Old Dogs, Old Tricks
Edmund went away for a long weekend, which meant I was on livestock duty and also that the animals weren’t on their best behavior. On Friday I was drinking my...
Garth Brown |
Blog
Old Dogs, Old Tricks
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Good Eggs
I love watching a chicken peck around. While a cow or sheep methodically vacuums up mouthful after mouthful of grass, a hen operates surgically. Her expressionless round eye fixes on...
Garth Brown |
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Chickens Arrive
One of the joys of farming is coming to fully appreciate the differences between the various species of livestock. Cows are incredibly hardy, requiring nothing but decent grass, clean water,...
Garth Brown |
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Kingfisher
There was a small brook I’d pass when I rode my bike to school, and often there would be a belted kingfisher perched on the telephone wire above it. Once...
Garth Brown |
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A Hard Spring
After an average winter, it’s been a hard spring. The thermometer read ten this morning, and snow flurry dusted the four inches that fell yesterday. The forecast of actual warmth...
Garth Brown |
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Beef Check-Off Problems
In 1986 congress created the commodity check-off program. The act compels producers of commodities to pay into a common pool, which is then used to “promote” said commodity. Many foods...
Garth Brown |
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A Bit About Biochar
Over the past eight years interest in biochar has been growing, but it is still a relative unknown outside of certain academic and agricultural circles. The most basic confusion surrounds...
Garth Brown |
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The Death of Farms and Farmers
New York state route 51 cuts through a wedge of rolling farmland bounded by the Catskills to the southeast, the Mohawk river valley to the north, and the Finger Lakes...
Garth Brown |
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Quaking Aspen
Over the last year I've developed a new found respect for Quaking Aspens (in the local vernacular, "Popple", which I suppose is an adjustment of another common name, "Poplar"). We...
Garth Brown |
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Is There a Perfect Diet?
Think of something you are sure is true. There are obvious, accepted facts, like the earth’s orbit of the sun, and there are more complicated matters that have an emotional...
Garth Brown |
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What is Nutrient Dense Food?
More and more farms, food purveyors, and online health advice dispensers are promoting nutrient dense foods. This sounds pretty good - after all, you don’t want to be stuck eating...
Garth Brown |
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The Roots of Exclusion
This is the second part of a series I am writing about land ethics, agrarianism, and how we should think about the places we live. You can read part one...
Garth Brown |
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Piggies
It's been a while since I wrote about our pigs. Each year we've had pigs we do a little better at getting a set-up that works well for all the...
Garth Brown |
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What is Agrarianism?
This is the first part of a series I am writing about land ethics, Agrarianism, and how we should think about the places we live. -Garth The people who live...
Garth Brown |
