Categories
Crops & Gardening Equipment Farm & Garden

4 Steps To Prepare For Apple Harvesting Season

apple season
Daniel Johnson

It’s September, and apple season is getting into full swing. On my northern Wisconsin farm, I’m already enjoying fresh apples, applesauce and apple cake. It’s a glorious time of year.

Are the apples on your trees starting to ripen? Apples can ripen fast at this time of year, going from sour to sweet in a short amount of time, so it’s wise to prepare for the harvest before the first picking day arrives.

Here are four steps to prepare for a successful (and hopefully bountiful) apple-harvesting season.

1. Gather & clean your harvesting equipment.

When the apples are ready, you should be ready. You don’t want to be caught unprepared, scurrying to find your equipment in the hours before an autumn thunderstorm with 50mph winds rolls through and blows your fruit crop to the ground.

Hopefully you have one or two “apple pickers” for harvesting out-of-reach apples. They’re probably dusty from storage, so clean them up before putting them to use. The same goes for apple baskets.

And if you’re going to go on apple-harvesting hayrides, have your hay wagon cleaned and ready. You don’t want anyone slipping on loose hay left behind from baling season.

2. Haul out your orchard ladder.

Maybe your orchard ladder is handy in your garage from pruning apple trees in late winter. If so, congratulations for being on the ball.

But if your orchard ladder is stuffed in the back of a shed, untouched since last harvesting season, now’s the time to dig it out. Don’t cut corners and grab the household stepladder, because the wide base and three-legged design of an orchard ladder makes it sturdier over uneven ground and perfect for harvesting apples.

3. Learn to pick apples the correct way.

Picking apples correctly is something of a science. While it’s picturesque when an apple comes off with a bit of twig and some leaves, that “bit of twig” is a fruit-producing spur branch. When you break off a spur branch, you’re removing a location for future fruit production.

If you’re wondering about the best way to pick apples without damaging the spur branches, check out our explainer article and video.

4. Prepare your storage locations.

During harvesting season, you want to say, “I have more apples than I know what to do with”—but only if you’re referring to a bountiful harvest and not a lack of storage space. While many factors influence how long apples last in storage, you can generally expect them to last for several weeks in a refrigerator and for several months in a freezer. This definitely beats the week (or less) they’ll last sitting out on your countertop.

That’s why it’s important to make sure you have suitable cold storage space before you harvest apples. In a perfect world, you would have a large freezer dedicated to the long-term storage of your harvest. But at the very least, you should clear enough space in your regular refrigerator and/or freezer to hold a few dozen apples at a time for cooking and fresh eating.

By getting a head start preparing for apple season, you’ll be ready to maximize your harvest and enjoy delicious fruit for weeks or months to come. Enjoy your apples!

Categories
Animals Farm & Garden Homesteading Large Animals

Grass-Fed Cattle Are Just Plain Better For The Bottom Line

grass-fed cattle
images by Erica Webb

The year 2022 hit many cattle producers hard. Diesel prices skyrocketed, drought forced many farmers to downsize their herd and inflation caused a dramatic increase in farming inputs. With profit margins already slim, decreasing inputs is one of the best business tactics to use to ensure enough return to stay in business.

When analyzing the multiple costs associated with growing cattle, feed makes up, on average, more than 60 percent of a farm’s annual cow cost and is often the first expense to cut when times get tough. The high cost of feed is associated with many farmers turning to grass-fed cattle, not only to save on cost of inputs but to also fulfill a need in the grass-fed niche market.

Feeding Finds

Cattle are ruminants with a digestive system designed to survive on forages. The great thing about cattle is that they can utilize rangeland and byproducts that aren’t compatible for humans, including growing row crops or other agricultural needs. However, during times of environmental stress such as fire, drought and flooding, some producers have no choice but to supplement their cattle with a feed concentrate to get their animals through a difficult time. 

But why is there such a bad stigma around feeding concentrates? From the consumer perspective, many believe feeding grain products to cattle is a welfare issue, associated with their misinterpretation of overstocked and abusive feedlots. From the farmer’s perspective, the issue is simply the high cost and financial means it takes to keep their cattle thriving.

Johnathan Wells, a bovine nutrition consultant and tech services specialist in the Southeast, discusses how feed can optimize productivity within the farm.

“Producers are losing money by not feeding their calves,” he says. “Essentially, utilizing creep feed and preconditioning calves for a minimum of 45 days post-weaning is equivalent to making an extra $100 per calf at the time of sale without really doing that much more work.” 

Wells utilizes creep feed from an early age on his registered Black Angus farm and for many other farms he helps manage. “Starting these calves early [on creep feed], not only jump starts their rumen microbes but enhances their immune response to outside pathogens,” he says. “We see fewer sick calves and reduced stress at weaning. These easy management decisions have big implications for setting these calves up to thrive in whatever direction we decide to take them next. Whether we retain the calf to develop into a breeding bull or heifer or decide to sell for beef, getting these calves eating feed does nothing but set them up for future success.” 

It’s important to utilize all resources available to ensure there are no holes in a nutrition program. Feeding concentrates—along with providing a high-value mineral specifically formulated to fill in holes where forage is lacking—is so important for taking a farm to the next level of success and profitability.

Wells is no stranger to the hardships felt by many producers. “Our farm wouldn’t have survived last year if we didn’t grain feed some of our mommas,” he says. After a terrible summer drought that left most of the hay fields subpar, Wells explains the important role grain played in keeping his cows in a positive energy balance. 

