Garlic Harvest

Garlic - hmmmm - like it? Seems most folx I know either love it or don’t. It’s such a natural & healthy food: and it has antibacterial & antiviral properties, an immune system enhancer, and at our place, indispensable in any kind of fried, stir fried, and any number of other dishes.

garlic curing

We’ve always grown our own garlic for our own use. About 20 years ago, we decided to grow garlic as a cash crop as well - something like 7-800 lb annually. We sold mostly to food coops. After awhile, it seemed that our return on our labor was very low ($1/hr ? - hard to tell since we do not do labor accounting). We downsized our garlic plantings so that we have enough for ourselves, to make prepared mustard (we sell mustard as one of our products), to sell at fairs we go to, and occasionally some to stores. We just can’t seem to not grow a bunch! It’s such a beautiful crop, relatively easy to grow, so tasteee!, and good for you!.

The photo is of this year’s garlic - harvested July 12 - the plants are tied in bundles of about 10 and then hung on the wall of one of our barns: they are “curing” or drying. The tops are still somewhat green and the energy/life force of the plant concentrates in the bulb as it dries. When dried, the garlic will store at room temperature for 6-9 months.

wheat harvest

Wheat is harvested once a year - here in northern Missouri, the wheat is usually ready to be harvested about July 4th. This year, the wheat was right on schedule which surprised me because a lot of other crops were later than usual due to the cool wet spring we had. But then wheat is very adaptive - it thrives in many different climates - from wet & humid to cool & dry.

The photo shows our Allis Chalmers tractor (1939) with combine (1950s?) in one of our wheat fields.

We grow both hard and soft red winter wheat: the hard has more gluten and we use it for making bread whereas the soft is known as pastry flour. At Sandhill, we use about 4 times as much hard as soft wheat so most of the latter goes to the chickens.

growing grains on a small farm

When I describe our farm to folks I meet, they often respond: “oh, so y’all are into self sufficiency.” Well, yes, but then I feel the need to qualify. Why? The stereotype that self sufficiency brings to my mind is of people trying to meet all their needs themselves and to separate themselves from the rest of the world as much as possible. We do not seek to be separate; in fact, we like to see ourselves as a progressive model of how to live a more sustainable lifestyle. For us, a major emphasis in our lifestyle is growing and consuming our own food - which is certainly part of meeting our needs and happens to fit in with the current eating local movement (popularized by Barbara Kingsolver, among others).

Okay - so that’s the context: we are way into food - but even in this context, we stand out: for most, eating local means fresh veggies & fruit and maybe eggs, dairy & meat. We go another step - we grow our own grains: wheat, oats, rye, sorghum grain, popcorn, field corn (for corn grits), buckwheat, pinto beans & black beans. The cornerstone for grains for us is wheat, which we grind into flour with a small grain mill. (I say we stand out in this context: when the concept of self-sufficiency comes up, folks often think of the Amish. I have been on quite a few Amish farms lately and none of them grind their own flour. Likewise, many who grow produce for themselves and/or to market do not grow their own grains).

Why not? The quick answer - equipment. Harvesting grains by hand is tedious - although humans did it for thousands of years. In earlier times, humans pulled the grains from plants by hand. The next step was to cut the grains with scythes and bring them to a threshing floor - the stereotype is a large animal tromping on the grain: the hooves separate the seeds from the plant and then the seeds had to be separated from the plant material (straw and chaff). The straw was gathered by hand or fork and lifted off and then the rest was “winnowed” - throwing the seeds and chaff in the air and having the wind carry away the chaff while the heavier seeds fall to the ground (or into a container). Bottom line - very labor intensive.

Harvesting grains mechanically can be quick and relatively easy - with a combine. The name says it: it combines two separate actions: cutting the grain and threshing it. As the combine moves through the field, it cuts the grain, threshes it, and winnows it all in one operation. Then the grain is unloaded into a container - eg a truck and then into grain bins for storage.

So what’s the catch? Why don’t more small farms grow grains? Harvesting is the issue - combines are complicated machines. A new large combine costs more than $200,000. yikes! However, our combine cost us $60. when I bought it a farm auction about 10 years ago - it is about 60 years old. We live in an area where old farm equipment from bygone eras are still in old fence rows or sheds and can be bought for the price of scrap steel - because they are too small for modern farmers to bother with. And you have to know or learn how to operate the combine. Fortunately for me, I grew up on a farm and am quite familiar with combines - although I had to learn the quirks of this antique - happily, I already had a manual. The upside is that in one afternoon, I can harvest enough wheat to keep us in flour for a whole year. And enough for 30 of our neighbors, our 30 chickens, and cover crop for our fields and gardens. Sweet, eh?

