For all of the stuff that you are able to get done during the winter, there is also a downside to the season.
A few weeks ago we finally had a warm, sunny day - mid-60s! I have been worried about my honey bees since Fall. this was my chance to open the hives up and see who was still alive and kickin'. Our losses were heavy. Out of the 12 hives I was managing (including two at the Early College)... I have three still alive. Plus all of the nucs (half-colonies) are dead. The nucs were not too surprising, but the others... ouch! My inspection indicate that none of the hives starved. They all had plenty of food - one colony even had a full super of honey (that's over 50 pounds of honey)! Apparently they all just froze in place. At least that is my best guess. It was a sad day in the Stockbridge Apiary.
So how do you proceed with that kind of loss? Our first beekeeper's meeting was a few days after my inspection. It makes me feel a little better that almost everyone had heavy losses. Winters have been so mild over the last several years that the colonies that winter normally would have killed off survived. Until this year. It seems like all of those colonies died this year when they should have succumbed to cold in previous winters. True natural selection at work. One of the beekeepers in the club pointed out that the colonies which have survived this winter are the strong ones that we should be using to rebuild our fleets.
The current plan for rebuilding the apiary is to order two packages of bees to help fill the empty hive boxes more quickly. Then I will see how my surviving colonies are doing when spring truly arrives and see about splitting them early in the seasons so they can build up their populations as early as possible. This year will be mostly about rebuilding the apiary - any honey harvest that comes in will be a bonus in my mind. Our customers from last year will be disappointed, but there are no guaranteed results in agriculture.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Winter Productivity
Many people believe that farmers have it pretty easy in the winter. After all, isn't all of the work done during the summer when things are actually growing? Well... not really.
Winter is the season of site-prep and equipment work.
There is a hedgerow which needs to be reclaimed. It is a lot better to work on this during the winter when all the stinging insects, snakes, etc are not an issue. Cutting it all back is the easy part. Keeping it from coming back is the bigger challenge. Right now we are using a few different techniques. Once everything is cut back, we lay down cardboard to block out the light - this will help keep the weeds from popping up immediately. Then the mulch goes on top of it, as deep as we can stand, to keep the cardboard from (a) looking too tacky and (b) blowing away. Pretty soon the cardboard will start breaking down and becoming one with the soil. The hard part is putting in all of this work and having to wait until spring to see how effective it is. High-stakes gambling - farm-style!
There are also garden beds to be designed and built. We subscribe to lasagna-bed gardening. Keep layering the organic material on there and let it keep decomposing. For us that means more cardboard and lots of old rotting straw. Today a friend call Jen and said, "I'm shoveling s#*$ and I thought of you." So we went and hauled off a bunch of cow manure-soaked straw. Its great! Mulch and fertilizer all in one. Just spread it and let it compost in place to nourish the soil.
This is also the season for equipment. We just re-vamped the set-up for our grow lights. The grow light stands we acquired a few years ago... cheap! So we rigged our own system for hanging the lights and can hopefully start some seeds pretty soon. The chicken coop I built for Jen in December is holding up well. Chickens are happy which means Jen is happy. Soon it will be time to try getting the chickens into new portable pens so they can enjoy fresh grass. That means building new "chicken tractors". As hard a winter as we've had thus far, I'm scared to think about how many of our honeybee colonies may be dead, though. Either way, in the next week or two it will be time to start cleaning old hive equipment and building new hive equipment. I have already ordered two packages of bees for this year. Have to make sure they have a nice home ready when they arrive.
Winter is decision season. Decide how many bee colonies I want to try managing this year. Choose what is going in the veggie garden. Determine whether or not this is the year to put more fruit trees and a few blueberry bushes in the ground. Figure out how to rescue those two poor, old grape vines.
So if you have to work this hard in the winter as well as in the summer, is it worth it? Wouldn't life be so much easier if there was not so much work that always needed doing?
In Proverbs 14: 4, Solomon says, "Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes by the strength of an ox."
Yes, the work is worth it. Without a mini-farm (in development), there might be less work and more time for leisure, but there would not be the same harvest of joy and less satisfaction from our labors.
