Michelle and I have noticed a great number of birds hanging out at Bear Butte Gardens this year – way more than in past years. We've had flocks of Robins, Meadowlarks, Sparrows, Black Birds, Prairie Chickens, and Finches. I've never seen a flock of Robins before this year. It was cool! We've had Blue Birds, Mourning Doves, and many more varieties. I've been asking around if other people are noticing a lot of birds this year. “No” they say. “Not any more than any other year.”
So I’m wondering… the birds must be attracted to our property for a reason. Then, the other day we noticed something. We saw a flock of birds land on our front lawn and start feeding on… Dandelion seeds! The aggressiveness and thoroughness of the birds eating those seeds let me to wonder if any seeds would survive the feeding frenzy! Hmm… maybe this is the balance Mother Nature intended? Those bright yellow flowers certainly seemed to attract birds. If we would spray chemicals on our lawn to kill the Dandelions (like many people do), then we probably would not attract so many birds – and the birds would not keep our Dandelion seeds in check.
Dandelions are actually very beneficial in many ways. They have deep tap roots that break-up hard soil and bring nutrients to the surface. In a way, they actually fertilize and aerate the soil to the benefit of other plants, like grass. Dandelions provide nectar to bees – and at a very important time of year when bees don’t have many other options for nectar. Dandelions have many nutritional, health, and medicinal benefits as well. Visit www.mofga.org/Default.aspx?tabid=756 for more information about the benefits of Dandelions.
With all the benefits of Dandelions, I just don’t understand why so many people spray chemical herbicides on their lawns to kill the Dandelions. Chemical herbicides have so many negative side effects also. Even though the lawn chemical companies say their products are safe, I have serious doubts. You might think that some government agency, like the EPA, requires complete testing of these products for the safety of kids and pets. Well, you would be wrong. And, besides the kid and pet safety concern, there are many, many more risks. Visit www.organiclawncare101.com/dark-lawns.html for more information about the risks of lawn care products.
If you don’t spray chemicals on your lawn to kill the Dandelions, then you get some benefits (like birds & bees), and you avoid creating all of these other problems. Win/win? Of course, your lawn might not be a “pretty” as you might want, but where exactly did you get your idea of a pretty lawn anyhow? From some commercial on TV? From someone trying to sell you something? Just sayin’.
Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Sturgis, South Dakota
www.BearButteGardens.com
Rick@BearButteGardens.com
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Thursday, April 18, 2013
It Feels Like.......Spring!
It's always most important to write a blog when you're procrastinating doing other things. :-) I have two tasks I should be doing tonight: 1) sewing curtains for my son's new apartment and 2) creating a tri-fold display about Bear Butte Gardens for this weekend's Earth Day celebrations. Therefore, it only makes sense to get cracking on a blog post!
We're having a fabulous spring at Bear Butte Gardens! In contrast to last year's 70s-80s-90s in the spring, we are having what we're supposed to get......snow, cool daytime temps, below freezing nights, cloudy days.....yay! I'm finally starting to look forward to planting seed potatoes and spring greens because it actually FEELS like it's supposed to in April.
As usual, some things are right on track (onions, brassicas, and tomatoes maturing) in the starter house, more trays germinating under lights in the house (peppers, eggplant), peas and potatoes seeded into the cold soil in the garden waiting to sprout over the next few weeks. And, as usual, some things are behind schedule.......simply take the aforementioned list and repeat it. I have more onions, brassicas, and tomatoes to get seeded late. I have more peppers to seed. I have more peas and LOTS more potatoes to get out in the gardens. Alas! I believe I've seeded enough eggplant, though.
But, honestly, that's exactly what I love about gardening.....you can always do more. And if you don't have time, just be thankful for what you've accomplished so far. Each year is its own normal. This year will not be the same as last year and, happily, next year will not be the same as this year. I love this life!
This year we are venturing into raising certified organic chickens for meat. I have the chicks ordered and received confirmation on the orders today. I have the certified organic feed tucked into the storage room. In the next couple weeks we'll start building chicken "tractors" so they can be the happiest, healthiest little chickens for their 12-week lives. They will get access to fresh native grass pasture, fresh air, clean water, and the option of a dry and shady shelter on wet or hot, sunny days. In exchange, they will fertilize and till up our grassland and provide us and our customers with fresh, healthy chicken meat.
In case you haven't seen my post about locally grown foods vs. Bountiful Baskets, you can read it on the Dakota Local Food Network's site as well as a follow-up post regarding our personal efforts to support our local community and economy, in response to a reader's comments.
Over the next few weeks we're looking forward to seeing the trees starting to bud out, garlic starting to sprout up through the ground, bees starting to buzz, and birds hauling little twigs and dried grass to build nests. Happy Spring!
