Visits to Farmers Market and Raw Cheese Dairies in Southern France

Christine and I are visiting Southern France for 3 days before I attend a conference in London. While here we visited two artisan cheese dairies and a farmers market in Pezeran. In the first photo, my nephew Phillipe is looking at a market booth filled with fresh local cheeses (all raw), smoked meats, pâtes, brain, liver, rabbit, and chicken. What struck me about the market was not just the variety of products available but the variety of animal parts for sale (e.g. brain, liver, and the pâtes). This ability to market the whole animal gives a significant boost in product profit margin to the farmers. Note the sophisticated marketing vehicle for the meats and cheese.

Out to the farms! We visited two very different small cheese dairies. One was small, well-kept, and featured goat cheeses and the other was a rambling cooperative with a variety of cheeses and workers. Both dairys impressed us, featuring tasty fresh cheeses. None of the cheeses were aged more than one month. When asked why they did not age them for longer, they said it was because the always sold out! One thing that was common to our own farm was escaping goats- we witnessed the alpine goats at one farm escaping into the Cherry Orchard (second photo).

Southern France features many of the aspects of farms and marketing farm products that we only dream about in the United States-- favorable laws governing the production of raw cheeses and butchering, customers willing to purchase every part of the animal, and a deeply embedded cultural interest in quality food. This enables an ongoing sustainable food culture.

Thanks to my sister Kristin and husband Jean and kids for hosting us while visiting and the Chez Lou Lou blog for advice on where to find good farms to visit.

Beef on Grass

The grass is going strong and the Beef herd is enjoying their forages. In the photo is Alex with the herd. Temporary strands of hotwire are creating small pasture subdivisions, in which the cattle are rotated daily.

Farmers Market in Baja California Sur

We had the opportunity to visit Loreto, Mexico in January. Besides enjoying some sun and heat as a welcome change from Oregon's rain, we visited the local farmers market. Right in a dried-up river bed (very useful when the local rainfall averages less than 5 inches per year), vendors sold vegetables, watches, clothes, pirated DVDs and CDs, meats, and cheese. The market was a stark contrast to the US, where most markets regulate what vendors sell, where they sell, and how they sell. The market seemed to operate in a state of controlled chaos and the only thing bringing order to the system was the earnest desire of everyone to get at the areas primary supply of fresh vegetables, fruits, meats, and cheese.

The quality of some of the products was excellent and some of the products mediocre. The chicken, for instance, was not great and I had a suspicion it was a Foster Farms product imported from the States. On the other hand, much of the fruit was locally grown, as was the beef, which was excellent.

I was awed by the display on the meat table where all cuts were displayed raw on the table. What a difference from the States but also what a difference to be in a place where everyone goes to the farmers market and there are so many more people involved in the food system.

What is our cultural heritage?

The new farm economy relies on oil, investment banks, and speculation. A foundation of mono-culture, literally interpreted science driving progress in the 1000 horse-power tractor. Fantasy vacations and lives of comfort and ease are the fruits of this marvel of technology and science.

The old farm economy works on sweat, sun, and hope. So many intangibles weaving together life, ancestors, and children. So much hardship, worn and fatigued but proud ownership of a way of life.

Founded as a nation of independent farmers, what is our cultural heritage? High Schoolers know about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle but they don't have the stamina to work for a morning in the sun. Calculus is taught to strapping youth, but how many know how to plow a field?

Caught in a sea of insanity that has swept our nation in the recent past, we search for meaning in our lives. Perhaps it was there all along.

Farming Projects

For the next season I am planing on growing a variety of grains and beans and marketing them both whole sale and retail possibly as a part of Deck Family Farm. In addition I plan on growing a small vegetable garden for all those involved with working on the farm and for a Slow Foods one-field dinner which hopefully will be held on our farm around August. Pictures and more details to follow.
-Alexander

Dairy Improvements

Back in the Spring we created year-long dairy cow shares to help pay for some Dairy Improvements. The core of these improvements were to:

1) Create a space adjacent to the dairy processing house to milk the cows including creating a water-cooled tank to chill milk during milking time.
2) Bring improved power to the dairy processing house to run the milk pump
3) Provide better drainage.

We've brought new power lines in and have installed drainage (in the form of a 6" pipe that collects the water-cooling water, wash water, and roof-runoff). A future project is installation of a holding tank and irrigation pump to distribute water on the fields. The photos below show the current state of the dairy-- we're just waiting for the rains to pass so we can pour the concrete, and then we can start milking in our new facility!

The Dairy processing house needs a new door!

This is the run-up to the milking parlor. We will be building an awning going from the barn on the right to cover, the millking area. The poles on the right are the run-up to where we will be putting in place our scale.

The metal poles are where the stanchions will go to hold the cows in place while we milk.

Comparing Cornish X to Heritage Broilers on a no-soy diet

We've been working with a small group of growers in the Southern Willamette Valley who are committed to raising chickens on pasture in small batches. We were experimenting with no-soy feeds this year and opted to provide protein with peas. We found that broilers don't like the green peas and kicked them out of their feeders. They didn't do this with the yellow peas, however.

Also, we found that the Cornish X variety out-gained the heritage breeds by a factor of 2:1 regardless of diet. This played a critical role in the profitability of the venture from the farming end, suggesting that heritage breeds may need to be priced differently next year. However, the heritage breeds we raised were happy and active, with a full growth of feathers during their tenure versus the Cornish X who appeared as absurdly fat with few feathers and little desire to forage or exhibit normal chicken behaviors.

Here are the numbers for the different sets of chickens grown this summer:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pxfq6unaQo2-SEGpZ9WaRIQ

Note that the numbers in this spreadsheet were gained far from scientifically and any definitive answers on growth rates and responses to feed would need to be gained in a controlled experiment. We would welcome anybody to work with us on this next year, perhaps raising several varieties of chickens on two different types of feed in identical pastured conditions.