Erin Nelson

The Farm Next Door

Background

As farmers, we think of being away from it all- out in the open, with acre after acre of possibility spreading out before us, all wrapped up in land and hard work and mother nature’s mercy. In generations past, farmers were located closer to the communities they served, with regular deliveries to the markets in nearby communities or farm stands where their land met the main road. As urban encroachment drove up the cost of the land, and modern farming equipment made it possible to produce larger quantities of crops with large swaths of land farther form the towns, farms moved out to even larger spreads of land, further from the communities they served, where the community developed a broadening disconnect from the land and the food it provides. The cost of getting those goods to market, in terms of fossil fuels and more, as an ever increasing expenditure, makes this cycle an upward spiral.

In order to grow foods in a way that makes this model economically feasible, the farmers have to produce more with less. Sometimes this requires them to use chemicals or genetically modified seeds or livestock in order to continue farming. This sometimes means a very different reality in farming- factory farms of overcrowded animals walking on one another, never seeing the light of day or other practices we might not like to think about.

Far more recently, people have come to be more concerned with the introduction of chemicals and processing and genetic modification in the food supply, and some are also questioning the security of our food supply considering the disconnect between the food and the end consumer, and the ongoing drain on our natural resources for the production of these large scale farms and distribution to the public. We are among those who are concerned with this, and who are seeing the negative health effect of the chemicals, processing and engineering of our food.

What we have been doing

We began with desert hardy veggies in a small backyard garden over sixteen years ago, learning how to situate them among the flowers and capitalize on placement around the space available to achieve better yields and plant life in our extreme desert environment. When we moved to our present location thirteen years ago, we expanded to two large gardens, a greenhouse and container gardens spread throughout the property. As our children grew and wanted to experiment with me, we tried many varieties in the gardens. I attended classes with the food bank in desert gardening for veggies and feeding your family in organic, all natural ways. They taught me how to use so much more for composting and amending the soil, companion planting and seed saving. Learning to apply everything I had read in books to the unique environment where I live was tremendous in terms of balance and dealing with the problems of rapid temperature changes and the balance of sun and water and timing.

This led me to enroll in more recently production farming workshops, where I was so lucky as to have even had a plot at a teaching farm where I raised several varieties of lettuce and learned to time planting so that I could stagger when the crops would be ready for market. I could have continued to maintain the plot for some time, but the drive was another 40 miles from home in a different direction from where the children got to school and twenty miles from where I teach part time. I donated the yields to the food bank, and came back to our own little farm, thrilled to focus my energies. Still, the 35 mile daily commutes with the skyrocketing gas prices have made it impossible to maintain the growing plants properly. I just cannot seem to be there enough, and when I head home during the day, the drive eats up most of the work time as well a lot of fuel.

For more than seven years, we have had the pleasure of pygmy goat in the family. At times we have larger goats as well, but the pygmy goats are just such fun, with great personalities and I don’t mind them coming in the house from time to time. I have even bottle fed a few babies, whom lived in the house and one was housebroken! We presently have seven pygmy goats. We have, at times had more, and have learned a great deal by working very closely with the veterinarian in terms of the health of breeding stock, and preventing and managing pests and illness. We have learned what animals they mix well with, and do our best to give them lots of time and attention. They are quite the pranksters, being known for faking illness for attention and blockading gates, stealing chicken food and opening gates. We have learned to thwart the behaviors which can hurt them, and laugh at the others- and to laugh at ourselves!

The goats are very popular; we have trained a couple over the years as therapy animals, housebroken one and done some milking. I would love to have a few more, with two in milk and the others in rotation to keep them healthier in the process. But this really requires more time at home. You really have to be around to make sure everyone does okay with kidding and stays strong with nursing afterward.

We began in chickens several years ago, when Wyatt Clay fell in love with them while helping with community service events when he was too young for 4H but went along when we took his sister. The birds would fall asleep in his arms, and he begged for a few of his own. I laid down the expectation that he would feed the dogs himself for a year, then we would talk. Half way through that year, he asked to take on giving them their medicines, and before long we had a flock. He rescued chickens left behind in abandoned homes and rentals, and learned about the quarantining process and the flock continued to grow.

