F.A. Farm

This morning I dug up some Bintjes for breakfast. Bintjes are a Dutch yellow potato that is fast growing (65 day) and high yielding. They also have a buttery taste that make German Butterballs look like German Margarineballs. My potatoes also have a "complete" taste, because of my focus on adding trace minerals to my fertilizer mix. When I boil potatoes, I start with cold, unsalted water and when they are done, they don't even need salt. The key is to add both greensand and langbeinite (sul-po-mag) to my fertilizer mix. Both are ancient seabed deposits. The greensand comes from New Jersey and the langbeinite from Utah. They both add trace minerals in addition to being a potassium source.

Trace minerals are very important. They not only allow the plants to utililze the N-P-K more effectively, they also help round out the nutritional needs of the plant, so their immune systems can fight off pests. It works the same for us humans. Since I feed my soil trace minerals in addition to N-P-K and lime, the plants I eat out of that soil transport complete nutrients to my own immune system and other bodily functions. There is a noticeable step-up in the taste of the potatoes I grow now and those I grew in the past and I am convinced a big factor is my emphasis on trace minerals.

Back in my youth, we always had a salt block out for the cows, and a red trace mineral salt block at that. Many of the old skinflint farmers in the area would only buy the white salt blocks, which were just salt and cost slightly less. Norwegian-American farmers are known for their penny-pinching and their distrust of something new. Let's see - I can spend a tiny bit more at the feed store so my cows can utilize their feed more efficiently and give more milk - OR I can keep the extra few pennies and buy another pinch of snoose and spit the extra nutrition out the window at the neighbor's dog that always runs after my truck. Uff da, what a quandry!