Martha's Columns

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Martha’s Columns

It’s Planting Time in Our Town May 12, 2010

After a long gray winter, spring is finally here on the hill farm. With 70 degree weather and sunshine, the farm and the farmers give thanks for an end to gray cloudy days and weeks of snow and rain. Daffodils and crocus have come and gone, dogwood winter made a quick journey through, and the spring peepers are singing on the creek. The fields are greening, and the lambs are on corkscrews, jumping in the air for the fun of it. Iris, roses, peonies are making a debutante’s bow on the edge of the yard. A fat robin checks out the worm menu in the back yard, and the finches are showing their Easter yellow finery.

Watching the earth stretch open after the long winter sleep, I am struck by the thought that all the spring babies and blooms come from last year’s work. Moving the flock to breed the ewes, adjusting feed for healthy mothers, planting bulbs, sowing grass seed and cover crops, fall garden and farm chores, veterinary work on the animals, all the cycles of farm living are preparation for the next season in the never ending circle of living on the farm. Each species must be in harmony with its neighbors to thrive, the health of the whole interwoven and dependent on a balance in the environment, which is the challenge for the farmer on a sustainable farm.

Life in small communities like Springfield and Washington County ebbs and flows in cycles like the farm; families held together by a web of shared ancestors, shared life experiences in a special “home place” , strong ties through church communities, or love for places that say home in our memories. The central contrast of city living to small town life is the bonds of a community where, as the song goes, “everyone knows your name”.

Like the farm life, a renewable spring in community life also depends on the work its members are willing to invest to maintain growth. Last month we attended the five year anniversary celebration of New Pioneers, and listened to members express their wish for the future. A repeating theme was the hope and commitment to preserving the best of life in Springfield and the county for the children. In its five year history, New Pioneers has focused on projects that are dedicated to a greener, healthier city and county, and has reached out to all segments of the community. This commitment and work is like the farmer’s fall pasture work. It prepares the ground for next spring’s growth.

I challenge you to become part of a community organization that is focused on making a better future for the community, either New Pioneers or some other community group that is working to make a difference for our children. Springfield already has made great strides and is recognized in other counties for its work. Now is the time to till the garden, plant more bulbs and sow seed for the next season of life.

Food Talk from the Farm Feb 15,2010

After a long absence from writing the column, I found myself with a rare day of quiet and free time; the farmer had gone to the machinery show, the grand kids were back in school, and except for the usual chores in the farmhouse kitchen, I had a block of time to think and write. This February has had echoes of last year’s ice storm with repeating snow layers, but the lights have stayed on, the road down the hill has been relatively passable, the farm lambing and weather problems have been minor, and we are beginning to look for spring.

So in order to refocus my thinking, I sorted through a large collection of clippings from 2009 reading on the issues most important to us as farmers: food production and land preservation. By far the largest amount of information concerned food safety and quality. The depressing list of articles on contaminated food included a CDC article on contaminated poultry, the most commonly identified source of food poisoning in the US in 2006. Chickens were followed by produce contaminated primarily by salmonella. Much of US produce, especially in winter months, comes from countries south of the border, including Mexico. The only requirement for Mexican producers to sell in the US is online registration, with no safety requirements in place. (Remember the salad bar and spinach contamination reports?)

Then there are the E. coli reports- mostly connected with beef processed through some of the largest meat slaughterhouses. The first outbreak in 1994 at the Jack-in-Box restaurants, which left four children dead, has been followed by numerous other outbreaks. In an October 2009 article, Dr. Jeffrey Bender, a food safety expert at the University of Minnesota says “ Ground beef is not a completely safe product.” Pathogenic E. coli. in beef comes primarily from two practices in industrial agriculture, feed lot finishing of beef with the necessary use of heavy doses of antibiotics, and lax oversight of slaughterhouse and processing facilities where contamination from feces occurs.

Confinement pig production has placed a similarly contaminated meat package on grocery shelves: MRSA, or methicillin resistant staph aureus. MRSA strains have been found in over the counter pork products. A University of Iowa epidemiologist found 45% of pig farmers were MRSA carriers, while 49% of the hogs tested MRSA positive. In this country, 70 % of all antibiotics are given to healthy livestock as a necessary precaution in confinement feeding operations.

After compiling this scary laundry list of contaminated food, I have to ask what can we do as consumers. Washington County is still home to many small food producers who focus on quality and avoid chemicals in farming, do not use antibiotic and hormone treatment for their animals. You can find a local farmer, there may still be one in your own family, and have a conversation with him or her. Consider buying your food close to home. You will eat better, and you will know what you are eating.

