Dreaming of Sunflowers @ Rooster Ridge Farms

"She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard." Proverbs 31:16

This wasn’t a vineyard full of grapes, but a field of flowers at Rooster Ridge Farms LLC. My cousin Taylor, and I were welcomed onto the farm for a tour. I had never experienced a flower farm before, so this was a very neat adventure.

A special thank you to Taylor Richards for coordinating this farm tour and taking all of the beautiful photos, visit Taylor's blog here!

Me on the left with Teresa on the right

Teresa Brown is a first generation female farmer and her dream was to grow sunflowers. This dream has come alive just in the last year when she purchased just shy of 23 acres in Bryan, Ohio.

Teresa is an art teacher in a local community school system. I am sure the artistic ability aids in arranging the flowers, but this is not your average art teacher! Teresa has a sunflower painting over fireplace and sunflowers growing outside!

In northwest Ohio, agricultural production predominately consists of the three crop rotation of winter wheat, field corn, and soybeans… But Teresa Brown has a different plan for her acreage. 

With being on the property only one year thus far, she has a great set up. Teresa has one main field in flower cultivation, but what an excellent view! Facing the woods, you’ve got a field to your left and a pond to your right.

The beauty is hard work, Teresa bought her tractors and got busy. She learns as she goes, which is a quality I very much admire. I once heard a saying “you just have to start”, and that is what Teresa has done at Rooster Ridge Farms. 

In the era of making money, Teresa has a different view. She does it for the aesthetics, it instills happiness in others. 

A few tips that Teresa shared with me:

*Cut your flowers early in the morning, so the stems retain their moisture.
*When marking your rows, use a pencil on your tags instead of permanent marker. The permanent marker may wash off!

Pricing

*Pint for $8 

*Quart for $10

*Refill for $3 this year

Flowers are now affordable, local, and perfect for “flower-bombing”.

“She is flower-bombing people”, Teresa told us of one of her customers. This now coined term refers to the customers that like to buy multiple flower bouquets at a time, and gift them to their friends. What a neat idea!

So, what does the future hold?

Teresa explained that there is a program called NRCS, which you can read about here, that provides high tunnels and irrigation for farmers, which she plans to pursue. 

A future for female farmers

I was very encouraged by Teresa’s start-up story as she talked to me about the resources available for female farmers, through Ag Credit and FSA(Farm Service Agency). Read more about these types of loans on the USDA website, here.

Resources

Teresa buys from Jonny’s seed company, check out their website here.

Field of Farmers Joel Salatin 

Midwest Gardeners Handbook Melina Myers

Contacts

Teresa Brown at Rooster Ridge Farm LLC

Facebook: here

or visit her at the Bryan, Ohio farmer’s market!

More Photos:

I took this photo of Teresa's farmer's market set up!

Grazing Chickens in our Chicken Tractor

Did you know that chickens can both mow down and fertilize your lawn?

Chicken tractors are mobile pens that you can move small groups of chickens around in your backyard. The birds are fed grain, but are also able to graze the grass, which they seem to heavily enjoy.

Feed update: We started feeding Purina Organic Chicken Feed a few weeks ago. The starter-grower feed comes in 35 lb bags that more expensive than most conventional chicken feeds, but it contains grain that is not genetically modified or sprayed with the usual conventional pesticides. More info about the feed: here

Currently I am feeding Blue Seal OrganicLife chick starter, which I have found to be more affordable. It also comes in a 50lb bag, which is much more convenient.

Materials

2- 16 foot boards: cut one board at 9ft, and then the remaining piece at 4.5ft, leaving a scrap piece of 1.5 feet to use as a corner brace. Do this for both boards.
5- 10 foot pvc pipes.
10- 1/2 inch metal brackets: my first times using these brackets and it was quite a success! This is how we attached the pvs hoops to the wooden frame.
70 feet of chicken wire.
2 to 2.5 inch wood screws for the frame.
1/2 inch wood screws to attach metal brackets to wooden frame.

The finished product: 

Additional Reading

-USDA Issues Proposed Rule to Amend Organic Livestock and Poultry PRactices, including Poultry Living Conditions; Invites Comments, written by Sarah Blacklin. The article begins to introduce possible changes to the National Organic Program regarding livestock production. Additional links to further reading is also included.
-Food and Drug Protection Division: Food Program, NC Egg Law. If you are interested in selling your own backyard chicken eggs, good news! If you produce no more than 30 dozen a week, you don't have to weigh and grade each egg.
-Pastured Poultry Profit$, written by Joel Salatin, for more information on raising pasture based poultry for meat.

