Strength in Spring

Thursday was the first day of spring. Hurray for glimpses of dawn, wherever we can find them.  Day 9 of official pandemic. Lots of things in the world are bleak, AND not immediately going to get better, but I don't need to tell you that. But friend, dear ones--remember Aslan's montage of "Courage, Dear Heart(s)." 

Right now, this week planting seeds seemed like both the simplest and one of the most important things I have ever done. Here in eastern Wisconsin, where our frost date can be quite the gamble, the fact that most things can now be begun indoors (skip the squash, melons and tomatoes) was a grace. Cali helped and she's been very dutifully watering them. She did say that, "it's much better to plant seeds because then you get to watch them the whole way, otherwise you are just watching them go in the ground. I'm trying to be a better, more attentive gardener and learn from past mistakes. So here's some tips I'm incorporating if you want to plant along. Also, start SOON. I'm already encountering multiple seed sites that are selling out or partially or totally closed. 

Tip 1: Buy/swap great seeds

Here are some great options: 

https://gardentowerproject.com/product/garden-towers-container-seeds-collection/ (Great starter variety pack)

https://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/seed-index/collections/itty-bitty-veggie-garden.html (Really fun later season for small spaces and containers)

https://sustainableseedco.com/products/grannys-garden-seed-collection?variant=3719682850856 (For heirlooms) 

Tip 2: Paper towel pre-sprout

I'm trying this this year, after already having started many of my seeds but this is genius. The easiest way to kill your seeds is in those first few weeks when they dry out or mold. 

Tip 3: Sprinkle don't soak

For those first few weeks when your seeds are extra vulnerable try a squirt bottle instead of a watering can. You don't want them to get too wet and rot. 

Tip 4: Good potting mixture

There's lots of ways to go about this and it's true that vermiculite and peat are not the most ecological sources. Coconut fibers also travel a long way. However, these things are readily available at garden stores and not bad choices for beginners or quick starts. However, I'm also hoping to add this local moss product to help protect against fungal action in trial this year-- also super curious how this works out ecologically. It’s also cheaper to buy (if you don't have any available) and mix compost and topsoil with a small amount of sand. You can also plant in bags of topsoil directly. 

Tip 5: Grow lights

If starting indoors, don't skip this step. I'm trying out these.

Tip 6: Starter pots

There have been years when I have made pots out of toilet paper rolls or newspaper. While your kids are out, it could give them something to do. Perk is that you can start your seeds in bigger pots. However, the trays with the lids are convenient and do help keep good humidity. 

Tip 7: Grow up not out

There are lots of ways to accomplish vertical gardening, but when you get ready to transplant, (or you live some lucky place that is already warm enough to direct sow, growing up helps to maximize space and sometimes reduces pests, or allows for more intensive plantings.  

What are you planting? How are you growing hope?

Mill to Market

To my knowledge there are no working water grain mills in Oklahoma. However, in visiting family in Arkansas in recent years one theme that has emerged is learning about old mills. Talk about innovations in sustainable energy!

The constant thumping is a reminder of the wheel slapping the water and pulling in bucketfuls of water to spin and make the internal wheel grind up grain. Watching the internal mill turn is mesmerizing to kids and adults alike.

Image in Public Domain.

Just beyond Oklahoma, near Rogers, Arkansas you can visit the fully operational War Eagle Mill where a fully functional water wheel grain mill operates on a site where this was first done in 1832. The lumber mill that was also formerly here provided most of the lumber to build most of Northwest Arkansas. Lessons in trials and tenacity can be learned from this business that washed away in 1848, was a source of strategic conflict between the Confederate and Union army before the Confederates burned it to the ground in 1862, and burning again in 1924. Despite historic hardships, in 1974 the mill was rebuilt. Today the Roenigk family continues to recognize the importance of this historic and sustainable place and through their business provides a market for local organic farmers, while continuing to provide healthy whole grain options for family suppers.

Enjoy the restaurant above the scenic river, admire the architecture of the bridge, bring a fishing pole, learn about outhouses. And while you are there make sure to go and visit the adjacent Hobbs State Park and their wonderful nature center.

Some other mills that are fun to visit:

• The historic Inn at the Mill in Fayetville where you can see the site of the oldest business in Arkansas.

• The Old Mill in North Little Rock. While this site is purely a historical fabrication, it still provides a great visualization about how these old mills worked and what buildings built in this region in the early 1800s would have looked like. The faux wooden sculptures and elaborate bridges created by Dionico Rodriguez are quite amazing. It captivates the imagination and also has stunning grounds maintained by the local master gardener chapter. 

Where do you like to go, in Oklahoma, or otherwise to visit historical agro-businesses? What do you love about stone ground grains?

