Homesteading on
Use an imaginative eye to find land for a farm, and transform it with sound husbandry practices.
Marginal Land
By Beth and Shawn Dougherty
M
any of us share the ideal of finding a place in the country where we can grow good, clean food in an environment of our choosing — a home, and perhaps a refuge in tumultuous times. A retreat. A haven. Despite the idyllic image, high land prices and an overall lack of affordable farms can make what should be an exciting bid for independence feel like brooding defeat. But what if we were to realize that little farms can be found in practically every locale, hidden from view and just waiting for a budding farmer to adopt them? And what if these small farms were among the most reasonably priced land out there? It may sound too good to be true, but all land is, well, land, and most of it will grow something, however abused or neglected it’s been. When we realize this, our possibilities suddenly widen. Modern small farmers can partner with their own animals to take poor, neglected, or abused land and rebuild it into a fertile, regenerative ecosystem. Any place with dirt and water, ruminants, and a farmer to manage them can be a homestead.
looked unloved. We waded through briar-infested yards to peer through broken windows and poke into spider-haunted barns. We read bulletin boards in area grocery stores and gas stations. Our image of a picture-perfect Old MacDonald
farm began to give way to something not only more affordable, but also much more realistic. We simplified our expectations and eliminated barns, fences, and stock water systems from our “must have” list — those things could be improvised, after all — and searched instead for land that wasn’t completely inaccessible, and that had some kind of house. Still, when we picked our way down a steep, overgrown track to see an $11,000
Don’t shy away from steep or weedy land — you can restore it to health. 10 MOTHER EARTH NEWS XXXX/XXXX XXXX
SHAWN AND BETH DOUGHERTY (3)
A Discouraging Search We didn’t know this 20 years ago. Our purchase of a small plot, designated “not suitable for agriculture” by the state of Ohio, was less an act of hope than one of desperation. Even looking for a farm had been intimidating. Real estate agents seemed unwilling to respect our desire to stay under budget — something we felt was necessary to save money for improvements — and they insisted on showing us properties that were out of our price range. Depressing as this was, it gave us an idea of what was out there, as did searching the classifieds, where nice places commanded astronomical prices. Anything in our ballpark was postage-stamp small or completely vertical. All the good places seemed to be taken already. We began cruising back roads, searching for anything that
Mobile chicken tractors of various sizes come in handy for protecting birds from predators while the flock performs pest control and fertilizes the soil. SELF-RELIANCE • www.MotherEarthNews.com 11
How Does It Work?
Flue Design
We usually expect heat to be generated only when something is burning. So how the heck do you heat a living space for 12 hours or more without constantly stoking a fire with fuel? The short answer is “with a battery.” We walk on a huge battery every day and call it “Earth.” The sun warms the Earth’s surface, which is where warm breezes come from. The heat storage capacity of the world
Masonry heaters come in countless different designs and dimensions, from squat and wide to tall and thin. Yet, they all share a common design element in that they rely on a long maze of flues. This is where the heat exchange takes place. The exhaust from the fire leaves the firebox and circulates many feet along a path that sometimes goes down, sometimes up, sometimes left, sometimes right, sometimes forward, sometimes backward,
before it finally exits the heater and floats up the chimney (see illustration on Page 27). All the flues are made with refractory masonry materials that absorb the heat from the exhaust and charge the massive heat-storage battery. As a masonry heater designer, my goal is to incorporate the right amount of surface area for heat exchange. I want the maximum amount of heat extracted before the exhaust reaches the chimney. If done correctly, just enough heat will be left for the exhaust to rise up the chimney and out of the house. The result is high-efficiency heating. Heating efficiency is a measure of how much of the heat generated by burning fuel actually stays in your house, contributing to your comfort. When I design for maximum heat exchange in the heater, I’m maximizing heating efficiency too. After the fire is out and no more heat absorption is happening, the heat stored in the mass starts migrating to the exterior of the masonry heater. As the exterior of the heater gets warmer and warmer, it emits more and more radiant heat into the living space. It also directly heats air that passes by the surface of the heater. When properly designed, it will continue to radiate and transfer heat from its exterior surfaces for many hours after the fire dies. The design of a masonry heater determines the length of a heating period, typically at least 12 hours. Thus, two firing sessions per day are sufficient to heat a living space for a full day, even on the coldest days of winter. KEN MATESZ (4)
A view of the inside of a masonry heater (above) reveals the refractory bricks that make up the firebox and flue system. The custom-built Maumee (below) takes up little more room than a typical metal woodstove.
