A year already?

Today is the 1 year anniversary of the day we moved to our farm! I can't believe it has already been a year, it seems like no time at all. Being that it is an anniversary it is time to look back and reflect.

We currently have:
4 miniature goats (3 nigerian dwarfs and 1 mini nubian)
2 sheep
16 chickens (what? really? how did I get so many chickens?)
5 guineas
2 inside cats


Animals sold or given away in the last year:
5 meat birds
1 duck named Thyme
1 sheep named Andromeda
1 rooster named Spike


Fatalities on the farm:
1 duck named Sage
Scissor Beak (my sweet deformed meat bird)
Kudzu (boy do we miss her)
5 meat chickens I butchered that are now in the freezer


Crops that did well:
Tomatoes
Zucchini
Sweet Potatoes
Spaghetti squash


Structures built:
2 stalls in the run-in
A goat climbing structure
A small chicken run for the Mille Fleurs
4 raised beds


For one year, I'm happy with the progress on the farm. I'm less happy with my progress in getting established in the community. If you are my friend on Facebook, you read my post about being lonely and not having many friends that I can get together with. I will need to make a bigger effort to become more established in the community in the next year.

Fall on the farm

Calendula update

A few people have asked how Calendula is doing, so I thought I'd post an update. She is doing great. Her feathers are growing back in and she is a normal chicken in her behavior. She is still living in the house, but has been spending her days outside in a puppy playpen I have.


Here she is before I put a roof over the pen.
She has a boyfriend! Our beautiful Dusty Miller has decided Calendula is his girl. He hangs out by her most of the day. They talk through the bars but haven't been out together yet. Yarrow won't let Dusty have any of the other girls.


We are moving Calendula out to the run-in today. She will be staying in her pen out there for at least 4 more days while the other chickens get to know her. She should be joining the flock this time next week.

So excited!

I've always wanted some Mille Fleur cochins, I love their coloring. Then Nancy got a bunch and I've been drooling over her pictures and I decided I had to have some. I checked Craigslist and found a local couple that had a few for sale, so I got a breeding trio! (Turns out mine aren't cochin, they are D'Uccle. I didn't know there was a difference. I guess I have some more research to do).

This is Coriander.


This is my beautiful girl, Chamomile.
And their man, Chicory.

I can't wait to get an incubator and start trying to hatch out eggs from these beauties.

They spent their first night in the bathroom because it was raining but they are now outside in a temporary pen while I build their permanent pen. They won't be free ranging with the rest.

Raw milk petition

Go here to sign a petition supporting Ron Paul's bill to make it legal for individuals to buy raw milk and transport it across state lines:

http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/pnum987.php

Copies of your personal message will be sent to your representatives, so be sure to write a personal message.

Raw Milk Update

Here is an update from Eric, the organizer of Locally Grown (can I just say again how much I love Ron Paul?, please contact your legislatures about the bill he has proposed, you'll read more about it below):

Now, what’s happened since last Sunday…

As you recall, on Thursday, October 15, state inspectors from the meat division of the Georgia Department of Agriculture came to our pickup site, looking for illegal meat. Of course they found none (all of our growers are fully licensed for all of their products), but they did discover our load of raw milk many of you had ordered from Cows R Us dairy in South Carolina and seized the entire load on orders from Peggy Gates, director of the dairy division of the state Ag Department. Instead of taking it away themselves, they left it on my truck and told us they’d be at my house the following Monday to destroy it all.

I spent the next few days trying to prevent the milk’s waste by arranging to get it donated to Nature’s Harmony Farm, who could have used it to feed to their pigs, but Peggy wanted to be personally present when the milk was destroyed and she was not available any sooner than Monday morning.

So, I invited to my home everyone who had milk on the truck, along with a few other interested parties. Several dozen people did come out, but at five to nine, Peggy’s secretary called to say they she had been “held up at another inspection” and wouldn’t be arriving until 1:30. Some people had to leave, but the delay also allowed several more people who couldn’t come in the morning to come after all. Among those present was a cameraman for the documentary project “Farmageddon” (http://www.ftcldf.org/kudos/canty2.html), and several of us had our own cameras running the entire time as well. Peggy Gates came with Marybeth Willis, an agent with the FDA out of their Atlanta office (http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/MilkSafety/FederalStatePrograms/InterstateMilkShippersList/ucm114736.htm), and one of the meat inspectors that had originally impounded the milk. They wasted no time in wasting the milk, and from the time they gave us the orders to dump it all (they wouldn’t do it themselves) to the time they left took twenty minutes. The whole thing is up on YouTube in two parts, and I invite you to watch it and share the links with anyone who may be interested. Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMfQXxVAPgk and Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPey52Ybp0U. Thanks to our very nice Rubbermaid coolers and the record cold weekend temperatures, the milk was still cold and fresh to drink. Except for the two gallons that were passed around, it all ended up pour out in the grass at my house.

