Photo by Alexis Distad

Feb 6, 2012
Notes from Your Farmer

Either choose healthy or don’t.
Your call……and your consequences…

A member of the farm is travelling abroad and studying food systems. She asked me to respond to the question “why support local food systems”. Here is my answer…

Given that you can’t live without food for long…the critical question is whether you believe the current system is a benefit to you. If you believe the government and USDA and their companions have your best interest at heart you do not need to be involved in your food system. If you don’t trust them you would then need to look for another solution. Locally grown and raised foods are the place to begin looking.

However, this solution may not guarantee what you are after. You must define for yourself what food producers you wish to support and why. Health of the soil, plant and animal along with sustainability will be a different solution than shopping at the local chain grocery store. Interestingly enough the prices are equalizing. As the cost of distribution is on the rise so are the costs of what I call “food like substances” that are for purchase at the grocery store. These substances may have the same name as the food a local farmer may grow but they are as damaging as being marooned on a small island and forced to drink salt water. The water will taste fine if you are dying of thirst and will dehydrate you literally to death, eventually.

If you have done any inspection into local, national and global food systems you know there is a problem and if you are a student of the topic you know that we are in trouble. Anyone that says otherwise is either living in a dark hole or is part of the machine that has created the “food like substances”.

I read a few books, watched a few movies, investigated and discovered that the food produced in this country provides the pharmaceutical companies with customers. Our government supports this nasty business directly and aggressively. Given that, I decided to create my own food source and share that with my local community. Those that get it appreciate what we do here and those that don’t, don’t. No offense and none taken. I am not a Democrat, I don’t believe in the government taking my money without my consent to support things I don’t believe in. I am not a Republican. I do believe in helping those that cannot help themselves but I get to choose who or what that is. We support many causes and frankly go without extras in order to do so.

Choosing local, knowing your farmer, learning the processes and being responsible for your own food choices is the safest route however inconvenient in the beginning.

In the long run you get to make the choice of what food you eat. And you get to live with the consequences of your choice (by the way, waiting for the government to “fix” this problem is a choice).

Your “Standing on her Soap Box” Farmer…Tara Smith

Jan 30, 2012
Notes from Your Farmer

Rain, Rain, Don’t Go Away
We need you every other day!

Our perennial grasses are growing fast
If you keep it up, all year they will last!

Without you right now to raise up cattle food
We would be forced to buy alfalfa and that would not be good!

The cost of alfalfa will be astronomical
The cost of beef will become quite comical!

And those perennials sequester carbon back into the ground
Without you helping you know where that carbon is found.

It stays up in the air for our children to breath
It warms up the planet and it might force us to leave.

So please keep on coming as long as you can.
Please help us stick to our rotational plan.

Our beef is amazing. It’s clean and it’s healthy.
Our cattle are happy and our grass lands are wealthy!

The chickens and pigs and the cows all dance
when your drops help the grass to grow and advance

Through the year their roots grow deep in the ground
And can continue to grow when you’re not around.

Our community counts on us to deliver
Without you right now I feel a slight shiver.

So I trust in your plan and we’ll go boldly on
And look forward to more rainy and wet with each dawn.

Your Soggy Farmer, Tara Smith

Jan 23, 2012
Notes from Your Farmer

OMG, I had lunch with a scientist. A smart guy. A really smart guy. The kind of person that is so smart he did his level best to keep me from getting lost. He had emotional intelligence along with his smart guy intelligence. His involvement in shaping the world is really interesting and revolves around stuff that we know and care about. Green stuff. Global green. Needless to say I was on the edge of my chair and asking a million questions. He couldn’t answer fast enough. His facts and point of view or opinions, he was careful to identify each, were off the charts for me and the best part was the hope he instilled for us globally. A rising consciousness across the globe that would change our way of being drastically along with an exponential growth in science and technology bringing discoveries to us in 10 years that weren’t expected for 100 years.

Here was my favorite…he asked me if I had ever thought about how old I wanted to get. I said I always answer that question with the age of 150 as long as I am healthy enough to care for myself (buy long term care insurance). He replied “you will have the option”. Of course my response was “I beg your pardon?” He said the technology and science reverse aging was in place and within 10 to 20 years would be available. Not to raise concern that that may cause a global population crises that is already upon us he said. Because we are learning more than just science on aging, we are learning about space travel, healthy food, restoring the planet and protecting its resources. Predications of a Global government supported by a consciousness that eradicates war, starvation, and disease.

Even if he is slightly right I am excited. But I digress to the point I want to make. All weekend I have been thinking about the idea of really living until 150. Would it change what I do today? Something about not worrying so much and rushing so much because I only have 20 good years left. What if I had 100 good years left. That changes things. Would I slow down a bit? Take more time to learn more, mentor more, plan longer term that I thought before….?
Somehow that simple conversation with the smart guy has relieved me of some anxiety that time is running out. Maybe we do have time to get it right, whatever right is.