is what makes living on it possible. That same capacity is built into a masonry heater. Most masonry heaters weigh between 1 and 5 tons. That’s 2,000 to 10,000 pounds of heat-storing masonry mass! Masonry heaters channel hot exhaust from a fire through a winding path of flues built into the mass, warming every ounce of that massive structure. After they’re warm, they stay that way for a long time, like a concrete driveway in hot summer sun or that big rock next to your favorite swimming hole.
Radiant Heat One of the best things about a masonry heater is that it mostly produces radiant heat. If you’re unsure what that means, go outside
on a calm, sunny day, close your eyes, and turn your face to the sun. The warmth you feel is the radiant heat of the sun that traveled millions of miles to brush your rosy cheeks. The radiant heat from a masonry heater has exactly the same feeling. It’s not a heat that drives you out of the room, like that from a metal woodstove when it’s glowing cherry-red. Masonry heaters produce a calm, persistent, and gentle warmth that invites you in like Grandma offering fresh-baked cookies. The human body responds very positively to radiant heat. Your skin relaxes when it comes into contact with gentle radiant heat. Even the blood vessels in your skin respond positively, opening and promoting good circulation and warmth. Most homes these days aren’t really heated at all. Forced-air furnaces — and woodstoves too — mainly heat air. Warm air from a furnace serves as a blanket that reduces heat loss from the people inside the heated space. If you heat with a forced-air furnace, the air temperature in your house is probably around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. But your core body temperature is around 99 degrees, and your body surface temperature is around 80 degrees. You can’t heat an 80- to 100-degree body using 70-degree air. It would be like trying to reheat leftover chili using an ice cube! Which brings me back to the masonry heater: A functioning masonry heater will usually have a surface temperature between 120 and 200 degrees — warmer than your body. One of the benefits of the moderate surface temperature of the masonry heater has to do with safety. You can briefly touch a 200-degree masonry surface and not get burned. That’s a lot different than the blistering capability of a hot metal woodstove. In this way, a masonry heater is safer for children to be around. SELF-RELIANCE • www.MotherEarthNews.com 29
From left: Your materials will include fabrics and resins of your choice. Use pinking shears on the edges of your fabric to reduce fraying.
find, I tried two blends. One used copal resin, and the other pine resin; I chose to use jojoba oil for both. Although coconut oil is less expensive, I don’t really like the scent, and I read that wraps using it tend to leave a slight greasy film on whatever they might touch. I found that the copal resin wraps were stickier when cool than the pine resin wraps. Both recipes resulted in wraps that were easy to shape with the warmth of my hands, and I could rinse them clean with cool water.
weight, and they are available in a wide range of colors and patterns. You should also keep in mind that unless you use highly refined beeswax, the wraps will most likely have a yellow tinge. Pinking the edges of the fabric will reduce fraying.
I made a variety of wraps, from 18-by-24-inch bread loaf wraps to little 10-inch squares to fit over my smallest mixing bowl. Experiment with your fabric to see what sizes will be most useful for the foods and dishes you want to wrap up.
• Cooking pot • Heatproof glass bowl, to fit on top of pot • Wooden spoon • New wide paintbrush • Baking sheet • Parchment paper • Organic cotton fabric, cut into pieces with pinking shears
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Copal Resin Wraps
How to Make Beeswax Wraps
The quantities given will cover about 2 yards of fabric cut to various sizes. As long as you stick to the ratio of 2 parts beeswax to 1 part each copal resin and jojoba oil, you can scale the recipe.
