agri-Culture

Send us Fan Mail The Labor Day holiday here in the United States is a time to remember the contributions of the everyday workers to the building of our country, and to tip our hats to the labor movement.  The first week in September is the point in time to remember other things as well – the unofficial end of summer, the start of school, and the moment where it becomes gauche to wear white in the...

Send us Fan Mail The Great American Cattle Drive 2020 was an exciting trip for us, with farm visits to see American Milking Devons, Ancient White Park Cattle, and Yaks.  Wait – Yaks?  Okay, so the “Cattle” in “Cattle Drive” part was a little fast and loose on the list near the end (we try not to limit ourselves, if you can tell).  The genus “Bos” does include cattle, aurochs, bison and yaks, but y...

Send us Fan Mail As we watched the news and saw the fires ravaging over one million acres in California this past week, all Elara and I could think of were some of the people we've met along our journeys, and their proximity to the danger zone.  The fires in the west have only gotten worse each year.  Whether you believe in climate change or not, there is one thing for certain...weather patte...

Send us Fan Mail We’re back!  When all was said and done, the Great American Cattle drive chalked up 8,500 miles, 22 states, 38 days and a partridge in a pear tree.  And everything the caretakers (nieces and nephews) were in charge of was still alive upon our return – plus a few extra as-yet-to-be-determined biting things inhabiting the house.  We still don’t know what those are, but we do know th...

Send us Fan Mail Rick, Elara, Little Mule (newly named car) and Bessie (not-quite-newly named trailer) are nearly home after almost 6 weeks on the road on the Great American Cattle Drive 2020.  After a quick detour across historic Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California, they have decided that they definitely have the good life travelling in the modern age.  Especially with air conditioning...

Send us Fan Mail   Backyard Green Films is on the route home on the Great American Cattle Drive 2020, with another 2,000-odd miles to go.  As it happened, we recorded this episode from the banks of the Mississippi River, only an hour from Pepin, Wisconsin.  Some of you might know that spot as the original starting point for Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the beloved Little House books.  Her adven...

Send us Fan Mail We're still GACD - Great American Cattle Drive, that is.   Today, we'll bring you a visit with a family that we think is peachy keen, absolutely fabulous, and the cat's meow (and yes, there were cats there, too).  Three generations of the Freier Family hosted us for a delightful morning at Every Season Farm, learning about life on a dairy farm (and mini science lab)...

Send us Fan Mail We’re still in the Northeastern United States on our Great American Cattle Drive.  This is the area where much of our country’s important paperwork is kept.  The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the documents in the Hall of Records, and the Milking Devon Herdbook, Volume 8.  We just had to add that last one and take another little teasing dig at John Hall, President of the Americ...

Send us Fan Mail We made it!  We have completed our cross-country trip west to east for the first leg of The Great American Cattle Drive (“GACD” has a distinctive ring to it, don’t you think?).    We start the film shoot with the American Milking Devon Cattle Association in New England today, but it was fitting that we began our run with a podcast recorded halfway across the country, in Monument,...

Send us Fan Mail At last, we’re on the road. We’re going to interview wonderful people doing important conservation work, who also strive to ensure our food supply. And we chose a name for our new (used) trailer.  It’s a natural fit, as it all started with The Holstein Dilemma. There’s will be challenges — especially over 7,000 miles for a road trip in July during a pandemic — but life is good.  ...

Send us Fan Mail Maps?  Check Masks?  Check Gloves?  Check Disinfectant foot bath?  Check Disinfectant for surfaces?  Check Remote clip-on mics?  Check Press passes?  Check MPAA Safe Filming Protocol List?  Check A month’s worth of food and supplies?  Check Bathroom in the trailer?......Check. Goodbye, dear and faithful Maggie (our beloved teardrop trailer).  Thanks for your good and faithful serv...

Send us Fan Mail The behavior of individuals and groups seems to be in the news a lot these days.  The same concept in the natural world might not hit the news quite as often, but it’s just as important.  Any farmer or rancher will tell you that the more you know about what your plants and animals are telling you, the more effective your response can be, and the more you both can produce together....

Send us Fan Mail Off to New Mexico.  High desert all around, blue mountains behind, dry breezes, and the infamous sheep-pig.  All of that and more are found in this podcast, even if some parts of that last sentence sound less than plausible.   It was there that we met Zach and Ethan, two brothers who raise the rare but deliciously fatty Mangalitza (or Mangalica or Mangalitsa, depending on who you...