Diapers and “Changing” Times Nov. 19, 2008

As a young mother in the 60’s, one of the small pleasures of a busy life was a clothesline full of freshly washed diapers, bleaching in the sun and smelling of fresh air and country breezes when folded and ready for use. Many years later my babies had grown up with families of their own; when my first grandchildren came to visit, they brought a different kind of diaper, diapers that were complete with absorbent padding and plastic covers on the outside. “So easy and clean to use” read the blurb on the package, just discard in the garbage after use, no washing or dealing with the mess. But farm life is always different from city life, we had no garbage service for pickup, and were already sorting and composting or burning most of our garbage; soiled disposable diapers were impossible to burn or compost. So I was left with carrying the diapers to work and sneaking them into the waste bins, or saving the diapers and sending them back home with the babies.

Now my youngest grandchild’s family has returned to the washable diapers, and I have been educated to the much improved reusable diapers that are available to young families today. The new diapers have adjustable snaps or Velcro strips (no more safety pins), have washable liners that slip out of soft water proof covers in bright colors, and fit as well or better than disposable diapers. With an initial investment of $200 to $400, families can use cloth diapers for their babies and reap the savings of not spending the $80 to $100 a month on disposable diapers.

Other important advantages of cloth diapers are minimal incidence of diaper rash, as compared to the disposable diapers. The Journal of Pediatrics reported that 70% of babies using disposable diapers had rashes, some severe, compared to very little skin irritation with cloth diapers. Disposable diapers are made with a super absorbent gel (sodium polyacrylate) and dioxin, a toxic chemical. The plastics used in manufacturing disposable diapers are nonbiodegradable, adding to the growing problem of plastic waste we are dumping on our planet. An estimated 5 million tons of untreated waste and 2 billion tons of urine, feces, plastic and paper are added to landfills annually. It takes around 80.000 pounds of plastic and over 200,000 trees a year to manufacture the disposable diapers for American babies alone.

More information on disposable diapers is available on the internet, under “diapers, disposable” . After I read about the impact on the environment of the disposable diaper products, I had to reflect on my diapering days, and the changing times. When I hung diapers on the line behind the house in Manton, my neighbor down the valley would comment on how early I could get my wash out. It was a matter of pride for her to have her wash on the line before anyone else. When I started back to work, I began washing at night and hanging diapers in the dark. Later I heard that Ms. Alma couldn’t figure out how I managed to beat her time with the wash. Now I think the next generation can take pride in a different part of diaper changing, ignoring the sales pitch for disposable diapers by changing back to cloth diapers, and helping the environment.

Farming Choices: Preservation or Destruction of the land? July 9, 2008

The phone message sounded like one of those credit card offers that you delete as soon as you hear it, but after listening again, I thought I recognized the voice of our sheep shearer. We had been expecting his call, as it was late May, time for shearing. The sheep were carrying a heavy coat of wool, and hot days were causing panting, and going to shade early in the day. The message on the phone said that our “natural fiber removal technician” was available, and would be on the farm in two days. After we deciphered the message, and understood the joke, we began preparation for the shearing.

Our “natural fiber removal technician” is a professional sheep shearer from northern Ohio, who demonstrates shearing at Shaker Town, and has worked all over the world. With a dry humor, and wry observant stories of the farmers he serves, he and his helpers always do justice to a big meal, and are unique guests at our table.

This year, our grandchildren were here to be a part of the big day. My son’s wife, Shannon, was the bagger for the wool, while the kids were helpers. Sheep shearing looks easy when your shearer has years of experience, but is a craft that requires skill and training. The shearer grabs the sheep out of the chute by the head and turns the animal on his back, so that it is immobile. Starting just under the face, and down the belly, then around the legs and last over the back in long swipes, the wool is clipped in a solid sheet of a thick lanolated mat. Shannon’s job was to gather the wool mat and place it into the chute to the bag, where it is packed and sent to a processing plant.

The sheep come out of the shearing shed looking dazed, shake their heads, and then realize they have a new feel to their skin. Like teenagers in shorts on the first hot day, they step faster, skip around the barn lot. Relieved of a thick coat, that has all the accumulation of a winter’s wear in the pasture, including insects and cockleburs, they are ready for the summer heat.

