As you all know, Saturday we went
to a Chicken Swap. What I didn’t mention was one pretty stupid thing
that happened while we were there. Included in this Swap were all
livestock..bunnies, goats, etc. One of the “so called” goat farmers in
our area brought 2 of his goats to sell. The way he transported them was
a recipe for disaster to begin with and if you can image this..that is
exactly what happened.

Maybe some of you all have done
this before but I found it to be terrible. He had strapped those poor
goats into a flat equipment trailer (you know the kind the guys use to
transport lawnmowers) with equipment straps. He took them out on a 55
mph 4 lane road to the Swap. Now if you can image this..one of them got
loose, jumped out of the trailer and started the journey down the middle
of on-coming traffic. The cops were there trying to stop traffic, the
poor goat was running like hell and then it beared off into the woods.
Now I happen to know this farmer (I’m sorry) and I know that his farm is
about 5 miles from where the Swap took  place. He told the cops “don’t
worry, he’s headed in the direction of home so he’ll get back there
soon”. While all of the “whoha” was going on the other poor goat stayed
strapped in the equipment trailer for a couple of hours in the pouring
rain. 

I know I’m probably nuts, but to
begin with I would never traumatize any animal like this..if you don’t
have a livestock trailer, or sides on your pick up or a kennel
carrier..buy one, build one or leave your poor animals at the farm. This
guy not only put the animals life at risk but several hundred drivers
and their passengers as well. As for the goat finding his way home! I
have goats and yes I do find them to have some intelligence but if I
took any of them 5 miles from here and dropped them, I would never
expect to see them again..unless one of our neighbors found them and
brought them back.

It just seems strange that the
term “livestock” must mean trash to many people. I know that the way we
coddle and baby our livestock is not really normal but I look at what I
get in return for the way we take care of them..gorgeous fleeces from
the sheep, goats, and llama, wonderful goats milk, fairly tame animals,
which helps at shearing and milking time, minimal to no vet bills, just
to name a few advantages. I am by no means saying that what we do is
perfect nor that this is how everyone should treat their animals but
come on, a little common sense is really worth it’s weight in gold!

Don’t know if the goat “found”
it’s way home or not. Is it so hard to think about what you’re doing
before you do it? It must be.

A fine wine of wind and dusty settle on my tongue, sting my eyes and lay waste to all things tender and green. I weep. This is the deserts’ spring. The songs of rains, lions and lambs are far off tune here, mocking and un-real. As I stand angled to the relentless breath of this western wind I recall adages of youth, involving peeing and spitting but here now it is seed and mulch. Thrown with the wind to be spread in perfect patterns beyond my flesh and bone abilities. I watch as fine dust settles on leaves, piles beneath those hardy winter greens. There must be some mystery of restoration, recycling, rejuvenation occurring, binding the seeds into the cracks building layers of nutrients and insulation. But my eyes burn and this angle is hard to hold. I hum some forgotten melody and think of sandpaper as I swallow craving some cool water.

(The band gets a gig in Pasco?)?

The halibut season is in full swing!  Marinate wild halibut in lime ginger and garlic; reduce the remaining marinade to a nice glaze after cooking the fish and everyone at the table will love you.  Click for recipe and video here.

Here’s what one of our viewers had to say: I made the Caribbean Lime Halibut. It was amazing…absolutely restaurant worthy! I wish I had leftovers for today! ?Mindy Elbaum.

I flew through house cleaning, laundry, and starting pulled pork for dinner just so I can get through this morning’s canning a little earlier (I’m making Pear Honey) and get to my favorite springtime chore: shopping for my canning garden!

Of course I have about 10 varieties of tomatoes.  I like to mix romas (for texture) and heirlooms (for flavor) when I make salsas and sauces.  But it’s the herbs that I really get excited about buying.  I like several varieties of basil and cilantro to flavor my tomatoes. 

I’m also going to get several varieties of scented geraniums.  I love rose geranium jelly, and the other flavors like nutmeg and cinnamon are fun to experiment with, too. 

If you want to play with aromatics when you make jam, just tie a clean handful in a bit of muslin, and let it cook with your jams.  It won’t hurt it – just flavor it a bit.  And you can keep your sugar and lemon juice (or citric acie) ratio just as you always do. Lemon thyme is a gentle way of adding a soft citrus scent to light butters like pear and peach.

