Southern York County Life

Thanks Crawdaddy,
Heres an article for us milk lovers!
Super Healthy Milk
By Jo Robinson Printer Friendly Version
Most cartons of milk in the supermarket show a picture of cows contentedly grazing on grass. Unfortunately, 85 to 95 percent of the cows in the United States are now being raised in confinement, not on pasture. The only grass they eat comes in the form of hay, and the ground that they stand on is a blend of dirt and manure.
The reason for confining our cows in feedlots and feeding them grain rather than grass is that they produce more milk—especially when injected with bi-weekly hormones. Today’s grainfed cows produce three times as much milk as the old family cow of days gone by.
With the current emphasis on quantity, the quality of our milk has suffered. One of the biggest losses has been in its CLA content. CLA or “conjugated linoleic acid” is a type of fat that may prove to be one of our most potent cancer fighters. Milk from a pastured cow can have five times as much CLA as a grainfed animal. To date, most of the proof of the health benefits of CLA has come from test tube or animal studies. But a few recent human studies have produced encouraging results. For example, French researchers compared CLA levels in the breast tissues of 360 women. The women with the most CLA in their tissue (and thus the most CLA in their diets) had a 74 percent lower risk of breast cancer than the women with the least CLA.(Bougnoux et al, Inform, 10:S43, 1999.) If an American woman were to switch from grainfed to grassfed dairy products, she would have levels of CLA similar to those with the lowest risk of cancer. Got CLA milk?
Milk from pastured cows also contains an ideal ratio of essential fatty acids or EFAs. There are two families of EFAs—omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. Studies suggest that if your diet contains roughly equal amounts of these two fats, you will have a lower risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, allergies, obesity, diabetes, dementia, and various other mental disorders.[1]
Milk from pastured cows offers additional health benefits. (I’m beginning to sound like a TV infomercial: “But wait! There’s more!") Besides giving you five times more CLA and an ideal balance of EFAs, grassfed milk is higher in beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E. This vitamin bonus comes, in part, from the fact that fresh pasture has more of these nutrients than grain or hay. (When grass is dried and turned into hay, it loses a significant amount of its vitamin content.) These extra helpings of vitamins are then transferred to the cow’s milk.
There’s another factor involved as well. A grazing cow produces less milk than a cow fed a grain-based diet. This turns out to be a bane for the farmer but a blessing for the consumer. The less milk a cow produces, the more vitamins in her milk.[3] This is because a cow has a set amount of vitamins to transfer to her milk, and if she’s bred, fed, and injected to be a Super Producer, her milk has fewer vitamins per glass. It’s a watered down version of the real thing.
Oh, I almost forgot the best part of all. Dairy products from grassfed cows taste delicious, and they have a bright yellow color that is visible proof of their bonus supply of carotenes. Serve cheese or butter from a grass-based dairy, and everyone will notice the difference. Also, your cookies and cakes will have that rich buttery color that hasn’t been seen since Grandma’s day. (You do bake, don’t you?)
So where can you find milk from pastured cows? Unfortunately, the label won’t tell you whether the cows were raised on grass or grain. Even an organic label is no guarantee that the cows grazed on pasture. At the present time, however, there are two large organic dairies that make a point of raising their cows on pasture ---Organic Valley and Natural by Nature, an east coast brand. Look for them in your dairy case.
In addition, a number of farmers listed on http://eatwild.com have pasture-based dairies. If you can find a local farmer who will sell you dairy products from all pasture-fed cows, you have found liquid gold.
Jo Robinson is a New York Times bestselling author. To learn more about the health benefits of grassfed products and to purchase her books, Why Grassfed Is Best! or The Omega Diet, go to eatwild.com.

1] For more information about essential fatty acid balance, visit the following site: http://www.flax.com/newlibrary/ESSENT.html which contains summaries of a large number of published studies about omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. Or refer to The Omega Diet, a book I co-authored with internationally acclaimed fatty acid expert, Dr. Artemis Simopoulos. The Omega Diet has 24 pages of pertinent scientific references.
[2] The data comes from: Dhiman, T. R., G. R. Anand, et al. (1999). “Conjugated linoleic acid content of milk from cows fed different diets.” J Dairy Sci 82(10): 2146-56.
[3] Jensen, S. K., A. K. Johannsen, et al. (1999). “Quantitative secretion and maximal secretion capacity of retinol, beta-carotene and alpha-tocopherol into cows’ milk.” J Dairy Res 66(4): 511-22.
Interesting stuff!    

