What is a SMOOG and for what does it have a need to confess? "SMOOG" is an anachronym which stands for a:
...up until recently it did not seem that the home gardener/individual/independant food-producer had much to worry about, legally, but recent legislation proposed in both the US House and Senate contain language that could be interpreted as becoming an eventual attempt to "control" and "regulate" home food production if not ban it altogether (in other words, "Control the food supply and you subsequently can control the people"--and, after all, it has at its primary and core intent an elitist population reduction agenda) in favor of the big corporate agribusiness concerns (HR 875 and S 425)--in anticipation of this eventuality I have, in advance, declared myself to be a SMOOG--a Socially Maladjusted Outlaw Organic Gardener (in reality I came up with this quite a number of years ago while then correctly anticipating the direction and course of the current social paradigm at that time)--and here on my website I want to share with others my techniques and experience of some 30 years plus of organic gardening and small-scale, diversified, self-suffienct farming and poultry/livestock production...
...so herein find in photos and commentary the confessions of this SMOOG in NITHIA--oh, by the way, "NITHIA" is also an anachronym and which stands for:
...ongoing Gardening/June 16, 2010...
...time to harvest the wheat...
...time to harvest the wheat for an even bigger crop next year...
...pickin' peas w/Gramma...
...pickin' the good ole' English/green/sweet peas w/Gramma=Little Marvel var peas=mmm/mmm good--in Grampa's "jungle" garden...
...the best of the best of the best...
...grand-daughter Lexi holds "the best of the best of the best" of the final harvest of 2010 carrots...
The "hobby" garden 2010/June 4....
A lot of variety in the "hobby" garden this year...
...we have broccoli on both ends; one middle bed has Tristan's Tami G red grape tomato, a Kakai pumpkin, a seeding carrot and some Butternut squash; the other middle section has Brussel sprouts, Wyatt's sunflower from school; all of the beds have a few elephant garlics on their perimeter and of course some scarlet runner beans...
...this year's improvement...
...you can see where I've started putting deck boards between the beds--up until this it was crushed rock w/weed barrier under it and, after a couple of years, the weeds have begun to breech the barrier!...
Garden 2010--June 3 Update pix...
Carrots...
Carrots...
Volunteer potatoes from last year in the carrots...
...these potatoes that came up in the carrots this year are volunteers that over-wintered from last year's potatoes--surprisingly, since we had near zero temps and hard-frozen ground--also noted was that they are almost potato-bug free...
Last thinning of carrots...
The last "thinning" of the carrots yields carrots to eat and can--of course the Grandkids help out...
...grandson Wyatt holds bunch with all the best in it...
...Lexi helps trim tips and tops off...
...peaceful NITHA garden view...
...later, Lexi helpls Gramma can the carrots...
...Good, long variety carrots need deep soil...
...we don't have that here in the Ozarks--but I have created my own w/the raised bed/ridge & furrow technique...
Grampa's new variety of pumpkin...
This is the Kakai variety developed by Johnny's Selected Seeds--a hull-less seeded variety grown for its edible seeds and the pumpkin seed oil that can be extracted from them (good for male prostate and a vegetable source of Omega 3 fatty acids); originally developed in Austria over 400 years ago and still popular in Germany...
Grampa wants to nickname them "elephant ear" pumpkins...
WOW! That's some big punkin' blossoms...
I KNOW!!!...
Lexi's school project cabbabe...
...if you're going to plant cabbages in Grampa's garden be sure to leave 4 foot + between them for spacing...
...Lexi and Wyatt in the "hobby" garden by the broccoli...
Gramma re-mulches the carrots after Grampa pulled and thinned them...
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...barnyard manure in the bottom of the furrow...
...is this a garden-side pool or a pool-side garden--both I guess...
...what I mean by "mulch"...
...what I mean by "mulch"...
...you saw in a previous installment what I mean by "ridge and furrow" which = a radical, extreme "ridge" and a radical, extreme "furrow"--so now, here are a couple of pix that are indicative of radical and extreme "mulching" w/grass-clippings...
...what I mean by "mulch"...
...fill that radical/extreme furrow up w/mulch or/and barnyard manure="import to your Garden while you are able so that it will export to you when you are not so able"...
Garden 2010--May 18 update pix...
Broccoli's looking good in the "hobby garden"...
...the Green Comet variety wasn't available, not even from online seed suppliers (?) this year--so we ordered seed for the open pollinated variety Green Goliath...
Garden 2010--May 18...
Garden 2010--Carrots in bloom (for next year's carrot seed)...
...Carrots are a "biennial" plant--in other words they do not flower and make seed in the first year. So in order to produce your own carrot seed you have to "hold over" some carrots through the winter and replant them the following year...
Garden 2010--May 18...
...NITHIA/ongoing Gardening/April 18/2010...
Rebecca helps Gramma out in the greenhouse...
...this is the first full year that we've had the greenhouse available for the entire gardening season...
...broccoli & Brussel sprouts to tranplant out into the garden...
...bell pepers and hollyhocks...
...tomatoes too...
...little broccoli's staged to be transplanted into the "hobby garden"...
...at long last, Tristan has gotten big enough to help out effectively...
...Tristan helps Grampa out pulling up ridges in the garden...
...and attempts to give the garden a traditional great uncle Kyle Pierce style "blessing"...
...when Grampa says, "Pull up a ridge"--he means PULL UP A RIDGE!!!...
...so suck it up and get a good, healthy workout while you're gardening--good for getting rid of the flab and building up those abs...(they do make machine implements that do the same job--but Grampa says that the "machine" God made (his body) and put his spirit into works just fine...and that this "machine" was designed for a specific purpose when God created it--to till the ground and to dress and keep His Creation (in the original Hebrew "dress"=make it to serve your needs and "keep"= to hedge it about; take care of and protect it)...
...make a furrow...
...then he flattens off the top of his ridge to basically create a raised bed...
...it more than doubles the depth of topsoil where vegetables are planted--and we put barnyard manure in the furrow and then do our best to fill it with grass clippings for mulch as we mow throughout the season--Grampa says, "Import all you can into your garden anytime you can and for as long as you are able--and if, someday, you are not able, then your garden will continue to Export produce back to you"...
NITHIA/Ozark Spring 2010/April 9th...
Ozark Spring 2010/Apple tree in blossom...
Here is one of the two Apple trees in our front yard in blossom...
A new garden trellis system...
