Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer
Before you read the rest of this piece I encourage you to read the links below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
“When you are faced with food that has been sterilized, fumigated, hydrogenated, hydrolyzed, homogenized, colored, bleached, puffed, exploded, defatted, degermed, texturized, or if you don’t know what has been done to it, the safest rule is not to eat it.” ― Helen Nearing
Every morning after coffee, seven days a week I drive into the neighboring towns to make my run for food wastes. My wife refers to it as the slop run, but more than three quarters of what we pick up comes in the form of unopened or completely untouched food that until the previous evening had been on the supermarket shelf priced for consumers; produce, baked goods, and prepared foods. On a good day in the Summer we fill the back of a pickup truck with anywhere between 600 and 1,000 pounds of cabbages and muffins, fresh tomatoes and cherries, herbs packaged in plastic clam shells and tubs of potato salad.
We stop at three restaurants, a resort and a chain grocery store. Each business has it’s own reasons and plans for their waste management and we have been able to fit into their model seamlessly. We enter through the service entrance politely and efficiently, say our good-mornings and get to work. In the restaurants we leave heavy duty 40 gallon Brute containers on a rolling base with a lid. Kept near the food prep areas and another next to the dishwasher sous chefs and waitresses deposit the potato skins and uneaten pasta, watermelon rinds and coffee grounds, half eaten sandwiches and eggshells from everything they prepare and everything that their customers cannot finish.
The restaurants will, on a good night, produce a hundred and fifty pounds of carbon based surplus that we take back to the farm to feed our hogs and poultry. The resort produces three times as much and the supermarket ten times as much or more. For the businesses we service they save on the cost of waste handling and in the warmer months the prospect of keeping rotting food from accumulating in a dumpster for several days under the hot Sun, attracting flies and filling the air with the smells of decomposition before being hauled off to a landfill where it is buried, along with electronics, broken glass, plastics and odds and ends that will never degrade.
We provide the containers and the labor required to handle the leftovers and in return we wash and sanitize the totes, act respectfully and with gratitude while we are collecting the haul and return virtually every bit of carbon based waste to the environment, either as sustenance for our livestock, or as compost.
I enjoy these morning runs and if I travel alone, the Border Collie rides along in the passenger seat to keep me company. Sometimes one of my children will ride along and give me a hand, or my oldest Son will do the run for me if I am busy on another project, but we never miss a single day. We repeat this process in the evening before bedtime traveling to the local deli and the bakery for much smaller, but equally calorie laden haul. For our side of the return we are able to feed all of our livestock without having to purchase commercial feeds that are both expensive and often contain herbicides, pesticides and GMO based grains as their major components.
In the first few years we farmed we did what everyone else did and bought the pelletized feeds for each breed and species; layer feed, grower feed, chick feed and hog feed. Visually there wasn’t any difference between these bagged products that I could discern and after a while the thought of our animals having to live off of a steady diet of the same thing day after day began to bother me, not only for the ever increasing cost, but for the uniformity of it.
I hadn’t really thought about how much RoundUp was used in the production of these feeds or just how much of those contaminants passed through to us when we sat down to eat a pork chop or a chicken breast, but the longer we kept at it, the more clear it became that we were simply pushing our fresh, local, organic priorities back one step to a mass produced, corporate agriculture model where we raised our own animals, but ate whatever their bodies had metabolized. When we made this change to our feeding program it became apparent almost immediately just how close we were in our assessment of what was taking place. Now our pigs were eating twice to three times the volume of feed they’d been consuming before, but weren’t becoming fat at anywhere near the same rate as they had with commercial feeds.
In fact they began to look quite healthy, lean hogs as they refer to them in the Big Ag jargon. They seemed both healthier and more alert and they came to relish their diet in a way they never did before. We also noticed, almost by accident that the chickens had taken up with the hogs, not only for protection, but for the variety of scraps the pigs left behind after each feeding. We stopped buying grain for the chickens and allowed them to forage on their own through whatever was available on the farm, from the endless pecking at insects and grasses, to the gleaning they took to after each hog pen had been fed out.
Now whenever the tractor is running the flocks come after it in a swarm and follow us from the back of the pickup where we offload to the different feeding spots. Eventually it got to the point that when we offered them a tray of commercial feed we kept on hand during the brooding period where the girls remain close to the nesting boxes, they’d leave it untouched and so we have quit using it altogether.
I enjoy the run in the morning the way some people who live in the city relish their morning jog. I get to see the beauty of my surrounding area off the farm, I get all the social interaction I could ever want from the chefs and the stock boys, the produce manager and the receiving clerks, the restaurant owner and the GM of the supermarket, and they all, in turn, appreciate my service to their organization.
We are friendly and efficient, we arrive at approximately the same time every day, fitting it into their schedule, they save on their waste costs, they know that what they give us is appreciated- and we always drop off some kind of treat after a slaughter; slabs of bacon for the lady doing the prep for $8 an hour, a dozen eggs for the kid at the bakery who has to show up at 4am, a dozen foil wrapped pork tacos for the waiters at the resort at the end of the breakfast shift.
