Innholdsfortegnelse for October/November 2018 i Farm and Ranch Living

Have a Gourd Time! The West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta invites costumed paddlers to steer 1,000-pound pumpkins across a lake in Tualatin, Oregon. This year’s race, with vessels supplied by Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers, happens on Oct. 20. (Big Pumpkin Fact: The world’s largest pumpkin, grown in Belgium and never, as far as we know, used as a boat, weighed 2,624 pounds!) tualatinoregon.gov/pumpkinregatta Raise the Flag In 1867 the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. The 49th state (which didn’t officially join the union until 1959) marks the occasion each October with the Alaska Day Festival in Sitka, site of the original transfer ceremony. Festivities pepper the month; the main event is on Oct. 18. alaskadayfestival.org Worth Clucking About Robin Anderson from Bennington, Nebraska, shared this photo of…

Grandma’s Biscuits My grandmother makes these homemade biscuits to go with her seafood chowder, but they taste great with almost any dish. MELISSA OBERNESSER UTICA, NY TAKES: 25 min. • MAKES: 10 biscuits 2 cups all-purpose flour 3 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. salt 1/3 cup shortening 2/3 cup 2% milk 1 large egg, lightly beaten DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat oven to 450°. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk; stir just until moistened. 2. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead gently 8-10 times. Pat dough into a 10x4-in. rectangle. Cut rectangle lengthwise in half; cut crosswise to make 10 squares. 3. Place squares 1 in. apart on an ungreased baking sheet; brush tops with egg. Bake…

Living next to a volcano is always interesting and sometimes scary. The benefits of fresh volcanic soil come with downsides. Most of the Big Island farming areas are at risk of being in the path of a lava flow and we accept that, just as other regions accept drought or flooding. But we don’t rest easy. The recent Kilauea eruption was about 80 miles from us, but thick vog (volcanic smog) blanketed our farms for weeks. We smelled the sulfur, and the rain was acidic. Coffee trees are hardy, but other crops struggled. During an eruption, it is difficult to work outside most days, as the air quality is terrible. The lava flow threatened family farms as well as key papaya and orchid farmlands—all of which are small. Many lost…

When she was 17, our daughter, Jenny, restored a 1967 John Deere 2510 tractor for her FFA project. To honor her grandmother, aunt and anyone else who has been impacted by breast cancer, she decided to paint it pink. Her grandma had been a breast cancer survivor for 35 years. Having restored a ’67 Deere for his own FFA project (see previous page), our son Joshua, now 25, had more painting experience, so he helped out by giving Jenny’s tractor its pink finish. Our family originally bought the tractor from our neighbor. We did not realize how rare 2510 tractors were until we decided to restore this one. Deere only made them for three years, and only about 8,000 are gas syncro like ours. Now that it’s pink, the tractor…

IN THE PAST, A TRIP TO THE woodshed might be punishment for sliding across a freshly mopped floor in muddy boots. At my sister’s home in Oregon, it’s an invitation to relax. It was the winter of 2006, and her husband, Jim, finally had enough of slogging through the wet and cold, cradling chunks of wood while fighting with the weather-shredded tarp covering the rest of the pile. Safely inside after yet another trek to the rain-slicked pile, Jim began drawing. Pretty soon, he had a draft sketched. Before summer’s heat arrived, he and my sister Verdell began working in earnest. The poles for the woodshed had to be cut and peeled before the sap began to rise in May or early June at the latest. They drove the old…

Shannon Vermeulen of Mukwonago, Wisconsin, decked her kids out in costume versions of four of her dad’s tractors for Halloween. Wayne Delikat of Muskego, Wisconsin, gets regular help in the fields from this tiny crew, so they’re no strangers to riding tractors. From left, Mason went trick-or-treating in a 1940 Allis Chalmers C, Bryson in a John Deere 6115D, Hannah in a John Deere 4455 and Jake in a John Deere 4000 diesel. The trim on Hannah’s Deere looks a little like a pink version reader Jenny Petersen restored to honor those affected by breast cancer. Turn to page 52 for her story.…

We are a brother-and-sister team continuing the family legacy of growing cranberries. I’m Sandy, and my brother David and I grew up on the family marsh, learning and living the “cranberry way.” Now we are seventh-generation cranberry growers in Wisconsin, the country’s top cranberry-producing state. We Potters are the longest continuous line of cranberry growers in the state. Our family’s marsh, the James Potter Cranberry Marsh, is in Warrens. David and his wife, Jamie, live next door with their children, Braydan and Brielle. My husband, Adam Nemitz, and I live with daughters Myla and Ada on a marsh that Adam’s family owns. Both of us work full time for our dad, Todd Potter. Dad and his mother, June Potter, spend a lot of time teaching us as many skills as…

