Description

Stories in this issue: 

• Cattle Improvement in Haiti: The Haitian farmers that Joe has come to know have wonderful knowledge and practices that work for their difficult environment (if they get rain). However, there needs to be improvement in the diary stock to best suit their conditions. 
• No Till Garlic: Eric Nordell explains the evolution of his current no-till garlic process.  He has introduced many changes in cover crop, timing, mulching, and methods.  Eric includes many well captioned photos to illustrate the process.
• Creating Pollinator Habitat: Parasites, pesticides, pathogens, climate, and more have reduced the number of pollinators in the world.  Hazel Freeman tells us all about this but goes on to let us know what we can do to help provide our own habitat. She tells us where, what and when to plant for pollinators.
• Gardening with Oxen: Kevin Cunningham uses an oxen team to do the work around his California vegetable farm.  He shares his insights on how he utilizes his oxen, draft powered equipment, how he plans the garden space and more.
• Brabant Field Day Set for September 17: North American Brabant Association’s Annual Field Day is scheduled to take place in Wisconsin. Come out to see demonstrations on logging, driving, horse-drawn equipment, manure spreading, chopping silage and many beautiful draft animals!
• Draft Animals Can Do the Job: Taylor Johnson loves to use his single horse for unique and difficult jobs that no one else seems to be able to do.  In this article he features cleaning up a river area near a school after a nasty storm.  He shows how he uses his own ingenuity and his horse’s agility to get this job done.
• Barring off Corn: Terry Scoggins explains, in detail with many photos, “barring-off.”  This method of preparing and planting your field was passed down to him by a friend who has been farming since the ‘20s and ‘30s.
• Protect Your Home from Wildfires: Dean Landers provides some good advice for protecting our homes from the dangers of wildfires.  Both prevention advice as well as his high volume hose system are discussed.
• Grandpa Tiny’s Farm: The German settled town of Frankenmuth, Mich. is home to an historic mixed power petting farm.  Ed Sergent and his wife have lovingly run the farm for the past 17 years and are looking for someone to take over this wonderful place.
• Homegrown Lunchmeat Part 2: Ralph Rice, continues teaching us how to preserve our own meats at home.  This installment centers on making large sausages – oh, and he makes them sound so good
• Waste Not, Want Not: A father/daughter team has begun a business composting kitchen waste using an acidic anaerobic fermentation process called bokashi.
• Plan Ahead for Market Garden Success: Erika Marczak tells us how to plan our vegetable garden from the start. How to lay out beds, head lands, harvest lanes, row spacing, and equipment purchases.
• Kenyon Parade: Many photos of the 37th annual Kenyon, Minnesota Carriage and Cutter parade are showcased here.  There were 43 entries including a single Roman style rider, a 5-year-old teamster, many wagons, minis, mules, and more.