Editor's note - excuse our very long absence. This is the first of more posts about farm life here on Whitmore Farm. This is from the perspective of one of our Fall interns Dave, who was kind enough to get the ball started. I thought people might like to hear what its like to show up here on the farm and just throw yourself into farm life without previous experience. NB: this is an unedited version ;) 

Dave the intern here, hailing from Brooklyn’s manic bustle for favor of a bucolic life, has blown the cobwebs from our blog to show just how far he’s come in his few weeks here. 

It’s important to note that I hadn’t spent one hour on a farm before my tenure here at Whitmore. 

As idyllic as the grounds and company are here, I had no frame of reference for what farming would bring. For example, the persistent thought pinballing around my head on my first night, October 2nd, was, “WHAT THE FUCK HAVE I DONE?!?!” 

When you adventure way out of your comfort zone, you often surprise yourself in ways you couldn’t otherwise fathom. 

I had left Brooklyn’s wild tapestry – its 24-hour delis, tireless hedonism, bad hipster moustaches – to sleep in a barn with no door, just a great open maw of space for creatures of all stripes to eat me alive – or so I thought. My mild arachnophobia turned acute, but it was all in my head: I soon understood that if I left them alone, they’d leave me alone. 

I also soon learned that both Will and Kent are incredibly welcoming, personable, smart as whips, and bangin' cooks. The three other fellows working here were as patient as Will and Kent watching my soft city hands try to navigate chicken nests. 

I already know that I will look back on these few months as one of the happier times of my life. Strange to be aware of that right in the midst of it. What a departure, what an arrival. What hosts! 

The chickens are no longer clucking and strutting animals of annoyance. They have it good here. I handle them without hesitation now, and welcome their birdsong (chickensong?) throughout the morning rounds where we feed and look after them.  

The goats still swarm like brain-mad zombies but only when you have something they can eat at hand. The pigs are playfully mischievous, as are some of the dogs, those six Great Pyrenees who seemed indistinguishable from one another that first week. 

I still fear the boars (hungry boars, to qualify it) but those fears have mostly evaporated. I’ve learned something new just about every day since I arrived, and faced many fears head-on. It goes to show: you can look through the eyes of fear or the eyes of love. 

As I never would have imagined being here and doing this, it’s fascinating to wonder just where I’ll be a couple months from now, well after I’ve left these kind grounds. Some lone vagabond strengthening without from within, lighting candles along the road. I can’t predict a fucking thing, and I certainly wouldn’t want to start.

It doesn't rain in the summer in Maryland anymore...

As we enter our 5 straight year of summer drought here in Maryland, every day I read about extreme weather all around the country and the world.

I wonder how people can still blindly deny that climate change (or global weirding as I like to call it) doesn't exist when the evidence is all around us? Of course, some of that is this misnomer of 'global warming' which oversimplifies the idea that global weather patterns will become more erratic and extreme.

All around us is news of extreme weather - tornados in Maryland and Massachusetts, flooding up and down the Mississipi River and droughts and wildfires in Texas and Arizona.

Of course for us, rain equals grass, which is what our ruminants eat. Without it, we end up having to feed hay.

This past spring, all we had was rain and more rain. But for the past month, we've had nothing but extremely high temps and no rain.

For the last 3 years, we've fed hay every July and August.

What that means of course is higher costs for us and our customers.

So far, this year looks no different than the previous four - a very wet winter and spring with bitter cold and heavy snowfall, followed by hot, very dry summer months.

This changes our business model into one where supplemental feed is require for 6 or more months out of the year - winter and summer.

Also, because our animals are coming out of a very dry summer season, they eat down the fall flush and we have no 'stockpiled' grass for early winter grazing.

As farmers, we watch the weather every day and right now, we're praying for rain!

We've had nothing but heat and dry weather for over 3 weeks now, the pastures are starting to brown, and the sheep and goats are hungry! I look forward to the months of July and August with a vague sense of dread :(

Organic certification

Recently, Will and I have been looking at our operation mercilessly to try and find a way to be profitable and more sustainable.

When I say sustainable, what I am specifically referring to is our sustainability as farmers in residence recognizing that the farmer is our most valuable asset. Too many long hours and hard work for little or no profit, and too many things we don't enjoy because they have nothing to do with farming.