Dairy Dual Part 2: Hormones, Antibiotics, and Raw Milk

PART 2. (For part 1 go here).

...In addition to the facts that small scale dairies are 1) more humane, 2) produce less waste, and 3) can have better economics here are a few more benefits of small scale dairies:

Milk bottles. Public domain.

4) Less use of rGBH, antibiotics, and other hormones

Since 1993 the growth hormone rGBH has been available to increase milk yields  in U.S. dairies (although it has never been approved in Canada or EU countries). This hormone is thought to compromise human health by altering hormone balances and potential causing an array of cancers. In cows it increases mastitis (infections of the milk ducts) and is thought to perpetuate the over-use of feedlot antibiotics and the corresponding antibiotic resistant pathogens. See Food and Water Watch’s How artificial hormones damage the dairy industry and endanger public health. In 2007, 42.7% of large-scale dairies used rGBH compared to only 9% of small scale dairies. 1 (One concern is that despite the public increasingly demanding rGBH-free milk many school districts continue to serve it). 

Where the Cows Come Home

Sometimes you get a glimpse into the rural Americana of yore. My friend Paige's small dairy is just such a place, a place worth preserving. One of the few remaining small scale dairies in the United states. At the end of a dirt road, way out in the country, behind a garage full of antique cars and a steel building, rusting a little on the edges, is a little dairy started by her grandparents thirty ago.

Here you can find Jerseys, Holsteins, and a few cows that are crosses between the two. Here, unlike most American dairies, the land has been in the family for years, the infant cows are kept on site and dine on real cow's milk, instead of formula. Here the cows get to frolic in green grass and enjoy pasture chow. Here my friend dreams about expanding her business to selling farm fresh cheese, butter, yogurt, and kefir. 

Here three little boys dart around on their bikes and chase kite strings, dragon flies, and each other when their mom comes twice a day to do the milking. Here throngs of preschoolers and homeschool children get to gather to learn a real-life lesson of where their milk comes from.

"Dog."

"Dog". My one year old daughter greets the fuzzy creature before her with the only animistic noun she knows, while her one year old buddy leans in at eye level towards another baby cow who will likely lick his face. "Mama, do baby cows come out their mama's butts?" my three year old asks, prompting a discussion about birth while he chases a chicken behind a tree.

The parlor. Down in the pit.

We look at the large tank on the outside of the dairy that pumps in feed snacks through pipes on the ceiling for the cows during their daily milkings. The thirty milking cows produce milk that goes into the 1,250 gallon tank which is drained every other day by the milk truck who takes it to the milk cooperative where it will go to Oklahoma companies to make milk, cream, ice cream, and cheese. 

We go into the parlor, the section where the cows come to get milked. The stalls are in a herring bone pattern, coming out like ribs from a central spine. The farmers show us the lower section, the pit, where they go down where the udders are at eye level. The kids are fascinated by the tubes and wires. Pipes bring water and bleach for sterilization, corn for the cows, and then other pipes take the milk out from the milk cups. Here the cows enter on both sides of the U and go into their individual stalls. Cups about the length of a hand are placed on each udder. The feed comes in and the milk goes out. And then the cows, with a tap on the foreleg, (or in our case, the kids) run down the alley on the back slope towards the pasture- where the cows come home.  

Where the cows come home

The cows weren't the only ones giving out kisses...

Creating a "Farm City": A responsive book review

Recently, kind of by accident, I had the pleasure of discovering and meeting Novella Carpenter.  I was so impressed with her book Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

and can't wait to visit and revisit her new book The Essential Urban Farmer. I was impressed at her poetry and honesty about the realities of raising and butchering animals. And the whole thing combined with my reading of Green Metropolis had me wishing for a Utopia in which city dwellers can only have yards if they will relegate and utilize them for something with ecological usefulness: habitat, water purification, food sources for local organisms, or food production by themselves or their green thumb neighbors. [Update: For a good laugh, go here to see what God might think of your yard] Everyone else must live in hip urban apartments...One can wish.

Cheaper Nuggets: A series about fun and frugal farm food

By Hannah Harder

This begins the swashbuckling tales about one eco-mom's shortcomings and successes in getting her family to eat and learn about sustainable local sourced food. 

Cheaper nuggets!

The plethora of sustainable food choices that has grown in Oklahoma in just a few short years is increasingly delicious. Admittedly, in my attempts to eat well and in line with my convictions I have been known to way overspend on groceries, particularly because I am much more prone to drooling over recipes rather than dabbling with receipt books. I have also too frequently bought into the lies that sustainable food is usually extra expensive and inconvenient.

However, quite by accident, when adding up the ingredients I used for my first post, I was astonished when it came out to be cheaper than a fast food restaurant!