Send us Fan Mail Here’s a list for you: - Hobbits Otters Wedding shawls Ragnor Dogs Killer Whales Archeological ruins Oil Puffins 80’s rock bands (okay, this one is a little loose) The Ikea catalog Ponies So, what do these things have in common?  This podcast, and the Shetland Islands, way, way (way) North of the North Scotland mainland (Did we mention it was up North?).  In fact, the Vikings - Sc...

Send us Fan Mail Belgium is a beautiful place in the Low Countries of Western Europe.  Rich with art, culture and a globalized economic worldview, it has had more than it’s fair share of trauma throughout its history.  It has been known as both the Crossroads and the Battlefield of Europe, and the strategic importance of this country has caused it to be used as either a tactical objective or a run...

Send us Fan Mail As we come to you on this Memorial Day 2020, we would like to pay remembrance to not only the men and women who have given their lives in service of our country, but also to the animals who did as well. Up until the last century, horses probably took the brunt of the wartime hit, and most severely in World War I. Though they were used primarily in cavalry units in prior wars, and...

Send us Fan Mail It’s Heritage Breeds week at The Livestock Conservancy.  This organization is one that you hear about on our podcast frequently, and for good reason.  They are on the front line in the battle against extinction for some of the traditional agricultural breeds in the U.S. and abroad.  The Conservancy’s mission is to do “research, education, outreach, marketing and promotion, and gen...

Send us Fan Mail The Six Degrees of Separation concept didn’t start with Kevin Bacon, believe it or not.  We can thank Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in 1929 for that idea.  But regardless of who started it, it’s very much a home truth that humankind and all of the things in our periphery seem to be connected in some way with just a few steps, if you just look to see how. In walks Mary.  Mary C...

Send us Fan Mail   Yep, it’s A Bug’s Life, come alive.  Collecting seeds is a long-term gig, but it has to be done if the colony (that’s us humans) wants to survive.  And even if you’re not on a little island or surrounded by hungry grasshoppers, there’s a reason to collect as many good seeds as you can, so the colony can be healthy and successful through the winter and the upcoming year.   Everyo...

Send us Fan Mail The whole planet is in the midst of an eruption of disease.   Agricultural occurrences are no different than human epidemics, in terms of potential damage.   The British Isles are on the list of places that come to mind when the words “agriculture” and “outbreak” are put together, not because they have any more than the rest of the planet, but because their battles over the last 3...

Send us Fan Mail We have to admit – sitting at home is much more tolerable with the cool weather and rain we’ve had in California this year so far.  If California has a stay-at-home order in place, it’s much easier with a crackling fire and a warm sweater.  But we’re in mid-April, and those days are soon to be gone, so we’ll take this last moment to remember warm wools and thick sweaters.   We bri...

Send us Fan Mail We are constantly amazed at our agricultural system, and how fast and how far it seems to have come since the early days.  And when people use the phrase “early days” with regard to agriculture in America, the usual mental picture has to do with Pilgrims, a multicultural exchange, squash, corn, and a turkey.  But the turkey, although it is one of the few agricultural items in our...

Send us Fan Mail We are big fans of Wallace and Gromit, thank you, so we’d like to take this opportunity to say that “A Close Shave” is not going to be an issue here.  Shaun (read, “Shorn”) can rest easy on this one, as there’s no Knit-o-Matic in this episode.  How can that be, when we’re talking about sheep?  The St. Croix, to the rescue.   The St. Croix sheep is a hair sheep, which was a new thi...

Send us Fan Mail Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address from November 1863 was a document that outlined Lincoln’s attempt to unify the country in a time of war.  It might feel a little like that right now, during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, where we are discovering that we can work together, or not.  As in the time of Lincoln, people are fighting a brave fight, and some are perishing. We ofte...

Send us Fan Mail Food.  It’s what’s for dinner.  Unless it’s not. Well, that sounds self-evident, but as we know from history, food is the one thing we have a hard time living without, and when we say that, we mean it gets ugly, and fast.  Humans become a little more animal and a little less “human” when food gets scarce. So now is a great time for an old concept:  The Victory Garden.  It’s an ide...