Hi all,
This sounds like an interesting idea for any of our local farmers interested in “ stepping out of the box” and trying something new!

Farmers Beat Atkins in Popularity Contest
York, PA- In a recent survey conducted among 400 students at Pennsylvania College of Technology, 70% of the respondents said they care about the source of their food and wish to support their local farming community.  Contrast this to the less than 30% who said they were watching their carbohydrate intake.
After four years of serving milk from a local dairy, Penn College took a bold next-step and awarded a local cooperative the 2004-2005 beef contract.  With no additional promotion, sales of hamburgers are already up 30%. Northern Tier Sustainable Meats Co-op representatives attribute the popularity of their burger to unbeatable taste.
Penn College may be a crowning example of how institutional purchasing power can be leveraged to support local farmers, but they are in no way alone. In fact, as part of a burgeoning movement call Farm-to-College, a number of colleges and universities across the nation are looking to local farms to supply fresh, locally-raised products for use in campus dining halls. Other schools purchasing from local farmers include Yale University, Evergreen College, and Bates College. 
This winter, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) is hosting regional Farm-to-College networking sessions for farmers and college dining services interested in starting local food projects in their region. Farmers and food service directors will share opportunities and obstacles to local purchasing, professional expectations, product availability, and pricing structure. Farmers are encouraged to bring product samples and pricing lists. If you are farmer or food service director or chef interested in attending one of the following meetings, please RSVP to Heather House at PASA, 814-349-9856.

South-Central Regional Farm-to-College Networking Session

December 8, 2004 6-8 pm at Sonnewald/ Harmony Essentials Farm
1522 Lefever Lane, Spring Grove, PA 17362 (York County)

North-Central Regional Farm-to-College Networking Session
December 14, 2004 5-7 pm at Bush Campus Center at Penns Inn, Penn College Campus
One College Avenue, Williamsport, PA 17701 (Lycoming County)

Hi All,
Its been awhile but with all the holiday “stuff” and being away for a while I haven’t had time to keep up! I have noticed however that there is a lot of attention being given to sustainable agriculture in the farm articles. As recently as this past Sunday there was an article in the York paper about locally grown food and a community supported agriculture farm starting up in lower Windsor Township!
http://ydr.com/story/farm/50661/
As I have said before our area is ripe for the picking for a local farmer to pick up on the sustainable agriculture movement and start up a CSA. To my knowledge Spoutwood Farm is the closest CSA to us. They are located in the Glen Rock area. I’m not sure yet where Goldfinch Farm is going to be located. It may be closer then Spoutwood. To the hundred or so people who are interested in locating a CSA you may want to contact either Spoutwood or Goldfinch farms to see what’s available for next years veggies! If anyone knows a farmer that would be interested in starting up a CSA please contact me! We have the backing of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA). They are willing to help if an interested farmer would come forward. Evidentially Jon and Beth of Goldfinch Farm has seen the need and the interest in this type of farming in our area and has decided to give it a try. I’d hate to see our farmers miss out on a great opportunity!
I have some bad news on the cheese front. I stopped by Perrydell Farms the other week to see how it was going and found out that it wasn’t. They aren’t making cheese. 
However L&L;Citgo and Saubels does carry their milk! I’ve been purchasing our milk from L&L;. As a reminder they are one of the few farms across the US that bottle their own milk. They also refuse to use rBST to stimulate milk production! I’m not sure of the extent of pasturing the cows receive however I’ve seen them in the fields on several occasions devouring omega 3’s and CLA which eventually find there way into us! 
They definitely are NOT a CAFO!! I’m still looking for organic gardening tips from the green thumbs out there!! Things such as pest control, green manure, no till info, etc. I’m totally new at this so any info will be greatly appreciated!! Thanks again to all who contacted the governor on the ACRE issue and especially those who are interested in protecting our townships from the onslaught of the factory farm menace. As Alex mentioned December the 1st is a very important meeting for East Hopewell Township. It is my prayer that everyone attends and shows support for our neighbors and friends. See you there!!