We have a new garden trellis system this year--my boss, Kenny, will recognize the materials as Walmart "clutter grids" installed vertically, rather than horizontally; with Walmart conduit for the upright stakes into the ground...
New garden trellis system/two...
...these are leftovers/extras from sign installs that would have went into the dumpster anyway that I brought home--and they look really good/well-appointed and "sharp" in the garden--wait until I get the PVC caps on them (to keep the rainwater from filling the conduits) in our burgundy and forest green colors!!!--(by the way, the tall, thick "grass"-looking stuff to the right of the end of the garden trellis is Winter Wheat being grown for future seed stock)...
Ozark Spring 2010 Wild Violets/a carpet of wild violets...
There have always been wild violets on the hillside behind the house--but, as I told Pam years ago--with our keeping it mowed, bag-catched (=dethatched) and the autumn leaves off of it they would spread--and they have...
Ozark Spring 2010 Wild Violets/a carpet of wild violets/Two...
..."candied violets"--sugar glazed violet flowers as a garnish in a gourmet dish presentation--and even violet leaves are edible in a salad...
Ozark Spring 2010 Wild Violets/a carpet of wild violets/Three...
...fortunately, goats don't seem to want to eat them--at least not as a preferrence--despite the cliche' that goats will eat anything; there are a great many things that they will not eat...
Ozark Spring 2010 Windbreak Redbuds...
The redbuds I transplanted on the south side of the cedar windbreak are now big enough to bloom for the first time this year...
Ozark Spring 2010 Windbreak Cedars...
The cedars in my three-row cedar windbreak are finally--after six years--getting some size to them. Of the 134 I originally transplanted I had to replace 30 or so that did not survive. In transplanting the replacements I observed the proper "moon sign" and placed them according to their original compass direction orientation (ala my article, "Moon Sign--Gramma--Sauerkraut--Cedar berries--Bird Poop--and the Magnetic Poles--Happy Thanksgiving..."--which I will shortly add to this SMOOG site)--and 29 out of 30 survived...
Horses might be good for something after all...
...I'll let Gretchen's equines, Shadow and Little Girl, keep up with the mowing within the windbreak this year--it's gotten to grown up and thick for me to get my bag-cathing push mower into it--though I will miss the grass-clippings for the ridge-and-furrow garden mulch...
Our kid Eve...
Our kid Eve--the first "livestock" to be born on the New Farm--is well over two months old now and has been integrated into the herd of adult goats during the day...
Our kid Eve/Two...
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Our kid Eve/Three...
...here she is cavorting above our miniature waterfall which is above the spring which supplies our household water (not drinking--but everything else)...
...NITHIA--a goat-herders dream...
...I always wanted to be a goat-herder when I grew up--(that part humorous/part sarcastic/part true comment scares Pam)--but in the past, sheep and goats were so economically important that people were employed full-time in the care of the flocks and the herds--in a simpler more-in-touch with the real reality of the Creation time...
Tristan's Science Fair Project--Does Willow Tea promote root growth...
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Michael and the captured redbird...
Michael and the captured redbird...
"Red bird (dead bird) don't sing to me,
I've not the time to lend my ear unto thee--
Work-a-day/work-a-day that's all I ever do;
So they can watch their pence grow two-by-two--
The more they want the more I give/
The more I give the more they want...
Though they make me old before my time--
Perhaps I'll give them ulcers when they read this rhyme..."
Original poem/lyrics by MK--decades ago...
In His Love,
Michael
A visit to the "Goat lady" with the Grandkids...
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Chemtrail photos...
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Newborn baby goats...
Newborn baby goats...
The newborn baby goats first feeding within an hour after they were born...
Kids & Grandkids...
No one can resist the charm and cuteness of baby goat kids--especially children...
"Old Farm" pix...
Green Comet broccoli at the Old Farm--organic, of course...
Here I am holding two heads of broccoli--Green Comet variety--that we grew at the Old Farm, organically, of course, in our Ridge and Furrow garden. It tasted even better than it looks! We canned a large amount of it in quart canning jars and contrary to some negative things we had heard about canning broccoli--like it would turn out "bitter"--it tasted GREAT!!! In an aside--if they ever needed to cast a brother for "Ducky" (David McCallum) on NCIS--I think I'd be in the running...
Typical Ridge & Furrow, organic Cabbage at the Old Farm
Here is one of our typical cabbages grown in our organic Ridge & Furrow garden at the Old Farm--it was very mild in flavor and scent (it didn't stink up the kitchen like typical store-bought cabbage does when it's cooked)--we canned a lot of this too in canning jars and it also turned out quite delicious...
...our landlord's son-in-law had planted a hundred cabbage plants in his garden this same year. After I gave the landlord some of ours she told her son-in-law that if he could grow them like ours he would have had to only plant ten...
Garden update pix--early May '09...
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Ridge&Furrow Garden 2009/Multi-cropping experiment...
I started by thoroughly tilling the top of the ridges as deeply as possible with a front-tined tiller--six to eight passes (or more) per row/ridge...
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...this is my hand-tool of choice to pull up tilled soil--sort of a toothless rake, it is actually a concrete working tool, but it works great for forming ridges and furrows by hand...
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...we had decided at first to plant all of the rows/ridges to potatoes--with the ridges thoroughly tilled I pulled the dirt up from the center both ways to turn the ridge into a furrow in which we would place the seed potatoes...
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...this is quite strenuous labor--but it really improves those abs...
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...if you look closely you can see that my furrow goes all the way down to the orange clay subsoil--this retains a lot of moisture and will be an important source of it for the plants later in the (average) season...
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...grandson Tristan helps out by gathering up any rocks turned up--which, in the Ozarks, there are always plenty of these!...
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...Pam sets the seed potatoes out in the furrow about 18-24" apart...
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...using her own two feet as a measuring "guage"...
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...seed taters in the furrow that will become a ridge again and then it'll be ready--set--GROW!!!...
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...so I pull the dirt back up and over the seed potatoes; reforming the ridge...
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...again, quite strenuous labor--but hey, I'm 52 years of age and almost (but not quite) have six-pack abs!!!...
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we decided to "multi-crop" the ridges this year since we needed more than just taters...the taters are planted in the center of the ridges so I decided to plant some early vegetables that would finish up just as or before it would be time to dig the taters along in late June or early July--namely I planted some rows of leaf lettuce, turnips, carrots and peas (Little Marvel) on the ridges on both sides of the potatoes in the center of the rows/ridges--here I'm raking to smooth soil before seeding
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...I like to use a pointed hoe to work up the small furrows in which to place small seed when planted--I use the same hoe to come back and cover and tamp the seed in after planted...
