Happenings on the Ranch

So, after my Breyer’s temper tantrum I made the trip to Whole Foods on Monday.  I happily strode through the aisles checking off items on my list.  Mind you, I still checked the labels because what I consider “all natural” doesn’t really describe what most manufacturers think it means.

I started where the nuts and grains are.  I picked up some Bob’s Red Mill potato bread mix and read the label.  No funky additives.  Perfect.  Good thing about Red Mill is that they’re available all over the place.  I continued on and after adding some crackers, panko bread crumbs and a few other items I made my way to the dairy aisle.  I bought some milk from Shatto’s – no growth hormones and locally produced.  Not  to mention the glass bottles are really cool.  Then it was time to look at yogurt.

Yogurt has been a bit of a thorn in my side for quite a while when shopping in ‘regular’ groceries.  There have been very few times I would buy yogurt because it’s hard to find one that doesn’t have a whole bunch of gums or other odd additives.  In front of me were a plethora of yogurts, both natural and organic, and as I read the labels I was pretty pleasantly surprised by most.  A few did have guar gum as a stabilizer and I just put those right back on the shelf.  I saw some Brown Cow maple cream top yogurt, made with real maple syrup, on sale but wasn’t quite sure about the flavor.  I opted for a large tub of french vanilla cream top yogurt by Stonyfield Organics.  But I kept eyeing that maple.  While trying to make the decision a young woman walked into the dairy section, walked directly up to the maple yogurt, looked at nothing else, grabbed the tub and walked away.  That was all I needed; it made it’s way into my cart, too.

I continued to stroll the aisles looking at the labels and got a little bit more disenfranchised the further I went.  Being in the ag industry, so to speak, I know better than anyone the definitions of labels and claims by manufacturers and what is regulated and what is not.  I began to wonder if the common shopper really understood what can be classified as “all natural” and what can be included in “organic” foods.

Natural Foods.  There is no actual legal definition for natural foods, nor are there regulations in place (yet) for what can or can’t be included in foods that make the “all natural” claim.  Most companies use the label for foods that have ingredients from all natural sources and have been minimally processed without chemical components.  But there are a multitude of ingredients from natural sources that many consumers don’t want to ingest and these are often included in natural foods.  What’s worse is that some companies use this label in a very misleading way.

There is an organization out there that producers can join which does have standards.  Certified Naturally Grown is a non-profit organization that gives smaller farmers and ranchers an alternative to the USDA organic certification process.  NV Ranch is working toward our certification from CNG.  The standards are basically the same as the USDA National Organic Program but are less expensive and more easily attainable for smaller farms.  Of course, this certification really only helps consumers that shop local farmers but it’s a step in the right direction.

I always check the label on anything that claims to be natural.  It only takes a second to flip the package around and look at the ingredients list.  A quick scan will tell me if there’s anything I don’t want.  Of course, this means being educated on what those funky names for things mean.  But that’s another post.

USDA Organic.  The USDA’s National Organic Program regulates the standards for any farm or producer/handling operation and is intended to assure consumers that certified organic foods they buy are processed in accordance with those standards.  Using the Organic label means the product must contain at least 95% organically produced ingredients.  The remaining 5% can be non-agricultural ingredients on a list approved by the USDA.  Funny, “gums” can be organically produced.  Again not something I want to ingest but it’s allowable in organic products.  There are also 100% Organic items that are required to contain nothing that hasn’t been organically produced or processed.  Again, the “gum” clause applies.

So, even if something is labeled organic I still check the ingredients.  Our farm grows our produce in an organic way that exceeds the USDA regulations for organic farms.  I figure if I’m not willing to grow anything that doesn’t meet my high standards why should I settle for buying something that doesn’t?

