Peaches, oil, cows and hospitality

Monday (Memorial Day in the USA)
Joe Wilson Kindly agreed to show me around some more in Kansas today. We visited Frank & Melanie Gieringer at Egerton http://www.gieringersorchard.com/. They are conventional corn and soy farmers and have diversified into 20+ acres of peach trees, blackberries and tomatoes, sweet peppers and raspberries grown indoors in pollyunnels (hoop houses). Everything is sold via the farm shop, 'U pick' or at farmers markets - lots of work, very impressive and I realy appreciated being shown around.

Also saw some longhorn cattle and some interesting signs at an historic school site - very little house on the prarie...

One thing I still cant quite comprehend is than on some farms they pump crude oil straight out of the ground and sell it...........apple trees, wheat and oil....they would be a profitable combination!!!!

Im so grateful to Joe and his family for their hospitality and for looking after me and showing me round Kansas and Missouri. They are great people and im in the debt for their kindness.. A drive to Columbia, some washing done and early to bed for a new day tomorow

Never had nuts like these....

Sunday - Went to Wall -Mart to have a look around. Nrmal supermarket but much bigger than at home with much wider isles and the usual food stuffs but more processed food and less fresh. Purchased some ghluten free breakfast stuff as hotel offerings are typically coffee, dougnuts, waffles, muffins....
I had an invitation from Joe Wilson and his family to come and visit them nr Kansas city. So 1.5hr drive from Sedalina to SE of Kansas city. Curious realy as Kansas City is in Missouri and not Kansas.....apparently state boundaries  moved after the city was first constructed..anyway it a border town between MO & KS. Filled the car up with petrol (Gas) en route and cost all of £25 for a full fill up,,, and they are complaining about fuel cost increases here! Arrived 4pm and Joe showed me round his house a lovely place in Springhill KS with a lake, gardens etc. Went to visit a friend of his who was smoking some pork ribs - yum, the best I have ever tasted, just fell of the bone and hickory smoked (well pecan tree smoked and tastes the same). Went to a BBQ/ Nut Roast in the evening with Joes local friends at a lovely out of town house. The speciality 'nut roast' was in fact sweet meats/mountain oysters...yep fried testicles from both calves and turkeys......actually very yummy but as a male you do get a sence of campassion when eating them! looking at some peach orchards today then back to Columbia MO about a 3hr drive this afternoon.

Its Nuts!!!!!!!

In SE Kansas and SW Missouri today,,,affectionatley know as 'Tornado Alley'...so keping a watching eye out!

Spend the day with JoeWilson and Drew Kimmell of Missouri Northern Pecan Growers - Growing Organic Pecans.  Having never seen a pecan tree it was a fantastic introduction. There are a mixture of Native Pecan groves with trees over 100 yrs old still producing quality pecans and planted grover on a 40 x 40 ft tree spacing. understories are either grazed with cattle or cut for hay.
Drews Grove is a nice old traditional Native site grazed by cattle;

Joe has a mix of 30 yr old plantations and old native groves in wetlands

The trees have male and female components and the catkin (male) parts are blown onto female receptrs for fruit set. Nuts alternate heave : light yields every other year and are harvested in Oct/Nov. understories grazed or cut for hay athen at harvest a mechanical tree shaker is usedto bring down a shower of nuts and sometimes branches!. nuts are then picked up with a tractor drawn picker.

At the plant they go through a process of washing, grading, shell cracking, re-wetting (to part shell from nut meat) and seperating then grading again, packing and chilling.....a very impressive. The nut is excellent, looks like a walnut but smaller but with a much smoother, buttery oily taste...yummy. The shell fragments are sold as garden mulch or for use as an abrasive - apparently excellent for this.

Joe Wilson is also starting a new enterprise with planting elderberries to be harvested and made into a health linctus aor drinking juice. he is also developing an eco-tourismhis farm.

