Post Prop 37's Failure to Pass

I'm sorry CA let us down, but Prop 37 raised a HUGE amount of awareness about genetically modified foods, their lack of proper testing and potential risks on humans and other creatures eating them. As per FARFA's Face Book post this morning, 47% of California voters -- over 4 million people -- still voted in favor of labeling GMOs. Bottom line is that we need more organic farmers AND we need the population to STOP eating so much processed food!

 

ok, a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea....

 The farmer at the end of the movie FOOD, Inc. said it best when he basically said that "we'll" grow what "you" demand us to grow. So if the public continues to demand they grow crappy, processed cheap "food" - that's what most farmers will grow, because, hey, they have bills to pay, too. 

The American consumer has more power than they give themselves credit for.  But many of us are stuck in old habits with old, unchallenged taste buds. It's not easy to change - but we really need to make some changes, even if it's gradually, if we're going to have more access to healthy, affordable, fresh food that is grown in a way that is safe for our environment as well as the safest for our families to consume. If we're going to live with less disease, less obesity, less medical bills and more life!

Maybe if we grew a third ear or if it was more OBVIOUS that we shouldn't eat unnatural foods, it would be easier to convince people that this stuff is probably not the best choice to be feeding themselves, much less their kids, in the long run. But it's problems down the road we don't see today or those we can't quite connect the dots to - yet - that keeps so many so blind to the benefits of learning how to cook from scratch - you know, how to read a recipe and have sit down family dinners instead of drive-through snacks on the way to this game or that practice or lesson. 

I think we need to all SLOW DOWN again. It's not easy, everyone else is running too and no one wants to be left behind. But there are some of us who are dragging our feet on purpose these days - and you know what? It's kind of fun.

I used to be a corporate person, in another life. I did the meetings, conferences, deadlines, budgets, audits, etc.  Then it was to the gym and once a week shopping at the grocery store.  But one thing I did do, is usually go home to make dinner. My mom taught me how to cook and my father and brother were my test kitchen from age 14 until I moved out on my own.  Of course in my early single days, I ate like crap, too. I had a studio apartment and had a bowl of popcorn and a TAB for dinner after having had a large order of fries and another TAB for lunch which had been precidented with a bowl of raisin bran and a POP TART for breakfast on many days.  But I digress. We all have skeletons in our closets. 

While doing the corporate thing, I mowed the grass once a week, planted a few flowers and a small garden. (I suppose that may surprise a few of you - but I didn't always play in the dirt full time.) I loved growing things, but I didn't make much time for it because I was too busy working and going to the gym – when I had a great "workout" right at home waiting for me every day. I suspect many of you would love growing things, too, and have that same, free workout in your back yard, but haven't figured out how to work it into your lives yet either.

Turnips, fresh from the garden, are a versatile veggie for the imagination. Google for some recipes and have a ball!

 

Let’s make it easier than a total lifestyle change. What if you try a new vegetable this week - or a new recipe with an old familiar one.  And that may require a major change if you don't normally cook anything from scratch at home, but make it a side dish if nothing else.  Do this every week for the rest of the year - and then in January, try the "meatless Monday" challenge. Just give it a try. I bet, you won't even miss the protein one day a week. You may find you feel better by the time those familiar summer veggies start going in the ground again. And by then, you may find yourself wanting to plant a little garden - and I suggest you start small.

A garden takes a little bit of work, especially to get started with a Bermuda lawn in the way.  You can hire someone to help you get a plot going, but I really suggest doing the upkeep yourself.  Give the gym a day off a week, too, and play in the dirt instead. Raking soil or mulch, bending over and weeding, carrying bags of mulch or compost – it’s a great workout, and it's FREE! And who knows, maybe by the end of the warm growing season, you'll be so hooked on growing something of your own you'll be joining an organic garden club, or just meeting neighbors who are home from the gym gardening, too. Use those 8' fences as trellises to grow cacuzza or pole beans. Or better yet, replace it with a chain link fence so you and your neighbors can actually talk and compare garden notes. You can grow lots of things on a chain link fence.