“You run the risk of having low conception rates because if the cow can’t maintain her own body, how is she going to support a pregnancy?” he asks. “Fetal programming is also a huge factor to consider as that fetus is developing. I can’t control environmental stressors like weather, but, as a producer, it’s my responsibility to control everything I can. Fulfilling nutritional needs is something I can do with feed, despite lower quality hay and dry pastures.” 

Wells is often a speaker at producer meetings across the southeast and says his biggest challenge is helping producers understand that making nutritional investments for your cattle throughout the year yield huge financial returns, especially when calf prices are high like they are now.

grass-fed cattle

All that Grass

Contrasted with grass-fed cattle, Daniella Adams of Grove Creek Farm located in northeast Georgia, uses a grass-fed model to finish out her cattle. She raises a mixed herd mostly comprised of Georgia-native Pineywood cattle. Pineywoods are a hardy breed, bred to thrive in the environment of southeastern U.S. 

Adams’ grass-fed model is mostly used to maintain the integrity of heritage breed cattle, but it also helps to reduce her overall inputs. “I’m constantly learning and evolving to find better ways to make our farm more sustainable and efficient,” she says, giving a lot of credit to utilizing summer annuals to optimize nutrition. “We finish our cattle in the summer, so providing a high-quality summer forage right before processing makes a huge difference on the finished product.” 

By utilizing rotational grazing methods and maintaining a stocking ratio of about 3 acres per cow/calf pair, Adams can graze her pastures almost year-round. Putting up good hay is an important aspect of her operation during those times when grass runs thin. “Luckily, we don’t have to feed much hay during the winter,” she says. “But when we do, they get a combination of ryegrass hay and baleage; it does really well for making up for where the pastures are lacking.”

Additionally, Adams combines her grass-fed cattle management practices with a veterinarian-advised vaccination and deworming protocol. Together, these practices have proven to minimize mud and parasite burdens across her herd, minimizing loss due to sickness or death.

Adams can’t keep up with the demand. One issue Adams noted about grass-finished beef was the time it took to get them to finishing weight. On her operation, cattle are finished between 22 to 24 months of age which she notes is partly due to the genetics of the type of cattle she is raising along with the fact they aren’t being pushed to grow by eating energy dense concentrates. For Adams, it’s a way that she and her family feel as though they can remain stewards of the land and use their farm to its highest potential while remaining sustainable in the process. 

grass-fed cattle

Where’s the Beef?

Marketing comes easy at Grove Creek Farms. “Our customers aren’t necessarily looking for grass-finished beef, but they love knowing where their animal came from and how it was managed throughout its life,” Adams says. Unfortunately for the beef industry, there is a lot of misinformation about how beef is raised. Due to the lack of feed lots in the Southeast, and education about how they are managed, consumers often share their negative viewpoints around the beef growing process.

Adams’ goal is educating customers about raising beef in general, not just on her farm. “Customers want the visual of a cow in a grassy pasture, and I joke if they want me to send them a picture of their animal,” she says. Customers often come to the farm with so many questions. “I spend a lot of time educating them about the differences between vaccines and antibiotics and explain when each are necessary. Keeping records of each animal then becomes important for validity as I can show the customer everything their animal has received.”

It’s important to stay transparent while also aiming to produce a valuable product, and Adams has done just that.

In a consumer-driven industry, it’s easy to gear your beef business based off consumer needs, and it’s no mystery that grass-fed beef has become a trend in today’s health-conscious individuals. Unfortunately, most consumers get lost in the sea of labeling innuendos. 

It’s important to understand that all cattle are grass-fed, but labeling tactics create a story of two separate scenarios: grass-fed vs grain-fed, one good and the other bad. According to USDA regulations for grass-fed beef “the diet must be derived solely from forage, and animals cannot be fed grain or grain by-products.” This claim, however, includes cereal grains still in their vegetative state which allows grass-fed producers to utilize corn silage as a source of feed—a product that would soon become part of a grain supplement if harvested just a few short weeks later. 

The major difference between the two is in how the animal is finished, and labeling is evolving to include this terminology in packaging, i.e. “Grass-fed and Grain-finished” or “Grass-fed and Grass-finished.” 

Most U.S. cattle fall in the spectrum of production where they’re weaned on grass, backgrounded on a mix of grass and grain, and then finished with a balanced concentrate diet. This seems to yield an efficiently grown animal that produces a higher quality and tasteful product. Additionally, finishing these cattle earlier in life has been shown to reduce the carbon footprint by reducing the amount of total greenhouse gases produced per pound of beef, leading to a more sustainable product. Everyone should be excited about that feat.

From an industry standpoint, efficiency is key to beef production. How many pounds of beef can be put on an animal in the shortest amount of time and yield the greatest return? Despite each producers’ individual goals on how they want to raise cattle, the beef industry remains focused on one final endpoint: producing pounds of beef. 

Efficiency and management tactics will vary greatly from location and producer. So how do we answer our big debate? Which feeding tactic is better? It’s difficult to say, but despite the way cattle are finished, supporting all kinds of beef should always be at the top of the priority list. 

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2023 issue of Hobby Farms magazine.

Categories
Animals Farm & Garden Large Animals

Battle of the Bulge (Pt 1): Helping Overweight Livestock

overweight livestock
Eileen/Adobe Stock

Since we humans have enough to worry about regarding age-related issues and our waistlines, it somehow doesn’t seem fair that we also need to help our livestock from becoming overweight as they mature, too. Sure, some creatures we have are supposed to gain weight at an impressive rate, particularly younger animals destined for the processor or stockyard. But our older animals face similar weight problems that we do: extra pounds can be harder on the joints and impact mobility, and there are metabolic issues, too.

