This year I’ve had a chance to learn a lot about the first people who were at home in the lands we now call North America. These Native Americans had amazing civilizations where agriculture thrived and community was a focal point. I encourage you to take some time to listen to these episodes, watch the videos on them as well.

Digging Up Ancient Desert Farming Practices

So often when I travel abroad I am mesmerized by ancient history, so I was totally into getting this interview on ancient desert farming practices. Seeing a Smithsonian article on the Gila River Indian Community led to my finding connections in the US who could talk about the way water was used in prehistoric times, as well as well known times in US history. So in this episode, archaeologists Kyle Woodson and Wesley Miles talk to us about the native peoples who have called this land home, water use and other pieces of the community. The following episode is a conversation with farmer Terry Button who’s family grows a number of traditional crops on the rez.  (See the video from my visit with Wesley where we talked about ancient desert farming practices.)

Revitalizing Native Foods & Farming at Ramona Farms

We continue discussions about native foods and farm on the Gila Indian Community in Arizona (hope you caught part 1 talking the culture, history & water of the Pima people). In this episode we talk with Terry Button about the work he and his wife Ramona are doing at Ramona Farms. Terry shares some of the foods the Pima people have eaten for generations, sharing the roles of corn and tepary beans and some of the foods that can be foraged in the desert. (See video from my visit with Terry on revitalizing native foods.)

Uncovering Cahokia’s Food History & Forgotten Farmscapes

With Cahokia’s food history on our minds after our last episode, we turn to my backyard of St. Louis and are digging into more Native American food and farming history. Joined by Dr. Gayle Fritz, anthropologist and professor emeritus from Washington University, we uncover the mysteries of this once-thriving metropolis and its food and farming footprint. (See the full blog post and photos on Cahokia’s Food History).

The post Indigenous People and the Foods of the Ancestors appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

I frequently hear people talk about the goal of being self-sufficient with their food production. Ask yourself though, do you see people do it? Well, for two decades I’ve had a front row to watch as my brother Ray Person, sister-in-law Elizabeth Kelly & a group of friends created a farm co-op that does just that. And they live in northwest Ohio, not exactly the geography that first comes to mind.

(AI generated transcript available for those with hearing difficulties.)

They are producing food the way many think is near dream-like. Thinking about how they have been able to make this work, not just what it looks like, leads to a great conversation and some discoveries.

Our latest episode comes from us sitting down in late May to talk about how this co-op was formed, how it works and as always, we took a look around capturing video too! Since it was cool & damp late, I want to share a photo was from a couple of years ago as we checked out what the garden had coming along. It’s pretty amazing!

Creating a Co-op

Ray & Elizabeth purchased the farm two decades ago knowing the community they were part of was interested in coming together to produce their own food. They went with the co-op model as this was a way to distribute workload so all the members have real sweat equity. And they each get to enjoy harvesting fresh produce as well as doing the planting, weeding, etc. It started with five families and now there are two dozen families! That’s as big as they plan to get though.

They started with a few goals in mind:

• Providing quality food for themselves (was five families, now a dozen or so)
• Improve wildlife habitat
• Build community

We talk about the food side quite a bit in the episode. They are largely self-sufficient with the exceptions of grain and things that don’t grow well there (coffee, sugar, etc.) Some families participate in the meat part while others do produce only. He has a lot of spreadsheets to work through on costs, etc and those are distributed equitably too. And I can tell you, he always brings plenty of eggs to go with the bacon I take for holiday breakfasts and has perfected his deviled egg game! The garden is big and gets turned over during the season so they grow an acre’s worth of food. It’s a lot to be thankful for and Ray wrote a blog post for me a decade ago sharing some of his thanks.

Ray says there have been a range of things tried. Sometimes they found foods they weren’t as familiar with did really well so sharing recipes helped. And they can, freeze and put things in the root cellar for safe keeping through the hard Ohio winter. The weekend I was there recently, we enjoyed edamame as we waited for others to arrive for the dinner that we would have soon.

Improving wildlife habitat is one thing that he says happened without the focus he expected it would need. But that probably speaks to the variety of things that are being done on the pasture and hayfields. The environmental aspects are clear… you can even see the barn swallows in the video.

The co-op community has continued to develop over the years, with some members staying throughout the decades and others coming and going. The same community is likely to gather at the local coffee shop on Saturday mornings to catch up, that’s when I got a photo of Elizabeth & Ray a few years ago.

A Look Around the Farmstead

The farm includes a pasture for all the animals to share, a large hayfield, a garden (about half an acre in size) and a historic barn that was built in 1868. (That’s easier to remember since one summer when I was there they were putting the date back up after having the barn painted.)

Working in the garden is something everyone participates in. There are cool season crops like broccoli, onions, etc. and later tomatoes, peppers and squash go in the ground. On the header of the page, you can see early spring planting of onions and garlic. These are planted every year. They get dried down, distributed to members and used year round!

The pasture is where you are most likely to find animals during the day. Sheep, chickens and their dog protectors are out there a lot, going from shade to sun and looking for things to eat. They also get some feed in the barn. Ray showed me around the barn, its a casual check-in on what’s going on with the pigs, chicken and sheep.

Bottle Feeding Lamb Triplets This Year

If you watched the video around the barn, you met Sage and Socks. They are two ewes who were orphaned as lambs. My niece was visiting that spring and she had a lot of fun bottle feeding them and learning all about sheep.

This year Ray has triplets that lost their mom so he has three to get through the early days. That means mixing up a milk replacement that will give them much needed nutrition until their digestive tracts have fully developed.  After we recorded the podcast he took me out there and you’ll hear, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. I THOUGHT I’d be shooting video, but that stopped so I could feed one of the lambs.

Ray got to finish up with the sweet lamb with a few spots, including on its knees. No doubt the excitement of doing this wears on a person day-after-day, but that’s part of the reality with the farm co-op. It takes a lot of time in addition to everyone’s day jobs.

Since our most recent episode was talking to Kristin Root Patterson about lamb, you may want to catch up on that if you missed it because we talked cooking, rams, and more!

Please Subscribe and Follow

Every two weeks we put out a new episode. Learning more about how foods are produced and the people doing that. If you are new here, you can probably find a favorite food in our previous episodes or maybe you’d just like the . You can subscribe to get emails on future episodes from the website, listen to the podcast in your favorite app (links below) and connect with us online (links below). In fact, if you find a platform we aren’t on, please let us know so we can add it!

Most weeks I tell you how to find the farmer online, but I’m guessing you can tell, my brother really doesn’t have time for all of that! LOL! He does Facebook with friends and family, but doesn’t have public social media channels.

Our Website

• You are on GroundedbytheFarm.com which is our hub for photos & videos, blog posts, show notes, podcasts are here and more. You can even get new content emailed once a week as we publish by subscribing here.
• Find your favorite foods or fun food educational resource information here on the website.

