Kailey and Caleb’s Latest Farm Video
What has been happening on the farm in February 2020? You can check out the latest  News Report with Kik and Boppy. Another great video! You can watch it here.

February Farm Happenings

By Angie Mentink

The month of February on the farm has been pleasant for this time of year. We have started a few of our seeds inside, accomplished a couple projects to improve the farm, plan to incubate eggs soon, and will be researching how to save more seeds this growing season. With the baby expected to arrive in less than 6 weeks, we have been very focused on school and many house projects, along with planning and organizing for this next busy growing season.

Farm Happenings
The link to Kailey and Caleb’s latest video, A Christmas Special, which has nothing to do with the farm is below. We appreciate another amusing, fun, short video. I definitely witnessed a different personality in both of them. Thankful it’s just a video!

Greetings from the Mentink Family!

December is surely here – snow to shovel, chimney smoke in the air, icicles hanging from the barn, hats and gloves, drifts of snow blanketing the fields, everyone hauling tissues around… and what a year we are looking back at!

Early this spring, we packed the family van and drove to Wyoming for a vacation – the first in almost five years! Spirits were high as we set off on a Friday evening, leaving the farm in Grandma and Grandpa Lemburg’s hands for a few days. We stayed at a cabin in Cody, Wyoming and went sight-seeing during the day. With all the stuff we had to remember to bring, thankfully we didn’t forget anything – well – anyway, not anything too important (Quote: “What! Did you just say that nobody packed toothpaste?”).

Kailey and Caleb blessed us with another video. We appreciate their hard work and especially the humor they added to this video!

We’re making hay while the sun shines! The Mentinks – specifically Kik and Boppy – are showing you the process of how the grass gets from the pasture to the horses’ mouth. Kailey and Caleb bring us another lively farm video. 

The 2019 growing season flew by a little too fast for all of us. We have learned a lot of lessons through trials and struggles, were blessed with an abundant harvest, and savored our time together on this farm that is improving, changing, and blessing our family richly. We are planning for the next growing season as we think about what worked well, what could be improved, and what new things we would like to try. My husband and I really try to be open to new ideas, and we continually strive to improve upon things and not get stuck in a rut.

The weather has turned very cold for this time of year. The windows are all closed tight to keep the weather out, my outdoor kitchen (screened in porch) is no longer bustling or smelling of food, most days my clothes line is empty, the leaves are changing colors and falling to the ground, preparations for the shelter of our animals for the winter are almost complete. Our fruit trees have been prepared and only a small area in my wood chip garden remains uncovered, and while the animals are still grazing, they will soon be returning to their winter shelter. I love getting back into the routine of school, the fun of learning, returning to our cozy, warm house with the fire burning after chores, and a feeling of getting close to completion as we continue to cross things off our list that is getting shorter. I enjoy the change in seasons that Nebraska offers, and while we are still busy, it feels like a time of rest as we get to bed a little earlier and have more time to sit, read, and continue to teach our children.

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.