Writings from the ranch

Telling it Straight

Feeling grateful yet? Teenage poultry farmer dishes straight talk By Shelby Grebenc Special to The Denver Post Shelby Grebenc has been raising chickens for both eggs and meat at her family's Adams County farm. In this 2011 photo, she holds Chipmunk, one of her...

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Facts about GMO’s in our food

September 14, 2012 How to Avoid Dangerous Genetically Modified Food Americans have been consuming Genetically Modified (GM) foods since 1996. More than 70% of foods on supermarket shelves contain GM ingredients. But as the American Academy of Environmental Medicine...

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The Good Life

It was the best of times, it is the best of times. It has been so hard to slow down enough to enjoy what we have built here. Tonight I got to put the chickens away, a job Dennis usually does. It is Indian summer here the last few days, and really hot for our north...

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The Calif. Food Act Has Passed !

the California Homemade Food Act, was signed into law today. The California Homemade Food Act legalizes the sale of homemade, “non-potentially hazardous” foods by creating a two-tier system of “cottage food operations” based upon the point of sale. Having captured the...

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Thirty two States Pass “Bakers Bill”

Kristen Farrar would like to sell the cakes, scones, and muffins she bakes, using figs, walnuts, and citrus from farms near her home in Fresno, Calif. But the home-schooling mom of two can’t afford to rent commercial kitchen space or pay the $50,000 she estimates it...

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Organic verses Conventional produce-errors in print

The Observatory — September 11, 2012 11:30 AM What does ‘healthier’ mean? Coverage of organic-food study plays loose with the term By Curtis Brainard TAGS: agriculture, antibiotics, bacteria, chemicals, farming, health, organic food, pesticides One...

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A Steady State Economy

The problem that we are seemingly unable to countenance is the end of growth. Today’s system is predicated on the progressive conversion of nature into products, people into consumers, cultures into markets and time into money. We could perhaps extend that growth for...

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Putting Up Tomatoes

I had One day to relax after cooking for twenty two people all local food three meals a day. The cob workshop was fun here, but exhausting. So what happens the next week ? My husband shows up with twelve huge boxes of the most beautiful, splendid tomatoes. Grown by...

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I Believe in the Future of Farming John Ikerd

I Believe in the Future of Farming[1] John Ikerd[2] I believe that to live and work on a good farm is pleasant as well as challenging; for I know the joys and discomforts of farm life and hold an inborn fondness for those associations, which even in the hours of...

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5 Ways Privatization Is Ruining America…

5 Ways Privatization Is Ruining America… In Around the web on August 17, 2012 at 9:16 am From PAUL BUCHHEIT AlterNet We spend lifetimes developing community assets, then give them away to a corporation for lifetimes to come. A grand delusion has been planted in the...

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The Cause of Heart Disease

http://ukiahcommunityblog.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/heart-surgeon-speaks-out-on-what-really-causes-heart-disease/#more-50220 Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease… In Around the web on August 20, 2012 at 7:38 am From DR. DWIGHT LUNDELL...

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Pesticides in Produce, why to buy organic.

EWG's 2012 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce™ Eat your fruits and vegetables! The health benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweigh the risks of pesticide exposure. Use EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides™ to reduce your exposures as much as...

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Global Warming News

Global Warming's Terrifying New Math Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe - and that make clear who the real enemy is Comment2655 Illustration by Edel Rodriguez By BILL MCKIBBEN July 19, 2012 9:35 AM ET If the pictures of those towering wildfires in...

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Farming in Historical Perspective

Gene Logsdon: Can Garden Farming Be Too Successful? In Gene Logsdon Blog on June 13, 2012 at 6:00 am From GENE LOGSDON This is just mischievous philosophical musing. Don’t take me too seriously. On the other hand… One of my favorite books is the classic “Farmers of...

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No Honeybees

Todd Walton: No Honeybees In Todd Walton on June 8, 2012 at 6:04 am From TODD WALTON UnderTheTableBooks Mendocino “The busy bee has no time for sorrow.” William Blake I am not a master gardener. I’ve been growing vegetables and flowers and herbs for fifty years, and...

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Cottage Food Law bill -Let’s pass it !

Cottage Food Law Would Make it Easier to Prepare Value-Added Foods for Market AB1616, the California Cottage Food Bill, has been progressing through committee with unanimous support this spring. The new law would make it possible to produce popular market items at...

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Gmo’s in most “natural” foods

GMOs and pesticides are in almost everything, including “natural” cereals… In Around the web on April 27, 2012 at 7:14 am From NATURAL NEWS Thanks to Ron Epstein Three facts you need to know about GMOs before you read the explosive test results below Before you view...

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Rural farming

Rural farming The economies of farming kept eluding me till I realize again and again that it's not about financial returns, making lots of money, or what seems a fair wage for my hours. Instead it's about quality of life, and a community alive . A community that...

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The War being waged against Family Farms

This movie is now available to purchase or to rent, netflix etc. Really good movie to see about what farmers or small food producers are up against. The corporations are seeing us small market gardeners, food producers as competition. They are fighting to keep us...

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Food For A Community

Today, reading and thinking about rural cultures that still have an agricultural base. Where local food is produced by small farms and you can buy and eat seasonal vegetables, fruit and even meat and local dairy products . Where a farmer or rancher can sell a quarter...

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Community Wood Fired Brick Oven’s

In reading " A Thousand Days in Tuscany" by Marlena De Blasi, I found these excerpts; "Our favorites were the communal ovens in some of the smaller villages of the Friuli, ovens that are still lit at midnight each Friday with vine cuttings and huge oak logs so the...

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Bread March 30th-next week and vacation

I'm going to send this around again, some people did not get it. Bread this week: All organic, naturally leavened Bread. Available at Franny's and by delivery. Three drop off spot's, Point Arena, Anchor Bay and Gualala, plus home delivery if you are close to Hwy 1 and...

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Global Corporations and why to build our local economies

From RALPH NADER Transition Voice Banksters are now plundering Greece. How can turmoil in this tiny overseas economy affect your personal finances? For months now our stocks have gone up and down due to various concerns, but none more recurrent than concerns about the...

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Bread and Ranch Offerings March 23rd

Bread : Available at Franny's or by special order email me at kpencegarden@yahoo.com or call 884-3048 I deliver to Point Arena schools, Koogles shed,and local businesses Anchor Bay- Blue Canoe Gualala - Natsha's Flowers and local businesses. Leave money for me at...

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