AgriCulture: Resilience

TURKANA FARMS, LLC

Green E-Market Bulletin January 20, 2025

The snow before the cold — photo by Mark Scherzer

ResilienceHi all, Mark here.It’s the evening of January 19. For the first time this winter, enough snow is accumulating outside to make it worth shoveling. We’re cozily sitting in front of the fire in the library listening to Ici Musique, public radio streamed from Montreal. I’m contemplating the blast of cold air that’s going to arrive tomorrow, Inauguration Day. How appropriate.

An observer might think I’m readying myself for life north of the border in the event I end up choosing exile. The fire is for staying warm when polar air rules. The radio is for accustoming myself to living in French. But then I realize that they don’t allow burning wood in Montréal fireplaces, and this lovely station may be de-funded if Pierre Poilievre becomes the next prime minister in a few months (sound familiar?). The CBC may have to look to Robin Hood Radio for lessons in staying afloat with listener support. And that, in turn, reminds me that leaving is not all that dependable an option — history’s waves rarely wash over just one country.

Right after the November election, I suggested that we all focus on putting our lives in order, creating a strong foundation to meet the challenges ahead. While I rarely follow the advice I so freely dispense to others, reflecting back over the last couple of months it seems that this time I may actually have followed through.Without consciously reminding myself daily, its seems I’ve been on a major campaign of repair, repair, repair. The back chimney of the house is right now encased in a mason’s scaffolding, so it can be re-mortared and its shift away from the house arrested. Rotting window sills have been replaced.The farm has received even more attention than the house. This weekend Eric and I took apart and put back together, with fresh webbing, the chair we seat the sheep in to clip their hooves. I for the first time in my life successfully cut a pane of glass, which I used to replace a window pane in the chicken coop that’s been broken for the entire 24 years I’ve owned the place. I’ve lavished a great deal of effort on the chicken coop, in fact, most of it devoted to critter-proofing.Just before we left for Christmas, the red tailed hawk, one of a pair that has been constantly on the prowl around the farm for the past couple of years, got into the enclosed front chicken yard for the first time in months and killed one of my new chickens. I determined how it got in by seeing it as it managed to fly out, at the east end of the chicken yard where there was a previously invisible gap, and Eric and I re-affixed all the top netting at that end.A couple of weeks later, I came out one afternoon to find the hawk in the yard again. I knew it had been perching at the west end, trying to get in, but thought I had it stymied. In fact, I had it stymied enough that when it saw me coming and tried to leave, it couldn’t figure out how to get out. I had to net it to get it outside the coop, from where it flew away.Intent on finding its route in, I examined every inch of the caging, and found that a tangle of vines at the west end, which had overgrown and completely obscured the fencing, had also partly collapsed the top couple of feet of fence, leaving a very wide opening through which the hawk had clearly come. The clematis paniculata at the west end and the wisteria at the east end of the enclosure, which Peter and I had planted for picturesque effect, had a down side. I spent an afternoon cutting back the vines, reinstalling cross bars, and re-affixing the fencing.Thankfully, there were no chicken casualties from this incursion. The hens had seen the hawk and all ran inside, hiding under a table top. The hawks seem unwilling to follow them inside the building.But stuff keeps happening.This Saturday morning, barely an hour after I finished chores, I came back outside and was instantly struck that the chicken yard was uncharacteristically devoid of chickens, despite the relatively balmy temperature. Once again my nemesis hawk was there. Once again the chickens were in hiding. The hawk’s mate was perched in a tree branch just above the yard, outside the enclosure, waiting. Upon my approach, the inside hawk started flying frantically back and forth trying to exit the yard, but again could not find an exit.

Ultimately, it flew up against the fence and hung there by its claws, upside down. When I approached, it let go and fell to the ground, where I was again able to net it and, by dragging the net, get it out to the driveway. I untangled it from the net, and it stood there, as if leaning back on its tail. It seemed in shock. After a few moments, though, it turned and flew off; the mate followed.