Subscribe in Podcast Apps

There are a lot of these so I’ll list them alphabetically.

• Amazon Music or tell Alexa to play Grounded by the Farm
• Apple podcast — Grounded by the Farm 
• Google podcast link to Grounded by the Farm 
• I Heart Radio 
• Spotify for Grounded by the Farm
• Stitcher podcasts

And Libysn is where we host so we can also be found there groundedbythefarm.libsyn.com/ 

Follow Us on Social Media

• Groundedbythefarm_ on Instagram
• TikTok @groundedbythefarm
• Grounded by the Farm on Youtube
• @groundedbythef on Twitter
• Grounded by the Farm Facebook Page

The post My Brother’s Farm Co-op: Two Decades of Food Self-Sufficiency & Community appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, it occurred to me how many incredible women farmers are out here and reminding folks of these women who do amazing things every day, may help to break the bias that exists. Millions of women farm, growing food for their families, communities and for markets further afield.

We have featured quite a few women on the Grounded by the Farm Podcast and it seemed like a great time to pull together a list of a few of these incredible women we have featured. And I’m excited to will update this as the list grows.

Marybeth Feutz is Keeping Cattle Healthy & Producing Beef in Indiana – A 2-Part Show

Early March 2020, I had a conference in Indiana I was speaking at and took that opportunity to visit farmer and veterinarian, Marybeth Feutz, on her farm in the southern part of the state. We talked so much, that we ended up having to make it a two-part show! Marybeth and her husband John have cattle and work as veterinarians. She also has lots of great information on different cuts of beef and tips on how to enjoy those cuts, and thoughts on the impacts of beef on the environment.

So Many Kinds of Avocados with Mimi Avocado in California

When you go by Mimi Avocado, it’s no question what you grow on your farm! Many of us have been on the search for that perfect avocado, but avocado farmers like Mimi Holtz know what to look for and what impacts the tasty goodness we all crave. Listen as she shares insight on how the crop is grown, tips for delighting kids, favorite recipes, and some of the everyday ways the Holtz family enjoys avocados. You can even take a video tour of Mimi’s incredible avocado farm!

Breeding a Better Grasspea with Plant Scientist Dr. Priyanka Gupta

Meredith Bernard – Farmwife and YouTuber

Sitting down to talk with This Farm Wife Meredith Bernard was pretty much like sitting down with someone I had known forever. And my guess is thousands of people feel similarly since more than 100k have subscribed to her YouTube Channel.

Meredith & her husband Lawrence farm along the North Carolina – Virginia line. Although towns are close by, all their neighbors have four legs — mostly cattle, a few farm dogs, and a couple of sheep for the kids. They also plant a range of crops that are mostly used for the livestock — hay, barley, corn, corn for silage (harvest the whole plant, not just the grain), etc.

Lots of folks spend hours watching YouTube, and some of those folks like the escape from their house to check in on a farm. That’s where Meredith and her vlog come in. She gives subscribers a little slice of the “ordinarily extraordinary life” life lived on their family farm.

DeeDee Darden Carries on the Tradition of Salt Cured Virginia Hams

This interview with Virginia farmer and ham expert, DeeDee Darden takes place in Smithfield, Virginia where the family raises cotton & corn and maintains the family smokehouse where they salt cure hams the way it was done decades ago. She explains the almost year-long process of salt curing and smoking hams to get the color and taste that is so desirable. As well as some of the history around Virginia and Smithfield hams in particular.

DeeDee also shows us around the family’s farm, telling us about the fall visits by many school groups in the area. Hosting school groups provides a chance for children to learn about cotton (even checking out a cotton picker, playing in corn boxes, seeing various animals, taking a hayride, and picking out the perfect pumpkin in the field!

Jennie Schmidt Farms Tofu Soybeans, Wine Grapes, and More

I haven’t had many chances to sit down and talk to someone about growing tofu soybeans. We can check that off the list as the conversation with Jennifer “Jennie” Schmidt about her family’s Maryland farm allowed us a chance to talk about diversification, how they determine what to plant, and more.

In 2021, they grew corn, soybeans, tofu soybeans, wine grapes, and green beans for the fresh market. And a nephew is once again raising pigs on the farm. In the past, they have grown several other crops including processing tomatoes (tomatoes that will be cooked down for sauces, etc). Understanding how farmers choose what to plant and how it has to be organized, is the central topic in this episode.

And Still More Women Farmers…

• Trish McKeighen is farming pecans for her family’s candied pecan business
• Farm Wife, Val Wagner, supports her farming family on their cattle operation in North Dakota
• Natasha Nichols farms and builds community in the heart of Chicago’s South Side
• Michelle Jones grows wheat and teaches consumers about all the different types of wheat grown in the US.
• Rachel Syngo makes 4th of July celebrations exceptional with watermelons from her melon farm
• Learn about growing lentils from Shauna Ferguson Farver
• Amber Bristow grows cranberries with family in Wisconsin
• Dianne McComb has an egg farm up in Ontario, Canada
• Lesley Rae Kelley is farming canola for your fry pan
• Paula Hynes is an Irish dairy farmer who got the chance to spend time with Maasai in Kenya
• Dana Zucker didn’t start out as a farmer, but now she hosts farm stays on her small farm and B&B
• Patty Leonard also is in the agritainment business with her beautiful dairy farm just outside Washington, D.C.
• Lauren Arbogast raises chickens on her farm in Virginia
• Debbie Lyons-Blythe plans for future generations on her family’s Kansas ranch

The post Women Farmers Growing Food and Making History appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

As someone who loves an abundance of Asian cuisines, tofu may be on my plate or in my soup more than some Americans. But I haven’t had many chances to sit down and talk to someone about growing tofu soybeans. We can check that off the list as the conversation with Jennifer “Jennie” Schmidt about her family’s Maryland farm allowed us a chance to talk about diversification, how they determine what to plant, and more.

In 2021, they grew corn, soybeans, tofu soybeans, wine grapes and green beans for the fresh market. And a nephew is once again raising pigs on the farm. In the past they have grow several other crops including processing tomatoes (tomatoes that will be cooked down for sauces, etc). Understanding how farmers choose what to plant and how it has to be organized, is the central topic in this latest episode.

Note: An AI generated transcript of this episode is available at Talking Tofu with Jennie Schmidt.

Background on Schmidt Farms

Jennie’s family farm — she points out it was her husband’s family farm before she got so involved — is on the Delmarva Peninsula, the Eastern Shore. Her husband and his brother were running the farm for the most part.

Jennie, who trained as a registered dietitian and worked at a hospital as an RD, got involved in the farm with wine grapes. She ended up planting some and doing custom work with some wineries and others in the state for several years before her husband Hans was approached about a job in the state’s department of agriculture, working with conservation programs. Jennie laughs and says she told Hans he needed to work that job for the benefits and next thing she knew, she was partnering with her brother-in-law Alan in the farm’s day-to-day!

