Text 18043, 110 rader
Skriven 2008-12-17 14:20:42 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
  Kommentar till text 17931 av Dave Drum (1:124/311)
Ärende: Wheat Berries                                            [1]
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Hi Dave,

 DD> little chunks of crunchy stuff in the whole (100%) wheat and are listed
 DD> as"wheatberries" on the label/ingredients list. Probably those are
 DD> incompletely ground grains of wheat, then.

 RH> Sounds likely. They probably left some unground purposefully to give it
 RH> that "crunch" factor.  I could do that too. (G)

 DD> We do have a couple organic/old style farms in the area - which use no
 DD> pesticide, limestone and manure for fertiliser, etc. And they rotate
 DD> crops as we used to do when I lived on the farm 50 or more years ago.
 DD> So they raise wheat, rye and oats. But, I have no idea how they
 DD> sell/market it.

 RH> They might have a web site you can check out--or make a visit to them
 RH> to find out what they have.  This time of year, if they raise apples,
 RH> you might get some fresh squeezed cider too.

 DD> They might ... but, only if they have youngish family members coming
 DD> along. Bv)=

There might be some--or they may hire a young person to help put one
together.

 DD> I do know that Cockleburr Farm (which I have mentioned/described here
 DD> before) is as profitable as a similar sized operation which single
 DD> crops, fertilises heavily, sprays pesticides willy-nilly and finances
 DD> huge "modern" equipment. Cockleburr Farm uses older (and less
 DD> expensive both to buy and to operate) smaller equipment, uses manure
 DD> from their cattle/hog operations for fertilizer along with occasional
 DD> applications of crushed limestone to adjust the pH of the soil. But, I
 DD> have no idea if they are certified organic or not.

 RH> I'd rather go with the older methods; the single crop, heavy fertiliser
 RH> & pesticide use is not good food.  The certification for organic
 RH> farming proccess takes several years so Cockleburr Farms may be in the
 RH> proccess of getting it.

 DD> Cockleburr has been a going concern since the early to mid 1970s. I
 DD> have written of them here previously. Started as an experiment to see
 DD> if "modern" mega-farm techniques were any better (for the farmer and

Do they give tours? Sounds like an interesting operation to visit.


 DD> his bottom line) than the old school way of doing things. The farmer
 DD> split a 720 acre farm into two 360 acres smaller units and farmed one
 DD> with mega-equipment, single cropping, "modern" techniques. The other
 DD> (home) unit he went back to using smaller equipment, rotating crops,
 DD> minimal fertiliser ... and that mostly manure and limestone, raising
 DD> farm animals - including hogs, cattle (but, no dairy operation), a few
 DD> sheep and goats, chickens, domestic geese and ducks, and guinea fowl.

Quite an assortment of critters there. Old MacDonald would be in his
element there.

 DD> At the end of 5 years they did the numbers and found that while the
 DD> absolute bushel-per-acre yields on the "traditional" unit were lower,
 DD> the bottom lines were nearly identical. And the traditional farming
 DD> technique gave better product, was kinder to the land, etc, etc, etc.

Of course but as the nation grew, the mega farmers took over.  Now they
produce enough wheat and such like that some can be exported. But, it's
not the same quality as the traditional farm raised so--good riddance.
(G)


 DD> His entire operation is (and has been for some time) done with
 DD> traditional methods and non-mega equipment.

Plowing by horse or oxen?

 DD> I do know that their beef and pork and chookens, ducks, guinea fowl
 DD> are sold locally as hormone-free, naturally raised, free-range ... at
 DD> premium prices. And that they never have surplus animals that they are
 DD> forced to sell at a discount.

 RH> No surprise there; a lot of people are going back to good food, grown
 RH> in ways that will not harm either the environment or their health.  I'd
 RH> probably check them out if I lived anywhere near the area.

 DD> Which is a nice extra benefit to their bottom line ... over the break
 DD> even with mega-farmig techniques on the cash-grain side of the house.
 DD> It also make the traditional farm more monetarily more attractive than
 DD> the mega-farm operation.

It's definately a better way of living.


 DD> To quote one of the memorable things that Lloyd said about his
 DD> satisfaction with the outcome of the experiment (the one that has
 DD> stuck in my mind, anyway) "No farmer goes into farming for an easy
 DD> life. But, it's nice to know that my work is making my family more
 DD> comfortable in their life and not paying interest on huge machines and
 DD> huge fertiliser/herbicide bills to make some banker's bottom line
 DD> bigger."

Sounds like a right smart fellow.

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly@earthlink.net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... Proverbs 3:13 | Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,...

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