Bailey tried her hand at meat birds one year- the genetically modified white broiler that are packed into dark and cramped grow out houses for mass production. We had no idea until that first year, that this was how commercial chicken was produced. We had 25 that first year, because that is what you have to order from the factory hatcheries that genetically engineer them. This was eye opening. They are nothing like the cute, fluffy layers and rooster we raise. They don’t move any more than absolutely necessary, and spend their time on eating, sleeping and pooping. They are prone to all kinds of stomach issues, because they don’t completely digest their food sometimes, do not lay eggs (they don’t live long enough) and cannot naturally reproduce. Their lifecycle happens on such a condensed schedule, that they are prone to all sorts of things, and are processed, on average, at 49 days of life.

This experience was eye opening, to say the least. We tried the newer genetic manipulations the following year, as they were supposed to live up to two years and be able to naturally reproduce. But we learned that while they are a better alternative, they don’t reproduce to make the same bird, this is a control of the factories that hold the patent on the breed. In fact, there are only two or three factories which are able to engineer and hatch the white broilers, and only a couple more which can do the red or black broilers. So, if something went wrong at those factories, there would be disruption in the food supply. Wow.

This lead to our experiments with different sustainable dual purpose breeds. Last year, we work with Delawares, and we have some beautiful birds. While we all like the hens, my son wasn’t thrilled with the way the coloring did in our Arizona environment, and I would have to say I agree with him. So we are presently working with Light Brahmas and Buff Brahmas, and have hatched out some beautiful chicks in the process. These are a heavy dual purpose breed.

On the sustainability side, hatching our own chicks means that we are able raise our own line of the chickens, ensuring quality, and not being dependent upon an outside source for the next generation. And we can continue to improve the quality of the birds in accordance with the breed standard. We take the best birds for the breeding stock, introduce the surplus hens into the laying flock to provide eggs, and the surplus roosters are butchered for meat at 22 weeks, after having grown up naturally with plenty of room to forage, peck and play. The breeding stock has their own space with plenty of room to do the same, but where the bloodlines are maintained for quality. The laying hens have lots of room to forage, play, roost and nest. Even after they are too old to lay eggs, some help raise little chicks, others live out their retirement years playing or visiting retirement homes and classrooms. We are aware that this is a far more expensive way to manage your poultry, but we think it is the fair thing to do after they have put in their time.

We have learned and grown immensely with our little family farm. We collect rainwater in barrels, and are known for running outside to check the room in barrels when rain begins as the children run to check animals. The barrels only hold so much, but we have been able to do with just what we are doing now has watered the gardens during the rainy seasons, leaving us to believe how amazing we could be if we could harvest water from the entire roof, each of the sheds and each of the livestock roofs!

We have long dreamed of adding solar panels as well. Sun is our most abundant natural resource here in the desert southwest, and effective use of solar can not only lessen our dependence on coal and other fossil fuels, but make it a greener process, which uses the same roofing and shade structures for other aspects of farming to generate energy. The technology and implementation of the systems are improving greatly, so this is a great time to make use of it all!

Farm fresh produce is more nutritious than food that has been in shipping to market or sitting on a market shelf, as well as being tastier! Shipping from larger farms made more sense when we didn’t have water harvesting, and when fuel cost about half as much as it presently does. As time has passed, the large farms have to cut corners to grow food profitably, and the animals aren’t raised the same way they were, or from natural stock. The produce is coming from genetically engineered seeds, and we still don’t know how that may change the long term effects on the environment or the end consumer. We need better forestation around cities, so why not have sustainable farming mixed in where folks can see the way the food was grown and raised, and hold the farmers accountable for ethical practices that improve the quality of the product and protect the health of the consumer and the environment?

I previously mentioned that we have been attending farming classes. We have also been working with a sustainable poultry farming network, where classes and workshops are available, and the farmers are also working together in terms of marketing much like a cooperative does, but with the farmers in different locations throughout the nation. This same group also puts on classes to promote heritage poultry, for youth and backyard flock managers as well as farmers, and we have attended several in the past.