Michelle & Rick Grosek, Owners
Bear Butte Gardens
www.BearButteGardens.com
e-mail: Michelle@BearButteGardens.com
605.490.2919
We're having a fabulous spring at Bear Butte Gardens! In contrast to last year's 70s-80s-90s in the spring, we are having what we're supposed to get......snow, cool daytime temps, below freezing nights, cloudy days.....yay! I'm finally starting to look forward to planting seed potatoes and spring greens because it actually FEELS like it's supposed to in April.
As usual, some things are right on track (onions, brassicas, and tomatoes maturing) in the starter house, more trays germinating under lights in the house (peppers, eggplant), peas and potatoes seeded into the cold soil in the garden waiting to sprout over the next few weeks. And, as usual, some things are behind schedule.......simply take the aforementioned list and repeat it. I have more onions, brassicas, and tomatoes to get seeded late. I have more peppers to seed. I have more peas and LOTS more potatoes to get out in the gardens. Alas! I believe I've seeded enough eggplant, though.
But, honestly, that's exactly what I love about gardening.....you can always do more. And if you don't have time, just be thankful for what you've accomplished so far. Each year is its own normal. This year will not be the same as last year and, happily, next year will not be the same as this year. I love this life!
This year we are venturing into raising certified organic chickens for meat. I have the chicks ordered and received confirmation on the orders today. I have the certified organic feed tucked into the storage room. In the next couple weeks we'll start building chicken "tractors" so they can be the happiest, healthiest little chickens for their 12-week lives. They will get access to fresh native grass pasture, fresh air, clean water, and the option of a dry and shady shelter on wet or hot, sunny days. In exchange, they will fertilize and till up our grassland and provide us and our customers with fresh, healthy chicken meat.
In case you haven't seen my post about locally grown foods vs. Bountiful Baskets, you can read it on the Dakota Local Food Network's site as well as a follow-up post regarding our personal efforts to support our local community and economy, in response to a reader's comments.
Over the next few weeks we're looking forward to seeing the trees starting to bud out, garlic starting to sprout up through the ground, bees starting to buzz, and birds hauling little twigs and dried grass to build nests. Happy Spring!
Michelle & Rick Grosek, Owners
Bear Butte Gardens
www.BearButteGardens.com
e-mail: Michelle@BearButteGardens.com
605.490.2919
Friday, March 1, 2013
MOSES Organic Farming Conference - part 3
This is my third BLOG posting about the MOSES Organic Farming Conference that Michelle and I attended last week in La Crosse, Wisconsin. MOSES stands for Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service. Here is the URL to their main website: www.mosesorganic.org.
In this post, I would like to talk about my favorite session "Restoration Agriculture - An Introduction to Farm-Scale Permaculture". But first, allow me to build up to it...
As with any business, one of the goals is to make money. I hope to someday be able to leave my current day job and be able to make a living off the land as an entrepreneur farmer. Bear Butte Gardens is just two years old. We are not there yet. But, I think we are on the path to get there someday reasonably soon. Another even more important goal for me, is to be a good steward of the earth. This is a classic example of Wendell Berry's concept of exploiter -vs- nurturer that I explored in an earlier post. This is a balancing act that is often times much more difficult than one might think. In my opinion, many (most) people in this world do not find this balance -- and the world is not a better place because of it.
This, I propose, is a three-step process to find your balance:
Mark Shepard presented the session "Restoration Agriculture - An Introduction to Farm-Scale Permaculture" at the MOSES conference. He is also the author of a book titled "Restoration Agriculture". I was fortunate enough to attend the session, buy his book, and have him sign the book. Michelle and I also got an opportunity to visit with Mark. He teaches a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) at his farm in Wisconsin. Mark explained to us that his PDC has a unique perspective that includes his concept of Restoration Agriculture, differentiating it from other PDCs. His PDC is focused more on larger scale applications, rather than backyard gardens and small acreage homesteading.
So what is "Restoration Agriculture"? In an attempt to relay the definition, I'll quote some phrases from the Restoration Agriculture Institute website:
In this post, I would like to talk about my favorite session "Restoration Agriculture - An Introduction to Farm-Scale Permaculture". But first, allow me to build up to it...
As with any business, one of the goals is to make money. I hope to someday be able to leave my current day job and be able to make a living off the land as an entrepreneur farmer. Bear Butte Gardens is just two years old. We are not there yet. But, I think we are on the path to get there someday reasonably soon. Another even more important goal for me, is to be a good steward of the earth. This is a classic example of Wendell Berry's concept of exploiter -vs- nurturer that I explored in an earlier post. This is a balancing act that is often times much more difficult than one might think. In my opinion, many (most) people in this world do not find this balance -- and the world is not a better place because of it.
This, I propose, is a three-step process to find your balance:
- Step one is to understand the concept of exploiter -vs- nurturer.
