Senate Bill 676, passed by the 2009 Oregon Legislature, permits production and possession of industrial hemp and trade in industrial hemp commodities and products.
Read more: http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/CID/ind_hemp.shtml
With all the cold weather we had here the last few weeks i have had to take measures to ensure that our water supply didn’t freeze. One of the things i do is put a light bulb and a brooder heater in the pump house to keep the temperature above 32.
I have a friend that comes and stays with us on some of his off days (works out of town a lot) and he happened to be staying with us one evening as i was readying a brooder heater and asked me what it was. So i explain it to him, a brooder heater is a small lamp burner on a wide metal base used to keep brooder houses and pump sheds heated in the winter but those are one two of there uses. I use mine to dry out my old truck after a day in the field or defrost it on a cold morning (the heater has died) i have also seen them used to keep small green houses warm on cool spring nights and mild winters.
One of the questions my friend asked was what does it burn. The short answer is kerosene but Miles gives a better explination of oil powered appliance fuels here.
I use Odorless Mineral Spirits that can be had at the local hardware store and come in a jug like this.
You can get wicks for most brooder heaters and flat wick oil lamps here.
In short a brooder heater is a small oil fired heater that has a lot of uses and can be picked up on eBay for less that $20, for more information check out Miles Stair’s Mini Kerosene Heaters From Around the World.
I have two unused micro-farming domains and would like to see them put to use, i am interested in selling or leasing them (with hosting).
Oregonmicrofarm.com
oregonmicrofarm.org
Remember the farm bill, that monstrously complex, twice-a-decade omnibus legislation that shapes US agriculture and hunger policy? You know, the one that Michael Pollan and other sustainable foodies wrote so much about four years ago? Well, it’s back, earlier than expected (the last one doesn’t expire until 2012). And it has found itself caught in the crosshairs of DC budget hysteria-in a way that will likely reinforce the worst, most agribiz-friendly elements of US ag policy and defund the best parts, including programs that help farmers transition to organic and help communities start new farmers markets.
What gives?
Handcrafted Goat’s Milk Soaps with all the finest ingredients. We use the highest quality oils of Coconut, Olive, Palm, Canola, and Castor. We make our soaps with 100% Goat’s Milk, Goat’s milk enriches the skin adding nutrients and is becoming one of the most sought after body care treatments worldwide!
Sometimes on a small farm it’s nice to have things that serve more than one purpose . Ducks are an example of this, they make eggs, eat slugs, and fertilize. Another example of an multi purpose animal is the llama. Llamas are a camelid, they have two toes, sure feet, and lots of wool. (See the WIKI here.) Llamas are also fierce defenders of the homeland and will protect sheep, goats and other animals in their territory instinctively. Lamas are browsers (meaning they eat grass and leaves) and very hardy, so You don’t have to worry about what they’re going to eat next. They will eat almost anything green. Getting started with llamas is not as hard as one might think and there are plenty of people locally that will be willing to help you get a start and point you in the right direction. Most places in the US have a llama breeder locally but be careful to pick a reputable one. Some breeders are not as good as they would like you to think,k so ask around for opinions. Raising a llama from a cria is a good option, but Llamas are very intelligent and it takes a lot of patience to train them right from the beginning. They pick up bad habits fast and they never forget. (ever) Feeding llamas is easy in the sense that they will eat almost anything, We use our llama, Emilie, as a lawnmower/ brush cutter and only really find the need to add hay to her diet in the winter when nothing is growing. The rest of the year we only supplement her diet with wet-cob. Llamas require little water, which gave rise to the myth that they don’t drink. I can assure you this is not true. Llamas need water just like any other carbon based life form, so you will need to have clean water for your llamas when they want it (which won’t be very often). Llamas also make good pack and cart animals. We use Emilie to pack on camping trips and day trips in the summer. A full grown Llama can carry a good load but the amount will vary depending on the size of the animal. Emilie can carry 30lbs all day long in fair to middling terrain but is half alpaca so she is a bit small. So now you know the good, its on to the bad. Llamas are notoriously ill-tempered creatures, but this is due to a lot of things; temperament, personality, training, and handling all contribute to this. If a llama has been abused or mistreated You are more likely to get spat upon. Spit, O yes spit, It will happen and it will happen to you and it will stink but it is not as a general rule dangerous to you and can be curbed if you know why they spit. Llama spit can say a lot; tired, frustrated, don’t like you, afraid, etc., etc., so it has to be taken in context. If you’re training and you get spat upon, take time to think about what’s going on and a lot of the time the cause will become apparent. If your llama does spit a lot and you can’t find out why, it may just not like you. Remember they spit to intimidate you into not doing what you’re doing, so if you spit bigger they will get the idea and stop after a while, but try and understand why they are spitting first. It will make life much easier for everyone. As mentioned before, llamas are fearless warriors and will protect sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens with the utmost courage so if you have sheep you might want to look at one for that purpose but remember, they might be protecting the sheep from you so choose wisely. The last great hurdle for spinners is hair, llamas have hair interspersed with their wool that has to be removed prior to spinning. A llama should be sheared every two years, so its not a huge deal. Last but not least llamas, don’t have hoofs, they have toes, with nails, that must be trimmed, and as a general rule they don’t like it. It is also somewhat of an art-form so when starting out it might be good to have someone with some know-how show you how.
Good luck and happy Farming.
