Monday, September 26, 2005
There've been quite the adventures here the past few days! It all began on a crisp harvest Friday at Fred and Carlos' property. After lunch I joined everyone for the biggest butternut squash harvest Everdale has ever seen. What a team. All the interns minus Andy joined at some point, plus there were the two permanent volunteers (Coral and Ben), Melissa, and two temporary volunteers that we just met. Even Karen and Lynn joined in. It was so much fun. We had several breaks, during which Karen and Tarrah supplied us with snacks and birthday cakes and samosas. (Alex turned 20 and Ben 24.) We may have harvested up to 9000 squash and piled them into the barn. We had to do it all because there was a risk of frost that night (though it didn't come after all). On the truck between the field and the barn Nathan, Alex, and Ricky entertained us with some hilarious (and probably extremely dangerous) body-dragging acrobatics.
On Saturday I made lunch for everyone - potato latkes with sour cream, corn on the cob, and my mum's garlicious carrot-parsley salad. It turned out I didn't make enough, but now I know how many to prepare the next time. Next time I'll also know where to find the freshly preserved apple sauce.
Then there was the big party. Most of us had a nap beforehand, as we were still pretty strained from the previous day. This was Nathan's going-away party. Gavin roasted one of last year's turkeys for the pot-luck, and Rachel made her famous chocolate-peanut butter pie. Noah and Peter came for it too - they're volunteers from the beginning of the season. There was a lot of drinking, dancing, and beyond, although I remained pretty sober (I can never seem to get drunk).
When it was dark and most people were thoroughly wasted, Alex announced he was going streaking. After he and a couple other interns did it once, everyone else felt compelled to join in, including myself. All the interns (except Andy since he wasn't there) were there, as well as Tarrah, Peter, Coral, and Ben (who was piss-ass drunk and seemed to have a temporary case of Tourette's). We played naked tag for a while in the field by the goats and pigs. Jeff, Ricky and I tried to meditate a bit on the great feeling of losing our inhibition, but were regularly interrupted by Ben's shouting of obscenities.
Every so often we would all have a session of yelling for Noah, as nobody seemed to have any clue what had happened to him. He'd disappeared earlier that night. We figured he was maybe meditating somewhere in the forest, so we went on a naked field walk to look for him. We didn't find him, but it was quite an experience running naked through the tall and sometimes prickly grasses on a relatively chilly night. We ended up splitting up into different groups. Ricky and I came back first, while the rest of them continued to frolic on the hill until the wee hours of the morning. (We later found out that Noah hadn't been feeling well and had spent most of the evening in his car.)
Sunday was very lazy. We spent it napping, cleaning, eating, and just chilling out. I decided it was time to have my first joint that evening. First time I smoked anything, in fact. I'd been planning to do it for a while, I just wanted the right sort of people to do it with. So I did, with Ben, Rachel, Ricky, Carolyn, and Coral. It was somewhat anti-climactic for me as it didn't seem to affect me at all, but they say that a lot of people don't get high with their first joint. I'm hoping it will be a little more interesting next time. It's amazing how few people there are that I know now that don't smoke pot. I think the only people at Everdale that don't do it are the kids. And I ain't no stinkin' kid.
So I'm having a great time here, as usual.
Oh yeah: Evan's comic book launch party on Thursday rocked. Way to go, Evan!
On Saturday I made lunch for everyone - potato latkes with sour cream, corn on the cob, and my mum's garlicious carrot-parsley salad. It turned out I didn't make enough, but now I know how many to prepare the next time. Next time I'll also know where to find the freshly preserved apple sauce.
Then there was the big party. Most of us had a nap beforehand, as we were still pretty strained from the previous day. This was Nathan's going-away party. Gavin roasted one of last year's turkeys for the pot-luck, and Rachel made her famous chocolate-peanut butter pie. Noah and Peter came for it too - they're volunteers from the beginning of the season. There was a lot of drinking, dancing, and beyond, although I remained pretty sober (I can never seem to get drunk).
