THE HISTORY FAIR

I spent my Saturday at Washington Crossing State Park. This was for the annual New Jersey State History Fair. I was there to represent Howell Farm, along with two of the horses and a handful of farming colleagues.

I was bedecked in the clothes of a late nineteenth century farmer, meaning I was wearing pants with suspenders that pulled up to about my belly button, maybe higher. All around me were a mash of historical figures – Revolutionary War soldiers, Civil War soldiers, singing pirates, and pretty ladies in those Victorian dresses that make their waists look like toothpicks.

One impression I was left with was that that children's games of yesteryear were poor at best. At the games exhibition, kids were left to beat a hula-hoop-shaped ring with a stick to see how far they could get it to roll. That was it; that was the game.

At another exhibit, however, kids could get their hands on a wooden rifle and go through drills with a Continental officer, everything from fake loading to fake firing to fake charging the enemy. Comparing these good times to the hula-hoop game, I understand now why the Continentals were so eager for a fight.

I think Howell had a good showing as well. Out in a nearby field, kids lined up behind the horses and took turns steering the plow for a few yards. I think the best moment was when Abraham Lincoln himself walked up and showed us peasants how it's done.

A FARMER FROM NEPAL

Ramachandran, a Nepalese farmer, is the newest intern to start at the farm. He is scheduled to be here for the next 8 months.

First, a short briefing on his homeland:

Wikipedia tells me that 8 of the world's 10 highest mountains are located within Nepal, including Mt. Everest. The country is bordered by Tibet on the north and India on all other sides. Until 2006, Hinduism was Nepal's official religion. Buddhism also has a strong presence in the country. The birthplace of Buddha Siddhartha Gautama is located in southern Nepal.

Rama lives within 5 kilometers of Pokhara, the second largest city in Nepal. This region is known for getting a lot of rain, and for its sharply rising elevation. According to Wikipedia, which has never led me astray, "In no other place do mountains rise so quickly." Rama says many foreign tourists come to his corner of the world for "rafting and enjoying."

Rama is about 30 years old and already owns his own farm. He grows vegetables, including cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, and radishes. He is married and has two children, ages 5 and 2. While he's gone, his two brothers will work his farm and keep everything going.

I don't know yet exactly why Rama has decided to come to the United States. His English is limited. But I do know that he came through a program called "Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture," which is sponsoring him. He will learn to work with oxen in more efficient ways (as well as other sustainable farming methods), with the goal that he will be able to return to his country and spread the knowledge.

In my first, difficult conversations with Rama, I've been able to ascertain one reason why he and the farmers he lives near don't use tractors. The hills are so steep that oxen work much better. He's the first farmer I've met for whom draft power isn't a luxury but a necessity, which makes me reappreciate a lot of what I've been learning these past few months.

I also learned that Rama rides a motorcycle. That's cool.

VIDEO: LAMB CAM

FARM READING PART II

One aspect of old-timey farming I haven't been able to get into is old-timey reading. The farmhouse has bookshelves lined with dusty tomes (tombs, really) on every imaginable farming discipline, most published decades ago.

During coffee breaks of the past week, I noticed Intern Tom was eagerly devouring the pages of an old, thick book devoted entirely to the topic of feeding horses. That guy's going to be a great farmer. Meanwhile, I was flipping through the latest issues of Wired and Popular Mechanics, which I smuggled into the nineteenth century as contraband.

For some people it's the nutrition of horses, for others it's American Idol, but the subject I've been crushing on these past months is the technology of alternative energy. I think energy, like food, is one of the elemental human commodities. The acquisition, production, and use of energy is again and again at the core of big issues, no matter what point in history you're looking at.

Big changes to the way we make and consume energy are now looming because of peak oil and global warming. I'm endlessly interested to read the latest article that claims to know what's going to happen next, or what new technology will be the one to rise up and save us. I find it all fascinating, just as good as following the Yankees.

Plus, this stuff is important. The ripple effects of our energy dilemma are already starting to crash on distant shores. Skyrocketing food prices around the world – there have been riots because of them from Haiti to Bangladesh – are largely attributable to American farmers growing more corn for ethanol fuel and less crops for food. Another contributing factor to the food crisis is recent droughts around the world, which many scientists say are made worse by global climate change, which, in turn, is largely caused by the release of carbon in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. It's all connected in its own weird, complicated way.

