39,500 pounds of potatoes. Corn and potatoes are two of several American crops introduced to Europe and other continents during the last 500 years. *An acre is about the size of a football field. --from Food and Farm Facts, American Farm Bureau

Last year I learned about an educational promotion combined with a great giveaway. This giveaway sponsored by farmers and farming groups is for a year of free groceries. It is only good for people who live in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Misouri, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. I'd love it if one of you would win--imagine, free groceries for a year! Click here to go to the website. Choose your state from the drop down menu.

About six weeks ago, one of our hay fields looked like this. Simply gorgeous--almost ready to cut. We were in the fields, planting like crazy. Planting late, because of a cold, endlessly rainy spring. Despite the fog that envelopes those who are planting late, planting like crazy, one thing stood out in this hayfield. The tracks. What on earth? Someone had been in our hayfield! Not just an ATV, riding along the edge, either. This someone had carefully ridden back and forth across the whole field at regular, methodic intervals. And that someone was BIG. Ruh-roh. Trouble. The only huge thing that rides back and forth across a hayfield at methodic, regular intervals leaving only tracks is a spray rig. Someone must have sprayed our hayfield. Our organic hayfield. The Farmer started calling neighboring farmers. The first one said he does all his own spraying. Not likely he would be confused about which field was his. The second farmer told us he hadn't ordered any custom spraying late...

What can be produced on one acre* of land? 2,694 pounds of wheat. One bushel of wheat produces about 42 pounds of flour, which can be used to make 42 loaves of bread or 42 pounds of traditional pasta. One bushel of whole wheat yields even more: 64 pounds of flour to make 64 loaves of bread or 64 pounds of pasta. *An acre is about the size of a football field. --from Food and Farm Facts, American Farm Bureau

Amber waves of grain mix nicely with an undercarpet of ragweed in an organic field. Ideal? No. But it's the reality when you don't spray for weeds. This is our very thin wheat field. A conventional field that had been sprayed for weeds would not have that lovely green hue off to the left. Or the random weeds standing tall in among the wheat. On Friday The Farmer started harvesting our wheat. About suppertime, I went to check on the progress and found him parked in the back, by the tool shed. "Are you done?" I asked in surprise. "Yes," he said, with significance, "I'm done." "So soon?" I asked, not quite believing it to be true. "The combine is done. It's broken. Not fixable." The frame had cracked and dropped down so that the fender almost rested on the front tire on the right side. See how the metal of the frame is torn here? I can hardly believe it. Apparently this is a structural flaw of this particular combine. The t...

For the month of July, The Farmer has a little extra help around the farm. We're enjoying having an intern job shadow and work with us. She's studying Bio-Engineering, and hails from Belgium. So far she's learned to run a skid steer, work with sheep, make compost, cultivate beans, sell at a farmers' market and many more things. Her willingness to try new things is refreshing. She even helped us put up hay!

What can be produced on one acre* of land? 810 pounds of cotton. A bale of cotton weighs about 480 pounds. One bale can be used to make 215 pairs of jeans or 313,600 $100 bills. *An acre is about the size of a football field. --from Food and Farm Facts, American Farm Bureau

I've added a new recipe page for beans. (Look right under the tree in the blog header for a list of blog pages.) Right now I only have a recipe for refried beans posted there, but this is a work in progress. If you'd like to have us add a great bean recipe (with or without your name) to the list, email me by using the green "Email me" button in the sidebar.

In between haying and caring for the animals, The Farmer spends a lot of time on the tractor cultivating. This takes the place of spraying chemicals to kill the weeds. It's very time consuming, as you have to cultivate each field over and over again. Doesn't save on diesel fuel at all; in fact, it uses more. That's one part of organic farming that no one tells you about. Another part is the stiff neck/back that comes from hours stuck in one position. When you cultivate, you want to get as close to the little bean plants (or corn plants) as you can. You want to cultivate out all the weeds growing between the rows. But you don't want to cultivate out the plants themselves. That would be counterproductive. So you mount a bit of cable on your new tractor. It just hangs down and gives you something to line up the row with. And you mount a mirror on the new tractor, too, so that you can see if you're cultivating out the plants behind you. If you turn around and look to se...

Last week the rain spoiled a crop of hay we'd cut. It isn't a total loss--we just have to wait for it to dry out again. It loses quite a bit of quality due to the rain, but it's how things go sometimes. Yesterday the hay was dry enough to rake up into long windrows in preparation for baling. But when the raking was done, a part was missing from the rake. Uh-oh. Where could that part be? See? It's gone. This is what we were looking for. And this is where we had to look. We had 45 minutes to gobble the freshly grilled steaks, etc. AND find the part before the custom baler arrived. See our priorities? Eat first--then tromp through the field on a full stomach. Most of us walked--either through the hay rows or next to them. But a team of enterprising folk also decided to re-rake the hay (another ding to the quality) and follow behind with the Gator to see if they could turn it up. We did not find it. Exhausted, we settled in lawn chairs and ate the consolation prize--waterme...

Sheep are among the most efficient of all domestic animals. They are able to thrive in areas unsuited for cattle or swine, converting the vegetation there to protein for human use. These conversions are wool--the perfect fiber for many uses--and lamb--a tender and succulent meat. When we shear a sheep and spin its wool into yarn for a sweater, we know that the sheep immediately begins growing a new fleece for use the following year. Wool is a renewable resource. --from Michigan Sheep Breeders Association