The right to market your farm products. Who Knew ?

Eggs? Yes. Grain? Yes. Meat? Yes. Milk ? NO
Why not ?!?!

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to hear Michael Schmidt speak live while being interviewed by Zan Asha of The Renegade Farmer. He was on day 31 of his hunger strike and admittedly very weak after losing more than 40 pounds. I was moved by his committment, his dedication and his faith. Please take a few minutes to listen to him yourself. You will not be disappointed. http://www.therenegadefarmer.com/

Some key points he made in answer to the question "If you die during this hunger strike, who will lead us ?" Michael said

I  am not the leader. each person must take on the leadership of their own life. You have the power to stand up to unjust laws. To deal with liberty is to be responsible for it."

Several of my own blog followers have recently wondered if Michael's hunger strike was over kill for something as minor as raw milk. He addressed that as well when he said.

"After WWII  I realized that people had become sensitive to the fact that if you don't act now it can become too late to act at all." Referring to Hitlers atrocities and the worlds apathy.

In other words raw milk is not the issue entirely. With each loss of each freedom, small and large it becomes for all of us "death by a thousand cuts." He encouraged us to defy the current dictatorship, to get the government out of our stomachs, our kitchens and our farms and he finished with this,

         "You cannot be afraid. You must carry a glass of raw milk in front of you like a torch."

And speaking of torches, we are continuing to carry ours here on South Pork Ranch. After speaking directly with the IDPH's Division Chief of Food, Drugs and Dairies William Beaty last Friday I still have no answers to my questions regarding the prohibition of raw milk advertising in Illinois and the answers to the 9 questions NASDA  (National Association of State Department of Agriculture)published in their raw milk survey this past summer. I will continue with my phone calls, letters etc..

In the meantime I found a nice little gold nugget in the Illinois Compiled Statutes under AGRICULTURE (505 ILCS 70/) Farm Products Marketing Act. It says:

(505 ILCS 70/1) (from Ch. 5, par. 91)

Sec. 1. Every farmer, fruit and vine grower, and gardener, shall have an undisputed right to sell the produce of his farm, orchard, vineyard and garden in any place or market where such articles are usually sold, and in any quantity he may think proper, without paying any state, county or city tax, or license, for doing so, any law, city or town ordinance to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, that the corporate authorities of any such city, town or village may prohibit the obstruction of its streets, alleys and public places for any such purpose: And, provided further, that nothing in this Act shall be so construed as to authorize the sale of spirituous, vinous or malt liquors, contrary to laws which now are or hereafter may be in force prohibiting the sale there of.

Of course I am no attorney but it seems that if there is an act titled "Farm Products Marketing Act" that it might very well indeed conflict with the law (as yet unproven by any of the  official contacts I have asked to verify in the last two weeks) which prohibits the advertising of raw milk. In addition this Statute states not only that farmers have the undisputed right to sell the produce of his farm, it also states the farmer does not have to pay taxes or license for doing so. Is that not amazing ? Once again our own government writing laws that contradict laws about laws no one is aware is.

But now I am.  Knowledge is definitely power. Not that I want to be all that powerful but I do want to have all my smucks in a row when our farm is raided by the univited. And if you don't think that can't happen please watch the movie FARMAGEDDON  http://farmageddonmovie.com/film/or at least listen to Michael Schmidt's entire interview.

Good Bye Tide. Hello Homemade Laundry Soap

Yes, its true. I failed NaNoBloMo. I was doing so well, 29 posts in 29 days and then it just all fell apart, right about the same time I fell asleep.

Last night while  putting the GK's to bed, I was lying there next to the grand daughter who was telling me all about the origins of the velociraptor of the latter Cretaceous period (she is 7) thinking I would blog as soon as my science lesson was completed.

Next thing I know Keith is waking me up, from a distance of course because I have this tendency to come FLYING out of bed. Chalk it up to over a decade of sleeping with a beeper at my head when I was a hospice director. I was so tired from our big day of making homemade laundry soap (oh yeah ? YOU look at the following pictures and tell me how easy creating something wonderful for your clothes is when you're working with little people.( I was going to say "midgets" but people are so sensitive lately so thought I better make it little people. )

As I was rambling, I went into my own bed and slept without blogging. So here I am at day 30 of NoBloWriMo one post short of a full blog.