Winter Lake participates in a farmers market. The farmers market customers demand the freshest produce possible. It was reasoned that the freshest produce is picked immediately before sale to the customers. To find the best ways of getting the freshest produce to the customers, several methods were tried. The most successful method was to grow the produce in boxes that were taken to the market. The produce was harvested from the boxes in the presence of the customer and the sale was made. This resulted in the freshest produce available. This method was very popular with the customers. They had the experience of seeing the produce harvested and also having the freshest produce possible. This method was simple to implement and had few drawbacks. One produce item grown was lettuce. When lettuce is harvested for sale, it quickly grows limp if not refrigerated. At farmers markets, it is hard to keep the lettuce fresh. Another problem is that unsold lettuce does not store well and so is usually composted, resulting in a loss of income. To overcome the drawbacks of lettuce, boxes were tried as a growing method. This proved successful with lettuce. The lettuce variety grown was a short type of Romaine lettuce. The best soil was a rich, slightly sandy loam. The minimum soil depth was six inches. The largest boxes used for the market were eighteen inches by eighteen inches. Larger boxes proved to be too heavy to conveniently transport. The lettuce was sown in a grid with a spacing of three inches. When the lettuce was three inches high, it was thinned to six inches. This allowed for seed germination failure. The lettuce box was completely filled when harvesting started. Harvesting was done when the lettuce was nine inches high. One problem with growing lettuce in boxes and pots was that the watering is critical. Lettuce can be grown slightly dry. If too much water is used, the heads tend to rot off at ground level. The overall quality of the lettuce was high. There was no waste due to unsold lettuce. The customers liked having the lettuce harvested in front of them and all the lettuce sold. Instead of pulling the lettuce up by the roots, the head was cut off two inches above the soil line. This allowed the cut lettuce to produce a second crop of lettuce. Each lettuce root produced three to five miniature heads of lettuce for sale. The miniature heads were marketed as second cut lettuce. All the secondary crop of lettuce was sold with no waste. The overall quality of the secondary lettuce was high.
Although most onions can take drought, many types will produce much better if watered regularly. Walking onions are no different. When walking onions send up the scape and seed, the scape dies. The onion left in the ground does not grow until the fall rains start. The question at hand was: If watering is commenced immediately after harvesting of the seeds, will the onions grow and produce a good crop before fall?
To answer this question, an experiment was devised. The old scapes would be removed and watering would commence immediately. The onion patch involved was in the greenhouse, in the south west corner. The onion patch had been planted the previous fall and watered until the scapes had started to die at the tops. Watering had not been done for approximately thirty days prior to the start of the experiment. The watering schedule would be once a day, in the early morning, around eight o’clock.
The following are the ongoing results.
Aug. 12- trimmed scape foliage back, started watering.
Aug. 16- first green onion sprouts appeared. Three sprouts total were in evidence, each approximately one and one half inches tall.
Aug. 17- Approximately one half of the onions are now sprouting. The largest sprouts are now two and one half inches high.
April 30, 2009 A long winter has ensued. Several issues have kept me from finishing this report. This experiment was concluded successfully. The results were that all the onions sprouted and grew well, with many getting over two feet high. They were harvested in November and the largest seeds were replanted outside of the green house. They grew well all winter and are now about 16 inches high on average. Some of them are now putting up seed scapes.
May 13, 2009 Update Here is a picture of the onions that were planted from the seeds from the above experiment. The seeds were selected for three to five topsets each and for the largest size. They are doing well.
This was a very successful experiment. The onions grew well and produced a fall crop of onions. Our weather here is mild and they didn’t freeze hard, so they also produced onions all winter.
Walking onions put up a scape with a seed head, also called a topset, in the spring. The topset falls over and the seeds take root in the fall when the rains start, thus ?walking? the plant to a different place. Meanwhile, the mother plant also produces another plant in the original spot. There are at least two kinds of walking onions. One type, an Egyptian walking onion, has a single mother bulb that grows larger every year. It grows approximately seven years and then dies. The topsets will have reseeded new plants by then. The topsets get up to three inches in diameter. The topsets are harvested and the mother bulb is left to grow. Every year, the topsets get bigger. There are usually three topsets on each plant but there may be as many as five topsets. The second type of walking onion is like a shallot, in that in the spring, the mother bulb breaks up into several separate plants. Each plant sends up a set of topsets and the cycle starts over again. This type of onion requires more effort to cultivate. However, it will produce an edible onion product almost all year long. To cultivate this onion, first separate the daughter plants in the early spring, as soon as they are broken up into separate plants. Replant them singly in a grid with a spacing of four to six inches. In a few weeks, they will produce edible green onions that are good for salads. They are also excellent for grilling and stir frying. The next product is the edible topsets. If the plants are selected for three to five large top sets, the topsets will be up to two inches or larger in diameter. These topsets are used in any regular onion way, sliced or diced, cooked or raw. Meanwhile, at the base of the plant, the mother onion will be producing another onion. If these onions had been adequately watered , the bottom onion can be as large as three inches in diameter. This onion is also used in any of the usual onion ways. If only the best topsets are replanted, the plants will eventually produce enough onion products for all year, as the bulbs store well in refrigeration. These walking onions are rarely attacked by pests and they tolerate drought well. They naturalize quickly and can be used in permanent plantings. However, larger onions only result from proper cultivation.