Organic and GMO

It seems as though many people think organically-labeled food as a hoax--a hoity-toity extravagance. I always wonder why people don't see organic's significance. To me, it's a vote against the big agribusiness of conventional farming, which is characterized by the heavy use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. I can vote for a president who plants a big White House garden, but what does that do? Monsanto still rules the capitol. Go to the "Monsanto's Government Ties" list here to view the actual personnel.  I don't know how it can be legal!

If you're not familiar with Monsanto, here are a few Wikipedia notes about the Monsanto company:

• They are the creators/manufacturers of DDT, Agent Orange, and PCBs, all highly toxic chemicals.

• They created Round-Up as a weed killer. Then they made Round-Up-Ready corn, wheat, canola, alfalfa, and cotton seed. (This means the plants that bare your food get sprayed with Round-Up, don't die, and go on to produce your food). Upwards of 200 million tons of Round-Up are applied in the US annually, and it doesn't decompose. We all need clean water to drink....

• As of 2012, Monsanto is associated with 11 active Superfund sites and 20 archived sites in the US

• They have been/are involved in countless legal battles over pollution and gene patenting 

• They are responsible for all the rBHT (and artificial growth hormone) in our milk.

• They are the makers of genetically modified corn, soy, and who knows what else. These products are widespread and are not labeled in the US, so if you're not buying organic, you're eating GMO. What's the big deal about GMO? It hasn't been tested, so we don't know if it's safe. See the above track record and wonder if Monsanto cares if GMO is safe. 

 Here is a list of companies who have dumped $$ into the anti-labeling campaign. Do your health and the planet a favor and boycott them!

Did you know our government subsidizes corn, Monsanto's major seed crop, which needs tons of Monsanto's pesticides? 2011 saw upwards of $4.6 billion in corn subsidies! This subsidy in turn makes cheap corn-based animal feed and processed foods. So here our tax $$ are working in two ways:

1. They help corn farmers afford Monsanto's GMO seeds and pesticides, and 
2. They help consumers pay less for their burgers, corn chips, and corn-syrup drinks. 

My thoughts on this:

1. Monsanto has enough $$
2. Considering the obesity levels in our country, I think it would be wiser to subsidize fruits and veggies.

Many produce items in the grocery store are from foreign countries because they are cheaper than US-grown produce. Why not subsidize the healthy food instead of the processed food and keep diversified fruit and veggie farmers in business? Producers and consumers would win. The way things are now, only Monsanto wins.


Which brings us back to organic. Defeated by the bureaucratic nonsense of big-agribusiness in the government, I can vote for sustainable farming methods by choosing to spend our grocery dollars on organic food to support organic farmers. Even more than that, it shows conventional farmers that I don't support their farming methods.

I also think of the extra money I spend on organic food as a form of health insurance. By eating organic I can bypass the chemical residues that remain on/in non-organic foods. Think about it this way:

If you were getting ready to spray Round-Up on the lawn and your son dropped his apple into your mixing bucket, would you let him eat it? When you buy non-organic from the store, essentially the same thing happened, but you just didn't see it. Seriously, would you let him eat it?!

The food system in our country is quite the out-of-site-out-of-mind phenomenon for most people. It's infuriating to think about what we are being fed, both literally, mentally, and subconsciously. Most of us aren't buying our food directly from farmers who can tell us about their practices. It's a scary food world out there right now, and the organic label is something we can rely on.....and even that is a statement I don't fully believe. With a large chemical company running the agricultural system of this country I wonder how easy it is for them to makes changes to the USDA organic certification standards. With organic gaining such popularity I often wonder if more farmers are switching to organic production or if standards are lowered so the label includes more farms. Ensuring that large farms are operating within the guidelines is also a fine line.

Huck's first potato harvest

So in the end it seems like the best message is: GROW YOUR OWN FOOD!  You won't be able to grow it all, but every step counts.  If you gather, hunt, fish, and preserve, in addition to 4-season gardening, and you pare your food selection down, you'll be shocked at what you can provide!

