USDA Announces Framework for Shoring Up the Food Supply Chain and Transforming the Food System to Be Fairer, More Competitive, More Resilient

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ^ | June 1, 2022 | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

[orsonwb]

WASHINGTON, June 1, 2022 - Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is announcing details of a framework to transform the food system...

[Rusty0604]

Newport, Oregon? I’ve picked blueberries at a farm near there.

[woodbutcher1963]

I understand the biggest issue now with raising cattle is getting someone to butcher them for you. This is based on what I have read on this forum.

My daughter is thinking about meat rabbits.
You can raise them in a much smaller space and you can butcher them yourself.

[woodbutcher1963]

I am in southern NH. I planted two apple trees, one peach and two cherry trees two years ago in the fall.
They came from a local nursery here in NH. Not from some big wholesaler out west.
The peach tree did not survive the first year even though I wrapped them in burlap the first winter.
The local nursery gave me another one to replace it.
So far I have probably picked a pint of cheeries and a half dozen apples.

Three years ago I planted seven blueberry bushes. I bought them from a guy over near Keene, NH that was plowing under 2 acres of bushes to make horse pasture. He said the plants were all 20 years old. They have been producing fruit, BUT I have to buy nets because the DARN TURKEYS strip them bare in a couple days.

Blackberries grow wild around here. No reason to plant them.

[metmom]

Back in NY I knew someone who had a blueberry farm and he said that the turkeys were good to have around because they’d even eat the bad ones that fell on the ground that would harbor insects. It was less spraying they’d have to do.

I don’t know how he protected his crop otherwise, but it was a HUGE field and I don’t doubt that during the day the turkeys steered clear because it was so busy. Too many people.

[Pollard]

I bought two heat mats and LED grow lights this year.

This is about the best article I found on Tokyo Turnips kitchen basics https://harvesttotable.com/tokyo_turnip/

I've never had them or even regular turnips before. I'll be trying them tonight most likely.

The thing that amazed me most was the tiny amount of roots that made a bulb and edible leaves. Just a small tap root with hairs on it.

The bulb ends up 1/3 to 2/3 underground. The ones in the pic above must have been pretty big because mine don't have that knob that the leaves are growing out of. Mine are more like this. My roots look like above though so I guess the ones below were snipped and cleaned for the pic.

Turnip greens/leaves actually have a lot more nutrition than the root. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnip#Nutrition

Must be why a lot of recipes say to use the leaves as a bed when steaming the root and then eat both. I'll have to keep that in mind because I left mine on the counter overnight so the leaves were thoroughly wilted. From now on, I'll pick them right before cooking or at least pick them in the morning and put them in the fridge drawer for that night.

Great crop for succession planting. I didn't bother trying that this year because I was learning so much for the first time already. All of my gardening has been from seed potatoes and purchased plants, mostly tomatoes. I did do direct seed peas, cucumbers and green beans a couple of times.

[metmom]

NH.

[woodbutcher1963]

I think if you have a huge field you just figure that the birds are going to take a percentage. Of course, turkeys were non existent back in the 1970s.

I remember going to large PYO fields in WNY state south of Buffalo. They had the guns that would go off every 15 minutes to keep the birds away. They also had fake owls around the field. Turkeys are great for eating ticks and grubs. However, when you have a flock of nine birds hanging around 24/7, they could eat all the blueberries off of my seven bushes in a day.

I just bought netting on Amazon.

[woodbutcher1963]

Speaking of keeping birds away, I was in Cabo San Lucas, MX in April. The resort paid a guy to walk through the pool/outdoor restaurant areas with his Hawk severasl times a day.
Just this guy walking around with the hawk kept all the smaller birds and iguanas away. If not they said that the little birds would land right on your table/lounge chair and steal french fries, etc right off your plate.

It was pretty cool. I had never seen anything like that before. The bird handler said he went between a few different resorts along the coast.

[metmom]

There’s worse ways of making a living.

[metmom]

We have flocks of turkeys wander through our yard on occasion.

I wish they’d eat more ticks.

[woodbutcher1963]

“I wish they'd eat more ticks.”

Ticks are terrible here this year. Probably because our winter was so mild. I do not think it ever went below zero.

I sprayed about a month ago with cedar oil. It seemed to work for about three weeks. Just in the last couple days we are starting to see them on the dogs again. I do not want to spray with Permetherin again because I guess that kills the bees too.

[metmom]

What a difference a few miles makes.

We had some pretty cold weather this winter. We are having less trouble with ticks this year than last. Last year was horrible in this part of the state.

We did permethrin on the lawn around the house, but nothing else.

This year I went with beneficial insects and nematodes. I got mine at Arbico Organics, but Nature’s Good Guys is much cheaper.

My praying mantis egg cases just hatched last night so they are now spread around the garden. I will be on the lookout for egg cases this fall and harvesting them for next year.