Hi all,
Any local farmers interested in a way to market their produce? Check out this article in the Sunday Dec.
26th York Sunday News.

http://ydr.com/story/farm/53576/?PHPSESSID=d20370a05733d344b4482b28fb4e75ca

“(Customers) feel more educated and aware of where their food comes from, and it really does help the profitability of the farming operation,” McCandless said. “Keeping the farmer profitable is critical to farmland preservation.”

We have the future of farming in the palm of our hands! If you want CAFO’s with their antibiotics, salt water, and who knows what else keep buying from the grocery stores. But if you want meats that taste great, are close to nature, and better for you then seek out local farmers and butchers like a lot of your neighbors are doing. Here is were we need to understand our influence. If we as concerned members of this fine community begin to put our money into our local farmers we can set a standard as to what is important to us. For to long many trusting Americans have allowed the corporate agribusinesses to dictate what they can eat. By continually putting the small farmer out of business, while selling the lie of CAFO’s are the future, the corporate agribusinesses have practically taken over the entire meat industry!  This is why it’s sad to see misinformed people backing these types of industries claiming that they are the only hope for our small family farmers. While all along they are destroying the small independent family farmer when that farmer refuses to tow the corporate line! I have to say again what I’ve been saying all along. CAFO’s are not the future of farming like the big Agribusinesses and certain lawyers want us to believe. Don’t just take the corporations word for it. Do the research. Take note of the articles in the farming section of the papers. More and more those articles are
speaking out for our farmers and witnessing to the fact that more people are becoming concerned that the trust they have put in the corporations is misguided. We as Americans need to stand up for our God given freedom and take back the right to purchase good wholesome foods for our families! It’s not that hard to do. All that is needed is to contact our local farmers, find out what produce they sell and make your decisions based on your likes and dislikes! There is a list of local farmers in the Main Menu section to the left under BUY LOCAL FOOD. This is a good place to start. Let our local farmers know that you are out there and interested in what they are doing. For those interested in CSA Spoutwood may be a good place to check into.
http://www.spoutwood.com/

Also I believe that another CSA is opening this year in the lower Windsor township area. Goldfinch farms is their name. I don’t have any particulars yet. If you want to learn more about CSA check out
http://www.biodynamics.com/csa.html
http://www.pasafarming.org/AboutUs/aboutus.htm
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/csastate.htm

If you are interested in pasture finished meats check out
http://www.eatwild.com/

For something to wet your appetite on the big corporate agribusinesses and what they are doing to our local farmers check out.
http://www.themeatrix.com/action/

I hope your Christmas was blessed and that you have a happy New Year!

Hi All,
Spring is fast approaching!!!! It’s time to start thinking of our gardens and local farmers again.
For those of us who are concerned where our food comes from it’s been a rather sad winter. As the big corporations continue to merge and to put our family farmers out of business our choices for good quality meats are slowly but surely dwindling away. We see giants like Tyson expanding their reach throughout the whole meat industry grinding up all who stand in their way. It’s not just the food industry. We are seeing the gas and telephone companies along with retailers merging and buying out others. Pretty soon we won’t have any choice in where we shop or the food we eat. It will all be controlled by one or two corporations! All for the good of the global economy. Yeah right, and I have some ocean front property in Arizona to sell ya !!!
Since we’ve had a lot of new members join I thought it would be a good idea to bring these posts back up for all who might be interested. Thanks again to all who are standing up for our neighbors in the struggle for freedom from these ever aggressive corporations that are trying to gain a foot hold in our communities and lives. Here’s a link to a cute but sad animation on just what these corporations are trying to do to our food supply behind our backs. 
http://www.themeatrix.com/action/

edited by: Aragorn, Mar 06, 2005 - 04:34 AM

Someone asked about local farmers that make cheese.  Daily Crisis Farm in Shawsville, MD.  The dairy farm is owned by Dan and Karen Vaughan, 2837 Bradenbaugh Road.  They make several different types of cheese...cheddar, italian flavored, a hot spicy cheese to name a few.  I have tasted all of the different types and have liked them all. 

Bassetlover,
Thanks for the info!! Sounds good!!
OK all you cheese lovers. Check it out!! 