When it was dark and most people were thoroughly wasted, Alex announced he was going streaking. After he and a couple other interns did it once, everyone else felt compelled to join in, including myself. All the interns (except Andy since he wasn't there) were there, as well as Tarrah, Peter, Coral, and Ben (who was piss-ass drunk and seemed to have a temporary case of Tourette's). We played naked tag for a while in the field by the goats and pigs. Jeff, Ricky and I tried to meditate a bit on the great feeling of losing our inhibition, but were regularly interrupted by Ben's shouting of obscenities.
Every so often we would all have a session of yelling for Noah, as nobody seemed to have any clue what had happened to him. He'd disappeared earlier that night. We figured he was maybe meditating somewhere in the forest, so we went on a naked field walk to look for him. We didn't find him, but it was quite an experience running naked through the tall and sometimes prickly grasses on a relatively chilly night. We ended up splitting up into different groups. Ricky and I came back first, while the rest of them continued to frolic on the hill until the wee hours of the morning. (We later found out that Noah hadn't been feeling well and had spent most of the evening in his car.)
Sunday was very lazy. We spent it napping, cleaning, eating, and just chilling out. I decided it was time to have my first joint that evening. First time I smoked anything, in fact. I'd been planning to do it for a while, I just wanted the right sort of people to do it with. So I did, with Ben, Rachel, Ricky, Carolyn, and Coral. It was somewhat anti-climactic for me as it didn't seem to affect me at all, but they say that a lot of people don't get high with their first joint. I'm hoping it will be a little more interesting next time. It's amazing how few people there are that I know now that don't smoke pot. I think the only people at Everdale that don't do it are the kids. And I ain't no stinkin' kid.
So I'm having a great time here, as usual.
Oh yeah: Evan's comic book launch party on Thursday rocked. Way to go, Evan!
| [ 5 comments ] |
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
I think I've developed another pet peeve: people who use multiple question marks in a row in their e-mails. It's unnecessary, and it just makes me want to answer their questions less. This is coming from people I otherwise really admire. They seem to do it when they're confused, usually about some technical thing related to computers, something they don't understand. When they use multiple question marks, it sounds like they're really excited or frazzled, and it just makes me want to write extra-calmly in response to calm them down. For instance, someone just wrote this to me:
is it user+domain.com??? not user@domain.com??Really, now. It's almost as annoying to me as using ALL CAPS:
OMG MY GF IS CHEETING ON ME WHAT AM I GOING TO DO LOLWho's with me???????????????
| [ 10 comments ] |
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Pics!
Tarrah and Nathan playing their gypsy duets at Red Skies
Visible faces from left to right: Patty/Ricky, Jon, Natasha, Carolyn, Rachel, Rocio, Leigh, half-Paul
Carolyn and Moonmama
Nathan and Jeff lovin'
yours truly, pondering as ever
b'Alex, Jon, and Patty streaking down the highway
b'Alex, Carl, and Andy (b'Alex is Carl's drunken mentor)
Tarrah and Nathan playing their gypsy duets at Red Skies
Visible faces from left to right: Patty/Ricky, Jon, Natasha, Carolyn, Rachel, Rocio, Leigh, half-Paul
Carolyn and Moonmama
Nathan and Jeff lovin'
yours truly, pondering as ever
b'Alex, Jon, and Patty streaking down the highway
b'Alex, Carl, and Andy (b'Alex is Carl's drunken mentor)
| [ 3 comments ] |
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
I just came back from a tour of Michael and Dorothea Schmidt's biodynamic dairy farm (and more) in Durham. What an awesome, inspiring, incredible experience! I feel honoured to have had Michael Schmidt give us Everdalians a personal tour of his amazing farm. I'm almost ready to go there and take a year-long internship there. First I have to give you all an idea of how important this Michael Schmidt guy is with respect to the raw milk movement in Canada.
To get an excellent overview of Schmidt's background, achievements, and experiences, I highly recommend reading Sally Fallon's account of his story from the Real Milk website - although I know few of you will probably do this, so I'll do my best to summarize below. (For those of you who don't know, Sally Fallon is a big name in the promotion of raw milk, slow food, and traditional diets, and if you don't already have it, you should get a copy of her cookbook, Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challengers Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. Jon, Nathan, my uncle Michael and I already own copies, and apparently you're next.)