While farm animals are spared the fates of diabetes and high blood pressure, they have their own spectrum of metabolic diseases that stem from obesity. Over the next two months let’s take a closer look at equine and bovine weight issues.

Age-Related Metabolic Issues

It is shockingly easy to feed a horse to death. Imagine the American mustang, surviving on dry scrub out on the range or the Shetland pony on the craggy islands in the North Sea off Great Britain. Or how about the Arabian, light boned and fleet of foot, making do in the dunes of the Middle East? And now think of the typical backyard horse: stabled nice and cozy at night with hay, all the grass he could dream of during the day, plus grain twice daily to boot.

Is it any surprise that the “modern” equine diet could kill?

Simply put, our equines’ digestive tracks haven’t evolved fast enough to keep up with this plush lifestyle. Here’s what can happen.

As a horse piles on the pounds, his endocrine system can start to dysregulate. This in part is linked to genetics. Certain breeds such as ponies, donkeys and Morgans, for example, are more predisposed. Regardless, hormones such as insulin start to malfunction.

Over time, an obese horse will start to pack away fat in odd places: in the crest of the neck and on top of the tail head. Sugar metabolism is impacted and the horse develops “insulin resistance” which in some ways starts to look suspiciously like Type 2 diabetes in humans and develops into a condition called “equine metabolic syndrome” or EMS.

A Serious Threat

The biggest threat to a horse’s health with EMS is the secondary complication of laminitis, commonly known as founder. This painful disease of the hoof is a direct result of wonky sugar metabolism and, as everyone knows, no hoof, no horse. A severe case of founder is extremely painful and can disrupt the connection of the bone inside the hoof to the hoof wall to the point of lethality.

EMS can be avoided; if not avoided, it can be managed and managed successfully. But it can be challenging. We want to feed our horses and give them treats, don’t we? After all, providing food is one way we show love. Battling the bulge then requires tough love in the form of a strict diet.

Limit Livestock Treats for Overweight Animals

Putting a horse on a diet starts with measuring his weight. Use a weight tape (purchased at any local feed store or online) and record your estimate. Then work with your veterinarian to decide what—if any—grain the horse should have. There are low-carb diets and some with different carbohydrates, especially for EMS horses available if your vet determines your horse still requires some grain supplementation.

Then: limit access to grass either by housing in a dirt lot or having the horse wear a grazing muzzle that severely limits how much grass he can munch at any given time. And finally, add or increase exercise to burn excess calories and add muscle tone if the horse is sound to work.

Finding the right diet plan for your horse can take a lot of time and plenty of trial and error. It’s far easier to keep your horse or other livestock animal from becoming overweight than get him to lose weight. Same for us, right? So take a look at the equine outside your window right now and reflect on how he looks and what he’s eating.

Small changes add up over time, whether the scale moves up or down. Again, same for us, right?

Categories
Farm & Garden Foraging Homesteading

A Nutty Adventure: Enjoying A Mast Year For Acorns 

mast year oak oaks acorns
yujie/Adobe Stock

It’s a mast year for oaks, and we have a magnificent crop of acorns this year where I live in central Manitoba! It’s also a great time to see if we can improve upon the genetics of these trees for human consumption. Usually, acorns are considered too bitter for eating and require special preparation. But some types (some even from individual trees) prove to be more sweet, larger and less bitter. 

There are a lot of reasons we’d consider creation of a more edible acorn highly desirable. Oaks have inherent value for hardwood lumber, shade on the farm for livestock, windbreaks, habitat for native species and more. The various tree species are drought resistant and can tolerate a variety of soil and environmental conditions. They grow across North America, and we all have some varieties we call native to our home region! 

Acorns as Food?

With all these oaks, it’s fair to wonder why there isn’t a commercial acorn industry. The answer: We haven’t selectively bred oaks for food. 

But … why not? The main reason is the crop’s inconsistency, as a mast year (or bumper crop) for acorns only occurs every two to five years. 

Another chief factor is the acorn’s bitterness, though some types of oaks—white oaks mainly, like swamp, Oregon and Burr—do have sweeter flesh. Most acorns can be rendered sweeter with processing, but a sweet acorn right off the tree is much better for the future of this perennial food crop.

A Citizen Initiative 

So this fall, in honor of the bumper crop of acorns, I have taken to the streets on my longboard to collect acorns from choice trees across urban Winnipeg. I am identifying the size, abundance and sweetness of acorns from individual trees and groves, and my team and I are logging this data in our Edible Biodiversity database.

Any grove or tree of particular importance gets a unique ID number. We then make record of the quality and quantity of the acorns. 

Did I mention how fun this scientific endeavor is? I am skating the streets on a Cruiser skateboard—a shorter profile than my usual longboard but with a wide and sturdy 9.9-inch deck. This allows me to easily make distance between trees in good time and provides the stability to carry my acorn-collecting bag over my shoulder. I can also swap the shorter deck onto my back when I move between the oaks in a grove. 

We can be serious about improving food accessibility while also doing things we enjoy.

mast year oak oaks acorns
Zach Loeks

A Good Oak

So far, I have found some exceptional oaks both in parks and along streets, especially on the west side of the city. Of these we have chosen three groves that exhibit particular sweetness. These will be sorted and high graded to plant out across the city in micro-living laboratory projects. 

What do I look for in a good oak grove? First, I note if the trees look healthy. I also look for dead branches in the canopy. I record the size of the trees and if they are producing a large crop from a smaller or older tree. I also note the following:

  • average size of the acorns
  • if the caps come off easily
  • presence and amount of insect holes in the acorns
  • acorn sweetness both raw and processed 

Keep posted for more nutty edible biodiversity adventures! 