In short we serve a multitude of purposes that improves virtually every aspect of our business models. Our pork- and for those of you who have sampled it know- is exceptionally delicious rather than bland and uniform. The hams we cure for six months to a year in order to make a prosciutto are uniquely flavored and filled with a depth you cannot find outside of a $900 imported Parma. The bacon we smoke on the farm is always sweet and multicolored, layers of ruby red meat interlaced with ribbons of glistening orange fat.
The sausages, both the fresh links and the aged soppresattas are richly flavored and unctuous, every bite. The owners and operators of these businesses know that they are doing something for the environment by keeping tons and tons of wastes from going into a landfill, as well as helping to keep their own operations more hygienic and uncluttered for no cost and they understand that they are helping to keep a family farm alive when all across the country they are failing at a rate unseen in any other industry or profession.
Our animals benefit from a varied diet and they relish the variety and abundance of these feedings in a way that no commercially available product could ever satisfy them. They produce larger and healthier litters, they wean earlier and with greater success, and they live longer lives and in the end provide us with a far superior pork, poultry and egg production than any commercial operation could hope to deliver. The amount of carbon we sequester, both by the production of manure and the waste we remove from the landfill system is incalculable, but it clearly beats the current model of sequestering manure in fetid lagoons that run the risk of contaminating water tables in dry weather and fouling watersheds in the event of flooding. We simply return our to rich, healthy soils.
I am sure that to the average American consumer I am somewhere above the homeless beggar and just below the landscaper both economically and in appearance. Our truck is neither new, nor is our daily uniform of Carhart style work pants, farm T-shirt and hiking boots striking in appearance, but we are happy in our chores and proud of what we do. I treasure the relationships we’ve built with the people in these related businesses and the friendships that have come from our efforts as well as opportunity to improve our local environment and everything that depends upon it.
I can see the rewards every time we sit down to a meal together, taste it in every both of food, not only the meat and eggs, but the fruits and vegetables that grow in the living soils we’ve produced since we started farming this way. I am nothing like the neo-Puritans who scold everyone on what they should and should not be eating and tell us what is good for the environment and what is bad without ever having once produced so much as a single calorie of their Ivory Tower diet. We practice what we preach, but we try not to preach, but rather demonstrate through our daily actions what is really required if you champion the environment and claim to want to improve the conditions of life on Earth.
It seems clear to me where we are headed if we continue to allow ourselves to be manipulated and hectored into adopting diets based on lab produced meat substitutes or vegan diets that slowly eat away at the human body for want of balance and nutrition. I remember an America where obesity was so rare that you had to pay money to see a fat lady in a sideshow and where children were never fat, but glowed with health and an abundance of youthful energy. My own children have benefited from our choice to radically alter our lifestyle ten years ago and I can see it in my own body and my wife’s. I know what soil is and how crucial, if not essential manures are in the structure of tilth and a balanced environment that depends on death and decomposition as much as it does on life and regeneration.
We live in a very dangerous phase of human history, where everything that has ever been done successfully over millennia has been disparaged and ridiculed in order to placate the vociferous demands of the ignorant and uninformed simply because they make the most noise and enjoy the compliant reinforcement of a narrative built around power and wealth and the stripping away of freedoms Americans have enjoyed for centuries. I understand that not everyone is up for life as a sustenance farmer or homesteader, but all of us can make better choices, not only about what we eat and where our hard earned consumer dollars go when we must spend them on feeding ourselves and our families.
We can support those small producers that make the effort every day to improve the Earth rather than to strip mine it for every dollar that can be pulled out of it regardless of the long term costs and consequences. We can start to think about all the ways we create the kinds of waste that cannot be mitigated or buried in the ground when it could instead be returned to the environment beneficially, productively.
I encourage anyone who thinks that such a move is beyond their scope or capacity by reminding them that we knew nothing about how to produce our food beyond growing a tomato plant of picking some apples in the fall and rather than studying or dreaming, we simply did it and allowed Nature to show us how to do it better. We are in many ways hardwired to produce, to live in tune with the world we inhabit, to relate to animals in a way we could only dream of and to make those relationships beneficial to ourselves as well as the flocks and herds that live under our care and husbandry.
I encourage all of you, in the words of Helen Nearing, to do what you can, where you are, and to be kind.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
as they used to say “right on brother” ……… keep it going if only to prove to the rest of us it can be done if you want it badly enough.
How do we buy a ham, or some of that bacon or sausage?
I can ship the cured stuff, but for fresh you have to either come to the farm or live close enough for me to deliver to you.
Email me if you’re interested.
[email protected]
You don’t want GMs but are you sure the food you’re getting from those half-eaten sandwiches and other foods from restaurants and stores aren’t GM? Just curious.
Of course not, but the likelihood of the human intended food product as opposed to the livestock based grain product is certainly a bit better, especially if you know how grain is harvested.
I’d guess that pretty much the entire Industrial Agricultural production is in some form or another compromised, I’m just trying to do the best we can do with what we have.