- Step two is to understand who you are and how you want to live your life
(in regards to the exploiter -vs- nurturer concept).
- Step three is to make decisions that will get you where you want to be
(in regards to the exploiter -vs- nurturer concept).
Mark Shepard presented the session "Restoration Agriculture - An Introduction to Farm-Scale Permaculture" at the MOSES conference. He is also the author of a book titled "Restoration Agriculture". I was fortunate enough to attend the session, buy his book, and have him sign the book. Michelle and I also got an opportunity to visit with Mark. He teaches a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) at his farm in Wisconsin. Mark explained to us that his PDC has a unique perspective that includes his concept of Restoration Agriculture, differentiating it from other PDCs. His PDC is focused more on larger scale applications, rather than backyard gardens and small acreage homesteading.
So what is "Restoration Agriculture"? In an attempt to relay the definition, I'll quote some phrases from the Restoration Agriculture Institute website:
Agriculture and nature are generally seen in opposition to one another. Agriculture converts natural ecosystems to fields dedicated solely for the efficient production of crops or livestock for human consumption. Conservation seeks to preserve natural ecosystems from agricultural or urban development. Restoration rebuilds ecosystems broken by agriculture, mining, or other human development activities.
Restoration Agriculture is the intentional restoration of healthy, functional ecosystems as the context for economically-viable farm operations. Perennial crops, livestock, fungus, and pollinators are integrated to produce abundant food, fiber, and fuel and simultaneously restore critical ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, water purification and infiltration, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity.
Restoration Agriculture combines agricultural production and ecological restoration with the purpose of growing abundant and nutritious food while simultaneously restoring healthy ecosystems. Restoration Agriculture seeks to mimic the structure and function of natural ecosystems. Instead of monocultures of annual crops requiring annual tilling and planting, Restoration Agriculture utilizes polycultures of perennial plants resembling native ecosystems. They are therefore self-reliant in terms of water, fertility, and fuel. As opposed to conventional agriculture, Restoration Agriculture actually builds soils, sequesters atmospheric carbon, recharges groundwater reserves, and fosters biodiversity. These ecological benefits are a direct result of management for the production of abundant, nutritious, and valuable crops.Here are some URLs to websites with more information about Mark, Restoration Agriculture, and his book:
- restorationag.org
- www.forestag.com
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb_t-sVVzF0
- www.permies.com/t/20601/books/Restoration-Agriculture-Mark-Shepard
Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Sturgis, SD
Thursday, February 28, 2013
MOSES Organic Farming Conference - part 2
This is my second BLOG posting about the MOSES Organic Farming Conference that Michelle and I attended last week in La Crosse, Wisconsin. MOSES stands for Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service. Here is the URL to their main website: www.mosesorganic.org. In this posting I would like to share my schedule of events and sessions that I attended. I do this with the perspective that some followers of this BLOG may be curious about what this conference is all about, and may be interested in attending in the future -- which I would highly recommend!
Day 1 - The Drive
La Cross, Wisconsin in a 663 mile drive from Strugis. Michelle and I drove my Honda Civic for about eleven hours along I-90 to arrive in La Crosse just after dark. After checking-in at the hotel, we headed downtown. We discovered a nice sushi restaurant named Sushi Pirate. The service and the food was great, but the really interesting part was our conversation with the waiter. He was a friendly Chinese immigrant, probably in his late twenties. In being polite, he asked us why we were in town. We mentioned the MOSES Organic Farming Conference and he lit up! He said that it is his dream to be a Farmer! He wants to someday own his own small farm and grow Dragon Fruit. He came back to our table several times and each time had a few more questions about being a farmer. What a nice guy.
Day 2 - Registration and Conference Opening
During the AM, we took a drive about town. We had breakfast at a small local restaurant named "Rosie's", stopped in at a couple of music stores, an outdoors outfitter type store, and had lunch at "Cony Dog Island". For you music enthusiasts, "Dave's Guitar Shop" is INCREDIBLE! Here is the URL: davesguitar.com.
After lunch we went to the convention center and checked-in at the conference (which took about two minutes). We then watched a film titled Queen of the Sun about bees. It was good. Here is the URL: www.queenofthesun.com. After that we briefly checked-out the Exhibit Hall, which was packed with vendors in a room similar in size to the main concert arena at the Rapid City Civic Center. The main event of the day was the conference opening keynote and "Farmer of the Year" presentation. This year's recipient is Charlie Johnson of Madison, SD. Who knew it would be a guy from SD? We ended the evening by attending a Poetry Slam -- with farmer poets! Nice!
Day 3 - Sessions
This day started with continental breakfast at the conference. At breakfast, we met Atina Diffley. During conversation, we discovered that Atina is the author of the book "Turn Here Sweet Corn" (which we purchased and she signed), a session presenter, and a keynote speaker. Here is a URL with more info about Atina: atinadiffley.com.
