Growing mushrooms can be a great way to diversify your wares at your local farmers market and be an additional food source for your family. But raising them does come with special considerations.
John Lawton and his wife, Susan, raise mushrooms at their Possum Bottom Farms in Whitwell, Tennessee. Lawton, a former electrical engineer, feels that it’s his analytical background that allows him to make a success of his business. He was first introduced to mushroom cultivation by a business partner in Charleston, South Carolina, who had started growing mushrooms for restaurants. The idea of raising them on his 70-acre farm quickly took root.
“We tried selling hay. But if I’ve got hay, everybody has hay,” Lawton says. “It was the same way with corn and tomatoes. But I looked around, and nobody was growing mushrooms.”
A Complex Process
It didn’t take long for Lawton to realize that a certain level of difficulty is involved. “It is complex,” Lawton says. “You have to wear many different hats. It is not just the cultivation. It is the lab work and the systems.” But it’s the level of difficulty that Lawton finds attractive.
Lawton says that one aspect of many that set his farm apart is his methods of cultivation. “We grow in climate-controlled conditions,” he says. “Most everyone else is growing at room temperature.”
Lawton describes his climate-controlled conditions as a temperature of between 55 and 60 degrees with 90 percent humidity. “We also control the CO2,” he says. “Some of the mushrooms are sensitive to CO2 because they breathe oxygen and exhale CO2 just like we do. You have to constantly flush the rooms when they are in the fruiting cycle, and you have to constantly flush the rooms to keep the CO2 from building up.”
The benefit of growing in climate-controlled conditions is that he can set the timetable for harvesting, adding that he and Susan set their harvest time for Thursdays and Fridays to be prepared for their Saturday market. Although this process is a more expensive method, it’s well worth the investment in terms of product consistency.
“It’s more expensive to grow this way and, consequently, we have to sell more mushrooms,” he says. “We operate more on a volume level where we sell a little bit cheaper, but we go for a bigger haul.”
Lawton adds that consistency in product quality and amount is what his customers seek. This practice allows him to target the largest markets in Tennessee. “The smaller markets don’t work for us,” he says.
Marketing Mushrooms
In addition to being raised in climate-controlled conditions, the Lawtons raise their mushroom on blocks. “All of the mushrooms we take to market are farmed,” he says. “We do not do any wild cultivation or wild harvest.”
The Lawtons primarily use social media, mostly Facebook and Instagram, to market their product. They also have a presence on Google and their website, PossumBottomFarms.com.
Initially, the Lawtons wanted to sell their mushrooms to restaurants because they felt this would provide a steady demand as opposed to setting up at local farmer’s markets. But what they soon discovered was exactly the opposite.
“It was much easier to sell large quantities at a farmers market,” he says. But there is a caveat. “The smaller markets don’t work,” he says. “You have to be in a large market.”
He gives examples of the markets he frequents in the Franklin, Murfreesboro and Knoxville, Tennessee, areas, he says, that cater to foodies. Lawton says that the difficulty with selling to restaurants comes mainly from staff changes and the financial stability of the restaurants themselves, which translates to a fluctuating demand.
Learning the Ropes
Raising mushrooms is a tricky business. “It took me about two and a half years to learn,” Lawton says. “That was trial and error and learning on my own,” Lawton, who now also offers consultation services, explains. The industry has a high dropout rate of about 85 percent, so Lawton tailors his consultation services only to those already past the basic mushroom cultivation stage. He cites the high failure rate in raising the mushrooms themselves, which often drives people away.
As well, mushrooms, Lawton says, are a limited market. He advises identifying your market before making your first purchases.
“Make sure you have enough of a market to justify the expense,” he says. It also helps to have a solid business plan. To that end, Lawton has developed a system that he calls full-circle farming.
“When you produce mushrooms at the volume that we do, we produce a lot of compost,” Lawton says. “We get to use that compost. It’s free fertilizer.” Lawton takes agricultural waste products such as sawdust, logs and straw that he then uses to cultivate mushrooms. “We use worms to break that back down into compost that we use to grow vegetables, so it completes the circle,” he says.
For those seeking to learn by experimentation, Lawton advises starting with shiitake logs. “They are the cheapest and easiest because they are done outdoors,” he says. “All you need is a shady spot, some logs, a drill and an inoculation tool.
Lawton explains that the purpose of starting at this level is to learn the mushroom cycle. “Learn how to manipulate the logs,” he says. “There are things that you can do to force it to produce mushrooms.”
Another thing you can do, Lawton says, is to purchase logs from another producer. “The hardest part is producing your blocks in the lab because of all of the blue mold,” Lawton says. “It’s the bane of the mushroom farmer’s existence.” Lawton adds that once the mold gets established it’s incredibly hard to get rid of.
“You have to be clean, clean, clean.”
In countries that grow more mushrooms than the United States, the model is to have a lab that produces the cultures, another that produces the growing medium and another that grows the mushrooms. “We’re getting to that stage where you can buy your blocks and not have to produce them yourself,” he says, “which will save you a lot of time and frustration because your contamination rates can be pretty high if you do not have the right setup.” But a noteworthy drawback of purchasing blocks is their expense. “You would have to sell a significant quantity of mushroom, about 100 to 150 pounds per week, to break even,” he says.
For those seeking to purchase blocks yet learn about raising mushrooms on them on a smaller scale, Lawton recommends using a small hobby-framed greenhouse kit. By adding a little humidity, he says, you can learn the process and raise mushrooms in your garage or basement.
A Scalable Product
Expenses notwithstanding, growing mushrooms on blocks are what Lawton feels makes his system very scalable. Prepared blocks are stored in a cooler at a temperature of 40 degrees. In this manner, they are held for up to two months before they are exposed to oxygen, which starts the fruiting cycle. Ten days to two weeks later, they produce mushrooms.
The process allows the Lawtons to adjust their harvest according to need and to target certain prime market periods like Memorial Day weekend, the Fourth of July, Father’s Day, etc. “It’s a little bit more sophisticated system, but it works pretty well,” he says. But, he adds, for this system, it’s critical to keep backups of important components such as exhaust fans, misting system pumps and air conditioners. Losing even one of these, at this level, could cause losses upwards of $15,000 at a time.
Another option is raising oyster mushrooms on straw. While your selection will be limited, oyster mushrooms do offer the opportunity to raise your product on several different substrates, including wheat straw, cardboard, wood chips and various types of soybean hull pellets.
“They are very healthy for you,” Lawton says. “And they are delicious.”