For generations, the Schmidts have been looking at various options for the farm. They had pigs for a while and later focused on crops. Now a nephew is choosing to get back into pork. Jennie says they look at a lot of factors when they consider what mix to have on the farm — labor is a piece for some crops, the ability to partner with others who can supply the unique equipment needed for crops is a big piece as well. And like every farm, Jennie looks at the crops adapted to the environment, weather and soils that they are in.

Grain (corn, soybeans and wheat) play a big part in the operation as the poultry farms nearby need feed. Jennie says it’s probably for some people to believe now, but her favorite job is driving the combine for harvest. She puts hours a day in the seat for weeks on end and while she welcomed me joining for a couple of hours, for weeks on end. She says not only does she get a great feel for the results of the year, but it gives her time to think, listen to books, etc. I was lucky enough to join her in the combine for a ride this fall, here’s the video.

Choosing What to Grow

Jennie said labor, equipment, and the environment all play different parts in the decision of what to plant. And of course, knowing perennial crops like grapes, the commitment is for many years.

In fact, Jennie gave us a laundry list of some of the considerations on what goes where on the farm and some of the realities that can impact the choices they have.

Growing Tofu Soybeans

As I mentioned, I’m a fan of Asian cuisine and find the growing of tofu soybeans so interesting I asked a lot of questions! How they began growing them intrigued me though. Jennie pointed immediately to the geography she’s in. DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York are all an easy drive and there are a number of companies specializing in Asian foods.

A group of farmers in the area formed a coop and went out seeking buyers when there was some question about the commitment to poultry in the area. The same equipment used for soybeans for grain can be used on these which was a great connection point. They also offer a high price for the crop. But alas, the market is only so big which means each farmer in the coop is given an allotment to plant rather than having endless opportunities to grow it. Jennie also mentions that harvest needs to be prioritized too as there can sometimes be some staining on soybeans and that is undesirable for tofu uses.

Growing Vegetables

As a registered dietitian, no doubt vegetable crops appeal to Jennie. They have planted tomatoes and green beans both in the hundreds of acres at a time. She points out that means harvesting several 18 wheelers full of either crop in a day. And which much of the crop management is easily done with irrigation that serves whatever is planted in the field, etc. The reality that specific planting and or harvesting equipment is needed means only planting the crops when contracts that also provide the expensive equipment and labor for the critical times. Planning allows farmers and the contractors to work together on timing so harvesting crews move from farm to farm.

Vegetable crops have rules that require the crop not be planted in the same field more than on a four year rotation, means long-term planning too! If you plant green beans in one field this year, you will be eligible to plant them there again in 4 years. Tomatoes have the same requirement. Limiting the likelihood of disease issues is the biggest reason for the requirement, which is a practice a lot of urban gardeners are familiar with!

Growing Wine Grapes

Growing grapes for wine is something that is a lot more common around the US now. Small acres are needed but the amount of labor required is high when it comes time to harvest. Jennie says they have expanded the vineyard and are growing several varietals. There are always more wineries interested she says, so the only limit is getting grapes harvested when needed. This was their biggest year ever and knowing there are some mechanized harvesters coming that will get tested, who knows what the future will do.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jennifer Schmidt (@dirtdietitian)

Growing Grain

The largest acreage on Schmidt Farms is in grain — both corn and soybeans. It has a really good market locally with the number of chicken farms in Delmarva. The family likes to rotate corn and soybeans as corn contributes great organic matter for the soil — ie the plant parts that don’t get harvested stay in the field and biodegrade creating something like compost for future crops. And as legumes, soybeans add nitrogen to the soil.

Planting Cover Crops

The Schmidts also plant cover crops on the farm. Cover crops help improve soils, they are not harvested so they add a lot of organic matter. Jennie said wheat is planted as a cover as are a mix of radishes, rye, etc. She shared a photo of one of the tillage radishes she pulled in the vineyard to show her Instagram followers. They have the deep root and as Jennie points out, they can help reduce compaction and make it easier for roots to grow unrestricted.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jennifer Schmidt (@dirtdietitian)

Find Jennie Online

Jenni can be found on social media in several places:

• Instagram DirtDietitian
• Facebook The Foodie Farmer
• Twitter FarmGirlJen

The post Growing Tofu Soybeans, Grapes, Grain & More: The Planning It Takes to Be a Truly Diversified Farm appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Growing up with cattle, Ryan Goodman got a good look first-hand at cattle care and feeding. But working cattle in half a dozen states and visiting ranches in the vast majority of the U.S., Ryan has had the chance to compare and contrast various environments and some of the things farmers and ranchers have to take into consideration.

The transcript for this episode about caring for cattle can be accessed here.

We talk with Ryan about the full spectrum of experiences he’s had in working with cattle and I have to tell you, it always makes me feel better to know the food I’m eating was produced by people who care about plants, animals and people. That’s clear whenever I talk with Ryan and then look at beef. It also isn’t missed that Ryan is an endurance runner and anyone who is fit enough to run a 100 mile race, must be doing something right with his nutrition. (Though he understands I question his sanity!)

Ryan is a big believer in learning as much as you can when you are in college and early in your career. That constant desire to learn and experience more has taken him on some amazing journeys.

Cattle Care in Various Geographies & Operations

We recently sat down with Ryan in southern Virginia — his home since July to hear about the various places he has worked as well as some of the types of operations he’s worked with. Ryan’s lived in a lot of states, learning about cattle all the while. Since the conversation takes some turns, I thought a timeline may be helpful.

Arkansas Cattle Ranch / Auction

Ryan talks with us about his family’s running a ranch and livestock auction in Arkansas…. between the Mississippi River and the Ozark Mountains. He said the plentiful rain made growing grass so easy, that feeding cattle was a cinch! Growing up the family would take vacations to see other operations and it gave Ryan a wider view of the cattle business, one that would encourage him to learn a lot more through school and work.

Oklahoma State

The interest to learn more about livestock, especially focusing in on cattle nutrition and reproduction is what led Ryan to Oklahoma State University. His time in Stillwater also was punctuated by internships with operations in other states.

Time on a Picturesque Wyoming Ranch

I met Ryan via Twitter while he was in college and can remember the photos he would occasionally post on his blog or Twitter stream. People on horseback with incredible mountain views and small rivers running through valleys. Cattle dotting the view. He says the nature of ranching Wyoming is a total shift from what he was used to as cattle graze immense areas to find the grass they need.

Texas Panhandle Feedlot

Pretty sure the thought of a feedlot with lots of cattle is as far as I could have gone from the ranching life Ryan lived in Wyoming, but part of that is because I hadn’t visited one at the time and seen how they are managed. Appreciate Ryan talking to us about some of the things he learned about what cattle are fed and how they are managed. He even wrote a series of blog posts on feedlots.