Every little girl dreams of the day when she will grow up, meet her fabled farmer on his trusty, rusty tractor and ride off into the sunset to the land of chickens and eggs. Wait—that’s not how it goes? Right, it wasn’t like that for me either. But it’s the happily ever after I am living. And I’m glad it is—but it wasn’t always so. As a preschooler, I spent time in my tropical California backyard with a bucket, grubbing snails to give to our neighbor’s white duck, Webster. Webster adored snails and gobbled them gratefully, and the neighbors let my cousin and me eat one of their duck eggs. It was my very first taste of fresh eggs. Then we moved, which began a series of relocations throughout my…

It was 1990 and it was love at first sight. We had just relocated to Colorado, and with only one (rather decrepit) vehicle, we needed transportation for our new jobs. Begging rides and calling taxis for the 12-mile trip to work nearly negated our wages. Scanning the ads for anything in our price range, I zeroed in on a 1972 Chevy Suburban. They wanted $700. We didn’t have it. With a smile and a prayer, I managed to convince the owner that I’d make payments. The Suburban, which we dubbed Yellow Beast, made my heart skip. She looked like a logging crummy—the kind my lumberjack uncles and my dad rode in back in Oregon. She got us to work, all right, but that cheerful truck has also shivered us awake…

A seed-infused strip of paper disappeared from my garden one summer. Days later, when I heard some chattering in the cedar tree, I looked up. A crook-tailed squirrel scolded me from its nest of tattered sticks, leaves and… seed paper. This was the year the critter officially claimed my yard for its playpen. Whenever I let the dogs into the yard, the squirrel teased them. The dogs would bark, the neighbors would complain, and I’d move the dogs back into the house. This wasn’t entirely bad. The dogs got more walks, and I lost some weight. But the next summer, the antics escalated. My flower beds were under constant attack. Perennials, bulbs, tubers—the pest dug them all up. It even tore the heads off my teddy bear sunflowers and scattered…

TATTOO BREED: Papillon AGE: 15 years HOME: Henry, IL JOBS: Farm boss, rabbit investigator STRENGTH: Keeping Max in line MAX BREED: German shepherd AGE: 7 years HOME: Henry, IL JOBS: Crop scout, irrigation expert STRENGTH: Retrieving giant sticks Our papillon, Tattoo, turned 15 in August. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure three years ago, but he is still going strong and loves the farm dog life. When I had more time to ride horses, he loved to ride with me. Last year I traded a horse for an old Gator; I drive Tattoo around the farm so he can keep an eye on me and be the farm supervisor. Depending on the weather, I park Tattoo in the shade or sun and we herd horses, which he really enjoys.…

Hawaii makes most people think of palm trees and vacations. But on the island of Hawaii (aka the Big Island), it’s hard not to see our agricultural heart. Kona coffee is the crown jewel of our state’s variety of products—from macadamia nuts and papayas to traditional food crops and cattle. Kona coffee is specific to the leeward (more arid) side of the Big Island and is grown on the slope of an active volcano: Mauna Loa. Our mild weather and rich volcanic soil give Kona coffee its distinctive mellow flavor with sweet highlights its fans seek. Three generations of my family farm here. My parents, Diane and Bill Shriner, own the original farm with 5 acres of coffee (there are about 800 heirloom trees per acre) and 5 acres of…

It was the middle of a dark night, and Don Watts was sitting on a mower in Halifax, Massachusetts, navigating by a GPS unit, taking down rows of corn barely 2 feet tall. “It was a little creepy being out in this 10-acre field with no lights anywhere except the glow of the screen,” Don says. “You’re riding along, hoping there’s not a tree there or a ditch in front of you.” Despite how this may sound, Don is not a midnight cornfield vandal. Along with his wife, Lorraine, he is a graphic designer and a friend to farmers—at least those who invite visitors onto their property each autumn to test their internal compasses on a multi-acre corn maze. Though Don and Lorraine live in his hometown of Doylestown, Pennsylvania,…

Q: What marketing or social media tips do you have to attract new visitors through agritourism? How can I make our visitors’ experiences more interactive? KACIE LUCKETT BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA A: Agritourism—the combination of “agriculture” and “tourism”— offers an invitation to the public to experience farming close-up. This could be anything from a tour down rows of corn to staying overnight on a farm—and everything in between. There are a variety of options for agritourism. Offering interactive tours allows for hands-on activities: hanging with the goats, bottle-feeding a baby animal, holding a chicken, collecting eggs or milking a goat. If you grow veggies or fruit, let guests taste test as they tour veggie rows or fill buckets with produce. Set up various spots for photo ops or selfies, giving visitors…