No more scouring pots and pans! Just mix together 2 parts baking soda with 1 part peroxide (it will make a paste) and rub the area with a dish rag until clean.
Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.
No thanks: An anti-Monsanto crop circle made by farmers and volunteers in the Philippines. By Melvyn Calderon/Greenpeace HO/A.P. Images.
Gary Rinehart clearly remembers the summer day in 2002 when the stranger walked in and issued his threat. Rinehart was behind the counter of the Square Deal, his “old-time country store,” as he calls it, on the fading town square of Eagleville, Missouri, a tiny farm community 100 miles north of Kansas City.
The Square Deal is a fixture in Eagleville, a place where farmers and townspeople can go for lightbulbs, greeting cards, hunting gear, ice cream, aspirin, and dozens of other small items without having to drive to a big-box store in Bethany, the county seat, 15 miles down Interstate 35.
Everyone knows Rinehart, who was born and raised in the area and runs one of Eagleville’s few surviving businesses. The stranger came up to the counter and asked for him by name.
“Well, that’s me,” said Rinehart.
As Rinehart would recall, the man began verbally attacking him, saying he had proof that Rinehart had planted Monsanto’s genetically modified (G.M.) soybeans in violation of the company’s patent. Better come clean and settle with Monsanto, Rinehart says the man told him—or face the consequences.
Rinehart was incredulous, listening to the words as puzzled customers and employees looked on. Like many others in rural America, Rinehart knew of Monsanto’s fierce reputation for enforcing its patents and suing anyone who allegedly violated them. But Rinehart wasn’t a farmer. He wasn’t a seed dealer. He hadn’t planted any seeds or sold any seeds. He owned a small—a really small—country store in a town of 350 people. He was angry that somebody could just barge into the store and embarrass him in front of everyone. “It made me and my business look bad,” he says. Rinehart says he told the intruder, “You got the wrong guy.”
When the stranger persisted, Rinehart showed him the door. On the way out the man kept making threats. Rinehart says he can’t remember the exact words, but they were to the effect of: “Monsanto is big. You can’t win. We will get you. You will pay.”
Scenes like this are playing out in many parts of rural America these days as Monsanto goes after farmers, farmers’ co-ops, seed dealers—anyone it suspects may have infringed its patents of genetically modified seeds. As interviews and reams of court documents reveal, Monsanto relies on a shadowy army of private investigators and agents in the American heartland to strike fear into farm country. They fan out into fields and farm towns, where they secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops; infiltrate community meetings; and gather information from informants about farming activities. Farmers say that some Monsanto agents pretend to be surveyors. Others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them to sign papers giving Monsanto access to their private records. Farmers call them the “seed police” and use words such as “Gestapo” and “Mafia” to describe their tactics.
When asked about these practices, Monsanto declined to comment specifically, other than to say that the company is simply protecting its patents. “Monsanto spends more than $2 million a day in research to identify, test, develop and bring to market innovative new seeds and technologies that benefit farmers,” Monsanto spokesman Darren Wallis wrote in an e-mailed letter to Vanity Fair. “One tool in protecting this investment is patenting our discoveries and, if necessary, legally defending those patents against those who might choose to infringe upon them.” Wallis said that, while the vast majority of farmers and seed dealers follow the licensing agreements, “a tiny fraction” do not, and that Monsanto is obligated to those who do abide by its rules to enforce its patent rights on those who “reap the benefits of the technology without paying for its use.” He said only a small number of cases ever go to trial.
Some compare Monsanto’s hard-line approach to Microsoft’s zealous efforts to protect its software from pirates. At least with Microsoft the buyer of a program can use it over and over again. But farmers who buy Monsanto’s seeds can’t even do that.
the control of nature
For centuries—millennia—farmers have saved seeds from season to season: they planted in the spring, harvested in the fall, then reclaimed and cleaned the seeds over the winter for re-planting the next spring. Monsanto has turned this ancient practice on its head.