Trying to eat things that are completely natural and don’t include any chemically processed ingredients can be difficult.  It definitely makes the shopping trip take a bit longer and may limit your diet a little bit.  But I think it’s well worth the effort.  Don’t trust what the front of the label tells you.  Turn it around, look at the ingredients list and then decide for yourself what you’re willing to eat and what you’re not.  Chances are someone else said the same thing along the way and started producing a product they, and you, are happy to eat.  It just might take a little searching to find it. 

And my ice cream search?  I managed to find an ice cream from Straus Family Creamery that didn’t have any extra junk in it (the way Breyer’s used to be made) and it’s awesome.  I even found an alternative for the one cookie I was guilty of eating that had all kinds of, um, “crap” in it.  My precious Vienna Fingers have now been replaced by Whole Foods 365 brand All Natural Vanilla Sandwich Cremes.  The cool thing is the cream inside tastes the way Vienna Fingers used to taste like.  Careful … they can be addicting.

Oh, and that maple yogurt?  I bought the 32oz tub on Monday afternoon and it’s gone as of this morning … and nobody else in the house got to eat any.  I’d say it was pretty good.

Yes, it’s that time of year.  I should preface this post by saying the planning and preparing never really stops around here.  Immediately after the final harvest of each season, we take stock of what worked well or not so well, what caused those successes and failures, which of those causes is within our control and what changes we should make for next season.  Okay, I admit there are a few weeks after the end of the season when we just sit back and take a deep breath and enjoy sleeping in a little bit.  But once that respite is over, besides taking care of all our livestock, there is always plenty of planning to do.

Last season hit everyone in the area pretty hard early in the year with severe amounts of rain causing a lot of flooding.  Many crops were lost to this and others got a very late start.  It was a rough beginning to the season but eventually we recovered (for the most part) and had a fairly successful year.  In planning for this year, we decided to get moving on building our greenhouse.  It’s something we’ve thought about before but this year we’ve gotten a great deal on wood which has allowed us to move our thoughts into action.  Arcenio is building the side walls and roof in six-foot sections in the garage until it’s warm enough to put all the pieces together outside.  This will allow us to rotate started seedlings out of the basement earlier, providing for more room for successive started plants while still protecting the young seedlings.  This will also give us the opportunity to protect more sensitive veggies, like eggplant, from unexpected extreme weather conditions.  I can’t wait for the greenhouse to be a reality.  Our design will be a bit of trial and error this year and, after the season is over, we’ll evaluate as usual and make design changes for a second greenhouse next year.

While Arcenio is concentrating on the greenhouse, I’ve put our crop list together and ordered our early seeds.  Most of you know we use organic growing practices, but we haven’t always used organic seeds to start the whole process.  This year we are finding certified organic seeds to be sure the entire process is free of chemicals or anything genetically modified.  We are also growing many heirloom varities.  These varieties are the classic, traditional, non-hybridized versions of much of the produce found in grocery stores.  I’ll do a whole seperate post on these and their benefits later.

Next step is to create a ‘map’ of what will be planted where.  Since we use companion planting and crop rotation, keeping a map each year allows us to know exactly what was planted in each area the previous two years so we keep the pest problem to a minimum.  Rotating the crops also ensures that we are not draining the soil of all of one type of nutrients that a specific crop relies on.  This makes it easier for us to keep the soil rich while not using any chemical fertilizers.  The addition of homegrown compost adds to this.

 2007 Crop Plan

In addition to our veggie crops, our ten-year-old daughter Tessa will be taking on her own endeavor this year.  She will be growing cut flowers for the first time and is enjoying flipping through the seed catalogs to find the best varieties for what she wants to offer.  She’s also busy collecting different interesting containers to sell them in at farmer’s market.  Along with our 13-year-old son Devon’s goat and bird (pigeon and parakeet) breeding ventures, we have a couple of budding entrepeneurs in our midst.

I have to say this time of year is exciting for me; it’s just full of possibilities. Staying organized and on schedule is a must, though, and requires much planning. I’ll be sure to share more as the season moves on.  In the meantime, stay warm and think of fresh veggies!

-Karin