Miolea Organic Farm

We are a humane farm, which means we treat our animals with kindness and care and that extends to their own community.  We think there should be peace and harmony in the flocks.  They all grew up together; they are in the same pasture together and roost in the same houses together.  We have them living in plenty of space, more than four square feet per bird when housed and more than double that when out doors.  We do keep them in moveable fencing to keep predators out and them safe.  They have plenty of access to food and water and we provide shade during the hottest parts of the season.

 Everything we've read points to management if there is an issue, like excessive pecking can be caused by competition, due to not enough access to food, water or space; soft egg shells indicates there is a calcium deficiency in the food source, like we are not getting the feed mix right; and too cold or too hot and egg production drops and so on.  Fortunately, the problems we do create we find quickly and fix, but what we read was right.  Most problems we've had with them could be traced back to our management or lack of attention.  You look for consistency in all facets of their existence.  If anything is inconsistent it usually is the start of a problem.

Every so often, one chicken will start pecking on another, it is their nature.  There is a pecking order but we discourage this behavior from the time they are chicks; we do not de-beak because that's cruel and it works against the chicken and the goals of raising the chicks.  A de-beaked bird will spend more energy eating and wasting food than a bird with a full beak, and that energy could be going toward laying eggs or gaining weight.  We don't clip their wings either; we let them fly as much as they can.  Once they get to a certain weight their wings can't sustain them in flight but they try to fly just the same and it’s a fun thing to watch when they all get going.

How we deal with pecking and rough housing is to yell.  This startles all of them but it’s directed at the antagonist which usually gets her attention and given the attention span of a chicken it is long enough for the tormented one to get away.  Seldom is there a prolonged problem.  I yell" HEY," usually followed by "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" with a loud voice, deep timber and tone.  They hear the volume and tone and that gets their attention.  They stop briefly enough and look and forget what they were doing and go on to something else. 

When the latest flock was put on pasture we put up a fence to keep them in and safe.  At one point I was working near the flock on the outside of the fence, and I turned around to see that a chiken had come through the fence and was pecking at the grass.  I yelled, the bird looked up did a u-turn and went right back in through the fence.  That’s what I wanted it to do but never in my wildest thought did I expect it.  But it did.  

My neighbors on the other hand just hear me yelling, not knowing what I'm yelling at or why but they too hear the volume and tone.  It doesn't help that we are in a valley and there is an echo.  I can't help but think they must be thinking "organic farming must make you an angry person."

 

 In order to raise organic chickens and eggs you need to take possession of the chick by the time they are one day old.  They can be inoculated on day one but no anti-biotic after that, if they do get sick you must give them what is needed to keep them alive.  The dilemma is if the bird does truly need an anti-biotic it should get it or be culled (another one of those jargon words).  If you chose the former the Organic rules would prohibit you from then marketing the meat or eggs as organic.  If there seems to be a paradox it’s not really.   

We are a humane farm, no cages, plenty of space per bird, they feed on organic grasses, legumes and get fed organic feed, along with organic scraps we pull out of the garden, like strawberries, kale, collards, tomatoes just about everything we pull out of the garden they get some, especially the bug infested fruit. 

At first baby chicks are susceptible to Coccidiosis which they eventually develop immunity for but until that happens you are left with one choice (if you are organic) and that is to keep their bedding, food and water free of fecal matter.  Up to three weeks old they are prone to get it and if that happens you either cull it or treat it.  So far we have raised three groups of day olds and we have been lucky enough not to have to make that choice.  Being a humane farm our answer is going to be treat it and keep it in a non-certified group, we already have what I call tenants, layers that are not laying but are just living with the group.  Traditional practices would be to cull the non-layers but we haven't done that.  Actually of all the layers we've raised all but one lay.  Industry wide the percentage is seventy-five to eighty percent.  We'll have to see what the rate will be with the 25 new Rhode Island Reds.

It is not easy protecting baby chicks from themselves.  You think you got the water clean and setup so they can't perch and drop leavings, but they must be acrobats, it defies logic how they dirty their water and food and with such gusto.  Grant it, all they have to do is run around, grow out of their fur and sprout wings.  The first week all they do is eat and sleep under the light moving very little; cleaning up isn't too hard.  Then they start to get energy and eat like teenagers and the fur is starting to fly and they are finding more and more ways to go to the bathroom from higher and higher heights.  I swear they've had competions with judges and score cards voting on who can go to the bathroom from on top of the water can. Because this was the biggest flock that we have had, we built what amounted to a big cardboard box in the garage.  It was too big so we divided it in thirds and opened more up as they grew.  The water and feed were hung from two by fours spanning the width of the box, low enough for them to get to and high enough so they couldn't perch.  At least that was the plan.  The sides of the box were only a foot and a half high a design that would allow us to easily bend down and scoop out liter and the foul food.  The chicks eventually learned to use the edges of the sides as a spring board to get to the top of the water bucket. 