Monsanto developed G.M. seeds that would resist its own herbicide, Roundup, offering farmers a convenient way to spray fields with weed killer without affecting crops. Monsanto then patented the seeds. For nearly all of its history the United States Patent and Trademark Office had refused to grant patents on seeds, viewing them as life-forms with too many variables to be patented. “It’s not like describing a widget,” says Joseph Mendelson III, the legal director of the Center for Food Safety, which has tracked Monsanto’s activities in rural America for years.
Indeed not. But in 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court, in a five-to-four decision, turned seeds into widgets, laying the groundwork for a handful of corporations to begin taking control of the world’s food supply. In its decision, the court extended patent law to cover “a live human-made microorganism.” In this case, the organism wasn’t even a seed. Rather, it was a Pseudomonas bacterium developed by a General Electric scientist to clean up oil spills. But the precedent was set, and Monsanto took advantage of it. Since the 1980s, Monsanto has become the world leader in genetic modification of seeds and has won 674 biotechnology patents, more than any other company, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
Farmers who buy Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready seeds are required to sign an agreement promising not to save the seed produced after each harvest for re-planting, or to sell the seed to other farmers. This means that farmers must buy new seed every year. Those increased sales, coupled with ballooning sales of its Roundup weed killer, have been a bonanza for Monsanto.
This radical departure from age-old practice has created turmoil in farm country. Some farmers don’t fully understand that they aren’t supposed to save Monsanto’s seeds for next year’s planting. Others do, but ignore the stipulation rather than throw away a perfectly usable product. Still others say that they don’t use Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds, but seeds have been blown into their fields by wind or deposited by birds. It’s certainly easy for G.M. seeds to get mixed in with traditional varieties when seeds are cleaned by commercial dealers for re-planting. The seeds look identical; only a laboratory analysis can show the difference. Even if a farmer doesn’t buy G.M. seeds and doesn’t want them on his land, it’s a safe bet he’ll get a visit from Monsanto’s seed police if crops grown from G.M. seeds are discovered in his fields.
Most Americans know Monsanto because of what it sells to put on our lawns— the ubiquitous weed killer Roundup. What they may not know is that the company now profoundly influences—and one day may virtually control—what we put on our tables. For most of its history Monsanto was a chemical giant, producing some of the most toxic substances ever created, residues from which have left us with some of the most polluted sites on earth. Yet in a little more than a decade, the company has sought to shed its polluted past and morph into something much different and more far-reaching—an “agricultural company” dedicated to making the world “a better place for future generations.” Still, more than one Web log claims to see similarities between Monsanto and the fictional company “U-North” in the movie Michael Clayton, an agribusiness giant accused in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit of selling an herbicide that causes cancer.
Monsanto brought false accusations against Gary Rinehart—shown here at his rural Missouri store. There has been no apology.Photographs by Kurt Markus.
Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds have transformed the company and are radically altering global agriculture. So far, the company has produced G.M. seeds for soybeans, corn, canola, and cotton. Many more products have been developed or are in the pipeline, including seeds for sugar beets and alfalfa. The company is also seeking to extend its reach into milk production by marketing an artificial growth hormone for cows that increases their output, and it is taking aggressive steps to put those who don’t want to use growth hormone at a commercial disadvantage.
I was perusing the internet this morning to get inspiration for a blog post. This morning it was a bit depressing. Turns out the IRS (of all things) is training their workers with AR-15s. Those are assault rifles people. Why does the IRS need assault rifles? Are they going to shoot us for not paying our taxes? I didn't really want to write about this on a lovely sunday morning so I moved on.
