Well, I can't say that I've been a consistant blogger in any way, but I am moving the blog to my new site at http://www.jessejsaunders.com/blog.
There will certainly be a bunch of garden updates as we get into into spring & summer with all of the lessons learned from our experiments last year, and hopefully some music as soon as I get some time to do some writing! Come on over and follow the new blog!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Friday, June 26, 2009
Food, Inc. -- Go see this movie!
Tonight, Danielle & I saw the movie Food, Inc. It is a look inside the big business behind major food production, and paints a terribly brutal picture. Federal subsidies for big agriculture, engineering and modification of food, big business pressuring the small guy, and how we get the food we all eat. After doing some internet searches it seems that some of the companies attacked in the film are fighting back against some of the allegations, but the arguments seem pretty difficult to defend.
While we all know that fast food isn't healthy food and Coke isn't giving your body anything positive...it's amazing to see how these foods come to the store and who is behind them. It's certainly changed how I look at food and will greatly influence my decision to buy organic and local food whenever possible and grow as much as we can out at Cauble Farms.
On a side note, when the Wal-Mart reps visit the organic farm in Brattleboro, VT (home of a great New England event "Strolling of the Heifers") , it had to be quite an awkward visit, as the farmers stated "We've never been to a Wal-Mart"; not to mention the town of Brattleboro's effective protests that prevented a Wal-Mart from opening in the town several years ago. A store was eventually opened just across the river in Hinsdale, NH.
The movie is playing at the Regal Arbor in Austin, at a couple of theatres in D/FW and the Boston metro area. If it's playing near you, PLEASE go see it...if it's not, get your hands on the DVD when it comes out.
The trailer:
On a lighter note, we also saw a trailer for the movie Taking Woodstock, coming out August 14th. The "hippie born in the wrong generation" in me can't wait!
While we all know that fast food isn't healthy food and Coke isn't giving your body anything positive...it's amazing to see how these foods come to the store and who is behind them. It's certainly changed how I look at food and will greatly influence my decision to buy organic and local food whenever possible and grow as much as we can out at Cauble Farms.
On a side note, when the Wal-Mart reps visit the organic farm in Brattleboro, VT (home of a great New England event "Strolling of the Heifers") , it had to be quite an awkward visit, as the farmers stated "We've never been to a Wal-Mart"; not to mention the town of Brattleboro's effective protests that prevented a Wal-Mart from opening in the town several years ago. A store was eventually opened just across the river in Hinsdale, NH.
The movie is playing at the Regal Arbor in Austin, at a couple of theatres in D/FW and the Boston metro area. If it's playing near you, PLEASE go see it...if it's not, get your hands on the DVD when it comes out.
The trailer:
On a lighter note, we also saw a trailer for the movie Taking Woodstock, coming out August 14th. The "hippie born in the wrong generation" in me can't wait!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Late May Garden update
This post was written at the end of may, but I forgot to post (sorry!)...another update coming soon!
Wow, 2 months since my last post! Between finishing up with grad school, keeping up with the garden, home church, and graduation, and family in town, it's been a busy few months.
Today a bunch of us got together to work out at Cauble Farms. We've eaten up all of the broccoli, cauliflower, red & bibb lettuce, collards, arugula, and cabbage, and are nearly done with the chard, onions, and strawberries (the latter of which have been really slow to produce). In their place we have planted tomatoes, green peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, zuchinni, blueberries, raspberries, watermelon, cantelope, as we have pulled things over the last couple months. We still have a few things going from our original planting, including wildflowers, herbs, and leeks.
Today's work included lots of harvesting, weeding, putting up shade cloth (on the frames Josh & Aaron built a couple of weeks ago), planting black eyed peas as a cover crop until the fall, putting up a few bamboo tripods for the tomatoes to climb, mulching around some of the mature plants, and fertilizing to help increase the production of the flowering plants and cut down on pests that are munching on some of the eggplant and other plants.
crazy cucumber (tastes great!)
Flower bed, Shade cloth & tunes (today provided by: Crazy Joe & The Mad River Outlaws, Michael Franti & Spearhead, and Swell Season)
Shade cloths to help cut down on the noon-day sun.
Ryan spreading some mulch
Wow, 2 months since my last post! Between finishing up with grad school, keeping up with the garden, home church, and graduation, and family in town, it's been a busy few months.
Today a bunch of us got together to work out at Cauble Farms. We've eaten up all of the broccoli, cauliflower, red & bibb lettuce, collards, arugula, and cabbage, and are nearly done with the chard, onions, and strawberries (the latter of which have been really slow to produce). In their place we have planted tomatoes, green peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, zuchinni, blueberries, raspberries, watermelon, cantelope, as we have pulled things over the last couple months. We still have a few things going from our original planting, including wildflowers, herbs, and leeks.
Today's work included lots of harvesting, weeding, putting up shade cloth (on the frames Josh & Aaron built a couple of weeks ago), planting black eyed peas as a cover crop until the fall, putting up a few bamboo tripods for the tomatoes to climb, mulching around some of the mature plants, and fertilizing to help increase the production of the flowering plants and cut down on pests that are munching on some of the eggplant and other plants.
crazy cucumber (tastes great!)
Flower bed, Shade cloth & tunes (today provided by: Crazy Joe & The Mad River Outlaws, Michael Franti & Spearhead, and Swell Season)
Shade cloths to help cut down on the noon-day sun.
Ryan spreading some mulch
Saturday, March 21, 2009
First harvest on the farm!