No, I'm not a vegetarian, I don't have a neighbor that gardens, nor am I a food purist. (my bottle of 

Log Cabin in the pantry will attest to that - and make some shudder and gasp. I guess all have a childhood vice, we hang on to, too.) But if we look in our homes and purge as many of our bad food habits as we can - not only will we find a lot of new storage space for our Tupperware containers, but we'll find a whole new, fun and delicious way of eating. And often, once you purge your taste buds' memories of those processed flavors, the office party food won't taste so good. You'll find yourself making something really cool to bring to that potluck luncheon so you know there's something there you want to eat. And your food bill will gradually start to go down. Really.

So use up the last of those breakfast toaster pastries - and learn to make a simple coffee cake.  Finish up the cheese in a can - and learn to make some cheese yourself. Take a cooking class - with your kids - and teach them how to be more sustainable, too. Learn how good food can taste again - when you don't microwave the life out of it. And when you do need to eat on the run - try bringing a lunch box from home, or stopping at a local restaurant that supports sustainable practices/foods. Elevation Burger and Start are 2 "fast food" places that come to mind in Dallas. Check them out. We need to support these kinds of places if we want more of them around.

We can have better food - legally labeled or not. We just have to demand it - and the farmers will grow it. They're smart people - they're business people.  They'll grow what pays their bills. Organic food isn't as easy to grow sometimes so yes, it’s a bit more expensive – especially if you buy it in a box already made. But if you start with basic ingredients, it has been proven over and over again, that cooking organic meals from scratch, in season and shopping locally grown foods – and growing some of your own, can be done on a very small budget. 

If you can’t find time to grow a garden of your own, or physically can’t do it, but you have the means to support someone who does grow food, consider joining a CSA near you – or one that delivers near you. But let’s get off the fast food/processed food treadmill – in spite of Prop 37’s failed attempt at letting the masses know they’re eating food that has been tampered with.  If it’s not organically grown, and it comes in a box or package with an ingredients list as long as your arm, chances are there are genetically modified organisms in those ingredients.  It’s pretty simple.

Our government hasn’t seen clear yet to protect its citizens from the unknowns of GMO – there’s too much money out there, I suspect, supporting various campaigns, etc – which is a shame, really, but a reality just the same. 

But I believe it is ultimately up to each one of us to “buyer beware” – and protect ourselves.  I hope you can slow down a bit this winter and enjoy some real home cooking – from scratch – the way your great grandma HAD to do it – because there were no processed foods to speak of back then.  You’ll be glad you did.   

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Farmer Marie

Bee-autiful Posibilities

This is the work of 2-legged predators...

Well, a few weeks ago, I was sure I wrote an entry for the blog about our bees and their run-in with some vandals, however, at the moment, I can’t seem to find and finalize that entry in my computer – aka the black hole of endless thoughts and files of information.

Wild boar don't have the ability to pick up and throw stones...

But, as you can read for yourself from a fan of the farm in this Dallas Observer story, our bees had a run-in with some vandals a few weeks ago.  Interestingly enough, it led to befriending two youngsters in the neighborhood who seemed to take up my plight for securing the “woods” area of my property – so long as it meant they could continue to explore and forage food for the family snake. Only in rural America....

It seems as though ever since the Dallas Water Control and "Improvement" District No. 6 decided to put a sewer line though the back of my property some 10 years ago and fail to replace property fence lines, the public has taken to the area as their own private playground.  Now, I can’t say as though I place all of the blame on the public because the water district never did replace my barbed wire fence when they were done.  Why not, you ask?  Good question.  When my city’s public works department head inquired with the water district on my behalf about the fence, they were told – there never was one.  Huh?

Well, sometimes you have to just pick your battles they say, and at the time, I must have had bigger fires to put out because if you know me, you know if this was a battle I had chosen to take up, I would have made a lot of noise about it. Remember  A Rooster's Tale? But, no one was bothering anything back there and I honestly didn’t have a need for a fence because our horses couldn’t access that area anyway.  There’s a very deep ravine, 30ft drop or so, and it had been cross-fenced years before to keep the horses safe. 

Sadly, my "woods" have turned from a playground to a dumping ground.

This is NOT a road

Dallas County Water District #6 contractors left "silt fencing" to grow into the fauna - nice touch.

