Farm Shut Downs

Farm shut downs happen more often now than they did when I was a child. Back then, they were pretty much unheard of. Then the government started paying farmers not to grow anything. Farmers could make more by growing nothing and living off of farm subsidies.

Farm Shut Downs - 12/2-12/8/2024

Monday, December 2, 2024

This is the David's Garden Seeds® family in front of the tree last year--Matt, Juanita, and David, if you are new here. Thank you for supporting our small business all year long!

Good morning. The holiday weekend sure went fast, especially when I had to work for two days of it. Somehow, I sprained my right wrist in the middle of the night so I should get a whole lot done today. Ha ha! I have no idea how I do these things. So I am wearing a brace and it has been helping a lot.

It is 50° this morning and it should get up to 70° so it is a bit warmer.

David somehow broke the glass coffee pot this morning so Keurig it is. Good thing we have a nice supply of K cups.

Today is Cyber Monday so we have a 15% savings off your total order if you want to do some online shopping at David's Garden Seeds®.

The tree is set up and lit and I have about six ornaments on it. Then David called me to do something and I never went back to it yesterday.

Hughes Electric is supposed to come and put a permanent fix on an outlet and voltage so we can use our newest appliance. I never did get the time over the weekend to even try it out. So disappointing. A lot of the accessories came in from Amazon late Saturday and I am really looking forward to using it! More about that later...

I have hundreds of orders to fill and ship this morning so if you ordered from us this past weekend, you will get your seeds soon. In fact, I mailed some out on Friday and some on Saturday.

Hughes installed a dedicated plug for my new appliance. Doesn't look all that pretty but it should work. I guess I shall call it wall art!

Hughes showed up before 8am. I was in my home office working and Matt came in to say they were here. I thought David would handle things but he did not. I had to go to the door and invite them in. Thank God I had the good sense to get dressed earlier. However, my hair was sticking up and I had not put any makeup on yet. I think I scared those men!

They put in a plug sort of high up on the wall and had to run the wire in a metal thing across the wall. Hopefully, it will be good. I was so busy with orders that I never got to try it out. Hopefully, tomorrow...

Three of us worked on orders almost all day long. We got a lot out and lots more to ship. A visitor showed up around 2pm to get an order that was ready for pickup. The mailman came close to 3pm. He brought us a very entertaining letter from an Iowa address. The letter writer sent us a typed letter stating that she wants to create a destination where she can sell things that people send to her. She sent a handwritten list of our plants and seeds that she wants us to send her for free. She didn't even bother to suggest paying the postage.

For everything that we send her for free, she will write a web page and give us a link. Then she will grow the stuff we send and sell it to her visitors. If she wants to sell things and make a profit, then she should buy things from us so we can make a profit. We are a for profit business. Selling seeds and plants is our bread and butter. This time of year, sales are way down, especially this year with the economy so bad.

So many folks think we exist to bless them. Granted, we do give away a lot but this is getting ridiculous. We worked hard to get where we are, working 60-80 hours a week each. We would get up at 5am and work until after 10pm, usually seven days a week for the first several years. I worked a full time job in addition to all I did for this company for the first seven years. Now, David, Matt, and I each put in way more than 40 hours a week and right now, our paychecks are reduced because the sales are always down at the end of the year. Yet, people think we should just donate everything. Wow, just wow!

Anyway, we had no other visitors until 4:30pm. While I was in the store helping the first customers, another one came in. The first one left around 4:45pm and the second one wouldn't leave until 5:10pm. I finally wrote the paychecks because today is pay day and I really needed some money in my account. We all have bills to pay and food to buy, right?

Then I rushed out to collect eggs. Too late. The chickens were already roosting because it was getting dark. Matt was transplanting some Mexican oregano plants that came in today. I called him and he came to the hen house, moved the chickens and collected all four eggs that they laid today. They are molting but I was hoping for more than four. Of course, today three people asked me for eggs and I had zero. I sold my last three dozen this past Friday. Since then I have had between two and six eggs each day from 50 chickens!

While Matt collected eggs, I took care of the rabbits and the goats. I got everyone fed and put away and it was getting dark fast. Also by this time I was starving. I fed the dogs and cooked up some salmon.

I got the dishes done and put away all of the things that had to be moved out of the craft room this morning so the electricians could do their thing.