I hope I didn’t sound like I was knocking you because I wasn’t. I was just curious if you went to specific places to get the scraps that you knew served healthier foods than others. Agree about the industrial agriculture production being compromised. I wish I could do what you do. Enjoyed the article, by the way.
Biochemistry being what it is, what the animal eats is not that important compared to what non-animal food//stuff we put in us.
You are correct in your thinking. Must be organic throughout in order to be pesticide free.
Nothing intrinsicly bad about GM foods. Its just that they usually GM them to make them tolerant to poisons that are a problem. They have removed cyanide genes from a lot of grains and produce. Those CN will kill you in high concentrations, but they will stave of cancer in very low concentrations . The Very low concentrations they come naturally. You can still get those vital neutriants from things like Kale for now.
The biggest problem I have with GM food is that until they have done a large amount of testing – – and I mean real honest to goodness double-blind empirical tests — I would remain very cautious of them. Prove to me conclusively that they are fine, and we’ll talk, but the testing today is a joke. Here’s why: as someone with a heavy science background, I can tell you that we just dont know enough about how DNA works to be tinkering with this. It is the ultimate in hubris to think we can play with God’s code for life (or, a billion years of evolution, if you are so inclined) and not create MAJOR problems! Moreover, once these organisms are planted in the field, they become part of the ecosystem, spreading their seed all over, forever altering the gene pool of that species, and affecting every critter that comes into direct or indirect contact via the food chain.
Sadly, the overall net-effect from GM crops (almost ALL soybean and corn is now GM) is that they allow — then *require* – – large amounts of herbicides and pesticides. Here’s an example: Roundup-Ready Beans™ were developed by splicing the genes from another plant that had natural resistance to the spray into the genetic structure of soybeans, which cannot survive roundup being sprayed onto them. This had always been a problem for farmers, bc weeds could get out of control in bean fields. Most farmers sprayed the fields early int he season, waited a period of time for the herbicide to decompose, then plant the beans. Now, they can spray the whole field, beans and all, and it’s a big time saver. All went well for a while – – long enough for them to capture the market on bean seed – – then weeds started adapting tot he spray. So now farmers have to spray the hell out of their fields to get the desired results, and the weeds are continuing to adapt. So on a practical level, GM crops have not become the panacea we were promised.
You said it, Brother. The food industry (and the minds of many) has been co-opted many years ago. I encourage all to read and investigate Codex Alimentarius .
http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/en/
And to read and support Scott Tips who fights the fight on our behalf.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=codex+alimentarius+scott+tips+nhf
Thank you, HSF. Leading by example.
A safe, healthy and relaxing holiday weekend to all.
Thank you for sharing. Reminds me of my mother who lived through the depression. Nothing was wasted. Everything was used and ‘repurposed’. We did not have alot of money …. but we more than got by. And we learned to appreciate everything and consequently life seemed sweeter with that attitude. Alas … if only more people has a similar attitude. But then again … we can only be responsible for ourselves and our own actions. Great story. Thanks for sharing
My parents, aunts, uncles,grandparents and in-laws were all Depression era survivors. Definite impact on they way they lived compared to young people today. Frugality was a necessity.
yup, remember my grandmother used to say “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without”
man, i sure miss the old folks.
Have you seen this? This old lady is awesome! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRKls2LLMqU-uK2csT6FOKw
On a bit of a tangential note, do you think that the trauma of that extreme period kind of blinded that generation to the dangers of the other extreme we have of overabundance? Many people who lived thru that era were never content the rest of their lives with the amount of food they had on hand. Do you think it caused them to over-react once prosperity returned, to go overboard on material needs? Could this have been part of the consumerism mindset we’ve developed over the last 50+ years?
So, simply “Doing” is really key in your situation? My ten acres needs “doing” rather than prettifying. I never feel I have enough knowledge under my belt to start. Just “Do” huh?
Hey Two, one way is subscribing to Acres USA, which is a very informational ecological farming magazine. I have used many ideas from them, although right now all I have is a suburban farm setting. The last two winters I was able to produce on average 7 lbs. of salad greens per week (on just 1250 sq.ft. of garden) from late October to late April (I’m here in Texas). Contact me if you need some help as to where to start, and what to do. As Yoda would say, “there is no try. Just do”. Unless you are using chemical fertilizers or herbicides, you really can’t go wrong. The most important thing is to start with your soil. It is by far your biggest asset. And use animals to do your plowing and heavy work. Don’t leave ANY ground bare. Have something growing on it at all times.
Might I just add, use cover crops to build organic matter in soil instead of animal waste, and ALWAYS rotate crops at least three years even in small growing areas. Johnny’s Seed has many useful growing tips and videos.
The article on food waste called for Governments and Industries to solve the problem. That is really the heart of all our problems, relying on massive, overly-complex, power or profit motivated institutions to “solve” all of the problems that, when you really look at it, are caused by Governments and Industries.
The solution is in individuals, like yourself and your family members, to take some small, simple actions en masse.
And it is such a stunningly, absurdly simple concept that Governments and Industries are guaranteed to look right past it to the grand and complex machinations of theirs sure to make things ever so much worse.