In my ongoing, informal survey of the American media as it writes about alternative energy technologies, I've read many articles that seem pretty impressed by one particular technology, and then the next week another, and then the next week another. I think the best writers point out that it will probably be a cocktail of technologies that will help us produce renewable energy in the near future, and that no technology has yet seen the big, game-changing breakthrough needed to compete on cost with coal and oil.

More recently, though, I've noticed a few large trends -- adjustments in the conventional thinking of the amorphous, floating blob that is the collective consciousness of the people who write about renewable energy for major publications:

- Corn ethanol is on the outs. Many writers now seem to be in on to the idea that corn as fuel does more harm everywhere than good.

- Hydrogen cars vs. electric cars used to be a debate, but now most writers seem to have come to the understanding that hydrogen is a long way off. Many articles in the past year or so have touted plug-in hybrid vehicles as shaping up to be a really good near-term solution to our transportation needs. Even though these vehicles haven't even arrived yet, they're already starting to feel like old news.

- Newest on the mass media's radar seems to be solar thermal power. In just the past two months or so, it seems to me that this technology has gone from being considered just another good idea to maybe THE great idea that will actually help us wean off coal.

Time magazine references it on page 44 this week, and here's an article from Salon.com which comes close to declaring the world saved:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/04/14/solar_electric_thermal/

- For other clues on what might be the next big thing, I simply look at whatever Google has embraced. They're already supporting solar thermal, which has just recently gone mass media mainstream, but you might have a few second left to get in early of high-altitude wind energy:

http://www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/

POTATO

Saturday was a day of potato planting.

In order to grow potatoes, you are going to need a potato. Take you knife and cut your potato in half and then half again. Walk your four potato chucks to the nearest fresh-plowed furrow. Place your first chunk, skin-side up, into the furrow. Now, place your second chunk about 10 inches away down the furrow. Repeat this process with your third and forth chunks. Now repeat the whole process about a hundred billion times.

The following types of potatos are now resting peacefully in the soils of Howell, waiting with the oats for some rain: Green Mountain, Russet, and Yukon Gold. I'm told the Russets make the best French fries.

One successfully planted chunk will sprout as many as five or six new potatoes. They should be ready to harvest in September.

VIDEO: WEEDING OATS

In this latest masterpiece of cinéma-vérité, Tom weeds a field of young oats.

EATING HAS NEVER SEEMED SO COMPLICATED

Intern Tom and I have been making the rounds after work to the small farms of Central New Jersey – several organic vegetable farms, an orchard, and two grass-raised cattle ranches among them.

I've enjoyed our trips. They've reminded me what a beautiful place my home state remains to be in its most pastoral pockets. I've been all across the country and I think its green hills and fields are outshone by none.

These visits (in addition to my recent reading, and the natural observations that come with living on a farm for the first time) have also caused me to think more about the food I consume.

I've never been a vegetarian, and I doubt I ever will be, but I don't really like the alternative either – continuing to eat meat from cows, pigs, and chickens that live unhealthy lives in factory-like conditions. I bought my first pound of grass-fed ground beef a few weeks ago from a local cattle farmer, and this is what I think I purchased:

- The knowledge that the cow I was eating lived in a way that seems decent to me. It roamed a pasture eating grass, which is exactly what a cow will do when it is left to do as it pleases.

- The hope that the beef I was eating was healthier than the beef I would get from a cow raised in a feedlot and forced to gorge on corn and often worse.

- The further knowledge that my money was going to support a local farmer, whose farm might otherwise become a cement factory or something other than the beautiful natural vista it currently is.

In my idealized future, I'd like all the meat I consume to come from local, organic farmers who raise their animals humanely. Maybe one day I will follow through on this. But even in the last week, I've eaten many servings of the "other" meat. Why would I do this?