It has been a long day and I am tired. I hope I fall asleep on the couch because I sleep so much better there. Our Cyber Monday sale is still going on until midnight Central Standard Time. I just printed out a bunch of orders from today.

Farm Shut Downs

Will this be one of many farm shut downs?

Hey there, friend! Let's talk about something that might not be on your radar but is super important for all of us—farm shut downs.

You know, the farms that grow so much of the food we eat? Some of them are closing down, and it's a bigger deal than you may think.

So, why are these farms shutting down in the first place? There are a bunch of reasons, and they're pretty concerning.

First off, economics. If a farm can't make enough money from selling its produce, it can't stay open. Simple math, right?

The prices for farm products can be pretty unstable. When prices fall, farmers often can't cover the cost of running the farm.

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Good morning. I woke up in the dark a little after 4am and it was raining. It stopped around 7am. I had to take Ethel out in the rain. After I came back in, I fed the dogs and began work on a new page about repelling flies naturally. The flies have been thick around our doors since last week. So next week, we will learn about repelling flies with plants. I am sick of killing flies. Are you having the same problem at your house?

There are a lot of Cyber Monday orders to fill so we will be very busy over the next couple of days.

Matt and I spent the whole day pulling and filling orders. We still have a bunch left to do. At 5:40pm, I quit and closed up shop. There were no visitors other than the mailman and FedEx.

The sky stayed overcast all day and it was chilly. It did not rain anymore and I never did look at the rain gauge today.

This is our yard at night, when I take Ethel out for her final potty. The lights are great for seeing any snakes or skunks that could be lurking in the dark.

Farm Shut Downs

An abandoned farmhouse.

Another issue is labor. Many farms have trouble finding and keeping workers, which makes it hard to keep up with production.

Then there's the weather. You've probably noticed that weather patterns have been a little unpredictable lately. Floods, droughts, and storms can destroy crops and make a farmer's job incredibly difficult.

It's not just bad weather, though. There's also increased competition from farms in other countries.

Sometimes it's cheaper for grocery stores to buy produce from overseas, which can lead to fewer sales for local farmers.

But let's not forget about government policies. They play a huge role in the success or failure of farms.

While the government pays farms subsidies, these sometimes aren't enough or aren't distributed fairly.

All these factors mean that more and more farms are shutting down, and it's a trend we can't ignore.

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

This nativity set is on the Farm Store porch. Come by and see it. We have some good Christmas gifts inside like an air fryer, homemade salsa, and Yellowstone hot/cold mugs. Of course, we have pecan coffee, rice, pecan treats, plants, and over 1,000 varieties of seeds as well.

Hello! Today has been a busy day. It is now 5pm and 65°. The sky has been overcast all day. Early this morning, it rained. David and I went grocery shopping around 9am. The store was fairly empty which was nice.

We got back and I had to mail out orders. I just now finished the orders at 4:45pm. We had no visitors, not even Amazon, although they were supposed to come and bring me some orders that should have been here last weekend. A mailwoman showed up to pick up packages after 3pm. Her SUV was loaded down with packages. 'Tis the season!

David is making turkey tonight since he has been working in his home office. I need to go do some laundry so I will pack everything up now.

The turkey came out so good. David also baked some of the sweet potatoes from the garden but they are not very sweet. I think we should have picked them sooner but the vines never turned yellow. Sweet potatoes take 120 days but these were growing longer. Next year, I will mark on the calendar when to pick them, 120 days after I put them in the ground, whether the vines turn yellow or not. At least the gophers did not get them this year!

A few tomatoes have begun to ripen. Lots of grape tomatoes...

Farm Shut Downs

An abandoned chicken farm with a few hens. Farm shut downs are rampant.

Now, you might be wondering, what does this mean for us and our food supply?

Well, it's a pretty big deal. If local farms shut down, we might have to rely more and more on food grown outside the U.S.

And there are definitely reasons why Americans would prefer home-grown food. For one, food grown close to home is usually fresher and tends to taste better. Plus, it's often grown with fewer pesticides and chemicals compared to imported goods.

There's also a level of quality and safety that we trust in American farms. If we have to start importing more food, there's a chance the quality might not be as high. Let's not forget about cost either. Importing food can make groceries more expensive.