Food gets wasted because it is deemed unfit for human consumption. Animals need food and are happy to eat it. What could possibly be simpler and as you point out, not only does everybody win, it is an enjoyable human interaction each and every day.
OK, I won’t read it right now but I would like to say that if you could add a byline to the article…I almost skipped it due to the non-gripping title. Had you titled it something like Soylent Green is Here or something alliterative like Shit on a Shingle.
I am longing to do just that, grow something on a plot of land. But the land is hard to come by. Thanks to the Feds inflationary money printing and the realtors luring rich retirees from California into our area land prices have gone up much faster than we can save up.
Thankfully there are a few local producers we can buy healthy food from.
I just grow all my own veggies and feed that to my chickens. Safer knowing where the scraps come from. The local food bank is a good source of veggies since many people don’t eat them. They go to waste all the time.
Each time I read something like this from you I am reminded of how blessed we are to live where we do.
Agriculture is vastly different here from most other places. The farms are small scale and there is an abundance of fresh food here throughout the year.
I haven’t had to buy eggs in a grocery store for a decade. You can buy fresh eggs on the side of the road right from the farmer here (it’s the honor system where you take a dozen from a cooler on the guy’s driveway and leave your money in a coffee tin then return the cartons later) and the cheese I eat comes from a farm down the street I can walk to from my house in town.
The corn grown here is the best anywhere and is available at roadside stands for the summer months and the variety of fruit and veggies you can pick up right from the producer on a corner of his land is staggering.
And then there is what mother nature provides…
These bad boys cover thousands of square miles of alpine country all throughout the province and are the sweetest you’ll ever eat August through September (Excuse my ‘delicate’ hands – selling firearms for a living isn’t exactly hard labor). You have to put some miles on your boots to get them but they’re worth it.
My hands are softer. Although, yesterday I got stabbed by a broken wire on my finger tip, I bled for like half a second. I didn’t even tell the wife about it. We men just keep stuff inside.
Pure alpha.
You guys crack me up.
Wow. I am humbled to know you and hope that someday you can open up about those finger pricks:)
You must not remember your Carlin. You can prick your finger but never finger your prick. EC should have said that he stabbed his finger with a broken wire. Reading it sounded like he had a broken wire on his finger tip when he got stabbed.
I know it was not grammatically correct but I marveled at the flexibility of English and left it like that because it sounds better. That is the reason English puzzles non-English speakers. Spanish is not so flexible, it is noun-verb, subject-object but the modifiers go in front. There is little variation except in the instances where the verb form incorporates the first person (e.g. Corri’ can be an entire sentence – I ran.). English is where it’s at, baby, and Carlin was just being a word Nazi before that was cool.
Don’t you MECKS kins put question marks in the wrong places too?
I know I know…is a HOLY post.
Mags told me to not crap up the farmers threads …
Unless, someone starts something!
Noted and moving on.
Reminds me of the cider joke. Little girl run s to Mom andsays she needs a cup of Apple cider cause she pricked her finger. Mom is mystified, asks why, little girl says because big sister says when you get a prick in her hand she puts in cider and it feels good!!
Fascinatong
,,,
We’ve been living in the Mts. of Northern California for 35 years. We have herbal medicine garden * we don’t grow pot, which most people equate with herbs. Our county is Red but we are feeling the crazy hand of the State government affecting us and are considering leaving the State. Does anyone have any suggestions for where to move to where we can garden and continue to live our simple lives??? and have a community of like minded people?
Lots of simple minds in the south eastern US.
The Ozarks have plenty of room, land, water and about the least regulations in the nation. Real estate is very affordable once you have the revenue from a California real estate sale.
Move to a foreign country, northern Nevada on or near a creek,
Wyoming or Montana, but not to far north, for if next winter and the one after, is like the last for the global cooling trend………
Kenny Lane left Modesto for TN a few years back and you might check his blog where he writes about his life and society at http://knuckledraggin.com/
Kentucky is nice too, I always liked the Rough River area and Bowling Green, home of the Everly’s. Northern Alabama can get you S of the “snow & ice line”.
Move to a foreign country. Once the war starts here, everybody will be a target of somebody. Try to farm while under hostile fire….daily! Options might be: Argentina (no, haven’t lost my marbles. Argentina defaults on its debts every time the Big Boss changes, the locals just roll with the punches.) Uruguay, Costa Rica and Ireland come to mind. None of these countries have the theoretical freedoms that the US does, but in practice, they are freer than the US.
Staying in the US is analogous to using a tea cup to bail out the Titanic, IMHO.
can stucky or rins say that they don’t have calluses on the palms of their hands?
A rather serendipitous post. Many Thanks HSF!
MY wife and I are doing our utmost to utilize the proud 1/4 acre we have in a suburb North of Seattle to produce as much as we can for our own consumption.