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...here using the pointed hoe to open up a shallow furrow for seeding...
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...here using a garden seeder to plant peas in the furrow...
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...a small, manual garden seeder is handy since it will space small seeds more evenly than if sown by hand...
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...here using the pointed hoe to pull the soil onto the seeds and cover them...
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...here using the pointed hoe to "tamp" the soil and firm it over the planted seeds...
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...here's seven year old granddaughter Alexis--with her standing in the furrow you can get some size-comparison-perspective on how tall and wide the ridges are--the "multi-cropped" rows/ridges are from left to right two rows of turnips; potatotes in the center; a row of carrots (not evident yet) and a row of peas on the right...
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...it's hard to believe that we had all of the furrows mulched in over level full above and over the ridges after the Autumn leaf-drop clean-up and final mowing of last season--it has almost all completely decomposed in the furrows and was tilled into the soil on the ridges, adding organic humus and nutrients to the soil...
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...you can see here where we've began to add this year's harvest of grass clippings as mulch in the furrows--after the plants get big enough on the ridge tops we will mulch around them too!...
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...row # 1 is two rows of four varieties of leaf lettuce (for fresh-cut salads) on the left; potatoes in the center; a row of carrots (not evident yet) and a row of peas on the right...
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...rows # 2 & #3 are two rows of turnip (primarily for turnip greens) on the left; potatoes in the center; a row of carrots (not evident yet) and a row of peas on the right...
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...row # 4 is a row of turnip and a row of carrot on the left; potatoes in center; a row of carrot and a row of peas on right; rows # 5 & 6 are a row of peas and carrots on the left; potatoes in center; a row of carrots and a row of peas on right...
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...we've found from experience that you just can't hardly plant enough peas and carrots to can enough to last until next year's harvest--perhaps they're just too darn good a' eatin'!...
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...row # 7 is three rows of turnip--and volunteer marigolds from last years garden--some of these rows will not be harvested, but rather left to "go to seed" so that the seed can be saved and used to plant next year's planting of these particular crops...
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...our developed garden area here is currently only about 50' x 50'--but using the ridge and furrow technique and multi-cropping the ridges we have been able to plant within it six 50' rows of potatoes; two 50' rows of looseleaf lettuce; eight 50' rows of turnip; nine 50' rows of carrot; and eight 50' rows of peas!...
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Moon Sign--Gramma--Sauerkraut--Cedar berries--Bird Poop--and the Magnetic Poles--Happy Thanksgiving...
Thurs. November 27, 2008/Thanksgiving Day=a day to transplant cedars...
...well, the moon sign being right and all, I engaged in a bit of traditional Thanksgiving Day cedar tree transplanting today--you won't believe the Almanac that I settled on in order to do this (between a choice of four or five)--it was "Blum's Farmer's and Planter's Almanac"--which has been around since 1828 though I've never heard of it before this year! Actually, after perusing the four or five that were available I chose it because it had the easiest to read and access info on different activities as supported by the sign of the moon--and it's spokesperson is an elderly lady named Mrs. Blum--they even have a website, www.blumsalmanac.com. How about that!?! My sainted gramma who just passed away this year in September of 2008 at the age of 102 was Mrs. Nora Bell Blum--and she was the first person in my life who spoke to me about doing things according to the right moon sign...Perhaps I chose it because it had the easiest to read and access info on different activities as supported by the sign of the moon and because of its name--couldn't go wrong there!!!
The "moon sign" story she told me went thusly; her mother once demonstrated to her the importance of doing things according to the right moon sign--in order to do this her mother made up a batch of sauerkraut during the wrong moon sign (you have to realize in your currently-detached-state-from-the-real-reality-of-things-as-they-really-are-state-of-existence that back then they grew the cabbage in their own garden by hand; they pulled it themselves by hand; they shredded it themselves by hand; they packed it into pottery crocks by hand; and thereby they set it up to ferment and to make sauerkraut--by hand). This batch of kraut; made during an unfavorable moon sign, didn't make any juice at all; it dried out on top and molded--it was a totally unsatisfactory and unacceptable batch of kraut.
Subsequently, her mother made up a batch of kraut during a favorable moon sign--again all by hand--and subsequently as it fermented it made so much "juice" that the pottery crocks overflowed and they had to place pans under the crocks to catch the overflow--a totally satisfactory and acceptable batch of kraut.
Now my great-grandmother went way out of her way to demonstrate to her daughter, my grandmother, the worthiness of something that even back then was controversial, i.e. conducting ones agrarian affairs according to "moon sign." She intentionally expended futile hours of labor in an undertaking that she knew would be fruitless in order to show my gramma that doing things according to proper moon sign was worthwhile--and this back in a day when time and labor were crucial to survival. And I'll wager that my great, great grandmother had demonstrated the same lesson in the same way to her and likewise her mother before her and so on down the ancestral line from the beginning...
As you will recall (or maybe not), I transplanted 133 cedars three or four years ago after we first got the place here in NITHIA for the main reason that the little things were growing everywhere that I didn't need them and I hated to just cut them out and waste them; and for another reason that they could serve me better transplanted and growing as a windbreak to the north of the house--to keep the cold, north winter winds at bay--and for another tertiary reason that they could serve as a "green belt" to shut out the view of what's going on behind the house to the back of our place (i.e. a whole lot of self-sufficient farming in the future)--what's the point?--they could detect it from satellite anyway.
Do you want to know why they're everywhere (maybe you don't)--especially where you don't need them; under the large shade trees and/or especially along a fence-line? Well, it has to do with the cedar berries and the birds. Certain birds love to eat cedar berries and these same certain birds also love to perch in a large shade tree or on the top wire of a fence-line after they've gotten a belly-full of cedar berries and in the meanwhile they poop out the cedar seeds from the cedar berries that they've just recently ingested--you see its critical to the seeds of the cedar that they get "scarified"--in other words, "deeply scratched up"-- in the gizzard of a bird and expelled in order that their thick seed coat is weakened enough to allow them to germinate; berries that fall directly to the ground beneath the parent tree contain seeds that still have seed coats too thick to germinate and will not come up under and compete for space below the parent tree--now that's one intelligent tree; to figure out how to disperse its progeny thusly and so strategically--the cedar is also extremely shade tolerant while it is young and it can also outlive the large shade trees under which it initially takes root.