Laundry soap...why? Because I am already making all my own body soap, shampoo and dish soap so why not ? One day someone will buy this farm  http://certifiedorganicfarm.blogspot.com/ we love but have under grown, and therefore we must continue to work towards self sufficiency in all areas in order to survive on our new tiny farm of the future

The recipe is not complicated. One part washing soda, one part borax (please note; not Borat) and one part shredded homemade soap. Some people use Fels Naptha soap bar soap if they have not ventured into the homemade bar soap world. For me though, it is a great way to use up soap pieces, sample bars or those they work just fine but turned out tres' ugly.

Shred the bar soap with a grater. Don't worry if you get a little knuckle skin and blood in there, it'll wash out. BAHAHAHA Get a large bowl and mix all the ingredients together. Keep in mind, the smaller the helpers, the bigger the bowl should be.

Now you can use it just as it is mixed at this point OR you can put the mixture in a food processor and pulverize the heck out of it. The choice is yours. Since I will be selling this in my little farm store I choose to pulverize.

Below is the pulverized version on the left (just hit pulse on your food processor 6-7 times) and the non-pulverized version with the bar soap still in grated form. Both types will dissolve well.

Your next task will be packaging. I am using canning jars and will offer our customers $1 off their next soap purchase for each laundry soap jar returned. We found here at South Pork Ranch that a funeral works great, no wait, a funnel works well for getting the soap into the canning jar. Still, though, the kids kept calling it a funeral cause it made me laugh so hard the first time the four year old called it that.

Soon, we discovered that due to the cheap labor involved we could afford to set up an assembly line.

Seriously, each GK will receive a portion of the profits from each sale. They worked hard ! Of course it took about 3 hours to fill 4 jars so they will be salaried, not paid by the hour. Please don't tell their union. Afterwards, the custodian was paged and clean up took place.

The final product in its basic packaging consists of 27 ounces of all-natural laundry soap free of perfumes, artificial colors and other garbage just not needed. Only 2 Tablespoons are required for each large load of laundry and since there are virtually no suds it can be used in the newer HE top loading machines. In addition, the natural water softening qualities of the Borax eliminates the need for fabric softener. Cost to our customers $10. The striking orange bow , hand cut and tied of course, is complimentary.

All that to say...I was too tired to blog yesterday. Tomorrow is Monday and I will be back on my raw milk campaign. Do I have news to share with you!

EKG Soap and Raw Milk updates

When the going gets tough, the tough make soap that look just like their own cardiac rhythm. I call it 5th degree block soap ans it will be for sale in 4 weeks after cure time. You can buy it in my farm store or at line by sending me an email at opies99@gmail.com  $4 bar plus S&H

Keep in mind I am not a professional soaper. I just play one on my blog. These pics were taken as the soap was immediately released form its high tech diaper wipe mold and cut with my husbands miter box and my heavy duty kitchen knife I bought in Arthur from Miller Goods. If anyone knows how to cut things up, its the Amish I always say. They are rough and untrimmed, just the way I like my...oh never mind.

Definitely not the best rhythm, although I do see an occasional P wave. Your thoughts ?

The view from the top is nicer. My big meat fork made some nice waves.

A few bars at a time and you get the gist. Its peppermint soap, made with Rice Bran, Palm, Coconut, Sunflower and Castor Oils, colored with French Red Clay and scented with...you weren't paying attention were you ? PEPPERMINT. No, I wasn't yelling. My finger slipped unto that shift key by accident.

And now because you soap voyeurs like to see the same bars from different angles I present you with

Yes, I am aware that bar number 3 on the far wide has a wider bottom than Twiggy standing next to it. Its a thyroid thing. Leave it alone.

Finally, one more for good measure. And there you have it my first CHRISTMAS soap because I believe in Christmas, not just "holidays."

