Eating Animals

Many of us at Sand Holler Farm are vegetarian. We all have a different story on how we came to this dietary state. I just recently finished a book by Jonathan Safran Foer (author of Everything is Illuminated) about his journey to committing to this diet after waffling back and forth for much of his life. It was an interesting and entertaining read - if not somewhat gruesome at times. Eating Animals does not provide any earth shattering revelations or even much information that is not currently available to anyone who cares to do a bit of research about their food. But I still think it's an important book for people to read - people of all dietary persuasions.

The book's main focus is the horrendous treatment of animals in factory farmed situations - I feel that this fact cannot be repeated too often. Consumers should be demanding a product that does not force animals into this kind of situation. It is hard for me to imagine that people are willing to continue to support this industry...ah, but I forget! The Almighty Dollar rules our lives. But it rules the lives of corporations too. Vote with your dollars - send them to sustainably raised meat!

Foer, on the other hand, advocates a vegetarian diet as the answer. He does not even believe that being an "ethical carnivore" is even a possibility. I disagree however. When raising food animals, there will always be compromises to be made (causing pain by disbudding in order to prevent future injuries, or castrating to prevent unwanted breeding) but I think that there are plenty of small farms that are doing the best possible. With more support for them, that industry can grow and hopefully again replace the factory farms that are currently dominating meat production.

His views, and the views of some he portrays in the book, can be a bit extreme for my tastes, but it's worth hearing their opinion. Go ahead, check it out!

Hello Again from Sand Holler!

While there has been a long absence of blog posts, there has certainly been no shortage of news at Sand Holler Farm! Between baby Willa, a full-time job, the holidays, and the constant demands of the farm, Marissa was in need of some reinforcements to keep the blog updated. That’s where I come in! My name is Jessica and my husband, Alex, and I moved out to the farm this past October. We were brought in to relieve Dale of the animal chores on the weekends (I guess he deserves SOME time off) and to make CSA deliveries. We’re excited to be a part of Sand Holler and I’m happy to be taking on some new responsibilities, including this blog!

Here is a brief update of farm happenings from the past few months:

We got one new four-legged addition this fall. Kitten, a lamb, was born on Alex and I’s first night here. Talk about a good omen! You can hardly call her a lamb anymore, although she is still very attached to Cat, her mama.

Harvest House and "Pre-Freeze" Garden

The biggest change on the farm has to be the completion of the “Harvest House”, the charming new focal point of the garden. This multi-purpose building has a generous area to wash and sort produce, storage for garden tools, and a small apartment for interns and WWOOF volunteers. With the winter providing limited produce, however, the work space has largely been used for sewing row covers to protect our crops during freezes. Our latest WWOOF volunteers, August and Marion, have proved themselves to be masters of the sewing machine and all of our rows are now sporting new, easily-deployed covers. The design is a vast improvement from last year’s and we are all very grateful to be able to “button up” the garden in a matter of minutes!

The garden is all tucked in and ready to brave another cold night!

Envelopes of seeds have been steadily arriving in the mail, bringing with them excitement for spring planting. While the garden has an abundance of kale, collards, and mustard, I think we are all ready for something besides greens! The garden is looking great thanks to the many helping hands we’ve had over the past few months, including Evan, Nicole, Austin, Keely, (another) Jessica, and, as always, Dale. Talk about Community Supported Agriculture! Cold hardy crops, such as beets, carrots, and lettuces have already been planted and should be ready for harvest soon.

Two of the goats have found new homes. Dandelion and Miranda have both been sold to families that have started home dairies. Five of the six remaining does have been bred and will start kidding in April. Here’s hoping for a less eventful kidding than last year!