I first heard of all this back in 2001 in a sustainable agriculture class at UMaine. I never thought it would get this bad. For more info on GMO, Monsanto, and the corruption of the EPA, check out the internet--there's tons of information out there. A good start would be watching a few of the many food documentaries, including Food Inc. and  King  Corn. Get appalled,disgusted, and inspired to feed yourself!

The Fertility Facility

It started with one small bin. I built it out of the heaviest, ugliest pallets you've ever seen. It was my first pallet project, and at the time I didn't know there was a patient art to pallet scrounging. Armed with a skill saw, hammer, and crow bar, I used a full pallet for the back and cut another pallet into pieces for the sides. It measures 18x41x48 inches. I rested a scrap piece of tin roofing over the top to keep the rain out. Surprisingly, it took my family of 3 and flock of 9 chickens almost two years to fill it! It looked like it was full after about a year, but when the contents got to the lid, you could actually see the magic of composting: One week you think you've poured your last bucket of slop in as the lid teeters over the mound. The next week the pile has settled a few inches allowing for another addition. This happens from week to week as the pile is continuously breaking down. It's feels like such a magic show to keep adding to the pile, and it's a wonderful confirmation that your pile of scraps is indeed a compost pile. 

Bin #2

The Fertility Facility began out of necessity. The two sheep and two goats I was raising in 2010 made for a lot of dirty bedding to take care of. I built bin #2 and started adding our food, garden, and barn scraps to it. It soon became "full" as it was mostly barn litter (poopy straw) and didn't quite have enough green to keep it composting quickly. So I built bin #3, which became a holding tank for barn litter. I continued to add greens to bin 2 for about a year. Eventually, I came up with the composting co-op idea, but I was working full time, had a two year old, and was milking the animals twice a day. It just didn't pan out to put more on my plate. In mid-2011 I became a bona fide stay-at-home mom and starting drawing out the plans for mass composting. In January 2012 the program started and I gradually expanded from composting for nine households to composting for 23 households, a preschool, a bread bakery, a bistro, a grocery store/deli, and a food bank. So I did some more building:

 

#4, the first co-op bin, & #5

 

 #6 & #7

 

#8 & #9, which form the northern fence around my garden

 

 

#10 & #11, continuing the fence

#12 & #3, which are a separate experiment

#13 & #14, waiting to be needed and completing the north fence.

 The storage bin, packed full of leaves for future use as biofilter

Some Numbers:

Now, February 2013, just over a year after beginning, I have filled (to ultimate capacity,) 10 bins.

• Two bins are actively getting added to.  
• Three bins are starting to cool, meaning they're about half way done. 
• Two bins are mostly done and are getting finished by worms (who just show up when it's time)
• Five bins are completely composted and are awaiting spring use.   

     Spreadsheet Totals

• 220 hours (not counting building, turning piles, and record keeping) on the project.
• 5269 gallons of material collected 
• 19,661 pounds of material collected
• ~11,500 pounds of additional material from my barn
• ~600 pounds of cover material (collected leaves, garden debris, straw)

Surprisingly, this doesn't take up much space in my yard, considering how much material has gone in. Volume wise, the break down of the material is astounding. The first round of breakdown has a shrink rate of about 50%. The reheat and final breakdown shrinks by another 33%. 

So I started by piling up 1188 cubic feet of material and ended up with 392 cubic feet of compost. 

Last summer I saw bags of 1.5 cubic feet (~2 5-gallon buckets) of compost selling at a store downtown for $20. That means I created about $7920 worth of compost. In other words, if the market was there and I could sell everything I produce, I actually could make a fair wage! Collection fees could also boost the $$ potential. 

So after it all, I've got a huge accumulation of greatness just waiting to grow something delicious. It's been fun, and I don't see reason to stop! If I could just get my paperwork act together to get the license/permit, I could "open" for official business and make some $$. For now, I'll just keep composting!

