Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Pete Vukovich <pvukovic1@yahoo.com>]

I think the article was a little misleading about them farming for 10 years, most of the mix they talk about on it was planted 2-3 years ago according to their website. Their website seems a little thin on their whole model, soil, composting, water etc, lots of stories, but very little systemics.  I initially had a lot of questions (the article is pretty much a fluff piece), but looking at their site only a few remain.

Are blueberries really going to compete with south american imports? And are you really going to be able to harvest 3000+ plants by hand? Why get rid of sweet potatos? There's a big mix of crops here, but is there a system? Teaching cooking is great, but is it as profitable as getting a certified kitchen and finishing a product? Seems like cattle are common in east texas so why do what you neighbors do?  The article says the cattle are hay fed at times, their website says they are strictly grassfed - which is it? Those cattle seem sort of vertical for beef? And what the heck is an heirloom cattle anyway? I know fishermen like bass for the fight, but why feature a predator when you could pick perch or catfish and sell them? Is the lake/pond cold/deep enough for some trout? Does the lake/pond feed itself? Ducks geese? Is it used for irrigation?  Where are the raised beds for the olives? How much of this mix sells in east texas? If you're gonna trap coyotes why not just get some pyrenees or akbashes? Where's the pigs, goats? and bees? Personally I like goats and pigs - they use them in the cooking classes (along with mushrooms),doesn't it defeat the purpose of having a farm if you bring in food?

Seems like they enjoy their land, and spend a great deal of energy putting new stuff into it, but I can't tell how much time they spend trying to optimize it or create a 'sustainable' model.  As a disclaimer here, my questions here are largely the result of my own lack of education.


--- On Sat, 4/18/09, TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net> wrote:

From: TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Trading city life for an East Texas farm
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2009, 9:54 PM

After ten  years on their farm, the Greers have yet to show a profit. Is
this a sustainable model to be repeated?

paul tradingpost@lobo.net


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 4/18/2009 at 6:53 PM Emery Mitchamore wrote:

>I'll bite.  What's wrong?
>
>On Apr 18, 2009, at 4:01 PM, Tradingpost wrote:
>
>>
>> what's wrong with this
 picture???
>>
>>
>> Trading city life for an East Texas farm
>>
>http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/lifetravel/stories/DN-ns_gr
e
>>
>> erfarm_0419gd.State.Edition1.24f8b93.html
>>
>> 04:44 PM CDT on Friday, April 17, 2009
>>
>> By MARIANA GREENE / The Dallas Morning News
>> magreene@dallasnews.com
>>
>> DAINGERFIELD, Texas – The process of finding the farm provides clues
>> that
>> Sid and Eva Greer have retreated from the corporate life, even
>> before you
>> hear their story. Their midlife change of course is not an uncommon
>> plotline these days, but far more dream of similar scenarios without
>> summoning the pluck to make it happen.
>>
>> The Greers exchanged chauffeured cars, life in exotic locales and
>> audiences
>>
 with trade ministers for manual labor sunrise to sundown. Sid runs
>> heirloom
>> beef cattle and farms pick-your-own fields of fruits, berries and
>> vegetables. At night, online, he researches sustainable agriculture
>> methods
>> and puzzles over additional ways to diversify the farm's means of
>> earning
>> income. Eva tests recipes, plans her schedule of cooking classes,
>> caters
>> events in nearby towns and readies four bed-and-breakfast cabins for
>> weekend guests. (Breakfast is often homemade bread and her own fig or
>> blackberry preserves that you eat in your cabin.)
>>
>> The couple, now in their fifties, started down this road fully
>> prepared for
>> hard work, although after 10 years, the operation has yet to turn a
>> profit.
>>
>> It takes only a few minutes to reach Greer
 Farm once you turn off the
>> two-lane highway between Gilmer and Daingerfield, minutes that belie
>> how
>> remote the farm feels. After twists and turns, the road ever
>> narrowing, you
>> come upon the historic homestead, a planter's imposing house and
>> handmade
>> outbuildings built in the 1850s, some restored, some not. Shrieking
>> guineas
>> announce guests, and in the barnyard baby goats kick up their heels
>> and
>> chickens scratch for bugs.
>>
>> As busy as the farm is for its owners, it is a spot of serenity for
>> guests.
>>
>> "It was killing me," Sid says of his former career with an
oil
>> company. He
>> was gone from his wife and four children 300 nights a year, even
>> though
>> they lived with him at postings in Madagascar, Tunisia and
 London.
>>
>> When his position in London was eliminated, he didn't try to find
>> work in
>> the same field; he talked his wife and remaining school-age daughter
>> into
>> making a momentous change in their lives by buying a farm.
>>
>> "I felt like this would be a lifestyle that would provide a
longer,
>> healthier life than the one I had," Sid says. "I wanted to
live off
>> the
>> land."
>>
>> Farming is in Sid's family. His father's people were ranchers
and
>> farmers
>> in North Texas, and Sid grew up in East Texas. Eva grew up in what was
>> British Honduras, now known as Belize. Her German physician father and
>> aristocratic mother resettled there after World War II, after his
>> years in
>> a German labor camp and her mother's spent trying to obtain his
>>
 freedom.
>>
>> In Belize, Eva says she entertained herself by reading cookbooks.
>> Imagining
>> the recipes on the table planted a passion for good food made with
>> fresh
>> ingredients. In Madagascar, she ran a staff house for Amoco employees
>> "because restaurants were not safe. People came to our house to
have
>> a nice
>> meal."
>>
>> When her husband expressed his desire to exchange their fast life
>> for a
>> slow life, Eva, with their children grown, worried what would occupy
>> her
>> time. Farming was Sid's dream. "I didn't know how I could
live here,
>> retire
>> here, without being bored," she says.
>>
>> Before the move, therefore, she enrolled in the International Culinary
>> School at the Art Institute-Houston so she could pursue
>>
 professionally "my
>> God-given passion."
>>
>> Although they bought the farm in 1994, they did not move here until
>> 1999.
>> Sid taught himself to be a farmer and rancher by "attending lots
of
>> seminars and reading lots of books." He is outspoken politically,
>> and that
>> fervor extends to the current philosophies of farming. He has tried
>> strictly organic methods but finds it too expensive to be practical.
>> Instead, he practices the tenets of sustainable agriculture, employing
>> methods that provide farm profitability without degrading the natural
>> resources that support production.
>