Good Food is Everybody's Business
American Wasteland is a journey through our food chain that raises questions about how our approach to eating has changed so much and what it means. The book introduces myriad characters and tells the story of American food waste through their lives.
Knee deep in lambing! It was going well, and toward the end of the month Big Mumbo, now in her 10th year, finally lambed, and had a single ram lamb! I was relieved! She had done more than enough, and deserved to have things a bit easier for once. Big Jumbo though, had her usual set of triplets! It was hard to see these two special sheep growing old.
Lambing was over, and our flock had given us another very good year, our 6th consecutive year for a 200%+ lamb crop! We were ecstatic! Highlights were, Big Mumbo at 9 years of age had quads, but one fetus was being reabsorbed. Big Jumbo, also 9 years, slacked off to having twins this year. However, some of our younger ewes were coming into their most productive years and picked up the slack!
One day I received a strange phone call from a gentleman with a deep voice, and a heavy Mid-eastern accent. He announced, “Dees ees de Casablanca Restaurant,” and then asked, “Do you have lamb?” I at first thought this was some wag pulling my leg, but as he continued the conversation, I realized he was serious. He wanted to purchase a small lamb, “Not too beeg.”
The Pacific Crabapple tree has been growing in Northwestern North America longer than any other species of ornamental fruit. The Pacific Crabapple tree grows in lifezones ranging from grasslands to foothills. The tree usually grows in moist environments; either in open wetlands or near bodies of water. Native groups from British Columbia all the way down through Cascadia used the Crabapple tree for various purposes.
Life became more complicated and at the same time more interesting with each passing year. I was now not only doing the sheep full time, but also a good bit of farm planning and we were making good progress with the farm. One big benefit to me, was that we now had the barn full of our own hay as a result of haying the excess Birdsfoot Trefoil pasture the previous year, and this year would have hay from a 9-acre field we had seeded to Wrangler Alfalfa. It was a welcome change from having to buy large truck loads of hay and unloading it.
Lambing went much more peacefully this year, although not without its usual challenges. One thing was different this time – “Big Mumbo” slowed down a bit, and only delivered triplets! “Big Jumbo” also had triplets, as did several other ewes, but the majority had twins, very few singles, and the flock’s lambing average increased to 204%. Lambing average is the number of lambs saved per ewe per year, not the number born.
Native certainly in parts of SE China, and cultivated much if not native in Japan and S Korea, Japanese Ginger is a woodland perennial that turns yellow and dies down in fall, rests during the cold winter, then shoots up again next spring, growing about 3 to 4 feet in height. Most Zingiber species are cold-sensitive; this one is hardy.
