Travels to Tanzania
This newsletter takes us far from the hills of southeast Ohio, all the way to Tanzania where I (Molly) spent two weeks doing a professional exchange between Rural Action (my full-time job) and ECOWICE.
Celebrating the Solstice
One week ago we celebrated this longest week of the year with live music, good food, and over 120 people who gathered on the farm for our Summer Solstice Show. This was the third show we’ve hosted on the farm and it’s quickly becoming apparent that these summer solstice shows will become an annual tradition.
Piggies and Sunshine
May has been defined by welcoming pigs onto the farm and enjoying long sunny days. We brought 8 Hampshire pigs to the farm earlier this month. They will supply the pork for our wedding and we’ll have a limited amount for sale in the fall. We’re considering this as a trial run for adding a pork enterprise as a regular part of our farm operation.
Setting Our Sights On Silvopasture
MoSo Farm has become a tree farm! Over the last few weeks, we have dug holes for, planted, staked, tubed, and protected 510 trees across 9 acres. Why? To implement silvopasture, which is the managed integration of trees, livestock, and grazing land.
Advocating for an Equitable Farm Bill
This week I had the incredible opportunity to join farmers from across the country for the Farmers for Climate Action: Rally for Resilience. We gathered in D.C. in order to advocate for a Farm Bill that supports farmer-led climate solutions, racial justice and communities over corporations.
Mud Season
January has drenched the farm with cold rain and heavy skies. When we think the ground is at peak saturation, it rains again and the earth has no choice but to receive it. Muck boot weather.
Well-Loved Meat
Over the last month and a half, we have taken 8 animals to the butcher and supplied beef to 19 customers! Once or twice per year, we align all of our butcher dates and have a flurry of activity as we get thousands of pounds of beef to people’s freezers.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Almost exactly two months ago, while walking across the pasture and talking about our future on this land, CJ Morgan asked me to make the biggest decision of my life thus far. Lucky for me, it was an easy one. Yes! Now I get to look down at the ring I saw on my grandma’s hand throughout childhood. It’s a fitting symbol of our shared life as it’s because of her that we have the privilege of tending to this piece of earth.
Summer in All Her Glory
Four days after the summer solstice, over 60 people gathered on our farm to celebrate the sun with good food and music. The Summer Solstice Show on June 25th was our first community event on the farm! This has been a longtime dream ever since I wrote into my vision statement — “Our dream is to foster a thriving perennial polyculture and to share it with our community through art, music, education, and community gatherings.”
88 Years of Hope for this Planet
Hope feels foolish sometimes. Like a sheltered child who hasn’t experienced the hard realities of the world yet. On the day that I’m writing this, I read about the silent decision from the Supreme Court to overturn the human right of autonomy over one’s body. Then I heard about the extreme decline of insects worldwide. Every day I have to turn the news off to safeguard my own well-being. And yet, I’m sitting here with a full heart after listening to Jane Goodall’s gentle voice and persistent hope in her podcast, Hopecast.
Beginning Farmer Moments
“Total beginning farmer moment,” I wrote in a text to my butcher the other day. I discovered that three of my beeves were a few months younger than I thought after talking with the farmer I bought them from. This meant that my butcher date was off by a few months and I was faced with the challenge of rescheduling. Given the limited number of processors in southern Ohio, particularly USDA-inspected processors, it is challenging to get a butcher date on the calendar. My processor requires producers to schedule one year in advance.
Nourishing My Community
I’m writing this newsletter while sitting outside watching sap boil. Nothing feels more like late winter than sitting outside in the chilly weather and smelling the syrup cooking. Today’s high is 56 degrees, there’s not a cloud in the sky, and daffodil shoots are reaching up from the frozen mud. While I know this is one of our many false springs in southeast Ohio, it is a welcome change.