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Here it is! My freeze dryer! Merry Christmas to me.

Good morning. I have been up since 4:42am, looking up how-to articles to make things with my new freeze dryer. Merry Christmas to me! I think I will start off with some candy and then move on to fruits this morning.

There are very few orders so I should actually be able to use the freeze dryer for the first time today. I also need to do some cleaning around the house. I have started cleaning small bits at a time, doing detail work, like removing layers of dust in places that have been there for five years, since we moved in. It is unbelievable. I thought the place was pretty clean but it isn't.

In the new year, as soon as we start getting normal paychecks again, I am going to buy all new room darkening curtains for the whole house and throw out the blinds. The dogs have broken some of them and they are not getting cleaned so they look absolutely horrible. The curtains that came with this house are on the sides and tops of the windows but you cannot close them. They are window treatments, not real curtains.

My freeze dryer set up. Today was my first time to use it.

I finally got the dishes washed and laundry going. Then I went into the craft room and poured candy on the trays. I fired up the freeze dryer. It takes 15 minutes to cool down. Then I added the trays and turned it on. Two hours later, I had freeze dried, strange looking candy.

First, I poured candy on the trays. Here are Skittles, the most popular freeze dried candy. I have never had freeze dried candy before.

The trays go into the freeze dryer.

While the candy did its thing, I decorated the Christmas tree and brought in more decorations. Amazon lost a package that should have been here a week ago. It still did not get delivered so I finally canceled it and reordered. I hope the things come in soon because one of the items is a tree skirt that I need for my new living room tree.

The dried Skittles look like marbles. They are crunchy and fun.

The candy was actually fun. The skittles came out just the way they are supposed to according to videos I have seen.

The other candies got super big and exploded. Some are almost too fine now to hold their new shape. I still have other candies to try but only two did what they should have. I will be using the freeze dryer for preserving food but I wanted to have some fun with it today.

The Amazon driver brought me four boxes today, but not the one that got lost in Von Ormy on November 30. If you don't know, Von Ormy is not far from here at all, yet my box is just gone. My Christmas shopping is about complete. Now I have to wrap and hide them.

I got my big gift early. David, too, got his gift early. Earlier this week, he broke the coffee pot. He had already told me he wanted one of those fancy coffee pots that you don't have to fill with water. So it is here but it has not yet been installed.

I am back out in Fulfillment filling orders. It is now 4:15pm. We had one gentleman come here today. He wanted to buy our almost ripe, orange tomatoes off the vine. They are not yet ripe. I told him I had ripe tomatoes that we picked yesterday but he said no. He then said he wanted vegetable plants to plant right now. It is too late. It is about to get cold here, much too late to plant anything other than some roots, spinach, or leaf lettuce. I told him we had the seeds but he said no and left.

Let me explain. You know how grocery store tomatoes don't taste good? That is because they pick them too early. Our tomatoes taste good, way better than what you get at the grocery store because we wait until they are ripe. I told him all of this but he was not pleased.

The orange floater indicates the amount of rain and it is not much.

It has been overcast all day long. This morning, I checked and the rain over the last two days was less than one quarter of an inch. The temperature is getting chillier. The high today was 64°. It is now 59° at 4:30pm. It is getting dark. According to Alexa, we are not getting anymore rain.

I am about to close up and go into the house. There is a roast that I have to make in the Instant Pot for this evening. I will put lots of carrots, mushrooms, onion, and potatoes in with it. I am excited already!

Change of plans. David roasted veggies in the oven and Matt grilled steaks. Had I known that, I would have stayed out in Fulfillment longer...It was good but Trump got part of my steak when I left the den to get the salt. He is quick and no one stopped him while I was in the kitchen.

Who could stay mad at that little face?

I decorated the living room with some Christmas wall art. I am still not finished but I do have to get it all done by the end of this week.

Farm Shut Downs

There are farm shut downs all over the United States, with abandoned homes and equipment.

But it’s not all doom and gloom! There are things we can do to support our local farms. For starters, you can choose to buy local produce whenever possible. By supporting local farmers, you help them keep their businesses alive.

You might even want to consider starting a small garden at home. All Americans should grow their own gardens if they can. It's rewarding and helps lessen the load.

