Income falls, but benefits grow – Milwaukee Journal Sentiinel

On the right you will see the miss. Our potatoes. We lost that entire center section of the field when we were deluged with heavy rains just after planting on Memorial Day weekend. The seed potatoes were lost. We planted more, but the yeilds will be not very good. We also lost some raspberry plants off in the distance. They are starting to come back, but the foliage doesn’t look so hot.

We also have two Jersey beef steers. The Jersey breed is known as milk cows, but their meat is very high quality. We are excited to try it, as we have only heard good things about it from the buttery marbling in the steaks to the lean tasty burgers. Let us know if you would like to buy in to these as well.

Finally – we have more lambs, and will be finishing them in the fall as well. Let us know if you would like to get in on a box of delicious, naturally raised, grass-fed lamb.

This barn quilt is part of a great project called Kewaunee County Area Barn Quilts – a project directed by Agricultural Heritage and Resources in Kewaunee. We are proud to have been included in the tour of historic barns, and to have our big hay barn so beautifully adorned. Click here to see all the other barns on the tour.

In any event, observe her running around, chasing chickens and being cute – and I tell you the name Junebug just rolls off the tongue.

Katahdin sheep are what’s known as “hair sheep”. Hair sheep shed their coats each year and do not require shearing like your typical sheep. The thing about regular wool sheep is – yes wool is a nice product, but because if cheap imports it is relatively worthless. So what you are left with is raising an animal that requires that bit of maintenance, plus the cornucopia of health and sanitary issues that accompany the woolen breeds. Hair sheep were bred to be more hearty, disease resistant and less susceptible to the numerous parasites that infest sheep.

The constant worming involved in standard sheep care make organic practices a challenge to say the least, so hair sheep might be a way to make it work. It will all boil down to how we like the meat. If we think it good stuff, we might pick up some ewes and start a flock. If it’s not so great, we might just buy feeder lambs to fill the freezer and not bother with the flock-building thing. Stay tuned – we’ll let you know how “Chop” and “LegO” taste this winter some time.

Mister Toes showed up on our Weil Street apartment doorstep on a cold winter morning – in our first year of marriage. In many ways, Toes represented our journey together. He was loving, funny and popular, yet he always seemed to know that there was something better out there. In the city he was happy, but always just a little bit restless and unsatisfied. In our last years on Weil Street, his movements became labored, and he often grumped about the house, not knowing what it was that he wanted. We thought he was just getting old and bothered by his arthritis. When we moved to Forestville, his demeanor changed for the better. He grumbled less, and enjoyed exploring our rented home – finding all the great window views and secret nooks and crannys to explore.

But the real change came for him – as it did for us – when we moved to our farm. He had seemingly found his fountain of youth. When we moved in, there were some mice in the house – he made short work of those. He loved playing with Izzy the Kitten, visiting the cows and chickens, and keeping us company in the garden. But his favorite pastime was to hunt the meadow near our house relentlessly for mice – a mini lion on his mini Serengeti. He would bound in from the field and scamper about the trees, sharpening his claws on each one.

In the year that he was here with us,  he was the happiest we have ever seen him. He was taken from us much too soon, but he died a happy cat. We figure there could be far worse ways to wrap up a long, loving and happy life. We should all be so lucky.

We will miss you, you fuzzy bastard.

She’s pretty cute!

For the skeptics out there, I’ve run a scientific experiment with test and control patches to prove, irrefutably, that a machine with NO INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE can, indeed, effectively and efficiently take out weeds. I started out with two 6′ by 10′ patches of beautifully cultivated garden soil located right next to each other in the garden. This patch is the “control” where no weeding intervention occurred. After 6 weeks, we have quite a collection of volunteers, no?

And this patch is the test. Approximately once every week or two, we simply glided the hoe over the soil. No weeds! Proof’s in the pudding. We love our wheel hoe. We shopped around quite a bit and found what we thought to be the best deal at Valley Oak Tool Company www.valleyoaktool.com – they have a great quality product for a reasonable price, especially when you consider shipping. Yes, we are true “product hoes”.