Grow On, Zach 

 

Categories
Farm & Garden Food Recipes

Recipe: Refreshing Concord Grape Shrub 

grape shrub
5ph/Adobe Stock

Summertime is busy. Minnesotans seem to pack in as much as humanly possible while the weather is nice. Our family has kept so busy that I actually had to block off a weekend to stay home and do some food preservation.  

For the first time in nearly two decades, we were almost out of homemade garlic dill pickles in our pantry. I was hoping to get my hands on a half bushel of pickling cucumbers to can, but due to the droughts and hail damage local farms have gotten, pickling cucumbers aren’t as available as they normally are. Sadly I couldn’t get my hands on the cukes. 

Things worked out though, because I was gifted nearly 200 pounds of Concord grapes from someone that impressively grew them in his urban backyard in Minneapolis.  

Needless to say, we’ve been busy with grapes ever since. My family and I have spent hours and hours destemming grapes and turning them into juice. So far, we’ve canned over 5 gallons of delicious juice, as well as frozen a couple gallons. With the remaining, I intend to make jelly, bake with a bit and perhaps try some new experimental recipes. But one thing I made right away was a batch of grape shrub.

I had never had it before and was eager to try. It turned out absolutely delicious and that’s the recipe I’ll be sharing with you today. 

Unlike my other shrub recipes, this one is a cooked recipe. The flavor of concord grapes gets so much more grapey after simmered, so I opted to make this quick shrub versus the normal no-heat shrubs I normally make. 

Yield: 3 cups or so of finished shrub 

Ingredients 

  • 2.5 cups fresh concord grapes 
  • 1/2 cup white granulated sugar 

After syrup is made 

  • 1-2 cups apple cider vinegar (equal part to how much syrup is made) 

Instructions 

Wash and destem grapes. Add grapes to a medium-sized saucepan and mash with a potato masher. Mix in sugar, cover and gently heat to a simmer. Simmer about 10 minutes until the grapes soften and cook, which will result in a gorgeous purple grape juice. 

Remove from heat, allow the juice to cool to room temperature and strain the grape juice through a fine mesh sieve.  

Measure the amount of grape juice you have and mix with an equal part of vinegar. Example: If you have 1.5 cups of grape juice, mix with 1.5 cups of vinegar. 

Store in a clean, airtight jar and refrigerate. Enjoy your shrub within a few months for the best flavor. 

Notes 

For an even clearer shrub, you can run the grape juice through a coffee filter or jelly bag after you’ve strained it through the fine mesh sieve. 

In place of white sugar, you can substitute brown sugar, coconut sugar, maple syrup or other sugar alternative. 

Try different vinegars for alternate shrub flavors. 

To Serve 

Mix about 2 ounces of grape shrub with water or carbonated water. Serve over ice. 

To find other shrub recipes written by Thurow, check out WECK Small-Batch Preserving. 

Categories
Crops & Gardening Farm & Garden Homesteading News

Linda Vater Is The Queen Of Topiary

Linda Vater
photos courtesy Stewart Perryman/Linda Vater

I doubt you have ever searched a gardening topic without coming across Linda Vater’s name. She is a garden designer, blogger and lifestyle influencer who writes and produces garden media for TV, magazines, Instagram and YouTube. She has a product line on QVC, appears in numerous national magazines, news segments and videos and is the author of The Elegant & Edible Garden. Vater’s passion-turned-career began on her suburban lot in Oklahoma City.

Planting the Seeds 

Vater’s success evolved from falling in love with the first plant she ever met at the mere age of 7 to inspiring thousands of people daily to follow her mantra to “live a garden inspired life.” She educates her audience through topiary workshops, plant introductions, garden tours, house tours, thrifting strategies, cooking from her garden, garden techniques, garden parties, garden tips and so much more. 

Her journey from being a hobby gardener to a wildly successful voice in the gardening world was a process of inspiration, pivotal moments, real-life education, and pure wonder and love for gardening and people.

“I am a graduate of the Oklahoma School of Heartache and Hard Knocks,” Vater says. 

From her first encounter with a pumpkin seed (which she describes in the preface of her book), to having plants in her dorm room, Vater kept discovering her natural desire was to delve further into the gardening world. Now she lives in a world she created from her love of gardens. 

“Gardening is a key element in my life,” Vater says. “It informs my clothes, friends, books I read, trips I take and how I treat and connect with the earth.” She describes plants as comforting, compelling, beautifying. “They always awaken the inner kindergartner in me,” she says. 

As Vater entered her 30s, she got married and started a family. This was when she left a consulting job that had her traveling quite a bit and moved into a 1932 English Tudor house in Oklahoma City and commenced building a world and lifestyle inspired by gardening. 

“My own front garden was a sad and barren place when we bought our house, but it slowly became a landscape of beauty and delight,” she says. This beauty and delight have brought joy to thousands over the last 20 years. 

Linda Vater

Without formal garden training, Vater studied, planned and prepared for a space that turned a passion into a profession. As her gardening knowledge grew, so did her actual garden, which attracted several invitations on gardening tours and local news segments. A local news station started collaborating with her consistently, establishing credibility in the large Oklahoma City news market. Shortly after, she started writing for magazines including HGTV, Southern Living, Garden Gate, Victoria Magazine and Territory OKC. As magazines enjoyed using her articles, they started traveling to her garden to video and write their own pieces about her space as well. 

She soon entered the social media realm and became a legend in the Instagram world. From there she started a YouTube channel, and as people discovered her, they began communicating through comments and messages. Her views skyrocketed.