Next I found that Kraft's Mac and Cheese has to be labeled in the UK to explain that it has GMOs and any potential harm that can be done by eating it. Somebody brought a box back to the US and the NY Times published an article about it. Here is the label:
Made from GMO wheat (although Kraft claims this isn't true) and may have adverse effect on activity and attention in children (because of the yellow dye and Kraft doesn't argue with this one)
Anyhow, that was another disturbing sunday morning idea I didn't want to think about. So I finally settled on this:
OMG seriously? This looks so amazing. Although it's another depressing thing for me this morning because it calls for eggs and I'm allergic to them, I'm hopeful that egg alternative powder might work for this. I mean com'on! BROWN SUGAR ICING? My sugar addiction is flaring up and I've only looked at the picture.
If you're religious, you know the Bible says that we're supposed to meditate on things that are good and beautiful. What could be more uplifting on a sunday morning than thinking about brown sugar icing? Get the recipe here and go to church!
Yes, believe it or not, we are going to do a giveaway for two doelings-little girl goats. You have to be local so you can come pick them up although I guess if you want to pay all the money for shipping you're welcome to it lol! These babies are a la mancha/boer cross and their mother is an amazingly good producer of milk. The babies are about 2 months old now and very friendly. They're good eaters, which is why we weaned them so young. They practically skeletonized their mother and now they are eating hay without a problem.
So why would we give away two goats that we could just as easily sell?
Well, our family was sitting around the table discussing our mission as a family and as a business. Our mission is basically to encourage people to be more self-sufficient and more in touch with farming. What could we do to achieve this mission? We want to encourage others into farming and we decided a great way to do this would be to give people farm animals! It's the price that is prohibitive to a lot of people and there's no cheaper than free. Each of these babies would probably sell for $75-100 so this is a pretty awesome giveaway. Plus we'll give you a free tour of the ranch when you pick up your baby.
So what do you need to do to get your goat?
To enter to win:
1) Like Flip Flop Ranch on Facebook (if you already like our fb page, share the post on your own page)
2) Sign up to follow us (via email, bloglovin', Google +, pinterest, etc. options on right sidebar)
3) Leave a comment below as well as a way to contact you if you are the winner
4) We'll announce the winners on Friday Aug 9!
Here's some extra credit! If you want to win a free breeding for your goat to one of our bucks, get one of your friends to enter to win and leave a comment saying that it was you who twisted their arm to do it!
The two winners will be chosen at random from all entries on Friday, Aug 9th.
Fertilize Bermuda grass lawns with 1/2 pound of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet.
Apply iron to your lawn once per month.
If it's time to dethatch, do it during May through August. Dethatch every two or three years to rejuvenate the grass.
Trees/Shrubs
Pick early-maturing deciduous fruit, which are particularly prone to bird damage. Pick before full maturity. Ripen the fruit at room temperature.
Prune palms when flower spathes show or delay pruning until after the palm has finished flowering to prevent infestation of Palm Flower caterpillars. If palms are pruned in the spring, leave the top five rows of peels so the caterpillars have a place to hide.
Cut off dead blooms to stimulate rebloom.
July is a good time to plant desert shrubs and trees such as red bird of paradise, fairy duster, and Texas ranger. Shrubs and vines such as bougainvillea also may be planted, and these do well in the sun and heat. Be sure to water all new plantings for at least two weeks before you cut back.
Bougainvillea will produce more blooms if you reduce the water. They are drought-tolerant. Less water, more blooms.
Apply mulch to the ground around heat sensitive plants keep the roots cooler and prevent evaporation.
Apply chelated iron to bottle brush, pyracantha, silk oak, and other plants with iron deficiency symptoms.
Heat tolerant plants can be planted right through the summer months. They will need to be watered on a regular basis until fall.
Transplant palms in the heat of the summer for best results.
Protect newly transplanted trees from heavy winds and dust storms by staking.
Water mature trees deeply about every two weeks, every week for younger trees.
Flowers
Cut back on fertilizing established roses to encourage plants to slow down for the hot summer.
Water roses deeply as temperatures rise. Fertilize roses at half rate every six weeks during the summer. Water deeply both before and after fertilizing to prevent fertilizer burn damage.
Hose off roses in the early morning to increase humidity and control spider mites.