Wolfgang,
I was beginning to wonder myself! We were always stopping by in years past but I have a feeling with out asking that it might have been due to the cold wet May we had. We decided to take the plunge and grow our own organic veggies this year using sustainable methods. No man made chemicals, fertilizers, etc. We were a month late getting anything planted consequently we started harvesting the first cherry tomatoes just a week ago and the beef master type just a few days ago. Of course the zucchini squash was the first to start producing back in the beginning of July followed closely by the yellow straight neck and white patty pan. The next veggie to come in was the cucumbers. I’ve never tried cucumbers before and have learned one important fact. Three plants on a hill is plenty!! We had extra room so I put in three hills five plants apiece.  I figured I’d thin them down to two a hill. At first some had a little problem getting situated so I thought that I’d leave them all in just incase. At last count we’ve harvested around a hundred and forty cucumbers!! Of course this has benefited the neighbors, coworkers, and just about anybody we’ve come in contact with who likes cucumbers!! A week ago we pulled the first egg plant. Since then we’ve gotten about seven. They’re just starting to come in good. The flea beetles are giving the eggplant a run for its money. Anybody know how to get rid of these guys? Because we are organic we don’t want to use any man made chemicals. I’ve tried neem with some success along with the insecticide soap but they keep coming back for more!!  Along with the egg plant came the peppers. Because of my mistake in building the garden our beans went in way to late so we are just beginning to see buds. Some sort of bean beetle visited use a week ago but neem and hand picking took care of most of them. We are also waiting on the cantaloupes. We have two the size of softballs now.
We used to garden the “old” way. Dig up the sod, till the ground, add additives, and weed like crazy!!!!! For our first garden up here we decided to try something new. We built a lasagna garden. Sounds weird, but it really works if it’s built right! First you mark off your boundaries and then put thick wet layers of news paper on the ground to kill the grass and act as a mulch. Then you put down layers of peat moss, compost, barn litter, grass, etc until its about sixteen inches thick. For example I started with the news paper then went to a six inch layer of grass, a two inch layer of peat moss, a four inch layer of barn litter, another two inch layer of peat moss.
Making peat a top layer was a mistake, It didn’t allow any water to penetrate to the bean and collard seedlings. The out come was that we got a couple of bean and a couple of collard plants. The “ pre grown” plants have pasted expectations as explained above. The beef master tomatoes would be over seven feet tall if I had some way of staking them that high and the eggplant is getting up to four feet tall. Add this to the squash which is about for feet tall ( before the heavy rains ) and eight feet across not to mention the cucumbers which have decided to take over the garden and as you can guess we are running out of room!! The only problem We’ve had this year besides the occasional pest is keeping up with the harvest. A couple of cucumbers and squash got out of hand if you know what I mean One other good thing. I haven’t spent an hour yet weeding all year!!!
That used to be the hardest thing in my conventional gardens. Now I just throw a top layer of fresh cut grass on the garden (where there’s space) and I’m done. Next year I will take a soil test and see what I need to add, if anything and try to rotate the crops as best as I can.
We decided to go organic because of what we learned while researching CAFO’s. Seeing how our meats were being poisoned not to mention our air and water by the hog factories, we carried that over to the veggies that we buy. We began purchasing our meats from Rick and growing our own veggies. We will need to replace the beans and we didn’t have space for corn so that will fall to the Burton’s.  You are right on when it comes to the Burton’s. They are great people and we support them just as all the locals who are listed under the MAIN MENU in the Buy Local Food section to the left of the screen. I’ve seen a lot of new faces here at the Stewartstown site so I thought it might be a good idea to bring back this topic.
Thanks Wolfgang and all who are finding ways to support the local farmers. It’s really appreciated!!