Michael Schmidt, born in Germany, has a masters degree in farming, and his entire training took place on certified organic farms in Germany. He purchased his current farm in Durham in 1983, where he now raises 30 dairy cows biodynamically. (If you don't know what biodynamic means, for now all you need to know is that it's an organic method of farming developed by an Austrian named Rudolf Steiner, and Everdale, Whole Circle, and some other organic farms connected to Everdale use this method.)
I think I'll just quote Sally for a bit, since it's easier:
"Michael developed a cow-lease program wherein the consumers could lease a cow or portion of a cow to supply fresh [raw] milk." (This practice was illegal and Michael knew it, but he did it anyway because the Ministry of Agriculture wouldn't interfere unless his practice became widely known.) "The Milk War began in 1994 after the filming of a CBC documentary on [his farm.] 'It was our own fault,' says Michael. 'We should never have agreed to the publicity.' CBC pre-publicity said that the documentary 'would shake the entire dairy industry.'"
(He showed this half-hour documentary to us today after lunch, and it's definitely provocative! It was almost as if he was intentionally waging war on the industry. You can probably get a copy of it from CBC archives.)
"The first battle in the Milk War came two days before the documentary was to be aired. The Owen Sound Health Unit raided the farm, seizing $800 worth of dairy products. The products were tested to prove that they were unpasteurized but no test was done to find out whether there were any harmful bacteria present. Charges were laid under the Health Protection and Promotion Act. ... Michael's jury trial occurred in May of 1994. The government argued that raw milk carried all sorts of hazards. ... Many witnesses for the defense presented evidence that raw milk had proven therapeutic for them. They voiced concerns about the indiscriminate use of antibiotics and bovine growth hormones which, although technically illegal in Canada, are smuggled over the border and used in some herds. A number stated that they were lactose intolerant and unable to consume pasteurized milk. Dr. Ken McAlister, a general practitioner, testified that he had never encountered any health problems among hundreds of patients who consumed raw milk He cited a 400-bed hospital in Germany where raw milk was given as a treatment for many serious diseases. The defense noted that 17 American states and all European countries allow the sale of raw milk and raw milk cheese.
"During this period, other damage occurred on the farm, damage that could not be directly laid to health authorities. Milking machines were destroyed and two cows were found dead. The building that housed the cheese equipment was broken into four times. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigated with no results. All they could do was warn the Schmidts not to let their daughters walk to school and to 'be careful.'
"The most sinister skirmish in the Milk War occurred when an employee of the Schmidts, actually a cousin, surprised three men who were in the process of breaking into the cheese house. One agent was Canadian but the other two were East Germans—he recognized their accent and also remembered reading that East German intelligence agents had been hired as 'private detectives' in North America. The cousin was thrown into a van and forced to tell them where Michael Schmidt was at the time. Then they drove to that house, set up infrared cameras and listening devices, and stayed for half an hour. After this, the cousin was pushed out of the van and told not to tell anyone about the incident or 'he would be sorry.'"
(Can you believe this? Having been at his picturesque little farm now, I can barely believe that activities like this had been going on there.)
"The civil trial went badly. The lawyers were not very good and missed deadlines. Just before the trail began, the Schmidts' farm insurance was dropped. Michael called numerous other agents, all of whom told him that he could not be insured. The lack of insurance forced him to plead guilty to the civil charges. Immediately afterwards, his insurance was reinstated.
"When affairs at the farm were at their lowest ebb, Michael and Dorothea took a walk into their fields. Michael had lost his will to fight and Dorothea was discouraged. It was at that moment, when both were absorbed in thought, that he was gored by one of his bulls. The horns that he had deliberately left on his cows gave him a huge gash and caused him to spend over one week in intensive care. ... The bull that gored Michael Schmidt carried the most important message of all—that his only hope was to fight back."
And he did fight back. He went through with a huge publicity campaign, which you can read all about in Sally's article. He tried to start a research project to help prove the safety of raw milk produced by properly raised organic cattle, but the Milk Marketing Board turned it down.
"The Schmidts and their followers then ran to the press conference they had organized. They announced that they had been 'thrown out' of the meeting [with the Milk Marketing Board]. Michael then officially and publicly stated that if the police came back on his farm once more, he would go on a hunger strike. 'The government then had only two choices,' said Michael, 'either ignore me (and admit that we were right) or press forward with a full attack, one that would backfire and make matters worse for the government.'