Although we commonly, in the Southeastern US, call it red cedar or just cedar it is really, technically, the Virginia juniper--another plus, we could ferment and distill gin liquor from its berries! No wonder that if we left nature to itself in the SE US for a few centuries a cedar forest would be its eventual--albeit barren--climax state (hey, we could still ferment and distill gin from its berries).
I was a bit disappointed when about 30 or so of my transplanted cedars failed to survive--this being sort of an affront to my reputation of having a "green thumb." Needing to replace them and fill in the gaps between the hundred or so that did survive I resolved to do the research and to take the measures necessary to do a better job in the transplanting of these replacements. Hey, I took a personality profile and I profiled out as being an "Objective Thinker"--but under stress, the profile revealed, I resort to being a "Perfectionist." The main part of this current objective thinker turned perfectionist under stress endeavor was to research and subsequently to do it during the right sign of the moon--this, perhaps, being a more perfect way to do it--after all, my gramma had a very convincing story about how that doing things thusly was ultimately worthwhile.
So that's what I did today, Mrs. Blum's Almanac indicating that Nov. 27 & 28 were favorable in moon sign to transplant--I'll be doing more of the same tomorrow--and again on Dec. 1 & 2.
If you've ever been in the real reality, and made any observations at all, it makes some sense. The gravitational pull of the moon upon the Earth has observable effects in the tides of the ocean. Ergo it has an observable effect on liquids. Ergo it has an effect on all Life that is effected by the circulation of liquids--I have even observed from experience that the reproductive cycles of my livestock coincides with the lunar cycles--and it echoes back to an ancient day and time when there was no rain; but rather the gravitational pull of the moon drew up the moisture from the fountains of the deep and thereby every night a "mist" arose and watered the vegetation of the Creation. I thought I had the perfect solution, i.e. do it according to the proper moon sign...
But then, thankfully, another bit of the real reality trivia was brought back to mind before I started digging and transplanting replacement cedars during this right moon sign. Many years ago, when we lived in East Texas, I had attempted to transplant some Dogwood saplings. This is a very attractive, flowering tree in the early springtime and has a tradition connected to the crucifixion of our Lord. I failed miserably. None of the transplants from the wild survived. I can't quite remember the details, but somehow, back then, I ended up discussing this with someone who I was was working with--how that my Dogwood tree transplants had failed--I was back then but a simple carpenter and so was he--but he had done some living in the real reality too and he told me that in order to successfully transplant Dogwoods that you had to orient them in their knew location according to the compass directions from which they had been removed--in other words you had to take care to place them north to south/and east to west in their new location the same as you had removed them from their existing location in order to transplant them successfully.
Thankfully and appreciatively this bit of the real reality trivia was summoned back to my mind as I, in my stressed "Perfectionist" mode, set out to transplant the replacement cedars in my windbreak--after all, they had some catching up to do with the already well-established transplants that had survived--and the replacements of the failed had to survive--in order to take root and catch up with the originals--so I faithfully took note of the compass orientation of each cedar transplant--if it works for difficult things to transplant like Dogwoods, it has to be good for all other transplanted things also...
--and this orientation to the magnetic poles began to make a correlation and to make sense to me in a similar way that it had also done with the synchronicity to the gravitational effects of the moon. When it comes to being sensitive to the magnetic field that surrounds us, unless we are trained and/or intuitive as a dowser, we have replaced our instincts with intellect--we, as humans, have adapted and survived by substituting our instincts with intellect and herein have become capable of replacing the real instinctual reality with an artificial intellectual one and one in which we are probably in error. My little cedars that were transplanted by me, in order to remove them from where I did not need them; and in order to place them in a position where they better served me to keep the cold, north winds from buffeting my domicile and to conceal my self-sufficient intentions from the mainstream of society; I being in the realization of the real reality that the circulation of their fluids is effected by the position of the moon and its gravitational influence and within this criteria there are better times and conditions for disturbing them than others; and I being in the real realization that they are sensitive to a fixed direction of sun light and a certain orientation to the magnetic fields of the planet from the time they first germinated in a specific location herein they could say, if I handled them given this real reality realization, "Hey, my fluids are still flowin' and I feel oriented even though I'm in a different place," they could do so despite the fact that I have lost my instincts to intellect--for I have used my intellect to comprehend pre-existing instincts in the natural world in which I must survive, ultimately according to its rules of instinctual real reality.
...mankind's artificial, intellectual reality will not survive--but the real reality of his intellectually realizing the pre-existing instinctual Creation will, and we must find our place within it...
Dairy animals: Our method when new offspring are born and the dairy animal "freshens" (begins to produce milk)...
I like goats as dairy animals--they are so much smaller and human in scale than dairy cows. Women and children have fewer problems handling and milking them if the animals are properly trained. They are easier/less costly to maintain and give a more reasonable amount of milk for the self-sufficient homestead than a dairy cow. We once had a Jersey/Brown Swiss milk cow that gave eight gallons a day--that's what the commerial agribusiness dairy farmer needs, not the self-sufficient homesteader trying to produce just what his family needs--but due to the difference in the products that can be produced from cow milk as opposed to goat milk, the family cow still has its niche in the self-sufficient homestead scenario (more on this at another time)...
People who have had a bad experience with the taste of goat milk have definitely tasted milk from a dairy goat that was not totally seperated from the buck/billy goat while she was being milked--if you let the milked doe/nanny run with a buck/billy while she's being milked, that offensive (to us--the nanny goats love it) musk odor of the billy will get into the taste of milk sort of as an offensive after-taste--and it is indeed offensive, nasty and totally awful tasting. Fortunately for us, long ago when we first ventured into dairy goats, I read a book titled, "Raising Milk Goats the Modern Way," and it warned against this. Now this is not "natural"--I have always tried to not interfere in the natural ways of my livestock, i.e. let a goat be a goat or a cow be a cow or a chicken be a chicken in the most natural way possible even though it is under domesticated/managed circumstances--but, some "natural" things must be overridden within the domestication/managerial scenario--separating the milking nanny from the billy is one of them--if this is done I guarantee you cannot tell the difference between cow milk and goat milk!!! This separation also facilitates the breeding program which determines when and for how long a milking goat can be milked (important in order to maintain a year-round milk supply).