I absolutely LOATHE to purchase anything with the moniker “Organic”, as it seems to me to be nothing but a ploy to sell overpriced produce to Birkenstock-Wearin’, Patchouli-Stinkin’, Greenbud-Smokin’ Pseudo-Hippie Wanna-Be’s. My wife, however, who has a degree in Horticulture from WSU and is a Master Gardener, grows everything in a TRULY Organic way. I have built a multitude of raised beds with cold frames, a 10X20 Greenhouse with electricity for heat pads and water, ( she uses it for starting, and produces salad Malkin’s during the cold months), 4 Espaliaed fruit trees ( 2 apple and 2 Asian Pear) that are awesome producers, and last year I built her a Chicken Coop for a dozen+ birds. She doesn’t want me to slaughter them for meat….. Yet….
We’re now in our early 50’s, and she’s been pressuring me to leave Western Washington to a more “Red” area, where she could have a little more livestock, but as a Merchant Marine Engineer who fishes in Alaska, I still need to stay close to where the boat is moored during the Spring and Winter.
She cans, and since I bought a large Freeze Dryer last year, uses that to preserve all of the excess that she grows for the upcoming Rainy Days that lie ahead. I also bring as much cod home as possible, to go along with the rest of the protein that I rotate through in my multiple freezers.
We try to keep enough on hand to be able to supply ourselves, along with our 3 kids and their children for about a year, should it be required. Anything more than 6 months or so would probably entail us bugging out though.
If all goes according to plan, and TPTB doesn’t crash the economy before then, I intend to retire in about 5 years and then acquiesce to Mrs. Ed’s wishes. Should be able to do it all with cash, and still have a decent retirement…..
In any event, living and eating as close to the land as possible is the most important thing for personal health that One can do for Oneself…..
You, and those who are like you, are a great inspiration. Many Thanks!!
What I like is the “doing”….far too many patriots/conservatives/freedom lovers are content to pontificate on the web and feel satisfied that they have struck a blow for freedom via virtue signaling.
I suggest that they are simply fooling themselves into a false sense of security. Prepping is BS, living the lifestyle is the only way to learn the skills and get re-homed into a community that is survivable.
Everybody has a point in their timeline that makes this choice viable. Sure there is sacrifice required but few things worth having are not without a cost.
The great reset is happening today and will continue for some time…over 20 years the USA will be a completely different place and it is time to decide where to want to fit into that new paradigm.
HSF is one of the best examples I am aware of a family embracing a fundamental choice to do things differently. With much-reduced dependence on the oppressive/abusive “system” that is always present with centralized authority.
Look in the mirror and imagine your current situation under a Dem/Leftist dominated government controlling Executive/Legislative and Judicial branches…….Imagine CA rolled out across the entire USA…….and then decide whether it is worth it to stay in the belly of the beast or make the leap.
As HSF points out the journey is the reward……
Powerful stuff, HS. I’ve been trying to take better care of my health and have had to cut out the booze. It’s not been easy. The stuff is ubiquitous in our culture and right next to all of the highly processed, corn-subsidized “snack foods” that also seem to be made to go with beer. Homesteading seems like a bit of a pipe dream for my family right now, but I think you’re absolutely right about needing to support (with our dollars) those who are making the effort to homestead. There’s a guy in MO (don’t recall his channel) who makes YouTube videos with his wife about homesteading and he says pretty much exactly what you say, even going so far as to buy his clothing from his Amish neighbors because he wants to keep his dollars local (he even wears a big beard even though he’s not Amish). He hosts “homesteading” conventions too which seem to be getting really popular around the country. Ever thought about doing that in NH? A homesteading convention? Might be a great way to supplement income and spread the good word.
Marc, thank you for a well written post. I know you don’t believe me but I do everything that you suggest. Even here, just 40 miles from downtown LA. You just have to make the effort and you can get the good.
Haha
Outstanding… ?
HSF
That was a great article, I’ll post it tonight.
Bob
You’re a helluva guy, Farmer….
My dad worked a dinosaur industry; he was a traveling hardware rep. for a family owned wholesale hardware distributor. His territory was a 100 mile radius from our town, and I rode with him many times as a kid in the summers………you describe scenes very similar to what I saw over 50yrs. ago…….
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum-
What a life !
HSF, can you provide more info about the bins you take to the businesses? Is it laziness, ignorance or what that keeps other farmers from doing the same thing? The link you posted a while back about the farm that was doing the same thing and turning the food waste into compost/mulch while also feeding their huge chicken flock was really fascinating.
Interestingly, Memphis Meats, mentioned in the article, has three career positions open in where? Berkeley CA.
Wouldn`t it be grand to follow this business money trail?
Many years ago a friend of mine’s grandmother worked in the public school cafeteria. Every day she carried home garbage cans full of food scraps which she used to feed her hogs. After many years the school/government made it illegal for some reason and eventually she had to shut down her operation. The scraps then went to where ever probably at a cost to the taxpayer.
My maternal grandparents didn’t know about the “Great Depression” until someone told them about it. They had always raised or grown their own food. My uncle used to tell me that when growing up they ate every part of the hog except the oink.
My mother pickled the feet!
I think she recorded.the oink.
hey HF,
maybe just a small typo:
“taste it in every bite of food, not only the meat and eggs…”
once again, appreciate the insight and art in your writing, hope to catch up again soon.
