Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

When you see your Government at work - remember to ask if they have warrants

Nevada Health Dept. Shuts Down Gourmet Farm Dinner– “Pour Clorox on the Food”

November 11, 2011

By Augie - cross posted from Journal of Natural Food and Health

Folks, you can’t make this stuff up; although for a moment I thought it was– like an exaggerated satire from The Onion. The health inspector arrived shortly before the guests sat down to chow down–down on the farm. The farm fresh gourmet menu was not fit for the pigs or composting and had to be sanitized with Clorox and put in the garbage. Apparently, the health department inspector is on a mission from God to protect and promote the health of the planet by preventing a potential disease pandemic–even at private dinners on farms. After all, they cut vegetables without state permission, making them a “unlicensed food processor”–among other violations.

During this fiasco, FTCLDF’s General Counsel, Gary Cox, was called and he simply suggested that they apply our fundamental constitutional right to be protected against “unlawful search and seizure.” Gary said to ask two questions.  “Do you have a search warrant?”  “Do you have an arrest warrant?” That put the fear of God into the inspector because she then ran off. Now I would have added one other statement for the inspector: “you may be subjected to personal liabilities with civil and criminal penalties for your actions in the line of public service.” That could have caused a different kind of running off.– Augie

Here is the letter from  Monte and Laura Bledsoe from Quail Hollow Farm (Source: Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund) .

October 24, 2011

Dearest Guests, (You have all become dear to us!)
What an evening we had this last Friday night!  It had all the makings of a really great novel: drama, suspense, anticipation, crisis, heroic efforts, villains and victors, resolution and a happy ending.

The evening was everything I had dreamed and hoped it would be. The weather was perfect, the farm was filled with friends and guests roaming around talking about organic, sustainable farming practices. Our young interns were teaching and sharing their passion for farming and their role in it.  (A high hope for our future!)  The pig didn’t get loose.

Our guests were excited to spend an evening together. The food was prepared exquisitely.  The long dinner table, under the direction of dear friends, was absolutely stunningly beautiful. The music was superb. The stars were bright and life was really good.

Seven Springs Farm

I have been told that Seven Springs Farm was a great source of organic farming supplies ever since I moved to Floyd, but I could never seem to locate the place. This weekend, Gretchen and I got directions from a new settler and we picked up supplies and plants for our deck gardens.

They still have lots of lettuce, herbs and tomatoes as well as a few perennials. We were shown around by Dane Elder who is shown here behind a selection of lettuce varieties. The plants are exceptionally healthy.



I also picked up some covering material for my gardens. They have two kinds, a lightweight sunscreen for summer and a heavy duty material for use in the winter. I am experimenting with the light weight covering to keep birds off my strawberries and to keep the new plantings from burning while they adapt to outdoor life.

After five years of hearing about Seven Springs Farm and getting vague directions like "It's over there off Kings Store Road", I had come to the conclusion that it was one of Floyd's best kept secrets or perhaps I just couldn't get there from here.

Their prices and service were excellent and I wanted to show my appreciation by providing a map that actually shows where they are located. You can Google Seven Springs Farm and you will get their webpage 7springsfarm.com but the maps are not expandable.

Thanks to all who told me about Seven Springs Farm. It was everything they said it was.

It's time to move on and start building a future

Now that the election results are in, I am preparing for the oncoming winter. I built a few cold frame covers for my horse feeder deck planters.

Bob Grubel gave me some mixed greens and lettuce which will supply salad fixings for a few more months and in the early spring. His generosity has given me new inspiration to create a series of late fall garden plots and raised beds.

Because I don't believe in the global warming myth, I am covering my raised garden beds with steel mesh frames and heavy plastic sheets and will figure out how to warm the frames when the temperatures dive.

Like most of my Floyd County neighbors, I am laying in more firewood than ever before. This year we have twice what we cut and stacked last year.

As for the elections, I am happy that so many people came out and voted. The election results will hopefully stand as a more exact reflection of the wishes of the electorate as opposed to a behind the scenes minority.

It will be interesting to see if we are actually pulling back from a headlong embrace of socialism and pausing to reflect on what could be accomplished if we followed the Constitution and existing laws.