Additional Products
The Lawtons raise a variety of mushrooms including black pearl king oyster, lion’s mane, golden oyster and shiitake, along with mushroom powders. “Anything we don’t sell fresh gets dried and powered for our culinary products,” John Lawton says. To preserve the nutrition of the fresh mushrooms, the Lawtons dry their product at 104 degrees F.
“If you dry over 120 degrees, the chemistry starts to change and you lose flavor,” he says. One of his favorite aspects of raising mushrooms is educating the public about the nutritional aspects, recipes and flavor pairings of culinary mushrooms.
Before COVID-19, the Lawtons also sold pre-inoculated mushroom-producing logs. “They are a pretty easy way to grow mushrooms in your backyard,” he says. However, the pandemic led to an increased demand for firewood, making the hardwood logs that he sought to create these logs increasingly unavailable. He hopes to begin offering the product again this year.
Lawton says that regardless of the reason for your interest in raising mushrooms, they can be a fun learning opportunity and a profitable enterprise if you’re willing to put in the time and research.
Once you have identified your market and learned about the fruiting cycle and how it can be manipulated, Lawton advises that you’re now ready to do some research and identify someone to study under who teaches mushroom cultivation. Attending seminars on the topic is a great option while at the same time advising against watching YouTube videos.
“You only get about 80 percent of what you need to know from those,” he says. Self-taught learning experiences on a small scale coupled with more formal education, when you are ready for it, lead to lower failure rates.
This article originally appeared in the Nov./Dec. 2023 issue of Hobby Farms magazine.
2024 is upon us, and another busy year awaits. Hobby farmers are doubtlessly shopping seed catalogs and planning projects for spring and summer, but overall January can be a (relatively) quiet time of year.
So why not spend some time catching up on cleaning and organizing your barn, garage and/or tool shed? It can be easy to let organization slip during the busiest times of year, when there’s so much to get done and so little time to do it all. That’s why I like to take January to organize my tools and get everything back in order. A clean and organized farm is a productive one.
Tools & Equipment
Let’s focus on tools and equipment. Will your livestock fences need an annual spring checkup for maintenance and repairs? Get a head start by organizing a tool box specifically for fence repair projects. Stuff it full of screws, nails, bolts, zip ties, electric wire insulators, pliers, wire cutters—anything you might need.
Maybe you don’t want to keep your electric drill and hammer permanently in your fence repair tool box, but if you have all the other supplies in one place, it’s easy to add a couple bulkier tools when you’re ready to work on fences.
Having an organized tool box saves you time when you’re ready to get started in the spring.
Manual Labor
Here’s another organizing tip: keep your farm machinery instruction manuals in a single location. Don’t throw them away, and don’t let them scatter into various drawers or cupboards. Because guess what? When it’s time for spring machinery maintenance and you’re trying to figure out what type of spark plugs you need to buy, or what kind of oil your garden tractor uses, it’s faster to grab the manual than to search online for a very specific answer.
Definitely focus on making things tidy and accessible as you organize your tools. Use shelves to get items off the ground and better utilize vertical space. Don’t bury important machines (like the portable gasoline generator you use during power outages) behind items you won’t be using any time soon (like boxes of garden cloches that won’t see action until spring).
Are you struggling to squeeze your garden tractor with a snow blower attachment into a corner of your garage between the rototiller and the string trimmer? Move the rototiller and string trimmer to a toolshed, or the attic, until spring comes and you’re ready to use them. At that time, you can remove the snow blower from your tractor and there will be more room for everything.
Reducing clutter and garbage is important too. If machinery maintenance has left you with nearly empty bottles of oil, coolant or hydraulic fluid, dispose of them properly. And January is a great time of year to address any damaged tools or machines you have. If you can repair any yourself, go for it—maybe your post hole diggers just need a replacement wooden handle. If machines need to be professionally repaired, arrange to have it done.
But if a piece of equipment is at the end of its life, don’t keep it around to clutter up your farm. Whether you’re throwing it away, recycling it, or turning it into scrap, send it on its way.
And don’t forget the small things. If you’re like me and have a lot of extra screws, nails, washers and bolts around for any project that happens to require them, consider organizing them into small transparent drawers so you can easily see what you have. The photo accompanying this article demonstrates what I mean.
Obviously your own organizing needs will vary widely depending on your specific circumstances. But hopefully these examples will spark your determination to organize your tools this January as the start of a productive 2024 farming year.
Well, with eight videos behind us on this farm garden shed build, we’ve now reached the final step before I can call this outbuilding “done.” All that’s left for me to do is put the roof on, and I think this step should go pretty quickly, as I’ve got everything lined up and ready.
First, though, I’m going to put a 2-inch of drip edge on. This step is a matter of personal preference, but I like to add it. For one thing, it dresses up the edge nicely, hiding any minor imperfections on the fascia that might otherwise bother over time. When I install a drop edge, though, I really like to think about how it will look. Check out the video to see how I handle the corners to ensure a clean, gapless edge.
With this step, as with the previous ones, I try to make sure any imperfections that arise occur on the back, where I’m least likely to see them on a daily basis.
Roof Panels
Then it’s time for roof installation, which is both the best and worst part of this garden shed build. It’s the best because the metal roof sheets are going to go up very fast. And it’s the worst part because it will involve cutting metal, which is something I don’t enjoy doing. I prefer using a circular saw with a metal-cutting blade for this, as it’s quicker and easier than some other options. But it’s also noisy and kind of a pain.
Check out the video to see how I cut the metal roofing sheets and some important things to keep in mind while performing this task.
As I install this first piece of metal, it’s crucial to line things up just right so that, as I interlock and install the remaining roofing sheets, things remain true. This step is very important, so take your time getting it right!
Check out the video to watch the roof go on my farm garden shed. At this point, this shed is dried in. I still have to add the trim and build the door—and I’m sure I’ll continue tinkering with the structure over time—but I’m excited to have this building up and ready to go!
Igrew up without any livestock experience. A family dog and some hamsters were the limit of my hands-on animal involvement. As a young adult, though, I became a serious gardener. And when my husband and I read that chickens were good for the garden, eating bugs and scratching up soil while fertilizing, we purchased five chicks. They were the gateway animal to a lifestyle change.
In addition to fantastic eggs and improved garden health, the chickens were entertaining and taught our kids responsibility. The following year, we got more chickens, followed by Pygora goats, because I am a lifelong fan of fiber arts.
I come from a family of quilters and sewers and caught the fiber arts bug early. I learned to spin when on maternity leave, and I thought that by choosing Pygoras, I was getting fiber to spin and weed-eating machines. While goats work very well for some people, they didn’t fit well with us.
