7 Reasons to Eat Ethically

I was interviewed for this several weeks ago and I am reason #4

7 Reasons To Eat Local, Sustainable Food

Posted on Dec 2012 By Eden Canon Interviews, Issue 4 Holiday 2012

Are you debating whether local, responsibly produced food is worth the extra expense and effort?  Here’s what farmers, producers and restauranteurs want you to know.

Wake up and connect food back to medicine. Eating the Standard American Diet is the shortest road to obesity, cancer, autoimmune disorders, inflammation, asthma…you name it. Unconscious, government trusting, corporate trusting people are going to die pretty darn quick…all in the name of long shelf life and FOOD INC profits. Darwin will figure this whole thing out in just a few generations. It is truly sad. Those that learn to cook and eat whole organic foods again will thrive. Simple as that. Get to know your farmer and get to know your food. Your life is at stake.

Mark McAfee, Organic Pastures

Getting back to the sustainable and local, I think it’s a no brainer. Maybe that’s because this is my world but if you could buy things in season and locally, you’re king of the hill.  You’re getting it fresher and its going to be the most nutritious, and most likely the most delicious.  You’re keeping the money within the community.  You’re supporting small-scale family farming.  You’re helping to maintain agricultural land instead of letting it turn into a strip mall.

Andy Powning, Greenleaf

I would say it is absolutely worth it.  You can taste the difference and feel good about doing it.

Clayton Chapman, The Grey Plume

It is so worth it—the food is much, much better (fresher and varieties that no grocery store will ever sell); you are directly supporting farmers who are farming in a way that is not detrimental to the Earth and not to faceless middle people. Plus it is really fun to get to know the people who grow your food, which you can do if you shop at your local farmers market or join a CSA (a real CSA that has a farm that the members can visit and is not just a buying club for Organic foods with no farm/farmer connection). Maybe 1 in 10 people in the US know a real farmer—be a part of that minority!

Lucy Owsley-Goodman, Boulder Belt Eco Farm

It’s your responsibility as a citizen on this planet.

Maria Hines, Tilth Restaurant

Every bite supports a local farm. Every bite keeps that farm from being sold and turned into another crappy strip mall or cul de sac development.

Steven Grasse, Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

 What you put into your body is really important and so I think it behooves anybody to at least do their research to find out where that food is coming from, how it’s raised, how it’s processed.
And if you don’t care you might be buying a product from somebody who might not care either.

Mary Rickert, Prather Ranch

Pastured Chickens and Snow

We recently got 18 laying hens in short noticed and we were not at all prepared other than we had some chicken food, fencing, feeders, waters and chicken tractors designed for meat birds. So we used what we had and Eugene quickly put together a mobile chicken coop out of stuff lying around the farm. We introduced the hens to their 2nd new living situation in under 2 weeks and they liked it and settled in and all was well for about 3 weeks.

The weather was mild and mostly dry with low winds but as Christmas neared rumors of a winter advisory started circulating on the weather TV stations and websites. As time marched on that advisory became a winter storm watch, than winter storm warning. Than about 24 hours before the snow hit us a Blizzard warning was issued.

A Blizzard! What to do about the chickens as we knew from past experience chickens do not like snow at all and high winds were predicted and that meant that snow would get up into the mobile coop itself as it has hardware cloth for flooring to allow the poop to fall to the soil below and fertilize the ground. A great concept in any weather but snow, especially a blizzard.

So what does a farm that specializes in season extension using simple hoop houses do when a big snow is predicted? Put up a hoophouse over the chickens and their mobile laying tractor plus two other smaller tractors, that what. And it worked. The hoophouse has kept the snow and wind off the hens who have stayed warm and dry and quite happy walking around eating grain and the greens we harvest for them out of hoophouses that have greens growing in them.

This has been an excellent and cheap solution to heavy snow conditions for us.

Cold and snowy outside

But inside we have happy birds

Eugene is checking for eggs and Nate is hunting chicken "by products"

Melon came in too much to the hens' dismay

Closing up the hoophouse

Good Bye

Getting Ready for The Boxing Day Storm

It is Christmas today according to both the Christian religious calendar and the capitalist economic calendar and that means for many people around the world, a day off. But it is not a day off for the Boulder belt farmers. We did try to take the day off, we really did. I even postponed the Winter Share pick ups that should have happened this week to Feb 5/7th. But the weather has dictated that we work today, at least for a few hours harvesting and washing rutabagas, carrots, parsnips and golden ball turnips for the Winter share pick up that will happen next Thursday January 3rd. This is because we are now under a winter storm warning that predicts we will get at least 6" of snow tomorrow. A Boxing Day Storm. And 6"+ of snow means it will be quite difficult to harvest anything and about impossible to get at the root crops. And the mice and voles will get quite active under all the snow cover and will likely start eating the roots, especially the rutabagas and turnips

Rainbow carrots, They may not look like much now but they clean up nicely

So this morning we dug and pulled a lot of roots out of partially frozen earth and under very frozen and quite stiff row covers (with about 1/2 the rocks stuck firmly in place)

Freshly Pulled Golden ball Turnips

The Chickens get a hoophouse to get through the storm. This will keep the snow and wind off and hopefully the will be happy.