Meanwhile, in her own community, people began to share with Vater the peace and tranquility her garden brought them. Families stopped by her house to take Easter pics with her tulip spring show on display as the background. An elderly lady moving into a nursing home collected pictures she had taken over the years to bring with her familiarity and beauty to her new home. Sharing her garden with her community benefited so many others through fundraisers, workshops, garden tours and great conversation.

As her voice in the local gardening world grew, so did the opportunities she encountered nationally. One of her early pivotal moments in 2017 was being approached at an event by a Southern Living Plant Collection representative to use her platforms to introduce their products. This testimonial advertising, now commonly referred to as brand ambassadors, proved beneficial to both parties and elevated her status in the garden education world. Great relationships were born with editors, product reps, social media followers and other media influencers.

In 2020, Vater expanded from representing other products to designing her own product line for QVC. 

Linda Vater

Growing an Audience

One of Vater’s most notable forms of gardening is topiary. Searching the Internet, topiary videos are synonymous the name Linda Vater. Recognizing this niche gardening skill, Laura LeBoutillier, the creator of GardenAnswer.com, reached out to collaborate on her expertise of the subject, which consequently helped grow the Linda Vater channel. 

On Vater’s channel, 22 videos educate viewers on the art form of topiary. Vater also has more than 150 videos on her “Gardening How To” playlist for every type of garden and season. She introduces actual plants, trees and shrubs you can acquire at your local garden centers and gives instructions on the logistics of planting and maintenance the specimen requires. 

Hooked by the gardening videos, her audience grew and became interested in all of Vater’s passions. Following her garden-inspired lifestyle is as intriguing as watching her garden grow, and she shares a well-rounded perspective on ways gardening can influence every part of your life. 

One YouTube segment that intrigues most of her audience is her talent and skills in thrifting. Vater always preaches “recycle, repurpose, reuse” in and out of the garden. She takes viewers with her to thrift shops and shares what she’ll buy and how she’ll use items in her own home or as gifts for others. She also shares her lists of products to never pass up visiting flea markets/thrift shops/resale stores and how to use them. Videos also include staging and rearranging thrifted items as tablescapes and decor for her home and garden. 

Tours of others’ homes and gardens are an essential part of her show as well. She takes viewers through neighbors’ and friends’ gardens and homes showcasing several other styles she finds interesting and noteworthy. Educating her audience on different styles is a great strategy to expand content and further entertain viewers outside of her own techniques and style.

Her fans also love to watch her cooking segments. Sharing how to use fresh vegetables from the garden is another way she emphasizes her garden inspired life. Unlike formal cooking shows, she takes her very casual approach of talking through old memories and food favorites for her and “hubs” (as she commonly refers to her husband). Being inside her home and watching her cook recipes she’s very familiar with deepens the relationship she is creating with her viewers. 

In The Elegant & Edible Garden, Vater lists ways to host others for garden tours and garden parties of every season. Ideas include inviting a first-grade class to make Mother’s Day baskets in the spring, Wimbledon-themed breakfasts in the summer, apple-tasting parties in the fall and winter craft parties. Her videos reflect hosting and preparing for parties. She encourages readers and viewers to share their gardens because she realized what power a garden could really engender once she started sharing it with others. 

Linda Vater

Bountiful Harvest

What is this garden guru’s secret sauce? What is the intangible ingredient that really turned her hobby garden life into a national success? Vater believes it is genuinely loving people as much as she loves gardening. 

“Every encounter I make becomes a relationship,” she says. Her southern hospitality exudes whether she’s welcoming viewers, friends and business partners into her garden and life. And truly, the camera hides nothing. Her beauty, charm and class are in every video, post, conversation and interview.

A mantra she holds true—”I find beauty in everything”—is refreshing and seemingly achievable to everyone she meets. 

A lovable character in her videos is her photographer, Stewart. The banter the two share is unique and realistic. They tease, distract, correct and encourage one another in such an endearing way. Stewart is not on camera, because he is usually holding the camera, but his personality definitely shines through. The interaction is a great sidebar to the conversations they are having and usually leads to a lot of comments from viewers in the comment section.

Another notable characteristic of Vater is her intoxicating rhetoric. She has always loved reading, and no doubt that hobby created a bank of descriptive, romantic, intelligent words. It’s an elevated use of the English language and is as full of class as her garden. Fans of hers feel at ease listening to her speak and reading her written works. “I love to weave words together like a tapestry,” she says. These tapestries paint pictures as beautiful as her actual garden. 

Vater’s toolbox of skills wasn’t a preset bundle of formally trained techniques. Rather, it’s collected from experiences she’s gathered along the way. Public speaking began with garden tours. Writing came from learning to think like an editor. Photography started with understanding lighting required to grow plants and snapping shots of her garden victories. 

“My best advice is to be mindful of what skills you are accumulating,” Vater says for anyone who is looking to find ways to profit from their hobby gardens. “Everything is content and has beauty to be revealed.” Revealing beauty and sharing it are two of her strategies for successfully collecting numbers of viewers and followers. 

What’s next for Linda Vater? “I’m ready for a new garden!” she says. She and her husband had been house shopping for a while when they recently came across a new cottage nearby, and she’s ready to start again. “It’s time for someone else to live in this house and make their own memories,” she says.

This next step will provide content for a new book she plans to write in the next year as well. Rest assured, her audience will live every detail with her through YouTube, Instagram and a future Linda Vater book as she embarks on a new garden and new adventure. 

