Jumping back in

Whoa.

It's been about 6 months since I last blogged. Life has been busy and we once again had a good year at the Farmers markets.

The reason that I am starting to blog again has to do a growing awareness of the pressure being put on small farms by various departments of our state and federal governments.It really does seem that all the stuff from the USDA that claims to support small farms and buying local is just a bunch of nonsense. All those web pages and handbooks are contradicted by the actual practices of the department which treats small farms like an annoyance to eliminated.

I have recently spoken with farmers in my area and all of them have "horror stories" of being pressured, harassed, and intimidated by agents of the Department of Labor, or some subset of the USDA. One of these has been driven out of business by some very shady government folks. I hope to post some details soon.

Also, I have become aware of the HUGE impact that locally-raised and locally sold foods can have on family health, the local economy, and the whole mindset of farming on a small scale. More to come on that as well.

So expect posts on farmers rights and the struggle to preserve them, the benefits of locally raised foods, the joy of raw milk and other living foods, and atleast 1post on how NOT to raise turkeys.

Gil