His helping us understand the role of feedlots as a place that brings cattle together from lots of smaller farms & ranches as the beef cattle are nearing processing into beef is something that’s easily overlooked. Cattle are only in feedlots a short time, and while there, they have regular health checks and all. Diets are overseen by nutritionists to include all the kinds of fiber, calories and protein cattle need. This Instagram post Ryan did gives you some info as does our post that includes insight from a veterinarian on what cows eat and why.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Ryan Goodman | Beef Runner (@beefrunner)

University of Tennessee

Offering a depth of studies in animal science, University of Tennessee at Knoxville drew Ryan in for a master’s program where he studied reproductive health and the diets cows need to a level I get lost in. You can hear one of his talks on fetal development related to supplemental feeding in the video he posted. He worked with various farms in the state on his cattle care research too!

Montana Stockgrowers & National Cattlemen

Ryan took a few years off the farm and ranch to work with cattle ranchers in Montana first and then throughout the US. He worked as a communicator, practicing a lot of the social media pieces he had worked on throughout college and grad school and married them with the in-depth knowledge he had built. These jobs gave Ryan a chance to meet beef producers in every state, many times helping each of them find their voice online to connect different audiences about how beef is produced.

Colorado Ranching to Virginia

More recently, Ryan returned to the production side of agriculture, first spending a bit over a year as a herdsman with a Colorado ranch and then settling into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. And the shift in those operations is big geographically and in terms of the natural landscape, but Ryan says the focus remains on care and feeding of livestock to provide healthy beef for our plates!

And I may be wrong, but it is every bit as picturesque as Wyoming!

Beef as A Part of a Balanced Diet

Ryan has gotten used to talking with people who have various diets for various reasons. He gets that people choose what to eat based on what they enjoy, their personal nutrition focuses as well as trying to make environmentally-responsible decisions.

And he’s like Meredith Bernard in that beef is a major portion of the protein in their diets. He says it’s not only what’s always available in the freezer and tasty, but he’s spent a lot of time talking with registered dietitians and other health professionals and knows how to use it as a part of a balanced diet. Not just a fan of meat and potatoes, Ryan may have a salad with beef or make street tacos or something.

Want to Learn More?

Ryan is a regular on Instagram, sharing photos and video from the pasture or a barn as BeefRunner. And that’s the name he uses across platforms thanks to his love of both beef and endurance running. His website beefrunner.com includes posts answering questions like how many calves can a cow have or  what are cattle guards? 

And you may have missed two episodes talking with Marybeth Feutz cattle farmer and veterinarian as we talked about how she cares for cattle as well as some of her tips on buying and cooking with beef.

The post Cattle Care and Feeding: What You Should Know If You Like Beef appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Family holiday celebrations wouldn’t be the same without the cranberry salad my grandmom & mom have always served. With that in mind, interviewing a cranberry farmer was a must for the holiday series on Grounded by the Farm. 

Amber Bristow grows cranberries with family in Wisconsin — they are some of the 700 family farm owners of Ocean Spray. Having taken some time away from the farm to work elsewhere, she said cranberry farming was in her blood and eventually she wanted to return to the marshes. She shares her experiences in our interview as well as sharing online via  @CranberryChats on Instagram and Facebook.

Insight from a Cranberry Farmer on Growing the Crop

Amber started her social media channels to share information about how cranberries are grown. Those photos, like the one from harvest above, provide a lot of information. Still, I think a lot of Americans will be surprised that cranberry marshes aren’t flooded with water much of the year. That’s just for harvest!

She walks us through the process for growing cranberries, talks with us about managing the perennial vines, some of the pests that can get in the way and ultimately helps us understand those images of Ocean Spray farmers standing in the middle of a marsh in waders.

This videos shows as the fruit is being combed from the vines.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Amber (@cranberrychats)

And this shows the more detailed harvest on a cranberry farm.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Amber (@cranberrychats)

Fresh Fruit versus Processed

Cranberries are sold fresh fall and winter, but they are enjoyed year-round thanks to a range of products. Amber says she loves the juices and Craisins, and finds cranberries make a great add to a fruit smoothie. Her family raises cranberries for the processed market so you may one day see Amber’s face on the juice jug at some point! I haven’t really made cranberry muffins but Amber makes me want to!

Links For More Information

A video of cranberries being raked so they float on top of the water and a video of cranberry harvest.

Cranberry Recipes mentioned during this episode — cranberry sauce, cranberry salad and the sangria.

US Cranberry Harvest Explained in Four Charts (National Geographic)

Forward Farming podcast on all things Wisconsin agriculture

The post Not a Stereotypical Cranberry Farmer But Destined to Join the Family Business appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Texan Terren Moore saw a lot of demand for vegetables locally while in high school and next thing he knew, he was growing purple hull peas in the backyard.

He was just 15 years old then and participating in FFA activities at high school. And although he laughs as he tells us why he signed up for an agricultural class, he admits it turned a different way and lit a spark for him!

His farming start? Growing Purple Hull Peas

Terren started a backyard garden at the age of 15. His dad was growing purple hull peas when Terren was a child, his dad’s job had pulled him another direction. Terren provided the family peas in exchange for his their support and would sell the rest. It wasn’t long til he was expanding to use more land. He’s now nine seasons into the business and investing in capital and improving the farm’s environmental footprint.

During our interview, we talk about how, as a young black man, he is creating multiple income streams for the future. And he explains his business that grew from his family’s love of peas and how education, hands-on experience & customer service make the difference.

And he shares his grandmom’s secret for peas that he could eat everyday for the rest of his life!

You may also enjoy hearing from these other black farmers.

Links Mentioned in the Show

• Episode 122 interview with Lloyd Johnson — The History of Being a Black Farmer, Johnson Family Farm Precede Lincoln’s Presidency 
• Where to find Terren Moore on social media:
  • Instagram Moore.Terren
  • Twitter @MooreTerren
  • Facebook Moore Farms & Insurance
• Where to find Grounded by the Farm on social media:
  • GroundedbytheFarm.com for photos, blog posts, show notes and more
  • Ask the Farmers Facebook Page
  • Groundedbythefarm_ on Instagram
  • Grounded by the Farm on Youtube
  • @groundedbythef on Twitter
• Video of Terren (on Facebook) — Look at Terren’s operation while he was in school

The post Growing Purple Hull Peas, Young Black Farmer Terren Moore Keeps Focus on the Future appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Building a community garden & the community that inspires more people to grow food in their backyard has driven Natasha Nicholes to do great things on Chicago’s South Side & online.

Family Passion for Gardening

Natasha talks happily about the sense of wonder her Granny Blackburn created for her as a child. Going to visit her grandmom would yield exciting times in the garden and great meals to come.

