Last week, Brian and I had the honor of being a part of the Sierra Club's speaker series.  We gave a speech entitled, "The Road to Black Sheep Farms."  People are always asking us why and how we came to be farmers, so this was the perfect opportunity to tell our story.  We had a pretty good sized crowd, and we had so much fun!  After the presentation, we got to meet with several people who are looking to do the same thing we do, or know someone who is.  It's so exciting to hear that this movement is gaining momentum.  Through this event, we found out about some great land that is for rent for anyone wanting to farm an acre this summer.  The farm is in Sarpy County around Schram State Park.  If you are interested, contact me at Kelly@BlackSheepFarms.com, and I can put you in touch with the right person. 

On Saturday, Brian attended the No More Empty Pots Food Summit.  It was a locally organized event to discuss several issues dealing with local food, such as a need for a commercial kitchen space and  setting up local food distribution.  It was very informative and exciting, and we hope to stay involved as these projects develop further. 

I was not able to attend the Food Summit on Saturday because I was on the farm teaching a class on how to build a worm bin.  I've been a "worm farmer"  for a few years now, and I love it!  It's so exciting to watch these amazing creatures, and it's a great opportunity to teach my kids about food cycles.  Since this was my first time teaching the class, I wasn't exactly sure what the most important points to teach were.  Luckily, several families in our local homeschool group were eager to be my guinea pigs.  We all had a great time, and the kids had a ball climbing all the snow mountains outside. 

Now I'm looking forward to a quiet, relaxing week because next week, planting begins!!!!!

~Kelly

There is a new story from Wisconsin about dairy farmers getting hassled by state agencies. Unfortunately, it's not an isolated incident, nor is it contained solely in Wisconsin. I recently read Raw Milk Revolution by David Gumpert, and it is filled with similar tales of government intimidation, unfounded fears and small farms scrambling to find ways to replace income, pay legal fees and rebuild confidence in their customers.

I've also read Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal by Joel Salatin. Same story. Small farms who find themselves on the wrong side of the law without provocation.

As a farmer and a supporter of farmers, I understand what it takes to produce healthy food. I buy raw milk directly from my neighbors because I trust them. They care about the quality of their milk, the health of their animals and the well-being of their customers. They are my friends, and they have my support. As a matter of fact, I'd like to see the big producers keep their standards as high as our neighbors instead of relying on pasteurization to keep their products "clean."

Your food choices should not be dictated by the government. If you consider all the chemicals they allow Americans to eat, their track record doesn't look all that good.

-Brian

This morning, I woke up, went out in the frigid cold in my pajamas and killed a turkey.  It wasn't quite that simple, but that is the jist of what happened.  The dogs had excaped from their pen (This time, it took them almost a month to figure out how to escape!)  and I finally caught them, after they had ripped some feathers from a turkey.  Once the dogs were put back in their pen, I went to check on the tom and he was gone.  I looked everywhere for him, but could not find him.  I assumed that he was probably in shock and would eventually make his way back to the coop.  Time passed and he did not.  In fact, when I reluctantly closed up the coop in the evening, we still had several birds scattered up in trees, still afraid from the earlier attack.  I had no choice but to hope they'd make it through the night.  I had fortified the dog pen so they could not escape again, or so I thought.

Which leads us to this morning.  Every morning, the boys go out and feed and walk the dogs.  This morning when they went to the pen, they saw that the dogs were gone and the tom turkey was in front of the pen clinging to life.  Sadly, I had no choice but to end his life.  This became quite a problem, though because this bird is huge and as beat up as he was, I knew he would still put up a fight when I tried to cull him.  I called Brian, sobbing, as I told him about our one and only male turkey.  I felt angry with the dogs, anger with myself for failing to train them and fear and uncertainty about how I was actually going to kill this bird.  But most of all, I felt overwhelming sadness for this bird.  I wanted to start raising animals because I was disgusted by how animals are raised in industrial processing facilities.  And now my animal had suffered tremendously and was going to die for no reason.  And I've lost count of how many of our chickens have died this way.  It is my job to see to it that these animals are raised with dignity and honor, and I felt like I had failed. 

Brian, who is always there to talk me down when I get this way, calmed me and talked me through what I had to do.   And then I went and killed the bird because that is all that I could do. 

Brian and I jokingly refer to ourselves as rockstar farmers, but I couldn't feel further away from that title today.   This is definitely one of those days where I long for an office job in the city, away from a life that is hard, complicated and often times so foreign to me.  In the end, I just do the best that I can do for myself, my family and my farm and I hope to one day look back and see more successes than failures.

~Kelly

Want to meet your favorite farmers? Kelly and Brian Smith are scheduled to speak to Sierra Club Nebraska on February 25, 2010. Our topic will be "The Road to Black Sheep Farms," and we'll discuss how we got started in farming and the rural-urban food connection.

The event is free and open to the public. Full details are available on the Sierra Club Nebraska blog.

- Brian