For all of the work that happens even during winter, winter is also the time when we get to enjoy the fruits of last year's labor. The wood we laid up is keeping us warm through a hard winter. My sweet tooth is still being kept happy by the honey our bees produced. The blackberry wine we made (from a kit) is still a nice treat about once a month. We just re-discovered a jar of blackberry syrup from the berries we picked this past July. Our now-mature chickens are still laying about a half-dozen eggs a day.
Definitely worth it.
This is what generation upon generation of people have understood. Last year's labor is what sustains you today even while you work for tomorrow. Hard to imagine in a society filled with mortgages, car loans and credit cards - all of which are based on the future sustaining you in the present. By God's grace, Jen and I have been blessed with the ability to do it the old fashioned way. Praise God for it. The work is worth it.
Winter is the season of site-prep and equipment work.
There is a hedgerow which needs to be reclaimed. It is a lot better to work on this during the winter when all the stinging insects, snakes, etc are not an issue. Cutting it all back is the easy part. Keeping it from coming back is the bigger challenge. Right now we are using a few different techniques. Once everything is cut back, we lay down cardboard to block out the light - this will help keep the weeds from popping up immediately. Then the mulch goes on top of it, as deep as we can stand, to keep the cardboard from (a) looking too tacky and (b) blowing away. Pretty soon the cardboard will start breaking down and becoming one with the soil. The hard part is putting in all of this work and having to wait until spring to see how effective it is. High-stakes gambling - farm-style!
There are also garden beds to be designed and built. We subscribe to lasagna-bed gardening. Keep layering the organic material on there and let it keep decomposing. For us that means more cardboard and lots of old rotting straw. Today a friend call Jen and said, "I'm shoveling s#*$ and I thought of you." So we went and hauled off a bunch of cow manure-soaked straw. Its great! Mulch and fertilizer all in one. Just spread it and let it compost in place to nourish the soil.
This is also the season for equipment. We just re-vamped the set-up for our grow lights. The grow light stands we acquired a few years ago... cheap! So we rigged our own system for hanging the lights and can hopefully start some seeds pretty soon. The chicken coop I built for Jen in December is holding up well. Chickens are happy which means Jen is happy. Soon it will be time to try getting the chickens into new portable pens so they can enjoy fresh grass. That means building new "chicken tractors". As hard a winter as we've had thus far, I'm scared to think about how many of our honeybee colonies may be dead, though. Either way, in the next week or two it will be time to start cleaning old hive equipment and building new hive equipment. I have already ordered two packages of bees for this year. Have to make sure they have a nice home ready when they arrive.
Winter is decision season. Decide how many bee colonies I want to try managing this year. Choose what is going in the veggie garden. Determine whether or not this is the year to put more fruit trees and a few blueberry bushes in the ground. Figure out how to rescue those two poor, old grape vines.
So if you have to work this hard in the winter as well as in the summer, is it worth it? Wouldn't life be so much easier if there was not so much work that always needed doing?
In Proverbs 14: 4, Solomon says, "Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes by the strength of an ox."
Yes, the work is worth it. Without a mini-farm (in development), there might be less work and more time for leisure, but there would not be the same harvest of joy and less satisfaction from our labors.
For all of the work that happens even during winter, winter is also the time when we get to enjoy the fruits of last year's labor. The wood we laid up is keeping us warm through a hard winter. My sweet tooth is still being kept happy by the honey our bees produced. The blackberry wine we made (from a kit) is still a nice treat about once a month. We just re-discovered a jar of blackberry syrup from the berries we picked this past July. Our now-mature chickens are still laying about a half-dozen eggs a day.
Definitely worth it.
This is what generation upon generation of people have understood. Last year's labor is what sustains you today even while you work for tomorrow. Hard to imagine in a society filled with mortgages, car loans and credit cards - all of which are based on the future sustaining you in the present. By God's grace, Jen and I have been blessed with the ability to do it the old fashioned way. Praise God for it. The work is worth it.
