From farm to city...the final chapter.

My time at the farm is up. Back to society, the 'real world' and the fast pace of the city. It's been kind of a culture shock to move back even after 6 months. Before I launch into my current thoughts, I still have more fun things to write about!

One thing that I like about the farm is being exposed to all sorts of new fruits and vegetables. I tried tatsoi, summer squash, collard greens, kale, swiss chard, a number of herbs, and tomatoes to name a few. Wait, did I say tomatoes?? Before coming to the farm I never liked store-bought tomatoes. The thing that bothered me the most was the texture and bland flavor. When we started getting tomatoes I was a little bit skeptical. How different could they be? I will never question the trying something home-grown again. It's like night and day. Our tomatoes are firm, full of flavor, and even slightly sweet. It's like eating candy! Never in a million years did I ever see myself eating a whole tomato plain! Something that's discussed in food circles is how certain vegetables lend themselves to being selected by us just because of how they look. Tomatoes are a great example. When ripe, they're a bright red with a sweet taste. Not to say that a head of broccoli isn't desirable but it definitely isn't something more people look to for a snack on it's own. This is discussed at length in Michael Pollan's book The Anatomy of Desire.

I've mentioned that I was in charge of the chicks on the farm. We have close to 7 different breeds which looks cool when they're running around. By the time I left, they were comfortable enough with us that they were free-ranging around the dorm, running after us when we passed over the road walking to the dorm or when they wanted to follow us out of the dorm to do work. It was like having 50 velociraptors at your feet (they kind of look like small raptors). Something I'd like to do in the future is keep a few chickens at my house. It's an increasing trend that people are taking to. Chickens lay an egg a day and it's legal to keep them in your backyard (hens, not roosters). Usually your neighbors won't know you have them. I've heard about coops that are big enough for a few chickens. One perk that people may not think about is that they naturally eats a lot of bugs. It's a win-win situation.

Something fun that I got to do a week ago was help tend to our bee boxes. In the back of our farm we have about 7 active hives. We have some hobby keepers that come and help us to tend to our bees a few times a year. During the winter the bees are fairly sedate. When the heat comes they become much the opposite. We start tending to them in May and the honey is ready by the middle to end of July. In order to get close to the boxes we had to suit up with thick gloves and a sexy, white jumpsuit. Before walking to the hives the guys warned us that our bees are fairly aggressive. They weren't lying. When we got to the first hive, the bees started flying around my gloves and trying to get their stingers through the leather. It was a weird feeling to know that they were so close but couldn't do anything. In order to calm them down, we used a smoker. It's a can that you add grass or anything that'll burn to, start a fire, and squeeze a bag accordion style to push smoke out. Each box is called a super. Before opening an active super we'd blow a good amount of smoke in to calm them. It works well. In each box there're about 7-8 panels that the bees can use to create combs and eventually honey. The hives can consist of between 1 and 4 supers, basically as many as you can reach when stacked on each other. We have 5 active hives this year (compared to our 2 last year) which will be good for the farm.

Some information about bees and their hives:
There are male and female bees. The males are called drones and the females are workers. The males have no stinger and instead have a male part. Their sole purpose is to impregnate the queen. A hive will 'take', meaning become active, only if there is a queen in the stack of supers. You order a queen in a wooden block that traps the queen by some candied sugar. In order to get her out, the bees must eat their way in. In order to impregnate the queen, the drones fly to about 2000 feet and mate with her. The type of honey that you get from the bees is determined by what types of flowers the bees get their pollen from. Most of the honey from the Texas area is wild flower honey. An interesting fact about honey is local honey is good for allergies. Because the bees take pollen from local plants, if you eat the honey, your body builds up a natural immunity to those plants. If you have bad allergies, have a few spoonfuls of local honey every morning!

The last day I was at the farm we took a field trip to the Texas AtM ag. research center at Stephenville. The night before we stayed at a friend's ranch house. This family has an acre of lavender that they're using for culinary and essential oils. The field looks beautiful with evenly spaced rows and bees buzzing from plant to plant. We helped pick some for a few hours. It was a very therapeutic experience. The scent and plant colors were very subtle. Apparently there's a fungus that has made it's way to Central Texas so between plants we had to was our cutters with vinegar.

