Season updates 2011

Wink's Winter Reading List:

As you may know Max & I are excited by the release of our friend, Dave Gardner's feature-length film, GrowthBusters. (See my blog and www.growthbusters.org). Many of us came away from the premier affirmed in our understanding that the prevailing paradigm economic based on "growth everlasting" and resource exploitation. The Wall Street casino MUST be changed, but wondering HOW? My reading list begins to address this question.

Life, Money and Illusion by Mike Nickerson (New Society Publishers) demonstrates how the charging interest on loans requires continual financial growth in order to repay the amount borrowed plus the interest. This system worked as long as the Earth could provide resources and absorb our waste. In today's world that is "full" (7 billion and growing), where natural resources are reaching their peak, and where the amount of waste, including greenhouse gasses, exceeds the capacity of nature to assimilate them, it no longer works to meet our needs. We are so enmeshed in the capitalist, consumerist, growth paradigm that we fail to recognize that there are very many models for other ways to organize society and economics. In the second half of the book he profiles these systems and uplifts the reader from the despair inherent in the recounting of how we got to this place.

The Town that Food Saved by Ben Hewitt (Rodale) — My daughter Maggie gave me this book because she knows that re-visioning the food system is an enduring passion for me. It is the story of how a local region in Northern Vermont, centered around the village of Hardwick, is creating a model of locally-based, potentially sustainable, agriculture. It is a revolution that has been taking hold there for a generation and which has suddenly been noticed by the outside world. Hewitt lives and farms amid this region and profiles the movement and its leaders from the inside. He is analytical, critical, thoughtful, and articulate. Above all he is an engaging writer. If you read no other food book this winter, this is the one.

Locavesting by Amy Cortese (Wiley) — This one is next on my personal list; and also a gift from Maggie. It is a natural extension from the preceding two. Knowing that new systems are demanded and that the experience in Hardwick illustrates one such alternative, Locavesting provides more models. As Michael Shuman states on the dust jacket: "Locavesting demolishes the myth that the best investment options lie in the financial-doomsday machine we call Wall Street… [Herein] you will learn about dozens of highly profitable community investment opportunities." Not that I think "highly profitable" should be a worthy goal in the post-growth world, but such models are worth knowing about as we seek to rebuild our local communities inspired by the Hardwick model. The North Fork's own locavesting success story is Dava Parr's Fresh & Wyld Farm B&B.

From the Farm to the Table, What All Americans Need to Know About Agriculture by Gary Holthaus (University Press of Kentucky) — This book is to farming what the Nickerson book is to economics. It develops the history of how our industrial agriculture came to be what it is today and what we, as individuals, should do to be part of creating a healthy and sustainable food system. It, too, is well written, sensitive, and down-to-earth.

October harvest dinner

We enjoyed three fancy farm dinners prepared by culinary students and their instructor chefs this season. The menus are always delightful and X-treme local, each meal has been unique and showcased how much these students have learned in a relatively short time.

After October's grape harvest, students from Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts prepared dinner for farmers who participated in the school's Colorado Farm-to-Table Externship. Dinner for 30 people was served in our barn / packing shed / winery.

One of our guests took some fabulous photos to share. Visit Steve Zdawczynski's website to see more of his fine photography.

Winners at Delta County Fair

Our Young Farmer this year, Ann, got up early every morning to teach a little black lamb, Dahlia how to walk like a dog. Bribery was a factor, the bribe being a mix of grains and molasses pellets — aka Sweet Mix.

Neither Dahlia nor Rose, the yearling ewe, had been halter trained, but at least they had already learned to show up for a Sweet Mix handout! With less than three weeks before the fair, we hoped that we wouldn't have to bribe them into the show ring when the time came.

We bathed them a week before the show, again a few days before. We brushed and combed out their soft wool, and blanketed them to keep their fleeces clean.

Our hopes were high when we loaded them into the pickup and took them to the Delta County Fair.

