Less weeds means more work?

Well, different work. Because I use the lazy man's weeding strategy, once things get going in the garden, I only have to weed the few blow-ins occasionally, and that means I get to help out with the fun stuff, like making and bagging our Happy Hobo Grass-fed Beef Jerky. Grass-fed beef is better for you, the animal, and the planet. Our latest batch is mostly the very popular Ommegang Hennepin Ale and Jalapeno Jerky, which is available today at the Nectar Hills Farm Store in Cherry Valley, and tomorrow at the Cooperstown Farmer's Market. You can, of course, purchase our grass-fed beef jerky on-line through the Nectar Hills Farm site for now, until I finish working on the jerky web site. Good thing there aren't too many weeds!

Indeed. Then there's Robin's Biscotti, which is now just one of the deserts by Robin that are available at the Rose and Kettle Restaurant here in Cherry Valley, a great restaurant for Cooperstown folks--only a short drive to the NE of Cooperstown. The organic version of the Biscotti, which are made with eggs from Nectar Hills Farm, are also sold by Sonia at the Cooperstown Farmer's Market tomorrow, and at the Nectar Hills Farm Store in Cherry Valley.

Also starting today, the organic Biscotti and our regular (not quite as spicy as the Beer Jerky) grass-fed beef jerky are available at It's All Good Grocery in Cherry Valley.

See? Damn good thing those weeds are under control!

Gourmet Grass-fed Beef Jerky Now on Sale!

Oh so many years ago, we got a food dehydrator and Robin started making beef jerky. Over the years, it evolved into this perfect recipe. Just ask anyone who's tasted it: this is gourmet grass-fed beef jerky.

When we moved back east last year, we started hunting around for grass-fed beef that would make the best jerky. And we found it! Nectar Hills Farm grass-fed beef comes from Highlander cattle, which, because their hair keeps them warm, are naturally lower in fat than other breeds. And, because they're grass-fed, the fat they do have is much healthier--higher in Omega 3's, for one thing.

But the taste! It's the perfect beef for Robin's beef jerky recipes, which now include the regular (which is anything but) and the spice beef jerky made with Ommegang Hennepin Ale (a local brew from Cooperstown) and jalapeño! We use as many organic and/or local ingredients as we possibly can. Please, give it a try! You'll love every bite!

Grass-fed Beef from Nectar Hills Farm

Robin makes the best beef jerky ever. Now that we're moving to grass-fed beef, we've found a new source of delicious top round for our jerky (and sometimes flank steak): Nectar Hills Farm, just a few miles down the road from us. You can buy Robin's jerky at the Cooperstown Farmer's Market on Saturdays, and it will soon be available in several other locations.

Why grass-fed beef? In short, it's better for our health, our environment, and the animal. But from a beef jerky point of view, it just plain tastes better! We highly recommend that if you're looking for grass-fed beef in central New York (say you're on vacation and staying at a Cooperstown vacation rental with a grill), you should contact Sonia, or just stop by her Cherry Valley store while you're over this way (maybe out for a nice dinner at a local gourmet restaurant). Robin's grass-fed beef jerky and hand-made chocolate-dipped organic biscotti are also on sale at the Nectar Hills Farm store.

Another reason we love our new friends Dave and Sonia? They have an awesome pile of not-too-composted manure that includes chicken, horse, and steer manures! It's got a lot of field grass seeds in it, but that's not a big worry. I just spread the manure out, water it, come back in a week and rake--killing thousands of little weeds. Water, wait, and a week later, kill hundreds. Ta Da! No (well, almost no) more weeds!

Busy Building Raised Beds, Making Deposits in the Soil Bank

My friend and organic gardening Guru Mort Mather likes to say that the soil is like a bank account, you can't withdraw unless you make deposits. So, in case you've all been wondering what the hell I've been up to these last few weeks, there you go.

Our new friends, Sonia and Dave of Nectar Hills Farm (web site coming soon), who sell grass-fed meats have a great pile of composted manure (steer, chicken, lamb, goat...) that we've been shoveling into bags and hauling home, where we mix it into the soil in the new raised beds we've been building. I've been meaning to post about this, but after working all day and doing all the other internet work (ironically, also organic) I have to do, I just never had the energy left. Looking at this picture now, it doesn't seem like much, but I don't have a tiller, so I've been turning over chunks of lawn with a straight hoe, chopping them up and mixing with compost, manure, and peat moss. Due to my arthritis, I have to go slow, and let Robin and Spencer do the heavy work. So, it's slow going.

But as you can see from the picture, it's going well. The soil is very clay-like, and the pH is really high (8), so it takes a lot of work to get the pH and the drainage right. Under every bed is a layer of gravel, topped with sand, topped with soil that is almost all peat at the top inch.

One advantage to slow going (and early starting) is that once a bed is prepared, I don't plant in it right away. I water and wait a week to see what weeds can shoot up through an inch of peat moss, then I hoe them under and rake again, repeating the process, and killing all kinds of weeds before they can get going well enough to sap resources from my veggies. This is Mort's weed control trick that I have used ever since I learned it, because I, like Mort, am essentially a lazy person. I don't want to be pulling weeds this summer that I could have killed now, while they're still just babies.

