agri-Culture

Send us Fan Mail My Pet Chicken(s) 10 Years 6 Wyandottes (2 silver laced, 2 golden laced, 2 red-laced blue) 2 Americaunas 2 Australorps 1 peeping box A lifetime of memories Links: https://www.mypetchicken.com/ https://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/which-breed-is-right-for-me.aspx https://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Baby-Chicks/Blue-Laced-Red-Wyandotte-p738.aspx https://www.mypetchicken.com/...

Send us Fan Mail From Merriam Webster: Cost ( noun ): 1.    (a)  The amount or equivalent paid or charged for something (price);  (b)  The outlay or expenditure (as of effort or sacrifice) made to achieve an object 2.  Loss or penalty incurred especially in gaining something   Cost ( t. verb ): 1.  To have a price of 2.  To cause to pay, suffer or lose something 3.  To estimate or set the cost of...

Send us Fan Mail “Exotic” is a word that is relative.  In my case, that means the relatives in Belgium might think a D’Uccle bantam chicken is pretty normal, but to me here in California, it was more like seeing something from an African safari (Okay, we took a few liberties there, but the concept is sound).   Today’s podcast is with Tom Watkins, President of Murray McMurray Hatchery.  This compan...

Send us Fan Mail It’s chick season, so we’re starting off with what you need to start off with before you begin.  In other words:  Infrastructure.  Doesn’t sound glorious, but it is, especially when you factor in the Nest-O-Matic. We’re bringing you a conversation with Joe Putnam of Premiere 1 Supplies, recorded at the Linn County Expo in Lebanon, Oregon, home of the 2019 Mother Earth News Fair. ...

Send us Fan Mail Today we’ve reached a momentous day here at Backyard Green Films.  This is the 100th episode of the agri-Culture podcast, which is a pretty big deal for us.  When we started this whole podcast idea, we had no idea that we’d still be doing this almost two years after we started.  And it coincides with the final touches on our film, for which I’m pleased to say we’re in the process...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever delved into logistics?  We haven’t much either (except for a required course for a BS in Business, which involved a lot of spreadsheets, chaos theory, and 42 reams of paper).  The parts and pieces of how to get the things we need where we need them isn’t something we think about a lot  – until it actually matters to us.  But in agriculture, the process of logistics i...

Send us Fan Mail Every meet people who are just plain easy to be with, the minute you meet them?  That’s Martin and Joy Dally of Shepherd’s Lane farm and Super Sire Ltd.  We have decided to park Bessie on their front lawn to commune with the sheep at least twice a year, if we can get away with it.  Okay, so maybe that’s too much to subject them to, especially when they were such wonderful hosts. ...

Send us Fan Mail For some people, an idyllic childhood was all about birthday parties, sleepovers and soccer games.  And while those are undoubtedly a fixture for many, for others it was also about cleaning manure out the rabbit hutches and picking green beans until your fingers won’t move anymore.  Idyllic, you might question?  Yep – one of the best ways to grow up, at least the future me has det...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the New Year, and goodbye to the old.  This is the time of year where we often look back on the past, even if it’s usually just in the form of the “best of and worst of” lists.  We’re no different, but instead of the past year, we’re looking back to the last 500 (plus 1) years.  Half a century is a long time, but it’s an anniversary to be commemorated for today’s podcas...

Send us Fan Mail Winter is a pretty bleak time most everywhere right now.  And even though it just started, this year it seems like the gray skies are going to go on forever.  Yes, there’s a none-too-subtle parallel to the difficulties on planet earth right now. But Spring is coming.   Sooner or later, winter will end, and a new season will arrive.  We can all take a lesson from those that have le...

Send us Fan Mail We’ve been waiting four years to say it:  We’re done.  Well, “done” once the technical, legal and distribution people have their say, but we’ll be handing it over to them within the next two weeks.  We’ll make sure to keep you posted on how to see the film in the upcoming months.  We’d like to thank you, our audience, for sticking with us here at Backyard Green Films, and for shar...

Send us Fan Mail This week we take you back to one of our earliest interviews, and one of our most formative experiences in the Backyard Green Films universe.  We learned the fundamental joy of buying handmade things, and doing so face to face.  And when we say that, we actually mean face-to-face not only in the kitchen where the soap was made, but with the farmer who made it and the goat who prod...