All in all I had a long but very interesting day with Drew and Joe. then a drive to Sedelia for ano overnight stay. came through some areas damaged by tornados last week - like a bomb had gone off! what a mess. Tonight sun 29th Im off to a cattle fstival with a specaility - mountain oysters for tea (yep thats bull testicles!)....and then back to Columbia tomorow.

No yellow brick road...rather perennial pathways

Today didnt start well at all.......The plane from Phileldephia was there at 8pm last eve, so were the passengers...jsut no crew!...2 hrs late they arrived, then we boarded and could not get an engine to start (well better on the ground I suppose)...another hr sat in the plane watching techicians come and go.......just a fuze in the end I think.....so taxi out to take of and we are held because of bad weather...another 40 mins while they re-route us.......so I arrive after a 3hr flight to Kansas City at 4am local time rather than 11pm the previous evening!!!!. and I have a 3hrr drive ahead for an appointment at 9.30am!!!!....
The sleep in the hotel was all too short and a 3hr drive through the great plains from Kansas City to Selina..........(watching for tornados out the window!!). but well worth it when I arrived at the Land Institute.

The Mission of the Land Institute is to move the main food crops to Perennial plants.....but of staples, so Perennial wheat, sunflower, sorghum, maize, rice etc. Sounds great but its a lot of work in selection and breeding. All this is being achieved the right way crossing wild plants and ciultivated plants to produce perennial plants that re grow each year and produce acceptable yields. I was hiugley impressed by the progress in 10 yrs....I saw perennial wheat in the greenhouse and out in the field...lots of varoation between different types and still a long way to go but perhaps this is my Nirvana......sell the tractor, just perennialk wheat and apples, just picking and combining...no cultivations at all...Bring it on I say.

Lots of information was shared between myself and the LI staff and Im sure I will be in contact some more.
From Selina I drove to Witicha across the 'Great Plains' humming Whiticha lineman all the way...Its flat and rolling with either Corn or prarei grass and cows and its HUGE...goes on forever!!!, Freom Witicha to Iolo KS and another hotel and some 480 miles covered today......rather tired so will hit the sack before some more Agroforestry tomorow

Rodale gets better

Had a fab nite in an old settlers house at the Rodale institute...all to myself. They built the house over a spring and capped it in the basement to provie fresh well water.....also works as crude air conditioning!.
Spent the morning looking at the the farming systems trial, compost trails, education department and discussed collaborating on information and research....

Watched the Menonites hauling forage with tractors and FYM today with the Steel wheel tractors....like thunder comming down the road.....but on the plus side never a puncture!!!!

Now its of to the midwest, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska...and hoping not to get too close the the tornados that have ben occuring.....ill be driving in the other direction.

Rodale delights

Arrived in PA USA in the wee small hours arefter the delights of a 3hr delay at Toronto and US Customs......but have a new meaning for a Boeing 737.......(7 passengers, 3 staff, 7 bags) yep sit anywhere, we had the who plane to 7 people plus 3 crew.....how is that sustainable?????
Negotiated the drive from Phildelphia airport to rural Kutztown PA with the help of Helen, my guide on Tom Tom on the iPhone......having just got an iPhone and Tom Tom sat nav on it im converted....

Have spent the day at The Rodale Institute. see http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/

Completley inspirational work going on here. Have been looking at soil and Mychorizal research, at fruit management and at Zero till systems with the crimper roller in action today brolling and crimping rye cover crops and being direct drilled with soy bean,,,,its made my week seeing it in real life!.....also spent an hour with the farm manager looking at bits of 'kit' in the barns and around the farm - farming heaven!!! I have also been looking at mob grazing (see Tom Champan you are converting us all!) and have been discussing Pan-Altantic research and disemination opportunities.