Further: the combine is quite versatile: we use it to harvest wheat, oats, mustard, soybeans, black beans, pinto beans, buckwheat, and clover & hairy vetch seed (for green manure crops).

Small Fruit Season

We all love fruit, eh? For those of us who like to eat what we grow and/or eat local food, fruit is often in short supply. When you want to eat more vegetables or grains, you plant more and you get more within the same growing season, but since fruit is from perennials, it takes longer to get results. The small fruits generally take less time to begin bearing and do so earlier in the season.

By spring, we are hankering for fresh juicy fruit. We may still have some frozen - from last year (pretty good) or canned as preserves, jam, etc. But it pales in comparison with fresh - so beautiful, tasty, zesty! For about two weeks now, we have been in small fruit heaven. The photo tells all:

starting with strawberries on the left and going clockwise: mulberries, sour cherries, saskatoons (service berries), gooseberries, and black currants in the center. They are on a rhubarb leaf. Last night we had rhubarb-cherry pies - to die for! It doesn’t get much better….

Baby Chicks

Many small farms have chickens: they are easy to manage, forage for some of their food, and the fresh eggs are tasty and a good source of protein. We generally have 20 - 30 laying hens. In commercial flocks, the hens are usually slaughtered after a year of laying; we keep ours 3-5 years. After 2 years, production decreases and occasionally one will die - apparently of “natural causes” (whatever those are).

Every few years we replenish the flock: sometimes, we have “broody” hens that will sit on eggs (about 8 - 12 eggs) for 21 days until the chicks hatch and then take care of them; this is the natural way - but many things can go wrong - mostly, the hens get tired and after a week or two, lose the maternal urge and abandon the eggs, sometimes laying hens get into the same next box to lay a new egg and break some of the eggs, etc. We also have a home made incubator that keeps eggs at the correct temperature. We have done all of these things.

The current chicken manager, Michael, decided to order baby chicks from a local hatchery this year - it allows us to try new breeds. On June 10 we received 25 chicks and 10 turkey chicks via the post office. The turkeys are Spanish bronze - a heritage breed. The chicks (supposed to be all females) are a mix of silver laced Wyandottes, light Brahmas, and New Hampshire Reds. The photo is of the chicks - 4 days old.

In nature, moma hen keeps the chicks under her to keep them warm; we provide a light bulb for warmth. They are very fun to watch: full of enthusiasm - when one chick finds something interesting, all the others rush over to try to share the treat. Within the first week, their feathers start to come in and they practice being a bird - flapping their little stubby wings and running fast - to mimic flying. What a riot!

This photo is of our main chicken house - made of straw bale walls with clay/sand/straw plaster. This is where they will live most of their lives.

Feed: we grow most of our own chicken food: wheat & oats; we buy some roasted soybean meal for more protein - especially for the chicks. We grow soybeans but they have to be roasted to make them digestible. The hens are fed whole grains - their “crop” grinds the grains to digest them. For the chicks, we grind the grain (in nature, momma grinds it for them with her beak) until they are older and their crop can handle whole grains. Michael also feeds them chopped greens and worms & insects when available.

You are what you eat

Occasionally, I go to a gourmet restaurant - with friends and as a treat. It is interesting to see how chefs work at presenting food - to make it taste good (and to make the eating experience attractive & enjoyable).

It is a constant reminder of why I choose to live on a farm where we grow our own food: we eat gourmet, top quality food all the time. Nothing compares with fresh picked produce - grown by loving hands in soil tended with care by all of us living here. The veggies & fruits “present” themselves - better than any chefs in a gourmet restaurant. This is the time when we are eating a lot of our own fresh produce; some of my current favorites:

*crisp tangy radishes - first thing in the morning

*asparagus - raw or lightly steamed

*strawberries - juicy & bursting with flavor

*salads: several different lettuces, spinach, violets, kale, radishes

*steamed: kale, lamb’s quarters, spinach

*rhubarb - as in krisp, pie, etc. (my favorite: rhubarb wine)

Since we also use up a lot of carbs in our daily life here, we complement it with homegrown black beans & tortillas with our own freshly ground cornmeal and wheat flour.