When God gave Adam and Eve the commission to "dress and keep" the Creation He had made for them, the original Hebrew words meant to "dress"=make it to serve your needs; and to "keep"=to hedge it about and to protect its wellbeing (do not exploit it beyond its capacity in greed/maintain its sustainability)...
While I'm on the subject of the "taste" of the milk, I'd like to tell you about something I found out from experience. When we first started milking our own goats we lived in East Texas--the South, in other words--and Bermuda grass hay was the norm. It was readily availble locally. We were initially feeding the milking animals Bermuda grass hay and the taste of milk was superb--very sweet. I discovered that a local feed store sold alfalfa hay brought in from up North--much higher in nutrition than the local Bermuda grass hay and much more costly--but since I had only a small herd of animals I started buying it and providing it for them. I almost immediately noticed the change in the taste of the milk--no longer sweet and borderline bitter! Needless to say I switched back to Bermuda grass hay!
The annual cycle of our domesticated dairy animals, said as simply as possible, goes like this: in order to produce milk they must first give birth. After giving birth it is said that the animal "freshens"=starts producing milk. Over the following period of time the milk production increases and then at a point begins to decrease--this is called the "lactation (milk production) curve"--at a point it is more efficient to "dry up" the dairy animal and have it rebred so that it can re-"freshen" by giving birth again the following year. It is not good to tax an animal with milking and with pregnancy both so that individual animal will be "dry"/nonproducing during the course of its pregnancy until it "freshens" again after giving birth again--and the cycle starts over again...
The husbandman is faced with yet another dilema withn this cycle--he wants the milk, but the newborn dairy animals need the milk. The initial 2 or 3 days of milk production are "collostrum"=special milk produced by the mother animal upon birth; rich, yellowish, sticky and non-foaming, that the newborn animals need--denied it they will not survive--many (not all) disease antibodies that the mother animal has accumulated over her lifetime are transferred to the newborn in the collustrum--it is especially rich in nutrition but in most cultures it is considered to be unpallatble for human consumption...
After collostrum production ends the milk turns white and begins to foam--then it's time for the husbandman and his family to begin to share the milk between themselves and the offspring of the dairy animal--with the requirements of the offspring of the dairy animal being placed first. Fortunately, the dairy animals that mankind has developed over the millenia through selective breeding produce enough milk for both the family and the offspring...
The commercial dairy industry removes the calves of dairy cows that have "freshened" almost immediately and sells them as "day old calves" which are then fed "milk replacer" for six weeks and then weened and sold as "feeder calves"--to me, this is a crime against the Nature that God has created and intended and crosses the line over into the "exploitative" side of making the Creation serve us and transgresses the like commission to hedge it about and protect it--and the results are pathetic. At one time I had a neighbor who was buying day old calves and feeding them out on milk replacer for six weeks and then weaning them and selling them off as feeder calves. He had a particular favorite calf that he decided to keep--on the other hand, I had bought a day old calf at the same time and given it all the milk it needed from our own milk cow for as long of a period that a natural cow would have allowed its own calf to nurse before naturally weaning it. Comparing the two, his was 1/3 smaller, rough/dull coated and puny looking while ours was 1/3 larger, shiny coated and robust...
So, as one who wishes to milk a dairy animal, one is confronted with a paradox--how and when do you separate and manage the offspring from the dairy animal--you have make a distinction here from between the natural animals that you are commissioned to protect and the domesticated/managed animals that are to be made to serve your needs--and it is indeed a compromise...
Based on our experience--and we've tried it several ways--the best way appears almost cold and cruel-hearted if you're trying to let the animals placed under your care live as "naturally as possible"--still, you have to manage them in a way that serves you also...
Ideally (and it doesn't always work out) you are there when the birth takes place. As soon as the offspring is/are born you immediately remove it/them from the presence of the mother--the less contact the better--and subsequently take care of the needs of both the mother and offspring separately. In other words, it is best in a domestication/management scenario that the mother never even lay eyes on, smell, lick or meet the life that she has just brought into the world if possible...
Subsequently, you begin to milk the dairy animal and feed back to the offspring the milk in an artifical manner, i.e. in bottles with nipples as needed for their sound growth and development and what is left over, after this is fulfilled, is yours to consume/enjoy...
Like I said initially, "ideally;" and our recent birthing of baby goats was ideal: the nanny birthed at 12:30 PM; we were present to notice the beginning of labor; we were able to immediately separte them--sometimes the dairy animal gives birth at 12:30 AM--and you're not aware of it--nonetheless, in this case, separate them as soon as possible!
Prior to deciding on this method of management we tried leaving the offspring with the mother animal until she had quit producing collostrum and then separating them--this resulted in an emotionally anguishing separation trauma for both the mother and the offspring and us. After having had her offspring nurse on her the mother was reluctant to let us milk her. After having nursed on their own mothers teats it was almost impossible to get the offspring to take an artificial nipple until they were at a point of desparation/starvation!
Some prefer the method of separating the mother and the offspring but letting the offspring in with the mother to nurse and after the offspring has/have gotten its/their fill removing them and milking the mother the rest of the way out for their share of the production to consume--here is the drawback to this: the domesticated dairy animals that man has developed through centuries and millenia of selective breeding are no longer "natural" animals. The dairy animal has an enormous udder compared to the natural animal. The natural animal produces only enough milk for its offspring. The offspring of animals "punch" the udder of the mother animal with their snout in order to induce the mother to "drop"/release her milk. By human standards this "punching" is quite violent and aggressive. A calf can deliver an instinctive milk-inducing "punch" that will knock you off your feet and through the electric fence behind you if you're holding a bottle to feed it and not anitipating/expecting it (just ask my wife!). The oversized, highly developed--through selective breeding--udders of dairy animals are no longer able to withstand this natural, instinctive abuse by the offspring without being damaged--I have had milk cows that I have bought from people who subscribed to this method and which subsequently had hopelessly damaged udders full of hard knots of damaged tissue masses from this natural/instinctive "punching" abuse and subsequently being prone to mastitis!
Even worse than this are those who allow a number of calves to nurse directly on a dairy animal in order to raise them to weaning age just because they can place a number of calves (not born of the animal) on her because of the dairy animals increased production of milk--the highly developed, large udders of dairy animals is no longer natural and is no longer able to withstand this natural/instinctive action of "punching" by the offspring without the risk of irrepairable damage!
The downside of immediate separation is this: the newborn offspring "bond" with you, a human, as its/their "mother"--and animals raised by this method would rather be with people than with their own kind!--but then again, not such a bad thing as this has its advantages too, within a domestication/management scenario...