Two of the biggest reasons are certainly cost and convenience. The pound of ground beef I purchased fetched about $6. That's expensive, especially on an intern's salary. I could afford it if I was dearly committed to the notion of eating Good, but so far the temptations of Cheap have won out. The other factor is Easy. Meat that comes from factory-raised animals is nearly ubiquitous. Especially when I feel like grabbing a quick bite at a restaurant, or I have the option to eat a free sandwich lying around the farm, the convenience of just shoving the food in my mouth and chewing often wins out over some vague moral misgivings floating around the old Superego.

So, clearly, I'll be need to make a decision one of these days either to man up and eat only Moral Meat, or else strike some sort of balance that may at least be better than nothing.

Some of the same eating dilemmas trouble me as I browse the fruit and vegetable aisle of the supermarket these days. I know that the cheapest vegetables are often the ones grown with the aid of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This produce is then shipped across the country, sometimes the world, in order to reach my supermarket -- using up valuable fossil fuels and contributing to global warming. The local organic stuff? Once again, it's often the most expensive. I've heard that subscriptions to some local CSAs run more than $700 a year.

I'm still trying to figure out what is the most responsible yet reasonable way to make my food-buying choices. There are many variables to consider, and economics is certainly one of them. I was talking to Tom today about this, and the ideology he's arrived at is roughly this:

Buying local does the most good. Organic local is best. Falling short of that, when choosing between local non-organic, and non-local organic, go with the locally grown food.

That sounds reasonable to me.

Better yet, if you can: Tend your own garden.

One other thought that didn't seem to fit anywhere else: The pigs we are raising on the farm seem so friendly and doglike to me that I might just have to give up pork altogether.

SEEN AND HEARD AT HOWELL FARM: LAMBS

AN UPDATE

I haven't posted in a while about the fieldwork that's been ongoing about the farm. Here's a quick update as I steal a few minutes on the Internet at lunchtime:

- The oats appear to be growing. They are green at this point and above the soil not more than a few inches. Tom drove the horses and a spring-tine weeder through them last Thursday in order to get rid of some undesirables. (See first two pictures below.) There hasn't been decent rain in a few weeks, which isn't helpful to the oats, but so far they still seem happy.

- Meanwhile, one of the next fields we've been preparing to plant will be feed corn. We've all done some plowing, and then on Saturday Rob hooked up a big roller to the oxen and crushed clods. (See third picture.)

- Potato planting is scheduled for this coming Saturday in last year's cornfield, which is way out on the far side of the farm. I haven't seen what's going on out there in the last few days, but I understand there's been some tractor assistance in order to help get it ready.

- Growth also continues among a field of spelt that was planted before I got here and so far have nothing to do with. My one contribution is that I drove a tractor over the corner edge of the field just because it seemed like the right thing to do.

SEEN AND HEARD AT HOWELL FARM: PIGLETS

RISE OF THE TRACTORS

When times get busy at Howell Farm, and there are just not enough horse hours in the day to complete the work that needs to be done, a band of superheroes from the future appears at just the crucial moment: the tractors. They come from a planet called The Green Barn.

This past week included the following tractor interventions:

- I watched a big, green John Deere blaze through the hayfield up on the hill as it spread bags of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.

- I listened with gratitude to a report that last year's cornfield was now free of stalks thanks to another tractor. The previous week, two other workers and I spent an entire morning cutting stalks by hand. Between us, we cleared only a small fraction of the massive field.

- I drove a smaller John Deere around the farm under the pretence of needing to move some equipment. This the horses could have done, but the tractor made it easier, and anyway I think Farmer Rob could tell I was eager to take a spin.

Of the many things I've come to appreciate while working on a historical farm, one of them is how tractors changed nearly everything. By my gross calculation, one modest tractor can finish more work in a day than 10 strong horses. Factor in all the time a tractor teamster doesn’t have to spend feeding, watering, cleaning, harnessing, shoeing, and shoveling manure, and maybe a tractor is 20 times as efficient.

What I think is crazy is that, in the long view, tractors haven't necessarily made the life of the average farmer any better (or at least any more lucrative.) Many farmers with a stable of tractors need to work longer and harder than they ever did in order to make a living.

According to Howell's website, farmers of 100 years ago kept a larger percentage of the money they made from what they grew than they ever did prior or since. It was during this period that horsepower was at its peak.