Now - how do you reconcile that kinda living with the fact that according to guv’ment data, we live below the official “poverty line”?

In any case, i’ve often heard the title: “you are what you eat”. We eat fresh, wholesome, organic, & mostly homegrown food; that means that we are part of the earth and our environment. Ah! that’s why we find it hard to get off the farm! Come and visit - will it work on you??

Bees - swarming!

As usual, swarming time sneaks up on me and i am surprized. i received a call a week ago from someone about 20 miles away. By the time we got there, it was gone. A few days later, one of our hives swarmed and lit on a small tree - so i was able to capture it. then, another call from total strangers about 15 miles away and another one of our hives swarmed at the same time. Swarming season indeed!

Swarming is the way that honey bees have babies or procreate - make more of themselves. A hive swarms only when it is full of bees and food. The bees decide that it is time to make another hive because there are enough bees and food to do so. they start several new queen cells and prepare to divide themselves. A few days before a new queen is due to hatch, the old queen and perhaps a quarter of the bees leave the hive - this is very high energy. The bees swirl around the front of the hive in a whirlwind (similar to bats emerging from a cave at dusk) gradually lifting higher and building energy and there is a hum/buzz in the air. Witnessing this is very moving. Often they land on a small branch of a tree and gradually settle into a sphere about the size of a basketball with the queen somewhere in the center. Scouts are sent out to search for a new home - if a suitable place is found, they take off for their new home - it could be a hole in a tree, an abandoned farm building, under the eaves of a house in town, etc.

What about the bees back home? they go about their business, raising brood (babies), collecting pollen & nectar. When the new queen hatches, she takes some time getting used to everything, and after a few days to a week, makes her “maiden flight”, mates with several drones and returns to the hive to be the new queen of the hive: lay eggs and set the general tone of the hive.

For beekeepers, swarming is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it indicates that a hive is vigorous and healthy, on the other, it means that they will produce much less honey.

The photo is of a swarm last Saturday - a rainy day. Usually, the bees would leave to go to another location. This time (due to the rain?) they huddled under the lid of the hive. We brushed them into a box to begin a new hive.

Because we’ve had several swarms, we check all our hives and most have queen cells inside - indicating they are ready to swarm. I am seeing more swarm cells than I can remember in 28 years of beekeeping. I do not know why.

For me, this spring is cool, wet, and dampening of my spirit. In contrast, the bees appear exuberant and are multiplying themselves in anticipation of abundance. GO BEES!

Transplanting sorghum

We transplant sorghum: Wed - 6.5 hours; Thurs - 1 hr in the morning, got rained out and then 2 hours in late afternoon, 1 hour on Fri - rained out again! Saturday morning: we finish - in the rain and mud. it got so muddy we had to keep scraping the mud off the wheels that push the soil back against the plants.

The photo on left is of the transplant flats in the back of the pickup truck - ready to go to the field. The next one is of the crew on the transplanter the last day - it was cold! The next photo is of us in action - moving through the field - taken from behind (on a much warmer day). Jacob is bending down and pushing some of the transplants deeper into the ground. The last photo is of the rows of transplanted sorghum in the field.

We have been wet all spring and transplanting time was no exception. The good news is that the rain is good for the transplants in the ground, the bad news - we were not sure we’d ever get them in the ground.

Transplanting: i drive the tractor and a crew of 4 sit on the transplanter and put the plugs into the machine. I post a schedule: a crew change every 1.5 - 2 hours - at which time, we generally have to come to the yard to get more plants and fill the transplanter with water. For the last few years, the most experienced person on the crew (beside myself) is Renay, now 11. she began transplanting 4-5 years ago and really enjoys it. On the first day of transplanting this year, she signed up for all of the time slots from 9:30 to 5.

Friday: we only get to transplant an hour - but it’s great! at 6 am, with my first coffee, i check NOA on the internet: rain all day. bummer - guess we won’t get to the field today (I don’t count on getting a crew before 9 am); but today, the kitchen is hopping by 7. “hey, can i get a transplanting crew now/soon?” YES - whoopee! we start about 7:30 and within 20 minutes, ominous clouds build up in the west and head our way. we enjoy the visual and audial thrill of the storm building energy. we quicken our pace. it gets really dark as thunder booms & lightning bolts through the dark clouds. at 8:20 it starts raining and we head for home. we are barely in the house before it pours - what a rush!

