For those who are interested, here’s the full transcript of the morning half of the NAIS listening session I went to in Harrisburg in May. There’s a lot there to read–54 pages. I don’t intend to wade through it all myself. (I heard it the first time, after all.) I would encourage you, though, to search (Ctrl + F) Daryl Dickinson. His comments were the highlight of the day for me.

Oh, and here’s the transcript from the afternoon breakout session I was in, too. I noticed they made a few errors in transcribing my comments, but nothing that changes the basic message.

Monsanto makes buyers of their seeds sign a user agreement. Included in this agreement is a clause that the user agrees not to do any studies on Monsanto seed or publish the results without Monsanto’s approval. They’ve been approving studies favorable to them and suppressing ones that turn out to be unfavorable or that they suspect might be unfriendly to their interests. As the article points out, could you imagine a car manufacturer trying to stop Consumer Reports from publishing side-by-side comparisons of collision studies? Monsanto has been suppressing studies relevant to the effect of their products on human health.

Here’s Mayda’s post on it at Local Food Columbus.

I forgot to mention this earlier. Last week we got our first “big” order–but not so big it didn’t fit in a few coolers stuffed into our hatchback. (We’re still a small operation, after all.) Our chicken leg quarters were used to cater the American Community Garden Association’s 30th Annual Conference at Franklin Park Conservatory this year. Local Matters recommended us to Two Caterers, and they bought every pack of leg quarters we had in stock (except for the two packs reserved for a CSA customer).

Don’t worry, though. We’re processing another batch of chickens on August 20th. We still have plenty of drumsticks and possibly a few packs of thighs left for this week’s market.

For those of you who don’t receive our newsletter (and before you read further, go get on our mailing list now), here’s an excerpt from our last one.

In other news, Frijolito Farm is expanding! We’re presently in contract on a nearly five-acre property just a couple blocks away, and should be closing in the next few weeks. [Edit: Make that this Thursday.] This land is mostly surrounded by woods, making it much more private than our current location. Both the extra space and the added privacy will allow us to expand our operations without disturbing our neighbors.

We’ll be adding many, many more laying hens so as to keep up with demand for our eggs, and we’ll be raising somewhat larger flocks of broilers so we can add chicken sausage to our offerings in addition to having a steadier supply of breast meat. We’ll be raising turkeys next year as well, and we’re looking into the possibility of doing a few pigs. I’d like to get started raising honeybees, too, having attended a class on it last year through the OSU extension office. If there’s enough interest, I could also raise some meat rabbits. From there…who knows? Quail? Pheasants? Goats? We’ll see.

My plan is to offer the turkey, rabbit, and pork as options in our CSA next year. I’ll share the details as I figure them out.

Also, since we’ll have a permanent place with a bit of sun, we’ll be doing some perennial planting. In future years, look for us to have asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, and other kinds of fruit. Oh, and mushrooms.

Finally, as our customers from the Westerville Farmers Market may have noticed, we’re not there anymore. You can still find us at the Clintonville Farmers Market (all season this year) and the Jefferson Township Farmers Market on Saturdays from nine to noon. We’ll also be open on Fridays from 3:00 to 7:00 through November 20th. As usual, if you need to catch us at home at some other time, please call ahead.

We have big dreams for this place. The property has a 4-bedroom house on it that’s been terribly neglected. The roof has been leaking for the past three years, so the inside is pretty much a total wreck. Professionals have assured us, though, that the structure is sound. I’ll be working on it in bits and pieces over the next few years whenever I have time to work on it and money for materials. There’s an addition to the kitchen that was never completed. We’ve been thinking of trying to outfit this to be used as a commercial kitchen. If we did that, we could make processed foods (sauces, pot pies, frozen dinners, frozen pizza, etc.) right at home. We’d also be interested in hosting social/educational events like canning parties, cheese making classes, pig roasts, or whatever else we think up. That’s a long way off, though. The house is presently uninhabitable. I’ve dubbed it “the Fight Club House.” (If you’ve seen the movie Fight Club, you have some idea what I’m talking about.)

The house has an attached, heated garage and a pole barn attached to that. My plan is to turn the pole barn into a hen house. I’ll be able to walk out to the hen house, gather eggs, pack them and put them in the fridge all without ever having to go outside. The hens will still have access to the outdoors, of course. My current plan is to expand our flock of about 45 layers to about 175 or 200.

That’s going to be implemented right away, as it requires the least infrastructure improvement. In a few months when the layers start laying (or sooner if I can find close-to-mature pullets at an affordable price and with no de-beaking), I should be earning enough money from eggs to make the payment on the land.

Over the winter, I’d like to build some bee hives so I can introduce bees in the spring. Their principle source of pollen will be the woods until I plant gardens there. I’ve been thinking I’d like to put a little campsite far back into the woods, too. This would just be a recreational thing for us and our friends at first, but later, if I build a small cabin back there, I might be able to rent it out as a Bed & Breakfast. Again, this is a long, long way off. I won’t be worrying about building a cabin back in the woods until the house is rehabilitated.

Frijolito Farm was recently mentioned in 614 Magazine. Here’s the link: “Down on the farm”