The smart guy agreed to come to the farm for a pot luck event and to do a talk. Very excited for that. Have a great contemplative week!

Your “Feeling Very Young” Farmer, Tara Smith

Jan 16, 2012
Notes from Your Farmer

I was sent a youtube video about future technology and how it would be a “great service”. It opens with 2 parents sleeping and the sound of morning comes on in their bedroom (birds chirping I guess). “Natural” sunlight comes up to slowly wake them (General Electric light bulb). The wall opposite the bed pops on and is somewhat like the internet. It has weather, traffic, and my favorite “The To Do list” for both parents. Before they get out of bed they are already on the treadmill of information.
They are steeped in how much can they accomplish today and the technology will feed them as much as they can take in. The video goes on for 10 minutes or so and involves the whole family throughout the morning. It was exhausting.

The quality of life for this family will be much less than mine by my definition. Both parents had big time consuming jobs and the technology helped them to be more successful in those jobs. More information quicker and faster, to earn more money so they can buy more stuff and go more places so they can have more debt and need to work more and climb to the next job to get more money etc..

I know this track. I was on it and continue to fight to stay off it. That track leads to lots of money and some results that people never talk about…so, given that I am not running for any office and don’t care if people don’t like the truth (as I see it), here it is:

The track on which we strive to play is littered with death. The death of marriages/partnerships is one. A marriage will not survive if it is not nurtured. That takes time and commitment to the marriage/partnership.
Children will either act out to find themselves or withdraw without a solid relationship with a parent. That takes time and commitment to the child. Extended family is lost without time and commitment. Without extended family the family unit has little support when it needs it whether a teenager needs mentoring, (not by their “ridiculous parent” but by the cool aunt or uncle) or a crisis occurs with health or loss of a job.

The connection to the outside world, nature is dying off. It is a significant loss. Most kids don’t know where their food comes from and wouldn’t be able to grow or raise it (and I expect most parents lack this knowledge too). We are logged in, tuned in, locked on or in some way viewing media. Most of it is a complete waste of our time and we are wasting hours and hours a day not connecting with other human beings.

Education for our children has gone by the wayside and the parents have little to no responsibility toward public education. Charter schools are proving that education can thrive but it requires the participation of the parents.
Public schools dismiss the requirement of parent involvement until there is a problem and then blame the parents. Parents choose to buy a new, bigger TV instead of getting rid of the one they have and doing homework with their kids…(it is not fun to do homework with kids, except when you actually do it on a regular basis it can be a blast. Not to mention what we can learn as adults, but most of us are too tired from a day’s work to work with our kids and prefer the TV. Besides I have to get up and work harder to provide for my kids even though what I am providing is not preparing them for the world they will face). I believe in Charter schools in that they require parent participation. Those parents that opt for Charter schools are all about education and that lends to amazing schools teaching kids well rounded skills and emotional intelligence to adapt and lead their upcoming world.

What did we do with our priorities?

I am not free of guilt here. However I did do homework with my son all week. Husband travelling, Joe and had a great week. Homework, walking with the goats on the farm, picking eggs, talking a lot. He has a lot to say and it is critical to me to maintain that communication now that he is in his teen years (mostly listening). I stop to look at my day and consider what that next opportunity means to my overall day to day happiness. Should I really take on more? More technology to give me more information to give me more opportunity to work more?
So much is wrong with short term choices and short term planning. I wish I was better at it. And acknowledging the problem is the first step and who knows where it goes from there…

Your Farmer…Tara Smith

Jan 9, 2012
Notes from Your Farmer

Memories…

When I am out on pasture feeding whey and milk to the pigs, which I love doing, I have a lot of time to think.
Yesterday I was working close to I street which created interactive moments with those driving by. Some were in cars, some were riding bikes and some were walking. Some waved, yelled a hello and some stopped to talk. Some asked to help!

As the afternoon wore on I began thinking about how nice it was to have my neighbors stop to say hello and talk. Then I thought about how that was when I was a kid. It gave a sense of support, safety, appreciation and overall lessoning of anxiety for me. People are mostly kind.

So why didn’t I feel that before we started farming? I thought about that most of the evening and realize that it has to do with the architecture of our lives. Most of us get up in the am, go into our garage, get into a car and drive through traffic that is anything but relaxing. We get to our job and at the end of the day we get back in the car, back on the road, now we are tired with little patience, and hit traffic again. Once we get home we drive into the garage, walk into the house and never see our neighbors.

We are secluded by design.

In the old days, we walked to school with our friends from next door. Our parents had BBQ in the backyard and the neighbors joined with parts of the meal. We knew who was getting married, who was expecting a baby, who was sick or had died. Parents offered help to each other. Whether it was painting a house or moving a freezer. Knowledge was shared from life experience. Older parents helped new parents. Grandparents helped busy parents. People that had a pool invited those kids to play that didn’t.