And i’m a little bummed: a few days ago, the weather forecast was for drier weather and i was hopeful - now they keep upping the chances of rain. It looks like our best chance is get it done Saturday morning - tho the ground is still wet. 4:30 am Saturday: slow rolling thunder - my heart sinks - no more sleep now. BUT no rain; 7am and still no rain. I check the field - still wet, but i think it will work. We head out at 8:30 - just as it begins to drizzle. The rain is light enough that we are able to finish even tho it is muddy. It’s a thrill to finish the transplanting and we celebrate - tho our hands are cold and we are wet. We planted about 70,000 plants in 2.8 acres: 3 plants together every 2′.

It’s a little strange to be transplanting sorghum when the temperatures are in the 50s - sorghum is a hot weather crop - does well on the edges of deserts in Africa.

Soil Fertility

Ever since we humans tilled the soil, we have dealt with maintaining soil fertility; according to some historians, the rise and fall of civilizations is basically the story of how humans treat the soil. When the soil is not taken care of, the culture declines.

In the current paradigm, soil is analyzed for its constituent chemical/mineral properties and then fertilizers, usually chemically derived, are added to address whatever is considered in short supply. Sometimes, we forget that this way of looking at soil and agriculture is only 150 years old.

Those of us with a sustainable and/or organic orientation, generally embrace a more wholistic approach. We see the soil as a living being: it likes being nurtured and abhors abuse - but how to define those terms?

What we do at Sandhill Farm:  we maintain soil fertility by growing crops to feed the soil - usually called green manure and/or cover crops. Common crops we use for this are: in the winter - grains such as wheat/oats with a legume like clover or vetch; during the summer - buckwheat, soybeans, mustard, legumes, etc. We allow these crops to grow to flowering stage and then incorporate them into the earth to feed the soil organisms and build organic matter. In general, we do not leave soil bare - when a crop is harvested, we plant a green manure crop. We also practice crop rotation - planting different crops in successive years to vary what the plants use and/or put back into the soil. This is the heart of our soil fertility program.

We also recycle nutrients: when a crop is harvested, the unharvested part of the plants is put back into the soil. We make compost with our kitchen waste and grow some plants (comfrey, nettles, burdock) to add to compost piles because they add special energy and/or nutrients. The compost is used in our gardens - we do not have enough for the fields. Occasionally, we get some animal manure from neighboring farms, since the only animals we have now are pets and chickens (they are free range, so spread their manure around). In my experience, manure is the best fertilizer - whenever I spread some in the field, the crops there grow lush.

I have spent the last few days incorporating green manure crops in the fields: mechanical cultivation (with tractor) - mostly discing. Those crops are destroyed to feed the soil to grow this year’s crops - sorghum, beans, and mustard. Wheat is left in a few fields for this year’s harvest.

So the cycle continues. Blessed be.

changing face of nature in spring

this is a series of photos taken from the same spot in one week intervals: the one on the left 4/20, the right 4/27, then the next one down on the left 5/4 and the right 5/11. All are photos of one of our garden sites with raised beds - some in the process of being made. Even more dramatic is the difference of one week in the orchard: the photos of the peach blossoms on the left(4/20) and the right(4/27).
Of course, when you live here and see the changes day by day or even during the course of the day - well, sometimes, it’s hard to remember what it looked like a day ago.

This is the beautiful part of life; there is also the darker side - poison ivy; about a week ago, Kevin & I donned coveralls over regular clothes, wore gloves and went on a campaign to control the ivy. The last decade or so, poison ivy has been spreading and invading our homestead here. Some say it is due to global warming. It could be a long term trend - in any case, we are not liking it. Some of us here are very sensitive to it and occasionally have to get an emergency cortisone shot to cope. That’s not fun.  Kevin and I (we  HOPE we are not sensitive to ivy outbreaks) do our perceived community duty to curb the ivy invasion. We pull it up by the roots as much as possible - tho we know it will come back. We concentrate on the areas around the yard where folks walk most often. 5 days later - Kevin has no ivy outbreaks, I have minor rashes on one wrist and my neck. Hope it doesn’t get worse or spread.