Our water bucket has a flat lid, with drip nipples on the bottom that I installed.  The flat lid design is not how store bought waterers are designed, but I created one from a piece of scrap plywood and jig-sawed it to fit.  It covers the bucket, the lip of the bucket is under the rim of the plywood, there is one little tiny hole were the bucket handle meets the plywood.  Suffice it to say, version two of the watering bucket will have some kind of cheese cloth or other organic stopper.   

You go out and check on them four to five times a day, clean their leavings out of the water bucket, food and bedding and you make sure the light is not to hot or they are not too cold and you listen for sounds of happy chicks enjoying the day.  Happy chicks, it wasn't a concept that was on our radar until a graduate student from the University of West Virginia said something.  We are participating in a study on nematodes with UWV and they were at the farm taking soil samples and asking about our organic and agricultural practices.  The student made the comment, "You have some happy chickens," "thank you," I said but hadn't really thought of chickens that way.  But if you look at the picture on our webpage here on Local Harvest you'll see one of the more photogenic ones, it looks like she is smiling.

So you go out and listen, this happens every day until they start to grow feathers and beaks and longer legs and bigger feet, but you still listen no matter how old they get or where they are housed, you listen for and hopefully you hear the sound of happy chickens, but thats all in a days work.

 

Spring is coming to a fast end and the spring crops are starting to show their wear.  Strawberries came in and we started picking, they are big, sweet and very juicy.  From what we've read you can only harvest strawberries after the morning dew has dried.  If it rains that pushes off harvesting even further, unfortunately strawberries don't know to stop ripening.  Rain or shine if it is warm enough a strawberry is going to ripen.  

We've love strawberries and have grown them every year since we moved in.  Strawberries are one of those two year plants, like asparagus or grapes, meaning you put all this labor upfront but you don't get anything until the second or third year.  For grapes it is even longer and if you have as steep of a learning curve as we tend to have it might even be extended still.  I think our first bunch of edible grapes came in the sixth year, by that time we had experimented with every organic fungicide and insecticide there was.  We still don't produce a sell-able amount but I do get a few every time I mow the land around them.

It is May 30th, we hadn't picked strawberries for close to six days now and a neighbor came up to buy a couple quarts.  So we left him in the shade and went out to pick them.  What we found in the patch was a lot of black furry berries, huge ripe bug eaten berries and the bed seemed like a total waste.  Once again the learning curve bent around to slap us silly.  We picked the best we could and gave him a good two quarts, it took longer than expected but they were good strawberries and he didn't mind the wait.  After the days work ended we said goodbye to everyone and set about learning what we did wrong with the strawberries and what was that little black bug eating all the huge ripe fruit.  The nerve of the intruder, I mean there were plenty of small ripe berries, but no they'd eat some of the biggest and go onto the next one.  I can see them, setting up little daiquiri bars, inviting their friends and family over then for the heck of it they find a bigger sweeter berries and move to that one.

Well it didn't take long to find out what went wrong and why, first was water, second was air, third was lack of harvesting and fourth was not harvesting everything.  Strawberries like dry beds that are airy and allow rows to dry sooner than later. We had let them grow to close to each other over the years so that had to be fixed and we didn't pick the berries that were infested or blackened by fungus, I mean they are nasty looking and when you pick them they mush in your hand.  The sensation of slime and stickiness the berries had on my hands just gave me the willies.

Everything we read pointed to management of the crop and letting fruit sit on the ground.  When we had a smaller garden we didn't have these problems, the small size allowed for more air which kept things dry and there was less to pick, so everything did get picked.   We found that the strawberry sap beetle was the insect that was doing the greatest damage and the population was growing bigger because of the environment.

As we read we came upon a few sentences that made us cringe, and that was that the sap beetle will move to corn and tomatoes after the strawberry harvest.  Being one who lives for fresh tomatoes and corn I went into panic mode.  I swore as long as I was alive those bugs would not get to my corn and tomatoes.  The deer, rabbits, raccoons and groundhogs may but I was drawing the line at the strawberry sap beetle, it was on and I was ready to put a hurting on the population.

My wife was reading about how to manage the infestation of insects and molds; we were going to have to mow rows through the patch to get air circulating through and pick up every last nasty berry.  Talk about fruitless work, we pulled gallons and gallons of bad berries but on the bright side the chickens got to eat strawberry sap beetles and we started to make inroads and turn the beds around.   No word on the taste of the eggs but we are waiting.