While we were working off-farm jobs, the goats would figure out new and exciting ways to make things difficult. They butted downspouts closed, tore up the chicken run and moved everything not incredibly heavy or permanently mounted somewhere. Every time we solved one problem, they came up with a new idea. Because we were juggling two full-time jobs and two active kids, we decided to sell the goats.
However, I missed the daily routine of caring for animals. I wanted Shetland sheep because I love Shetland wool, but I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep them alive. I didn’t have any sheep experience and had heard that it was difficult to keep sheep alive.
As luck would have it, a friend who sheared my goats had two Jacob/Shetland-cross ewes she wanted to sell, and she promised to help me if I encountered problems. The sheep arrived in early spring. Within two months, I was hooked. They didn’t have any signs of illness, limping and ornery problems like the goats we had previously.
That July, I contacted a Shetland breeder a few hours away and purchased three pedigreed ewes. Once I got my hands on pure Shetlands and saw and felt how much softer their wool was than the crossbreeds, I knew the direction our farm was headed. I’ve never looked back.
Super Sheep
Shetland sheep appealed to me as a hand-spinner because of the softness of their wool, and as the person who does most of the work on the farm, at the time accompanied by two small kids, their small size. I love the hardiness and small stature of the breed. They don’t demand constant care to thrive, and middle-school-aged kids can easily handle, flip and take care of them.
Their tails don’t need to be docked, and they’re excellent mothers and fairly parasite resistant. I can haul individual animals, including rams, in a large dog crate or easily lift animals into a transport cage on the back of the truck.
Shetland sheep come in 11 colors and 30 marking patterns, so our sheep can be quickly recognized as individuals. I can look out the kitchen window, see a sheep grazing and instantly know what its name is.
While we each have our favorite sheep, we approach the sheep as a business, not pets. I tell people I work cheap, but not free. And the sheep must pay their own way.
Our main product is wool. We sell hand-spinning fleeces locally and over the internet. Fleeces that don’t sell quickly are processed into roving or yarn which is then sold at craft fairs and online. We also sell breeding stock to new shepherds wanting to raise Shetlands or established breeders looking for new bloodlines. Extra ram lambs or any animal unsuitable for breeding is sold directly to consumers for meat or as a fiber “pet.”
While the small stature of frame of Shetlands doesn’t compare to more highly muscled breeds such as Hampshires and Texels, there are two positives.
First, consumers are willing to pay more for a heritage breed that isn’t commonly available.
Secondly, the small hanging weight is less of a commitment when someone buys a half or whole lamb. There is more demand for our extra ram lambs than we can fill.
We are fortunate enough to have a local processor from whom we retrieve the pelt and any horns, which we use as value-added products. We salt the pelts for about a month, and then send them off to be turned into washable sheepskins. The cost of the final product covers all postage and processing and, depending on fiber length, color and size, may give us more profit than the meat itself.
Horns can be sawed, sanded and drilled to give unique buttons, which knitters love to use with items knitted from 100% Shetland wool. If you look at the whole picture, our Shetland sheep provide my family with quality meat and excellent wool and yarn, and they add income beyond their expenses to the farm account.
Lambing highlights the ease of raising Shetlands. We lamb on pasture, and they almost always proceed with minimal intervention. It’s always exciting to see how the ram/ewe combinations we select produce, not just in terms of conformation and breed characteristics, but consistent soft, crimpy fine fleece colors and markings. We sometimes lease out a ram or breed ewes for other folks as well.
To Get Started
So how do you start if I’ve convinced you that Shetlands would be a wonderful addition to your farm or homestead? What infrastructure do you need in place?
1. Fencing
Good fences keep sheep in and predators out. You can use woven wire or high tensile, although you need more strands and some lower to the ground, compared to typical cattle fencing. Due to Shetlands’ small size, their stocking rate is higher than large breeds so you don’t need huge acreage to keep a healthy flock. You can also use electronet fencing to subdivide pastures for rotational grazing for ewes and lambs.
2. Grass
Shetlands do best on grass and hay. My sheep get very little grain unless pregnant or nursing lambs. If you’ve never kept sheep on your pasture, ask an extension agent to walk it with you looking for noxious plants.
In the summer, stock up on some hay. I used to feed square bales but have switched to round bales because they’re so much cheaper. I think a lot about how to feed hay to my Shetlands to avoid contaminating their fleece with vegetable matter, which decreases the value of their fleece to hand spinners. I feed hay low to the ground but not on the ground, and I position hay racks so that I don’t carry hay over sheep to fill the rack.
3. Feed & Mineral
Sheep are sensitive to copper, so don’t feed sheep any rations mixed for other livestock. They should have free-choice sheep minerals available, and some shepherds offer free-choice baking soda and plain salt as well. If you can feed out of the rain, or offer minerals out of the rain, it’ll last longer. Don’t forget clean fresh water! A 5-gallon bucket will get you through a day.
4. Shelter
Shetlands are hardy, and wool is insulating. Shetland fleece will shed water in the rain. As a result, Shetlands need little shelter. My rams never spend a night in the barn, and my ewes get two nights after lambing. That is for my convenience, not necessity. They prefer to be outside.
They always have access to a shelter to get out of bad storms and for shade in the summer, but it doesn’t need to be a big barn. Use what you have. I’ve seen good shelters made by bending livestock panels and putting a tarp over the arch. I do use lambing pens inside the barn and move each ewe in a few days after lambing. We made them out of livestock panels we cut to size and stapled to the wooden inside bar wall.
5. Halter/Lead Rope
Some would say this is optional, but it isn’t just for the show ring. Being able to lead sheep around easily or have them lined up ready to hand over to a shearer makes things easy in the long run.
6. Health Maintenance
I do almost all sheep vet care myself. I vaccinate, trim hooves, deworm and take temperatures myself. To do that, you’ll need some supplies that are available at most local feed-supply stores. I do maintain a relationship with a mobile large animal veterinarian in case of emergencies.
7. Shearing Plan
Shetland sheep need sheared each year. Most breeders do it in the spring. Some do it themselves, and others pay a shearer to come. Regardless of which path you choose, the wool is valuable, and you should formulate a plan in advance for getting it off the sheep!
Shetland sheep are easy to handle, hardy and thrifty. Their track record at lambing and mothering is outstanding, and they produce wool and meat that can be used by the producer or sold to offset other costs. Breeders also find great support through the North American Shetland Sheepbreeders Association and fellow breeders, which helps set new shepherds up for success.
This article originally appeared in the Nov./Dec. 2023 issue of Hobby Farms magazine.