Crafts, Jellies and Baked Goods? Presently, Mama Erin is a jewelry artist, working with copper, silver and beads, along with etching American made glass and handcrafting all natural artisan soap. There is quite a following, and soap is available in addition to the eggs at two local farmers markets weekly, as well as by request. While we have the background and experience with making lots of baked goods and candies, jellies and more, the current laws for making these out of your house for sale require a bit more dedicated storage than we presently have available. Since we are already at the edge of our capacity for these items with our soap, we would love to move toward more efficient storage in the coming year. Some foods require a commercial kitchen. That is still a good bit in the future, but would certainly be welcome in our classes for healthy eating and preparing natural heritage bred poultry.

Mentorship is an important role for farmers in the community. For over a year now, we have been helping a local school which already had gardens, but wanted to work with hatching and raising chickens in growing the competencies of the youth. The youth and families have learned about managing a small backyard flock, while learning to grow healthy food in their own garden and see the cycle of caring for the food you grow and what it brings back to them. The children at the school seemed to especially love visits from the children here, and our kids love sharing all they have learned!

True sustainability involves seed saving, raising complementary crops for growth and pest protection, allowing animals enough room for natural foraging as well as exercise and a natural lifestyle, complete water harvesting form all available surfaces, solar power use, consistent composting, and the regular employment of organic practices, as well as community involvement and education That is a tremendous commitment! And it will require a little bit of change to implement!

Changing the Face of Farming- Where we would like to go from here

With the knowledge base we have built, the incubators, portable beginning pens, breeding stock and so much more, we would like to take on a larger space, closer to the town and markets, with implementation of the sustainability systems described earlier.

Just about 5-10 acres would be just enough for me to work with. Between one half to one full acre of fruit trees, organically grown vegetables and complementary plants, spread between enclosed gardens, greenhouses and gardens shaded by solar panels. About an acre and a half to two acres would be dedicated solely to poultry. Some pens for the laying flock, another for two stages of the grow out areas for the heritage bred meat poultry, the breeding pens, and the educational flock separated just enough for the proper biosecurity. We would enable free ranging in rotation. We could dedicate about a quarter to a half acre to the goats. They would have two smaller spaces to be fully enclosed at night to protect them from predators, with plenty of play room and forage during the day. Additionally…

I could see expanding to around ten goats. I would like to have one larger milking goat, and let a couple of our outstanding mamas have another go-round at kidding. Some of our sweet goats are at that geriatric stage in life, so that would balance out in time. I would like to have two goats milking regularly. In keeping the does to one kidding or less per year (I think they need rest), that should provide for a good rotation. Because we would like to have some available for community outreach and education, this will also require a little space to maintain biosecurity and separate any milking does and new mama does from the public and risks.

Our present numbers of just over a hundred chickens would have a little growth and flux. We have a breeding group of Brahmas, which we would like to have certified by the heritage poultry group, would grow into two flocks in time. This would lead to two breeding pens, as well as a younger grow out pen. The hens from the younger grow out group would be separated into three groups in time- breeding roosters and hens of top quality to maintain the quality of the breed, new hens for the laying flock which provides eggs for market and regular customers, and young roosters for meat poultry. All would live with the same standard of living- plenty of room to roam, forage, and plenty of free choice quality feed. I have been working on a design for adding enclosed runs of herbs and vegetables to the pens, where the chickens could access the plants partially, but not eat them down to the root or roost above them causing other issues. As much as I would love to let them all free range full time, we must maintain proper blood lines for breeding, and protect them from the predators of our environment- so extra-large pens combined with free-range in rotation is our only real option to do thing right!

Other pens would separate the laying flock out to keep their beloved pet roosters apart and separate groups of hens in the groups where they do best and get along. This would take lots of room, but with the proper layout and work, could be an ideal situation for the best of both worlds- free range and still safe! The last of the pens would enable my son and daughter to keep their breeding projects for 4H, as well as the chickens they like to maintain for community outreach and education events, giving the appropriate quarantine space for the safe biosecurity there as well.

Farm fresh produce would be grown in a combination of gardens, greenhouses, and enclosed gardens and container gardens. We would save seeds where possible and plant complementary groups of plants to provide for simple organic soil balance and pest deterrence. We would likely have these peppered between the other efforts, as we could then use water harvested from the different livestock shades and structures I the area where it is collected and stored rather than have to deal with moving it about the farm.

