Innovation

I haven’t been willing to stray from or change anything we learned from Joel Salatin. I found it to be risky and mostly to the detriment of the animals (safety) and workers (efficiency). Until now. Innovation usually comes to me in the middle of the night. The bad news I wake up at 3:15 and realize the mouth guard I use to stop the GRINDING down of my teeth has been worn thin. The good news is I usually have a solution to the problem at hand within the hour. Just laying there giving my brain a moment to speak -it is quite surprising and I count on it.

Two nights ago it was all about the bigger meat chickens. This time of year we are low on green grass. We put in lots of garden vegetables to compensate. But the 6 to 10 week old chickens just seem, well, bored. It is nice out and they are big enough to not get picked up by a hawk so I tried an experiment. We propped up one end of the chicken tractor so they could walk out on the pasture and graze on bugs and plants. It worked. They come out in the am and graze around. They go in for shade if it is too warm. At night they go in on their own for protection. Seems to be working well. We still move the tractor each day to allow pooh to concentrate only one day in any given patch. Everything else seems to be working fine. Chickens seem to be happy. So we have extended the privilege to the rest of the birds that are big enough to not be prey to a hawk. So far so good.

There was one little glitch. I also thought that if I put a batch of 3 weeks olds next to a batch of 8 week olds that they might blend in well enough to be safe. The attack was not from hawks or crows, it was from the 8 week old birds. Apparently they are not interested in sharing pasture with their fellow siblings. They peck at them, drawing blood. Fortunately no one was around to see my reaction. I jumped yelling “Stop it. What are you crazy? Get away. Leave him alone. Have you lost your mind? You don’t bite other chickens”.
Realizing later that this sounded just like talking to a child. I did look around to see if anyone was laughing (that happens a lot). And I still am the boss and get to make the decisions. So there.

Come and visit…
Your Farmer,
Tara Smith

Most people in the world want to live here in the US (regardless of all the complaining we might do). I believe it has to do with our freedoms. Especially the freedom of choice.

The perception is that we always have a choice. In my opinion we do have choice, but it is more complex than that. Let’s take food for instance…

Eating organic, pasture raised, local food meets so many levels of “being green” and it requires a well-informed purchaser to be able to pull it off. Marketing is hard core for bad food and overcoming the lies in our food system is one of the most trying and frustrating things I have done in the last 3 years.

Understanding what REAL food is and what it is not is key to making informed choices. I recommend the following:

http://www.sierraclub.org/truecostoffood/movie.asp
This is a 15 minute video with sources to follow up on.

Food Inc. – DVD movie that fills in the back story of “The True Cost of Food”. You will be amazed. (It is not graphic – great for those sensitive or who are a bit younger) On August 9th, PBS will show an encore presentation of Food, Inc. at 10pm ET (check your local listing. Food, Inc. was just nominated for two News and Documentary Emmy Awards!
Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan. There are 2 versions and I recommend the “young persons” edition for easier reading. He can get very technical.

The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer by Joel Salatin. This is a fabulous perspective of how one man models a healthy, sustainable practice building a food system that in turn builds soil which in turn grows grass that photosynthesizes greenhouse gases (CO2) back into the ground…this book is a hoot and gives hope and solutions you can tackle without becoming a farmer.

There is more and we have a library full of it (also in Farmigo for your shopping enjoyment).

Come visit…bring a friend!

Your Farmer,
Tara Smith

Justifying My Actions

Action: Carrot cake for breakfast.

Justification: I read somewhere that walking 10,000 steps a day will keep you in shape.
I wondered how many steps I take, evidently I wondered out loud and someone gave me one of those pedometers. From 7am to 11:00 each morning I walk 17,000 steps, give or take, on hills, in the heat tending the chicken tractors.

Action: Stealing three bites of steak tartar that Tiffani made and gave to Paige for lunch (Paige can’t see me from her office).

Justification: The stuff is amazing and Paige can’t see me from her office.

Action: Eating a huge dinner of massive sautéed vegetables over a beautiful medium rare pork chop.

Justification: Walking through the fields at night with Roland checking sniffing all things adds on some steps along with the work of hosing him down to get all the duck weed out of his coat because he HAD to jump into the pond. There are steps to get the goats out of the garden (they have discovered the garden) and out of the chicken feed (they discovered that too).