After five years of growing on our own we decided that we needed help in order to get done all the tasks that needed to get accomplished (that's alot of words for "we needed help weeding").   So we thought now would be a good time to hire from within the community, which fit with our whole buy local mantra.

We sat down and developed our questionaire,.  My wife had questions she wanted to ask and I had come up with a couple basic ones myself.  Her questions were of the general quality, "what experience do you have?, can you work out in the heat?, have you worked on a farm?, etc".  My questions were simpler, but they struck at the heart of the matter and got down to the base of the job.  First question up was "Why in your right mind would you want this job?"  Second "Can you tell the difference between a weed and a plant?".  And lastly, "how many fingers and toes do you have and do you know how to keep them?'

I came up with the first one because that's the question I get asked most by family, friends and work collegues, it's a simple question but one that has alot of historical baggage attached.  Why do people look at farmers as having to be crazy when they try to grow food?  Is it because the work is so physically demanding, start up costs and failure rates so high, too much uncertainty with weather and governement regulations, too much information to learn, too many things that are out of your control?  Have we been brain washed into believing that only corporations are the ones capable of growing food for the consumer market or that you have to be born into a farming family in order to grow? 

 Farmers should be venerated and respected for their chosen profession, Like firemen or policemen a farm and its farmer is life supporting.  What if we relied on the industrial food complex  and concentrated animal farms for all of our food?  When they say our food source is safe do you believe them?  Should you, when every year food recalls are popping up more frequently than automobile recalls?   Why are we as consumers allowing this to happen?   There is nothing that beats freshness and food safety when it comes to local.  When is the last time you heard of a local butcher recalling products or local vegetables being recalled for e-coli contamination.  I know it can happen and chances are it will but I haven't heard of any yet and I know from our farm practices it is not.  The "buy local" movement is growing I think because of the recalls but also for freshness and taste-the taste of a ripe tomato or fresh ear of corn, or carrots so sweet and crunchy you eat them before you get home.

As I stated before we started growing becuase we followed in our fathers footsteps, except we widen the garden.  Like them it started with a single tomato plant, then pepper plants, then corn, peas, carrots, string beens, kale, lettuce, melons, blue berries, raspberries, apples and service berries and it keeps growing.  But, it started because our fathers planted and tended their own gardens.   Small as they were, the joy was the same, bringing vegetables in for the family.  That simple act had its own intrinsic reward ,the fact that you grew it made all the more significance.  At the time we were too small to realize it, but I think we are starting to get it.  I think we do but I feel that we are still missing something I don't know.

What I do know is that the people that come out to our farm respect what we are doing.   A lot of people know what we are sacrificing in order to grow organic food, baked goods, jams and eggs.  They thank us and tell us how much they love the eggs or how good our strawberries were this year.  They ask genuine questions about the operation and want to learn for their own gardens and for their own children and to get information from a trusted source.  They look at their local farmer as not only a source of fresh fruits and vegetables but as a knowledge resource for their own growing.  I love talking to our customers, I get to learn from them much more than one would think.

As for the people we hired, their answers to my questions made me see from a different perspective; not in that their answers were funny but they took the questions with a slight grin and launched into why farming wasn't that intimidating.  Yes, if we taught them they could tell the difference between weeds and plants and pretty much everyone wanted to keep all their fingers and toes.  They have turned out to be a great, eager and enlighting group to work with, they work hard, ask good questions and have been a wonderfull asset.  We couldn't have asked for better or expected anything as close.  Buy Local!!

We started selling vegetables professionally in 2003 at the fair grounds in our County.  In its day the farmers market was a focal point for the community, everything was there as the seasons permitted.  Butchers, bakers, and I bet candle stick makers, as well as, other crafts and household items.  Fast forward a couple hundred years and we arrived to a revitalization effort taking place, the fair ground management wanted to get the market up to the old day standards and we were happy and lucky to be on the ground floor and helping.

We had joined the Maryland Small Farm CO-OP after hearing a presentation of what the CO-OP was about and how it worked.  It was a group of farmers that tried to pull resources, and hold educational seminars that had experts in the field come in and talk about their specialty and actual farmers talked about the good and the not so good of what they do.  We learned that the CO-OP had a stall at the farmers market and they were looking for vegetable growers, They had some one selling Emu oil, hydroponics tomatoes, baked goods and dressed rabbits, but not enough variety of vegetable growers.

We jumped at the chance, you had to be set up by 9:00am and the day ended at 2:00pm on Saturdays.  Because we are so small we tended to harvest in the morning and take it for sale that day.  This meant revelry by 6:30; everything picked and loaded on the truck by 8:15 and on the road to the fair grounds by 8:25 and setup by 9:00a.m.   We did this for three years until late in 2005 growing season when my wife became ill.