Monday, November 22, 2010
The Battle Isn't Won...Yet
Since I've joined the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, I have been receiving updates on a piece of legislation that will certainly affect all our future agrarian adventures: The Food Safety Modernization Act (S.510). Last week I called my senators to thank them for supporting the Tester-Hagan amendment to S.510. But another round of calls is needed...
"Dear CFSA members: This email is to congratulate you, and to warn you.
Late last Friday we took a big leap forward in the fight to defend healthy small farms and local food producers from industrial-scale food safety regulation. After months of negotiations and grassroots pressure from you, the Senate agreed to insert the language of the Tester-Hagan amendment into the version of S.510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, that comes up for a vote on Nov. 29. Instead of requiring a separate vote, the protections for local, organic food in the Tester-Hagan amendment will automatically become law if Congress passes the “Manager’s Amendment” to S.510. We have come a long way from the terrible food safety bill passed by the House of Representatives last year, and CFSA members have been crucial in achieving in this success!
And now the lobbyists representing the biggest food processors, handlers, and distributors--the huge businesses that have a stranglehold on most of the American food system today, and that are responsible for the vast majority of foodborne illness outbreaks--are on the attack. Those lobbyists issued a letter last week denouncing the Tester-Hagan language and vowing to fight against it.
If those special interests can convince enough Senators to retreat from the agreement reached last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be free to issue its planned regulations for on-farm produce safety. FDA's rules will likely cover every single farm in the country, regardless of size or market served, unless Congress requires the agency to follow the Tester-Hagan language.
The special interests have a full week to fight their campaign against sensible protections for local, organic food and farms. Don’t let them win it!
Thank NC Senators Richard Burr and Kay Hagan for successfully fighting to get the Tester-Hagan language in the Manager’s Amendment. And ask SC’s Senators Jim DeMint and Lindsay Graham to vote in favor of the Manager’s Amendment on Nov. 29. If you have friends in other parts of the country that care about local, organic food, especially in Virginia, Maryland, and Tennessee, please forward this information and ask them to call their Senators, too. To get your Senator’s contact information, go to Congress.org, and type in your zip code. You can also call the Capitol Switchboard and ask to be directly connected to your Senator’s office: 202-224-3121.
When you call, the message is simple: “I am a constituent of Senator___________ and I am calling to ask him/her to vote for the Manager’s Amendment to S.510, the Food Safety Modernization Act because it includes the Tester-Hagan amendment. With this new language, the Manager’s Amendment will protect small farms and food entrepreneurs in the local food movement from industrial-scale regulations. Local food producers are already subject to state laws that protect consumers, and the Tester-Hagan amendment is vital to economic recovery, public health, and nutritional wellbeing because it allows state government to keep doing its job, and allows local food producers to keep creating more jobs.”
Thanks for everything you’ve done to get our movement this far. Let’s keep up the pressure.
Roland
--
Roland McReynolds, Esq.
Executive Director
Carolina Farm Stewardship Association"
"Dear CFSA members: This email is to congratulate you, and to warn you.
Late last Friday we took a big leap forward in the fight to defend healthy small farms and local food producers from industrial-scale food safety regulation. After months of negotiations and grassroots pressure from you, the Senate agreed to insert the language of the Tester-Hagan amendment into the version of S.510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, that comes up for a vote on Nov. 29. Instead of requiring a separate vote, the protections for local, organic food in the Tester-Hagan amendment will automatically become law if Congress passes the “Manager’s Amendment” to S.510. We have come a long way from the terrible food safety bill passed by the House of Representatives last year, and CFSA members have been crucial in achieving in this success!
And now the lobbyists representing the biggest food processors, handlers, and distributors--the huge businesses that have a stranglehold on most of the American food system today, and that are responsible for the vast majority of foodborne illness outbreaks--are on the attack. Those lobbyists issued a letter last week denouncing the Tester-Hagan language and vowing to fight against it.
If those special interests can convince enough Senators to retreat from the agreement reached last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be free to issue its planned regulations for on-farm produce safety. FDA's rules will likely cover every single farm in the country, regardless of size or market served, unless Congress requires the agency to follow the Tester-Hagan language.