It might sound challenging, but growing a few herbs or vegetables is a great start. Imagine, fresh tomatoes from your own backyard. Yum! And wouldn't it be great if more people did this?Our food supply would be more secure, and we'd be less dependent on imports.

Friday, December 6, 2024

I zoomed in on the beehives from the back deck and there is a cow. I like cows but last time, one of their cows spent 24 hours over here and we could not get hold of our neighbor.

Good morning! I love when we have leftover potato and mushroom from dinner the previous night. I heated up potato and mushroom from last night and then added eggs. It makes a delicious breakfast.

It is cold in the house. The heater is on but I don't think anything comes out of the vents on this side of the house. It is 50° outside and it feels like it is 30° in my office. The high today is supposed to be 54° so we will probably turn into popsicles.

Matt walked in with groceries while I was making breakfast. He bought some more things for me to freeze dry today such as cheesecake and yogurt. I will give it a try. I also have some bananas, blueberries, and grape tomatoes that I need to cut up and freeze dry.

A closeup shows the cow on his own property. It is a pretty one.

Here are 2 more just down the fenceline.

Let's play a game. Are the cows in our yard or theirs? After this past summer's cow incident, it is hard to tell. Looking through binoculars, they are on the right side of the fence. That is good because we do not have a way to directly contact the owner. We have to call another neighbor who calls him. Why? We have no idea.

We never did get an apology or any word from the owner of the cow. I guess it is a good thing the cow did not destroy any of our property. She was all over the eight acres. The neighbor we can contact was out of town and was not answering any calls. We have no idea where the cow owner's house is or how to get to it. It is a strange set up out here. We asked for the guy's phone number from the neighbor but he said the owner did not want us to have it.

This is the built-in coffee maker. We can't use it because we don't have the right filters...We will get those in the morning.

David and Matt installed David's early Christmas gift, an expensive coffee machine that you don't have to put water in. This is David's dream--to make coffee without having to fill the pot with water and spill it everywhere! Ha ha! Matt had to hook it up to the water. I have no idea how it works. They took everything out from under the sink so there was a lot for me to clean up but it needed to be done anyway.

After that, Matt had to go get a new bathroom faucet for me. Apparently, the cheap faucets that came with the house last about five years because mine died a few weeks ago. Since then, I have been using David's. Also, one in the guest bathroom broke. All four bathroom sink faucets will be replaced. Matt installed it and it works fine. However, everything came out from under the sink in there, too.

You can see ice on the inside of the freeze dryer along with some banana slices.

This afternoon, I chopped up a bunch of tomatoes and bananas. I put six trays into the freeze dryer with tomatoes, bananas, blueberries, and pineapple chunks. It should take about 24 hours. Maybe tomorrow I will try ice cream, cheesecake, and yogurt drops. This should be fun.

At 4:30pm, it looked pretty dark and it was so cold. Matt and I went out and put all of the animals away as Alexa said we would get rain at 5pm. Guess what? It is now 5:40pm and still no rain.

Norton on his hind feet with Matt. Trixie is watching in the foreground.

I had never seen Norton stand on his hind legs before but he enjoyed showing off for Matt.

While we were out there, Norton kept standing up on his hind feet. I had not seen him do that before. He is a talented guy. We put fresh hay down for the goats so they can stay warm. No baby goats yet but Trixie is as big as a house. Not sure if the female rabbit is really pregnant because she wasn't last time, but is so she should be due any day now. It is just too cold right now at 51° and it will be colder tomorrow.

I put up a small three foot tree in the den, on top of the portable fireplace we have in there. That is where we spend most of our time and we have never had a tree in there before. I ordered it from Amazon and it has really good lights that change from white to colors and it can blink or stay steady. David only likes steady colored lights.

Farm Shut Downs

Plus, gardening is a fun way to spend some time outside. It's great for teaching kids where food actually comes from.

But what about the bigger picture? Where will the bulk of our food come from if farms keep shutting down? Some companies are investing in new farming technologies, like vertical farming and hydroponics. These methods use less land and can produce crops much faster.

While these new technologies are promising, they're not widespread yet. So, we still need traditional farms to continue growing food for us. Farmers should grow food for as long as possible while we transition to these newer methods. It's crucial to keep supporting them through this change.