Flowers for summer color include: celosia, coreopsis, cosmos, gazanias, globe amaranth, portulaca, zinnia, salvia, vinca (periwinkle), gomphorena and verbena.
Flowerbeds will need irrigation every other day through the summer.
Use ammonium phosphate in flower beds to increase and keep flowers blooming.
Stake taller flowers to prevent damage from summer winds.
Nurseries still have summer flowers, but you will have to water them every day in the morning for about two weeks before you can reduce watering to every other day.
Vegetables
Tomatoes don't do well when it's over 90°F. Nurse the plants through the summer while providing shade and they will begin producing again in the fall. Alternatively, pull them out and plant new ones in the late summer for fall production.
Plant seeds for beans (pinto and snap), corn, Armenian cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, winter squash, sunflowers
Plant transplants: peppers, tomatoes.
Keep plants moist. Wilted leaves in the morning are a sign of moisture stress. Late afternoon wilting may be heat stress.
Shade tomatoes, squash, peppers and cucumbers to reduce the heat and help them survive a little longer. Mulch on top of the soil also cools it and helps retain moisture.
Use sunscreens that offer no more than 50% sun reduction.
As your melons come in, place a board beneath them. This will keep them off the moist soil and prevent insects from attacking them.
Solarize vegetables plots. Water the area to be solarized deeply and slowly, then cover with clear plastic, anchoring the edges to contain the moisture. Don't use black plastic. Leave for four weeks. The heat beneath the plastic will be intense, upward 140-150 degrees, cooking many of your gardening problems and weed seeds.
Your Desert Garden - Monthly Don't List for July
Don't prune citrus or other sun sensitive plants during the summer
Don't over water. Water slowly, deeply, and infrequently. Let the soil dry between watering.
Don't shade corn, squash, melons.
Don't add fertilizer to dry soil. Always water first, then apply fertilizers to moist soils, and then continue with the rest of the water.
Most people don't realize that gardens are a year round deal. Typically we think that we plant in the spring and then that's it. If you miss the spring planting, you have missed the boat and have to wait until next spring for a garden.
THAT'S NOT TRUE
Gardens are year round. There is a vegetable you can plant every single month out of the year. Even in the hottest month of summer and the coldest month of winter. Especially here in the desert. As a matter of fact, some summer plants prefer the coolness of fall or winter over the blistering desert heat. And late plantings might thrive by missing the bug infestations of early summer. It doesn't get so cold in the high desert that certain winter varieties can't make it either. Even in Vermont you can have a garden in the middle of winter. Carrots for instance, love to be covered in snow and it ev en makes them taste better.
So now that it's summer, that means it is time to start planning your fall garden. The first thing to be aware of is how long it takes your veggie to mature. Here in the desert, you only want short-day varieties. Short day refers to the amount of (ironically) darkness the plant gets exposed to. The more darkness, the better these varieties do at flowering. Scientists used to believe that it was the amount of light the plants were exposed to that caused flowering, but discovered it is the darkness. However, the short/long day designation stuck.
Short day plants are also quick growers. Just like very cold places like Vermont, we in the desert have short growing seasons. In more moderate climates, there is three growing periods: spring through mid-summer, mid-summer through early fall, and late fall through winter. In the desert, we have four growing periods: spring, summer, fall, winter. This makes the amount of time we have to grow plants much shorter. For the most part, a plant started in march doesn't have until July to grow. It needs to be done by the end of May. Plants that do good in cold areas usually do good in the desert.
You can start planting fall varieties next month. July is just WAY too hot in the desert for sensitive plants like carrots, radishes, beets, etc. However, August has usually cooled down and is humid enough for these plants to spring up happily so that by the time fall rolls around you have tons of fall plants for harvest.
Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company is currently offering 25% off seed purchases with the code FALLGARDEN13
I have had the fortune to be given three copies of Joel Salatin's CD Getting Your Hands Dirty: How to Teach Your Children to Love Work. I'm going to keep one and figured why not share the love? Three winners will be chosen to receive one of these. Keep reading to find out how to enter to win...