The educational sessions were the main events for this day, and the next. My 1st session was "Weed Control Equipment for the Vegetable Farmer". This session mainly covered physical/mechanical cultivation tools -- everything from hand hoes to recommendations on good deals for old tractors and cultivation equipment. Now I want to go buy an old Allis Chalmers G and convert it into a solar powered, electric drive tractor! :o)
The keynote speech this day was titled "What We Learned Making GMO OMG". I spoke of this keynote in my previous BLOG post. This looks like a great film! The URL is: www.gmofilm.com.
This day offered an organic lunch at the conference. Yum, yum. At lunch we met Frank James and his wife. Frank is the Staff Director at Dakota Rural Action. Great conversation! Here is the URL for DRA: dakotarural.org. After lunch we hit the conference book store, which had hundreds of titles covering all aspects of organic vegetables, livestock, poultry, water/land management, recipes, AG politics, AG philosophy, health, and more.
My 2nd session was "Restoration Agriculture - An Introduction to Farm-Scale Permaculture", presented by Mark Sheppard. This was my favorite session of all! I came out of this session with all kinds of new ideas that I want to try at Bear Butte Gardens! Mark got a roar of applause from the audience several times during the session, and a standing ovation at the end of the session. Wow. Just, wow.
My 3rd session was "Composting Organically for Small to Mid-sized Farms". This again was a very good session. I took pages and pages of notes. After that, we hit the exhibit hall again.
For our evening meal, Michelle and I left the convention center and found a very nice restaurant named "Piggies". The food was fabulous! And, they had a great four-piece blues band. Later in the evening, we went to the "New Young Farmers' Shindig" social event in downtown La Crosse. Here we got another opportunity to chat with Frank James, his wife, and some of his staff from Dakota Rural Action. Fun! Fun! Fun!
Day 4 - More Sessions
Again we had an organic breakfast and lunch at the conference. My 1st session on this day was "Time and Labor Saving Equipment for the Vegetable Farmer". This session was full of ideas for building and using small devices, carts, tools, tractor implements, and many ideas about working safely and efficiently. At the conclusion of this session, I decided I need to get a welder and learn how to weld. Anyone know of any good deals on a used welder?
At lunch, Michelle and I had so much to talk to each other about, we could hardly contain ourselves! After lunch, we attended a short panel discussion about Farm-to-School food programs, policies, news, methods, and success stories. We also hit the exhibit hall again.
My 2nd session this day was "Farming's New Future: Thriving in the Face of climate Change". This session was hosted by a panel of national experts in the field of weather and climate change. Very, very interesting... and enlightening... and a bit scary!
My 3rd session of the day was "Living with Parasites: Building Healthy Ruminant Livestock". We don't have our own cattle at Bear Butte Gardens yet, but I learned a lot about how to build an entire livestock system that is organic. In Sturgis, a fella can get a lot of advise about livestock -- but little of it pertains to organic livestock. This session covered everything from grazing, feeding, watering, fencing, breeding, weening, common ailments, and how to doctor a sick organic cow. Very good info for someday soon.
After that session, we had our evening meal at the Health Food Coop Store in La Crosse. Good stuff!
Then we headed back home to Sturgis.
Conclusion
The conference was very well organized. It was easy to find your way around -- lots of signs and maps. Parking was easy enough - and we never had to pay for parking. The overall mood was light, cheerful, and friendly. All of the session presenters were very good. There were many sessions to choose from. The schedule flowed nicely. And, the conference food was great!
One more thing that impressed me about this conference was the number of "young" people in attendance. I recently heard that the average age of the the American farmer is 55. There are many challenges in the AG industry to get new, younger people interested in farming. It is very difficult to "break-into" this business -- high cost of purchasing land, high cost of equipment, high inheritance tax, lack of a "sexy" image, and all the hard work, just to mention a few. This conference showed me another side of the issue -- a lot of young people (twenty-somethings) who are interested! Many of these challenges are being addressed and are changing for the better. This is GREAT!
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this entire conference! I highly recommend it!
Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Sturgis, SD
www.bearbuttegardens.com
Rick@BearButteGardens.com
Day 1 - The Drive
La Cross, Wisconsin in a 663 mile drive from Strugis. Michelle and I drove my Honda Civic for about eleven hours along I-90 to arrive in La Crosse just after dark. After checking-in at the hotel, we headed downtown. We discovered a nice sushi restaurant named Sushi Pirate. The service and the food was great, but the really interesting part was our conversation with the waiter. He was a friendly Chinese immigrant, probably in his late twenties. In being polite, he asked us why we were in town. We mentioned the MOSES Organic Farming Conference and he lit up! He said that it is his dream to be a Farmer! He wants to someday own his own small farm and grow Dragon Fruit. He came back to our table several times and each time had a few more questions about being a farmer. What a nice guy.