Unfortunately, they gave us no wiggle room at all for allowing the South Carolina dairies to offer their milk in the future. Marybeth from the FDA declared it a federal crime to bring milk across state lines for any reason. She specifically said that if you go to the dairy yourself, buy a gallon for your own use, and bring it back to your own home in Georgia, you would be a federal criminal. It doesn’t matter how it’s labelled, even if specifically as “POISON — DO NOT DRINK”. They handed out copies of the FDA rule in question, 21 CFR 1240.61 (PDF here: http://www.ftcldf.org/docs/21_CFR_1240.61_pasteurization.pdf), but this may be the first time they have enforced such an absolute interpretation of that rule. With that interpretation, there is no way to have South Carolina raw milk offered through Athens Locally Grown.

So, how can we get that changed? There are two way: through legislation and through court action. Both are being worked on. Ron Paul earlier this year introduced HR 778 (http://ftcldf.org/federal_bills-HR778.htm) that would specifically allow what we’re doing while keeping in place the ban on bulk shipments and other practices that caused the ban to be put into place in the first place. It seems there’s little likelihood of it passing, but its important to let our legislators know that we want this sort of legislation just the same. On the other end, a federal judge could rule that the enforcement of the rule as it has been done against people like us is unconstitutional, and could also allow direct-to-consumer purchases cross state lines while keeping the other bans in place. I have signed the paperwork to become a plaintiff in a federal suit to try for this result. I can’t say more yet, but I will keep you informed when the suit is filed, hopefully very soon.

(The federal raw milk rule aside, the fact remains that our truck was searched without a search warrant, and the milk was impounded and destroyed without due process. We’re as yet undecided about what action to take about that. Both state and federal agents were involved.)

Another avenue is finding legal Georgia raw milk. Georgia actually does allow the sale, so long as the dairy is registered as a “pet food” producer and the containers are labelled as such. THe trouble is a) there is no testing of the final product, b) anyone can get a license by just paying $75, regardless of the cleanliness of their dairy, and c) there aren’t any near Athens. In contrast, South Carolina has established a strict testing regimen that ensures milk being sold raw has bacterial levels below that required of pasteurized milk. If Georgia were to adopt laws similar to South Carolina, it would take time for the raw milk to enter the market.

So, in the meantime, only milk from Johnston Family Farm will be available through Athens Locally Grown. I’m not knocking their milk in any way — it’s of the highest quality and the best milk you can buy in Georgia, from anyone. But for those who want and need clean raw milk, it’s just not the same.

Also, we’re not able to regularly drive to Split Creek Farm or to Fred’s Bread (both near Anderson, South Carolina) anymore, without significantly raising the “delivery fee” portion of the final price to cover our cost of going out there. However, we will go out there on the 19th of November, so you can buy cheeses, fudge, bread, and other items for your Thanksgiving table. I know I was planning on having some of it on mine.

And finally, thanks to your generosity, our tip jar was overflowing this past Thursday. Cows R Us did get paid for all of the milk that was wasted, and our shared cash box was filled back up to cover the expense on our end. Thank you so much for that. I can’t begin to tell you how stressful this last week has been, but you have given your support in every way possible, and that was wonderful beyond belief. Thank you.

Here are some news links from the past week. The news spread nationwide, partly due to the new strict interpretation and enforcement of the FDA rule, but here is some local coverage:

ABH News: “Some sour as state grabs raw milk” http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/101709/new_505698081.shtml
ABH News: “Unpasteurized drinkers cry foul over spilled milk” http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/102009/new_506640054.shtml
ABH Editorial: “Raw milk advocates should work within system” http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/102109/opi_507140444.shtml
ABH Commentary: “Raw milk is danger to public health” http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/102509/opi_508629389.shtml
NewsTalk 1340 Interview (10/22/09) http://feeds.1340wgau.com/NewsmakersWithTimBryant
Raw video of the milk dumping: Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMfQXxVAPgk and Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPey52Ybp0U

Here are the products we have available at http://athens.locallygrown.net:

Sweet Potatoes and eggs

We got a frost Monday night and when I went outside yesterday, all my sweet potato plants had turned black. I decided to dig them up and see if we got anything before planting our winter cover crop in it's place. I didn't expect to get anything because I planted them in clay. Mostly, I planted them to break up the clay, I've heard sweet potatoes are good for that.

So, Logan and I started digging and Logan found a few sweet potatoes under one of the plants. It was very exciting! So, we kept digging and finding more and more potatoes! I was really shocked.

Here are just 2 of the plants we dug up.

Here is our final sweet potato harvest. 20 pounds! (They are all piled up here, so it is hard to see how many it really is. I guess I should have spread them out for the picture.)


And to add to all the excitement, a couple of our new girls have started laying. You can see their eggs here with Buttercup's eggs. I forgot how small first eggs are. They are so cute!