Getting Your Hands Dirty: How to Teach Your Children to Love Work. In this practical lecture, world-renowned entrepreneur Joel Salatin shares keen insights into getting your children to love work and to embrace your family's vision for entrepreneurship. Salatin explains that children tend to rise to the expectations set for them, and he encourages parents to integrate them into every aspect of the family business from the financial and business side, to the day-to-day implementation; to give them a personal stake in the process; to praise their successes; and to create a joyful atmosphere of family labor. Salatin offers great advice for parents to eliminate dawdling, cultivate persistence, and stimulate innovation in their children.
So the new in thing is Learncations, I have learned. I have got to be the nerdiest farmer in the world so just hearing the word, I already believe this is a totally awesome concept. What could be more fun than going somewhere cool and learning something? See, I told you I was a nerd.
But seriously! Talk about more bang for your buck. Isn't there something you want to learn? Something you've just been dying to learn, but it's not quite important enough to schedule time for because you have so much else to do? Like learning to crochet or train a killer whale or be a trapeze artist? Okay, I don't really want to do the trapeze thing, but training a killer whale would be mind-blowing (see the pun there? whale...blowing-ok forget it).
Except I would probably get eaten by a killer whale, so maybe I'd just learn crocheting.
That penguin would be me
If I was going to take a learncation, I would probably actually go to another farm to see what the competition is doing and try to learn how to do it so I could offer it to guests because I am a total capitalist. But seriously, what a great concept. People today are obsessed with learning. And with good reason. Afterall, you can't even get a job at McDonald's anymore without a college degree.
I got my doctorate and became a farmer. Glad I didn't stop at a bachelor's.
Plus, learning is so much fun when you're not learning for an exam or learning for work. You're just learning for fun's sake. And a learncation means you're learning someplace cool, someplace new. I mean seriously, think of all the cool places you could learn underwater basket weaving?
We want to make our farmstay into a real learncation. So many other guest ranches and similar vacation places have the stupidest activities like tye-dying shirts. Really? What does that have to do with farming?
Okay well maybe if you tye-dye your chickens
We want people to REALLY learn what farm life is really like.
Minus the excruciatingly hard work, long hours and freaking out about paying the bills as the food nazis try to shut you down at gun point
We want to preserve farming as a way of life and try to encourage others into farming. What better way than to do it in the form of a learncation?
A wonderful fan asked me why I keep mentioning horses in a blog about farming. Well first off, this is a blog about my family farm and we have horses. Good enough for me. However, horses and farms go together like peanut butter and jelly. Horses were the original John Deere. As a matter of fact, I want to get a draft horse and name him John Deere. Wouldn't that be hilarious? Horses plowed and cultivated and turned the hay and baled it...and then ate it too.
Horses worked the farms from the beginning of time until about the 1950s when most farmers finally abandoned horses for the faster and more powerful tractors. During the 20s to 50s, there was a huge debate over which was more economic-tractors or horses and mules (a good recent book on the subject is Mule South To Tractor South, by George B. Ellenberg, Univ. of Alabama Press, 2007). The experts never actually agreed on which was better, but tractors were new and cutting edge and society was rebelling from what was traditional-yes, even farmers had a hippy movement.
The younger farmers wanted tractors and they were go to use them no matter how much more they cost than horses. Horses were sent off to the butcher and not because tractors meant less work, but really because horse-based farmers were afraid they wouldn't be able to compete. The government did a whizbang job of convincing everyone that tractors were necessary. So farming changed. Hedges that preserved valuable flora and fauna had to be pulled out to accommodate big tractors, a problem the government is now trying to fix as it's leading to extinction and pest problems. Pest problems caused an increase in the use of pesticides, farmers had to learn to be mechanics, the death rate skyrocketed with the use of heavy machinery, and the problems and inefficiencies go on and on.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm a horse owner and there is pros and cons to everything. Tractors can definitely do WAY more work in a day than a horse and farmers don't come home nearly as tired. Horses run away sometimes when scared and tractors don't (although they can certainly run away and do from handler error). The biggest con about horse farming is you can't make as much money. Right? I mean isn't that true?
