Dancing Doe Farms: April 2009

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

EARTH DAY!

Today is the real Earth Day but Saturday, April 25 will be the official celebration in La Crosse and we'll be there (at least until 2 p.m.) with info about pre-ordering free range chickens (available July 1 or so), our new egg waiting list (for fall 2009) and more.

Our watercress patch, growing at the head of a spring-fed stream, has come back to life after several years on the "endangered" list. We donated some for the Earth Day meal and will have this available to deliver in the La Crosse area - our first veggie of the year! Right now the price is $1.50/bunch delivered. Please email us with your order or leave a message at 788-4039.

As the weather warms, we'll definitely have asparagus and maybe have some morels. Check back often!

In the mean time, see you at the Earth Day Fair - 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 901 Caledonia Street in La Crosse!

We've been gardeners for many decades. Because we think what we grow and raise is healthy and great-tasting, and because we believe that it makes economic and environmental sense to buy and sell food locally, we started selling our produce, chickens and eggs in 2005. We still work off the farm so our operation is part time. We do not use chemical inputs or pesticides or antibiotics or hormones. We eat what we grow and raise.

Follow us on FACEBOOK!

Eggs for sale - big brown eggs - $2.30/dozen

Our laying hens are free-range, raised on untreated pasture. They get commercial, non-medicated feed (not organic) with no added hormones. They also get treats every day - corn, oats, table scraps, kelp and other goodies.

We raise our meat birds on pasture - free range. They live pretty happy chicken lives, grazing the the morning and evenings, chasing bugs, dust bathing, and meeting for the afternoon congress under the apple tree. We process meat birds in June, July and August. The price for 2011 birds (available in late July and August) is $2.50 per pound. Call us (608 788-4039) if you'd like a bird or two delivered.

We grow many of our own seedlings and raise a wide variety of garden vegetables from May through October. Our garden is fertilized by our chickens, compost we make ourselves and "green manure," crops we plant and till into the soil. We don't do the farmers' markets because of our work schedule; please call for availability and delivery.

Here are some links to great, thought-provoking talks, stories, films and programs about local food:

Green La Crosse is a very nice, comprehensive and informative site. Go there!

Fresh is a great movie about our food system and how we can take control of our own food.

Food Inc. is an Academy Award nominated film about our food system. I highly recommend everyone who eats food - especially corn or soy or beef or chickens or eggs - see this film!

After you watch Food, Inc. you can visit this PBS site for more suggestions on taking action.

If you haven't seen the the movie King Corn, please check it out. It's a funny and very informative film about how we grow and consume corn.

Salad Tables are easy to build raised growing trays in which you can grow your own salad greens.

La Vida Locavore is a great, comprehensive food/eating/farming/growing blog you should check out.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is Barbara Kingsolver's great book about eating, growing food, buying and selling food and much more! Highly recommended. (If you have a Winding Rivers library card, you can download the audio book FREE (for a seven-day check out period) here.

Kathleen Dunn interviewed two great guests on March 23, 2009: Richard Manning, a journalist and author of Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization and a recent article, Graze Anatomy AND Todd Churchill, founder, Thousand Hills Cattle Company. You can listen online.

Paul Robers, author of The End of Food - an On Point radio program from June 2008

American Songbirds Are Being Wiped Out by Banned Pesticides - an article from The Independent (UK)

Learn about food miles - "Produce in the U.S. travels, on average, 1300 - 2000 miles from farm to consumer."

Read this article from "Sustainable Table" about why buying local is better

Hear Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma as he talks to a group at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in April 2007.

Hear award-winner author, Barbara Kingsolver talk about The Ethics of Eating - her family's pledge to eat mostly what they could grow or purchase locally.

Listen to NPR's Science Friday as the discussion turns to eating locally.

Check out Slow Food Utah's great collection of food-related streaming audio and video.

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Dancing Doe Farms

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

EARTH DAY!

A Family Farm

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