Set up a double boiler with the pot and bowl. Fill the pot with water to just below the bottom of the bowl, and bring to a simmer. Pour the beeswax pastilles, resin, and oil into the bowl. I used powdered pine resin, which completely melted in about 20 minutes. The copal resin I bought came in lumps, and took closer to 2 hours to melt completely. Stir the mixture occasionally to blend the ingredients. While the wax and resin are melting, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Create a place to cool the wraps. They won’t be drippy when fresh, but will stick to flat surfaces until they cool, so hanging is best. I made a tiny clothesline between the upper cabinets in my kitchen. Arrange the pieces of fabric on the cookie sheet, and when the wax
• 8 tablespoons beeswax pastilles • 4 tablespoons copal resin • 4 tablespoons jojoba oil
Materials and Setup
In addition to the ingredients for the wax blend, you’ll need to set up a double boiler and a place to cool the freshly waxed wraps. Use clean utensils and dishes, but not your favorites — the wax and resin will be nearly impossible to remove completely from anything they touch. I picked up some bowls and wooden spoons from my local thrift store for a few dollars. Organic fabric may seem like an extra expense, but conventionally grown cotton is heavily dosed with pesticides, and I don’t want those near my food. Quilting cottons are the perfect
From left: The wax mixture will add a yellow tinge to the fabric. Once fully coated, allow the wraps to air-dry. Wash them with gentle soap in cool water.
Pine Resin Wraps The quantities given will cover about 2 yards of fabric cut to various sizes. As long as you stick to the ratio of 4 parts each beeswax and pine resin to 1 part jojoba oil, you can scale the recipe. • 8 tablespoons beeswax pastilles • 8 tablespoons powdered pine resin • 2 tablespoons jojoba oil
mixture is fully melted, you can use the paintbrush to spread it evenly on the fabric. It’s OK to have slightly thick or thin spots, but avoid heavy drips or completely bare areas. Place the cookie sheet in the oven for about 1 minute, to melt the wax into the fibers. When you remove the sheet, you can use the brush to quickly smooth and redistribute the wax if needed, but you must peel the wraps off the parchment paper before they cool and stick. Hang each wrap up to cool. When cool, you can fold them for storage, or use them to pack up some food. Excess wax mixture can be poured into small molds and saved, or left in the bowl and remelted later.
Scrap the Plastic Wrap! Blend beeswax pastilles (bottom left) with powdered pine resin (center) or copal resin (top left) in a double boiler.
Wrap bread, cheese, vegetables, or cover a bowl! Bee’s Wrap is the sustainable, natural alternative to plastic wrap for food storage. Use the warmth of your hands to soften the wrap and create a seal. When cool, the wrap holds its shape. To reuse, just wash in cool water, let dry, and it’s ready to go! This product is available at www.MotherEarthNews.com/Store or by calling 800-234-3368. Mention promo code MMEPALZ5. (In photo, item #8354.)
FOOD & RECIPES • www.MotherEarthNews.com 99
Pleasantly Potent Pickles Delicious pickles start with great cucumbers. My personal favorite is the ‘Edmonson’ pickling cucumber, grown using seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (www.SouthernExposure.com). These peculiar pickles are nearly white except for the radioactive yellow tips and specks of black on the spines. They’re easiest to fit into quart jars when they’re about 2 to 3 inches long and 1 to 1½ inches thick. But that’s hard to get just right. So, just pick anything over 2 inches. The 4-inch ones sliced into spears also work. Jar those up separately after
fermenting and eat them first, and shave off that little black spot at the bloom end of each cucumber to keep pickles crisp. Timing is everything when it comes to making great pickles — pickle promptly after picking. For best results, make a batch of brine before you pick. If you have a 5-gallon fermentation crock, you could even multiply this recipe by 5 to make up a 2½-gallon batch. Then, pick cucumbers at their peak, every day, for up to 2 weeks. Just keep adding them to your crock until you can barely close the lid. You can do the same with a 5-gallon food-grade bucket, or you can work in quart jars (though after those vines start producing, using quart jars is like bailing water from a sinking ship with a teaspoon). I use Sandor Katz’s recipe from Wild Fermentation (www.MotherEarthNews. com/Store) as my base and add my own seasoning. And if, like me, you happen to be growing giant cardoon plants, those spectacular leaves (pictured above) work great in place of the grape leaves.