The special interests have a full week to fight their campaign against sensible protections for local, organic food and farms. Don’t let them win it!
Thank NC Senators Richard Burr and Kay Hagan for successfully fighting to get the Tester-Hagan language in the Manager’s Amendment. And ask SC’s Senators Jim DeMint and Lindsay Graham to vote in favor of the Manager’s Amendment on Nov. 29. If you have friends in other parts of the country that care about local, organic food, especially in Virginia, Maryland, and Tennessee, please forward this information and ask them to call their Senators, too. To get your Senator’s contact information, go to Congress.org, and type in your zip code. You can also call the Capitol Switchboard and ask to be directly connected to your Senator’s office: 202-224-3121.
When you call, the message is simple: “I am a constituent of Senator___________ and I am calling to ask him/her to vote for the Manager’s Amendment to S.510, the Food Safety Modernization Act because it includes the Tester-Hagan amendment. With this new language, the Manager’s Amendment will protect small farms and food entrepreneurs in the local food movement from industrial-scale regulations. Local food producers are already subject to state laws that protect consumers, and the Tester-Hagan amendment is vital to economic recovery, public health, and nutritional wellbeing because it allows state government to keep doing its job, and allows local food producers to keep creating more jobs.”
Thanks for everything you’ve done to get our movement this far. Let’s keep up the pressure.
Roland
--
Roland McReynolds, Esq.
Executive Director
Carolina Farm Stewardship Association"
Friday, September 10, 2010
Surprise!
Well, the Speckled Sussex showed up in the garage yesterday. She can walk, but most of the left side of her hind end is gone and/or mangled. The dead flesh is, um, crawling with those larvae that God hath ordained to clean up dead things. The vet hospital I called gave me a protocol to follow for treatment, but it did not kill the critters as expected.
Brave Sussex is peacefully resting in the garage, burning with fever and fighting for her life. She has lived this long, which is admirable, but I am seriously considering taking her to the block and burning the carcass.
Brave Sussex is peacefully resting in the garage, burning with fever and fighting for her life. She has lived this long, which is admirable, but I am seriously considering taking her to the block and burning the carcass.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Loss
I wondered when our first loss to predators would be. Last night some crafty critter made off with two of my hens--the speckled sussex and one of the partridge rocks. Yesterday the pen's position made the door impossible to secure in the usual way, so I used the rope attached to the front. It was not very tight.
This morning when we went out to the pen, the door was ajar. Two birds were gone. We did find some piles of feathers in three places, all of the speckled sussex. The partridge rock vanished without a trace.
I feel sick. The coop feels emptier. And it was my fault! That's the kicker.
This morning when we went out to the pen, the door was ajar. Two birds were gone. We did find some piles of feathers in three places, all of the speckled sussex. The partridge rock vanished without a trace.
I feel sick. The coop feels emptier. And it was my fault! That's the kicker.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
My cup runneth over.
Me: Oh, it's 2:45 already! The Mission Thrift Store closes in 15 minutes. I really have to get there today.
[Jen gets in truck, speeds to town in 10 minutes.]
Me to Lady Behind the Counter: "I know you're about to close. I'll be quick."
Lady Behind the Counter: "Oh, take your time, dear. I'll close when you're done shopping."
[Jen makes a quick tour of the back room, doesn't see anything new.]
Me: Why did I come today? What is here? Oh, that's right, check the front room by the kitchen gadgets.
[Jen rounds the corner of the bookshelves and sees what it is she came to get: a nine-tray Excalibur dehydrator. Jen nearly screams, but keeps her cool. Striding forward, she picks it up and marches to the checkout.]
Me to Lady Behind the Counter: "How much for this? I don't see a price."
Lady Behind the Counter, With Furrowed Brow: "Hmmm..."
Me, Boldly: "I'll give you twenty bucks for it."
Lady Behind the Counter, Happily: "Sold! What is it, anyway?"
[Jen explains that it's a dehydrator that she's been wanting. Only then does she think to actually look inside it. All the trays and their plastic meshes are accounted for. No liners.]
