Where that food comes from…

Discussion in 'Food and Wine' started by 557, Oct 22, 2021.

  1. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    Probably the heaviest of all roof materials.
    Roof beams have to be much thicker and made of oak. You couldn't use the thin pinewood timber that you see in a modern tiled house.
    You do get some rather good insulation as a bonus with straw though and it's all renewable materials.
     
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  2. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    In the US a cow can go for “commercial” slaughter at any age as long as she is ambulatory and doesn’t have symptoms of disease. The carcass will be inspected by a USDA inspector. You aren’t going to get choice steaks but the meat goes for stewing, ground beef, etc. This is for USDA inspected processing facilities that supply the public market. Here is the USDA grading system.

    https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/slaughter-cattle-grades-and-standards

    What a producer does in their operation is their business. Some people may put an old cow that died up as ground beef for themselves but it would be rare. Most producers fatten a blind or lame steer or heifer for freezer meat instead of eating deceased critters.

    The main drawback to meat from a heart attack victim or say an injured animal is the phenomenon of the “dark cutter”. Stress hormones and other physiological processes during death turn meat dark (brownish) and can negatively influence flavor and texture. Even ground beef from such animals is not particularly palatable.

    This is why the entire process of loading, shipping, unloading, moving, and slaughtering is designed to be as stress free as possible. Any stress can induce a dark cutter depending on the “personality” of the critter. A dark cutter at a commercial processor/packer would most likely be condemned and the owner would be out the value of the animal.

    That’s interesting about going to the hunting dogs. Here a carcass with no value to the producer has two options. You can pay $25 or more to have a “rendering truck” pick the animal up and deliver it to a rendering facility that turns it into glycerin, dog food, etc. or you can compost it on the farm.

    Fifteen years ago the rendering truck would come out and get your animal and pay you $5 or give you a pair of gloves. Now they charge $25 for small animals like 600 lb calves and more for mature animals. In some states I’ve heard stories of $250 fees to take a carcass. Everyone around here composts them now, usually in a composting manure pile. The circle of life!

    Hopefully that wasn’t “too much information”. LOL
     
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  3. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, dig a big hole and bury it would have been standard practise, maybe planting a tree over it to take advantage of the nutrients.
    Not sure if you are allowed to do that since mad cow disease.
     
  4. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    When I was a kid my dad always dug a hole under a peach or apple tree to bury sheep/goat/calf sized critters.
     
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  5. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    The main beef cow herd came home Sunday for calving season. About an 8.5 mile drive this year. It was warm this year—too warm—about 50F. It’s better for the cows when it’s below freezing but harder on me. LOL
    237866ED-D1A3-497D-8D41-40206ABD93C8.jpeg
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    EDCB4887-0A03-418E-BF9B-023AEB3EDC82.jpeg
     
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  6. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    Getting several calves each day now. Here are a few of the ones tagged and turned out.
    15841805-898F-43AB-B53E-B4BE9F261B86.jpeg
     
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  7. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    Looks very dry.
     
  8. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    Yes. A very dry winter and early spring so far. Supposed to get a bit of rain the next couple days, but I don’t think it will be very much. A half inch or so it sounds like.

    I don’t mind snow free winters—saves a lot of feed and time and labor. But it has to rain in the spring!

    Has it dried out at all there? Did you get any threshing done?
     
  9. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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    It's started to dry out over the last couple of weeks. Definitely feeling like spring is here for now.
    I think we'll be threshing this week.
    Still going to be using the old well worn drum though. I think Paul is reluctant to use the new one in case we wear it out lol.
     
  10. Curious Always

    Curious Always Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    It’s been a very dry winter, here, in SE Florida. Love this thread.
     
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  11. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    So it’s corn planting season. A little late due to some much need rain.

    What I see if I look behind me.
    392496AA-14B5-4DC0-9A08-ED04180CA165.jpeg

    What it looks like in front of me. Thanks to GPS and self driving technology I’m just here to turn around at the end of the field, keep an eye on things, fix/replace broken or worn out components, and fill with seed when necessary.
    8CFF83BA-98E5-4269-8AFD-E244C5995024.jpeg

    Seed in the planter seed box. The white powder is talc lubricant to keep the vacuum seed metering units operating properly. The pink seed is genetically modified to resist insect predation. The purple seed is unmodified to create a “refuge” to prevent development of resistance in the insect population.
    04CEBFAA-59C8-49F8-BF88-C11F366D3C77.jpeg

    Seed comes in 50 unit boxes or one unit bags. A unit is 80,000 seeds (yes we count every one as it’s planted)! Seeding rates on irrigated ground in my area range from 30,000 to 36,000 seeds/plants per acre. The soil quality, water availability and hybrid characteristics (genetics) determine the exact rate. On non irrigated ground 20,000 seeds/plants per acre is typical.

    If anyone has questions or wants pictures of something specific I don’t include I’m happy to share more.
     
  12. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    Just planted 14,500 sweet corn seeds on 3/4 of an acre. Should produce around 17,000 ears. Do you think that’s enough?

    Seed doesn’t look like much and is light as styrofoam.
    E0A56D09-9C48-4312-BDA3-E5082DEF9DB4.jpeg

    Oh, I share, but you have to pick your own…
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2022
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  13. politicalcenter

    politicalcenter Well-Known Member

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    Is it roundup ready?
     
