When European settlers arrived more than 350 years ago, it was said that the Eastern forests were so expansive that a squirrel could travel from the Chesapeake Bay to the Mississippi River without ever touching the ground.

Most of the broad, open views that we associate today with a drive in the country are essentially manmade. The fields we pass were likely farms that went fallow as farmers sold out or left to farm in the Midwest and California after WWII.

East Coast farms face multiple threats: cheap imports, competition from huge farms, an aging farm population that often earns the minimum wage, the relentless pressure of development and a lack of infrastructure to bring products to market.

Protect Land by Farming It

If you want to preserve “viewscapes” you can do what Chef Dan Barber’s grandmother did in Great Barrington, MA: Farm your open land, or lease it to someone else to farm. Keep it in sustainable and responsible production.

Both you and the surrounding countryside will receive all manner of benefits.

Towns and landowners have a number of options to protect their agricultural heritage, including: Continue reading A View Requires A Vision

Franklin Hiram King. You may not know the name, but you know the legacy: More than 100 years ago King invented the cylindrical silo.

It was King’s aversion to waste — something that any farmer can appreciate — that led him to create a new way of storing corn.

Until King, grain was held in rectangular buildings that had to be incredibly strong to support tons of weight and pressure. Rectangular buildings used up valuable land, and yet they waste space (those corners rarely get filled).

Wall and roof joints admit moisture, rodents and insects that led to rot and spoilage.

In fact, even today, the lack of proper storage facilities in India leads to the loss of 10 per cent of the total foodgrain production—in a country where hunger still claims the lives of a million children every year.

But the cylindrical silo has just two joints, is airtight and therefore easier to fumigate, and seals the harvest safely away from the elements.

Silos also put gravity to work. So, no need to use equipment to push grain into a corner, and no need to use a machine to load it onto a truck either. Both problems are easily solved when you load from the top and unload from the bottom.

A modern marvel and distinctly American invention, the cylindrical silo is a form so beautiful that some say Frank Lloyd Wright used it as inspiration for the Guggenheim Museum. Continue reading Why Are Silos Round? Thank a King for the Answer.

A new study has determined that cows raised on grass (rather than grain) produce milk that’s better for human beings. Those findings held true even after researchers took into account “heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure and smoking.”

Turns out that milk from grass-fed cows has significantly more of something called conjugated linoleic acid (which may create insulin resistance in the body) than grain-fed cows. Some researchers will add that cows fed on grass are just plain healthier. Cows may love grain but it’s not great as a steady diet.

Smart farmers don’t just turn animals loose on pastureland; they follow a process called rotational grazing.

Goats Are Your Offensive Line

Jen Dustin and her husband, Phil Leahy, of Leahy Farm in Lee, Massachusetts, will tell you that Step One is clearing brush, especially the invasive species. This is most efficiently done with goats—nature’s own brush-clearing machinery. They’ll eat the bark right off the trees if you’re not careful.  Only when the goats have cleared up overgrown fields will Jen and Phil bring in their cows.

Phil makes sure that his herd of Milking Devons only spends a couple of days on any one area of pasture, so they’re always on fresh grass.

Like a gardener working on a massive scale, he knows that when you cut back a plant—as grazing does naturally—it stimulates growth.  The pastures are more productive, the animals healthier and the milk they produce is apparently more nutritious and tastier. And if the cows don’t nibble the grass all the way down to the ground, they are less likely to ingest parasites, which would require medical intervention.

It’s more work to do rotational grazing; Phil and Jen are constantly moving electric fences powered off a car battery. They’re fortunate to have enough land to feed their herd. But many farmers are limited by acreage in how they feed their animals.  Grain becomes a necessity or a supplement if pasture is limited.

Helping the Farmer Next Door

Do you live next to a farmer raising animals for dairy or meat? Do you have open land that is lying fallow? Consider leasing that land to your neighbor. You’ll get a nice tax break, a nominal cash payment and fresh meat and dairy. And the inevitable manure factor can be mitigated when a right-sized herd is moved frequently.

More Reading

Baloney Science on the Perils of Meat

Grass-Fed Beef from Pasture to Plate

To which School of Leftovers do you belong?

1. Throw them out immediately because you know you’ll never eat them.
2. Put them in airtight containers to be thrown out after they have had a chance to putrefy.
3. Anticipate the quick and easy meal that you can make in one-quarter of the time—thanks to leftovers.

I was a follower of the first and second principals but I’ve recently converted to the third.

When I was growing up my parents prodded me to finish my dinners by invoking starving Biafran children. But even after that admonition I often didn’t finish my meal—and yet I never saw the dish in a new incarnation the next day. All those calories wasted!

Working with leftovers tends to be a great way to stretch a tight budget. It turns out you’re making a huge environmental contribution in the process. More on that in a minute. Continue reading There’s Gold in Them Thar Leftovers