Lady Behind the Counter, Plaintively: "Oh, I've been wanting one of those! I didn't see this when I came in today. My birthday is next week. You could give it to me."
[Jen explains that there are other dehydrators that come through the store--smaller, round ones--that will do as fine a job as this one.]
Lady Behind the Counter, Optimistically: "I will post a 'Wanted to Buy' add on my church's bulletin board. Someone probably has one to get rid of!"
Me: "Good thinking!"
Zack and I thought long and hard about purchasing a second Excalibur. A week ago we made the decision to go ahead and get one from the manufacturer on sale. But then my neighbor Margaret told me about a dehydrator she saw at the thrift store in Waynesville; she'd have a friend make inquiries and report back to me. As of this afternoon I still hadn't heard about the Waynesville one, and I still hadn't "pushed the button" on ordering the new one.
Why in the world would anyone need two nine-tray dehydrators? I've been making lots of yogurt, and I use the Excalibur to incubate the yogurt. But that leaves any other dehydrating to wait. Now, I'll be able to dehydrate in one and incubate in the other. Besides, "Two is one, one is none, and three means you can share." Now I have basic redundancy for my favorite method of food preservation...at less than 10% of the sale price.
Call it luck if you want. I believe that I am blessed beyond measure by God, and that it's very often the little things, like finding this dehydrator, that remind me of this. I don't deserve ANY of the many, many blessings I've been given in this life. But I receive them with thankfulness and praise to God. My cup runneth over.
May I never love the gifts more than the Giver.
[Jen gets in truck, speeds to town in 10 minutes.]
Me to Lady Behind the Counter: "I know you're about to close. I'll be quick."
Lady Behind the Counter: "Oh, take your time, dear. I'll close when you're done shopping."
[Jen makes a quick tour of the back room, doesn't see anything new.]
Me: Why did I come today? What is here? Oh, that's right, check the front room by the kitchen gadgets.
[Jen rounds the corner of the bookshelves and sees what it is she came to get: a nine-tray Excalibur dehydrator. Jen nearly screams, but keeps her cool. Striding forward, she picks it up and marches to the checkout.]
Me to Lady Behind the Counter: "How much for this? I don't see a price."
Lady Behind the Counter, With Furrowed Brow: "Hmmm..."
Me, Boldly: "I'll give you twenty bucks for it."
Lady Behind the Counter, Happily: "Sold! What is it, anyway?"
[Jen explains that it's a dehydrator that she's been wanting. Only then does she think to actually look inside it. All the trays and their plastic meshes are accounted for. No liners.]
Lady Behind the Counter, Plaintively: "Oh, I've been wanting one of those! I didn't see this when I came in today. My birthday is next week. You could give it to me."
[Jen explains that there are other dehydrators that come through the store--smaller, round ones--that will do as fine a job as this one.]
Lady Behind the Counter, Optimistically: "I will post a 'Wanted to Buy' add on my church's bulletin board. Someone probably has one to get rid of!"
Me: "Good thinking!"
Zack and I thought long and hard about purchasing a second Excalibur. A week ago we made the decision to go ahead and get one from the manufacturer on sale. But then my neighbor Margaret told me about a dehydrator she saw at the thrift store in Waynesville; she'd have a friend make inquiries and report back to me. As of this afternoon I still hadn't heard about the Waynesville one, and I still hadn't "pushed the button" on ordering the new one.
Why in the world would anyone need two nine-tray dehydrators? I've been making lots of yogurt, and I use the Excalibur to incubate the yogurt. But that leaves any other dehydrating to wait. Now, I'll be able to dehydrate in one and incubate in the other. Besides, "Two is one, one is none, and three means you can share." Now I have basic redundancy for my favorite method of food preservation...at less than 10% of the sale price.
Call it luck if you want. I believe that I am blessed beyond measure by God, and that it's very often the little things, like finding this dehydrator, that remind me of this. I don't deserve ANY of the many, many blessings I've been given in this life. But I receive them with thankfulness and praise to God. My cup runneth over.
May I never love the gifts more than the Giver.
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