 However, as noted above, over the years it seems it’s been more than just the water district using this “right of way” easement.  One morning this winter, I took some of my out of town relatives to the back of my property to show them the bees and, well, just the back of my property; only to find a family of several, parked in their vehicle and several all terrain vehicles rambling all over the back of my property! Hey, wait a minute!!

So, I meandered down the ravine and up over to the other side to ask if they realized they were trespassing on private land, to which of course, they replied, no.  I had to politely explain to them about the water district’s lack of responsibility and ask that they not drive across my property anymore as it was ruining it.  This land used to be a very beautiful strip of basically un-touched prairie. Native grasses wafting in the breeze, wildflowers, birds and oh the sound of the highway – which, I’ve now managed to transfer in my mind to be the sound of a distant waterfall thanks to the suggestion of a friend.  (hey, it could sound like a waterfall if you pretend!)

I remember when I was a kid growing up next door to Chicago in a little blue collar suburb, that may as well just have been another Italian neighborhood of the big city. We used to play in 1 of two “fields”. Running around, climbing trees, burying our dead goldfish, and just exploring.  Then, one day, they fenced off and built a fast food restaurant on one of them.  And soon later, they put up a senior citizen facility on the 2^nd one.  Our “woods” were gone. I felt the loss as those two boys looked at me putting up posts, that they helped me pound into the ground I might add.  One asked, very sincerely, can we still come over here?  I replied, "not with your vehicles".  I hated to give him an outright “NO”, because I feel for these kids having all of their “woods” built up with cookie cutter homes and postage stamp sized yards.  It’s no wonder they all hang out inside in front of screens.  These two kids, at least, still had a sense of adventure. In fact, they’d been out exploring the day I met them.  I had been laying down near my brook, which only is such after a good rain, but this day it was making that peaceful gurgling noise a brook makes that can lull you off to a nap.  Until I heard “BAM!”.  A bb gun went off and woke me from my slumber.  I decided to get after that fencing project I’d been putting off – right then. An hour later, they were helping me haul trash from the "woods" and pound fence posts into the ground and run fence line string while we shared stories about the land one of the youngsters' fathers owns in Kaufman County and my farm - of which they were quite intrigued. I hope to see them this spring for a visit - at the front gate.

A Young Explorers Dreamland!

So now I have 2 pairs of eyes on the back of my property, hopefully helping me keep trespassing down to a minimum.  And, maybe I’ve made two new young friends who appreciate nature as it is – without tread marks running through its’ beautiful native grasses and wildflowers and spray paint, televisions and other trash littering its’ woods. 

Marie Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Turn, Turn, Turn...

So the holiday season is upon us, already. That means the cold weather is coming - today in fact, as I type, we are watching it drop from 64F to 32F before sunup tomorrow! It's ok, as Farmer Wendy reminded me a few weeks ago when I was whining about losing my winter squash plants to an unpredicted freeze, "everything has its season."  I know she is right, but it is still so hard to watch plants that I've nurtured along for months succumb to the cold. If only I had a huge greenhouse, I could.... never mind. She's right, who wants to eat okra and winter squash all year long anyway?

Eating in season is part of what makes a CSA fun, interesting and probably more healthy. There are plenty of writings on the importance of "eating your greens" in the winter, fresh fruits in the summer and so on.  We're so spoiled by supermarket availability, we often forget when things are supposed to be in, or out, of season.  (Although, one bite into a hydroponically raised tomato will quickly remind you - January is NOT tomato season in Dallas.)

Our animals on the farm have a season, too.  As recently as this past Wednesday, our beloved Snowball's season ended. Now for some of you hard-core farmers, this may not be as big a deal as I am making it out to be as a former city dweller who still makes pets of just about any animal that comes my way.  But, Snowball was not just another rooster around here.  He was everyone's rooster. The kids who came to the farm to visit looked for him, pet him, fed and even got to hold him. He came on field trips with me to teach school children, and even made an office visit or two! I had no idea how many people were afraid of chickens and roosters and it was nice to watch these folks learn that not all fowl, are foul.  So far, we've always had friendly fowl at Eden's.  The only exception was an old Tom turkey - I understand they can get ornery as they age, and Tom Tom was known to nibble on your shorts - or leg! But never have we had the cases of roosters chasing people down or spurring them. Other than Snowball, there weren't any roosters that stuck around unless you had food for them.  

