Indholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2019 i Hobby Farms

By now, the major issues facing honeybees and their survival are common knowledge. Articles frequently appear about colony collapse disorder, varroa mites, neonicotinoids and so on. Yet it seems like few people are talking about ways to stop this decline. That’s why I was excited when I got word that Hobby Farms contributor Jodi Helmer was working on a new book, which is now completed and on newsstands: Protecting Pollinators: How to save the creatures that feed our world (Island Press, 2019). Jodi is more than a great writer; she knows full well the heartbreak of losing bees, as she’s a beekeeper herself. From her introduction: “On a sweltering afternoon last June, I stood over a beehive, removing one frame after another, looking for signs of life. Small hive beetles…

If you’ve taken the time to create your own website — or had someone else create it for you — you’re invested in maintaining an online presence outside of Facebook, Instagram and the other usual suspects. But how can you be sure potential visitors not only can find you online but also like what they see? Following some basic best practices can make a difference. So can taking advantage of some of the sophisticated — and free! — online tools which offer valuable insights into users’ experiences with your website. Of course, knowing exactly where you should start depends on the goals you have for your website. Attracting Locals Unless you sell nonperishable products such as homemade soap or homespun yarn, odds are you hope to attract local customers via…

A number of growers I know have done some field trials on the so called Persephone rule, the idea that crops won’t grow once daylight hours drop below 10. What they have found is that if crops are keep sufficiently warm — usually the low 40s or higher, even in low-light conditions — they will see moderate continued growth. So, while most guides and resources focus on the hours of light, it actually is a mixture of both that will determine if and how much wintertime growth your crops can achieve.…

Here are some key vocabulary terms to know. BOAR: intact male pig FARROWING: the process of pigs giving birth GILT: pig that hasn’t had babies HERITAGE BREED: traditional breeds with unique genetic traits raised in the past but with dwindling numbers currently due to the rise of industrial agriculture LITTER: live birth of multiple piglets from one mom THE LIVESTOCK CONSERVANCY: nonprofit organization focused on preserving and promoting rare and heritage breeds of livestock. www.livestockconservancy.org PROVEN SOW: female pig after successfully having babies WALLOW: depression in the land that fills with water and pigs use to cool off and get wet…

When you buy an old farm, you buy a lot more than the land. Aside from the obvious examples of improved property — outbuildings, fences, wells and so on — you might get some old machinery, random piles of scrap metal, old tires and who knows what else. Some of these items are mere trash, but you can salvage others in creative ways. Here are three old items that can be put to new uses by clever hobby farmers. 1. BARNWOOD If you renovate a barn — perhaps by replacing worn-out siding or rickety floorboards — save any wood you remove. The weathered patina of old barnwood takes a long time to develop, and even if it’s no longer good for structural use, it does have an aesthetic value. What’s…

This chart is compiled from my experiences, along with recommendations from the Sustainable Market Farming website and Johnny’s Selected Seeds charts, along with a few other resources. It is by no means exhaustive, in terms of crops or possible varieties, but it provides an idea of the wide array of crops that can be grown deep into — if not all the way through — winter, depending on your location and infrastructure. Sustainable Market Farming also has kept detailed results of kill temperatures for crops under different conditions (uncovered, covered, tunnel, etc.), which you can peruse on its website: https://bit.ly/2JeP2o0. This information helps you know just how hard you need to work to keep particular crops and cultivars alive given the weather forecast. Note: With forecasts, it’s very important to…

While there definitely is an increasing market for heritage meats, the challenge throughout the country remains a lack of local meat processing facilities, particularly butchers that can process small-scale, artisanal meats that need traditional techniques such as dry curing. While this lack of processors also burdened April Prusia of Dorothy’s Range, she acted on a larger scale to look at the bigger picture and also help other small-scale meat producers with similar challenges. She formed a team of women farmers including Betty Anderson of the Old Smith Place and Bethany Storm of the Little Red Home(Stead) and they applied for and received a North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research Education Farmer Rancher grant to assess the demand and feasibility of a federally licensed mobile slaughtering facility in south-central Wisconsin. “We are…

There aren’t many crops from which one can harvest five entirely different products. But the black walnut can fill that order. • If you’re not eating the nutmeat out of hand or in cookies, then you’ve had it in ice cream. • The shell is tough enough for vendors to sell to auto companies for cleaning precision metal engine parts and as filler for sticks of dynamite. • The soft, greenish-black hull that surrounds the freshly fallen nut is valuable for fertilizer and making dyes. • Once the tree is at least 12 inches in diameter, you can tap it for sap from which to make sweet syrup. • And before the end of the tree’s useful nut-dropping life, its trunk can be milled into more than $10,000 worth of…

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The appeal of piglets is hard to deny. With floppy ears, expressive eyes, playful trots and host of grunty little noises, baby hogs seem specially designed for maximum adorableness. The sight of piglets piled together in sleep as whispy wheezing sounds escape their upturned snouts is, for lack of a better word, just really cute. Even the frenetic frenzy of feeding time holds a special charm when pigs are small. My farm’s first two pigs, a pair of Berkshire gilts, were technically in the “piglet” age range, generally considered to be from birth to 3 months. They were about 2 months old and just small enough to lift into a carrier, but they were way too big to casually pick up for a quick cuddle. My family and I enjoyed…

You should only harvest unfrozen plants. Lightly frozen plants should recover when temperatures rise back above freezing, but if you remove parts of the plant or the entire plant when it’s frozen, it will thaw but not recovery properly as when left on the plant or in the ground. Thus, winter growing requires planning and flexibility when it comes to harvest. Whereas in the summer, harvest is often done early in the morning — after the dew is dried but before the heat of the day sets in — in the winter, harvest usually happens much later in the day.…

For a source of lumber, as well as a profitable business, a portable sawmill can be a key piece of equipment on your farm. The seasonal nature of farming means there are slack times as well as times of low income, and there are always construction projects that range in scope from replacing a few boards on the front porch to building a barn. WOOD YOU RATHER? My first experience with a sawmill was in the early 1980s, assisting on an old circular sawmill run by a flat belt which was driven by a tractor. Besides the obvious hazard of working in the proximity of an unshielded 5-foot blade that occasionally threw fist-size chunks of wood in random directions, the mill had the nasty habit of throwing the belt (which…

Some crops linger in the corners of the market for various reasons. Pawpaws are scrumptious but too fragile to ship, for instance. Black walnuts are delicious and nutritious, but the time, cost and effort to remove the hull, clean them and shell them keeps walnuts from taking their proper place in the market. The same could be said for other nut crops such as hickories, mockernuts and acorns. But long-time orchardist Bill Whipple has a solution that he calls, with tongue-in-cheek, the Acornucopia Project, where it states on its website that “The Acornucopia is 10% nuts and 90% crazy people.” Whipple and his colleagues aim to build the processing infrastructure to make tree nuts more profitable: first in the Southeast, then nationally. They’ve set up 20 sites across the southeast…