A thing to consider is this, dairy animals are "ruminants"--in other words, they have multiple stomachs and ruminant (beneficial) bacteria within their digestive system which enables them to digest and extract nutrition from their natural food source--some exposure with adult animals is probably necessary in order for these benefical bacteria to be transferred to the offspring since it is doubtful that they are born with the beneficial bacteria already in their digestive system--I like to remove hay from the mouth of the mother animal after she has begun chewing on it and subsequently place it in the pen of the offspring after which they will invariably nibble upon it--it might not seem like much, but the transfer of a few a these benefical ruminant bacteria in such a manner will introduce them to the digestive system of the offspring--without which they will perish...
About the place of the dairy cow in the self-suffient homestead scenario--you will find a prophecy in Isaiah 7:21 (paraphrased by me) that says (within the context of surviving the Time of Trouble at the End of the Age), "If a man shall keep a young cow and two goats he shall not lack for the abundance of milk that they shall give"...
...given the cycle of lactation, which is contingent upon new birth, "freshening"; the lactation curve; "drying up" and breeding cycles--managing a homestead cow and two goats can ensure a milk supply for the homestead throughout a full year...
...the "Kingdom Of God" on Earth...
...it does indeed beg for us to wonder if that there are not two kinds of people on the Earth--first, those who are genetically pre-disposed (by Him in His perfect Love) to the Agrarian lifestyle (or at least the desire for it--like Nicodemus of Scripture; picturing himself sitting beneath his own fig tree--for the current World system--which is Satan's and which undeniably stands in opposition to Him and endeavors to deny us this)--according to our original (as created) commission/purpose from our Creator for us to "dress and keep" His Creation--and those who are genetically pre-disposed (by Him in His perfect Judgment) to the errant Metropolitan lifestyle of ever increasing technolgy that divorces us from our natural, intended existance, as intended by Him, and which stands in opposition to the former--upon the first He will, in the end of all things, demonstrate His perfect Love (for we have all fallen short of His glory and He, Himself, in the physical body of Christ Jesus our Lord, has sacrificed Himself for our Redemption)--and upon the latter He will, in the end of all things, demonstrate His perfect Judgment and destroy them (but, in this, in His perfect mercy, they will still, in a fashion, yet be saved)--which, of the two, will, in the end, succeed?--thankfully, according to the Bible prophecy in which we hold our Faith, the former...
Ridge & Furrow Organic Gardening/Additional Observations...
I got the pix of your garden and it looks really great! Judging by the color of your plants I would say that you have some very good, fertile, naturally occurring soil already!--Lucky (blessed) you! Another blessing is that as far down South as you all are you could garden all year long between cool season and hot season crops--we don't have that luxury up here but still moreso than further North...
The mulch on your ridges looks great.
I do have some advice for you, "Going forward..."--because up to now it looks very good:
- for your root/underground crops--currently potatoes and onions--but applicable to any and all root crops--you should refrain from putting manure on them since rain and water would bring it down into the soil and make for a direct contact of it with the edible portion of the crop itself--understandably not good. I think your soil is good enough to make for a good crop without it here. On a row of above ground crops that you can put manure on this year you can plant root crops in this row next year...
- your cabbage and tomatoes will benefit from manure in the furrows. These are some of the crops that do well in the "extra rich" realm of soil fertility...
- snap beans don't do well in soil that is too rich. Manure contains primarily nitrogen which is an important plant nutrient. But beans and peas are members of the legume family of plants which also includes clovers and vetch. Legume plants have a symbiotic relationship with a bacteria on their roots which forms nodules on their roots that helps them to fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil so their nitrogen requirements are satisfied in part from the air itself. Too much nitrogen, like what manure would provide, causes them to put on a lot of leaves and foiliage but not many beans and the beans that they do put on are usually curled and misshapen. If your soil was poor manure would help; but since your soil appears to be very good the addition of manure to it could actually retard the production of your snap beans--I wouldn't add any at all to your beans this year but if they don't produce well you might decide to add it next year...
- for future reference crop rotation is a good and logical practise--in other words if you grew tomatoes in that row last year, don't plant them in the same row next year since plant diseases are often harbored in the soil itself and the same crop in the same spot year after year would accommodate a build-up and accumulation of fungi, bacteria and virus organisms that attack a particular crop...
- later on in the season as insect pests increase there is a very effective and very organic and harmless way to eliminate the cabbage worms, tomatoe worms and potato beetle grubs that will assault your garden. It is called Bacillus thurengensis--which is really hard to pronounce properly (it takes practise) but is thankfully commonly referred to as simply Bt. This is a naturally occurring soil bacteria and is harmless to humans. But if it is on the cabbage or a tomato leaf and a catepillar eats it that catepillar will shortly thereafter wither up and die! It should be available at Lowe's or Home Depot (I buy it at our local hardware store). It comes as a pasty liquid in a plastic bottle that you dilute with water per the instructions on the bottle, put it in a pump up sprayer and just dowse your crops with it. It is very effective for any type of catepillar pest. There is also a special strain of it that is helpful for potato beetle grubs--but I have had to special order this. Unfortunately every time it rains it is washed off. But I have observed and practised that it does not have to be continually applied but applied only when you notice a catepillar infestation beginning to occur. If it rains and washes it off before you have erradicated the catepillars reapply it. Once the catepillars are gone quit and give it a break until they begin to reappear. Your snap beans and onions should be relatively pest free. One disadvantage of living and gardening in the Deep South is that the lack of cold weather never gives you a break from the bugs!
- keep in mind that you have to have drainage for your furrows. Any and all vegetable crops will be adversely effected if their roots are standing in water saturated soil for an extended period of time. Planting up on top of a ridge naturally helps this condition. We have more slope to our land up here in the Ozark Mts. but I made this mistake once and the lower end of my rows started to perish before I let the water out of the downhill side of my furrows...