Anyway, last week Friday, one of our CSA members witnessed feathers flying in the chicken coop area and heard a commotion. As he approached, he saw Snowball in a fight for his life with what was described as "the biggest house cat I have ever seen!" He hissed at the cat and it fled, up over the fence - front paws at the top of the 6' fence, and tail touching the ground....that's a pretty darn big house cat!

He described its coloring and features. This was no ordinary house cat. But what Bobcat has a long tail? And a mountain lion would have a solid colored coat, right? Did we have a mystery animal on our hands?
There was even talk for awhile that it was a Jaguarundi, a somewhat rare and Federally protected animal native many hundreds of miles south of here. With the drought and scarce food, many predators are moving out of their normal habitats, so who knew what we were up against? We never did find out even though I saw a cat-like creature creeping through the grass the next morning, I couldn't get a good look at it - or a good shot. I've since mowed down all of the tall grass and hopefully upset its hiding places.  Eliminating habitat and food sources are the best way to control unwanted wildlife. I learned disposing of one, via lead poisoning, only creates a void for another one to come in.  You have to get to the root of the problem, whatever is feeding on your livestock.

All I knew at the moment, was that Snowball was bleeding and the girls were upset. We quickly ushered everyone into coops and I took my injured rooster to the house for some first aid. Initially it didn't seem like a very bad wound. I was quite hopeful he'd be just fine. After all, this was Snowball - he'd managed to escape the jaws of pit bulls!

Sadly though, as the days drew on, Snowball developed pneumonia, apparently the puncture wound introduced something to his system because his skin was not infected externally. And, he may have had something inside punctured or ruptured, as the jaws of this nearly 20lb, 6' toe to tail creature tried to ring his neck. Fans of Snowball rallied to raise funds to help with the vet bill, not something we usually have around here for our chickens, and have sent condolences in his passing.

Snowball will surely be missed and it will take awhile to fill his talons. Not all roosters will sit so patiently while 100 3rd graders touch their beak, waddles and cone, squeal when he eats out of their hand and bump into him as others from behind push to get closer to see him.  No, Snowball had more patience than I sometimes do.  And funny thing is, he was a "stray". Early one spring, about March I guess it was, I noticed this pretty, young, white rooster wandering around with my flock. "Where'd you come from?" He'd make a trek back and forth to the nearby apartment complex daily, so I figured someone got a "cute chicken" for Christmas, and it turned out to be a rooster.... when will we learn not to buy kids baby animals for gifts? That's another subject I guess.

He was quickly accepted by the others here on the farm though, I suspect because he was so young as normally a strange rooster would quickly be chased off the property by the veteran residents.  And little by little, he began roosting with our flock in the barns.  He was pretty tame, coming when I would call to him and offer feed from my hand.  He was a natural for my educational program.  And, since Chipper had recently come up missing, Snowball was now the head rooster in charge of this job.

What we've learned since losing Snowball, along with 2 other roosters, our last guinea and a hen - all in the last week - is that we need to seriously figure out a way to better protect our flocks from what appear to be predators that are sticking around.  Premiere One has an electrified fencing set up we have a $250 pledge towards the purchase of.  This, in addition to some LGD, 2 Great Pyrenese, should significantly reduce our exposure.

One of our CSA member's, a couple from the Rowlett area, have decided that the farm needs better protection in the way of a pair of LGD.  If you're unfamiliar with them, I'll have more soon in another post, specifically about these dogs and their role on a farm.  I'm excited to be getting them, and ever so grateful to my CSA family for pledging to support them.  Vet bills can get very expensive - not to mention feeding two dogs that will probably outweigh me! I can eat vegetables for a long time and not care, they probably won't be as happy if that's all their diet consisted of.

So, it is with sadness I bid farewell to my buddy Snowball, the one red-eyed and one yellow-eyed, people friendly rooster, and with anticipation I await the arrival of 2 rescue GP dogs, to be described soon.

One season ends - and soon another will begin.  Turn, turn, turn.

Marie Eat Your Food - Naturally!