Courtesy Braden J. Campbell, State Small Ruminant Extension Specialist, The Ohio State University
For hobby farmers and serious homesteaders who keep grazing animals, holistic grass management—the best kind of rotational grazing—is the gold standard. After all, grass is free food, daily sunlight captured to feed our cows, sheep and other ruminants. Good grass management is how we keep that sunlight harvest happening and happening well. Small-paddock, short-duration grazing, with a long rest and complete recovery before the animals return, grows more grass of higher nutritional value and pumps carbon into our soils for sustained fertility and improved rainfall retention.
First, you must get comfortable with the holistic grazing routine with daily moves, handling and moving temporary fence, and gauging paddock size and forage composition. Then, you’ll observe the benefits of intensive rotation for your livestock’s health. Now, it’s time to take grass management to the next level. A whole season worth of untapped benefits waits for you in the form of winter grazing.
Winter Grazing
In most of North America, pastures don’t do a lot of growing in winter. However, if you approach the dormant season with stockpiling, your livestock can reap many benefits over feeding hay. The Natural Resources Conservation Service, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, defines stockpiling as “allowing standing forage to accumulate for grazing at a later period, often for fall and winter grazing after dormancy.”
The advantages include the same benefits as with grazing at any other time of the year. Manure and residual forage stay on the pasture in winter, so grazing means fertilizing, too. Also, when animals move to clean ground every day, they avoid the pathogen buildups that frequently become a problem during winter confinement. With daily moves, impact is under regular observation, so pugging and compaction of the soil can be avoided.
In addition to all these year-round benefits, grazing winter stockpile brings big bonuses in the form of improved animal nutrition. Maybe it will surprise you to know that stockpiled forage (mature pasture plants saved for the winter) often surpasses good hay for nutritional value. Yes, we mean that the grass out standing in our pasture in winter provides higher levels of nutrition than the hay in our barns. Our cows stay fatter on pasture than under cover, and they make more—and more nutritious—milk.
The first year we put cows in the field for the winter, it was because we were short on hay and space in the barn. A neighbor’s field hadn’t been mown in ages, and the grass, weeds and briars stood high. It didn’t look too good, but we took a chance and began rotating two yearling steers over the pasture. Their only shelter was periodic access to the tree line. Meanwhile, all the other cows were in the barn, out of the weather, eating decent-quality square bales.
It was an especially cold, snowy winter, with plenty of opportunity to find out if this was going to work. By spring, the jury was in. The barn-kept cows looked fine, or so we would have said before. They were maybe a little on the scraggy side but were robust and hearty. However, they couldn’t compare with the winter-
pastured animals.
The stockpile animals were fatter, fluffier and shinier. Their fur almost sparkled. Their energy was higher. In spring, they even shed off early. They were just better all-around animals—after spending a winter in the field in all weathers, eating standing forage. Not surprisingly, after that experience, we began moving the whole farm toward winter grazing.
courtesy MUExtension417
Stockpiling
First, we had to learn to make stockpile. Because stockpiled forage, despite the success of our first wonderful experiment on the neighbor’s neglected field, isn’t just old grass. Stockpiled forage is pasture that has been reset—grazed or mowed—so that its late-summer regrowth is mature and ready to graze when winter closes in and growth stops.
In our region—northern Appalachia, zone 6—we usually stockpile from July to mid-August. That means we graze in July and August those parts of the farm we want to have available for early the next year, January through mid-April. The grazing goal is to remove top growth on the plants in those pastures so that they’ll begin growing again. This new plant material, when cold temperatures and short days halt growth for good, will make standing forage to feed the livestock in winter.
Stockpile season will vary, of course, depending on your location, pasture plants and winter climate. But it shouldn’t be too difficult to learn the right times for stockpiling in your region. Around here, mid-summer forage regrowth tends to be slow, so recovery of pastures during the stockpile season (July/August) is gradual. Then when September arrives, with its cooler nights and (hopefully!) more frequent rainfall, plants really take off. By November, when pasture growth pretty much halts for winter, the area we grazed in the heat of summer is tall and lush once more.
Almost anywhere in the temperate U.S., you’ll see a similar pattern. Your local NRCS office may be able to help you with dates or even put you in touch with a local grazier or grazing group. Check your gardening map for local rainfall patterns and average first frost dates. These can be helpful.
In any case, just try it. After all, you’re just trying to grow good grass, and the grass wants to help you.
Not Just Any Old Grass
So what makes forage stockpile? So far, we’ve just been practicing standard holistic rotations, right? Well, this is stockpile because you’re going to stockpile it—that is, you’re going to hang on to it until you need it. For us, that starts in January. You’re not going to come back to this part of the pasture in your regular rotation because you’re saving it for winter.
This mature, mid-summer grown grass is special. It’s nutritious and somewhat ligneous (woody). This makes it able to stand up against whatever weather the winter throws at it. The mid-summer regrowth we stockpile is more ligneous than later fall regrowth, so we want to hang on to it for when it’s needed.
For fall and early winter, when our stockpile is off-limits, we’re on the rest of the pasture, where we’ll gradually shift to smaller paddocks, leaving less residual as the growing season slows down. That’s because none of this year’s leaves will survive the winter, so we won’t need them for future photosynthesis. We can just leave enough coverage to protect our soil through the winter.
Generally, we get almost two passes over this half of the farm, because the paddocks grazed in September, and even early October, will regrow enough for a second grazing in early winter. When we run out of grass on this second pass, that’s when we move onto the stockpile.
courtesy Practical Farmers of Iowa
Grazing Stockpiled Forage
Grazing stockpile is almost just like any other good holistic grazing—limited paddock size, short duration impact and long rest with complete recovery.
Water can be an issue where temperatures drop much below freezing, so you may have to leave a lane open back to the barn or frost-free tank. Back fencing—erecting fences to prevent animals going back to regraze new growth—is less necessary during dormancy, but it’s important to monitor animal impact to prevent soil compaction. We give our animals a new paddock every day and backfence when it’s practicable, to keep impact and manure distribution as even as possible.
Grazing impact—how much forage is left after grazing and how heavily the ground is trampled—is something else that can be different in winter. During the growing season, the residual forage serves two primary purposes.
First: It protects the soil from erosion by wind or water and keeps ground temperatures in the comfort zone for soil life.
Second: Because those left-over green leaves are still capable of photosynthesis, they’re still providing the grazed plant with energy for regrowth.