All the cold hardy plants are in and up already: lots of spinach, greens, lettuce, arugula, peas, radishes, carrots and other cold tolerant veggies. I did put some beans and early spring toms in, and then had to cover them for last night and tonight's frost that may or may not happen (didn't happen last night). For some odd reason, the spinach plant I let our little nephew Luca plant is much bigger than all the rest... Must be the something about the enzymes on his little hands!

It's been a while since I had a garden this size, and I'd forgotten how much work it is! Plus, we've been getting started on a grass-fed beef jerky and various baked goods business (yes, we hope to sell the jerky on-line once we've established a local addicted population following. So, I'm exhausted and, in an odd way, happy that it's too cold to even haul the seed starter trays outside today. I'll just stay here with my cold feet in a heating pad and catch up on all the web work I have to do!

The Facts about HR 875

I've heard a lot of worried emails about HR 875, and would like to make sure we all have the facts straight on this bill. So, please read this fact sheet on HR 875 from La Vida Locavore.

Readers of the late great Molly Ivins will note that she often would point out to anyone who said Republicans and Democrats are all alike that food policy is one place where there is a stark difference between the parties. Big corporations are not going to like this bill, and it's not going to hurt farmer's markets or organic standards. But this kind of tough bill on food safety is exactly the kind of thing Ivins would have predicted, what with Democrats in charge and all.

There's an organic "recession" garden on the White House lawn, people! We are going in the right direction for a change. Now get out there and put some manure out! Get your soil tested (our results just came back and I had to get some green sand because I don't have enough K in the soil, and the pH is 8). Sign up for those farmer's markets. Trade veggies for grass fed meat! Join a CSA (or start one)!

Too Organic for Republicans

We moved in here last fall and never really got a good foundation in for the garden. So that's what we're doing now. Since this soil is very clay like (I'm still waiting for the results of my soil test from Cornell), I'm adding a lot of organic matter. But first, since there's a perfect little incline, I'm putting in some terracing (using concrete blocks), back-filled with sand over gravel, so I have great drainage. Hauling composted horse manure from a stable nearby is a lot of fun for Robin, who has to do all the heavy lifting these days.

Reminds me of a cartoon my Uncle Danny drew of Grandpa Turf, saying "What a stroke of luck! Myrt got a job loading concrete blocks!"

So, that's been sucking up our time.

I couldn't resist, though, posting this little story about Republicans worried that Obama's choice for the number two position at USDA is too organic.

Republican lawmakers expressed concern that Merrigan, a Clinton administration official who helped develop USDA rules on what can be sold as organic food, has been too closely associated with organic farming.

What's the matter, GOP? Worried that your chemical company campaign donors won't have enough money to pave your road back to power? Afraid the Monsanto piggy bank is going to dry up? Afraid your anti-green portfolio is going to lose even more value before you can buy that little private island where John Galt lives?

Now that I've had my little laugh, I'm going back outside to shovel my solar powered, mammal generated, composted fertilizer into the new raised beds.

Organic Gardening at The White House

Digging up grass! Step one to any garden going onto your lawn....



What an amazing sight: the first lady out there digging up the White House lawn to put in an organic victory garden. Digging up grass that's well established is hard work. Of course, I'm waiting for the pictures from after the ground-breaking ceremony. I'm sure the staff got in there and prepared the raised bed soil properly. For an 1100 sq. ft. garden, it takes some work. Unless you're looking to get exercise, like I am, just bring in the damn tiller. Here's the NY Times story on the White House garden. I'll keep an eye out for the follow up. I can't think of anything better for the organic food movement to have happen than the President pulling weeds.

I'm terracing my way up the little hill side now. I prefer it, as I can have better drainage near the terrace walls, and plant a better variety of things in a smaller area. I take my time with a little shovel and a big ice scraper, and I cut the hillside out in a brick, which I flip over and rake level.



But this will be the last time I bust my butt turning that former grass patch. My disability limits me, but I always was a lazy gardener. That's why I like to read Mort Mather's organic gardening articles. Once you're established, no-till is the way to go. I just layer on new compost every year, maybe poke it a little with a pitch fork.

Funny, our seeds and starter trays showed up today, and I've been planting this afternoon, watching birds show up so fat with eggs that they won't fly away when I go out there. I got a chance to think back over the years, all the gardening I've done in different places like the mountains near LA, Hawaii, and now here in Zone 5a. All the years of advocating organic agriculture (my organic gardening web site was one of the first), and here we are, a first lady starting an organic food garden on the White House lawn.

Amazing.

Organic no-till agriculture will save the world!

