Caryl spied me picking away at the hay stacks yesterday. I had 8 year old Rose with me, who was my color picker. She would point out the greenest ton bales of alfalfa grass hay, then I would pull some sample sprigs out from them and we would sniff them together. Anything smelling of sweet […]
A calf for Evil-the-one.
My 12 year old spotted the cow first. Down near the bottom of the meadow, now underwater with overflow from Lawson Creek, swollen with spring snowmelt. The cow was standing on a little island along the field edge in the rain. I looked vainly for little ears, any sign of life at her feet, but […]
Alderspring Ranch launches organic beef blog
After several weeks learning WordPress, we’ve launched our blog, Organic Beef Matters. The name is a double-or perhaps triple-entendre: organic beef really does matter for the health of the land and our bodies, the blog will be about matters related to organic beef production, and finally, I guess, even organic beef produce organic matter. If […]
Industry Concentration Hurts Consumers and Farmers
In the U.S., 80% of the beef sold is processed by 4 packing companies. Such concentration exceeds that of Upton Sinclair’s day (the Jungle), when Congress enacted the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 to protect farmers, workers, and consumers from excessive power to control prices. For example, after September 11, packers and retailers […]
Dairy March 2003 Logging with the Team
This week, after a long break, Glenn got back to work building our house. The foundation was poured last spring, but the summer and fall were so busy, Glenn didn’t have time to work on it. That is one reason we are considering selling some cows. The house will be a log house. Glenn […]
February 2003 Chickens
The chickens are laying like crazy. These are pullets. They came as 2-day-old baby chicks in the mail back last summer in July. Every day our 8 and 7 year old daughters washed out their water and feed trays and gave them clean feed and clean water. At night we turned a heat light on […]