Digital Agritourism

Linda Vater is a great example of digital agritourism. Hobby farmers, gardeners and ranchers have worked to develop and seek out money-making strategies through agritourism for years. Popular agritourism examples are pumpkin patches, tree farms, bed and breakfasts and farmers markets.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, agritourism has found a digital component. Visiting other people’s gardens, land and agricultural setup though social media is becoming mainstream and lucrative. Linda Vater’s channel is a great example of finding ways to further hobby farming and turn a profit. Learn more about Linda Vater by visiting her website. 

This article appeared in Hobby Farm Home, a 2024 specialty publication produced by the editors and writers of Hobby Farms magazine. In addition to this piece, Hobby Farm Home includes recipes, crafting projects, preservation tips and more. You can purchase this volume, Hobby Farms back issues as well as special editions such as Healing Herbs and  Goats 101 by following this link.

Categories
Animals Beginning Farmers Crops & Gardening Farm & Garden Poultry

Farming Brings Life Perspective At Palmz Family Farmette

Palmz Family Farmette
Palmz Family Farmette

“Farming is simply something that feels right—there is no other way I can explain it,” says Nicole Palmer, who heads up the Palmz Family Farmette in Long Island, New York.

After starting out with just a small flock of hens, Palmer added honey bees, bunnies, ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl and quail over time, along with constantly growing the garden. “I truly love everything about this lifestyle,” says Palmer. “This is what I am meant to do with my life.”

Taking a moment away from the farmette, we spoke to Palmer about growing cucamelons and becoming fascinated by quail. We also touched on how farming can change a person’s life perspective.

Farming Roots

“I guess you could say it is in my blood,” says Palmer when reflecting on how her farming journey began. “My family has been keeping backyard chickens for over 15 years. For a majority of that time, we kept a very small flock of three or four hens. Then, we stopped having a garden for a few years and were down to one hen.”

Palmer adds, “And just when you think the story would be over, that is when my story began. I talked about getting a few ducks and a larger flock of chickens. My very supportive boyfriend built me a larger chicken coop. As time went on, I got into breeding chickens, and I was fascinated by the genetics behind egg color and feather color.

“While I expanded my chickens, I created my garden.”

This Year’s Star Produce

When it comes to this year’s bounty from the garden, Palmer picks potatoes as a crop she’s particularly proud of. “Specifically the Adirondack Blue variety, but I also grew Yukon Gold and Red Norland,” she details. “It was my first year growing potatoes, and I got a pretty decent harvest.”

Moving over to the kitchen, Palmer suggests roasting potato slices with olive oil, pepper and rosemary salt as a favorite preparation.

Spotlight on Cucamelons!

The year 2023 was Palmer’s first growing adorably dinky cucamelons in the garden. “I saw them on a seed website and thought they were so cute, so figured I would give them a try,” she recalls.

“They are much more dainty than typical cucumber plants,” she continues. “They are more vine-like. They should definitely be grown on a trellis. I cannot imagine them doing well on the ground.”

Getting into the taste of cucamelons, Palmer says she often comes across the misconception that they’re sweeter than cucumbers. “It is quite the opposite,” she explains. “The cucamelons are actually a little more tart or sour in comparison to a cucumber, hence their other name Mexican Sour Gherkin. I personally really enjoy them. They are a perfect size to pop in your mouth for a snack.”

Becoming Fascinated by Quail

Quail are a key part of Palmz Family Farmette. Palmer says that she had long been fascinated by them. “They are the coolest and easiest birds to care for,” she says.

“Their little crows are adorable. I think they deserve more recognition. They are very proficient egg layers, their eggs are very nutritious and they make a great option for people who are limited on space.”

Farming for Perspective

Relaying the joys of running a family farm, Palmer says moments like eating a home-grown and home-cooked meal with her family, tasting a spoonful of honey from her bees, and witnessing baby chicks hatch make it all worth the work and effort.

“I try not to take any aspect of this for granted, even the bad days,” she continues. “This farm has actually changed my perspective on life. A rainy day is no longer gloomy—it is just what the garden needs and a glorious day for ducks. The opportunity to work hard while following my destiny and dreams is beyond rewarding.”

Follow Palmz Family Farmette on Instagram.

Categories
Animals Farm & Garden Large Animals Poultry

Considering Animals? Check Out These 9 Livestock Lessons

livestock lessons sheep
nskyr2/Adobe Stock

Raising livestock is not a perfect science! If you’ve got questions, search around the site and select the animal you need help with, from cattle to pigs to sheep to exotics—we’ve got solutions. Oh, and chickens? We’ve got tons on information chickens!

Here are some bits of advice to get you started. 

Security Advisers

We’re all familiar with livestock guardian dogs and even livestock guardian donkeys. But a llama can also be an effective livestock guardian. 

Double Your Pleasure

Dual-purpose livestock breeds make economic sense for small farms. If you choose a breed that provides milk and meat or wool and meat, it maximizes the benefits in a tangible way.

Get Your Goat

Goats are incredibly smart and will discover patterns and routines you didn’t even know about. Enjoy their antics but try not to be outsmarted.

Study Rare Breeds

If you’re interested in unusual breeds and are interested in helping to preserve old livestock lines, consider raising a heritage breed. There are hundreds of rare livestock breeds with amazing traits just waiting to be discovered by you. 

Water On Hand

Have extra 5-gallon jugs or water buckets filled prior to a storm in case of a power outage. You might also fill any troughs if there is time before the storm.

Install the Right Fence

Not all fencing is created equal, and not all fencing types are ideal for every species. Carefully research the right fencing type for the right animal.

 Always double-check to make sure all gates are latched. 

Explore Oxen

Some folks love alternative livestock, and while cattle aren’t exactly unusual, using a trained cow or steer (the definition of oxen) for draft work is a fascinating alternative to machines for some jobs. 

