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 [...]

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. [...]

I’ve been thinking about survival of the fittest lately and how it pertains to me as a farmer.  As part of our mission, we are trying to preserve heritage breeds of both plants and animals.  But sometimes I wrestle with the question, “Should we just let some breeds die off?”  Those who save their own [...]

“These are people who will do anything, and we mustn’t be optimistic about their character.” – Wendell Berry, speaking about agribusiness corporations I admit that I’m afraid. I think it started when I read Joel Salatin’s book Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front. At least, that’s when [...]

If you’re not in Nebraska now, let me give you a quick update: we’re having one of the harshest winters in my memory. In December, we had two snowfalls of 12″, a string of days between -14F and -10F, and tonight, we’re expecting windchill temperatures of -40F. Allegedly, we’ll have high temperatures in the 20s [...]