Caught the Budweiser, Hank the Clydesdale commercial between the Olympics yesterday and I found myself cheering the fake horse on more than the swimmers. If you have not seen the commercial, do, even if you aren't into draft animals as much as me. Its got a horse pulling a train to the rocky soundtrack, it is enough to bring a tear to your eye.Speaking of draft animals, I got my hands on a pretty awesome publication: "Small Farmer's Journal". I discovered it through http://www.ruralheritage.com, which also happens to be a great resource for apprenticeships and information concerning draft animals.
The journal has been a really enjoyable read. It is mostly about draft animal or livestock farmers who often happen to be new farmers, and thusly they had a very bumpy road on their way to where they are now. (It also has plenty of good old fashioned etchings of various draft animal implements and a giant picturesque cover with various livestock presented to truly confuse people in the subway).
In the Spring issue, there is a great article about the Farmers of Fourty Centuries, which was this respectful pseudo anthropological book about preindustrial farming practices in China (written at the turn of the 20th century). It is a wonderful paralleling of common interests between the historic author, the modern publisher, their separate readership, and the bygone (?) Chinese farmers. Learning from each other is definately the most lasting and genuine of cultural exchange. In this case, it is even more rewarding to see Americans finding inspiration in the traditional farming, which most Chinese no longer understand. It reinforces the idea of universal human knowledge, which is surely the only solution for a diverse and vibrant, modern society.
Apologies for the major digression. Other interesting articles included one about building hoop houses from recycled piping from oil operations. It is a first hand account and also discusses their usage, which ranged from keeping poultry to tomatoes to winter vegetables.
Another article I enjoyed was "The Sheep Are in The Garden, integrating livestock in the bio-extensive market garden at Natural Roots Farm." It goes through a long discussion about the various forage and green manure rotations that happen between market crop rotations. Of course it is very site specific, but the farmers there in Conway, Mass. discovered that a mixture of Perennial Rye, Forage Chicory, Medium Red Clover, and Ladino Clover worked well when seeded to fallow fields and that a hay mixture of Orchardgrass, Timothy, and Ryegrass was also satisfactory. The rational to the mixture is detailed piece by piece - which is great because it is such a complicated system to inter-seed and rotate forage between already complex market crops. It is also a good kick in the butt for me to get back to finishing that other book I've been trudging through, Making Cover Crops Profitable. That has also been a good, dense introduction into cover cropping, but unfortunately has not been easy to read on the subway when returning from work (zzz).