Sad when you realize how much America has changed in the last 40 years. I never thought I’d see the shit I’m seeing throughout my country and most of it for the worse as far as ideology. We traditionally minded Americans have lost the cultural Wars . The enemy controls all the major institutions and they have done a ” good job ” of brainwashing the young. Hardfarmer you seem to live a life that is good but for the most part has gone.I hope your children will be able to carry on farming and be able to do it in peace.You have given them a foundation to be admired. I hope we all can live in peace but the communist are not going to allow us to live in peace. I haven’t been on a farm since 1975 after my grandparents sold theirs. I didn’t care back then but now I wish they would have past it on to us grandchildren but life is life. My hope now is to make it to the mountains with my preps. I never thought I would be one day trying to find a hideout away from the Golden horde .Anyway hope you have a blessed labor day weekend .
Beyond Bullshit:
Take a look at page two of this link:
https://www.insider-monitor.com/top10_insider_sales_month.html
It clearly shows the pump and dump operations of these Beyond Meat wall street shysters, if his product/company is so great, why did he just sell $111 Million dollars of his companies shares?
Oh, that’s right, because if the getting is good,….
here today gone tomorrow, it was going to save the world, until consumers realized that GMO veggie burgers also contain Glyphosate (you can’t wash that shit off)
BYND stock is way ahead of the revenue but $11M is a small amount for the main shareholder. Not his fault investors have bid up the shares. It is NOT a pump and dump it’s just overvalued. I am pretty active in plant based protein. KFC just launched chicken nuggets using Beyond Meat’s products they are quite real but it is still processed….whole natural food is better.
Good stuff as usual HSF. Here in PA, our overlords stopped that method of efficient recycling a few years back. (The same year they made me have a full service kitchen just to extract and bottle honey, I believe. ) Now anything post consumer (once served to people)must go to the landfill.
My friend runs a high end brew pub. They send their spent grains off to a local pig farm, then buy pork from him. It’s a very efficient way to recycle.
When I was looking at composting our kitchen refuse that now goes to our chickens, I made acquaintence with the young man that runs Veteran Compost turning food waste into garden soil. He was recently discharged and looking to start a business. It was a dream, some land, and a loader. Fast forward a decade or so and he has been very successful and has people working for him.
There is lots of things we can all do with little effort once we become aware.
Which of course begs the question by what right do these presumptive kings tell us how to run our farms and lives!
I’ve seen went on morning rounds one time, yes hundreds of pounds of “waste”, and if they don’t mind some wilted salad, these hogs actually eat great.
What a wonderful piece. My wife and I moved to Vermont recently to help our daughter and her family restore an 18th century farmstead on 80 acres. It had sustained 8 generations of families and we intend to make it 9. You got it nailed HF. Not just the practical part but the soul part. Last Sunday we went to the Washington County Fair in New York State. It brought tears to my eyes. There were cows, horses, pigs, goats, sheep and fowl of every type. They were tended and showed off by these terrific young farmer’s kids nicely attired, knowledgeable about the animals they adored and polite. It was as heart warming as anything I’ve seen in a very long time. And although there were colored folks there it was primarily a white family affair. I wouldn’t have called it as such ten years ago but I proudly do now. This is where we belong. Let those who will hate me for that stay in their city cesspits-where they may meet their fate.
I’m always glad to see another TBP reader that lives in VT. Restoring that farmstead sounds fantastic.
I moved here for a job about 16 years ago and although I’ve had a few opportunities to move away for slightly better paying jobs, they were all in much more crowded or crime ridden areas of the country that I had no interest in ever trying to call home. I agree with you. I love going to some of the local farm and garden related events and seeing all the fantastic work done by the kids living on local farms.
Nice to-almost-meet you. It’s been 30+ years since I went through a New England winter so we’re entering a new reality. But considering we moved up from Florida I’d say we dodged a weather bullet.
New England winters are great. If you acclimatize yourself, wear proper clothing and spend as much of your daylight hours outdoors, it’s actually one of the best seasons of the year.
If either of you are close enough, come visit if you get a chance.
HSF logged out.
I definitely will HF. Wonderful of you to invite us.
Lol
HSF.
Would love to get some of your product…….. for two reasons. To get some of what I think would be the best meats and food products that I could find anywhere. And perhaps more importantly, to support a fellow TBPer whose writing I’ve grown to so appreciate and respect. Well done as always Hardscabble. PS. I’m only a little over an hour away from you close to Manchester. When is the best time to come “grocery shopping” at your place?
Drop me an email and I’ll give you my phone number, just call before you head out to make sure I’m around. Except for early mornings I’m almost always here.
Just today I got the last liner in my last raised bed, ready for next springs beans, cucumbers, and whatever else. I dropped a stale leftover bun into the composter. I spent the summer improving the soil I had already put in too, about 6000 pounds of it, all my hand. I can have a few chickens here, not to that point yet but it’s coming. I’d really like a farm myself but I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got. We moved in here two years ago, the entire yard front and back was rock. Now I’ve got six raised beds, eight potato bags, two bulb beds and numerous potted plants.
My son sent a picture of the great volume of tomatoes and squash he gets from his two small raised beds that we built. Amazing what one can grow in limited space.