Winter forage, on the other hand, is almost entirely dead leaves, finished with photosynthesis forever. It still protects the soil as a physical barrier, but it’ll never feed the parent plant again. Instead, when the plant resumes growth in spring, it’ll get the energy for regrowth from its own roots. So winter grazing residuals can be planned with soil protection in mind but without making provision for regrowth energy. This means you can graze a winter pasture a little more closely than you would in summer.
courtesy Seth Nagy
Four-Season Sustainability
Winter grazing can do so much for your farm! It lets you utilize more forage more of the time, and it also puts manure where it belongs: on the pasture. In addition, by keeping livestock on pasture year-round, we’re building toward long-term herd wisdom—that hereditary knowledge of pasture and forage plants passed down through a herd or flock, telling the members what to eat, when to eat it and why.
Fred Provenza, a professor emeritus of behavioral ecology in the department of wildland resources at Utah State University, says that winter confinement interrupts ecological foraging patterns, putting nutritionally discriminating animals on a single-source diet and effectively dumbing them down.
The homestead or hobby farm shouldn’t be just a petting zoo. We want our farming to be viable in every way: economically, socially and ecologically. And for these goals, stockpiled forage is an indispensable tool, saving us money, increasing local independence, and deepening ecological complexity. Winter grazing wins on every count.
More Information
Hay vs. Stockpile
We were really surprised when our local Natural Resources Conservation Service technician told us that well-
prepared stockpiled forage tests higher in nutrients than good second-cutting barn hay. When we began grazing our dairy cows in the winter, though, we saw the results for ourselves.
First, there is the appearance and behavior of the animals themselves. Our pastured cows stay fat and fluffy all winter long.
And because milk cows through the winter, we have another metric to observe: milk. While cows make less volume of milk in the winter, the milk components (food solids) from our stockpile-
fed cows go way up. Our winter milk from stockpile is almost half cream by volume—yes, half—and that cream is higher in butterfat than summer cream. And when we use winter stockpile milk for making cheese, we get 60 to 70 percent more cheese per gallon of milk. That’s a huge difference!
We never saw those gains from hay-fed cows in winter. On the contrary, when we fed hay in the cold season, we were accustomed to just make do with winter dairy products.
Stockpiled forage is really nutritious. You can see the difference!
This article originally appeared in the Nov./Dec. 2023 issue of Hobby Farms magazine.
The editors of Chickens magazine are always on the lookout for great chicken photos, and in the September/October 2023 print issue they ran a contest titled Shutterclucks.
Above is the winning photo submitted by Steph Post from Brooksville, Florida,and below you’ll find others chosen and printed in Chickens. Each one includes the name and city of residence of the chicken lover (or lovers) who submitted it.
Amanda Wynant | Greensburg, Indiana
Cordel Garrett | Suffolk, Virginia
Denise Williams |Knoxville, Tennessee
Hanna Y. | Dillsburg, Pennsylvania
Kat Dunton | Putnam, Connecticut
Meredith Reardon | Red Hook, New York
William Banks | Wilmington, North Carolina
Ann Lewis | Bend, Oregon
Vanessa Garcia | Ennis, Texas
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This article originally appeared in the Nov../Dec. 2023 issue of Chickens magazine.
While visiting my aunt last week, she mixed up a batch of candied pecans. She made them in such a way I’d never heard of before. Before she baked the pecans, she stirred them into whipped egg whites.
I must admit that at first I was skeptical about candying pecans with eggs, but they turned out so crunchy and absolutely delicious. In fact, we all loved them—even the children. My aunt got a big stamp of approval to make them again for an upcoming holiday gathering.
Ingredients
1-pound halved pecans
3 egg whites, whipped
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup powdered sugar (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Beat egg whites until they form soft peaks. Add vanilla to the egg whites and slowly add in the sugar. Once mixed together, stir in the pecans until they are all evenly coated.
Coat a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray, then pour the melted butter out on the sheet.
Spread the coated pecans out evenly on the baking sheet and cook for 10 minutes, then stir. Repeat this four times for a total baking time of 40 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes. At this point, the candied pecans are done as far as I’m concerned. But my aunt went a step further and tossed them in powdered sugar. This step is completely optional, however they do look more “finished” once tossed in the powdered sugar.
Once cooled, store the leftovers in an airtight container. If you intend to keep them for more than a couple days, keep them stored in the refrigerator.
Notes
If you toss in powdered sugar, you could even add ground cinnamon, nutmeg or clove at this point. Or switch it up and add some ground cayenne pepper powder to give the nuts a sweet and spicy twist.
The pecans should be browned and crunchy. If not, just bake them longer.
The following is an excerpt from Sophia Nguyen Eng’s new book The Nourishing Asian Kitchen(Chelsea Green Publishing December 2023) and is printed with permission from the publisher.
courtesy of Chelsea Green Publishing
“Eat to live, do not live to eat!” was a lesson my grandfather taught me when I was a little girl following him around his backyard garden in San Jose, California. He was a man who didn’t speak much and always had a serious demeanor, so I soaked in those moments when he did speak. And although I didn’t know it at the time, his few simple words were setting a positive trajectory for our family’s health for generations to come.
I am a first-generation Vietnamese American. My parents fled Vietnam by boat with my older sister, who was then 2 years old, the night before the fall of Saigon in 1975. My maternal grandparents followed four years later. Both generations—my parents and grandparents—settled in San Jose, first living together in the same house and later in the same neighborhood, a block apart.
Life wasn’t easy for our immigrant family adjusting to a totally different life in California, but my parents always ensured that our family’s basic needs were met. Our home was always filled with the aroma of delicious and nutritious food and, although both of my parents worked long hours to make ends meet, my mother made it a priority to feed us well. Whenever she wasn’t taking overtime shifts, I could find her in the kitchen.
My mother cooked nose-to-tail before it was a thing, using every part of an animal to cook delicious, nutrient-dense meals and leaving nothing to waste. She could stretch a whole broiler chicken into multiple meals: cooking down the head, neck, and bones for several hours to make porridge, the dark meat for cabbage and chicken salad, the breast meat for chicken phở—and even hot and spicy chicken feet and delectable chicken heart appetizers.
Growing up in Silicon Valley, I often felt like an outsider at the school lunch table. While other kids were munching on Lunchables and Fruit Roll-Ups, my mom had packed me pork floss, a finely shredded dry pork that other kids called “animal hair.” For my fifth-grade field trip, my mother packed me bánh mì with chicken liver pâté that made my backpack smell like a wet dog. But even while I was pining for Lean Cuisine, Coke and strawberry-flavored gummy bears as an afterschool snack, I always jumped at the opportunity to go to the grocery store with my mother and help her prepare our family meals. I loved watching her pick out the freshest fruit, vegetables, fish and poultry or negotiate for a better price. Alongside my grandfather’s simple philosophy to eat to live, not live to eat, I absorbed these practical skills from my mother and carried them with me to college, my career, marriage and motherhood.