• Brine, made by combining 2 quarts water and 6 tbsp sea salt (for 5.4 percent brine strength) • 3 to 4 tbsp dill seeds • 2 to 3 heads garlic, peeled and smashed • Pinch (about 6) black peppercorns • 1 tbsp coriander seeds • 1 tbsp mustard seeds • 1 tbsp fennel seeds • 10 juniper berries • 1 handful grape, cherry, oak, horseradish, or cardoon leaves • 3 to 4 pounds cucumbers
Also, make sure your lid has an airlock that’s properly hydrated. If you don’t have one built into your crock or lid top, search “Fermentation Airlock DIY” online and make your own. In about 2 weeks, take a peek, a smell, and a nibble to decide if your pickles are potent enough. If not, leave for a few more days and sample again. When the pickles meet your taste specifications, jar them up and refrigerate or store in your crock in a dark location below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. — Tasha Greer
After you’ve mixed the brine, load your container of choice with the dill, garlic, peppercorns, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, juniper berries, and grape leaves on the bottom, followed by the cucumbers, tightly packed. Make sure to entirely cover the cucumbers in brine — with fermenting weights or filled water bottles. Whenever you add more cucumbers, make sure to entirely submerge them in the brine.
Beet-Flavored Refrigerator Eggs
This is a great recipe for those times when you have just a handful of cucumbers and want a quick homemade pickle. Be sure to use good, crispy cucumbers for a crispier pickle. This recipe has been modified from the Ball Complete Book Ingredients of Home Preserving (www. • 2 cups white vinegar MotherEarthNews.com/Store). • 2 cups water I’ve started using the re• 6 tbsp pickling salt usable plastic lids for my • 1⁄4 cup sugar mason jars on all items that • 2 tbsp pickling spice go straight to the fridge or on • Cucumbers items that we’ve opened and • 1 tbsp dill seeds then refrigerated — which just • 2 tsp mustard seeds reminds us that those items • ½ tsp black peppercorns aren’t canned. • 4 cloves garlic, halved I make up a large batch of brine and then refrigerate what I don’t use for an even quicker pickle the next time. This recipe makes enough for 5 pints. Directions: To make brine, combine the white vinegar, water, pickling salt, sugar, and pickling spice in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar and salt, and then cover and boil for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool. Slice cucumbers as desired, either in spears or slices. To a quart
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jar (I prefer quarts, but you can adjust the size), add the dill seeds, mustard seeds, peppercorns, and garlic. Fill the jar with cucumber slices or spears and add brine, leaving about ½ inch of headspace. Refrigerate at least 3 to 5 days, but the longer you leave them in the refrigerator, the better they’ll get. They’ll easily last 2 to 3 months, but you’ll probably finish them before then. — Ed Hudson
BOTTOM: KURT JACOBSON; TOP: LYNDSAY MYNATT. OPPOSITE, BOTTOM: JENNIFER HUDSON; TOP: TASHA GREER
Refrigerator Dill
Not your typical pickle, beet-flavored eggs are a summer treat. The infusion of sweet beet juice and boiled eggs creates a quick antioxidant- and protein-rich snack. The ingredients are simple: Blow the dust off a jar of canned or pickled beets, and then add some vinegar and boiled eggs. Two weeks later, the conversion is remarkable. The sweetness of the beets tames the vinegar to create a delicate, tangy balance of texture and flavor. Eat pickled eggs as a salad or sandwich topping, egg salad, colorful deviled eggs, or straight out of the jar. To keep a continuous stock of red beet eggs, start a second round after week one. Then, batches may be made at weekly or bimonthly intervals. This recipe has been a staple in my family for the last three generations and will continue to be “preserved.” • 1 cup red beet juice (from canned beets, homemade or store-bought) • Canned beets (whole or sliced) • 11⁄2 cups apple cider vinegar • 12 hard-boiled eggs, peeled Bring beet juice, beets, and vinegar to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Pack the eggs (no more than 12) loosely into a warm, pre-sterilized quart jar or similarly sized container. Pour the hot pickling solution over the eggs in the jar, completely covering the eggs. Seal the jar with a lid and refrigerate immediately. Allow the eggs to season for 2 to 4 weeks, keeping the pickled eggs refrigerated at all times. Eat within 3 to 4 months for best quality. — Lyndsay Mynatt