Hmmmm
According to a research study done, amish farms are one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. farm community. The study cites tons of research proving that small, diversified Amish farms, using traditional farming methods and draft horses, or mules, as a major power source, are surprisingly successful, sustainable, and profitable.
Amish farmers are buying farm land that can cost them ten thousand dollars per acre or sometimes more, and paying for it with horse farming. And because of their religion, the Amish do not accept farm subsidies that keep many “modern” farms “profitable.” Facing these facts, it is very difficult to see how economists or agribusiness experts can claim that farms using horses or mules for motive power are any more backward, or any less profitable, than farms using tractors.
I posted in a previous blog that mulberry leaves are poisonous, but when challenged by one of my readers I decided I needed to research this subject. I'd always been told that dried mulberry leaves were poisonous. Although I've never had any problems with my livestock, they refuse to eat dry mulberry leaves so I had no proof either way.
http://www.fao.org/ag/AGA/AGAP/FRG/Mulberry/Papers/HTML/Mulbwar2.htm
Mulberry: an exceptional forage available almost worldwide! states that the leaf mineral content is high and no anti-nutritional factors or toxic compounds have been identified.
Mulberry leaves as sheep feed supplement discusses a study that was done to figure out the nutritional content of mulberry leaves. In this study, they dried the mulberry leaves and then fed them to sheep.
So it looks like mulberry leaves are perfectly safe even when dry! On top of all this, the leaves are full of protein and rich in nitrogen, sulphur and minerals. Mulberry leaves caused increased body weight gains in growing lambs and goats, and also included milk production in goats. Some authors even say that mulberry leaves are as good as alfalfa and other high quality forage. Therefore, my conclusion is mulberry leaves are not poisonous. Instead, they make excellent feed fresh or dry!!
I wrangled Farmer Thomas into helping me make some tree cuttings today. Afterall, what are brother-in-laws for?
Cuttings are branches of a plant, in this case a mulberry tree, that you use to propagate another plant from. You can cut the branches with or without leaves. We needed to prune our mulberries anyways and there's less work that needs to be done in the winter, so we decided to do winter pruned branches.
You don't need to use rooting hormone. Mulberries have a great success rate without the hormone, but if you are a bit paranoid (especially when doing as many cuttings as we did), then feel free to use it.
Poor Thomas had to pickaxe his way through the soil so we could plant. Luckily it wasn't frozen.
Some of the visitors to our farm helped us cut the branches into two foot sections (see how many we did!).
We dipped the end of the branch in rooting hormone, making sure at least one node got covered. A node is the little bump that the new branches come from. When these are underground, they form roots instead of branches. Make sure at least 2 or 3 nodes get buried underground.
We planted them in lowered beds to make it easier to get water to them (we're in the desert remember). The sticks were planted about a foot apart diagonally in a 1 2 1 2 pattern like this -=-=-=-=-=- Hopefully they'll all grow and then we'll dig them out and transplant them in various spots around the property and we will soon have the shadiest farm in the desert! Plus mulberry leaves are very nutritious for livestock as the trees collect minerals from the ground and deposit them in the leaves. Just remember that when mulberry leaves die, they become poisonous (Looks like I am wrong about this. I've always been told they were poisonous, but please read this blog post about how wonderful th leaves are even when they are dry!). We've never had an animal-even the goats- try to eat dead leaves as the poison makes them bitter, but keep it in mind. You can also get fruiting mulberries which are yummy, but can be messy. We have fruiting mulberries planted over the poultry areas so the birds will eat them when they fall off the tree. Have fun planting!
These muffins were REALLY good. My family forces me to keep baking them and they're really easy too.
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.
So why would we give away two goats that we could just as easily sell? 
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