Recycling Projects

I'm obsessed with not throwing things away. I always look to pass unwanted items on to others, repair the damaged ones, and re-purpose the things that don't fit into the first two. Here are a few recent projects:

Worn Out Socks

When we wear a hole in a sock, I simply tie a knot in it and throw it to the dogs. They love to play tug with it and throw it around. Not only do you get to keep your spent sock out of the landfill, but you also bypass having to buy faraway-made toys for your dogs! If you wear natural fibered socks (pure cotton, wool, or bamboo), you're in extra luck. After your dogs have demolished the sock, you can just throw it in the compost pile!  If you don't have a dog, simply cut the sock into pieces for easier decomposition by your hard-working microbes.

Nappy Pot Holders

So I've had the same pot holders for about 7 years. They had a ridiculous amount of stains and burn holes. Most First World people would have thrown them in a landfill long ago and purchased new ones. Most Third World people would be grateful to simply have pot holders, ratty or not . At my place in the Fourth World, I can use a few scraps of fabric to revamp the old into new:

 1.  Wash potholders, measure dimensions, cut fabric, and make a pouch.

 2. Add loop of ribbon, sew pouch shut with old potholder inside. Quilt stitch an X across the square. Voila!

This one is made from an old wool sweater. I used the bottom of the body to make a couple of potholders, the top of the body to make a purse, and the arms to make some awesome volcano leg warmers. Scraps went into the compost. 

The result of some old potholders, a few cotton scraps of cloth, a holey sweater, some ribbon, a sewing machine, and 30 minutes of my day. What can you save from the landfill with a simple upcycle?

Turkey Time...sort of

I just found this blurb about turkeys that I had written before Thanksgiving--better late than never!
 
Getting ready for winter has kept me busy these past few weeks! Luckily, while I've been insulating the house, stacking wood, and tidying up for the year before everything gets iced over, my turkeys have been growing steadily. Yesterday was butchering day, and Yew-doggie, we've got some meat!

The Tail of Two Turkeys
It actually started with four turkeys at the end of May. I had them in a large wooden tote in their own stall in the barn. After a few days one disappeared. I'm guessing it was an ermine, since we've had quite a few ermine troubles in the past. Anyway, I put a wire mesh lid over the tote to protect the poults. The next day one poult was dead. I figure it had gotten hurt in the ermine skirmish the previous day and succumbed to it's injuries. Who knows? ANYway, so it became the Tail of Two Turkeys.
   

I wanted to keep things simple and keep the turkeys fenced in, so I kept them with our chickens. They were in the tote with a light on them until they feathered out, which was maybe a month. Afterward, they free-ranged the chicken pasture. When we raised turkeys two years ago we let them completely free range, which was good in some ways but bad in others. The good is that they really find lots of wild food to eat and that they have lots of room to hide from predators. The bad is that they are territorial and messy. We heard quite a few stories from neighbors about dogs getting attacked and joggers becoming runners because of our "guard turkeys." Also, they are prolific poop producers, and it is enormously huge and gross, so it is nice to keep it off your front porch. So, up on the hill with the chickens they went.

The turkeys ate well and grew like crazy. They ate a flock raiser ration until the middle of September, when my chickens started laying and needed to switch to a layer ration. I didn't want the hens to loose production, so the turkeys ate chicken layer mash. Not ideal, but it worked. Everyone also spent their days scratching in the pasture for bugs and plants. My approach would cause a stampede, as they all loved the buckets of Rainbow Foods produce and deli scraps they got several times a week.

One turkey was quite a bit larger than the other. I figured it was a dominance thing, but come butchering day it became apparent that the smaller one was a female, as she had egg yolks forming. It would have been neat to have a few turkey eggs, but we had other plans. 

Butchering day went very smoothly, which made it fun. Birds can be feisty, and I won't lie and say I wasn't nervous about getting pecked in the face. I bear-hugged the female turkey down to the house (without incident), where we have an outdoor table and chopping block.  I squatted, semi-sitting on its backs while I faced the rear and held its legs. I kept its wings pinched to its chests with my legs. Atlin held the head and chopped with a hatchet. The turkey pulsed for maybe 20 seconds and was done. We put it on the table, plucked it, gutted and rinsed it, then let it soak in a bucket of cold water. 