Why these memories make me smile is the comfort these communities created. We were not alone and we had support. We had expectations also. Get out of line as a kid and all the parents would know and that was enough to stop us from doing things kids weren’t supposed to do. Parents had a code they discussed with each other and we had a many sets of eyes watching. They also had a code they lived by. And the expectations of how they showed up in the world created a sense of comfort and safety. We expected our parents to behave in the community a certain way and for the most part they did.

That way of being is not lost for us today. It is waiting for us to notice it. It is as simple as a wave of your hand and a smile. An invitation to have an interaction as simple as “How’s it going”? Leadership begins with they who trust first…the results are astonishing…

Your farmer…Tara Smith

Byron Palmer, Ranch Manager!

Jan 2, 2012
Notes from Your Farmer

Doing it right the first time-ish.

The question is.....do you fashion farrowing pens for the pregnant pig mamas out of a hodge-podge of straw bales, recycled fencing and bailing twine...or do you go to Friedman's Home Improvement and spend $1500 to do it right the first time? Or the second or third time, but really, who's counting [Insert cough sound effect here]. At first glance the answer could be simple in either direction. When you're running a business, minimizing unnecessary expenses is at the top of your list of things to do, but where do you draw the line between making due, and incurring cost to improve infrastructure?

If we lose a few baby pigs in the first week because their shelters are not dry or warm enough, well that would be more in opportunity cost then the price of the materials. However...couldn't we jerry-rig a situation together that could be adequate to keep them warm and dry enough? But wait, last breeding round we spent a whole lot of time chasing baby pigs and mamas around...like hours. How much did that cost? But what if we decide to try a different breed of pig in a few months that is more low maintenance when it comes to farrowing and we don't need the newly built permanent pens anymore because they are out in the woods? Where do you draw the line?

These are the types of decisions we make out here day to day. Tradeoffs, potentialities, workflows and possibilities. How do we do what is right for the animal? How do we do what is right for our customer? How do we do what is right for the land? How do we do what is right for our bottom line so we can keep providing our community food? Every time we are making decisions out here we are asking those questions, whether it be 103 degrees in July on the side of a hill with a 45 degree slope or 29 degrees in the dark with one knee in a puddle of water fixing a spigot at 6:30 this morning, we're thinking of you. And we are sure that no matter how you make your living, you’re asking similar questions about when to make do and when to improve, as we all have limited time, money and resources and improving processes is a never ending game. Hope you had a wonderful holiday season.

Your farmer, Ranch Manager Byron Palmer

Dec 26, 2011
Notes from Your Farmer

The Christmas Otter…..(a short story/poem)….
Twas the week after Christmas
And all across the farm
The sun was shining
The green hills with their charm.

Walking along
The small pond at my left
I noticed a visitor
Caught in a theft.

It sat in the middle
Of the pond very still.
Eating the Koi
Having its fill.

It saw me first
But didn’t move off.
When I stopped in surprise
It swallowed and scoffed.

Slipping slow in the water
It seemed to not care
That I was so close
And continued to stare.

I looked further around
In excitement you see
I wanted to share
My dis-cov-ver-ee.

No one was around
I stood silent in awe.
Taking in the surroundings
Not conscious of what I saw.

I walked quietly away
Feeling as if
I was given a belated
Special Christmas gift.

As I moved up the hill
It came to me slow
That something was missing
And suddenly, “whoa”.

The picture in my mind
Was the pond and the otter.
The Blue Herron was standing
On the side and seemed bothered.

There was something else
But my mind was still stuck.
Then it dawned on me suddenly
There was only one duck.

We have had a pair
2 ducks in the pond
A couple, it seemed
Of them we are fond.

I wondered at why
I would only see one.
They are always together
Watching them is fun.

I put it out of my mind
And went on with my day
But the thought came back
It would not go away.

The next morning I walked
Direct to the pond
And sadly I noticed
The second duck gone.

I rushed to the internet
And what did I find
That happy fat otter
Eats ducks and others in kind.

So what do you do?
It’s a war at all levels
The otter, over fishing
Both are coined devils.

Depending on the moment
On who is in need
We seem to be always
An invader indeed.

So while he is cute
And my fish are diminishing
The time has come
To put a stop to his fishing

He is getting fat fast
So yes he must go.
Just not sure how to end
His cute but devastating show.

Perhaps a removal
Of the otter in question
Put back in the river
And the pond we’ll refreshen.

In the world that we live
Is a world that’s at War.
Oil, Pharm, Banks, and Food
We must closely explore.

We must take back our world
From the few with the power
It certainly won’t be easy
We must act now in this hour.

For WE have the power
With each decision we make
To love or to purchase
Our souls are at stake.

Make your resolution this year
Be one of a question:
“Is the next decision I make
Sustainable with thoughtful introspection?”

If we do this together
We’ll change the path we are on.
We will set a pattern for living
The war will be won…


Glad to be in the trenches with you…your farmer Tara Smith