In school, I was highly motivated by two goals: I wanted to attend a prestigious university and then get a high-paying job so I could one day repay my parents for the hard work and sacrifices they made for our family. I also wanted to study medicine so that I could help others attain health and healing; there was, I thought (and still do), no greater aspiration. After I graduated from high school, I enrolled in an accelerated seven-year dual BA/MD program at The George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, DC. I thought I was well on my way to achieving both goals.
But the best-laid plans are often disrupted by reality, and mine were no exception. After I launched into my studies at GWU, I began looking more carefully at the details of the program. There was only one class in nutrition! Doctors, I learned, receive minimal training in nutrition. When they counsel patients, if at all, most offer only outdated recommendations for a standard American diet (SAD)—the same dietary recommendations that have coincided with a massive surge in diabetes, obesity and chronic disease. I realized, somewhat painfully, that I’d received a better education in health and healing from my upbringing than I ever would in medical school. And so I decided to change course.
I completed my undergraduate degree in biology and a master’s degree in clinical psychology, then moved back to the Bay Area to start a career in the tech industry. I led growth marketing campaigns at startup companies with few resources to achieve growth by as much as a factor of 10. Once again, I realized how valuable my upbringing had been: I applied my mother’s humble art of stretching a budget for some of the most powerful and profitable companies in the world.
Around this time, I crossed paths with Tim, a young man I’d attended high school with in San Jose who had just graduated from West Point and was beginning a career in the Army. We were both ambitious and organized, and shared similar values and visions for our lives. But we also had big differences, specifically around food. While I grew up on nose-to-tail cooking, Tim grew up on Rice-a-Roni. During the early years of our marriage, most of our disagreements were related to comfort food—specifically Tim’s nightly habit of munching on Nacho Cheese Doritos and Coke with two heaping scoops of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream on the side.
Despite the unhealthy habits from his upbringing, Tim understood the importance of nutrition. He’d struggled with eczema for his entire life, ever since childhood. It was common for him to have white scratch marks all over his body from itching. Early in our marriage, sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking we were being hit with one of Californian’s famous earthquakes, only to discover that it was Tim scratching in his sleep and shaking the bed! We intuitively knew there was a dietary or lifestyle component to his condition, so we began experimenting with eliminating various foods and changing certain household products. Lo and behold, when we switched from grain-fed supermarket beef to grass-fed beef, he immediately experienced relief from eczema. This was enough for Tim to get on board with a lifestyle change—which is not to say it was easy. Even as a West Point grad and Army veteran, Tim says that his most challenging battles were not fought in the deserts of Baghdad, but at home, around food, nutrition and the struggle to change the eating habits he grew up with.
In 2010, “lunatic farmer” Joel Salatin gave a talk at Google Headquarters in the Bay Area. Joel owns Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and became famous when Michael Pollan devoted a chapter to him in his 2006 bestselling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Pollan described how Joel integrated animals into his farming system in ways that have resulted in healthier food, happier animals, less waste, and an efficient, closed-loop farming ecosystem. Salatin calls himself a lunatic farmer because the evangelical Christian frequently finds himself at odds with regulatory recommendations and requirements, as well as modern agricultural practice. As Joel says, everything he wants to do is illegal—and yet his many loyal customers routinely travel great distances and pay a premium for his delicious, nutritious and ethically produced food. Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm, and Michael Pollan shined a bright light on how broken the industrial agriculture system is, as well as the failures of regulatory bodies such as the USDA, FDA and state health agencies.
At Google, Joel reminded us that, until relatively recently, there were no garbage trucks to cart waste away or landfills to dump trash in someone else’s backyard. Chickens were the garbage disposal salvage operation on the homestead! When food spoils, you feed it to the chickens and they give you eggs in return. What a gorgeously efficient circular system! Too many Americans “go green” by throwing their banana peels on a diesel-powered dump truck that travels to an off-site composting operation. Joel told those of us in the audience that if we really wanted to be “green,” we should attach a chicken house to our corporate cafés so that the scraps go right out to the chicken house, the eggs come right back in, and we don’t have to truck our garbage away or buy eggs from somewhere else.
Everything Joel Salatin said in that talk resonated with me—the systems-thinking efficiency, the commonsense frugality, and his respect for the land and the animals. It reminded me of the simple frugality of my mother and the common sense of my grandfather. Good food, good agriculture and good health are inseparable, and traditional wisdom is often a much greater value than so-called modern improvements.
Since both Tim and I lacked farming experience, we enrolled in several workshops and conferences organized at Polyface Farm. We learned how to process meat chickens and rabbits and learned how to improve land for pasture. Our aim was to gain practical, hands-on experience and learn from the experts. And who better to learn from than Joel himself, the renowned farmer and practitioner of sustainable agriculture?
These hands-on workshops gave us the confidence to move out of Pleasant Hill, California, and purchase 6 acres in Lincoln, north of Sacramento, along with our own chicken processing equipment and tractor. This homestead included chickens, goats and sheep, which was a far cry from our urban backgrounds growing up in San Jose. In 2022, we moved our family and homestead to eastern Tennessee, where we built upon our successes and lessons learned in California. We even expanded our livestock and skill sets by adding dairy cows to the mix!
Joel’s philosophy around food, farming and nutrition quickly led me to the work of another renegade thinker: Sally Fallon Morell, author of Nourishing Traditions, founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk. Sally is passionate about health and has made it her mission in life to advocate for a diet based on nutrient-dense foods and raw milk. Nourishing Traditions, based on the work of Weston A. Price, confirmed the teachings of my mother and grandfather about eating traditional foods.
Dr. Weston A. Price was a Canadian dentist who lived and practiced in Cleveland, Ohio, during the early part of the twentieth century. In his dental practice, Dr. Price noticed that the dental health of his patients, and children in particular, had been declining over time, and he suspected that it had something to do with the increasing availability of processed foods in the American diet.
Weston A. Price was a man on a mission. Driven to understand the surge in tooth decay, palate malformations, and other deteriorations in dental health, he embarked on a series of remarkable journeys to isolated regions around the world. From the villages of Switzerland to the Outer Hebrides, Africa, Australia and Polynesia, he sought out communities where people still relied on their native diets of traditionally grown, raised and prepared foods. These diets were a far cry from the processed industrial foods that were becoming increasingly popular in North America in the early 20th century. Instead, they were rich in animal foods such as organ meats, shellfish, eggs and butter, and packed with vital nutrients like fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K; water-soluble vitamins like B complex and C; and a host of essential minerals.