Heated Water Buckets

All sorts of passive methods can be used to keep livestock water from freezing, but when it’s truly cold out, electrically heated buckets are worthwhile. They’re safe, low wattage (only about 120 or less) and make winter farm life so much simpler—no more ice!

Use Fly Strips

There is no shortage of fly control products for the farm. But inside the barn it’s hard to beat the convenience and effectiveness of fly strips—simple fly paper rolls that unravel and hang from the barn ceiling.

No mess, no toxins. They just work.

This article was written by Daniel Johnson, Samantha Johnson and J. Keeler Johnson and originally appeared in the July/August 2023 issue of Hobby Farms magazine.

Categories
Animals Chickens 101 Farm & Garden Poultry

Let’s Celebrate Chickens On National Chicken Month!

National Chicken Month
peopleimages.com/Adobe Stock

Happy National Chicken Month, everyone! You still have a day to prepare for this annual celebration, but don’t delay. Come September 1, you’ve got a month of pampering your poultry ahead of you. You may not have to go as far as filing and polishing all your hens’ nails—although more power to you if you do. But a sprinkle of fresh herbs in the coop litter, a sprinkle of scratch grains in the run, and your flock will consider itself celebrated.

Of course, if National Chicken Month means weeks of trying new chicken recipes, there are plenty of options for you on AllRecipes, Epicurious and Food Network. However you honor your flock—in the yard or on the table—don’t let this September slip by without celebrating your birds.  

 “Let’s go, chicken!” —Chef Jeff Mauro 

 Schedule too swamped to celebrate National Chicken Month? Not to worry. There’s an array of other red-letter poultry days to mark on your calendars. Here are four of them. 

National Snuggle a Chicken Day 

Celebrated every January 8, National Snuggle a Chicken Day  gives flock owners the green light to hug, cuddle and muzzle their feathered friends. Just make sure to thoroughly wash your hands with antibiotic soap after handling your chick or chicken to prevent the possible spread of Salmonella.  

National Poultry Day 

Why be exclusive? On National Poultry Day, celebrated yearly on March 19, all domestic fowl get fêted. This may just be the perfect time of year to consider expanding your flock.

Turkey poults and guinea keets are perfect for poultry owners with room for roaming, while quail chicks are ideal for urban and suburban keepers with limited space. Ducklings and goslings are adorable babies but, as waterfowl, have needs beyond those of land fowl. Whichever species sparks your interest, do a little research, check with local breeders, and just maybe celebrate National Poultry Day with a few new birds.  

National Egg Day 

The incredible, edible egg has a special date all of its own. Every June 3, all of America expresses its love for this breakfast favorite by dishing it up fried, scrambled, hard- and soft-boiled, in omelettes, in soufflés and so much more.

Elevate any egg recipe with your farm-fresh eggs. Their flavorful, golden-orange yolks add a richness and depth of flavor that storeboughts simply can’t match. What better way to celebrate National Egg Day? 

National Turkey Lovers Day 

Get ready for a double celebration! The third Sunday in June isn’t only Father’s Day. It’s also National Turkey Lovers Day! While it’s uncertain how Dad ended up teamed up with a turkey, both can definitely share the day.

Start an annual tradition of taking a photo of Dad posing with one of your turkey hens, toms or poults. Visit a petting zoo that keeps turkeys if you don’t keep them yourself.  Or show your turkey love the culinary way with a special Father’s Day turkey dinner.  

 

 

Categories
Crops & Gardening Equipment Farm & Garden Homesteading

Charge Your Garden Tools With Solar Power

solar garden tools
images by Susan Brackney

Ongoing improvements to batteries have helped increasing numbers of gardeners to cut the cord—and the need for gasoline—for their string trimmers, edgers, lawn mowers and other gadgets. These days, in fact, you can even find heavy-duty equipment such as tillers, chainsaws and wood chippers powered with long-lasting rechargeable batteries.

Maybe you’ve already replaced some of your older gas-powered tools with electric or fully rechargeable, cordless models. To save money in the long-run—and go even greener—consider setting up your very own portable, solar charging station for your garden tools.

“In terms of having an off-grid charging center for your tools, that’s a relatively simple setup,” says EcoFlow’s Ryan Oliver, head of communications for North America. Established in 2017, EcoFlow specializes in portable power and renewable energy. “You can use a solar panel directly connected into a large storage battery and then with that large battery, the power station would be charging your individual [tool] batteries,” he says. “There’s enough capacity in these portable solar panels these days combined with putting that into a battery that you’re going be able to power a lot of outdoor tools.”

Small-Scale Solar

In some areas, professional landscapers have already begun transitioning to portable, solar systems to charge their garden tools. “There are rules being set up in local jurisdictions around the country banning the use of gas-powered, outdoor tools,” Oliver says. “So, you’re going to see landscapers actually installing solar arrays on their vans and using that to charge a battery system, which is ultimately going to charge the individual batteries that their tools require.”

Unlike large, permanent solar panels connected to the established electrical grid, portable solar panels and their connected battery packs are much smaller, less expensive, and can be operated independently from the electrical grid for ease of charging things like garden tools on the go. “A lot of our stuff is used by campers and outdoor enthusiasts,” Oliver says. 

While older panels are large and rigid, many new solar panels are designed to be more mobile. Some even collapse for extra portability. Nevertheless, when establishing your a solar charging station for you garden tools, Oliver says, “The idea is you would keep your solar panel and the portable power station in an area where it’s not going to move much.” 