One area that has dogged me since day one was our organic certification. Initially, more of an annoyance than anything else, I dutifully filled out the voluminous application each year and sent my $500 check in.

Considering that the whole 'organic' production model was the home of small producers (commonly less than 10 acres) from its birth in the 60's until about 10 years ago when it became a label regulated by the USDA (via the NOP = National Organic Program), I found the application to be incredibly annoying.

'Please record how many tons of each vegetable produced' was a pretty typical entry requirement.

'Just cross out ton and put in bushels', was the advice I gave our gardener Kyle when he asked what to do with a confused look.

Initially, our annual certification inspection involved a pleasant fellow, who would come by, look around a bit, ask some appropriate questions, and usually leave with the comment 'try and improve your record-keeping'.

Since then, there have been several well-known scandals involving large-scale producers caught cheating in their organic production.

Organic production has been increasingly annexed by the likes of WalMart and CISCO, who by their very business model, do not exemplify the ideals of organic production.

Large scale producers have gotten into the equation, trying to meet the demands of ridiculously low-prices and high production volumes of these kinds of retailers.

In response, the volume and voracity of NOP paperwork and oversight has skyrocketed, and Maryland has been no exception. The USDA regulates/sets the rules for organic production via the NOP, but the states are required for administering, regulating, and inspecting their own producers.

Our new inspector and program director for the entire state of Maryland, sort of embodies the very worst that one can associate with the words 'government bureaucrat'. Now don't get me wrong, he's a nice enough person I'm sure, but as an inspector and representative of the organic program in Maryland...well, not so much.

Very little money was provided to the states for the NOP program, despite all of the huge subsidies provided to commercial farming in this country, so there is no real motivation in seeing the success of organic production in Maryland as things currently stand.

The numbers tell the story - after the initial bump of certifications at the initiation of the program about 10 years ago, the numbers of organic producers continues to decline in Maryland even with the introduction of new producers.

In order to improve my quality of life, Will and I have decided to no longer bother with the organic certification process and focus our attention on something that no factory farm/large-scale producer can provide: high quality, locally-produced food for our customers.

Of course, we won't actually be doing anything differently than we currently do, but I figure we'll save several hundred hours of time spent filling out paperwork and ridiculous documentation to meet the NOP monster's insatiable appetite.

This is time I can spend with the animals, working in the garden, and visiting with customers, some of my favorite things!

Best,

Kent & Will

Shearing Day at Whitmore Farm

While we specialize in Katahdin hair sheep at Whitmore Farm, we recently started experimenting with some wool/hair crosses to see how this would affect the carcass quality of our animals as well as the flavor of our meat.

We decided to start by adding a Texel ram from our friend and well-known Texel breeder, Bev Pearsall. Lucky for us, she had a nice ram born with a big brown spot on his jawline, an unforgivable fault by the Texel breed standard.

Interestingly, we saw a lot of 'colored' Texels (gray, brown, tan, even spotted) during our visit to Holland last Fall, but white is still the standard for the breed both here in the U.S. and Holland. Considering that our flock of katahdins has a TON of color in it, you can surmise how much I like color in sheep.

Anyways, being a wool sheep, Arnold develops a very healthy coat during winter and needs to be sheared in order to maintain his comfort during Maryland's hot summer months. The wool is of a poor quality and has no real value in spinning.

So earlier this month, we held our First Annual Shearing Day at Whitmore Farm to shear one animal...Arnold.

Technically, this was our 2nd annual shearing day as last year I trimmed Arnold. Afterwards, we decided rather than being called 'shearing day', we would call it Bloody Sunday. No arterial bleeders and nothing that couldn't be fixed with some suture and a lot of blood-stop powder.

I offered to do it again this year, but for some reason Will was reluctant....

Luckily for us, Amy Miller, a local shearer, was available and willing to come out and spend a few hours fussing over our ram, and as it turns outs, one of our Great Pyrenees who was in desperate need of a clipping.

'I may just start a dog grooming business on the side' Amy added after clipping Ween down to a soft, clean summer cut.