Tomorow looking at the Farming Systems Trials - a 30 yr trial  comparing organic mixed systems with FYM Soy bean/corn : organic stocless with no FYM just cover crops soy bean /corn : Conventional Soy bean/corn rotation. plus now the adition of zero till treatments and adjacent GM crop comparisons.
The Organic systems perform as well if not better physically and economically compared to teh conventional system. Th GM corn/soy rotationwhich has been included to represent 'mainstream farmer practise'  already has roundup resistant 'super weeds' after only 3 yrs resulting in having to use additional stronger herbicides to manage the system

Steel wheels keep on turning - the neighbouring farmer to the institute is a 'steel wheel menonite'...like the Amish the menonites are a relegious community. Horses and carts on the roads but tractors etc ok in the fields...apart from they are not allowed rubber tyres...so all tractors and machinery has steel wheels - watched them cutting lucerne (alfalfa) forage today with a self propelled machine like a swather...with steel wheels????????...part swather part traction engine!!!!....Its a funny old world...

OOOOOOOhh Canada

Arrived in Toronto and spent monday with Shane Eby 2010 Nuffield Scholar looking at his farm and community supported agriculture veg enterprise. Enjoyed his company and was impressed with his endevours, especially establishing some small scale agroforestry and intercropping between hops....cant wait for the beer to flow!

spent today with Agroforestry profs from univesrity of Guelph looking at silvopasture and silvo arable, alley cropping systems which were planted 18 and 23 yrs ago - so now mature.....productivity in the alleys of corn, soy bean and wheat is comparable with adjacent monoculture, although the corn suffers from the shad a bit with lower yields as a result. the tress are fab and growing asnd yielding well

now comming to terms with US air travel delays witha 3hr delay in toronto airport en route to the USA......

o what is this agroforestry all about then?????

Agroforestry is a concept of integrated land use that combines elements of agriculture and forestry in a sustainable production system.  With an emphasis on managing rather than reducing complexity it promotes a functional bio-diverse system that balances productivity with environmental protection.  Agroforestry systems are practised in both tropical and temperate climates and are classified as silvoarable (trees & crops) or silvopastoral (trees & animals). With both ecological and economic interactions between trees and crops and livestock the total productivity within these systems is usually higher than in monoculture systems due to complementarity in resource capture.  Trees modify their local microclimatic conditions (temperature, water vapor content of air and wind speed) and as such they can have real benefits to crops and livestock which are grown with them.  They reduce the amount of nutrients which are lost by maximizing the internal nutrients cycling.  Other such benefits include the regulation of soil, water and air quality, enhancement of biodiversity, pest and disease control. The positive impact of agroforestry on resource use, resource protection and climate change mitigation are slowly becoming better understood and documented.

We have established 125 acres of Agroforestry at Whitehall farm combining 4500 apple tress with combinable and vegetable crops. This is currently the largest agro-forestry system in the UK. This provides enhanced soil protection and greater biodiversity of flora and fauna. In addition to having a positive impact on the landscape it also facilitates greater crop and enterprise diversity making our farming business more robust.

So whats the Nuffield Farming Scholarship?

Lord Nuffield, of Oxford fame, started building cycles, then cars in Oxford. A self made wealthy man who started the Nuffield press and has a strong desire to support research and innovation. The Nuffield Farming Scholarships are now awareded to industry leaders in the UK, ireland, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Holland.

I have been very fortunate to be awarded a 2011 scholarship..I will use it to travel and to learn more about how commercial agroforestry is practised in other countries and how successful practises can be applied to temperate agriculture in the UK. In 2011 I will travel to Canada, the USA, France, germany, Switzerland, China, Australia and New Zealand and use the information gained to improve the management of the agroforestry system on our own farm and to provide a better understanding of how commercial agroforestry systems can be developed and adopted in UK & temperate farming systems.

There is a growing understanding that agroforestry can provide multi-functional land use and environmental benefits. These are not yet clearly acknowledged or understood by UK farmers or policy makers. My intention will be to disseminate the information and experience gained to the wider agricultural industry to further the understanding of the benefits that agroforestry systems can provide and to highlight their contribution to sustainable land management and mitigation against climate change.