The bottom line is that I am in much better shape than when I was an executive in the insurance industry.
Sitting at a desk on the phone or eating hotel food while traveling had all its appeal (it was clean and my fingers and toes were pretty). But I was fat and unhealthy and frankly bored. Not that that was a reason to go into farming. But it was a reason to take pause, consider what I wanted my life to be like, what I wanted to contribute back…okay I didn’t take pause, I jumped in but that would not suffice to make this point: Working physically as well as mentally rocks. Just like my “pipes” as my son calls my arms. I feel good. I sleep well and I get to eat cake for breakfast!

Warning: If you are having thoughts of going into farming and you are over 45 I would suggest a gym first.

Your Buff Farmer!
Tara Smith

Just when I think we are a fad I get a call. This guy wants to know what to do with the $2 million dollars he has from selling shares in a company. He wonders about organic food as an investment. I sent him to my friend that is an investor doing just that. He buys farm land with investors’ money, turns it into organic producing land within 5 years and the return is 8% starting at the 5 year mark. I was surprised to learn the surge of people putting their money into such an investment and the reasons why. Not just the return. The majority say it is to guarantee organic food for their grandchildren. Most of these investors are over 50 and believe the stock market is not trustworthy but organic land (or land becoming organic) is a safe and smart investment for their families futures. I found that fascinating.
So those occasionally fleeting thoughts of selling the farm because my hands are cut up from moving chickens or I can’t get out of bed without groaning like an old man are just that...fleeting. If anything I would like to lease more land with investors to allow us to raise more chicken on less challenging ground (those hills are tough). Maybe a manicure first…

Your Farmer,
Tara Smith

It’s All About the Twinkie Defense

I have to say congratulations to you as members. Not because you want to feed your kids and selves real food and not because you want to support the farm so you can choose real food (even though those are great reasons). There is another reason.

Remember the Twinkie defense? The defendant killed 2 well known leaders in the community and claimed he was depressed from eating too many Twinkies causing him to lash out and murder. It didn’t fly and he was convicted. Read on and keep the Twinkie in mind…









There was a meeting in Marin yesterday that addressed the availability of healthy food for those that are at or below the poverty line. Now, you know my stand on those that are above the poverty line. The stand about choices. We have a choice to buy a new gadget or pay for real food. However, those that are below the poverty line have less options. Some much less.

In the San Rafael Canal district there are 5 fast food restaurants and no grocery stores. Has something to do with zoning. Really? Are you kidding me? Our county and city planners don’t have a bigger vision than that? Wait…hold on…it is really complicated. So complicated that there is no accountability at any level of government. No one has the authority to make a better choice to plan for growth and distribution of healthy food. What would it take to put a farmers market in the Canal District? A lot of bright minds to get past all the zoning etc. But that wouldn’t be the show stopper.

The show stopper is the cost of the food. The supply and cost to raise it with land prices, workers comp and labor board requirements are cost prohibitive, today. They will remain that way until enough of the middle to high income families and leaders in our communities decide that enough is enough. But why would we decide that? Best to look closely at why. There is a huge health care cost for children that grow up eating from a convenience store or seniors that can’t physically access healthy food and end up eating processed “plastic” food delivered by well-meaning volunteers.

It’s called welfare, food stamps, Medicaid and Medicare. Programs that are creating a wave of higher costs because they cannot address the problem adequately. And the unhealthy are growing in numbers beyond control. The food system, or lack thereof, is feeding the health care system. Nice little monopoly.

Sitting in this meeting my head wanted to explode. All I could think about is why it is okay to sell Twinkies in the store? My husband, the level headed one in our marriage, said it had something to do with some document called the Constitution. Yeah, whatever. I think it is more about leadership.

Leadership like they have in Fairfax. The community decided to ban “polystyrene” from use in restaurants and stores. Makes great sense. The stuff doesn’t biodegrade, creates landfill and litter issues so they ban it. Seems simple.

So why not create a vision that by 2015 we have only real food in any outlet for food i.e. restaurants, grocery stores, farmers markets, schools etc. What would it take to do it? The best way I know how to accomplish a huge goal is to write down all the reasons why it can’t be done and work on each issue one by one. That process puts all the overwhelming stuff in to bite size pieces and it is amazing how much can get done in a short time. Utilizing many people for small projects vs. few doing all the work is another method to Get Sh*t Done.