With meticulous attention to detail, Price documented the foods people ate, how they were produced on the farm, and how they were prepared in the kitchen. And what he found was astonishing. In communities where people continued to rely on traditional foods, dental health was strong and overall health was robust. But in communities that had been introduced to processed industrial foods such as white flour, vegetable oils and white sugar, the health of the people had deteriorated rapidly.
Price’s research revealed a remarkable correlation between a diet rich in traditional nourishing foods, including high-quality meat, milk, grains, fruits and vegetables, and optimal dental and overall physical health. This groundbreaking work inspired Sally Fallon Morell to co-found the Weston A. Price Foundation in 1999 with the goal of restoring “nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism.” Fallon’s acclaimed cookbook, Nourishing Traditions, has sold millions of copies and presented a bold critique of the food pyramid, mainstream nutrition guidelines, the standard American diet, the low-fat fad and the increasing reliance on processed foods. In line with Dr. Price’s research, both Morrell and Salatin advocate for humanely raised animals as an essential component of agriculture and human nutrition, emphasizing the importance of locally sourced meats, milks, cheeses and fats from grass-fed/grass-finished and pasture-raised animals.
As an Asian American family striving to prioritize nourishing traditional foods, Tim and I encountered a challenge: the research of Dr. Price, upon which we based our approach, did not include studies on Asian countries. China and Japan in the 1930s, in particular, did not fit his criteria of isolated, nonindustrialized groups with diets based on indigenous foods and limited imports. Despite being considered “traditional” at the time, both nations had extensive histories of trade with other countries and already had established industries, including food production. This posed a dilemma for us as we sought to honor our cultural traditions while embracing a nourishing diet.
Take one example from our own family: Vietnam’s rich culinary culture has been shaped by a variety of influences, including French colonialism in Indochina. The introduction of French flavors, ingredients, and cooking techniques transformed traditional Vietnamese dishes, creating a new and distinct flavor profile. The French introduced the baguette to Vietnam, which the Vietnamese adapted using rice flour to create bánh mì. (In fact, I am part French, which explains why I love Vietnamese and French food so much.) Many common vegetables, such as potatoes, artichokes, carrots, asparagus and onions were also introduced to Vietnamese cooking from the West. French influence extends beyond ingredients to cooking methods, with the use of butter, cheese, and wine all reflecting French culinary traditions. Even beef dishes like bò 7 món, a seven-course meal of beef, were created by French expats to celebrate the new availability of imported beef during the French colonial era. Vietnamese cuisine remains uniquely flavorful and diverse, a testament to the country’s rich culinary history beyond French influences.
All of this meant that identifying the most nourishing traditions for our family was … complicated! Our family’s cooking traditions included a lot of Vietnamese foods, of course, as well as a blend of Chinese and Taiwanese cooking from Tim’s background. But over the years, our family’s palate was shaped by where we lived in California and being exposed to some of the best Asian cuisine in the world, from Korean BBQ and Indian curry dishes to Thai noodles and fresh Japanese sashimi and more.
On top of all that, Tim and I had three (very different) generations under one roof. As my parents reached retirement age and began to have health issues, my mother and father left their home in San Jose and moved in with us. In 2011, we welcomed our first-born daughter, Emily, followed four years later by our daughter Natalie. Over the years, a lot of processed foodstuffs—especially condiments, marinades and spices—had made their way into our pantry. We were a busy young family surrounded by four Whole Foods Markets and we loved our delivery of their Sperlonga bread.
One day, I decided to purge our pantry of these highly processed foods so we could start fresh with real, wholesome foods. My mother walked into the kitchen right as I opened the refrigerator and tossed a bunch of condiments and marinades into a big black garbage bag.
“If you throw away all of these condiments, what will we cook with?!” she exclaimed.
“I don’t know yet, but we will figure it out!”
I knew that adopting Salatin’s approach to agriculture and Fallon’s approach to nutrition would serve our family well, but I wasn’t entirely sure how to do it in the context of a modern first- and second-generation immigrant family. I was beginning to suspect that we were going to have to make it up as we went along.
When I explained to my mother why I was throwing out our processed soy sauce and hoisin sauce, however, she quickly got on board with the same kind of determination I’d witnessed when she bargained with the fishmonger for a better price on mackerel. Focusing on a few key staples was the first step in a years-long journey we took together to recreate the Asian dishes our family loved so they would be more nourishing and nutrient-dense.
As we saw with Tim’s eczema, the proof of better health was all the evidence we needed to dedicate ourselves to this way of life. Over time, ailments that my parents suffered from improved. For my mother, that meant her hypertension diminished and congestive heart failure resolved. My father struggled with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), both of which also improved after we began eating real food as close to its natural state as possible.
I now believe that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to food, health and nutrition. It’s probably true that everyfamily must grapple at some level with honoring their culinary traditions while rebuilding them for better nutrition, especially in the context of a convenience-driven modern society. I don’t claim to have all the answers. This book is simply my offering of our family’s beloved Asian recipes through the lens of nutrient-dense Wise Traditions principles. The Wise Tradition principles are not a diet, per se, but more a framework for making the best food choices for the human body, based on what has worked for humankind for millennia.
In other words, it is my attempt to fill a gap where Weston A. Price left off, as well as a passion project to spend as much time as I can in the kitchen with my mother in order to capture her recipes and preserve them for her grandchildren. This book and the homemade recipes in it were inspired by her and, while I enhanced them with everything I’ve learned from Joel Salatin, Sally Fallon Morell, and the Weston A. Price community, they all required her thumbs-up when she tasted each dish. And Mom did not go easy on me, I assure you! From our kitchen to yours, I hope you and your family enjoy these recipes as much as we do.
Sophia Nguyen Eng is a first-generation Vietnamese-American who left a successful career in growth marketing in Silicon Valley to start a five-acre permaculture farm in the Appalachian region of eastern Tennessee. During her time in the tech industry, Eng led successful growth marketing campaigns for startups and Fortune 500 companies like WorkDay, InVision, and Smartsheet, which led to opportunities to develop a certificate training program with CXL Institute and being a founder of the tech organization Women in Growth. A sought-after speaker, she has presented at Google HQ, GrowthHackers, and the global SaaStalk tech conferences. Now she draws on her experiences speaking on stage and her knowledge of food, farming, and health to present at homesteading conferences. Eng is also a Weston A. Price Chapter Leader and the founder of the website Sprinkle with Soil. With her husband, Tim, she raises grass-fed dairy cows, beef cattle, laying hens, broilers, ducks, sheep, goats, turkeys, and grows a variety of produce for her multi-generational family and local community.