- in the South Bermuda grass is public enemy #1 in the garden. It is one of the few invasive plant garden pests that heavy mulching will not thwart! I have seen Bermuda grass grow up through bales of hay stacked four high! When you cultivate or till it and chop it up every little piece of it will re-sprout and you end up just spreading it further (Johnson grass can be almost as bad in this respect; as well as sorrel dock). In my "hobby garden" I have placed over-kill "lawn edging" in the form of treated 2x12's buried 4 to 6 inches deep to prevent the Bermuda grass invasion--once it finds its way into your enriched soil it will just explode and flourish--and even at this its runners will find their way up and over such a barrier to take root on the other side!!! But this is financially unfeesible for a large garden. Around my large gardens I have maintained a "no grow zone" with my tiller--a strip around the entire perimeter which I routinely till up and ward off the invasion of Bermuda grass. Bermuda grass! If you try to get it to grow for you so you can have a nice lawn or hay meadow it won't cooperate in the least--but just try to get rid of it and it will then decide to flourish!!!
- other miscellaneous weeds are an ongoing and nagging problem. Some weed seeds can lie dormant in the soil for up to 35 years just waiting for the right conditions to germinate! Hey, when God designs a curse He makes it a good one! So the soil is always more or less heavily laden with weed seeds. When we cultivate it with a plough and disc or a tiller we turn some under the soil too deep for them to germinate--but next year when we cultivate the soil again we bring them back up again and there they are! Heavy mulching really helps. It creates an environment wherein the weed seeds that are near enough to the surface to germinate are blanketed with an organic residue that fosters the fungi, bacteria and viruses that can destroy them. The best advice is to till/cultivate the soil as little as possible and when you see a weed, bend over and pull it, roots and all, especially before it grows enough to set and disperse seed!
- regarding "moon sign"--there is definitely something to it. It is, I guess you could say, an idealic practise--but in my experience it's better if the conditions allow you to observe it but if the conditions don't allow for such it is not that detrimental. I didn't plant my potatoes according to the preferrable phase of the moon or "moon sign" this year simply because of time and weather constraints. If I had waited for the ideal phase and sign of the moon it would have rained in the meanwhile and the soil would have been too wet to work and plant them during the proper phase and sign of the moon. They will make taters well enough nonetheless but just better if I could have planted them in the right phase of the moon and the best "moon sign"...
Well, here I've gone and written another "book"! Learning to garden and grow food is just another one of Life's learning curves--like a new navigational signing package at Walmart. I just happen to have had three and a half decades of the "learning curve" in my lifetime so far--so I've had my share of successes and failures--and I've had to learn, especially, that if you're going to "experiment" you're going to experience some "failures"--just another facet of that learning curve...
But one of the most precious and poignant lessons to be gained by tilling the Earth and dressing and keeping the Creation as was our father Adam's original commission, came to me while I was picking dried beans that I had interplanted in corn. I had six one hundred foot rows of corn which I had interplanted with white navy beans and black beans and I had let the beans mature completely for dried beans and I was out in the garden picking the bean shells by hand and putting them into a bucket--it was oh-so-tedious and monotonous--and I said within myself, "Lord, I wish I had a machine to do this job," and it was one of those moments in Life when He spoke right back to me and He said, "You do. I made one and put you in it."...
In His Love,
Michael
Ridge & Furrow Organic Gardening/Initial Explanation(s)...
I have been gardening organically for 32 + years now so I've had lots of trial and error during this course--but I am currently not gardening very much since my full time job (which involves travel) doesn't leave me enough time to devote to the garden.
I do have a particular technique of gardening that I have used (quite successfully) which is "ridge and furrow." Using this technique, formerly in Johnson county, AR and recently in Searcy county, AR I have been given the distinction by some of the locals as having, "the best garden in the county"--and it has always been entirely organic--no chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides.
The best garden we ever had was 2 miles north of Leslie, AR on a piece of land that we rented from the Chadwick family Here we had a half acre garden upon which we grew all of our own vegetables and corn and wheat for meal and flour. We gardened here for five years. During this time I also saved all of our own seed in order to have seed to plant the next years garden with. At this place we also raised horses and had one or more milk cows (I milked at least one cow--sometimes more--by hand, twice a day; every day; for three years). We had an English shire (draft-horse breed) stallion and four light mares and raised some fourteen colts from these. I mention the milk cows and the horses to bring up the point that we had plenty of barnyard manure during this time! We now call this place "the old farm." Since we have moved off of it and are currently purchasing the property where we now live, as a matter of convenience, we call our new home "the new farm."
Now don't be discouraged if you think that you will not have access to an abundant supply of barnyard manure. Manure is very helpful but not absolutely necessary. The real key to an abundantly producing organic garden is mulch. I am a mega-mulcher! I am a mulch-aholic! We had some property off of Hwy 110 above Botkinburg, AR at one time. During this time I did not have access to any barnyard manure but I did have a riding lawn mower with a bag-catcher and enough of the land was in grass to mow it and use the clippings to mulch the small garden we had there heavily. In this garden I used the "ridge and furrow" technique; filling the furrows full of mulch and planting in rows on the top of the ridges. Even without barnyard manure we had an excellant garden.
The great thing about mega-mulching is that the mulch in itself is an organic fertilizer as it decomposes and it also keeps the garden practically weed free. A friend of ours who lived in Clinton, AR and who helped us out in our Botkinburg garden said, at the time, "This just don't seem right--having a garden that you don't have to get out in with a hoe and hoe weeds every time you turn around." He had been a traditional flat-ground, bare-dirt gardener all his life up to this point. With bare-dirt gardening, every time it rains nutrients are leached away through the soil and sent off in the run-off waters away from your vegetables roots--the ground was never meant to be bare(n).
Now, not all mulch materials are created equal. For the vegetable garden things like bark, saw dust, pine straw and oak leaves can be very detrimental if used in excess. Wheat straw is good for preventing weeds but can actually deplete the soil of nitrogen. Regular, run-of-the-mill hay which has been put up for the feeding of livestock works OK but it can also introduce a lot of weed and grass seeds into your garden! Very good quality hay that is mostly grass and clovers is the best. High quality coastal bermuda grass hay is ideal (since coastal bermuda does not make seed). With the overwhelming trend towards large, round bales and a relative scarcity of the (now) old fashioned small, square bales, hay for mulch becomes even more impractical for the home gardener.
I have used the large, round bales though. Once the strings are cut they can be unrolled onto the garden coming off in a four to six inch layer of hay/mulch as they are unrolled. The best type of round baled hay that I ever had access to was wheat, clover and vetch cut early while it was green--my friend who had attempted to grow and bale it had bad luck at cutting time; it didn't cure well (since it was ready so early in the spring) and it got rained on after it had been cut--so it was terrible, soggy, moldy, awful hay--but it was great mulch! I used it to mulch in my Butternut squash and cucumber beds that year...