  14. politicalcenter

    politicalcenter Well-Known Member

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    I have a very small plot of sweet corn and I always thin my corn. Your seed placing is fixed for final production? In other words no thinning? I always plant 4 per ft. and thin. I have never heard of the larger operators thinning plants in the field.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2022
  15. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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  16. politicalcenter

    politicalcenter Well-Known Member

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    I bought some Obsession 2 one year that was roundup ready and had the bt gene. I had 15 rows 25 ft. long. Got a lot of ears. Two per stalk, eight inches long and filled out. I gave away a bunch of corn that year. And filled the freezer. And canned some. And ate sweet corn for a year.
     
  17. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    No thinning. I’ll be lucky to have time to get it fenced to keep the coons out. It’s COOP’s responsibility to keep the weeds out. They will spray a pre-emergent herbicide on this evening or tomorrow morning. Then it will probably get a shot of glyphosate before silking.

    I’ve planted sweet corn from 12,000 population to 18,000 per acre in the past. The 12,000 makes very large ears for ease of processing but it gets weedy because it never canopies. I think 18,000 makes too small of ears. I don’t sell much so bigger is better. But I’m planting higher population this year to try and keep the weeds out.

    I’m too lazy to do the math, but on 30 inch rows and the around 19,000 population I planted seeds are going to be just shy of 12 inches apart. The germ test on the label is 94% so I guess I’ll end up with seed spacing a little farther apart than that.
     
  18. politicalcenter

    politicalcenter Well-Known Member

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    I didn't use a pre-emergent herbicide on the roundup ready sweet corn. I just used glyphosate. It worked well.
     
  19. politicalcenter

    politicalcenter Well-Known Member

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    I figure 12 inch spacing is about right. My home garden rows were 36 inches apart.
     
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  20. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    I think I’ve had some Obsession 2. That year I bought 3 different hybrids and I can’t remember how each turned out.

    My wife’s family will come get a bunch to cut off the cob and freeze. A couple neighbors will get some. Most of my neighbors plant about as much sweet corn as I do but we all plant different maturities on different dates so we share back and forth based on who’s patch is at peak.

    We freeze quite a bit in quart bags and then my wife used a lot to make canned corn salsa and relishes. Some also gets frozen with carrots and green beans for “mixed vegetables”.
     
  21. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The farmers out here in Virginia got a late start, too.

    Rain and some late freezes kept everybody from getting their plants in the ground, whether you were a farmer or gardener. We couldn't start planting things like tomatoes until mid-May and the last two weekends have brought either storms or that freak heat wave that many of us in the Central and Southeastern U.S. just sweated through. This weekend I'll finally be getting my pumpkins and the last of my tomatoes in the ground. Last week I was pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of tomatillos growing in a bed where they had been planted last year. I'm gonna thin a few out and just let 'em go - mmm...salsa verde on the hoof...:)
     
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  22. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    We had frost last Saturday night. Had to cover everything—tomatoes, peppers, green beans, etc. etc. Had very light frost last night but I don’t think it hurt anything.

    The corn is still 3-4 leaf stage so growing point is still below ground and safe from frost. Still planting soybeans because it rained for three days. I’m going to go start planting again here in about 20 minutes. Just got in from fixing fence in the pastures so we can haul cow/calf pairs out next week. The grass is very short from the cool weather and dry winter. Usually we take cattle to grass by May 15.

    I’m not familiar with tomatillos. My wife does most of the gardening and she doesn’t like them. :) That’s great you got some volunteers going. About the only thing that came up volunteer for us was a few parsnips…
     
  23. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    delete
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2022
  24. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Our last freeze came at the very end of April. Last year I had transplanted my tomato seedlings around the same time and even though I covered them they all got killed. So, I planted another batch of seeds and I wound up harvesting my only tomatoes in late Summer early Fall...

    Most of the corn in these parts is at the same stage but some folks got a little earlier jump and their crops are a good 3 feet tall right now. The soybeans went in a couple weeks ago and are at about V2 stage. Conditions have been friendly so far....

    A lot of people compare tomatillos to tomatoes and the plants do share some characteristics but their closest relative is the gooseberry. If you eat them straight off the vine they have a rather bland, mildly sweet taste which really isn't good for much of anything. The trick with tomatillos is roasting or hot smoking them over a fire or bed of coals and wood chunks (I'm partial to Mesquite). When you roast them the flavor transforms from that bland, mildly sweet taste to a somewhat tart flavor that is very similar to lime, and if you smoke them they'll acquire that flavor, too, which is why I always hot smoke them with Mesquite. The flavor transformation is amazing, and I use them to make a green salsa that I cook with smoked chicken to make fajitas and it's one of my favorite dishes.

    They can be somewhat of a pain to grow, though. They're really gangly plants and they're prone to Nitrogen and Magnesium deficiencies so you have to cage and keep them fed, but they're worth the effort.
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2022
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  25. politicalcenter

    politicalcenter Well-Known Member

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    My first corn patch is thigh high and my tomatoes have green fruit. Green beans are running. I have a couple volunteer tomatoes plants and some volunteer watermellon plants. So far it is a good year.
     
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