A story in the Christian Science Monitor about no-till organic agriculture caught my eye:

New way to farm boosts climate, too

Once I've established my raised or terraced beds (a muddy job that I'm currently devoting a couple of hours a day on--as much as my arthritis will allow), I follow an organic no-till method on a micro-scale. This is my first year up here in zone 5, but the parts of the garden that I didn't make into a cold frame were covered in leaves. This fall, I'll plant a cover crop that I can just knock down, use as mulch, or rake away. I'm a little worried about seeds becoming weeds in my planting area, but I figure using Mort's method of weed control (water, rake, wait, repeat) will help. Plus, I'll be adding manure and compost on top of last years soil, so that will help too.

If a cover crop is too much work, I recommend just covering your whole garden in layers of manure and straw. The worms will do a lot of the "tilling" for you, coming up to get the decomposing organic matter which they eat as they tunnel back down, leaving pathways for water to get deep into the spongy soil they leave behind.

In this article, the guys who developed the tractor attachment discovered the process by accident, as doing this kind of thing on a large scale is a whole different animal than what we small scale home gardeners have been doing for a long time now. As far as reducing one's carbon footprint goes, gardening at home is hard to beat. The only oil used is to get the seeds and manure to my house. No tractors. No trucks full of food. Just a big garden full of fresh vegies waiting for me to go out and pick! And, it forces me to do my garden yoga exercises!

It is good to see these farmers doing their best to help the world, though. The fact that this method stops runoff and topsoil erosion is enough to make me want to support it. The carbon sequestering is a bonus!

Eat Your Organic Vegetables

My friend Mort Mather grows organic vegetables for his son's southern Maine restaurant. Mort and his wife Barbara do a lot of eating. Who wouldn't? Delicious organic food is central to their lives. And yet they are slim and fit, and will probably live to be a hundred.

In his recent post, How to Lose Weight to his Happy Blog, Mort explains his theory of eating well, and staying fit.

Our theory is that if the body is not getting something it needs, it will send out a signal asking for more food until the deficient nutrient is ingested. Since our body is not specific in its request we just keep eating. Actually we have found that we sometimes crave something that we figure our body needs, but it is safer to just provide the body with complex food regularly.

Complex food includes whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and honey or maple syrup instead of sugar. I'm guessing they avoid high fructose corn syrup.

Investing in an Organic Pest Control System

This summer, our slightly inclined backyard will become a terraced, raised bed, intensive organic garden, producing enough food to keep our family, and friends, in fresh produce as early as mid-spring, through the summer, and into next winter. The small area I managed to build up when we moved in in August will be quadrupled, or more if you count the pumpkin patch I'm planning. I'm already making arrangements to get a load of manure dumped right onto the snow, as I've seen the local corn farmers doing already.

Of course, this sudden transformation of yard will be a beacon to the local insect population, especially if any of my plants are weakened by cold weather, drought, or nutrient deficiency. I'll try to protect them, plant them at the right time, water if I have to, and make sure I've put enough manure and compost in the soil to keep them healthy. But if you grow it, the bugs will come try to eat it.

So, this winter, I've been investing in a locally integrated and organic pest control system: birds. I've spent about $10 so far on suet and seeds (avoiding thistle, which the finches love, but often pass whole, leading to more weeds to pull). The most numerous species by far are the intelligent state bird of Maine and Massachusetts, the Black-capped Chickadee. They are voracious insect eaters in summer, when I will stop providing suet for their protein source. The Chickadees especially love mosquitoes, which won't really hurt plants, but do hurt the gardener.

Birds are an elegant solution to pest control, but humans, of course, screw up the system. Pesticides are bad news for many reasons, not the least of which is that they harm bird populations. When I was young, I had an organic epiphany when I saw dead lady bugs that would have eaten the aphids we were trying to kill with the stuff that killed the lady bugs. Now I wonder why anyone would want to spray a synthetic, petroleum derived chemical that depletes bird populations in order to kill the bugs that the birds would eat: yet another interminable succession of absurdities.

Other birds that will provide organic pest control in our garden include the American Goldfinch, the slate-colored Juncos, the Blue Jays, the White-breasted Nuthatch, the Northern Cardinals, and various sparrows. I'll still put out some black oil sunflower seeds (maybe even plant some black oil sunflowers) to keep them all hanging around, but if they want some protein, they'll have to eat my bugs.

Think Local, Buy Local

One of the great things about moving to the central leatherstocking region of New York (we're near Cooperstown) is great, local, fresh food, like the local eggs that we love so much that Robin sent a card to the lady who gathers them. We buy those eggs, and lots of other terrific fresh, local, organic food at It's All Good Grocery in Cherry Valley.

I grew up in rural Arkansas. We had a big garden, a horse, a cow sometimes, pigs most of the time (and seeing how smart they are is a big reason I don't eat pork anymore, but that's another post for another day). Of all the great food we get from Cindy, Terry, and Bill, it's the eggs I love the most. They carry local eggs from several different places, but we really love Coralee's...

In these hard times, when people are tightening their belts, staying home to eat more meals, I sure hope that small, local organic groceries become more popular. Eating out is so expensive that you could eat all organic, if you cooked at home, for the same money as a dinner out would cost. In these times of concern for sustainability and a green economy, remember that all of those concerns are already being addressed by your local organic, natural, and sustainable grocery.