If you don’t have groundhogs!
My area is a harsh environment, it ruined many a settler over the last 150 yrs. Eastern Oregon High Desert, which is actually a steppe, but harsh nonetheless. We’re at about 4400′ on the valley floor. I envy your set up. Having said that I have more than enough, tho not to your level of abundance. Priorities, always priorities, even to our daily provender. As in your case, like-minded neighbors and community are all-important.
When I was in Memphis in the mid-70s, the Naval Station allowed a local pig farmer to collect the scraps from the Mess Hall. Woe betide the inattentive sailor who got caught dropping scraps of paper into those 55 gal. drums. The unfortunate squidlet would be set to ‘pearl diving’. This consisted of searching the drums, clear to the bottom, under the attentive eye of either a Senior Chief, or a Gunnery Sgt. The marines especially enjoyed their work. No one ever did it twice.
Unfortunately, just as Unreconstructed wrote, finally someone bitched that it was favoritism, or some such bull shit, and they stopped giving the scraps to the farmer. Instead it went to the local dump, to make sure that no one profited unfairly.
As you eloquently pointed out, the rewards go far beyond the physical, as wonderful as they are.
Eat, drink and enjoy the fruits of your labor. One of my favorite verses, as long as it’s kept in context.
Mine is similar, high desert in western Colorado. The soil is alkaline, devoid of nitrogen, very low in phosphorus and organic matter. God only knows how poor the nutrients are. Takes some work to get it up to speed. Also explains why ‘turning the desert into a farm’ by just adding desalinated water is a pipe dream.
So true. What part of CO? I just finished a western novel for my dad, centered around Los Pinos creek south of Gunnison.
Brings back another memory. Nothing wasted! Family dog got only table scraps. Absolutely no commercial dog food. They lived a pretty good life. Mostly died of old age or getting run over by a car. Noticed that today that a lot of pets getting cancer and other wasting diseases. Probably connected to commercial (chemical crap) in their store-bought food. OH well, it gives the vets a good business in radiation and chemo treatments. When I was a kid it would have been a .22 LR to the back of the head (no long term suffering.)
Only got a 1/10 acre city lot, most of it house; still, this year I managed some tomatoes, green peppers, green onions, sunflowers, and herbs. Container gardening; still a challenge, but I’m growing tomatoes in a desert after all! Takes a fair amount of water, mostly from rain or a nearby artesian well. There was a grape vine on the back fence; neglected for a while, it took two years of fairly frequent attention to get about 1.5 pounds of red grapes this year. The”ornamental” plum tree we put in front didn’t get the memo; this year’s long wet spring gave us around twenty pounds or so of small, tasty plums I turned into jam (to put on egg rolls, mainly). I might be able to grow more but south-facing area is at a minimum (driveway runs up beside the house on south side, eliminating anything beyond window-boxes on over 50′ of perimeter.
Next year I have a new water tank to put into service; hopefully I can fill it with snowmelt (the purest source commonly available in a year), rainwater (needs filtration for solids after it runs off the roof) and artesian well water as needed. More planters, better positioned and planted to INSTRUCTIONS should give more produce next year, assuming I don’t have to bug out due to the Crunch or something.
Here’s a great way to grow tomatoes, even in a desert:
https://www.agardenpatch.com/
http://www.localharvest.org
I always enjoy reading your posts HSF. I didn’t get a chance to come to your shindig the last time but I hope to meet you one day in person as well as many of the other fine people that frequent this site. I’m pretty sure I’d get along with most of the people here like peanut butter gets along with jelly. I agree with your thinking that everyone should just DO something to change their situation instead of merely pontificating about it. A few years ago my wife and I bought some ducks and chickens. I grew up in the suburbs so I never had any experience with them, but now we had a few acres so we decided to give it a try. I think buying our first batch of chicks was one of the greatest purchases I have ever made. They’re great entertainment and eggs are probably some of the best things you can eat. But I didn’t like relying solely on pellets for our flock so then I decided to start a garden. Over the years I really began to see how all of this works together. By now I have expanded the garden several times and although I still rely on pellets to some extent, mainly in winter, we’re able to grow so many things that our flock loves as well as providing lots of bugs and worms for them, and in return they lay some fantastic eggs for us.
My Dad kept a herd of Durocs and worked in town as a pipefitter. A couple times a week he would drive his 3/4 ton to work, swing by one of the 3 breweries in Louisville, and fill his tank with slop for $1 a load. He would then bring it home and offload into barrels, and we served it to the hogs in water heater vessels cut in half with welded legs. It was rich in barley & oats; sometimes so fresh it was still warm. Hogs loved it. We supplemented that with ear corn.
We do the same here the microbreweries set up containers on the loading docks so farmers can swing by and grab it. The hogs love it.
Hi Marc, slowly transitioning here from a “lurker” to a contributor. We really enjoyed your Independence Day Celebration, and getting to meet you and your wonderful wife. Thanks for all you do. Please stop by if you’re ever in the Keene area.
