Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2022 i The New Pioneer

During the last few months some of you said you wanted to move to a rural area, to become more self-sufficient and take more control of your lives, yet second thoughts had kept you from making a final decision. They all started with a “but”: …we don’t want to farm full-time, we don’t want to give up what cities have to offer; we would need to supplement our income in some way and don’t know how, etc. In this issue of TNP we address those concerns by featuring new pioneers whose can-do approach to problem solving gave them the answers necessary to make their lifestyle change a success. To see what I mean by a can-do attitude, read mini-farmer Madelyn Fossum’s inspiring story. When Hurricane Ida destroyed the 14-year-old’s garden…

Nestled in the mountains of the northeastern corner of Georgia lies Hillside Orchard Farms. From its humble beginnings as a “jelly kitchen” in their backyard, Robert and Patsy Mitcham have grown their operation into a 90-acre farm, cannery, bakery and agritourism center in Rabun County. An interest in agriculture was natural for the pair. They grew up in rural areas of Georgia, so farming and canning were a way of life for them. Robert was a member of the FFA in high school, helped run the school’s canning operation, ran the local canning plant in Rabun County and became an agriculture teacher at Rabun County High School. This background in agriculture led him to rent farmland while still an agriculture teacher, which added quite a bit of real-world experience to…

For some landowners, a happy flock of hens scratching around the yard is the height of right. Chicken owners often make excuses for their addiction. They say that chicken eggs are cheaper than in the store, that free-range eggs are healthier, that a flock keeps bugs and ticks away from the house or that the many varieties of chickens all scratching together just look good. Perhaps chicken addiction goes back to our pioneer foremothers. In those days, a flock of chickens provided protein from eggs, cash money that was hard to come by and the occasional meat for Sunday dinner when it wasn’t available anywhere else. Loretta Bodenhamer has been wanting chickens for as long as I have known her—and our friendship spans back into the previous century. Last Christmas,…

Composting is the underpinning of all life on land, establishing and maintaining a habitat that promotes the growth of a host of life forms that cycle plant and animal waste products (biomass) back into the soil that generated them. Practices that would be considered composting have been part of our interaction with the environment since the development of agriculture. For millennia, cultivation and commerce were reliant on horses or oxen, so a major motivation for composting was the disposal of a great deal of manure, bedding and other farm wastes. This worked out well because it ensured the fertility of the land by seasonally cycling the same nutrients that created the wastes, returning them to the soil where crops were grown. In the Netherlands alone, there are more than 400,000…

Salt-rising bread. If you’ve made it, you know the first thing that comes to mind is the aroma as it ferments. One sniff and you’re aware that it’s not the pleasant, yeasty, familiar smell of normal bread starter. That’s because salt-rising bread contains no yeast. The starter consists of cornmeal and/or potatoes, milk and sugar, and those work together to form a wild fermentation. The best way to describe the smell of fermenting salt-rising-bread starter is this: “Gym socks left in sweaty shoes, overripe cheese, rotten tomatoes.” But that’s a good thing! When the distinct smell hits your senses, it’s a signal that the starter’s bacteria and enzymes are working. The end product will be a fine crumbed loaf with a tawny golden color and an addictive flavor. Baking Inspiration…

When you’re stressed, it’s natural to turn to baking for comfort. And 2020 and 2021 had stress written all over them. As a result, there was a significant resurgence in baking because people were cooped up and yearning for nourishing comfort food, including bread. The problem was, with so many new people working with bread dough and a blip in the supply chain, yeast was nearly as scarce as toilet paper. As a result, sourdough bakers sprung up everywhere, and a few ventured into using raisin-yeast water as a natural leavening. Even for those who did have yeast, new bakers had lots of questions about bread-baking basics, so we thought it would be helpful to look at all three methods of baking bread and offer recommendations for bypassing certain problem…

Leah Dienes is highly knowledgeable about brewing, especially when it comes to brewing history in Louisville and the Midwest. One specialty beer you will often find on tap at Apocalypse Brew Works is the Kentucky Common, a lesser-known historical beer that is gaining traction at breweries around the Midwest. There are many interpretations of the Kentucky Common, from light to dark to “clean” to sour. Dienes is confident that she brews one of the most historically accurate versions, as she had access to extensive brewing logs from when it was the most, well, common beer style brewed in Louisville and surrounding areas before Prohibition. “We worked with local beer historian Conrad Selle,” said Dienes, “and had access to the original brew logs from the Oertel brewery. We scaled down their…