Now, years later, Natasha is not only creating that excitement for her own children, but by building a community garden, she’s making it available to children throughout the neighborhood. The photo below shows Natasha, her husband Shomari & their younger children to the left with some of the garden’s volunteers.

A Community Garden Growing Pride

We Sow We Grow is a community garden non-profit that offers a lot of educational opportunities to the neighborhood the Nicholes family now calls home. The garden teaches residents about plants, pests, how to provide fresh vegetables for your home and more.

There are a number of volunteers in Chicago, others who get exposure to the program and feel empowered to garden at home too! And the community has grown to support gardeners across the US too thanks to a We Sow We Grow Gardening Chat Facebook group.

Natasha says she loves how many in the neighborhood see the urban farm as a point of pride. She says neighbors even tell people in other burbs that “you’ve got to see this.”

Growing in Containers & Square Foot Gardening 

Natasha got her start 7 years ago, planting a few things in containers and once she found square foot gardening, she says she realized everyone should be doing it!

To plant a square foot garden, you learn what plants do well sharing space with each other and can grow corn along with vining plants that will use the corn plants as a trellis and the like.

A Visit to the Community Garden

Last May, I was in Chicago for work and had a chance to get to the garden with Natasha and the younger Nicholes. You can get a feel for the number of raised beds they have in this live video I shot while there and knowing they are all managed by the foot… wowzers!

Ways to Get Involved with We Sow We Grow

With the excitement and promise of gardening seeming to resonate with more and more people, the We Sow We Grow Gardening Chat community on Facebook is a great place to go for ideas and information.

The group is really active and includes both new and established gardeners across the US. Personally, I love that everyone there remembers and celebrates that joy of a first seedling, the first pepper of the season or whatever it is you want to celebrate!

You can support We Sow We Grow through PayPal donations as well as buying various products like the “Dirty by Nature” t-shirts on TeeSpring. I love mine and had to wear it last spring when I went to the garden!  

Natasha Nicholes’ blog Houseful of Nicholes includes a category that shares a lot of gardening information including making a mason jar garden with your kids she walks through basics like how to read a seed packet

Listen to the Podcast to Hear

Some of the other topics covered in this podcast includes:

• Becoming a master urban farmer / master gardener 
• Talking about tough years & good years
• Creating community & a non-profit
• Lots of people turning to gardening 
• Difference in scale farm – garden 
• Growing all the things 
• Planning to Plant 
• Where to Start 

You may also enjoy hearing from these other black farmers.

The post Building a Community Garden in Chicago and Online appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Join me as I tour an avocado farm. This video was shot in late October as we looked at young fruit on the tree. Those same avocados are being picked and packed as we publish the tour because April is when California’s avocado season gets underway offering great flavor!

Our host was a woman known in social media circles as Mimi Avocado. Mimi showed me around as her husband, son and others were busily working to care for the trees on the farm outside of San Diego, California.

Hope you enjoy learning about growing avocados from a farm family who proudly grows them. You can even order some to be delivered from this farm directly to your door via CaliforniaAvocadosDirect.com.

Young Avocado Trees

First up on the avocado farm tour for us was young avocado trees. The family plants trees regularly as they want to maintain the productivity. As we looked at a nursery field of newly planted trees, Mimi pointed out how the shiny leaves are a good sign they are healthy and getting enough water, etc. Young trees will produce blooms and try to grow fruit but for a couple of years they have growing to do before they can really contribute to yield so the farm has a routine for replacing trees that allows them to keep producing year after year.

What Avocado Flowers Look Like

Once trees get taller, more leaves and branches, the fruit (both blooms and the avocado that will ultimately be picked) grow in the sun. It’s really different from a lot of other tree nuts (including our beloved pecans) and fruit trees in that it has blooms on it for one year while fruit is also ready to be picked. That tropical nature is pretty cool. The blooms have a bright yellow to them while avocados can be a bit camouflaged in all the greens of the tree.

But dang there were lots of them!

Caring for Mature Trees

Mimi explained that pruning is a part of the regular care of trees and it serves a couple great purposes. It helps clear out any limbs that may have broken, etc that could pose safety concerns to pickers. And it also means the tree will need less water. It is so interesting that along with pruning them, sometimes they cut avocado trees down to the trunk and let them start regrowing.

I love that avocado trees are always shedding leaves and putting on new ones though I’m not sure I’d love it if I had one in my yard. It is kind of convenient to have all the leaves on my trees drop in just a couple of week period.

More on Avocados!

The new podcast episode with Mimi talking all things avocado will be coming out tomorrow so check it out in your favorite podcast app or come back and listen to it here.

Mimi has a fantastic website mimiavocado.com with lots of information about avocados — recipes for all the avocado dishes you can imagine, some glances around the ranch/farm, and based on a conversation I had she may have put this one together on how to freeze avocados — I also find chopping them up and putting them (airtight) in the fridge makes avocado toast so dang easy for days!

You can join me in ordering avocados from the farm via californiaavocadosdirect.com.

And you may enjoy a few photos and video from the first avocado farm tour I ever took — it was at Mimi’s years ago!

The post Want to take an avocado farm tour? Sit down and enjoy the ride. appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

The latest episode of Grounded by the Farm speaks to something many of us are facing this week whether we are at home in big cities or rural areas — we are focused on having enough food at home. Buying, storing, and cooking more meals. 

The last time I was at home cooking this much was when I lived in the Mississippi Delta, an area I frequently called the middle of nowhere. I personally am looking at food differently. Although I have many grocery stores and restaurants within a mile or two, I am planning for my meals, thinking about what I need to have in the house for a week or two instead of going out to the grocery store every few days or stopping by restaurants so much more often.

My friend Val Wagner who lives in North Dakota came to mind as she lives well away from a grocery and has a big family. I knew she’d have a lot of tips to share.

Meet Val Wagner & Her Family 

The Wagners farm in the small town of Monango, North Dakota. That’s in the southeastern part of the state — an hour or so from the big towns of Jamestown, ND and Aberdeen, SD. It’s Val, who also has a job in a law office in Ellendale, ND, husband Mark who is full-time on the farm and their four boys — Ian, Scott, Evan and Eli. On the top end, Ian is graduating from high school this year and Eli is the youngest at 11.

Val explains their operation saying: “We have red Angus cattle, they are Simmental – red Angus cross. And then we also grow corn and soybean, and wheat, and then alfalfa or grass for our cows to eat, you know, most of what we grow are all things that we can consume here on the farm ourselves or eat ourselves. And then if, if we don’t need it, then our cows do. So that’s kind of we try to make sure we’re our own ecosystem if we have to be.”

Not Everyone Visits North Dakota 

Val & I met via Twitter and various agriculture meetings. At some point, I did a quiz on Facebook where you say which states you’d been to, I’d made all but four to five, Val took it as a personal challenge that I had not been to North Dakota. She wanted to make it clear that I didn’t know what I was missing.