And now a Raw Milk Advertising update.  I am in day 5 of my drive towards getting some answers form my own Illinois government while Michael Schmidt is on day 29 of his hunger strike. I am very happy to report that my friend Zan Asha (and my editor at The Renegade Farmer) has spoken with Michael and will be interviewing him THIS SUNDAY on the Renegade Radio. Please tune in and learn so much more about this special crusader. http://www.therenegadefarmer.com/

This am I reached a real live person at the Illinois Department of Public Health ( after many phone calls, voice mails and emails) Mr William Beauty, the division chief at IDPH Springfield, was quite pleasant as I asked again where I could find the specific answers that Illinois sent to NASDA  http://www.nasda.org/cms/7197/9060/31040/31050.aspx  in answer to the raw milk survey sent to all the states last spring. I also asked him where I could find the exact law that prohibited advertising of raw milk sales in Illinois.

He admitted he did not know the answer to either question which bothers me not as it is a big department and their is no way one individual can know all things. He promised he would find the answers and get back to me.

We'll see.

In the meantime...

Raw Milk for Sale 

at South Pork Ranch

32796 E 750 N Rd

Chatsworth, Il

815-635-3414

$5 a gallon    Bring your own container

NaBloWriMo you are killing me !

I joined NaBloWriMo and took the "one post a day for a month" challenge. But tonight I am wiped. So forgive me with this short post. I can't do it all man.

Instead, please enjoy my lovely Nora. Age 10.

Her wild look. Hair unkempt.

The hours of Midlife Farmwife under Strife

"Tiiiime is on my side. Yes it is"

And we all know Mick Jagger was smoking more than ham when he wrote that song don't we? 'Cause time sure isn't on my side that is for certain, at least today it wasn't. Of course it didn't help any that I didn't drag my sorry donkey out of bed until...get this..9 AM for the love of Mike, I mean Mick.

My excuse for that is a good one. I was up writing ( still with the novel) until 2, and before that I had very important research to do. I had to see if Aiden Quinn was as attractive in Songcatcher as he was in Legends of the Fall. So I watched Songcatcher one more time and yeah, the unkempt hillbilly look really was worth staying up for.

Getting up at the crack of mid morning set me behind all day. We didn't have our farm mtg until noon, which isn't so smart when you're trying to plan your day and the day is half gone. But the good news is lots of raw milk customers today. Lots as in many and several had mentioned following the tribulations of Michael Schmidt. http://thebovine.wordpress.com/ Michael is now on day 27 of his hunger strike as he continues to fight for the right to drink raw milk. A modern day hero.

How far did I get today with the state of Illinois regarding raw milk advertising.? Not far. Caught in our day to day stuff (like taking an order for a half hog from a man named Dragon I kid you not)  We also had beef customers to notify about their future steaks going to the locker tomorrow, tax forms to fax to a prospective buyer, soap to make (two batches) animals chores to do, locker appointments to make, store receipts to enter in Slowen (thank you Rare in the UK) for that one, excetera, excetera, excetera.

So raw milk wise...I did not make a single phone call. Funny thing, no one from Illinois Dept of Agriculture called or emailed me either. You would have thought they might've checked in to make sure I was OK at least. Fickle. Those folks are just plain fickle.

But at least Keith had fun today. Our sow Leopard farrowed last night. 6 live piglets and one still born. When Keith went out to feed her she left the litter and came right out of her little house to eat  with some afterbirth trailing ever so attractively behind her like the old lady coming out of the loo with toilet paper tail stuck in the back of her polyester elastic waisted pants. He thought certainly she was done farrowing. But noooooooo, when he checked on her this am he noticed a small nest built outside of Leopards house at the far end of her pasture. The nest was empty. Fortunately he glanced in the right direction and about 10 feet away IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COW PATH were 2 babies huddled together.

Once again he distracted mommy with some feed so he could scoop up the traveling wilderpiggies and return them to Hotel Hog. Counting, he now came up with nine total piglets. Good job Leopard, now see if you can keep them all together for a couple days OK ?

And speaking of new arrivals check out  http://backacres.blogspot.com/. This fine young blogger is my 110the follower and I was her first. Its nice to be first for a change. Even my 3 yr old GK beats me up the stairs now. Oh, heck what am I saying ? He beat me up the stairs when he was 18 mos old.