Fruits and Other Perennials

With my sophomore year at North Carolina State University coming to a close, moving back home, and interning on an organic produce farm...life has been quite busy.

I am happy to give you all a Practice Farm update. For more up to date photo posts, follow practice_farm on Instagram here.

Wild black berries found growing in the brush.

4 newly planted raspberry bushes.

The front flower bed is housing many herbs, including oregano, basil, mint, and sage.

Newly planted and trellised blackberries.

Granny smith apple tree. 

Close up of the granny smith apples. 

Another one of our apple trees has fallen over but continues to survive, unfortunately covered in poison ivy.

Newly planted fig tree from NC State, propagated by air layering and now planted in our back yard!

Diagonally growing cherry tree. We are not sure how it fell over, any solutions?

The not-so-tame muscadine vines, but the fruit is growing! I am hoping to learn how to prune them, because it appears that they were not pruned by the previous land owner.

A close up of the muscadines.

We have been blessed with this property. All of the fruit trees (excluding the fig) and muscadine vines were here when my mother purchased the land, and I am hoping for a bountiful harvest! 

"And I have given you land for which you did not labor, and cities that you build not, and now you dwell in them; eating of the vineyards and olive eytzim(trees), which you did not plant."

Joshua 24:13 (RSTNE)

Comment below if you have any questions.
Blessings,

Olivia 

Seeds Of Change Grant

Crescent Academy, the day treatment program that my mother works for at Nazareth Children's home, is applying for a gardening grant through Seeds of Change. Check out the Seeds of Change website here. 

My Mother, Judy, pictured in the garden.

The goal is to use the grant money to revamp the raised bed garden already in place at Nazareth, potentially even to add a greenhouse or a hoop house, and would focus on teaching the students how to grow their own food! 

How To Vote 

• Individuals can vote once every calendar day. So essentially, you could vote for Crescent Academy every day, from now till April 18th! 
• The top 50 organizations with the most votes will move onto the final judging phase, where 20 organizations will be chosen to receive the grants. 
• The grant recipients will be announced around May 3, 2016. 
• For more specifics on the grant itself, visit the grant website here.

I would greatly appreciate it if you would vote at the link below!

Link: https://www.seedsofchangegrant.com/GalleryDetail.aspx?id=2238

I am really excited about this opportunity because I believe the $10,000 or even $20,000 grant could impact the lives of the students and the community of Rockwell, NC at large.

Let me know if you have any questions, as I hope to volunteering with Crescent Academy's school garden this summer. 

More pictures of the garden:

Processing Your Own Meat

Having recently been interested in processing my own animals at home, I thought I would share my journey with you all.

Piedmont Culinary Guild

This search began with receiving an email through the ncchoicesnews list serve (which you can sign up for: here) about the Piedmont Culinary Guild's Food and Beverage Symposium, March 13th, 2016 in Charlotte, NC.

I had never heard about the Piedmont Culinary Guild before, but I have found the event that they are hosting particularly interesting, regarding ethical meats. To look at their event website, click here. 

Their featured lecturer will be Meredith Leigh, who wrote The Ethical MeatHandbook: A Complete Guide to Home Butchery, Charcuterie, and Cooking for the Conscious Omnivore. So I proceeded to download the preview of her book on my kindle to continue in my research, which I have read and very much enjoyed! I look forward to purchasing the book in the near future. 

Specific Cuts of Meat

Then, in one of my classes at NC State, we learned the basics of how they determine the cuts of meat that consumers buy in the store. This is a standard system, for example if you order a certain cut of steak, it will come from a particular part of the animal. This further sparked my interest in wanting to learn how this is done.  

Additionally, I was told that there are kosher meat markets in Raleigh, NC, and because I would like to invest in kosher meat, I must check into this. For literature on kosher slaughter, check out this article titled "Religious slaughter and animal welfare: a discussion for meat scientists", by Temple Grandin and Joe M. Regenstein, here.

Raising My Own

So all of the previous info got me thinking...I could raise my own market sheep to be processed in a kosher fashion at a slaughter house. The I could further process the meat by dividing the carcass into particular cuts to add to our freezer. Thus we could eat the kosher meat that I had raised! 