Let It Blow, Let It Blow, Let It Blow Compact, versatile and feature-packed, WORX’s new Leafjet is ready to take on fall cleaning chores and more Anyone who has ever messed with gas-powered leaf blowers can attest—they’re noisy, they’re costly to repair and they suck gas/oil mixtures like crazy. Savvy TNP regulars already know that we’re big fans of WORX battery-powered tools. So when it came time try WORX’s new Nitro 40 Volt Leafjet Blower, we jumped at the opportunity. The Leafjet’s design delivers speed and air volume controls driven by an innovative inline brushless motor that’s powered by two 20V Power Share Pro 4.0Ah batteries (included). The easy-slide variable air-control nozzle along with the button-activated speed control allow the user to customize the blower depending on what type of…

“We’re helping Mother Nature by moving the seed in a wide area. I work with her rather than manipulating…” Strolling past a blanket of poppy blooms, I feel as if I’ve been transported to Oz as every step takes me deeper into an enchanting place. Imagine a mystical rainbow with rows and rows of orange, yellow, blue and violet blooms. Yes, it’s a fairy tale come true at Wildseed Farms. Just 7 miles east of Fredericksburg, in the Texas Hill Country, Wildseed Farms’ founder and president John R. Thomas, a towering gent clad in a cowboy hat and boots, invites the public—free of charge—to visit his heavenly gardens. Visitors tour the half-mile walking trails surrounded by 200 acres of blooming wildflowers. More than just a pretty place, Wildseed generously shares…

Way down the bayou in Lockport, Louisiana, lives a young girl named Madelyn Fossum. Lockport is a mere 50 miles north of Port Fourchon, where Category 4 Hurricane Ida roared ashore on August 29, 2021, with wind speeds of more than 150 miles per hour. Maddie has lived her whole 13.5 years in the same house where her mother grew up, across the street from her maternal grandparents, near Bayou Lafourche. While Louisiana Cajuns are no strangers to hurricanes, Ida was relentless. It maintained Category 4 strength for six hours after landfall, which is highly unusual. The major storm continued to wreak havoc across the U.S., leaving a path of destruction wherever it went. However, the people of Louisiana are strong and resilient. I first learned of Maddie when her…

“…by working with the local government, Noelle believes that she can help rabbits to become an accepted urban agricultural livestock.” Moorhead, Minnesota, is like many small cities in the country—strip malls, new home developments and chain restaurants abound. However, near the Red River, which delineates the border of Minnesota and North Dakota, a nondescript, older neighborhood hosts one home that stands out from the rest. On a corner lot of less than 0.2 acres, a riot of native grasses and forbs grows on the boulevard. A thriving garden fills the yard. What further sets it apart from every other home in the area is a 2-by-4 constructed triangle “tractor.” Inside, grazing in the abundant grass, are rabbits. The White Rabbit Urban Farm is an island full of life in the…

Ben Pumo comes from a long line of farmers who tended the fields along Gude Road leading to his farm. A quarter mile up the street, his second-cousin Greg Gude manages the Kumquat Growers operation, which last year fulfilled its first contract to provide leaf-on kumquats to all Publix Supermarkets in the U.S. The yearly Kumquat Festival in Dade City began 25 years ago, and today it is the city’s best-attended event each year, beating out even the fair. The festival is held in celebration of these grape-sized pops of citrus (not to be confused with their fuzzy, sweeter lookalikes, the loquats) and attracts 40,000 people in a single day. Kumquat Growers began in the 1880s when one of the Gude forebears, Casper Nathe, bought a Chinese kumquat tree from…

“There’s no fuel to mix or pour, no yanking a starting rope, no spark plugs to replace, oil to change or filters to clean—and best of all, no fumes and no ear plugs.” There are plenty of options for portable generators with a wide range of power outputs, fuels and cost. So why go to all the trouble of designing and building a solar generator from scratch? Well, I had some very specific requirements that commercially available generators just don’t meet. Of course, reliability was a factor, and I wanted enough power output to keep the lights on and the water flowing during extended power outages. The generator needed to be portable enough to take to any place on our homestead for welding, cutting and splitting firewood and even providing…

I’ve been in lots of homes throughout my life. So often, the kitchens are outdated, or they lack tasteful touches or even a good layout. To me, a kitchen is the home’s most important space. It’s where my wife and I process wild game, prepare meals, drink coffee and entertain friends. We can’t do all of those things to the best of our abilities if the space isn’t somewhere that we want to be. For most people, a kitchen renovation might seem financially beyond reach. Plus, how can you live life with an uprooted kitchen while renovations are underway? I have answers for those valid concerns. First, a kitchen renovation need not cost $20,000, especially if you can complete most or all of the work yourself. Second, while a torn-apart…