The hawk’s entry seemed to have resulted from a branch falling on the netting, bringing down a section, and creating an opening which I re-secured. Thankfully, no chickens were harmed this time either. With no chicken casualties from the last two incursions, I am claiming success. If I cannot succeed in making the coop impregnable, I can at least create enough obstacles that the chickens can see danger coming and have time to get out of harm’s way.I’m taking this as a point made and a lesson for the next four years. Create resilience. Erect obstacles to those who would damage what you hold dear. Let steadfastness and constant vigilance be your by-words.

The hawk on its heels Photo by Mark Scherzer

TURKEYOur turkeys (this year we raised Blue Slates and Bourbon Reds, heritage breeds preserved for their exceptional flavor) were processed the week before Thanksgiving.We have a good number in the 7 to 9 lb. range and some in the 14 to 15 lb range, with one big 18 lb tom as well in the freezer. .These birds are far slower growing than broad breasted turkeys, able to develop fat that insures richer flavor. These have been fed on organic grain from Stone House Farm, supplemented by what they find in nature from flying, roaming and grazing by day (not the sedentary lives of supermarket turkeys). If you care about how the bird who’s been sacrificed for your table has lived, you should check out Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer’s essay, “Let’s End this Turkey Pardoning Nonsense,” in the November 22 New York Times.$12/lb

WHAT’S AVAILABLE THIS WEEKEGGS ARE BACK!!! Most are pullet eggs, the ones hens produce in their first 4 weeks of laying. Small but very rich. I tried last year to sell them at a premium price but nobody bit, so now I realize that their size makes them less valuable to you, and they are offered at the discount price of $4 a dozen. Plentiful! But some are already to full size, so we will have regular sized eggs at $6 a dozen in limited quantities this week as well. Ask! These hens are defying the odds, that is, the hawks, for your eating pleasure.In the red meat department, frozen lamb:Butterflied legs of lamb $16/lb Rib or Loin chops (packs of 2) $14/lb Small racks of lamb $14/lb Riblets (breast of lamb) $8/lbOther cuts imminently arriving.$4/dozen.

FARM PICKUPS:Email us your order at farm@turkanafarms.com, and let us know when you’d like to pick up your order. It will be put out for you on the side screened porch of the farmhouse (110 Lasher Ave., Germantown) in a bag. You can leave cash or a check in the now famous pineapple on the porch table. Because I’m now here full time, we’re abandoning regular pick-up times. Let us know when you want your order any day between 10 and 5, and unless there are unusual circumstances we’ll be able to ready it to your convenience. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to call or text at 917-544-6464 or email.

HEAR OUR SHOWIf you’d enjoy hearing these bulletins out loud instead of reading them, we broadcast them on Robin Hood Radio, the nation’s smallest NPR station. You can find it on FM 91.9, AM 1020, WBSL-FM 91.7 “The Voice of Berkshire School” or streaming on the web at www.robinhoodradio.com, where podcasts of past broadcasts are also available under the title AgriCulture in the “On Demand” section. FM 91.7 “The Voice of Berkshire School”can be heard from just south of Pittsfield to the CT border. You can hear the station on WHDD FM 91.9 from Ashley Falls, MA down through the Cornwalls and in NY from just south of Hillsdale down to Dover Plains. You can hear the station on AM1020 from Stockbridge, MA to Kent and from Poughkeepsie to Pawling to Kent, Goshen, Torrington, Norfolk, and Ashley. Recently added for those in the Route 22 corridor from Ancram down to Pawling is FM frequency 97.5 And of course you can listen in our own neighborhood of Southwestern Columbia and Northwestern Dutchess County, where it is being broadcast from Annandale on Hudson, 88.1 FM.

FOLLOW USThe bulletins may also now be found in written form on line as well, at the Germantown, NY, portal ofhttp://imby.com/germantown/userblogs/agriculture-turkana-farms/

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