I like to bottle infused vinegars, too.  So I’ll be shopping for staples like rosemary, sage, dill, parsley, and chives.  I tilled my garden last week, and the earth is perfect for planting today!  So excited!!!

We all talk about it. A lot.

They all talk about it. A lot.

Time
to focus the attention on the problem. I want opinions.

I want to
know what a good cross section of people think on this. I bet it’s real
interesting. And I will let you know the results.

Please indicate
to me some idea of who you are. Health official, University researcher,
farmer, consumer, activist, nutcase, oddball, weirdo, fascist, idiot
(okay I’m getting a little off track here and amusing myself)

But
really. What is your source of inspiration for your opinion.

Rank
for me your idea of what the largest to smallest risk factors in raw
milk are. For those of you that think there are no risks, well, you are
fools. For those of you that just say don’t drink raw milk, the same.
Fools. You’ve got an opinion – risk factors that make the possibility of
raw milk making people sick – rank them. Start with 1 as the highest
risk, and end with 5.

Five reasons is all; anyone’s that thought
about this at all ought be able to come up with five risk factors.

Drop
me an email at scott@trautman.net

Please include "Raw Milk Risk
Factors" in the subject line. Don’t bother sending me a bunch of
garbage. Don’t go on forever about it. List out the risk factors, and if
you feel like you need to explain it, then great, but no War&Peace
epic. And indicate your place in all this, what perspective you have.

Inquiring
minds want to know.

Scott Trautman – despite the very best
efforts of the State of Wisconsin – STILL proud Wisconsin Dairyman

I was wondering what style of gardening you use?

This year with my busy summer its all container gardening, straw bale gardening, or a raised bed mulch garden. I need a no fuss – no weeding garden this year.

I also have heard my summer will be cool so I plan to grow under glass in a greenhouse this summer. With raised beds for my other garden areas I can also cover them if the nights are cool.

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It’s been over two weeks since I last blogged. The last two weeks have been good.  Pest UPDATE  Re: Aphid in Fava Beans, Lacewing releases were very successful. Aphid population is at a minimum, Lacewings are reproducing and ladybug population is increasing. Love those Beneficial Insects. Along the Favas I have a Mustard that provides a excellent habitat for beneficial bugs. Works great. No worms spotted in Lettuce, Arugula, Mustards, Chards, Cabbage, Raddichio,. Few grasshoppers showing up in the Sage beds, need to talk to the guys at Rincon-Vitovia to see what they have for that. Rincon Vitova is the Nations oldest  insectary in the U.S. They are located in Ventura Ca. Great company to work with. We’ve transplanted Peppers, Tomatoes, Eggplant, Basil, And getting more ground ready this week for more Tomatoes, Beets,Arugula  and Basil to go in. Also planted were Watermelons and Cantelopes,  Yellow Squash, Zuchini Squash, Pickling Cukes and Armenian Cutahs. We are still harvesting Favas, Sage, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, French Tarragon, Rosemary, and Chives. In the Herb Beds we allowed our specialty Basil’s, Lime Basil, Lemon Basil, Cinnamon Basil, to go to seed at the end of the season last year. Since these are OP’s they are coming back true this season. Which means they are going to grow as a true crop. When you farm with HYBRID seed they usually don;t come back as true. You usually wind up with a mutant crop. Sort of like Frankenstein stuff. That’s it for now. Thank you for taking Your time to read our farm Blog. Mike and Sandie Smith Farms

The Mystery of the Missing Eggs

 Yes, I said over the "rainbows".  Saturday was a very unsettled day around here as far as the weather was concerned.  The weather folks were predicting strong storms, lots of rain, thunder, lightning, hail….so we were all "on our toes" so to speak, and spent most of the afternoon battening down the hatches. 

The rain came, the wind blew, but we missed the bullet on that one, thank goodness.  I know that counties west of us were hit by tornadoes and strong storms, but we just got some rain and a little wind, and about 7:00 that evening the sky began to look a lot lighter so I went out to see what was going on, and I saw not one, but two rainbows!  That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a double header, so I grabbed the camera to share the view.  It was much better in person, though

Hello all  . ..   due the beautiful weather here, I have an early batch of my Grandmom’s Queen of Hungary’s Water is back in stock!!!

This remedy takes quite a while to make and the batch turned out to be absolutley wonderful!!

May all of your senses and skin enjoy!!

Here is a link – http://www.localharvest.org/grandmoms-queen-of-hungarys-water-C4528

Peaceful Blessings !