Cauliflower and Carrot Refrigerator Pickles Why toss out perfectly good pickle brine? I had a roommate who loved pickled pepperoncini peppers and bought them by the gallon. We experimented with using the leftover brine to pickle a variety of vegetables with great results. Our favorite mix was a combination of carrot slices and cauliflower florets. It would take a week or two for the pickled veggies to reach a level of flavor good enough to start eating. Over the years I’ve used a combination of leftover pickled jalapeño brine and dill pickle brine with similar results. Here are some guidelines for making your own. Slice carrots about ¾-inch thick. Cut cauliflower into bite-sized florets. In a large lidded jar, add raw vegetables and
cover with pickle brine. Let vegetables marinate for 10 days before sampling. Feel free to experiment with a variety of vegetables, such as kohlrabi, jicama, or beets. Most vegetables take 2 to 3 weeks to reach full flavor and stay fresh up to 2 months in the refrigerator. As long as vegetables are covered in brine, no stirring is needed. — Kurt Jacobson
Tarragon and Honey Refrigerator Pickles At Timpson Creek Farm in the mountains of Clayton, Georgia, we grow 2 acres of diversified organic vegetables, herbs, and fruits and offer onfarm education. With so much to do every day, tricks such as quick pickles help us enjoy the fruits of our labor without adding to it. • 2 large cucumbers, thinly sliced • 1 medium onion, thinly sliced • 2 tsp sea salt • ½ cup apple cider vinegar • ¼ cup honey • 2 tbsp mustard seeds • 2 tbsp black peppercorns • 1 tbsp coriander seeds • 4 sprigs tarragon Mix sliced cucumbers, onion, and sea salt in a bowl and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. Bring the apple cider vinegar to a boil in a small saucepan, and then remove from heat. Add the honey, mustard seeds, peppercorns, coriander seeds, and tarragon, and stir until the honey has dissolved and the spices have mingled. Allow to sit until cool enough to handle. Pack the salted cucumbers and onions into 2-quart jars. Stir the spices, vinegar, and honey once more to release flavors, and then pour this mixture through a sieve into the quart jars over the cucumbers and onions. Allow the jars to reach room temperature before securing their lids. Place them in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 hours. Serve chilled. Pickles will remain delicious and edible for up to 1 month in the fridge. — Darby Weaver FOOD & RECIPES • www.MotherEarthNews.com 105
number of birds per month. Once I had that total, I multiplied it by 12. That gave me the total number of birds we’d need for the year. Then, I added in a few extra birds to accommodate potential new customers. Summers are pretty miserable here in Georgia, especially for young chickens trying to grow, so we raise two batches of chickens a year. The first batch of chicks arrives in February and takes 9 to 11 weeks to grow out. We butcher these in May, before the heat gets unbearable. The second batch arrives in late August; we try to butcher them in late October, before they have to use food resources to keep warm.
house, where my Great Pyrenees guardian dog can protect them from hawks and other predators, until I throw a bit of feed inside the tractor to encourage them to head in for the night. The chickens are also able to run back into the tractor anytime they need to for protection. It’s important to me that the broilers lead a “chicken life” during their 9 to 11 weeks. I don’t free-feed because of concerns about broken legs with heavier meat birds. My birds are fed once a day, and for the remaining hours, they run around catching bugs,
eating grass, and scratching in the dirt. Sometimes, the birds hang out with the cows or sheep, cleaning up the extra grain left on the ground. My birds may grow out a little slower than those that are confined and on free feed, but it’s my choice. When the chickens have grown to an acceptable size, we plan for butchering day. In the early days, when I was doing all the work and couldn’t afford a plucker, I removed the skin along with the feathers; this took me about 10 minutes instead of hours for plucking. But I quickly realized that a lot of
customers preferred their chicken with the skin intact. A friend of mine had previously purchased a mechanical plucker. Another friend and I entered an agreement to use the plucker twice a year. It takes a little longer than 10 minutes per bird to scald the chickens and then remove feathers with the plucker, but our customers are happier with skin-on broilers. When I first started the Lazy B Farm CSA, I’d wrap the finished birds in lots of plastic wrap. Later, I switched to vacuum-sealing. Now we use shrink bags made especially for chickens. They’re
How Safe Is Pastured Poultry Meat?