When a friend told me to check out Elaine Turcke’s quilts, I arranged to visit her, never expecting to see the work of a fabric artist. I had assumed she made traditional-looking quilts and she does, but she also showed me a stunning array of other items—among them, wool embroidery pieces she has designed, a boro tote bag, a knitted quilt and even a wall hanging that incorporates a photo of her granddaughter. What struck me was the way her work has evolved as she learned new techniques, unafraid to experiment with designs and colors in order to express her artistic vision. “Sewing has always been a major interest for me. My mom made clothing and household items and gave me a sewing machine at my graduation from nursing school,”…

Second in damage only to Katrina in 2005, LA’s Hurricane Ida reached tropical-storm strength in the Atlantic Ocean on August 26, 2021, when hurricane hunters found maximum sustained winds of at least 40 miles per hour. Over the next three days, it experienced rapid intensification, meaning that its sustained winds increased at least 35 miles per hour or greater in a 24-hour period. Actually, Hurricane Ida’s winds increased from 85 miles per hour to 150 miles per hour in just 24 hours! Ida made landfall on August 29, exactly 16 years—to the day—after Category 5 Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana and Mississippi. Ida tied the record for the maximum sustained wind speed at landfall held by Hurricane Laura in 2020 and the 1856 Last Island Hurricane, which also struck Louisiana.…

Silkie chickens are almost always sold as straight-run chicks, but as I was looking to replace my tiny flock, I took a chance on three. I figured even if one turned out to be a boy, a silkie roo couldn’t be too much trouble to have around. A few months later, there it was: raspy adolescent crowing from the coop. Then, a second chicken joined in. I only had one gal. Mayhem ensued, as both roosters homed in on the one remaining hen, attempting their awkward adolescent dominance dances. But she accepted their peculiar ways, and when separated from “her boys,” she would eagerly search for them—calling to them loudly from across the yard. But the neighbors didn’t necessarily accept the rambunctious crowing. I tried “no-crow” collars (glorified aspiration devices)…

Planting food plots, which are beds of corn, beans, clover, brassicas and other deer favorites cultivated with the hope that they will draw a trophy buck or a few does for the freezer, is nothing new. Hunters have been planting crops to draw wild game since arrowheads were made of flint. But adding an electric fence to the mix is definitely a 21st-century tactic. Some food plotters, particularly those on small parcels, have found that protecting crops until deer season equates to a target-rich stand vigil come opening day when the electric fence comes down. This is not for everyone. Some feel it skirts the bounds of fair chase, but no one argues with its effectiveness. A small field of corn, for example, say an acre or less, can get…

We all know the vampires of legend. If you invite them over the threshold, they’ll come into your house at night, find a juicy spot on your neck to chomp down and remove your lifeblood in a single gruesome meal. Stretching the metaphor, we invite all sorts of energy vampires into our homes, seldom thinking for a minute about the amount of money they cost us each year. Take a stroll through your house at bedtime, with all the lights turned out, and count them: Those vampires are plain to see, announcing their presence with their tiny, insistently blinking kights. These contraptions cost money—probably not enough to drain all the blood out of your finances, but still a sobering amount. One recent study puts the national costs of always-on appliances…

Sizing the system to meet your needs during a power outage, whether from the grid or a malfunctioning generator, is pretty simple once you understand the basics of power and energy. Voltage is the amount of force pushing the electricity. Amps is the current, or amount of electricity flowing through a circuit, and watts is a measure of power (744 watts equals 1 horsepower). To calculate the power, multiply the force times the current. For example, at 110 volts, 10 amps would give 1,100 watts, or 1.1 kilowatt (kW). Multiply that by the amount of time you use it, and you get kilowatt-hours (kWh). A solar array that produces 900 watts peak energy would average around two-thirds that amount (600 watts) through the course of a day. To be conservative,…

One of the first tools I ever received was a hatchet. It was a gift from my father. I was about to go on my first Boy Scout camping trip and my dad appeared at my bedroom door with it in his hand while I was busy putting my gear together. I’ve owned hatchets, axes and splitting mauls since then. Although gasoline-powered chainsaws and wood splitters have changed the way many of us get our winter wood supply, a hatchet, axe and splitting maul are useful to anyone who burns wood for primary or secondary heat, enjoys a campfire in the backyard or has trees and shrubs that require thinning or occasional tending. We may not use them as much as our pioneering forefathers or our grandparents did, but when…