"Later at an official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of a new store in the district, Michael wrote on the ribbon "For a better communication between the government and Glencolton Farms." All signed it, including the Minister of Agriculture and Food—there were 80 people watching so he could not refuse. The ribbon was cut and Michael kept it. Later he learned that the piece of ribbon signed by himself and the Minister is a binding contract."
Anyway, he lost a lot of his farm from the trials, but with the help of his supporters he's managed to regain much of it. "The Schmidts are now back up to [30] cows with a goal of 36. In spite of his troubles, Michael is the only dairy farmer in the district who has not gone out of business." Now, instead of the cow lease system which partly got him into trouble in the first place, he's worked out a new system that involves the actual sale of the cow. "One share is worth one-fourth of a cow and costs $250. Share owners also pay a fee of $2 per liter to cover the cost of the milkers' time and the expenses of the farm, including the cheese operation that must conform to Canadian health regulations."
And boy, that cheese tastes amazing. We got a tour of his sparkling cheesemaking equipment, the milking stalls, his beautiful barn (in which he also now hosts symphonies and operas), his biodynamic fields, orchards, smokehouse, farm store, friggin' cool blue schoolbus outfitted for the Tuesday markets, and more. They also raise pork, grow veggies, bake sourdough bread from their own spelt and rye (!), and all in the most wonderfully German way you can imagine. Most of the apprentices there are German (they come from Germany to spend a year on his farm).
And he's so in tune with the future - the house of cards we all live in, peak oil and all that.
So there's a possibility for me for next year, or even this winter.
To get an excellent overview of Schmidt's background, achievements, and experiences, I highly recommend reading Sally Fallon's account of his story from the Real Milk website - although I know few of you will probably do this, so I'll do my best to summarize below. (For those of you who don't know, Sally Fallon is a big name in the promotion of raw milk, slow food, and traditional diets, and if you don't already have it, you should get a copy of her cookbook, Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challengers Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. Jon, Nathan, my uncle Michael and I already own copies, and apparently you're next.)
Michael Schmidt, born in Germany, has a masters degree in farming, and his entire training took place on certified organic farms in Germany. He purchased his current farm in Durham in 1983, where he now raises 30 dairy cows biodynamically. (If you don't know what biodynamic means, for now all you need to know is that it's an organic method of farming developed by an Austrian named Rudolf Steiner, and Everdale, Whole Circle, and some other organic farms connected to Everdale use this method.)
I think I'll just quote Sally for a bit, since it's easier:
"Michael developed a cow-lease program wherein the consumers could lease a cow or portion of a cow to supply fresh [raw] milk." (This practice was illegal and Michael knew it, but he did it anyway because the Ministry of Agriculture wouldn't interfere unless his practice became widely known.) "The Milk War began in 1994 after the filming of a CBC documentary on [his farm.] 'It was our own fault,' says Michael. 'We should never have agreed to the publicity.' CBC pre-publicity said that the documentary 'would shake the entire dairy industry.'"
(He showed this half-hour documentary to us today after lunch, and it's definitely provocative! It was almost as if he was intentionally waging war on the industry. You can probably get a copy of it from CBC archives.)
"The first battle in the Milk War came two days before the documentary was to be aired. The Owen Sound Health Unit raided the farm, seizing $800 worth of dairy products. The products were tested to prove that they were unpasteurized but no test was done to find out whether there were any harmful bacteria present. Charges were laid under the Health Protection and Promotion Act. ... Michael's jury trial occurred in May of 1994. The government argued that raw milk carried all sorts of hazards. ... Many witnesses for the defense presented evidence that raw milk had proven therapeutic for them. They voiced concerns about the indiscriminate use of antibiotics and bovine growth hormones which, although technically illegal in Canada, are smuggled over the border and used in some herds. A number stated that they were lactose intolerant and unable to consume pasteurized milk. Dr. Ken McAlister, a general practitioner, testified that he had never encountered any health problems among hundreds of patients who consumed raw milk He cited a 400-bed hospital in Germany where raw milk was given as a treatment for many serious diseases. The defense noted that 17 American states and all European countries allow the sale of raw milk and raw milk cheese.