Saturday, December 7, 2024

Good morning! It is 45° out there and the high is supposed to be 49°. I do not want to go out at all!

So I got up early and let the dogs out. Ethel refuses to go out. I checked on the freeze dryer and it is now drying instead of freezing.

David and I went grocery shopping and had to run a few errands in town. Matt came over and fed the animals and minded the store while we were gone. He was working on separating hot pepper seeds from the peppers as there were no customers while he was here.

I got back and put things away. Then Matt went home and I began pulling and filling orders. I had two different customers buying seeds. The gate closed at 2pm and the mailman never made it. I waited for a few minutes because I had a bag of orders for him to take but I finally went in the house. I could not take the mail at that point because our post office closes at 10am on Saturdays.

I cleaned more of the house and then it was time for our Saturday night movie. Svengoolie was one we've seen before so we watched our first Christmas movie of the season. As always, it was Christmas Vacation.

I kept checking on the freeze dryer but it was still drying at 11pm when I finally went to bed.

Farm Shut Downs

An empty barn, one of many farm shut downs.

Besides technology, another solution is community-supported agriculture (CSA). By joining a CSA program, you get fresh produce direct from farmers.

Not only do you get delicious food, but you also help farmers financially. Isn't that a win-win situation? Helping to provide income to farmers by buying their products helps to prevent farm shut downs.

So, let’s hope the trend of farm shut downs doesn't continue. It’s important to support our local farms and ensure they keep growing our food. After all, who wants to rely solely on food trucks bringing in products from across the globe?

Sunday, December 8, 2024

Good morning. It is a rainy, sort of foggy morning. I have to go out and take care of the animals. It is 48°. The high will be 59°.

It is drizzling a bit. Between yesterday and today, we got another quarter of an inch of rain.

I dried 2 and a half trays of bananas and a half tray of blueberries.

Here is a tray of pineapple chunks.

I dried 2 trays of Ruby Crush grape tomatoes. I had to cut them all in half.

After almost 36 hours, the drying of the 6 trays was finally finished.

The freeze dryer finally completed its first official run (not including the three hour candy run at 2:46am this morning. It ran for a total of 35 hours, 46 minutes, and 43 seconds. Who knew? Everything came out dry and the ice is thick in there. It was beeping when I woke up. I got everything in mason jars and mylar bags and now the freeze dryer is defrosting. There is a shorter way. I will need to put everything in the deep freeze first and once it is already frozen, it will cut out a lot of the freezing time and go to drying time faster.

The church was decorated with beautiful poinsettias this morning. Aren't they just gorgeous?

No new babies anywhere out there. We went to church and it was the Christmas cantata today. Unfortunately, half of the choir was out sick and the sanctuary was only about half full. The cantata was beautiful and the few who were there did a fantastic job.

The church was beautifully decorated both inside and out. I was impressed.

Here is the Christmas tree in front of the sanctuary.

I need to finish decorating our home for Christmas. Something always comes up...

3 poinsettias in my living room.

Farm Shut Downs

An abandoned garden in the fall.

More Americans should be growing food, whether it’s on a farm or in a backyard garden. This helps keep our food supply secure and close to home. Plus, we don’t want to let farming become a thing of the past, do we?

There’s a responsibility in keeping America’s agriculture alive and thriving. We should aim to reduce our dependence on imports. And remember, the more we support local, the better for the environment as well. It reduces the carbon footprint of transporting food long distances.

Preventing farm shut downs means fresher food and a stronger economy. In short, we should all lend a helping hand to our local farmers. After all, the future of our food supply is at stake, and it's important for America to grow food for Americans. How can we do this? If you live near a farm, see if they sell something and buy it.

Some farmers sell seeds, vegetables, eggs, meat, lard, milk, cream, honey, trees, plants, fruit, Pick Your Own, and more. Support those farmers to prevent more farm shut downs. Don't expect the cost to be cheaper than the grocery store. The farmer will have tastier foods and the farmer has paid for it and put his time and energy into it. Homegrown will always taste better than stuff picked prior to be ripe that you find in the grocery store.

David's Garden Seeds sells seeds, plants, eggs, and produce sometimes. Soon, we are hoping to have honey to sell as we got two bee hives this year.

Return from Farm Shut Downs to Our Sixth Year

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