Opportunities on the Farm

By Cory Mentink

Walking through the pasture the other day got me thinking about opportunities on the farm. The grass had grown back in a wonderful way providing great forage for the cows and sheep, and looking a bit closer at the ground, I noticed mushrooms growing up under the grass cover. This to me is a good sign that our mycorrhizael fungi in the soil are becoming more active! For the uninitiated, “the term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the plant’s rhizosphere, its root system. Mycorrhizae play important roles in plant nutrition, soil biology, and soil chemistry,” as defined by Wikipedia because I’m not that smart. As the health and life in our soil improves so does the health and life of our animals and ultimately us!

We’ve been able to maintain at least daily moves this year with the flerd (combination of flock (sheep) and herd (cattle)) which I believe is helping to improve our soil, another great opportunity! I do believe that God has created a special connection between man and soil, and that our health is directly related to how healthy the soil is that we are getting our food from. After all, He did form Adam out of the dust from the ground! (Genesis 2:5-7) 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

After the most challenging two months of my farm life, things on the farm have finally settled down to a manageable routine. We have been blessed with more abundance than ever and we are working very hard to make sure that nothing goes to waste. We have been living more frugally than ever and trying to save every penny for a very exciting investment opportunity in the near future.

We believe that the best way to source healthy, nutrient dense food raised regeneratively and humanely is to get to know a local farmer. We do not believe there will ever be a “label” that will guarantee this. Nothing can take the place of our personal responsibility to know how and where our food is grown.

When we started raising food, we didn’t know a lot of people farming this way. Recently, there are more people in our area starting to farm organic and we are very excited about this. We will be featuring a local organic or beyond organic farm family each month for the next few months.

To get everyone started, I have listed several questions that we find helpful when seeking out good quality, nutrient dense food. I always ask a lot of questions, because I have learned never to assume anything. The answers stated are coming from our own farm. We have more information on our website and love to answer questions and give farm tours. Unfortunately, we do not have time to ask all these question to the farm families that we are featuring, but will have to leave it up to the consumer.

Time is one of our most precious gifts. We have no idea how much time we will have on this earth, and we will never get it back. Here on the farm, we are daily struggling with time management, seeking to improve our efficiency, cutting out the useless waste, and reminding ourselves to take the time for important things. We cherish this time of year as new life is being born, seeds are being planted, and the dull brown landscape has transformed into a carpet of green. The rebirth of leaves, flowers, and fruit add natural beauty to the landscape. We anticipate and hope for another good season of abundance for our family and others.

Our family compared the month of May to a sprint as we prepared for our oldest daughter’s graduation party, started moving animals daily, repaired fences, prepared and planted the gardens, continued clean up around the farm, painted various projects, stained and put up a lot of trim, scrubbed the house from top to bottom, weeded gardens and hilled potatoes, sowed an experimental plot of 14 different types of seeds mixed together, continued with our daily chores, and prepared for our first vacation in five years. This month has been exciting, fun, rewarding, humbling, exhausting, and extraordinary.

Several years ago, I learned that certified organic apples and pears could be sprayed with antibiotics in order to treat blight. While I don’t believe this is still being practiced, it really made us question the usefulness of the organic label. It was at that time that I realized I could no longer trust this government agency. Our family has patronized the certified organic market for many years and we still do today, but as a busy wife and mom, I don’t have time to keep up with these deceitful changes to the label. Shortly after this time we decided to increase our own beyond organic food and source local food from farmers we could trust.

Our society has become very specialized. We are told that most everything must be completed by a professional and that expensive, specialized training is essential before attempting most everything. We used to believe this paradigm, but not anymore. Our family is no longer fearful to try new things like growing, building, or fixing things that most people found necessary for survival not that long ago.

Throughout my education I received really good grades, but it wasn’t because I was learning the material or because I was a smart person. I simply learned how to beat the system. I’m ashamed to admit that I only read one book cover to cover in my public education. I learned to cram enough information into my brain, do well on a test, and then let the information go. It wasn’t until I started educating my own children that I realized, besides math, how little I knew. I have also learned that I’m not alone. I have visited with many people that had a similar experience. Even more shocking has been the people I have met that received poor or average grades in school that are really knowledgeable and wise. One thing I found in common with these “poor students” was that they did a lot of reading throughout their lifetime. Through this process of home education, I have realized that anyone can work hard to attain knowledge and wisdom even at a later age and how important it is to keep learning. We are mindful that Proverbs 1:7 states, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It is He who has given us a love for this wisdom, and I see that in each of my children.

The smell of spring is in the air, green grass is peeking up out of the ground, and the fruit trees appear to be ready to burst open with blooms. It’s time to start preparing for the growing season, hoping that all those plans that were made in the winter will turn out as well as we anticipate. We have several new ideas to try out this year, and hope to be offering even more products this summer. New goals have been established, and as we continue to do the work, we are mindful of an excellent quote from Thomas Edison, “Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.”

The farm is covered in a blanket of fresh, clean snow. The sun is shining, the air is still and cold, and the sheep, cows, and goats are lying together on a carpet of clean hay, chewing their cud, and quietly basking in the sun. They are rudely interrupted as I make the rounds to check and observe the health of everything, making a little extra noise to ensure two of the calves aren’t dead, because they are so relaxed. The chickens pull back some of the hay to discover what’s hiding underneath. Even the pigs have decided to sprawl out in the hay outside their shelter to enjoy the sun’s rays. They are oblivious to the impending blizzard. It is winter, and it’s days like this that make us excited for spring, but we know that the time will come too quickly, so we enjoy today and give thanks in all things. We also utilize this time to plan for the growing season and keep pushing forward on the house projects.

The month of December and January have been filled with babies, celebrations, and up and down temperatures that resemble a roller coaster ride here on the farm. On the days that felt more like spring, we hurried to finish some outside projects, while on those bitter, cold days we found ourselves solely focused on our inside work, performing the chores with greater efficiency, and adding wood to the fire more frequently.