"During this period, other damage occurred on the farm, damage that could not be directly laid to health authorities. Milking machines were destroyed and two cows were found dead. The building that housed the cheese equipment was broken into four times. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigated with no results. All they could do was warn the Schmidts not to let their daughters walk to school and to 'be careful.'
"The most sinister skirmish in the Milk War occurred when an employee of the Schmidts, actually a cousin, surprised three men who were in the process of breaking into the cheese house. One agent was Canadian but the other two were East Germans—he recognized their accent and also remembered reading that East German intelligence agents had been hired as 'private detectives' in North America. The cousin was thrown into a van and forced to tell them where Michael Schmidt was at the time. Then they drove to that house, set up infrared cameras and listening devices, and stayed for half an hour. After this, the cousin was pushed out of the van and told not to tell anyone about the incident or 'he would be sorry.'"
(Can you believe this? Having been at his picturesque little farm now, I can barely believe that activities like this had been going on there.)
"The civil trial went badly. The lawyers were not very good and missed deadlines. Just before the trail began, the Schmidts' farm insurance was dropped. Michael called numerous other agents, all of whom told him that he could not be insured. The lack of insurance forced him to plead guilty to the civil charges. Immediately afterwards, his insurance was reinstated.
"When affairs at the farm were at their lowest ebb, Michael and Dorothea took a walk into their fields. Michael had lost his will to fight and Dorothea was discouraged. It was at that moment, when both were absorbed in thought, that he was gored by one of his bulls. The horns that he had deliberately left on his cows gave him a huge gash and caused him to spend over one week in intensive care. ... The bull that gored Michael Schmidt carried the most important message of all—that his only hope was to fight back."
And he did fight back. He went through with a huge publicity campaign, which you can read all about in Sally's article. He tried to start a research project to help prove the safety of raw milk produced by properly raised organic cattle, but the Milk Marketing Board turned it down.
"The Schmidts and their followers then ran to the press conference they had organized. They announced that they had been 'thrown out' of the meeting [with the Milk Marketing Board]. Michael then officially and publicly stated that if the police came back on his farm once more, he would go on a hunger strike. 'The government then had only two choices,' said Michael, 'either ignore me (and admit that we were right) or press forward with a full attack, one that would backfire and make matters worse for the government.'
"Later at an official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of a new store in the district, Michael wrote on the ribbon "For a better communication between the government and Glencolton Farms." All signed it, including the Minister of Agriculture and Food—there were 80 people watching so he could not refuse. The ribbon was cut and Michael kept it. Later he learned that the piece of ribbon signed by himself and the Minister is a binding contract."
Anyway, he lost a lot of his farm from the trials, but with the help of his supporters he's managed to regain much of it. "The Schmidts are now back up to [30] cows with a goal of 36. In spite of his troubles, Michael is the only dairy farmer in the district who has not gone out of business." Now, instead of the cow lease system which partly got him into trouble in the first place, he's worked out a new system that involves the actual sale of the cow. "One share is worth one-fourth of a cow and costs $250. Share owners also pay a fee of $2 per liter to cover the cost of the milkers' time and the expenses of the farm, including the cheese operation that must conform to Canadian health regulations."
And boy, that cheese tastes amazing. We got a tour of his sparkling cheesemaking equipment, the milking stalls, his beautiful barn (in which he also now hosts symphonies and operas), his biodynamic fields, orchards, smokehouse, farm store, friggin' cool blue schoolbus outfitted for the Tuesday markets, and more. They also raise pork, grow veggies, bake sourdough bread from their own spelt and rye (!), and all in the most wonderfully German way you can imagine. Most of the apprentices there are German (they come from Germany to spend a year on his farm).
And he's so in tune with the future - the house of cards we all live in, peak oil and all that.
So there's a possibility for me for next year, or even this winter.
| [ 1 comment ] |
Saturday, September 03, 2005
This Michael C. Ruppert, another peak oil doomsayer (also featured in The End of Suburbia) has a pretty drastic view of Katrina's impact on the U.S. economy. He believes that New Orleans is never going to be rebuilt, and that the U.S. will never again reach pre-Katrina oil production levels.
Read his article here
Read his article here
| [ 3 comments ] |
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