Can you feel it? The insanity. Anybody interested in leading us out of it?
Your Farmer,
Tara Smith

What can a Goat tell you? If you pay attention it can tell you to “Move On”. From a philosophical stand point and a literal one. One of our goats has taken to pushing me forward with it’s head squarely behind my knee. It’s a gentle push but she evidently is tired of listening to my farm tour blabber and seems to want to move ahead with the walk! The “Move On” message is what it is like here day to day. There is maintenance of course but it changes with the seasons. There are predators and mistakes. There is always someone with a suggestion of what to add to the farm (some of them are great ideas as long as the person suggesting it wants to do the work!).

In our 2 long years here we have built the basics and continue to improve our processes toward the perfect plan and it NEVER comes out that way, but it is close. Trying new ideas while keeping our core values in place i.e. Animal happiness first, then soil building, then humans and the rest we work hard on like trying to impress you with the bounty.

Moving on, improving practices is tricky. Sometimes what seems like a more efficient method thwarts the purpose of the original idea i.e. the meat chickens are in chicken tractors out on pasture but the hills in some areas of the farm make it difficult to move them each day so we are trying out a new idea today. Using a flexible fence to surround 5 of the tractors and allowing the meat chickens to graze outside of the tractors. It gives the older chickens, 5 to 10 weeks, free range opportunity and they are big enough to not get picked off by a hawk. I will let you know how that goes.

The fun part is that it is my farm and I get to try stuff. I like that. It is your farm too so feel free to come up with ideas and let me know. Like the front yard. The plan is to create a kid friendly garden. Lamb’s ear, pineapple sage, a brick path through it. If you have any ideas or want to work on it, let me know. Should be fun! Because I can!

Your Farmer,
Tara Smith

Moo

The 3rd day we lived on the farm there was a cow here, from the previous owners, that was having twins. The vet was called because of the twins and sadly it is common for the female of the twins to be stillborn. It was true in this case but the male was healthy. Much to my chagrin the normal process for the male was to send him to be processed (he was a Holstein breed and as we now know that is primarily for milk, not meat. He wouldn’t produce enough meat to be considered worth raising). Of course that wasn’t acceptable so we asked if we could have him and they agreed. However, he would be sad to be alone so we were given another day- old calf from the neighbor (he would have gone to processing also. Not the neighbor, the calf).









The neighbor showed us how to feed the calves and care for them. It was easy and for the next 8 months we had so much fun with those little guys. We named them Spot and Sparky and all the visitors could bottle feed them. The kids loved it and the calves would follow us around on tours just like those now pesky goats.

One Sunday about 6 months in, we were graced with a visit from Albert Straus of Straus Family Creamery. After the tour, Albert introduced himself, was kind enough to compliment our efforts. He then pulled me aside and said…”Tara, the calves are great but you do realize they are bulls, right?” “Yes” I replied looking all innocent…because I WAS. “Well”, he replied “they will want to “mount” something pretty quick here (I think I understood what he meant) and you don’t want it to be one of your guests. Probably after the 6 month point you should keep them in a fenced area verses going on tours with you and you can still allow the kids to bottle feed them” (at this age the calves were only getting water but they loved it and the kids did too).

He was right. Several days later the cattle were mounting each other and frankly, while it was an eye raiser, I could see his point. So, into the pasture, behind a fence and sadly no more calves on tour.

Then we got the baby goats. They are still fun to take on tour, safe with the kids albeit not safe for the grape vines or any other plant we want to keep. Still, we missed those little calves.

Guess what…we have a little calf and will have 2 by next week that we can take on tour again. One of the mama cows had a little brown male and for some reason she was not interested in raising him. So we began bottle feeding today. He is soooo cute. We need a name. Send in your ideas and next week we will pick and post to the newsletter.

More importantly, we invite you to come visit and feed them yourselves. Not to mention all the baby piglets and chicks…ducks on the pond and of course Roland the protector (sadly, and those of you that know him understand, he does need valium).

P.S. Just an FYI…I don’t want you to own any problems we have. It is not yours to deal with, but I do want you to know what we deal with in order for you to understand what farming is about, and when we are not willing to cut corners to make the bills. Eggs and chicken. We are short on eggs again. 600+ laying chickens was not enough and we are growing more and adding from other organic flocks that want to sell. Meat chickens are another matter. We upped the baby chick quantity from 400 to 500 every 2 weeks. That will handle growth for the next several months however we do have a shortage outside of membership. Membership has its privileges and this is one of the times your membership pays off.

Thanks for supporting us in our efforts. We know you want our success as much as we do.

Come visit, Mooooo…Your Farmer,
Tara Smith