“As a Black woman in agriculture, I find it crucial to steward land responsibly and sustainably, creating a model that feeds, educates and uplifts communities while being environmentally conscious,” says Christa Barfield, founder of the Philadelphia-based FarmerJawn movement.
Headquartered on 128 acres, the community-supported agriculture initiative advocates for regenerative practices while aiming to reach out to underserved communities in a bid to encourage and empower people to begin their own farming adventures.
Taking a moment out from farming duties, we spoke to Barfield about the abiding goals of the organization and the importance of nourishing the community. We also got into the enduring joy of roasting beets.
“My journey into farming began with a life-changing trip to Martinique in 2018,” recalls Barfield, when recapping the path to starting FarmerJawn.
“After experiencing burnout in my career in healthcare administration, this trip opened my eyes to the beauty and simplicity of community-supported agriculture,” continues Barfield. “Witnessing firsthand how people were intimately connected to their food and the farmers left a profound impact on me. I returned to Philadelphia with a newfound passion to integrate these practices into my community.”
Summing up the goal of FarmerJawn, Barfield says that the movement’s ambition is to “nourish marginalized communities with wholesome, organic food and empower the next generation of Black and Brown farmers.”
Part of Barfield’s intention with FarmerJawn is to break down barriers that might prevent people living in urban environments from starting their own farming initiatives.
“In urban settings, there are significant barriers to growing food, like limited space, resources and knowledge about farming,” explains Barfield. “At FarmerJawn, we’re focused on making farming accessible in the city, offering education and opportunities in urban agriculture [and] thus bridging the gap between rural and urban farming experiences.”
Casting an eye over 2023’s most bountiful crops, Barfield holds up collard greens, beets and herbs as the runaway winners.
“My favorite way to enjoy these is through roasting, especially with fresh herbs, roasted garlic and a touch of finishing salt,” recommends Barfield. “It’s a simple yet delicious method that truly highlights the natural flavors of the produce.”
“The most rewarding part of running FarmerJawn is the impact on the community,” says Barfield when weighing up the movement’s journey to date. “It goes beyond just farming. It’s about feeding people with nutritious food, educating young minds and being a catalyst for positive change in agriculture.”
Getting to the crux of the FarmerJawn goal, Barfield adds: “There’s a deep sense of fulfillment in growing not just food, but also a healthier, more sustainable community.”
An ancient process, crock fermentation is a natural means humans use to develop foods, medications and more. As well, a recent study showed that 4 to 6 ounces of lacto-fermented cabbage, or raw sauerkraut, had a 10 trillion probiotic count, which is superior to probiotic capsules.
“Until about 20 years ago, I didn’t realize I was eating foods made from fermentation,” says Dixie Waters.
For crock fermentation, Waters, a 45-year gardener, grows vegetables on the family’s Oklahoma acreage. She also buys at farmers markets. From grocery stores, she buys organic. She says frozen vegetables do not work. As well, bags of fresh, precut vegetables have been rinsed or soaked in a preservative that keeps them from fermenting.
Throughout the process, Waters keeps everything clean, and repeatedly washes her hands. Using warm, soapy water, she freshly washes and cleans her crocks, then rinses them well.
She washes vegetables and puts them in a water-and-vinegar bath for a few minutes. While still wet, she cuts them into as many uniform pieces as possible.
Carol Mowdy Bond
All About the Brine
Waters makes brine, comprised of water and salt, ahead of time, so the salt completely dissolves. She uses pink Himalayan or sea salt. But she says it’s okay to simply put the salt in the water, stir it and add it to the crock. She uses two tablespoons salt per one quart of filtered or well water. (Table salt has additives that stop the fermentation process. Tap water contains chemicals that are problematic with fermentation.)
The brine keeps bacteria away from the process, and she has never had bacteria issues.
“I keep the brine in a lidded jar,” Waters says. “I’ve kept some for two years and used it. As long as it’s not contaminated, it’s just salt water. And the lids keep it away from oxygen. Salt is a preservative. If I have extra vegetables during garden season, I can throw them in a jar with brine and just ferment a single jar. Some people reuse brine on their next fermentation. That doesn’t work well for me.”
Produce Placement
Waters does not use jarred dill weed because it floats to the top during crock fermentation and causes a mess. Instead, she buys fresh dill and puts the entire dill in, snaking it around the crock bottom. The vegetables hold the dill in place so it does not float to the top.
Layering the vegetables so they ferment evenly, Waters places more dense vegetables, such as carrots, into the bottom of the crock. After that, the vegetable order doesn’t matter. She finishes by completely covering the vegetables with cabbage leaves to keep everything from air exposure.
Next she places two glass fermentation weights on top of the cabbage leaves, pressing down with her hands on the weights to release trapped air. The weights prevent the vegetables from floating to the top above the brine. Then she pours in brine until the vegetables and glass weights are covered.
Waters then puts the crock lid in place. Then she fills the water seal groove around the lid with water. She keeps the crocks sitting on the kitchen counter or the dining room table and checks the groove periodically to make sure it remains full.
Carol Mowdy Bond
Waiting on the Fermentation Process
“I leave my vegetables in the crock anywhere from seven to 14 days,” Waters says. “Starting at three to four days, I carefully use wooden tongs to reach in, take vegetables, and test them to see if they have the crispness and taste I want. But don’t disturb the vegetables. When you reach in, remove anything that has escaped and floated to the top.
“When the vegetables reach the point you like, you’re finished. But if you have any bad odor, or any doubt, throw out the food. Don’t take a chance.”
Maintaining the appropriate ph level, or “power of hydrogen,” ensures that harmful bacteria doesn’t grow in the jars after food preservation.
Waters removes the vegetables from the crocks and places them in canning jars, in the refrigerator, for the family to eat. Her family enjoys eating the brine, which is full of probiotics.
Cucumbers are better if fermented alone. And Waters says sauerkraut is fermented differently than other vegetables.
She says fermented foods help with digestion, and clean out the colon and intestinal system. As well, she claims her family migraine sufferers no longer suffer migraines, which she attributes to her fermented vegetables.
“Start small, fermenting just a jar of vegetables,” Waters says. “So my grandchildren would try fermented food, I fermented beets with the vegetables, which turned them pink. My granddaughter calls them pinkalicious.”