Next thing I knew I was up on the prairie both for work with her sweet corn patch donated to Feeding America for food bank use. And soon I was taking a Dakota vacation seeing the sights in North Dakota and learning things like how to work cows. And it was so beautiful, when my niece asked about getting experience working on a farm, she ended up in the beautiful rolling prairie working cows, driving tractors and more.

I agree with the way Val sums up her home state…. “I also knew that there was so much more here than most people even ever imagined just because we do you know, North Dakota kind of gets the bad rap of being kind of a flatland of, of nothingness. And we do have some typography. I mean, not a whole lot, but, but we also have just a lot of really cool things to experience. And, you know, the people here are the best.”

Val laughs that the difference between North Dakota and other parts of the country always is striking to her boys. “When I’ve taken my boys to other states, one of the things that have always amazed them is they just assumed trees grow in rows. Because the trees in North Dakota have all been planted. So anytime we’ve gone to somewhere like where I was born in Wisconsin, the boys are just amazed that these trees are just all over the place, and how did they ever see anything or do anything when all these trees are just all over? And it’s like, that’s how they occur naturally. We don’t have that. And so it’s sometimes it’s hard for people to understand that when we talk about wide open spaces. This is what they mean. We are wide open spaces.”

Growing Sweet Corn 

The Wagners planted a few cars of sweet corn one year as part of a program with my day job. The company donated seed and farmers played it forward by donating the sweet corn in ways that benefitted their communities. Val and Mark chose to have a big picking party and donate the corn to the state’s Feeding America program.

“We actually plant generally between two to three patches of sweet corn, about one acre to a half acre in size, so about the half the size of a football field or maybe a little bigger. That’s a lot sweet corn… especially if you think about each one of those patches or that side so we’re talking two or three maybe possibly even four football fields of sweet corn. That’s a lot of sweet corn. The last two years Ian – my oldest – and Scott his, his little big brother. They’ve been using the sweet corn, they deliver it to the people in town and whoever’s looking for some and they’ll give my donation for it. And so we’ve provided sweet corn for probably a multi County area here for the last couple years. So that’s really hoping, hoping that this year we get to get the corn in again. And usually it hasn’t been a problem. But we’ve, again been dealing with moisture issues. So we’ll have to see how that that’ll go,” she explains.

This was years ago — the son standing next to Val is the 6’8″ basketball player towering over her in the family photo above. LOL

How do you store sweet corn & other food long-term?  

Picturing acres of sweet corn, even if a lot is given to friends and others, there has to be a lot left for the family. I had to ask how she tucks that away.

Val explains, “if I were to count, I believe we’ve got six or seven deep freezes that we that we have. But of course we raise not only do we raise beef but in the summer during the fair season, my boys raised for each pig so they have their animals. We’re also a hunting family. So we do hunting, when the weather allows and and timing allows. So we have a lot of space to store own food.

“We have a garden that we raised what we can when we can. I enjoy canning and I enjoy preserving food and eating our own food. Not necessarily just out of necessity because we know the closest Walmart to me is about an hour away so it’s not like it’s a drive I take every day. What’s the way our schedules are? I don’t have time to go and with having for growing boys. You know, like I said, Ian’s gonna be 18 Scott is 16 — just had a birthday. Yeah, just forget these things after a while. It was Scott, almost 6′ 8″, 2 hundred and 40 pounds. It takes a lot to fill up those long legs of his. So Evan is 13 and Eli is going to be 11. They put away a lot of food and especially now without having school. We go through enormous amount of food every day.”

She says she freezes a lot of sweet corn (my friend Leah has a great post on how to freeze sweet corn easily!) And she throws it into a lot of different things whether it be chili or a hot dish  / casserole “here there whatever.”

Do you also put tomatoes up and stuff like that? What else? I ask.

“Salsa, tomato juice, bloody Mary mix, you know. Right winter gets cold. So just a whole bunch of different things whatever kind of tickles my fancy at the time the boys like pickles. I’m not I’m not very good at the cucumber thing. I don’t know. Yeah those never turn out real well,” Val admits.

Having Freezers Ready 

Although I don’t have a big deep freezer, the last couple of weeks have led me to think about how I use the freezer space I do have. And I have to admit I haven’t done so well about organizing, but I’m trying to do better. I have a FoodSaver to vacuum seals things which let’s me keep it longer than store packaging and I write on them with a Sharpie.

Val laughs saying she “I probably wouldn’t need five or six freezers if I was better at the organizing. We do we stock them pretty good. We usually raise our animals, like one or two that we know we’re going to put on our own freezer. But then sometimes you might have one that injures itself, you know breaks a leg or something, especially where we’re located that when it’s icy outside like that you have those things. And so you have to be to be ready for it. Because I mean, if all the sudden you’re getting 500 pounds of meat. You can’t be like, well, I’ll just put it in the car overnight and hope it stays frozen. And you don’t have that luxury.” 

We talked with Marybeth Feutz about that decision about whether the cow may be able to heal but Val helped us understand the practical side of if the cow won’t make it.

Getting Meat Processing Done 

Val says they don’t do any slaughter or butchering themselves explaining “We take it all to there’s a butcher shop about 30 miles from here that we’ve worked with for many years that that does a great job for us. We take the animal in they they take care of everything for us. We just tell them what it is. We want how we want the cuts to look much as what like you would do going to your local butcher. Except we know exactly where that animal came from. And we know that what we took in is what we’re getting back. And so yeah, it just makes it a little easier for us, I think to be prepared for it. Because we do know what we’re going to have to have room for. And so that cost maybe for us, it’s not as much as buying it directly from the store, but it’s still a larger upfront cost because you’re paying for the processing of a whole animal, not just the cuts you are looking for.”

A few of our friends actually sell like quarters or halves. Friends at Spring Valley farms around Memphis does that.. they call it freezer beef. Since not many people are going to eat a quarter or a half a cow at once, the put most in the freezer.

Val says people have choices on how to have the animal cut so they get the kinds of cuts they want. “Some people don’t prefer a beef roast, but they want more steaks cut, or maybe they want it all turned into hamburger or whatever it may be. So for those people who who do more of the local, selling directly to, to the people in their communities, you have to be a little more particular about how you set that up. Because kind of like when you have a pig, everybody would like a pig to be 100% bacon, but that’s not possible.”

Focus on Herd Health 

The Wagners have what is called a closed herd. All of the cattle they have on their farm were born there. They sell calves after 11 months or so and will have another round of calving. My niece was there this year for the most intense period of calving and learned a lot!

“We can be very selective as far as bloodlines and, and things like that. Because when you have a closed herd, you want to make sure you don’t have any issues with genetics and, and things being too closely related. So we keep very close records on, you know, what cow was born from, you know, the sire and for the male and the female, the mom and the dad for them and all of that, but it’s super important for us for our cows to be healthy because that we’re looking at the future of our farm. So what we do today, what we’re raising today, we’re hoping is the herd for our boys,” she says.

