Why organic gardening is awesome!

I have done both and trust me raising food organically vs. with chemicals is much simpler. Personally, I think growing food using chemicals is a sign of weakness, laziness and it means the soil is unhealthy. 

Organically grow baby romaine

heads. 

When your soil is healthy you invite beneficial insects and bacteria. Over time, they come and help your garden. I see this year after year in my garden. Honestly, the first year we started it was a real struggle. Nevertheless, it has gotten a lot better each year.

When you garden organically you are partnering with nature. Most conventional farms are trying to beat or destroy nature with pesticides, herbicides and insecticide.  Over time, these chemicals breakdown the structure of the soil leaving it depleted of minerals vital for growing nutrient dense food. What also happens is after a good rain, the run off from the conventional farmers fields that has been fertilized gets into our streams, rivers, then lakes. If you live here in middle Tennessee, then you may notice the huge algae blooms in our area lakes. These algae blooms are feeding off the fertilizer being dumped into the fields that find their way to our waterways.

Weeds and insects become immune to the chemicals sprayed over time, much like we become immune to different strands of the cold. Weeds and insects adapt. That forces the conventional farmer to rely on the chemical salesman to come up with some new chemical harsher than the last since the weeds and insects have become immune to the same chemicals being sprayed year after year. We grew food long before chemicals.  Not sure why we need chemicals to aid us now. I hear this comment all the time... "well, we need to feed the world."

Here is the reality of the US, feeding the world. Today, we only export 20 percent of the food we produce in the US. Of that 20 percent, 19 percent goes to countries like India, China and Korea, where they have an upcoming more affluent middle class. We are exporting beef, chicken and pork. So, its not like we are feeding the hungry. One percent of our exports goes to countries that are hungry and actually need food. That's not necessarily the US's fault, most of it is political from within that countries government.  Nevertheless, some countries choose not to eat the food produced in the US from our big industrial agriculture system. Do you blame them? 

Jason Smith
Farmer, Market Gardener
www.smithfamilyfarmtn.com

Free range chickens, really?

What do you think of when you see the words "free range" on your eggs? I think of happy hens roaming in a field, scratching, pecking, taking dust baths and laying in the sun. Over the past week I have done some research, read many articles and I have come to the conclusion that the words "free range" are merely marketing ploys designed to mislead consumers.

Our chickens set up. 

By definition, free range means the animal has access to the outdoors part of the day. Access to outdoors can be interpreted generously or quite narrowly. It seems that large producers follow the letter of the law, and not its spirit. They put a small opening in the large confined areas where the chickens have access to go outside. My issue with this is that the majority of these chickens will never see outside, because the opening is so small they will never be able to navigate their way through the mess to even find it.

We have had chickens for years now and they're an important part of our farm. They do a lot work for us and they have fun doing it. The most obvious benefit of our chickens is, they give us eggs. However, they do much more than that. They eat ticks, they mow down grass and weeds, and they eat our vegetarian table scraps. Let's elaborate just a little more on each of these. The eat tons of bugs. Most people don't realize but, 50% of a chickens diet is actually grass. That's right, they eat clover and mixed grass. Also, each day Megan saves the table scraps and cuttings from fruits and vegetables we cut. When we go to gather eggs in the afternoon they get an awesome treat when we toss out the table scraps. So, instead of tossing our table scraps in the trash, then hauling it off to the dump our chickens take care of that. This reduces the amount of trash we are tossing into a landfill.

If you have ever been around chickens and observed them you would know they are social, inquisitive and loving creatures that enjoy scratching, foraging and sunning themselves.  Hens can live for up to 10 years, and I'm no expert on chicken life but chickens in a large confinement operation with little or no access to outdoors will dramatically shorten that animals lifespan.

The next time you're at the supermarket buying eggs and you see the words, "free range" or "happy hens" remember they are painting a picture of something that probably doesn't exist. We need to understand where our food comes from and what is being put in it. It's up to you to take responsibility and educate yourself about what you are putting in your body. Find a farmer close to you, build a relationship with them and put your money back into the local economy. 