That could mean mounting the solar panel outdoors and sheltering the connected battery pack inside a nearby barn, garage or greenhouse. (Incidentally, the battery pack itself doesn’t take up much space. A 250-watt, portable battery pack is typically about half the size of a toaster. A much larger, 3,600-watt battery is roughly the size of a desktop computer.)

solar garden tools

Components & Costs

If you’re the DIY type, you can choose the individual components, including a solar panel, battery pack and inverter on your own. (An inverter is a piece of equipment that converts the direct current power coming from the solar panel into the alternating current power used by the various devices you charge via the battery pack.)

For their part, solar panel costs can vary widely, depending on factors such as physical size, capacity, portability and more. “You’re typically looking at, say, $300 for a 110-watt, which may be enough if you’re not using the battery every day,” Oliver says. “On the higher end, you’re looking at $1,000 for a rigid solar panel…. That’s a 400-watt system.”

“In terms of [battery] prices, the industry average is about a buck a watt,” Oliver says. That said, not all batteries are created equal. Not to be confused with lithium-ion batteries, the newer lithium iron phosphate batteries can last three to five times longer than older battery technology. 

“If you are using lithium iron phosphate, you can actually get several thousand discharges,” Oliver says. “Older lithium-ion batteries … tend to get around 400 to 600 discharges over the lifespan of the battery before the battery can no longer charge to 80 percent.

“There’s also an advantage for lithium iron phosphate being able to charge faster. These large batteries can charge in under two hours. With the traditional material, you may be looking at eight hours for a charge.”

If you prefer a more plug-and-play option over hand-picking your own components, prepackaged, portable solar-powered charging stations with built-in inverters are also available. 

“A beginner 200-watt ‘suitcase system’ with 100-amp-hour battery and 700-watt inverter begins at under $1,000, pretax,” says Yi Li, founder and CEO of Renogy. Around since 2010, Renogy sells off-grid solar energy components and systems. “A portable, all-in-one unit with 200-watt solar panels begins at roughly $1,500,” Li says. 

Assessing Your Needs

Just how large should your solar panel-and-battery system be for your garden tools? To be able to answer that question, Li says, “Users should become more aware of how and when they use electricity and become comfortable using watts and watt-hours.” 

You can boost your watt-hour awareness by taking stock of the various gadgets you plan to operate. “You would want to calculate how many [individual tool] batteries you have to charge for your tools and what size batteries [they require],” Oliver says.

You can determine the watt-hours an individual tool will use by multiplying its volts and amps. “Say a typical battery in a lawn mower … is a 7.5-amp battery and 56 volts,” Oliver says. “So, it’d be 56 times 7.5. If you want to charge just that battery alone, you’d be looking at 420 watts.”

Likewise, you should think about how often you’ll need to access your battery power. For instance, if you only plan to use the system to recharge the batteries for a few small tools that you use once or twice a week, you can likely get by with one of the smallest off-grid systems available. 

But how about something larger like that cordless lawn mower? If you have a large area to mow, if you mow really frequently, or if you have multiple mowers, you might need a battery with a much greater capacity. “If you’re having several tools that you’re trying to charge, you would probably want something more in the 2,000- to 3,600-watt range,” Oliver says.

When calculating your battery capacity needs, don’t forget about any new gadgets you may have your eye on. “There may be additional tools you’re planning to buy in the future that you should factor into your calculations, so you’re not buying one battery that’s too small for your use case,” he says.

A Place in the Sun

You’ll also need to consider the amount of sun your specific location gets. A resident of sunny Phoenix may be able to store power more often and more consistently than residents of cloudier spots such as Seattle or Portland. That means the Phoenix resident might be able to get by with a less expensive, smaller capacity battery.

“Going off-grid solar means electricity is only created when the sun is shining, so users will likely need to depend on their stored energy (watt-hours) in batteries,” Li says. “In addition, it is important to consider whether you will expand later or just use the bare minimum.”

Failure to do so could necessitate upgrading to a bigger battery later—or buying additional batteries and “daisy-chaining” these as needed. “The nice thing about our portable or DIY off-grid systems is that they can be expandable whether it’s buying another unit or adding more batteries and solar panels,” Li says. “However, users should avoid expanding with dissimilar panels or batteries.”

In other words: Link only the same types of solar panels and only the same kinds of batteries. “If you expand your battery bank, it must be the same battery type and voltage,” Li says. “While on the subject of battery expansion, if you know you’re going to expand down the line, it’s best to get it done earlier [rather] than later.” 

That’s because these specialized batteries naturally deteriorate over time. As such, you’ll get more bang for your buck by creating a bank of solar-fed batteries that are roughly the same age.

Of course, battery capacity is only half of the equation. “When you’re using these batteries with a solar panel, you’d want to be looking at the wattage that the solar panel puts out,” Oliver says. “You can kind of make a calculation about how much sun you get. Say you have a 200-watt panel and you’re like, ‘Well, I get an average eight good hours of sun.’ That’s putting out 1,600 watts of charge, if you’re actually getting full sun the entire time.”

Helpful Hints

No matter what type or size of solar-powered system you choose, “Keep batteries stored in relatively cool environments or at least away from direct sun or rain,” Li says. 

And to maximize solar panel efficiency when charging garden tools, make sure its surface is as clean as possible. That includes clearing it of any snowfall during winter. Li suggests you install your solar panels in open spaces, away from shade or trees and tilt them towards the sun. 

“If there is a way to have the panels move a little bit on your system, that’s actually helpful,” Oliver says. To soak up as many rays as possible, consider installing your solar panel on a swiveling post. 

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2023 issue of Hobby Farms magazine.