Val’s always talked about having her farm ready for her boys if any of them want to farm for the next generation.

“Right now it’s looking like at least two are interested in coming back to farm,” she says. “And so we want to do whatever we can to make sure that we’ve set them up in a place that there’s blessed with as many opportunities as we, as Mark and I have been. And so one of the ways we do that, when you’re looking at that herd health is making sure that we are following, you know, our veterinarian’s advice, proper techniques, making sure that we’re checking on them all the time, or we’re very involved in their care. You know, everything is very hands on for us. And so it makes it a lot of work. When you’re looking at your future everyday like that and seen it through the eyes of these boys who are excited and interested in doing that. It doesn’t make it seem like work at all.”

The cattle are moved around a range of pastures 15 miles or so from the house much of the year, but for calving, they want the cows close to the house and barn like Marybeth. She explains:

“in January, everything’s right near the farm here near our house. Usually we start calving about the second week of February. So everything is here until usually around the end of May is when we move things out to pasture. The pasture is about 17 miles from here. So we haul everything out. We used to trail them out and trail and back home, but it takes a lot of work to get them to go that far.

“We have a couple hundred acres of grass that they can eat on warm season and cool season grasses. So that means that the grasses ripen at different times so that there’s a whole bunch of variety of them. For them to eat out there and we have water tanks that they can drink from and we rotate them around so that the grass can recover and different things like that. But our hope is to not have to bring them back home until September, October, depending on what you have to deal with Mother Nature there. So it all kind of depends on what she decides to happen that year. But we leave much pasture for as long as we can bring them back home, graze them on some of the stocks that we’ve harvested if unlike this year, there wasn’t a whole lot of grazing being done because we weren’t done with harvest until late.”

2019 Was a Bad Weather Year  

Farmers throughout the plains and many other areas of the US had especially tough times with the weather. Val explains the rain was historic saying:

“It was flooding that was so severe, we had a wettest spring, summer fall on record ever. We couldn’t we had people who couldn’t remember it ever being like this, where generally we may have a wet spring but then you end up with it. dry patch in the summer where everything dries out pretty well. And it gets pretty hot real quickly. And then you may end up with some moisture again in the fall but we never, there was never really a break. I think the longest we went with maybe four or five days without rain. Yeah. And it wasn’t just like a nice slow rain. It was like this. The the deluge, just tons of rain and a lot of destruction, a lot of washout. We had roads that needed repairing places he couldn’t get to because everything was just so wet. Yeah, I remember graduation last year. We had people who couldn’t get to different graduation receptions because they didn’t have four wheel drive vehicles.”

Thinking about Empty Grocery Shelves 

For so many of us, having millions of acres go unfarmed feels like the type of thing that could cause food shortages but it didn’t. And here we are later looking at shelves in grocery stores that may feel like there’s a food shortage.

As someone susceptible to respiratory issues, I haven’t been shopping in almost a month. I have these lovely people from services like Instacart, who shop for me and dear friends call me on the regular to say, “Hey, we’re going out today and Do you need something?” But sometimes you can’t find flour, sugar, rice, tortillas, chicken, ground beef, etc… food is still coming off of farms, whether it’s yours or somebody else’s, and it’s getting in the system, but it may be channeled off right now for cafeterias and food service or restaurants. So to me, I wonder how much of it is it’s just in the wrong places, but a lot of people are really nervous.

Val says it just doesn’t make sense. “That’s one thing I have to say, living on the farm. I guess my biggest frustration with with the shortages that we’re seeing is that I know that you know, it is that delivery of food, that must be the issue because it’s not the availability. We’re still raising, you know, cattle from beef, there shouldn’t be a shortage. We still have crops that are waiting to be sold that are in storage. You know, we have all of these things. There’s nothing that shouldn’t be available to us because it’s, it’s all readily here. So I work in the town of Ellendale, 15 miles south of us here. Again, a very rural community that coronavirus issues just kind of ramping up here in North Dakota, we’re really kind of far behind when it comes to curve that they talked about and everything else.

“The crazy thing is that even our shelves, the toilet paper is gone, the food is gone. And I can guarantee you that we have no more people in our community than we did before. Right, you now have this ramped up all of these people who who now are fearing that there’s going to be a shortage so they’re creating a shortage.”

Planning Further Out, Eating at Home More 

I think a lot of us have not been planners when it comes to our food. And we have not figured out what should you always have on hand at home so that you can tide yourself over if a big storm came. It’s just like snow every time the freakin snow storms hit right. Everybody goes out, and they buy the same things. And I think this is a little bit like that. People weren’t sure. And suddenly they have children home from school. I mean, suddenly you have four boys home from school all day every day.

Val also plans for her pantry regularly. “We plan the same way as far as making sure that our pantry has the non perishables is the important thing, because you can only plan so far ahead with your milk and things like that, because it does, it has a shelf life. But your things like your, chips and even your bread, things like that you can either put in your freezer or put in the fridge, just to make sure that you have enough to get you through. It goes a long way just to make sure that you know where we live, you’re not always guaranteed you’re going to have a trip to town. And so we make sure that you have enough to get you through a week or two that you can be comfortable and not be missing out on anything. But the big thing is, is that making sure that not only do you have some of those, the staples, but for me, the key is to make sure you have a few things that you’ve put away. That makes the day a little brighter, you know, and it doesn’t have to necessarily be just, maybe it’s some hot chocolate or maybe it’s a popcorn or something.”

Val may not realize how much I love popcorn. I have jars of Ella & Ollie popcorn nearby and bought some great flavored popcorn as I traveled. I have kept hold of one bag but will eat it this week thanks to best by dates! My mom recently made and happily ate a full pan of brownies and I keep a few things like frozen pizza around for days when I just don’t want to cook. 

For me, rice, tortillas and dried beans are critical pantry staples. I also buy those kinds of sausages that I can keep on hand for probably months if I wanted to so long as I haven’t opened the packaging, they’re already smoked and all that kind of stuff. So they really have a nice long shelf life, much less if I froze them. And a pot of red beans and rice always hits the spot for me! 

Val says her “go tos are always mac and cheese. Because my boys are connoisseurs of mac and cheese; noodles, a variety of different noodles. Because it’s amazing just changing the shape of the noodle. You may make this same dish, but if it’s a different shape of noodle, the boys will swear it tastes different.  I just change which noodle I use and it’s a completely different dish, pasta sauce, different varieties of whatever it may be. I always have a ton of pasta sauce. I have a ton of beans on hand as well. So I can always throw together a batch of chili or whatever it may be. Chips. We do a lot of chips because I may make some different dips or different things like that to tide them over. You know right now, you know, at school, they’re used to eating here at seven o’clock when they get up their breakfast. Then at school, they eat at 1120 and then they eat after school and then they have supper. Well, now they eat from 8am to 8pm. And then they have a bedtime snack before they go to bed. So it’s the amount of food that they consume right now. It’s it’s just, I can’t even.” 