The research center was a cool experience. We first got there and got shown some different types of animal forage. They showed us three patches of grasses: one was a legume, one was regular grass, and one was an overgrowth of all types of native perennials and annuals. They explained how we have a very European sense of what a field should look like: mowed down, no weeds, pretty much like most yards. When you're dealing with animals it's important to have the crazy overgrowth variety. They talked about how having many different types of plants is ideal for animal forage because they can get the right nutrients at all times of the year. You want your animals to eat the grasses when they have the maximum amount of protein available. After a certain stage, the quality of the forage decreases that the grass flowers. Like I was saying, having different grasses ensures that at different times of the year different grasses will be hitting this balance. They took us to the goat and cow research area where they discussed how they test different types of forage by placing bags of food directly into the animals rumen. Goats and cows are ruminants (we are monogasrtics). A ruminant has a 4-step digestion process that works to break down the forage effectively. The rumen is the first chamber in this process. There is a hole cut directly into the rumen where they literally put the forage into. The quality of the food is determined by how long it takes to break down: the less time the higher the quality. We then took a trip to the peanut area. At the center they have the foremost person in the peanut world. Listening to him was about as close to the guy on Best In Show as you can get. He has been to most of South America and has about 3000 species of peanuts being preserved at a center in Washington. He told us about an ongoing argument he's having with one of the other experts about which was the first peanut species. He also had a lot of crazy stories about being stranded, being shot, and dealing with different governments. Needless to say, I don't think I'll ever learn more about peanuts again. There was some research being done on wine grapes as well. There's a disease that inhibits a vine from receiving nutrients from the root stock which is transmitted by a grass hopper. An entire plantation can be infected in a matter of days. They're testing a liquid solution that would render the plants immune. All in all, I enjoyed the research center.

Now that I'm back into normal society my body has to get used to eating processed food again. The first thing my family did after leaving the farm was going to lunch at a greasy burger place. I was sick for 48 hours afterward. I'm used to eating things cooked from scratch from bread to bean and rices dishes. This makes me sound like a food elitist but I think that it's more due to how informed I am about the food system. I understand that one thing that makes it hard for people to eat this way is the lack of time. It's really inexpensive to by a bag of dry beans and some veggies to make chili but it's so much easier to go buy a can of chili at the store that's packed with preservatives and salts that could be controlled by the consumer (i.e. you).

One thing that struck me is not just what corn is used for but also for how little you get from one stalk. Driving around the US there's a ton of corn being grown. In fact, if you see something besides corn, you'd be lucky. It takes up a ton of nutrients and each stalk only puts out 1 or 2 ears. 1 or 2 ears from those beautiful plants. No wonder we grow so much of it! Like I was saying earlier with tomatoes, corn is sweet and, when it grows, it is very majestic. One problem with it is the government gives the farmers subsidies to grow the stuff. Hypothetically, farmers may get $1.00 per ear but put in $1.29 per ear. Because of the emphasis we have on it, the government may give them $1.00 per ear on top of the initial $1.00 they get from selling it (the values I used are made up, I don't know exactly what they are but you get the point). They would otherwise not make a profit they just don't know anything else.

Something else that's been big is Round-up ready varieties of plants (this is the Monsanto controversy). I've read several articles recently that state that pests are now building an immunity towards Round-up. What does this mean for our food industry? We're gonna have to go back to farming using 'organic' practices. Another problem with our food system is the fact that we have to label food as organic. Organic means that it's grown the way we used to farm (for the past 2000 years minus the last 50 years). It's ridiculous that we have to worry about pesticides leeching into the foods we eat. If it's that harmful, it shouldn't be used at all.

I think a root of the farming problem is that very few people grow up wanting to be farmers anymore. It's looked down on as a non-profitable enterprise that is best left to uneducated individuals. Arguably, farming is one of the most important things that we do. It is what sustains us. The number of farms should be increasing at a rate that reflects our rate of growth as a country. If the number of farms stay the same but the population increases by 20%, there's a problem. If you are a farmer, your lifestyle won't be glamorous by any means but I know for a fact that you will be a happy person. They live simple lives and get to work outside. The hours are long but the impact is very tangible.

As y'all can tell, I have a lot of opinions about what our food system is and what is should be. If you'd like to discuss it with me, I'm more than willing.

Now that I'm back in Houston I'm getting to intake all the information that I learned over the past 6 months. I did all sorts of random things like learning to knit, lasso, take care of rabbits, chickens, how to grow my own vegetables and also how to cook among the many other things. I definitely went on a cooking odyssey. I cooked bread, desserts, meals for 25+ people, I even lost sleep some nights because I dreamt up recipes and was so excited to make them. There's also a ton about herbs and natural remedies that I learned. All in all, I wouldn't change anything that I did at the farm. I didn't even mention the crazy people that I had the chance to meet. From other intentional community members from across the states to ex-Hells Angels, I met a range of people. I have a crazy beard and tattoo (that's right, I'm hardcore). If you ever have the chance to go to a farm, I'd suggest it. It's an art that is becoming lost among combines and grain silos. You'll thank your lucky stars.

Thanks to everyone who read my blog and gave me great comments and encouragement. Most importantly, I want to thank everyone at the farm and, the few, who visited me and made my time at the farm. I hope everyone finds the chance in their life to get lost and try something that they enjoy.

One week and counting...

As the title of this post states, this is my last week here on the farm. I'm wrapping things up and trying to have fun in the process. I've been plagued with rashes and infections but still managing to work at full steam through them. I currently have a bad strain of poison ivy. One of the other people here has the same thing. I had poison ivy that I got over a week or so ago and woke up this morning with a swollen left eye. Natural remedies have worked to a certain extent but I think, for my rash, I'm gonna go with Western medicine. I got a shot in the butt on Sunday morning ('roids!!!!).