CYNDI BALL (5)
To keep the chickens’ skin intact, Lazy B processes the birds in a plucker before packaging.
I’ve been asked frequently about the types of chickens I offer through our CSA. I raise heritage breeds of turkeys, cows, and hogs, but when it comes to chickens, I prefer the Cornish Cross meat bird. One summer, I raised Cornish Cross and Freedom Ranger chicks side by side in my pastures. They were treated the same, fed the same, and butchered at the same time. By weight, the Cornish Cross was heavier, and, according to my calculations, gained 1 ounce more per day than the Freedom Ranger. Those ounces add up quickly. We order only male birds, because they grow out bigger than the females with the same type of care, which means more money for the same amount of work. The chicks live in a typical brooder box when they first arrive. Once they’re fully feathered, I transfer them to chicken tractors, 20 to 25 birds per tractor, where they’re given fresh water and non-GMO, nonmedicated feed. My motto is that my animals have the most fabulous lives we can give them, and only one bad moment. It’s no different with the meat chickens. After several days in tractors at the beginning, I then let them out to forage. Every morning, I open the door to the tractor and put some feed outside to encourage the birds onto the grass. They forage all day close to the
Lazy B Farm took part in a food safety study initiated by Michael Rothrock, a research microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. Rothrock had studied levels of foodborne pathogens at commercial poultry processing plants before turning his attention to farms practicing backyard butchery. Besides Lazy B Farm, Rothrock studied 37 flocks from 10 other pastured poultry farms. Here’s his summary of the findings. — Cyndi Ball Most research in poultry food safety is focused on conventional farming. I saw a great need to provide research to smaller farmers Lazy B’s on-farm chicken butchering results in a low incidence of bacterial pathogens. that would help them assess and potentially improve their operations. Salmonella was only recovered from the final product rinses from We took a farm-to-fork approach (sampling broilers on pasture, durone of them, and the identity of these Salmonella was not one of the ing processing and butchering, and as a final product) and looked at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s top 30 serotypes that were the microbial ecology throughout the entire process to see how pathoimportant to human health. Listeria was found throughout the pasture, gens survive and flow within pastured poultry systems. In collaboration processing, and final product samples for some flocks, but more than with Lazy B Farm, we sampled six small pastured poultry flocks over 95 percent of the recovered Listeria were not the human pathogenic four years and looked at the microbiology of the feces during their time species (L. monocytogenes). These findings were generally consistent on pasture; of the ceca (a sac on the lower intestinal tract) and from with those for the other pastured poultry farms we studied. whole carcass rinses during processing; and also from whole carcass Overall, Lazy B’s on-farm butchering method produced whole pasrinses from the final product received by customers. We quantified the tured broiler carcasses with a low incidence of bacterial pathogens, general Escherichia coli and Campylobacter throughout and determined and in many cases, each of these pathogens were undetectable on the the presence or absence of Salmonella and Listeria. final product. An important thing to note here is that Lazy B typically We found that while general E. coli and Campylobacter levels were refrigerated the carcasses overnight before providing the final product higher in the pasture feces and processing cecal samples, they deto the customer. Based on previous work with Lazy B and the scientific creased by 10,000 percent on the final product. In fact, Campylobacter literature, freezing the carcass and providing a frozen product to your was undetectable in almost all the final product rinses (95 percent), consumer (if they’re amenable to it) would virtually eliminate these bacwith only a few rinses having low levels. Of the flocks we followed, terial foodborne pathogens from the final product.
Lazy B Farm used to package their finished chickens in plastic wrap, but upgraded to professional shrink bags complete with specialized labels. 142 MOTHER EARTH NEWS COLLECTOR SERIES • MODERN HOMESTEADING
FARM ANIMALS • www.MotherEarthNews.com 143