Now weeds are something that you will always have to contend with in the garden even if you mega-mulch. I would rather mulch with hay than not mulch at all--even if it is inferior, seedy-weedy hay.
My ideal source of mulch is grass clippings. During our five years of gardening at the old farm we had a (number of) White riding lawn mower(s) with a bag catching system. By the time we moved off of the place I was mowing five acres with it and all of these grass clippings were going on the garden. I found that this five acres of grass was only enough to keep about a quarter acre of the half acre garden well-mulched. But that was OK because the garden produced so much that I only planted a quarter acre of it each year. The other half of it was planted to soil-enriching cover/green manure crops which were tilled back into the soil and these areas were rotated seasonally.
Now our White mower(s) were really not the machine(s) we needed. I wore out three of these over the years (the rear ends didn't hold up). I talked with Kueykendal (Hwy 16 east of Clinton, AR). I asked him what brand of mower was the best if the bag catching system was what counted? At the time I was prepared to buy a $10,000 Walkman if that's what he recommended as being the best--but his (thankfully) honest reply was that the old style Snapper had the best grass collection system (for $3,800 at the time)--mow, bag it up, dump it on the garden as mulch...
Acquiring mulch doesn't even necessarily require a mower. Our first year here at the new farm my grandson, Tristan, told me he was going to miss the garden (since we didn't have plans of starting another major garden until we had the new farm paid for); especially the red, sweet, grape tomatoes that he and I both enjoyed so much. So, I started our little "hobby" garden. In doing so I needed mulch! We had sown some winter rye grass and clover the previous fall on parts of the new place which we had cleared and cleaned up and much of this was standing lush and green; 2 to 3 foot tall--I grabbed the weed-eater and started knocking it down. I used a pitchfork to load it up into the wheelbarrow and we took it to our little hobby garden and mulched it in--we had our red grape tomatoes that summer! Since then, over the past few years, the grandkids have gotten a lot of ribbons at the county fair from our "hobby" garden for the vegetables we've grown in it. In the past I've even cut down rye (grain type) with a scythe (by hand) to procure needed mulch!
At the 1/2 acre garden on the old farm I had experimented with growing the garden's own mulch within the garden itself by planting every other row of the garden with a mulch crop. For the early season I grew rye (grain type). I also grew alfalfa. I also grew milo (kafir). Corn would work too. With these mulch crops in every other row, when they matured, I would just cut them down and lay them out on both sides of the row, thereby mulching every other row of the vegetable crops.
Heavy mulching can be very beneficial even to the traditional flat-ground garden. But when you use it in tandem with the "ridge and furrow" technique the results are even better. Please veiw the attachment for a crude diagram of how I "contour" my garden with ridges and furrows. In the bottom of the furrows I put barnyard manure (if I have it). I fill in the rest with mulch. As the vegetables germinate and grow I keep mulch around them on the top of the ridges. I plant above-ground-vegetables in a double row on top of the ridges. I plant root crop vegetables in a single row in the center of the ridge to keep the (edible) root from being too close to the barnyard manure (a source of e.coli contamination--so they say).
Now, how does one establish these somewhat sizable ridges and furrows in ones garden? I have done it the hard way and I have done it an easier way (relatively). I have done it more or less by hand. At that time all I had was a rear-tined tiller. Some brands of rear-tined tillers have a furrower attachment that can be attached to them and this makes a good start. After tilling I used a garden rake or, better yet, a concrete working tool (like a rake but solid across/without the teeth of a rake) and I pulled the ridges up by hand, leaving a furrow and building up the ridge.
At the old farm I had a double disc plow (borrowed from a neighbor) for my tractor. I would use it to turn the ground one direction and then turn right around at the end of the row and go back and turn the ground back the other way. This threw up a crude ridge and left a crude furrow. I still had to use my tiller with the furrower attachment to finish off the furrow; and then my tiller without the furrower attachment to finish off the top of the ridge.
Now I know from personal experience that you can use this method to create an excellant garden on poor soil in just one season! When we first moved to Arkansas we rented 120 acres northwest of Clarksville, AR in Johnson county. I worked up a likely spot on it for a garden. The soil looked good and had a good tilth--but the resulting garden was so-o-o pathetic!! It did so poorly that I was ashamed of it. I didn't even harvest as many potatoes as I had planted in seed potatoes!!
Late the following winter a neighbor who lived on a caretakers place nearby (within a quarter of a mile) and who took care of a wealthy and monied landlords cattle offered me the barnyard manure that was around this facility. I worked up the ridges and furrows in my garden (the hard way--but that was twenty some odd years ago and I was much younger then) and filled the furrows with this barnyard manure (many, many a pick-up load of it). As providence would have it, early that same spring the cattle on this place busted into the hay barn and made a total mess of the square baled hay that was in it. The cattle tore it all up. With new hay about to come in off of the meadows they offered me this haypile if I would but haul it off--which I subsequently did (many, many a pick-up load of it) and I used it for a heavy mulch in my furrows on top of the barnyard manure.
I planted the garden that spring and it did so astoundingly well that folk would drive out from town to see the garden that everyone was talking about. If I was out working in it they would stop to talk and comment on how that it was the best garden in county--especially since there was a drought that year (yet another advantage of heavy mulching--it helps to retain soil moisture). This was a turnaround that happened from just one gardening season to the next! From pathetic to the best garden in the county...
I had always somewhat intuitively/instinctively known to garden on top of ridges with furrows between the rows. After I had discovered that filling the furrows first with barnyard manure and then with a heavy mulch and thereafter appraising the wonderful results did it began to make logical sense to me as I assessed it.
First, pulling up that ridge basically doubles the amount of topsoil on which the crop is planted.
Second, that ridge dries out sooner but in doing so it provides for good drainage and it "pulls" and coaxes the roots to go deeper.
Next, the plant has a choice. It can send a feeder root to that barnyard manure or it can abstain (if it is too rich). Turning barnyard manure into the soil of a flat-ground, bare-dirt garden leaves the plant no choice; its roots are in contact with the manure for better or for worse--yes, it can be too rich/too "hot" in which case the outcome is not good either.
In a way, my "ridge and furrow" technique is the equivalent of composting in the garden while at the same time gardening and growing a crop (no compost pile needed).
I hope this is helpful. Please feel free to contact me for any further advice. The only way to know for sure that what you eat is uncontaminated and healthful is to grow it yourself!
In His Love,
Michael
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