Caring for Special Dietary Needs

The Wagners also have additional layers of interesting food issues at their house. Val explains that their youngest Eli, who will soon be 11, has a metabolic issue called OTC.

“Eli has a metabolic condition where his body doesn’t break down protein the way everybody else’s does,” she explains. “And so he has to follow a pretty strict diet of limiting protein and and as we all know, protein is a major building block of all life. And so there’s protein and literally just about everything except for junk food, like, which for him is a win win, because then he can eat all the junk food in the world that he wants to and it’s a free food for him. But it has to limit things like milk and cheese and bread and pastas, and of course, any sort of meat. Having to have things on hand for both both ends of the spectrum makes it very interesting because you know, I’ll have to say, Eli, you can only have like a half a serving of lasagna. Ian, you can eat the last chocolate chip cookie because that’s for Eli. Like, it’s just, all backwards.” 

Everyone is busy. Val works a job in town at a law office and all of the sons play sports. This time of year they have been running hard and had little time at home.

“I think with that, this whole corona virus and the shelter in place and all of these things that was the hardest part was weird just on the back end of basketball season. In fact, our state basketball tournament was postponed due to to everything going on around the country. And so we had been traveling non-stop for the last five weeks and hadn’t been home probably two nights in a row that whole time. We were just getting to the point where I was going to need to do a great big shopping trip to replenish everything. When all of this happened, and it was kind of like, you go in and you realize somebody already beat me to it, there’s nothing left here. And it was crazy because trying to find all of these different things to restock my shelves and it made me really realize that I can’t let it get to that point again, even if I have to, you know, as I’m leaving town, whatever, make sure that I I am stocked up because it it is difficult when you have a larger family to make sure that you get what you need.”

May Need To Consider New Normal 

I think a lot of people felt that this last week or two, especially because they didn’t know how much they would need at home with everybody at home. We never had to had to do this before. And I think now we ought to start looking, at least from my perspective, is how can we and I would say both from people like me off of the farm and people like Val on the farm, help instill a little bit more resiliency in our homes. Some farms are offering direct which I love. I ordered a box of a dozen avocados from my friend Mimi’s farm in California and I saw some more doing direct sales online and some farmers’ markets are open.

And I think more of the food system should be looking at their shifts or pivots. I hope grocery stores and others in the food system are also thinking about this, right? So granted, today a supplier is packaging things and sending it into this channel maybe food service or restaurants. I think a lot should be looking at how do we be more flexible.

I think now I at least feel like I need to slow down. Take some deep breaths. Stop any panic buying, right? It is hard when we all have so much change and you see empty shelves but we need to think less impulse and more resilient.

Supporting Local Businesses

Val says “We don’t have a lack of ability to get these items. Like there’s not we’re creating our own shortage, there isn’t a shortage. Yeah, we just have to be patient. As you know, a grocery store like mine. There’s only so much space that they have, they can’t have.” 

Other grocery stores are an hour away from Val and when I lived in Mississippi it was just over an hour roundtrip. “Generally, I save those may do those shopping trips once or twice a year, I do a lot as much as I can locally just because price-wise it’s comparable when you’re talking about the amount of time you save and things like that. And I prefer to have that option nearby. And when you go through the amount of food we go through, I mean, I don’t ever intend to have milk cows and we go through a lot of milk. So I need to have it, you know, as local as possible as far as being able to pick it up. I understand the panic having somebody in my household that I have to protect, I get that as well. But especially these items that have, you know, a limited shelf life, things like that. It just, it kind of makes me scratch my head a little bit. But there are ways that that you can, you know, mitigate that and when as far as making sure that you have accessibility to to local farms.” 

Val says a lot of farmers like her have freezers and are willing to share when times are hard. And I think we are seeing that with neighbors and friends here in cities too. And some offer beef locally. “When we do that, when we offer any of our beef to neighbors or friends, whatever, maybe we just drop it off at the butcher shop. They take it from there. Yeah, it’s I want to make sure that they have that direct communication with the butcher so they get what they they’re looking for, as far as cuts and all of that goes. And so there are a lot of places where you can do that. And again, there are a lot of places where, you know, what, what we get is all USDA inspected it, you know, passes all certifications and all things like that. It’s all in a licensed facility.” 

What if you want to buy local meat?

I know people with cattle all around St. Louis on different sides of it right? I usually get beef through the grocery store and that’s fine with me I have occasionally gotten it directly from friends. But I imagine some people are trying to decide differently about food and their homes, this is a great time to think about that. Do you want to get some beef locally and just have more on hand? The risk is, is if the freezer goes out, you suddenly have to eat a lot of beef, or you have to get a new one really fast. I think a lot of people are going to be thinking about those and I think the more farmers who are are willing to think about well, somebody wanted to buy one from me, it’s okay.

The question is, farmers have to have them fed out . So not everybody has steers that are raised and ready for the market.  If you, you talk to a farmer in your area or heck, if people really want to know, here’s how to get it, they can just leave a note on the Grounded by the Farm contact form. Help me understand where you are. And I’ll try and find a few farmers in that area. You know, I know a lot of farmers.

Val explains they don’t market that way much because they need to have business they can count on, but they are glad to work with people.  “We don’t do the majority of our marketing that way. Because, one, it’s a very, you know, hot and cold up and down. And someplace where we know, when they’re ready to go to market, they’re ready to go to market. And so I need, we need to make sure we have that stability. And then the other thing is that, when somebody does want to have a beef or a quarter of beef, that doesn’t mean that there’s one ready today, you know, so maybe that’s great. We’ll have one ready for you in June, so that you can have those conversations so that you can plan around it.

“It takes time to make sure that that meat is ready so that it’s the taste and texture and everything is, is, you know, we’re all about food experiences. And as a farmer, I just want to make sure that whatever you get from our farm truly leaves a good taste in your mouth for a farm like that. You know, I want to make sure that you get done eating that night and you have a smile on your face and your stomach is full and and you are grateful to have that experience. So you know, it takes time to get it to that point. So we want to make sure that everything is is done right and that you don’t cut any corners just to make sure that you hit a certain timeframe.”

Find Val Wagner Online 

You can find me online Wag’n Tales (wagfarms.com) is is the blog that I use Right, and I’m getting back into it again. You can find me at @wagfarms on Twitter, Val Wagner or Wag’n Tales on Facebook. I enjoy talking to anybody about agriculture and what we do here. And what’s the future of agriculture may look like? I’m looking forward to seeing the world that my boys leave for the next generation as well.

The post Having Enough Food for a Farm Family Takes Time & Effort appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.