I was beginning to wonder myself! We were always stopping by in years past but I have a feeling with out asking that it might have been due to the cold wet May we had. We decided to take the plunge and grow our own organic veggies this year using sustainable methods. No man made chemicals, fertilizers, etc. We were a month late getting anything planted consequently we started harvesting the first cherry tomatoes just a week ago and the beef master type just a few days ago. Of course the zucchini squash was the first to start producing back in the beginning of July followed closely by the yellow straight neck and white patty pan. The next veggie to come in was the cucumbers. I’ve never tried cucumbers before and have learned one important fact. Three plants on a hill is plenty!! We had extra room so I put in three hills five plants apiece.  I figured I’d thin them down to two a hill. At first some had a little problem getting situated so I thought that I’d leave them all in just incase. At last count we’ve harvested around a hundred and forty cucumbers!! Of course this has benefited the neighbors, coworkers, and just about anybody we’ve come in contact with who likes cucumbers!! A week ago we pulled the first egg plant. Since then we’ve gotten about seven. They’re just starting to come in good. The flea beetles are giving the eggplant a run for its money. Anybody know how to get rid of these guys? Because we are organic we don’t want to use any man made chemicals. I’ve tried neem with some success along with the insecticide soap but they keep coming back for more!!  Along with the egg plant came the peppers. Because of my mistake in building the garden our beans went in way to late so we are just beginning to see buds. Some sort of bean beetle visited use a week ago but neem and hand picking took care of most of them. We are also waiting on the cantaloupes. We have two the size of softballs now.

We’ve been into organic gardening for years. I’m not sure if the beetles you are referring to might really be the Japanese beetles which everyone has been hit by this year or if they are some other type of beetle. There are a couple of ways to get rid of them. You can just pick them off and squash them. You can ask your neighbors to put up a beetle trap so the beetles leave your property and visit theirs. [Just kidding!] If you have a lot of acreage you can put up a beetle trap at the far end of your property away from your vegetables. Lastly, you can use Milky Spore. Milky Spore is expensive and lasts a life time. Grubs are beetles. You apply Milky Spore to your lawn, etc. and the grubs ingest it. It is a type of natural bacteria. The infected grub in turn spreads the bacteria to other grubs and eventually they die. It takes approximately 2 years for the Milky Spore to totally penetrate the ground. We purchased Milky Spore at True Value. Hope this info helps you.

We used to garden the “old” way. Dig up the sod, till the ground, add additives, and weed like crazy!!!!! For our first garden up here we decided to try something new. We built a lasagna garden. Sounds weird, but it really works if it’s built right! First you mark off your boundaries and then put thick wet layers of news paper on the ground to kill the grass and act as a mulch. Then you put down layers of peat moss, compost, barn litter, grass, etc until its about sixteen inches thick. For example I started with the news paper then went to a six inch layer of grass, a two inch layer of peat moss, a four inch layer of barn litter, another two inch layer of peat moss.
Making peat a top layer was a mistake, It didn’t allow any water to penetrate to the bean and collard seedlings. The out come was that we got a couple of bean and a couple of collard plants. The “ pre grown” plants have pasted expectations as explained above. The beef master tomatoes would be over seven feet tall if I had some way of staking them that high and the eggplant is getting up to four feet tall.

We purchased 8’ stakes for our tomato plants at True Value. They worked great! We also use tomato cages in the beginning when the tomato and pepper plants begin to grow a couple of feet to get them off to a good start in training.

Add this to the squash which is about for feet tall ( before the heavy rains ) and eight feet across not to mention the cucumbers which have decided to take over the garden and as you can guess we are running out of room!! The only problem We’ve had this year besides the occasional pest is keeping up with the harvest. A couple of cucumbers and squash got out of hand if you know what I mean One other good thing. I haven’t spent an hour yet weeding all year!!!
That used to be the hardest thing in my conventional gardens. Now I just throw a top layer of fresh cut grass on the garden (where there’s space) and I’m done. Next year I will take a soil test and see what I need to add, if anything and try to rotate the crops as best as I can.
We decided to go organic because of what we learned while researching CAFO’s. Seeing how our meats were being poisoned not to mention our air and water by the hog factories, we carried that over to the veggies that we buy. We began purchasing our meats from Rick and growing our own veggies. We will need to replace the beans and we didn’t have space for corn so that will fall to the Burton’s.  You are right on when it comes to the Burton’s. They are great people and we support them just as all the locals who are listed under the MAIN MENU in the Buy Local Food section to the left of the screen. I’ve seen a lot of new faces here at the Stewartstown site so I thought it might be a good idea to bring back this topic.
Thanks Wolfgang and all who are finding ways to support the local farmers. It’s really appreciated!!

JH,
Thanks for the info. The bettles weren’t japanese beetles. They were much smaller. The japanese beetles went for the squash. We only had a couple dozen of them. Pick and squash is a good remedy for the beetles!