Day 2 - Registration and Conference Opening
During the AM, we took a drive about town. We had breakfast at a small local restaurant named "Rosie's", stopped in at a couple of music stores, an outdoors outfitter type store, and had lunch at "Cony Dog Island". For you music enthusiasts, "Dave's Guitar Shop" is INCREDIBLE! Here is the URL: davesguitar.com.
After lunch we went to the convention center and checked-in at the conference (which took about two minutes). We then watched a film titled Queen of the Sun about bees. It was good. Here is the URL: www.queenofthesun.com. After that we briefly checked-out the Exhibit Hall, which was packed with vendors in a room similar in size to the main concert arena at the Rapid City Civic Center. The main event of the day was the conference opening keynote and "Farmer of the Year" presentation. This year's recipient is Charlie Johnson of Madison, SD. Who knew it would be a guy from SD? We ended the evening by attending a Poetry Slam -- with farmer poets! Nice!
Day 3 - Sessions
This day started with continental breakfast at the conference. At breakfast, we met Atina Diffley. During conversation, we discovered that Atina is the author of the book "Turn Here Sweet Corn" (which we purchased and she signed), a session presenter, and a keynote speaker. Here is a URL with more info about Atina: atinadiffley.com.
The educational sessions were the main events for this day, and the next. My 1st session was "Weed Control Equipment for the Vegetable Farmer". This session mainly covered physical/mechanical cultivation tools -- everything from hand hoes to recommendations on good deals for old tractors and cultivation equipment. Now I want to go buy an old Allis Chalmers G and convert it into a solar powered, electric drive tractor! :o)
The keynote speech this day was titled "What We Learned Making GMO OMG". I spoke of this keynote in my previous BLOG post. This looks like a great film! The URL is: www.gmofilm.com.
This day offered an organic lunch at the conference. Yum, yum. At lunch we met Frank James and his wife. Frank is the Staff Director at Dakota Rural Action. Great conversation! Here is the URL for DRA: dakotarural.org. After lunch we hit the conference book store, which had hundreds of titles covering all aspects of organic vegetables, livestock, poultry, water/land management, recipes, AG politics, AG philosophy, health, and more.
My 2nd session was "Restoration Agriculture - An Introduction to Farm-Scale Permaculture", presented by Mark Sheppard. This was my favorite session of all! I came out of this session with all kinds of new ideas that I want to try at Bear Butte Gardens! Mark got a roar of applause from the audience several times during the session, and a standing ovation at the end of the session. Wow. Just, wow.
My 3rd session was "Composting Organically for Small to Mid-sized Farms". This again was a very good session. I took pages and pages of notes. After that, we hit the exhibit hall again.
For our evening meal, Michelle and I left the convention center and found a very nice restaurant named "Piggies". The food was fabulous! And, they had a great four-piece blues band. Later in the evening, we went to the "New Young Farmers' Shindig" social event in downtown La Crosse. Here we got another opportunity to chat with Frank James, his wife, and some of his staff from Dakota Rural Action. Fun! Fun! Fun!
Day 4 - More Sessions
Again we had an organic breakfast and lunch at the conference. My 1st session on this day was "Time and Labor Saving Equipment for the Vegetable Farmer". This session was full of ideas for building and using small devices, carts, tools, tractor implements, and many ideas about working safely and efficiently. At the conclusion of this session, I decided I need to get a welder and learn how to weld. Anyone know of any good deals on a used welder?
At lunch, Michelle and I had so much to talk to each other about, we could hardly contain ourselves! After lunch, we attended a short panel discussion about Farm-to-School food programs, policies, news, methods, and success stories. We also hit the exhibit hall again.
My 2nd session this day was "Farming's New Future: Thriving in the Face of climate Change". This session was hosted by a panel of national experts in the field of weather and climate change. Very, very interesting... and enlightening... and a bit scary!
My 3rd session of the day was "Living with Parasites: Building Healthy Ruminant Livestock". We don't have our own cattle at Bear Butte Gardens yet, but I learned a lot about how to build an entire livestock system that is organic. In Sturgis, a fella can get a lot of advise about livestock -- but little of it pertains to organic livestock. This session covered everything from grazing, feeding, watering, fencing, breeding, weening, common ailments, and how to doctor a sick organic cow. Very good info for someday soon.
After that session, we had our evening meal at the Health Food Coop Store in La Crosse. Good stuff!
Then we headed back home to Sturgis.
Conclusion
The conference was very well organized. It was easy to find your way around -- lots of signs and maps. Parking was easy enough - and we never had to pay for parking. The overall mood was light, cheerful, and friendly. All of the session presenters were very good. There were many sessions to choose from. The schedule flowed nicely. And, the conference food was great!