Cabarrus County Fair 

NC State Fair

I must admit that if I do implement this plan, it will take real emotional strength. I have raised market lambs in previous years, but have sold them after the county fair show season. 

My main point in all of this is: 

I feel as though eating the meat of an animal I have raised would better honor the system. 

A system of carnivorous eating that I would learn to better appreciate. 

An appreciation for the life of the animal, rather than the blind consumption of meat that most Americans experience today. #consciouscarnivore 

The purpose of raising my own livestock would be to counteract the saying:

"I just thought that chicken came from the freezer isle of the grocery store".

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks!

Web Soil Survey

To introduce another tool to add to your "agricultural toolbox"

a website known as Web Soil Survey. 

This program was a resource that my soil science professor recommended, and he taught us the basics of how to use the plethora of information that is provided (for FREE) thought Web Soil Survey.

To explore the website: click here

• Click on the green dot labeled "start WSS"
• Zoom into the location of choice on the United States map
• Outline the land you wish to analyze using the AOI tool, located in the tool bar directly above the map

These are the basics. I am still learning how to use the program. Once you begin to explore Web Soil Survey, you'll find that you can do all sorts of analysis. 

For example:

Zooming into a location

Selecting an even smaller area within the county. I tried to analyze the whole of Rowan county, but it said "too big". So I selected a smaller area. The neat thing is that you can zoom in even closer and analyze a small parcel of land (like 2 acres, for example), but the results may not be as accurate due to the program being designed for larger parcels of land.

 

The Soil Map

Each number/letter combination below (in orange) represents a different type of soil, which is further explained on the left (in blue). 

"Suitabilities and Limitations for Use" tab

You can analyze the parcel of land for different its functional use, such as "Vegetative Productivity" and "Water Management" (if the information is available). How cool!

"Soil Properties and Qualities" tab

Here you can look at the qualities such as chemical properties and erosion factors (displayed on the left hand side of the screen). 

"Soil Reports" tab

Here you can look at the soil reports associated with "soil erosion" and "disaster recovery planning" on the left side of the screen.

Adding the reports to your "shopping cart"

Any of the information that you view through this website can be added to your shopping cart by clicking the "Add to Shopping Cart" displayed at the top right side of your screen, above the map. Once you are finished exploring the website features, you can click "Shopping Cart (Free)" to print all of your reports...and you guessed it, FOR FREE! 

Printed Report

When you go to your shopping cart, you can get the downloaded document with all of the reports that you saved previously by adding them to your shopping cart. It should look something like this-

Enjoy your brand new FREE soil survey!

P.S. the next program exploration shall be: GIS (Geographic Information System) 

NatureFresh Farms: Delta, OH

To shift gears a little bit, I would like to tell you all about the greenhouse built very close to my mother's home town.

In Delta, Ohio Nature Fresh farms has built a 15 acre greenhouse! After doing some online research, I found out that they are starting with tomato production and are hoping to do so year round.

Link to more info: here

Of course I had to go check it out while in Ohio:

The greenhouse is more towards the left of where I am standing.
The buildings directly above my right hand are not part of the greenhouse facility. 

After getting a bit dark, the greenhouse is still visible! 

Contacting NatureFresh Farms

They are not giving any formal tours at this point in the year. I contacted them via their Facebook page and I was quite pleased with their response time. I got a reply through Facebook messages, here is our conversation:

Me: Hello, My name is Olivia Horning and I am a student at North Carolina State University studying Agricultural Education. I will be traveling to Ohio over winter break and am very interested in the newly build greenhouse in Delta, Ohio. Do they provide tours? Who would be the best individual to contact about this?
NatureFresh: Hi Olivia - Thanks for reaching out. Unfortunately, we are not conducting tours right now as the facility has just got up and running. We should be a in a better position later this year.As well, we will be looking to hire college students this summer to support our #GreenInTheCity tour with our mobile Greenhouse Education Center. Stay tuned to our Facebook page in January when the postings come out, maybe you might be interested. Thanks.
Me: I appreciate all the information, thank you for the update and I will stay tuned with the Facebook page about the upcoming job postings. Thanks again!

Extra Note: I added the link to the NatureFresh website article about the greenhouse education center in the above conversation, if anyone is interested!