This post was right on. We made daily trips to coffee houses in Keene for many years gathering coffee grounds from about half a dozen coffee houses, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, providing clean buckets for them every day. It reduced their garbage load and associated cost, at no cost to them, while increasing our compost supplies. Coffee grounds are arguably better than manure in compost.
Anyway, best to you and Meredith.
Excellent and inspiring!
HSF,here is a link to a farm operation in Indiana that, in a small way, tries to be a good steward of the land and animals. I don’t think they use food waste for feed, since Indiana outlawed the use of food waste and instead requires it to go the the landfill. (Something about Mad Cow Disease…) Anyway, enjoy.
https://sevensons.net/
The state of Indiana thinks that BSE is spread through food waste?
Wow. Governments never cease to amaze me.
Great link. I wish I had seven brothers I’d be kicking some serious farming ass if I did.
Great Video!!!
That was me above. Since the link at the top of the page did not embed the video on my portable telecommunications device, I put it down here so I could listen to it as I read the piece and thread.
I stayed incognito in case I decided not to comment after reading.
In reviewing the articles linked at the top of the post, yours truly came back after a few online distractions, and since I’m on my phone, I utilized my circa $60 ear-buds (with walnut wood-housings) as the perfect means to hear Chet Baker’s trumpet & Paul Desmond’s alto sax.
After listening to just the music a few times and then the piece itself (to the music) – there was harmony. And layered efficiency.
Truly, the best things in life are free; and there is such elegance in simplicity. Especially when everybody wins.
Thanks for the words. And the music
What a great fookin piece. You are so dialed in, I am in deep admiration. The toxic sludge in most modern groceries is killing those who eat it. You could eliminate 90-95% of what is in my local store and I’d never miss it.
Good for you-I’m not jealous much…
“Imagine a social media site with this code: clicking the downvote button counts your downvote and then closes the tab; only if you first upvote, can you post a reply. Ideally every thread would be building up from the original idea. Of course, someone could easily get around that rule, but I wonder if it would be enough to shift the culture.”
Only two downvotes on this one.
The farther we are from where our food is produced, the more processed it all is, and the more government demands (taxes, permits, regulations, etc.) of those who simply wish to exchange their labor for something, the worse the problem becomes. Great job seeing a two-sided need and a two-sided solution. Most problems can be solved that way if people will simply become fully open to exploring the possibilities.
Don’t tell too many secrets HSF. I knew a guy who used to get all the used fryer oil in the area and strain it and run his old Mercedes diesel on it. When you have a truly great idea like what you are doing here, the “me too’ers” as the Mrs. calls them come out of the woodwork.
You are in good company. Dick Winters did something similar with stuff from Hershey’s when he worked for them. Harrington Richardson
WAPO puts out an editorial on starbucks pumpkin spice lattes that it is connected to slavery, wars, and genocide all because the nutmeg spice. Where it was grown primarily at one point in history, the cultures that farmed it and the countries that traded it. Well, I gots some news for you all. The air that you breathe the water you drink and the dirt you walk on was all part of that too. Where does the narrative start/end. These people are seriously deranged and I truly feel when society gets this batshit crazy its time for depopulation to occur naturally. Naturally could even mean we humans/govts purposefully depopulate as a natural instinct. But instead the left tree lovers et al want to bring in 80 iq third worlders so they can have a slice of first world excesses and waste and environmental degradation. The left are such hypocrites in all that they do and say it nearly laughable if it were not true.
When I started working at the local chain grocery store about 14 years ago, there was an old man (old as in I was 40) that showed up in the morning to collect his barrels of stuff the produce department decided was too old. Plus the scraps of cheese and meat from the deli and expired rotisserie chickens. He was feeding pigs.
Then some genius at another store had to screw it all up… yeah, this produce just arrived but I’m gonna give it to my buddy.
New rule…. nothing leaves the store unless it was paid for or via the compactor. What a waste….
Greetings HF,
As always, I enjoyed your article. I really need to stop by and pick up some of your sausages. IMHO they were the best part of the meal back in July. Do you make scrapple? Man, oh man does it go well with maple syrup!
We are eating 90% of our food from the meat counter and produce aisle. We are losing weight and feeling better. Growing your own is even better. We will start that regimen next spring. I was blessed by being brought up a farm boy, even though its been decades, I got off to a good start with healthy food.
Oh and BTw. HSF is one of the few authors here I always make a point to read. I would love to go to the get together next year with my wife. I cant imagine anything more fun or interesting than to meet all the folks who go.
HSF, now this is what we all should be reading, this is what the politicians and man caused nuts should be reading.
Just be good stewards of the earth and yes, be kind. Most of the people preaching are so hypocritical it’s mind numbing. Just do what you can.
You really hit home with the “pay to see a fat lady” comment.
Reflecting on my time in Argentina, Uruguay, and even the Exumas. Hardly a fat person to be seen, except for American tourist…..
They eat foods that are fresh and in season, not processed, frozen, packaged, and preservative laced. Buy a loaf of bread and you have 2-3 days to eat it, not 2-3 weeks.
Excellent.
This is a low-hang fruit 100 if I ever saw one. It’s been at 99 for hours now.
100