Life & death on the farm

When people ask me about what its like to run a farm, one of the things that comes to mind right away is the constant cycle of life and death. Every day, animals die from accidents, disease, or your hand and there are some days when it seems that's all you have - death, death, and more death.

Sometimes it seems the animals spend their days finding creative ways to die.

Here's a fine example that greeted us the other morning - just what you want to see with your morning cup of joe in hand:

Ugghhh.

Sassy, a very sweet 5 year old doe was feeding, and one of our pushier ewes had tried to feed along side each other in the same spot on the feeder. Their heads slid down and locked in between the two bars of the feeder and they strangled each other.

Just like that, two excellent animals were dead. I'm going to carry around this photo for the next time someone says sheep and goats aren't stupid animals!

But then, lo and behold, one of our gilts who had been teetering on farrowing (i.e. pigging or having piglets) popped! 3 squirmy little piglets (and one dead one) were tucked away in one of our shelters on pasture.

We bundled them up with straw and a tarp and left them to get comfy with their dame.

'So how do we get the dead one out?' I asked innocently enough.

NB:Whenever we got near the entrance to her den, the sow literally growled at us like a tiger about to pounce!

'We'll wait until she leaves to poo and Steve, you'll dash in there and grab it!' I suggested.

Steve just swallowed and looked frightened.

Sure enough, a few hours later she was out.

'Quick! Now's our chance! I'll keep lookout....go, go go!' Steve dashed in and frantically searched the bedding for the dead animal.

'Check the sexes on the piglets while you're in there!', I added.

'There's no piglet', he cries out.

'I can't find it', he says.

'Where's that sow?' he asks, his question tinged with apprehension.

'Oh she's far away', I add.

NB: pigs lumber along and seem impossibly large and clumsy, but when they want to, they are greased lightening and can easily outrun a human.

'Well then, she must have ate it', I surmised. Yuck.

A few days later, one of our GOS sows farrowed for 11 healthy piglets, no stillbirths. She was gentle and sweet with the farmer and her piglets, and the thoughts of death from earlier in the week quickly passed as we watched the wee ones play and suckle.

'They are SOOOOO cute!' I say, I say with a smile as I watch them climb over each other.

'And they'll be delicious some day!' adds Will.

HB1261

If you live in Maryland, please contact your state delegate and senator regarding this issue!

Dear Kent,

Thank you very much for taking the time to contact me regarding, HB1261 - Maryland's Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act. It is great to see Frederick County residents getting active in the process with issues that are important to them!

Unfortunately, this bill was submitted to the House Rules Committee on February 22 and has not been assigned another committee in which to receive a hearing. It looks unlikely that it will make it through the legislative process this year. Hopefully, the bill will be reintroduced next year and will get the public hearing that I am sure that it deserves.

Please feel free to contact me with any additional questions or concerns.

With Best Regards,
Kelly
Delegate Kelly Schulz
District 4A, Frederick County Maryland
Kelly.Schulz@house.state.md.us
301-858-3080 or 410-841-3080
6 Bladen Street, Suite 324
Annapolis, MD 21401

Maryland HB 1261, Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act

Delegate Afzali

Delegate Schulz

Maryland House of Delegates

March 31, 2011

Dear Delegate,

I run a small organic farming operation in Frederick County and I am

writing to ask your support and co-sponsorship of H.B. 1261, Maryland's

Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act.

This bill simply requires that foods containing more than 1% genetically

engineered ingredients be labeled as such. I think the last study I looked

at showed that 88% of Americans support this kind of labeling.

We label foods containing all kinds of things like MSG, aspartame, and

corn syrup but not so for GMO products.

Recently, experiences in Pennsylvania regarding the use of growth hormone

in cows showed strong public support of labeling of milk produced using

bHCG.

Unfortunately, the federal government has refused to require this kind of

labeling. The U.S.D.A. and the F.D.A. continue to approve new G.M.O.'s

like alfalfa even with inadequate long-term health studies and the risks

of contamination of non-GMO seed banks.

Please co-sponsor this bill and let consumers decide whether they want to

eat GMO-containing products using their pocketbook.

Sincerely,

Kent Ozkum

Whitmore Farm

10720 Dern Road

Emmitsburg, MD 21727