I sent Atlin up to get the male and next thing I know, he's trying to herd it down the hill. It clearly wasn't working, so I told him to just do the bear-hug method. So we get lined up for round two,  but this time, as I'm sitting and Atlin's chopping, the turkey literally bucks me off onto the ground! I could not believe the force of that turkey! Released, it ran headless into the skiff shed squirting blood like a geiser. Within a few seconds he was recaptured and hugged, where he calmly finished his day. This guy couldn't even fit in the 5 gallon bucket after much cramming.

I love this sequence of Atlin and the turkey!

Next Year's Turkeys

Every growing season gives you more knowledge to help the next season be better. I have three  improvements for next year

1. Raise heritage turkeys - The broad-breasted whites are the industry standard--they grow like crazy but lack in general vigor. They didn't fare so well with the obscene amount of rain we had this summer. They had no tail feathers and had an overall tattered appearance. Ours taste taste a million times better than a store-bought turkey, but I can't help but think that a heritage breed would taste and look even better.....
2. Start them later - When you start them in May they are HUGE by November. They-can-hardly-fit-in-the-oven-huge. 35-pounds-dressed-weight huge.
3. Raise them separate from the chickens. Turkeys eat a lot. I got really discouraged over the feed bill this summer, and I think it was mostly turkey related. Having them in the old chicken coop would allow me to accurately figure out the cost of the turkeys and also keep the books on my eggs production. I'd also be able to feed the turkeys a grower ration for their whole lives. 

Interested in growing your own turkey for the next holiday season? Go for it!--it's easy and rewarding. (I'm looking for someone to go in on an order of poults next year--the minimum is 15--let me know if you're interested)  The cost of raising the turkey might give you a heart attack, but that bird will definitely not let you down come meal time. You can't compare the cost of a fresh bird to the cost of a Costco bird--they're simply not the same thing. Liken the cost of a fresh bird to the cost of king salmon or king crab and you won't feel so bad. Raising a turkey is great--everyone should do it at least once!

Hello Again

Welcome to a new year! Three months have passed since the last post and, really, I have no excuses. I'll say I was hibernating. Here's a short recap:






October saw commercial shrimping for Atlin and Huck....tasty! 

 Every year we spend Thanksgiving week out deer hunting on Chichagof Island. This year the weather made things really tough--with two of us hunting for 7 days we only got one deer. (We saw upwards of 35 does, but only two bucks.) Atlin made jerky out of the whole thing--delicious, but meat sure doesn't last very long that way. It's a good thing we still have moose and goat in the freezer! The best part of this trip was that Huck hiked with us for 4 days. It was his first deer hunting season where he didn't have to get carried at all. Things sure are coming together now that he's four!

Dressed female turkey

November also saw the butchering of our two turkeys. The Thanksgiving female was quite a bit smaller than the Christmas male. She was about 20 pounds and he 40. They were amazingly delicious, and provided an abundance of leftovers for extended family and ourselves. I boiled the carcass down and made several batches of stock to freeze for soups, and I bagged 8 meals worth of meat. We've been eating wonderful, fresh soup with homegrown potatoes, carrots, parsley, onions, garlic, and turkey. Too bad I have to buy the celery.

 

December has been the month of eggs--I'm selling 6-10 dozen a week! When we returned from our hunting trip the refrigerator was packed with a couple hundred eggs. Luckily, this town has a high demand for fresh eggs!

 January brought me full circle with my composting co-op project--ONE FULL YEAR of community composting! It was long and hard with it's ups and downs, but I made it. About two months into the project, I thought,"Can I really do this for a year?! Now I feel like I can go on forever!

More about these and other projects in the near future--I'm going to try to get back to doing weekly posts. It maybe be winter, but the harvest isn't over!