Today saw another work day out on the farm, as we were able to have our first 'mini-harvest' of lettuce, chard, bibb lettuce, kale, broccoli, and radishes. We also put in: green & red peppers, hot peppers (including one plant claiming to be "the world's hottest peppers"), tomatoes, eggplant, beans, and hopefully some zuchini later this week.
While most of the things we planted a few weeks ago are taking off, the beans we'd planted just didn't take (we think it got too cold for them with the last cold snap), so we put some new seeds in. It was great to be able to get some veggies out of the garden. Now just waiting for a great salad with ingredients from the garden.
Some of the highlights:
Broccoli about to be harvested
Strawberries are making progress
LOTS of radishes
Bibb lettuce ready to be cut!
Danielle picking
Ashley planting peppers
Me planing peppers
Row of lettuce
Cabbage is getting huge
Ryan, we want a batch of salsa featuring these peppers!
While most of the things we planted a few weeks ago are taking off, the beans we'd planted just didn't take (we think it got too cold for them with the last cold snap), so we put some new seeds in. It was great to be able to get some veggies out of the garden. Now just waiting for a great salad with ingredients from the garden.
Some of the highlights:
Broccoli about to be harvested
Strawberries are making progress
LOTS of radishes
Bibb lettuce ready to be cut!
Danielle picking
Ashley planting peppers
Me planing peppers
Row of lettuce
Cabbage is getting huge
Ryan, we want a batch of salsa featuring these peppers!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Cauble Farms Part II
So this weekend the whole Cauble Farms gang got out and put down soil, spread mulch, prepped row coverings, and planted a bunch of fruit/veggies (3 types of lettuce, 2 types of onions, leeks, arugula, beans, peas, kale, shard, broccoli, and cauliflower), a bunch of types of herbs, & lots of flowers! We were out most of the day Saturday and a couple hours of Sunday (in the crazy wind). It was pretty amazing to see the transformation of the garden in 36 hours.
Overnight we got a ton of rain, but I hear that aside from making the farm muddy, everything looks good, the plants didn't get washed away and the netting protecting the rows stayed in place!
A few more weeks and we'll get some later season veggies (carrots, squash, melons, etc.), but for now it's all about upkeep and looking out for bunnies trying to munch on our harvest!
Here are a few highlights from this weekend:
Beginning of Saturday
Ryan shoveling soil
Jy supervising the crew
Danielle & I working the flower beds
Mulched and Prepped Beds and rows
Putting out plants
Putting plants in the ground!
Rows, the two "upper" beds, and Lora's avocado tree
One of the eight square foot boxes
Planted square foot beds
Farmer Aaron looking forward to the harvest
Overnight we got a ton of rain, but I hear that aside from making the farm muddy, everything looks good, the plants didn't get washed away and the netting protecting the rows stayed in place!
A few more weeks and we'll get some later season veggies (carrots, squash, melons, etc.), but for now it's all about upkeep and looking out for bunnies trying to munch on our harvest!
Here are a few highlights from this weekend:
Beginning of Saturday
Ryan shoveling soil
Jy supervising the crew
Danielle & I working the flower beds
Mulched and Prepped Beds and rows
Putting out plants
Putting plants in the ground!
Rows, the two "upper" beds, and Lora's avocado tree
One of the eight square foot boxes
Planted square foot beds
Farmer Aaron looking forward to the harvest
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Cauble Farms, Day 1
This year the Cauble's, Sowers', Osborne's, Stearn's (I think), and Danielle & I are going to be farming an area of the Cauble's property which we've all named "Cauble Farms". Today was the first major work day on the farm. Ryan and I built boxes for the square foot garden boxes while the ladies roped of and began working the farm rows. Then we all worked to compost, double-dig, and recompost the row areas. Virtually all afternoon we worked to the jams of Mike Stearns & Nate Pina, which helped time fly by. We put in about 6 hours today, and I think we were all impressed with what we got accomplished. The row areas are looking really good and ready for soil.
Next week we're planning on prepping the box garden areas, spreading soil (which may get done mid-week) and get some plant starts and seeds in the ground.
The full photo collection is on my facebook, but here are the highlights:
My car overloaded with compost.
Yeah, it's a lot of compost
The ladies laying out the rows
Building the square foot boxes
Lora spreading compost.
Mike & Nate providing the tunes.
Finished rows & boxes
Jy hanging out when the Sower's stopped by to check out the progress.
Becuase we care
Next week we're planning on prepping the box garden areas, spreading soil (which may get done mid-week) and get some plant starts and seeds in the ground.
The full photo collection is on my facebook, but here are the highlights:
My car overloaded with compost.
Yeah, it's a lot of compost
The ladies laying out the rows
Building the square foot boxes
Lora spreading compost.
Mike & Nate providing the tunes.
Finished rows & boxes
Jy hanging out when the Sower's stopped by to check out the progress.
Becuase we care
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
RPM Challenge 2009
During the month of February, I'm planning on participating in the RPM Challenge, www.rpmchallenge.com. The goal of the challenge is to write and record an album worth of music (10 songs or 35 minutes), all during the February.
I've been trying to work on my songwriting over the last few months, after writing my first 'real' song last February. My writing has been extremely sporadic with very few songs being completed.
It's my hope that by forcing myself into a deadline that I'll be more efficient and productive in my writing/recording and get myself into a 'habit' of songwriting. Not sure how effective this will be, but certainly by doing a lot more writing the material should improve.
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