For those interested, we do use other weed management techniques. We’ll never get away from good old fashioned hand hoeing and hand weeding, that is just good for the character. We also do a lot of mulching with straw and newspaper. Our new experiment is to grow buckwheat next to our tomatoes, cut it down just before/at flowering, and lay the cuttings around the plants as a mulch. Evidently the buckwheat provides lots of good micronutrients, especially calcium, which toms love. It also grows quickly, thereby smothering out weeds seeds. So it acts both as a cover crop for the soil, keeping the carbon in the ground, and mulches and provides nutrition for the plants. That’s what those in the know have told me, anyway. I’ll let you know how that goes later on down the line. Happy hoeing!

Scapes popped up this week and that means YUM!!!! Sautee’d in a pan there is nothing better folks. All the varieties seem to be doing very well, so you can look forward to a selection of good stuff this year. WOOHOO! Pogo approves.

This is my new toy. A New Holland 476 small square baler and it is the dog’s balls. As a complete neophyte to the haying culture, I must say that I LOVE IT. I have no idea why, but I’ll hazard a few guesses.

The first and most obvious, is that it is a reversion to childhood, and it allows me to play with big toys. The next is the feeling of self-sufficiency that it provides. To be able to rake, bale, load and barn a cutting of hay with only the two of us tells us that we can handle this. We’ll be able to feed our minor bovine menagerie this coming winter with the hay we harvest on our home 20.

A huge thanks to my neighbors John Eberle for cutting the hay with his haybine, and Mike Merow for loaning me his rake.

As a result of my newfound addiction, I’ll now be looking to purchase my own haybine and rake, so that we can hit the fields at that precise moment that the forecast and grass align to allow for the perfect bale. This would allow my neighbors the peace of not having Mario doing those annoying drive-bys to see if they are done using their equipment on their own hay. Plus it’s no fun sitting there waiting for availability as storm clouds appear on the horizon. Rain ruins hay – some types more than others. In our case, the mix is clover and orchard grass. Grass is okay after getting rained on, but the clover loses all it’s nutritious, protein-rich leaves when piddled upon.

In the end, not needing to beg barter or bribe in order to get hay for our cows will be a welcome change for us. And then the quality of the hay will be entirely our responsibilty, and that’s kind of what moving to this farm was all about.

And for the past year we’ve been building that soil. As it had been in conventional corn for a couple years, we decided to plant a red clover cover crop last spring and just let it sit for the whole year. This spring we tilled it under and added a few tons of composted manure. And we’re looking gooooood. Our soil test indicates 3.9% organic matter (great). Ph at 7.4 (a tad high for some things), excellent phosphorus and potassium levels, and a little low on nitrogen. With ample compost and organically approved Dramm ONE fish/kelp fertilizer we should be in a-okay shape, nutritionally speaking.

What’s in the ground, you might ask? Well, in terms of perrenials, so far we’ve planted about 150 raspberry and blackberry plants, about 700 strawberry plants, a handful of rhubarb, and about 300 asparagus. Of course we won’t be able to start harvesting any of these this year.

In terms of annuals, we’ve already planted about 75 tomato plants. I had a series of unfortunate events with my seedlings and lost all my toms. I cried. But thanks to the Kewaunee Master Gardners plant sale we were saved! We now have a nice selection of heirloom varieties, many of which are new to me so I hope I don’t screw them up! I also picked up a flat each of Early Girls and Big Boys from Wienke’s Farm Market just north of Algoma, they do such a nice job with their plants, and everyone loves the nice big slicing toms those two varieties produce. Oh, and I spent a million dollars to special order a handful of Sungolds to go with the one Jill so generously donated to my selection! So the crisis has been rectified, and barring any additional catastrophes we should have a few tons of toms this year! We’ve also planted a variety of potatoes, lettuces, greens, onions, root veggies, peas, beans, melons, squash, eggplants, corn and peppers.

Last year we were in a complete drought, so it only stands to reason that Mother Nature might compensate the other way on us this year. We lost some peas, beans and lettuce in the recent drenching, but were able to avoid massive crop failure across the board. We are very lucky farmers this spring, indeed.