On our farm, the sheep are part of the pasture rotation; they clean up the weeds and fields after the cows. Diversity and rotation is part of the cycle of farming on a sustainable farm, where every animal contributes to the health of the land, and the soil, in a natural way, without chemicals or pesticides. This year we discovered that discarded wool too dirty to be sold will make a great mulch and fertilizer for the blackberries, so that will be added to our farming practices.

In contrast to our little farm, the flooding in the Midwest offers a picture of industrial agriculture and its impact on our environment. The demand for corn and ethanol has resulted in farmers taking over 100,000 acres of Iowa land out of CRP areas, land planted to protect watersheds, to place in corn. Crop rotation of monoculture annuals , such as soy beans and corn, which have shallow root systems, contributes to erosion. Two 500 year floods in 15 years has many people in the Midwest looking for reasons to explain the change.

Another devastating impact of the Midwest flooding is taking place in the Gulf of Mexico, south of New Orleans. The EPA estimates that up to 210 million pounds of nitrogen fertilizer enter the Gulf each year, creating a “dead zone” of water that is starved for oxygen due to the algae growth. This year with the flood waters from the Midwest, the dead zone is projected to become larger than 100,000 square miles, an increase of more than a third. Kentucky and Indiana are among the six states listed as the heaviest contributors to the dead zone due to runoff of phosphorus and nitrogen from heavy use of fertilizers and lack of watershed protection.

A host of problems with our agricultural system, including contaminated food, pollution of the environment, and ever rising costs, points to a need for wide and significant changes in farm policy and practices. Like the problems with the health care system, the problems with the agricultural business will have a impact on everyone but the most wealthy. If you would like to learn more, join one of the study groups sponsored by New Pioneers on a sustainable environment, and support measures to keep Washington County “green” .

Collard greens and spring cleaning Feb 21, 2007

My grandmother Rose, and her mother, my great granny, Betty Ann Roberts, placed great store in spring cleaning for the new year. When the weather began to warm and the days lengthened, the house was turned inside out to clear out the winter's accumulation. Along with the house cleaning, they were just as strong about cleaning our bodies and souls. Lent, with its prayers and fasting purified the soul; a big mess of spring greens cleaned the body. Kale, collard greens, and spinach were mixed with wild mustard, lambs quarter, poke and wild onions to cook for hours with a ham hock, served with corn bread and white beans. This tradition dating back to the British Isles was carried into the southern highlands by the first settlers.

Last Thursday, I went to the monthly Third Thursday meeting at the Kentucky State University research farm. Their topic this month was "Organic Agriculture, Healthy Soil, Healthy Plants, Healthy People". Organic agriculture growth is 20% annually, with over $14 million in revenue. Surveys show the main reason for this growth is avoidance of pesticides, and interest in fresh, nutritionally healthy food. KSU research farm has built a "high tunnel" greenhouse where they are now harvesting kale, mustard and spring lettuces.

Two researchers with KSU, Dr. Changzheng Wang and Dr. Avinash Tope, discussed the nutritional value of the brassicas, which include kale, collard greens, mustard, arugula, and bok choy or chinese cabbage. Dr. Wang and Dr. Tope noted the most significant nutritional value of the brassicas is in the phytochemicals, which exist only in plants and are higher in organic produce. These include beta carotene, lutein, and vitamins A, C, and K. The phytochemicals also play an important role in conversion and elimination of a variety of chemicals, including drug toxins and carcinogens, and promote anti-inflammatory activity. The brassicas are high in calcium, iron fiber, especially if eaten fresh.

After listening to the presentations we were served a lunch of different salads, all delicious, using greens from the greenhouse. I kept remembering my grandmothers and thinking how far we have moved away from their generations of wisdom. Fast food meals have replaced the knowledge of healthy food which evolved from living close to the land and the seasons. Now we are coming full circle back to an appreciation that "grandma knew best".

With a smile I also remember that grandmother Rose believed in regular doses of castor oil for the family, and kept us children scrambling to avoid her medical treatments. So as always, spring cleaning in moderation is healthy, and old ways are most valuable when mixed, like the greens, with what we can understand works in today's world. If you would like the recipes from KSU, they will be posted on their web site, organic.kysu.edu. along with information about other projects underway at the research farm.

New Pioneers will be hosting various work sessions in 2007 on sustainable agriculture and food, and you are welcome to join us with these programs. Contact New Pioneers at 859-336 5070 or on the web at newpioneersfs@aol.com

Text Box: Below are some of the well-loved columns of our associate Martha Young. They appear as “New Pioneers Notes” in The Springfield Sun as they emerge.