I mentioned the poison ivy...I got it while working at our orchard when the UMich people were here. Our orchard is 700 trees large. We have nothing but pecan trees. They're separated into 3 sections: the upper, middle, and lower orchard. Pecans produce bi-annually. If a tree produces this year, it won't produce a good nut until two years from now. When we have on years we get close to 15000 pounds of pecans. On off years we may get 100. This is normal for pecans. There's a lot of testing that goes on when looking for pests. There're pecan nut case bearer moths that get into the nuts and make them infertile. All around Texas farmers test for these, using a white grid to see how many appear on it, and report back to the state where the spread can be tracked. It is important to kill the moths within 3 days of them burrowing to prevent contamination. I went for two days and weed whacked around irrigation poles. In the Fall the pecans are harvested. In the Winter, the orchard lies dormant until April. Now our pecan intern is going full steam ahead on getting the orchard ready for this Fall's harvest. Getting the weeds down and spreading fertilizer are two things that have been done recently. Apparently last year we only had one half of the trees produce due to a late frost. The frost only affected the upper orchard meaning that, now, the upper and lower orchard will be producing on alternate years (which would mean only looking after half the trees at once). The middle orchard hasn't been taken care of over the past few years so it's not producing very much. This is mainly due to the sheer amount of trees we have there.

A few weeks ago we went swimming at the orchard just before a storm rolled in. The orchard is set on the Brazos River. We ventured down to the river front to find a sift flowing current and a ton of mud. We mad a rope swing and swam across the river. The current was so strong that by the time you made it over to the other side you were at least 100 feet down from where you started. Swimming back across was even harder. We left the orchard in time to watch a major storm float across the sky and feel the cold front sweep in.

The garden is transitioning from winter to summer vegetables. We have tomatoes, peppers, okra, melons, squash, peas, and corn either in the ground or coming up. The garden crew's been working on getting the tomatoes and peas trellised. The finally finished Friday. It is important that tomato pants have outside support because of how heavy they get. If the fruit is on the ground it is easy prey for insects and pests. Something interesting about corn that I didn't know is that each plant puts out 1 or 2 ears of corn (if you're lucky). There's so much effort put into growing it and it's found in almost everything...it's surprising that we chose this plant to working with. Okra is something that grows so quickly that we have to harvest it every day to prevent it from getting woody.

I've got a rabbit that I'm taking home with me. It's a long-haired mixed breed. Her name is Marshmallow! I've gotten really attached to the rabbits since I've been here. We're expecting two of our rabbits to give birth any day now. I'm afraid it's too hot but only time will tell. They're so soft and have more of a personality than most people would think...they're just not the smartest creature in the world.

My chicks are doing well. They're getting to be quite big for 10 week old animals. We have a grab-bag of breeds. It's interesting to see how fast each of the breeds grows. Some are more suited for meat while some may be better for egg laying. I'll post some pictures on my next post.

My plot is starting to bear fruit, finally! We have corn, peppers, tomatoes and chickpeas coming in. Chickpea pods are huge! Our lentils didn't make it. Since they were grown using store bought lentils I'm not surprised. I hope that some of everything is ready before I leave next Saturday. I'll be doing a container gardening class when I get to school to help students learn how to grow their own food even in their rooms.

We had some cool classes these past few weeks. We had a 3-part class that covered on-farm trials. Neil Rowe Miller, the farm executive director, talked about the experiments he's done in Haiti, Uganda, and Central Michigan. Haiti and Uganda were tailored to seeing what western farming techniques could be used to help increase their yield. In Haiti they farm on sloping hillsides. This can lead to gullies and land slides. Neil went there and helped them setup barriers that would promote soil buildup to build terraces. These flat terraces would then be easier to farm and hold moisture better. In Central Michigan, Neil worked with farmers to determine if more nitrogen on corn would increase the yield. He used a GPS receiver and a sprayer that changed nitrogen flow every 30 feet. He found out that the weather conditions affected the crop more than nitrogen levels. We also had a class on looking at fecal samples. We went to a community college nearby and diluted fecal samples to determine if the animals have any parasites. We found that some of our animals had a lot. It was a pretty cool experience overall.

A few weekends ago I had weekend duty which meant a day off! I biked into West, Texas, a small Czech settlement about 10 miles up the road. They're known for their bakeries. Most everyone sells cinnamon rolls, kolaches, and meat. Some high school students had come to volunteer and gave me the low down: Gerik's is where it's at. I decided to give it a try. I was not let down! I got four kolaches and a cinnamon roll. Oh man, all I can say is that biking back to the farm was much harder than biking there!

My time here at the farm is coming to an end and I can say I don't regret anything that's happened so far. I'm sure the next week will be the same way.