Our goal is to harvest 100% of possible water to harvest, for use in growing farm fresh fruits and vegetables. Farming has traditionally used large quantities of water through open irrigation systems. In Arizona, that water is coming from underground aquifers and the Central Arizona Project, through open water irrigation, which is prone to evaporation and is growing dry. In fact the desert southwest is drying out more each year, and may well be out of water before long. But we can grow crops here- we just need to do it wisely. This is another reason why we would never have a really large farm- we need to live within our means, with respect to power, workload, and water availability.

We have always collected water in barrels at the downspouts of the house, and experimented with larger barrels and systems to keep the water clean. We have attended several classes in designing water harvesting systems, which in the end involve water cisterns but also landscaping which uses the slope of the land to manage trees and orchards. In the classes, we discussed what had worked and hadn’t and learned that we were making the same errors as most others making similar efforts as ours, and the ways to correct those as well as the engineering needs of the systems in order to provide for the public health of the systems. The planning learned in those classes was tremendously valuable!

We have also been designing predator resistant pens which would have sloped, corrugated metal roofs to the housing areas, so that all water from those areas would run into rain gutters leading along the one inch per four foot slope required to run to the waiting water cisterns at the edges of groups of pens.

In addition to harvesting water, is the concept of planting in such a way that those natural streams that occur in the desert can provide for the water other plants, such as fruit trees. This takes a little planning, as some trees do well right in the middle of where the water runs, others do better if the water runs right at the edge of the line from their canopy. This can be a blessing; I am looking forward to citrus trees and much more, but more intelligently planted than they were at our current property when we arrived.

Solar power has come a long way. It is in heavy use in the desert of Southern Arizona, especially with ranchers. We don’t have any plans of going off grid, we believe in a community approach- we should set up a well sized system to provide for our needs that will cover the incubators and brooders in the winter, as well as the other heating and electrical needs, but not have so many credits at the end of the summer as to overdo them when the cycle ends. And yet, all summer long, save up credits and help harvest energy for the local community! Sometimes panels are best on the roof, though they can also make excellent shade for gardens (too much dust if over livestock pens, though, so this will need to be strategically considered once the move is made.)

We will never get rid of cars and driving, or daily commutes. But we can make a significant difference in our impact on the planet and ecosystem with little changes. Significantly reducing travel to market for the crops and products we grow and sell is one step. Having a market stand at the farm itself is another. Imagine a return to families walking to the next farm over to trade what one family has in abundance for what another does. And families who do not grow walking down the road to pick up eggs and lettuce, carrots and other vegetables.

It is our commitment to use local providers to install solar, and for as many of the other contracted projects, like fencing and supplies as possible. Using the best products, and supporting local small business whenever appropriate and possible is an important component to an local business project. In a community based farming project- this is vital!

Ecofriendly isn’t just a green buzz word. The better we care for the land we live on, the world we live in- the better it provides for us! So solar, water harvesting, and working with the environment in complementary ways rather than in opposition to it- that will be the direction for us.

We know this is a revolution in farming practice- returning to small, local farming with a community focus and working with the seasons and heritage plants and livestock. No seeds or animals generated in a lab if we can in any way avoid it. We fully understand that it costs more and takes considerable more work to farm this way. And we are turning to you all to help us make the jump from where we are now- on the fringes of sustainable farming- to truly setting up the proper sustainable operation we can work from to help to lead the farming community into the future our children and environment deserve.

We have set a pretty tight budget to make this happen- $450,000.00. This will allow us to take what we have so far- the portable pens, the livestock, the incubators, the supplies and barns we can move, and move to the larger property we need, closer to town. In addition to the property, this will provide for the fencing, extra roofing and biosecurity measures, the initial greenhouse, the solar power setup, and the water harvesting materials. Any additional revenue we receive will allow us to provide more space for the animals, dedicated teaching space for community education, or a commercial kitchen/ prep area. These last items are long term goals we would work toward as the revenues became available, but that we could do without as we get things up and running at the new site.

So, now, with all of this preparation, planning and practice, the initial tools for the revolution, we turn to you to ask you for your support- to ask you to join with us in the sustainable farming revolution! We welcome your questions and input.

Please feel free to visit our farm blog at www.ourpatriotsdream.blogspot.com

or our website at www.ourpatriotsdream.com