Rose and Dahlia were reluctant at first, most animals being resistant to change and that includes people. After we strolled them around the grounds a time or two, they were amazingly calm and just as curious about the fair and other participants as we were. They even let strangers come up and scratch their soft wooly heads.

Compared to the market lambs, primarily Suffolk, our little guys were not built to cover much ground and not very fast either.

The judge confessed that when he was a youngster, he'd shown the breed in 4-H. At that time they were known simply as Southdowns.

Today's Southdowns have been crossed with Australian sheep and have become the larger breed preferred by meat packers. I maintain that renaming the original UK breed "Babydolls" is an unfortunate moniker. Yes, they are cute and small and have a constant smile but, come on! It's hard to garner respect if your name is Babydoll.

Finally, at the end of a long day, Rose and Dahlia got to show their stuff. They earned a respectable first place and champion ribbons in the Open Sheep Class. We need not mention that they were the only sheep in that class, because the judging is based on breed standards and maintainng those standards. We are grateful to Robbie LeValley for her help and mentoring!

Rose and Dahlia returned to the flock, cleaner and wiser than our other sheep. We wonder if they are missing the excitement of a vibrant county fair, one with long-held traditions.

We love our sheep for their multi-purpose of grazing, meat and wool. We will have wool and fleeces for sale in coming months. Check Wink's Blog for more fair stories.

Farm to Table dinner We had our second farm to table dinner, and it was wonderful! Chef John supervised the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts students and they produced a feast.

Summertime

Visitors to our farm in June and July included students from the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. The culinary students expressed some surprise at the amount and variety of local bounty as well as the locals' passion for good food.

Four culinary students helped prune grapes at our farm for a couple of days. Students also butchered, cooked, and helped out on other farms, all to understand what's involved in growing. They came a way with a new respect for farming, animals, diverse fruits and vegetables. We're glad to make their acquaintance!

Our first born lamb

Nubie made an appearance March 11th. She's a pretty little black lamb, looks like Louie, our aged black ram, who had a few sparks left after all!

We rushed to the aid of the first-time mom (#2003) and maybe we shouldn't have done that because then 03 decided we could have the dang pesky "thing." Did we, new parents too, turn baby into a bottle lamb?

We decided to keep ewe and lamb together in the lambing jug longer than usual and restrained the mom so Nubie could get a grip on dinner. Finally we released them and resorted to catching 03 at regular intervals so Nubie could nurse. After a couple of weeks of this, the two of us were pretty exhausted with alternating night duties. When would 03 understand this was her job?

Three weeks later, we realized that we'd trained Nubie and her mom to expect this ongoing treatment. Sheep are not dumb after all. We'd come into the barn, Nubie would baa to get our attention. Psycho mom was mostly tame by now and cooperated willingly when we appeared. Finally, one month later, we've weaned the two of them from — US! Now that's a relief!

In the meantime we've lost two ewes, gained three more lambs, and learned a few painful lessions.

January lambing shed construction

This effort began last spring when we bought a bunch of game coups from a local guy, deconstructed them for the materials, and hauled the pieces to the farm. We kept one whole for the geese, wish I had a picture of that going down the road, and traded one for some butchered chickens. The remaining materials were for the lambing shed, and we still have some left over.

Ben and Stephanie built the trusses in the big barn then Wink and the two of them worked for several weeks in cold temps. We had to finish before our lambs arrived! We got a great assist from Locally Famous Potato Farmer, John, last name withheld to protect the innocent but he can be found at the Telluride Farmers Market all summer long.

Wink, John, Stephanie and Ben on the roof

As soon as we finished the shed in February, we moved our grateful sheep. Not too soon after, a tiny but mighty wind blew apart our straw bale sheep shelter. Local people call this phenomenon microbursts but being from Kansas, they remind Max of tornadoes.

Max took on a big project this winter. Her civic spirit called her to duty when Hotchkiss put out a 911 call for volunteer EMTs. So is Max an EMT? Not yet, but she has volunteered for the training, tests, and if she gets licensed she will be volunteering for the North Fork Ambulance Association.