For the first three years during the spring and summer we committed our time, efforts and energy towards growing vegetables, customers and our confidence in ourselves.  After hearing farmers speak about farmers markets I believe each and every one could write a book about the experiences attending these events and the people they meet.  I admit I have a ton to learn about growing, professional interaction with full-time farmers, customers and most important JARGON.

It was a hot Saturday in July a couple of years ago; we had just started selling our vegetables on a regular basis.  There were other vendors there as mentioned above.  A young mother comes by and sees the sign for dressed rabbits.  Honestly, I did not know at the time what that really meant, but I heard the mother say to her little curly headed blonde child that they were selling dressed rabbits, "Look honey they have dressed rabbits maybe we can get one in  sailor suit."  I heard the man politely tell the woman that she could buy a live rabbit but that it would not come with clothes.  Without having to ask I now realized that dressed is one of those euphemisms for "prepared" or "processed" or "ready-to-eat".  This made the innocent statement endearing, “Look honey they have dressed rabbits,"

Have you heard the institutional advertising that a major seed manufacturer is playing over the radio airwaves.  How farming uses so much water and that their hybrid seeds and geneticaly engineered seeds will use less water and yield more food and how this is gowing to help farmers world-wide.  If that is true why is this major seed manufacturer  suing farmers all over the world for patent infrigment. When pollen drift is as natural and enevitable as the sun rise.  Why did Mexico outlaw ALL GM (genetically modified) foods, especially corn?  Then only to discover that strains of GMO corn have made their  way into the corn fields of Mexican farmers from the US.  Technically the big seed company should sue Mexican farmers too.  Go to www.hulu.com and search for the "Future of Food".

It is a documentary on how genetic engineering was accomplished, how seeds are patented and then used as a big stick to force farmers into the herbicide ready club,  We are at a cross roads in our concepts of food, where you see grass root efforts like the slow food, buy local food,and support local farms movements.  We have groups like Ark of Taste which is a movement to bring back heritage breeds from pigs, cows and chickens to tomatoes and everything else that has been genetically modified to fit the needs of the profit motive not that of the taste of the consumer.  From my stand point it is not only the lack of nasty checmicals on the food, or pathogens that cause recall after recall year after year but it is also the simple fact of taste.  Taste, remember when tomatoes tasted like sweet, soft, watery spheres of nutrition.  I've learned that which does not kill you serves to make you stronger.  In an organic plant that is basically the same concept, when a plant is attacked by a predator the plant releases its own sent that attracks bugs that are predators of the bug eating its leaves.  This doesn't work with an infestation but if the plant survives it grows stronger and has a better taste then the a plant that was sprayed with synthetic fertilizers and insecticides.  This opinion is derrived from reading and my own observation not a result from an imperical study. 

I trust my taste buds, I know what is on my plants, I know that the more we allow large corporations to genetically modify food the greater suseptubility we all face for unknow genetic mutation and greater risk of bacterial out breaks caused by a lack of stronger antbiotics.  That is why more than ever supporting local farmers and growing organic is vital.

You have to research and read alot if you want to learn why your vegetables look the way the do or what is causing the little wholes in the leaves or why the leaves are curling or tomatoes have black spots on the bottom or you get the idea. 

It helps if you like puzzels because that in way is what it is, if you have no history behind you with growing large scale vegetable plots.  But this is what's so cool about the farming community, there are people out there with working knowledge and practical work experience, except for what we are doing.  We are not the only organic vegetable growers but in our neck of the woods there aren't alot of older more experienced organic vegetable growers.  In Maryland there is a large contingency of organic growers and like our own local farm community they are very gracious to spend time with you and answer your questions.  It seems like we all have this same idea of growing food that is healthy for us to grow and  more importantly for the long term healthy to eat. 

I find the people in the organic community and farming in general to be stewards of the soil, the water and the ecology in general.  I know there are folks out there that are the complete opposite, they have mono-culture farms that are detrimental to the environment and the water and the nieghborhood,  But I don't see organic folks like this, or those people that are using sustainable agricultural practises abusing the land and resources.  The people that are part of the sustainability movement are those people that are commited  as we are commited  to using ecological practises that mimic the poly-culture that mother earth provides and sustains.  We try our best to learn from the history of farming and mother nature to make sure what we do is not harmnful to us and the people that work here and food that we eat and sell.  George Santayana said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  When it comes to growing history is the greatest lesson.

Knowledge is Scary or how we got started in organic farming.[Read More]