Given a clear choice, I think most people would choose to work for their pay and resent attempts to "share the wealth" with those who are here illegally.

Government handouts always have a price tag. More money goes into the system than ever comes out and the recipients hope that others will pick up the bill. Once that starts, it is an easy matter to demonize those who supply the money.

Our government has shown that it does not understand business and why profits are necessary. Free enterprise is the best chance to rebuild our economy and we don't need government czars to meddle with the process.

Making a raised planter out of a horse feeder

The favorite way of using this kind of trough feeder as a planter is to build in a reservoir to hold a supply of water before putting in the potting soil. This gives you a planter which will require less water and fewer waterings.

Tape over any holes in the bottom of the trough and then drill a series of 3/4 inch diameter drain holes in the walls of the trough about 1 1/2 inches above the bottom as shown here. When the water depth gets over 1 1/4 inches deep, the excess water will drain out through the drain holes. I put drain holes only on one side of the planter so that water would drain toward the outside of the deck and not all over the deck floor.

If you want to prevent your soil from running out the drain holes, use a sheet of landscape cloth to line the trough. If you don't have access to landscape cloth, sheets of cardboard will keep the soil from running out with the water.

Put a generous inch of gravel in the bottom of the trough to act as a reservoir. Even layers of newspaper will do. If you don't have access to gravel, fill the reservoir space with Perlite or Vermiculate. Anything that is inert and non-water absorbent will do. Marbles, broken pottery, even bits of brick can be used.


Once your reservoir space is filled to the bottom of the drain holes, cover the filler with landscape cloth or sheets of corrugated cardboard. Acually anything inert that allows water to percolate through will be fine.

Make up a potting soil of 1/3 Perlite or vermiculate, 1//3 composted manure, and 1/3 topsoil and mix it thoroughly.  The final mixture should be light and easy to work with.

Fill the trough with the potting soil and cut off any surplus landscape cloth or cardboard and you are ready to plant

This potting soil is about 1/2 as heavy as an equivalent amount of top soil and your planter will be light enough to move if needed.

The runners on the bottom make it quite easy to rearrange the planter on a deck or on a patio.

Micro-Gardening is great for your morale

It has been 37 days since my last micro-garden update and things seem to be going well. In our part of Floyd, VA, the weather has been mostly cool and rainy with a few days of bright sunshine in the past few weeks.

One end of the deck has been devoted to the micro garden and it is a green oasis of peace and quiet where we can putter around with our morning cup of coffee and the cats find it to be a cool refuge in the heat of the day.

Most of our vegetables are thriving and none were damaged by the heavy rains of the past few weeks. The potting soil recipe I borrowed from the Square Foot Gardening people has worked beautifully and we have had few weeds and almost no insect damage.

The plants have grown so much that it has been necessary to separate the containers by a foot or more to avoid crowding. As you can see, the sunflower and the sugar peas are taller than I am. We now have some home-grown vegetables on the table every day.

We have enjoyed lettuce and onion greens (in salad) for several weeks. One of our tomato plants produces a few sweet yellow grape tomatoes which are so good they never make it into the kitchen. The big tomatoes are finally ripening and we should be eating them later this week.

We have been eating the sugar peas, but they will be even better in a few days.

We planted several different kinds of beans and the first crop is almost ready for the cooking pot.

We have weeks to go before the carrots are ready and I have no idea how long it will take for the parsnips and the squash to mature, but we are enjoying the bounty of our garden and it takes very little work.
The results are not in yet for our upside-down tomatoes although Gretchen says they are beginning to put on a growth spurt and may produce tomatoes this season.

The squash are still small, but they look healthy and I have great hopes for them. We will just have to wait and see.

I plan on doubling the number of containers next year and planting some early Spring vegetables as well.
 

I don't think we are saving any money this year, but we are taking control of some of our food production, learning a lot of new skills, and are enjoying it immensely.

Our small garden gives us a greater appreciation of the problems that our neighboring farmers have to deal with.

If the economy continues on its downward trend, we'll need to sharpen our gardening skills further and be ready to grow as much food as possible.

That will entail getting a roto-tiller and stringing more electric fencing. Next years project...