One more thing that impressed me about this conference was the number of "young" people in attendance. I recently heard that the average age of the the American farmer is 55. There are many challenges in the AG industry to get new, younger people interested in farming. It is very difficult to "break-into" this business -- high cost of purchasing land, high cost of equipment, high inheritance tax, lack of a "sexy" image, and all the hard work, just to mention a few. This conference showed me another side of the issue -- a lot of young people (twenty-somethings) who are interested! Many of these challenges are being addressed and are changing for the better. This is GREAT!
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this entire conference! I highly recommend it!
Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Sturgis, SD
www.bearbuttegardens.com
Rick@BearButteGardens.com
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
MOSES Organic Farming Conference - part 1
Michelle and I attended the MOSES Organic Farming Conference last week in La Crosse, Wisconsin. In general, I'm usually not all that enthusiastic about attending conferences. But this one was really good. MOSES stands for Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service. Here is the URL to their main website: www.mosesorganic.org. I could go on and on about all the great information I learned at the conference, or about all the wonderful people that I met, or about the many new concepts that I was exposed to, but in this BLOG post I want to expand upon only one concept. Maybe in future postings I will share more.
The one thing I want to share at this time is actually a quote that was referenced by one of the keynote speakers at the conference. One of the keynote presentations was titled What We Learned Making GMO OMG by Jeremy Seifert and Joshua Kunau. The duo recently made a documentary movie titled GMO OMG that will be released later this year. During the presentation, the audience got to see a sneak peak at some scenes from the new movie. I'm really excited to see the entire movie when it does get released! The URL for this film is: www.gmofilm.com. Anyhow, at one point during the keynote presentation, Jeremy explained one of his personal motivations for making the movie -- a quote from Wendell Berry's book The Unsettling of America. The quote is sometimes referred to as The Exploiter -vs- Nurturer. Here is a URL with more information about Wendell Berry: www.wendellberrybooks.com.
These words from Wendell Berry hit me hard. I find the Exploiter -vs- Nurturer concept he describes to be deeply profound. This concept describes many, many internal (and external) conflicts that I've been dealing with when I try to understand who I am, what I stand for, why I do what I do, and what I want to do with the rest of my lifetime. It's like a light bulb was just turned on for me!
Here is the passage from the beginning of The Unsettling of America (HD1761 .B47):
I think that much of our society can be boiled down to the blend of exploitation and nurture as well. Is it in balance? Think about Republicans, Democrats, Monsanto, McDonald's, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, artists, vendors, musicians, Uranium mining, XL Pipeline, TV programming, commercials, advertising, school systems, scientists, men, women, children, and on and on. It seems that much of our society encourages exploitation more than nurture. Could this be true? Should this be true?
I generally don't make New Years' resolutions, because in part, I find it difficult to identify a worthy goal that is truly meaningful. But now I have one. My resolution is to strive toward a mindset of a Nurturer. Not only for this year, but more.
Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Sturgis, SD
www.bearbuttegardens.com
Rick@BearButteGardens.com
The one thing I want to share at this time is actually a quote that was referenced by one of the keynote speakers at the conference. One of the keynote presentations was titled What We Learned Making GMO OMG by Jeremy Seifert and Joshua Kunau. The duo recently made a documentary movie titled GMO OMG that will be released later this year. During the presentation, the audience got to see a sneak peak at some scenes from the new movie. I'm really excited to see the entire movie when it does get released! The URL for this film is: www.gmofilm.com. Anyhow, at one point during the keynote presentation, Jeremy explained one of his personal motivations for making the movie -- a quote from Wendell Berry's book The Unsettling of America. The quote is sometimes referred to as The Exploiter -vs- Nurturer. Here is a URL with more information about Wendell Berry: www.wendellberrybooks.com.
These words from Wendell Berry hit me hard. I find the Exploiter -vs- Nurturer concept he describes to be deeply profound. This concept describes many, many internal (and external) conflicts that I've been dealing with when I try to understand who I am, what I stand for, why I do what I do, and what I want to do with the rest of my lifetime. It's like a light bulb was just turned on for me!
Here is the passage from the beginning of The Unsettling of America (HD1761 .B47):
We can understand a great deal of our history... by thinking of ourselves as divided into conquerors and victims. in order to understand our own time and predicament and the work that is to be done, we would do well to shift the terms and say that we are divided between exploitation and nurture...
