A sad loss happened this past solstice for our farm…Rich’s grandma, Lorene, died. While failing health meant that she had only been to the farm once, she was always a source for inspiration and support for us, and she will be missed greatly. Some photos and her eulogy follow, for ours, and genealogy’s sake. While she was a very active
Gullies 2 – Gully plugs
(Part 1 is here, Part 3 is here_ One of the downsides of managing a property that has been abused in the past is dealing with erosion issues. But, as the old saying goes, crisis = opportunity. Our property was overgrazed heavily in past years, to the point that some of the wet areas were eroded over 10 feet in
Gullies
This started out as a single post, but I just kept rambling, so I’ll be dividing it into 2 parts: a background on erosion in general, and gullies in particular, followed by part 2, actions that we’re doing here on the farm to mitigate their impacts. Comments are appreciated A gully is a response that land makes to erosion, either
Limited quarter shares available soon!!
Well, we were sold out, but our neighbor informed us earlier this week that he has one additional heifer available! We have 1 or 2 quarter shares left at $3.25/lb plus butcher charges (around $100 per quarter). We estimate the heifer to have a hanging weight of around 150-180 lbs. The butcher date will either be in early October, if
Sold out for this year!
Thanks to all the customers who placed orders this year! Our Premium summer beef is sold and tucked away in freezers around the Portland area. And we have maxed out on orders for Neighborly Autumn heifers. We may be able to fill up to 4 quarter orders for fall/winter ground beef shares, but won’t know for a few weeks. If
Last call: Spring beef!!
If you’re interested in purchasing a share of the “Neighborly” spring beef, please contact us before 5pm today as the animals are going to the butcher tomorrow. Thanks!
spring grass-fed beef – available in 3 weeks!
We have 3 quarter shares available of “Neighborly” beef shares. The price is $3.25/lb, and it will be butchered next week and available for pickup in about 3 weeks – just in time for summer barbeques! The spring “Neighborly” beef is from young non-breeding heifers raised by our neighbors who (like us) only feed their animals on pasture and hay,
Processing
The NY Times has an article on the lack of processing facilities that is impacting small farms. We’re lucky here to have a few options for mobile (“Custom”) harvest facilities, but we still fret about the threat of our primary one (Frontier Custom Cutting) deciding to quit. Still, at least we’re not obligated to drive our cattle for miles to
Grass-fed beef… new nutrition study
A New York Times article out today highlights a 3-decade nutrition study comparing grass-fed beef to grain-fed beef. From the article: Beef from grass-fed animals has lower levels of unhealthy fats and higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which are better for cardiovascular health. Grass-fed beef also has lower levels of dietary cholesterol and offers more vitamins A and E
Then and now
A while back we made contact with a woman who grew up on our property in the 1950s. Renee was kind enough to share some pictures, and I’ve finally gotten around to scanning a couple of them, as well as found the approximate point that they were taken from in order to do a photopoint comparison. While I was doing
Blog for food 2010
As the last post indicated, food security is a pretty compelling issue in the US, and the Northwest in particular. For a state that is awash in good farmland with which to grow enough food to feed all of us, a series of socioeconomic and cultural conditions prevents the food from getting from where it’s grown to where it needs
Food map
Via Resilience Science, who got it from Edible Geography(with excellent commentary) comes a new project of the USDA…the Food Environment Atlas. It’s a pretty fascinating tool…pounds of meat consumed per capita per year, access to grocery stores, WIC redemptions (pictured), and farmer’s markets are available down to the county level. We spent a good chunk of the evening playing around
Egalitarian, not elitist…
The American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman gave the keynote address at a Farm Bureau conference in Seattle earlier this week. The text of his speech is here. Wow. Talk about being divisive. It seems to me that the FB Prez just issued a call to arms (literally?) for Farm Bureau members. Apparently those of us promoting alternative agriculture
Extreme tree planting
I wish I had that tractor for the 3500 trees that we planted a few years ago Extreme Tree Planting – Trees for Earth from Peter Hill on Vimeo.
Allan Savory on climate change
Allan Savory of the Holistic Management Institute spoke recently in Ireland…the full video sat in my browser for a couple of weeks until the holiday madness subsided. Things have calmed down a bit, finally. Here’s an exerpted version Allan Savory – EXTRACTS – Keeping Cattle: cause or cure for climate crisis? from Feasta on Vimeo. Some thoughts and observations on
Giving antibiotics to healthy animals…not so smart.
Thanks to Karen for tipping me off about an article about the link between drug-resistant bacteria and animals fed antibiotics. Article here. The article talks about how the rise of (unnecessary) antibiotics use in animals is leading to drug-resistant infections. For readers who aren’t already aware of this, most of the cows, pigs, and chicken raised for meat in this
Corn mountains
Gene Logsden has a good post up about the piles of corn that end up in the midwest at the end of harvest season. Oh, my aching HFCS.
Carbon farms
With the Copenhagen climate talks stuttering along, it seems like past time to throw in some quick comments The effect of livestock on greenhouse gas emissions are often overrated, if not entirely exaggerated Pasture is part of the solution to the carbon issue Some farms are doing it right And the systems exist to fix the problem OK, seriously, I
Interviews
Our friend Clare was interviewed on KBOO recently along with Joel Salatin…quite a coup. I found it especially interesting to hear Joel talk about the massive gullies that were on his land when his family arrived there, since we are dealing with similar legacies of past land abuses. They talk about land, farm cooperation, and meat processing, as well as
Fall Beef
It’s that time of year again…you have an opportunity to purchase some grass fed beef raised by our neighbors, the Thorntons. The Thorntons have been on their ranch since the 1930’s, and breed the steers that we raise for our grass-fed beef. They have 2-3 cows that will be butchered this fall – 1 in about a week, and the
the real cost of cheap food
I found an article from a couple weeks back in the Oregonian about efforts by farmers’ markets to encourage low-income shoppers. I thought it was an interesting article which highlighted the fact that while use of food stamps is up dramatically at several area markets, some markets are having a tough time getting low income shoppers to take advantage of
Cattle drama
The lack of posts recently can be somewhat attributed to the vagaries and long lists of summer, and somewhat attributed to a bit of farm excitement that happened early in July. I didn’t want to post until I had a complete story, and the story dragged on somewhat. Now, however, things are back to normal, whatever that is. And here’s
Cowpooling
Wow, it’s been a long time since we posted. Spring will do that. Fortunately, Time magazine comes through with something, so we don’t have to. Their new issue has an article on buying beef by the quarter, conveniently, the same way we sell it. A surprisingly well done piece.
Mossback Farmer at InFARMation talk Tues. May 12th
I was invited to speak at the InFARMation (and Beer!) gathering next Tuesday evening. Friends of Family Farmers has been hosting these events since the start of the year. I’ll be talking about our nearly 10 years of experience raising animals, options for consumers who choose to opt out of purchasing factory-farmed meat, and challenges facing meat producers in our
Graz(ing) anatomy
The recent issue of Onearth has an excellent article on the ecological benefits of grassfed beef, including the effects on wildlife, the water cycle, the grain trap, and carbon sequestration. We’re in the process of writing up a grant to detail the effects of different pasture treatments upon the carbon capturing properties of grasslands…read the article, and stay tuned!