Send us Fan Mail We haven’t talked about horses for a while, and they’re definitely one of our favorite creatures, so today we’re off to Wisconsin, to talk about one of the most majestic animals in the equine world:  The Friesian.  Native to Holland and beloved by film producers everywhere for their striking looks, there’s a very long history on these animals, and they have gorgeous movement to bo...

Send us Fan Mail When we went to Martin and Joy Dally’s Shepherd’s Lane Farm in Oregon last month for a Laproscopic A.I. Sheeping Bonanza last month, the one thing we didn’t think we’d come home thinking about was…cheese.  Not that we’re complaining, of course.  The people we met there were enough to keep us busy interviewing for days, and we’re going back for the lambing part, so we obviously did...

Send us Fan Mail What are you thankful for?  It seems like the Thanksgiving table will be pretty empty, and pretty bleak for many people this year.  And what kind of hope is there in the midst of so much death and pollution and destruction and isolation in the world today?  What are we supposed to learn here, anyway? The answer:  We learn from Fungi (mushrooms, to most of us).  This amazing organi...

Send us Fan Mail There is finally a chill in the air!  Some of us here in warmer climates look forward to the time each year when cold weather arrives, so we can cozy up on the sofa in front of the fireplace without melting from the heat outside.  60 degrees is probably a very reasonable temperature to start up the fireplace, we think.  But in other places, cold is a constant reality, and it is no...

Send us Fan Mail 2020 has been a year filled with catastrophic disasters of all types, and the only thing unclear is which movie we’re reenacting at the current moment.  Backdraft meets Twister meets 2012, with a dash of the Day after Tomorrow and a near miss by Armageddon.  If those weren’t crazy enough, there were a few reports of brushes from Orca and Jaws tossed in for variety, with slices of...

Send us Fan Mail With the past weekend in the rearview mirror, we’ve wrapped up October, Halloween, and the craziness of voting here in the U.S. -- at least for most of us.  Some will still be dealing with both the last little bits of voting in person and leftover Halloween candy for the rest of the week, and both might be somewhat traumatic for us in some way or another.  But we’re feeling lighte...

Send us Fan Mail It’s donkey time again!  The Donkey Welfare Symposium was a wild one last October (there were libations and tattoos and singing farriers and speakers from exotic ports of call), and it looks like this year’s virtual conference will follow that theme.  “Donkeys in the Wild” is kicking off virtually on October 30 -31, 2020, and we’re celebrating by bringing you our interview from la...

Send us Fan Mail It’s alive!  And kicking.  Or squirming, as it were.  Either way, it’s not pretty, and is akin to the horror films that many might be ingesting this month.  In the true spirit of the upcoming Halloween observances across the land, we’re going to bring you a podcast filled with gruesome tales of things growing where other things don’t want them to grow.  John Hurt will not particip...

Send us Fan Mail Rock and roll music and the combination and recombination of genetics have so many commonalities, and not just on the math end of things.  They both started with older things and brought in new things, and are constantly bringing in more influences to make something old stronger, or something new and different.  We all march to a different drummer, after all, so there is a beauty...

Send us Fan Mail Introduction:   We’re on the road again (albeit with a little bit more “distance” in our distance these days).  This week we’re celebrating our new favorite color – “Gotland Gray.”  We’re bringing you a conversation from last year’s Sheep and Wool festival in Rhinebeck, New York, where Amy Corey of Little River Farm told us a little bit about the characteristics and history of the...

Send us Fan Mail No, we’re not in India for this one, if you wondered about that after that title.  We’re closer to Rhinebeck, New York for this week’s podcast.  On October 17-18 the New York State Sheep & Wool Festival will be held – albeit virtually – so we’re taking you back to remember the fun from last year.  We’re celebrating all things fiber, including the beloved cashmere sweater.   Ok...

Send us Fan Mail Justin Morgan DID have a horse.  And it was a beauty.  One of the quintesenntially American breeds, the Morgan horse sprang from the loins of a stallion named Figure, a.k.a. Justin Morgan(‘s) Horse.  And that was not the only Spring that Sprung, as anything that trots or drives in North America probably can thank Mr. Morgan, piano teacher and blacksmith on-the-side for participati...

Send us Fan Mail This week is the first part of two on the indomitable little powerhouse horse known as the Morgan.  Justin Morgan probably would have done just fine as a composer and the local town clerk, but he did have an equine that became much better known than he was (thank you, Marguerite Henry).   We met up with Pam McDermott of Dawn Wind Morgans in Myrtle Creek, Oregon in the summer of 20...