Let me outline as briefly as I can what seem to me the characteristics of these opposite kinds of mind. I conceive the strip-miner to be a model exploiter, and as a model nurturer I take the old-fashioned idea or ideal of a farmer. The exploiter is a specialist, an expert; the nurturer is not. The standard of the exploiter is efficiency; the standard of the nurturer is care. The exploiter's goal is money, profit; the nurturer's goal is health --his land's health, his own, his family's, his community's. Whereas the exploiter asks of a piece of land only how much and how quickly it can be made to produce, the nurturer asks a question that is much more complex and difficult: What is its carrying capacity? (That is: How much can be taken from it without diminishing it? What can it produce dependably for an indefinite time?) The exploiter wishes to earn as much as possible by as little work as possible; the nurturer expects, certainly, to have a decent living from his work, but his characteristic wish is to work as well as possible. The competence of the exploiter is in organization; that of the nurturer is in order --a human order, that is, that accommodates itself both to other order and to mystery. The exploiter typically serves an institution or organization; the nurturer serves land, household, community, place. The exploiter thinks in terms of numbers, quantities, "hard facts; the nurturer in terms of character, condition, quality, kind. (pp 7-8)I think each and every one of us has both the exploiter and nurturer within us. I ask, which is dominant? When? Why?
I think that much of our society can be boiled down to the blend of exploitation and nurture as well. Is it in balance? Think about Republicans, Democrats, Monsanto, McDonald's, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, artists, vendors, musicians, Uranium mining, XL Pipeline, TV programming, commercials, advertising, school systems, scientists, men, women, children, and on and on. It seems that much of our society encourages exploitation more than nurture. Could this be true? Should this be true?
I generally don't make New Years' resolutions, because in part, I find it difficult to identify a worthy goal that is truly meaningful. But now I have one. My resolution is to strive toward a mindset of a Nurturer. Not only for this year, but more.
Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Sturgis, SD
www.bearbuttegardens.com
Rick@BearButteGardens.com
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Gearing Up!
It's time! The first shelves and grow lights are set up. One shelving unit can hold 8 trays with each tray containing 50 soil blocks. Some soil blocks have one seedling, some have up to four per block, depending upon the type of seedling. We will have at least two shelving units set up at peak germination time, perhaps three. Once seedlings get a couple inches high they are moved out to the starter greenhouse to benefit from the perfect grow light---sunshine! Once one batch of seedlings is moved out, another batch is started under the grow lights.
The high tunnel greenhouse is waiting (high tunnel on the left, starter greenhouse on the right). ----->
Leftover seeds are inventoried. The new seed orders are nearly complete and ready for online confirmation.
The soil block ingredients and mixer are lined up in the garage.
And last, but certainly NOT least, the CSA share payments are rolling in day by day.
So here's the plan for the next several weeks:
- This week - order and pay for seeds
- This weekend - start making soil blocks, seeding them, and germinating indoor under lights (onions first!)
- Next week - set up watering system and direct seed inside the high tunnel greenhouse
- Early February - seed a few tomatoes and cabbages to be planted into high tunnel early as a trial
- Late February - attend MOSES Organic Conference in Lacrosse, WI and on return hopefully start harvesting baby greens out of high tunnel to sell
- Early March - move early seedlings out to starter greenhouse
- Mid-March - seed cabbages and parsley into soil blocks and obtain seed potatoes
In March things really start moving along quickly. The starter greenhouse (our permanent structure greenhouse on the right side in the above photo) should be very warm during the days and safe at night for seedlings that are covered. And it's time to seed pretty much everything else into soil blocks (tomatoes, peppers, herbs, celery, leeks, flowers) so they will be a nice size to transplant out into the outdoor gardens beginning mid May. Eggplant get seeded just slightly later for an early June planting outdoors.
This year we are adding another aspect to our seeding and germinating.....we will be germinating a limited number of starter plants to direct sell to customers for their own gardens. These will, of course, be certified organic starters and will be ready to go out into gardens in mid-May. Right now we are planning to start early tomatoes, slicer tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, hot peppers, bell peppers, eggplant, herbs, and cabbages to be sold as certified organic nursery stock. Of course this step requires one more license through the state, but we're hoping it will be worth it for us as well as our customers.
That's how my calendar is shaping up! It's been glorious having a couple "down" months to focus on outdoor off-season gardening tasks, household chores, holidays, family, and cooking, but now it's time to get the hamsters running in the wheel and step things up a little. Yay mid-winter!
Michelle & Rick
www.BearButteGardens.com
605.490.2919
Michelle@BearButteGardens.com
Rick@BearButteGardens.com
Thursday, December 6, 2012
The Dream
We were invited to have supper at Cycle Farm in Spearfish last night by Trish and Jeremy and we also had the chance to meet another CSA farmer, Harold Gray from Nisland. We had a wonderful home-cooked supper prepared by Trish and Jeremy which centered around one of their farm-raised lovingly herbed and roasted chickens. I contributed a couple sides consisting of tomatillo salsa verde and chips and a new recipe for sweet potato/ginger/miso dip and celery. The food was absolutely wonderful, but the conversation was what dreams are made of......well, at least my dreams.