Golden Turnips under a very frozen cover

The roots will be topped, we will save the greens for the laying hens (that's right we have layer again after a 9 year absence) so they can have greens even though there is snow on the ground covering up everything. Than they will be washed and put in the fridge for safe keeping.

 Merry Christmas!

We Have Layers

After 10 years without laying hens and 7 years on this new farm without them we finally jumped on the Eggmobile and now are the proud stewards of 18 golden comet hens. Right before Thanksgiving my friend and fellow farmer, Debra Bowles, emailed me asking if I wanted to take 40 laying hens that an octogenarian wanted to get rid of. I thought abut it for a minute, asked Eugene if he was interested and we decided that it was time to get back into pastured eggs. So after several days of phone tag with a guy named Brian with whom we were going to split the hens we ended up going straight to the farm where the hens lived and picked up 18. We were supposed to get 20 of them but counted badly so ended up with 18. We got the girls home on Saturday morning and that is when they started their new lives as pastured poultry, something completely new to them. The first few hours were obviously terrifying to some of them but all of them have come around and now seem to be happy being outside where there are always interesting things to do and eat. Already they have learned wings are for flapping (something they could not do in their tiny coop), dust/dirt baths are great and chickweed is a wonderful thing to eat. Unfortunately we were not at all set up for layers when we got the message that these hens needed a home so right now they are living in tractors meant for meat birds that we have cobbled nesting boxes and roosts into. But by this evening or sometime tomorrow they will have a brand spanking new mobile egg house to in which to live. As it is we lose a couple of eggs a day due to poor laying conditions for the girls but considering we get an average of 15 eggs a day we can afford to lose a few at first

Eugene brings the first crate of hens into their pasture

The hens did not want to leave their crates

So we lifted them out and they soon started wandering around checking out their new digs

Temporary living quarters

The first 13 eggs laid

Made a Batch of Pickled Jalapeno Peppers

As usual I planted more peppers than we needed for the Farm Share Initiative so instead of ignoring them until they rot and can be tossed on the compost i decided to can them and this is the result. I have not eaten any as the jars re still cooling as i write this but i am pretty sure this will be far more incendiary than any jar of jalapenos I might buy at the grocery store because I left in all the seeds and ribs and these peppers have been really hot this year.

Sliced peppers

They were sliced in the Cuisinart using the slicing blade. I also stood each pepper up right (they have a nice flat surface where I cut off the stem) so they make rings and not random shapes

The brine which is q1.5 cup water 4.5 cups vinegar (I used both apple cider and white), Plus a Table spoon of Kosher salt and a Tsp of whole cumin seeds. bring all this to a boil and it is ready to use

The canner

My gloved hand. It is essential to use gloves when working with hot peppers

Funnel in place so stuff doesn't get on the rim which would mean the lids won't seal

Gloved hand poking peppers into a jar. You need to really pack them down. If my hand did not have a latex glove on I would be in a world of hot pain for over a day. Wear gloves!

Filled jars before they go into the hot water bath

Putting filled jars into the hot water. Make sure the water covers the jars and that they boil for at least 30 minutes

Finished product cooling on towels for at least 12 hours

Making Pickle Relish

whole cucumber. I used Armenian cukes because that is what I had

Cut in half

Remove the seeds

cut into chunks and put in the food processor (or cut finely by hand)

The result

Add salt to bring out the water and let sit for at least an hour

The other ingredients-sweet onion, red onion, green peppers, ripe (yellow and red in this case) and garlic

Like the cukes put through a food processor or chop very fine by hand

this has been salted and is sitting and waiting for as much liquid as possible to be expressed

after sitting for an hour I pressed out the excess liquid in this colander

The brine-salt, sugar (no more than a cup) vinegar and pickling spices

washing jars

Jars being loaded into the canner to be boiled/sterilized

Finished product

Article About Boulder Belt

http://acresmidwest.com/boulder-belt-eco-farm-dont-call-them-organic-even-though-they-are/

2012 Tomato Tour

US 127 Yard Sale-2012 Edition; Saturday and Sunday

Photos from the last 2 days of  2012 Boulder Belt Yard Sale in no particular order