Life’s looking a challenge for our brassicas crop, partially due to ineptitude and partially due to the aforementioned series of unfortunate events. But try, try again, and perhaps we’ll pull off a fall broccoli and cauliflower harvest. Keep tuned to the “What We Grow” page on our site for details on varieties planted and status of the harvest.

Then arrived the wood ducks, the bufflehead ducks, and about a dozen others we weren’t able to identify because I’ve misplaced my trusty bird book given to me for my 9th birthday by Jay and Mona Scriba. Now the migrating birds have been replaced by our local summer residents, Sand Hill Cranes, Herons, and all the song birds. We’re especially pleased with the growing colony of cliff swallows on our barns, they’re hyped we now have cattle, which of course increases the fly population. They’re busy making their mud houses and preparing to brood their babies.

We brooded up our own batch of baby chicks too! We borrowed Toni and Terry’s chick brooder and hatched a good thirty Blorpington chicks (that would be a cross of our Buff Orpington Hens and the mean old Blue Andalusian Rooster). They’ve grown so fast, they’re pullets already in this picture. We’re saving the hens for eggs and will butcher the boys when they’re fat enough.

Speaking of boys, I can’t forget about our calves! They are called Beef Calf #1 and Beef Calf #2. They have nicknames but I won’t share that with you in case you come over for bbq next summer. They have been with us for a good month and its been a blast to raise them. . . we’re just like 4-H’rs! We got them as day old calves from a nearby dairy farm for $10 a pop! Seems the bottom has fallen out of the beef market due to high corn prices and no one wants to finish dairy steers right now. Our guys are putting us through some learning curves . . . they escaped the barn the other day and Mario had a little calf rodeo going on in the back pasture. I wish I could’ve seen that!

For those of you interested in Big Momma and Cassie’s progress, they’re coming along. Momma is due in late July and Cassie is due in August, so we’ll keep you posted.

And, speaking of new arrivals, we’ll be expecting our own little Clario baby this December! Yep! We’re pretty excited! I betch’ya never thought! Well, you were wrong. We’ve found this land to be, all and all, pretty darn fertile so we thought we’d go with that theme. We’re especially pleased to have scheduled the arrival to so closely coincide with Aimee and Steve’s bundle! Of course we’ll keep you posted on this experiment as well!

So, thanks for hanging with us, and as you can tell spring has really sprung at Clario’s!

Those two cows are named Cassie and Big Momma. After getting knocked up at the neighbor’s place, they arrived in December – just in time to get practically frozen in one of the harshest winters the door peninsula has experience since oh, THE ICE AGE.

The hens are coooold, and huddle together on their perches to stay warm. Blue Boy, carefree about the chill, testifies enthusiastically with his crowing. He does not seem too concerned with the unfortunate frostbite he has suffered on his magnificent comb. No County fair for you, BB! Egg production waned due to the lack of sunlight. . . . and sometimes at the end of the day we collected little brown and shiny eggcicles which taste all the same when scrambled. Now, the longer days have the mighty Orpington girls cranking out the production once again.

Donning our Carharts and woolie boolies we have adapted and embraced the brutal conditions. There is nothing that Clario Farms can do that will send us cowering back to the city. We laugh at your -30 temperatures, your -60 windchills. HA!

For all we need do is slow down, hang out on the couch and drink some spiked cocoa . . . which can decimate even a workaholic’s ambition in seconds flat. But winter gives us time to map out the grand garden for next year and source our seeds. Oh, such planning is wonderful! I can spend hours, days even, mapping out and carefully planning the rows and varieties and cultivation methods for each and every plant, bush and tree. In the end however I know intution will overrule the best laid plans and those documents will become compost. Such is the way, no?

The only thing we miss about Milwaukee is our good friends and family. And Fuel cafe coffee. And Sprecher beer. But mostly our good friends and family.

Regards from everyone here at Clario Farms, Claire, Mario, Pogo, Wilma, Mr. Fuz E. Toes, Izzy, Blue Boy and his harem of chicks, Cassie and Big Momma cow.

- Claire