When you make the decision to change careers mid-stream (okay fine, mid-life) and go into full-time agriculture, you are basically also making the decision to drop most of your social life. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just the way it is. And as we gradually add more parts of our "grand plan" to the picture, spare time becomes more of a rarity. So having the opportunity to spend an evening discussing exactly what we are doing with three other people who completely "get it" is really an honor and a blessing. We came away from the evening feeling validated, renewed, challenged, and.........special. I think what we're doing at Bear Butte Gardens, Cycle Farm, and Harold's farm is really pretty special when you consider we're growing top quality, healthy food for approximately 50-60 area families during the summer plus the extra people we meet through farmers markets, etc., and that number will keep increasing as we gain more knowledge and experience. All of our farms are relatively new, so just three years ago none of this was happening. That's pretty amazing.
So, getting back to my dreams--a few nights ago I had a dream that I was the happiest I have ever been in my life. In the dream I kept telling Rick over and over and over how happy I was. The next day, about midway through, I remembered the dream and it made me smile because it wasn't just a dream, I truly am right now the happiest I have ever been in my life. Everything is just very, very good with family AND I'm working my dream job with my favorite co-worker, my husband!
Rick and I have been a part of many, many projects over the years and in retrospect it seems that all of those projects, good or not so good, have somehow prepared us for what we are doing right now and what we hope to do over the next several years. The point I'd like to make here is that maybe you're in a job or a relationship or a situation right now that isn't ideal, but set your goals and move ahead and in time you'll be able to look back and see what you learned from this situation. It WILL make you a more intelligent, more understanding, more experienced person for what lies ahead.
So, next summer when we're again in the middle of a drought and the temperatures are staying around 90-100 every day for a month or more and I'm picking the umpteenth bag of beans and looking forward to dealing with some quirky CSA share member, I'll have to stop and re-read this blog to remind myself how blessed I am.
So, Trish and Jeremy, thank you so much for having the wisdom to plan this mid-week meeting of like dreamers. It was a counseling session, self-help group meeting, and motivational session all in one! Rick and I are very lucky to have such a strong support group around us, cheering us on, of not only the other CSA providers, but also our kids, our families, our friends from all of those past projects, and our community. Yay for all of you dream enablers! It is important for all of us now living our dreams to figure out a way to share how we are doing it with those others who might be just starting to form their own dreams. Good stuff!
When you make the decision to change careers mid-stream (okay fine, mid-life) and go into full-time agriculture, you are basically also making the decision to drop most of your social life. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just the way it is. And as we gradually add more parts of our "grand plan" to the picture, spare time becomes more of a rarity. So having the opportunity to spend an evening discussing exactly what we are doing with three other people who completely "get it" is really an honor and a blessing. We came away from the evening feeling validated, renewed, challenged, and.........special. I think what we're doing at Bear Butte Gardens, Cycle Farm, and Harold's farm is really pretty special when you consider we're growing top quality, healthy food for approximately 50-60 area families during the summer plus the extra people we meet through farmers markets, etc., and that number will keep increasing as we gain more knowledge and experience. All of our farms are relatively new, so just three years ago none of this was happening. That's pretty amazing.
So, getting back to my dreams--a few nights ago I had a dream that I was the happiest I have ever been in my life. In the dream I kept telling Rick over and over and over how happy I was. The next day, about midway through, I remembered the dream and it made me smile because it wasn't just a dream, I truly am right now the happiest I have ever been in my life. Everything is just very, very good with family AND I'm working my dream job with my favorite co-worker, my husband!
Rick and I have been a part of many, many projects over the years and in retrospect it seems that all of those projects, good or not so good, have somehow prepared us for what we are doing right now and what we hope to do over the next several years. The point I'd like to make here is that maybe you're in a job or a relationship or a situation right now that isn't ideal, but set your goals and move ahead and in time you'll be able to look back and see what you learned from this situation. It WILL make you a more intelligent, more understanding, more experienced person for what lies ahead.
So, next summer when we're again in the middle of a drought and the temperatures are staying around 90-100 every day for a month or more and I'm picking the umpteenth bag of beans and looking forward to dealing with some quirky CSA share member, I'll have to stop and re-read this blog to remind myself how blessed I am.
So, Trish and Jeremy, thank you so much for having the wisdom to plan this mid-week meeting of like dreamers. It was a counseling session, self-help group meeting, and motivational session all in one! Rick and I are very lucky to have such a strong support group around us, cheering us on, of not only the other CSA providers, but also our kids, our families, our friends from all of those past projects, and our community. Yay for all of you dream enablers! It is important for all of us now living our dreams to figure out a way to share how we are doing it with those others who might be just starting to form their own dreams. Good stuff!
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