Jason Smith
Farmer, market gardener
www.smithfamilyfarmtn.com

Smith Family Farm Blog (May 13, 2018)

We planted corn and okra yesterday. I consider these row crops and I direct seed them. Since corn and okra grow tall and relatively fast then we don’t feel the need to to start in trays like we do tomatoes. Transplanting would be a nightmare in my opinion for these crop. So, we direct seed then keep the weeds down with a flame torch until the crops get tall enough to choke out the weeds themselves.

We also transplanted planted tomatoes into the ground and started sunflower
shoots. The tomatoes we planted are Cherokee Purples, which are a very
popular heirloom that grows well in middle Tennessee.  We also harvested
leaf lettuce, radishes and salad turnips. The past couple days have been
very hot for this time of year. We were in the mid 90s yesterday. My
romaine lettuce started to wilt, but thank goodness we had the overhead
irrigation to cool the crops off. I'm hoping to grow the sunflower shoots in
record time for next weekends market. I had people asking for them this
past weekend and I didn't have any due to poor planning. Trust me, that will
never happen again. Sunflower shoots grow quick and bring a premium.

Megan on the right hand side and Mallory on the
front of my kayak admiring the beauty of this
limestone formation. 

On Sunday, which was Mother's Day we took Megan kayaking on a creek
close to our house. We had an awesome time, then we came home and went
back to our tree fort and observed many different birds. Love nature and the
chorus it sings, you just need to slow down and listen. Middle Tennessee has
some amazing geological features.

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Big Ag can take a hike

Nothing but rain this weekend. I'll bet we had 3 inches of rain yesterday. So, what did we do? We built an outdoor cat condo.  And of course, our cats love it. Makes me happy when our animals are happy.

We had some scrap treated wood and we built the  4ft x 4ft space to fit into our window so the cats can just walk out.

Couple of things that got my attention in the news this week, romaine lettuce being recalled and 17 tons of ground beef being recalled due to plastic pieces being found in it. I mean how does that even happen? Someone please explain this to me. 

The romaine lettuce with E coli is a huge problem. My issue with this is that the majority of all romaine in this country is washed in the same sink. So, if that one sink or packing house is contaminated then you can bet a lot of people are going to get sick. And, its going to have a huge impact on the popularity of all romaine lettuce. Big Ag is not the answer to feeding our nation. I'm sorry, but bigger is not always better, especially when it comes to our nations food. As you can see, from this past week, our big beef industry and the romaine lettuce industries both failed the American public. Makes me wonder.. what else is in our food? I know whats in mine. Do you? Buy local food, go visit the farmer and if you like what see then buy.

Role of a Small Farmer

Small Farmers Role in the Future:
As the number of small farms continue to decline bigger demand for specialty crops will arise:

Here’s why… more sophisticated economies like the US seem to be moving away from mass production and moving towards individuality. Consumers don’t just want what everyone else has, they want something catered to them.

The mass production of food will continue to be in high demand because of world population growth nevertheless small farmers can fill the niche market by providing specialty crops in small amounts to local markets. After speaking with several restaurant owners I found one common theme. They said, “My supplier only sells to me in large quantities.”

The role on the small farmer will have to be much different than it used to be. Farmers will need to be marketers, salesman, growers, harvesters, packers, processors and bookkeepers. Farmers need to be vertically integrated in the supply chain to assure the farmer has representation. This requires a new way of thinking. Farmers used to only be concerned with planting, growing and harvesting food. The new economy requires farmers to be knowledgeable at many levels, not just growing and harvesting. Farmers will need to be resourceful at many levels of the supply chain.

Consumers want something fundamentally different from the food produced by today’s industrial food system and they are willing to pay for it. They also want farmers that are environmentally minded and have social integrity. Small farmers should focus on producing high value-food rather than low cost commodities.