Gimpy Von Piglet and Raw Milk Update

Its looks easy we know. You build a fence, electrify it, build a shed and fill with bedding, feed them, water them and if you're lucky after about 6 months you will have this

Thick, tasty, slabs of heaven on earth AKA bacon. Doesn't look like that stuff from the local supermarket does it ? Primarily because it comes from an animal who spends its entire life OUTSIDE with dirt under its feet and sky overhead. Our hogs have shelter if they want to go in it but often, even in winter they will nap outside all huddled together. The lovely fat above comes from being fed organic raw milk every day. The meatier parts come from pasture grass, organic hay and organic grain.

Its wonderful when a plan comes together.

Then, sometimes plans go in another direction. For example, our sow Spot farrowed a lovely litter but one baby had a deformed  leg. One of her back legs was bent at a severe right angle leaving the bottom third of her leg completely contracted and immobile. We figured the little girl wouldn't make it and decided to "watch her." We thought we would probably need to euthanize her.

So we "watched her" as I said. We "watched her"  nurse right along side her siblings fighting for a good teat as well as the others. We "watched her" tumble into the mud hole and pull herself out with her other three very strong legs. We "watched her" follow her siblings around the pasture and then we "watched her" sneak under the electric fence and into the garden dragging her bum leg behind her. And we "watched her" run like the wind, OK limp real fast like Forrest Gump in his leg braces when I stood on the porch and yelled at them "BAD PIGS!" and clapping my hands, making them run out of my flower beds and back to their mama

Piglet with bad leg is the one facing away from camera. She's a little shy

It is our hope that her other three legs will be able to support her weight as she grows to market size which will be about 250 pounds live weight. If we feel she is is pain (poor appetite, declining body condition, inability to run like a fool all over the yard with her BAD PIG siblings) then we'll use her as a roaster hog. In the meantime she seems to be enjoying her wild ride here at South Pork Ranch. I've even been thinking about having Keith rig up our old donkey cart to work as her fourth leg. But then I'd get all attached and instead of just tossing the cat out of our bed at night...we'll you get the picture.

Raw Milk Advertising in Illinois Continued

Started with return call to NASDA and asked again for the actual answers given by Illinois representatives in the recent NASDA raw milk survey sent to all the states last spring.

http://www.nasda.org/cms/7197/9060/31040/31050.aspx

The woman who answered the phone said, Its all on our web site now" after we discovered yesterday it was not.  The specific questions in the NASDA survey were:

    

1. Is the sale of raw milk for direct human consumption legal in your state?
2. Do your state laws or regulations expressly prohibit animal share raw milk operations?
3. Do your state laws or regulations authorize raw milk sales only on the farm?
4. Are raw milk sales at retail stores or markets, separate from the farm, legal in your state?
5. Does your state have any microbial standards for raw milk sold to the consumer? If yes, please specify.
6. Is sampling for compliance with the above standard(s) conducted at the farm bulk tank, or at the final
package/bottle?
7. Are there any county or local government bans on raw milk sales in your state?
8. Approximately how many producers of milk to be sold raw are operating in your state?
9. What has changed regarding the regulation of raw milk since the 2008 survey?

So I checked. Still not there. Only the SUMMARY of the survey results is posted on NASDA's site.I asked again for Bob the contact name she gave me yesterday. He was "not available." I asked her to have him contact me but when I asked if she still had my contact info she admitted "Not anymore"

Gave her my contact info again.

Called Illinois Dept of Agriculture as I was told yesterday by Steve Divencenzo (Dept of Food Drugs and Dairies) he would email me the actual answers to the 9 questions and he had not yet. Got his voice mail. Left detailed message.

At end of day I did get an email from NASDA from intern Shellie Dalluge who told me I should call Illinois Dept of Agriculture and talk to William Beaty the division chief for Food, Drugs and Dairy. I will start with him tomorrow.

So there you have it. I just have one question. "How did the state of Illinois respond to the 9 questions in the raw milk survey sent to all 50 states by NASDA this past summer?"  To date I have made 4 phone calls , talking with 2 individuals, have left two voice mails and received 1 email but none of that has resulted in an answer to the question.

Stay tuned.

Annual Hay Rack Ride and Raw Milk Issues continued

Every year we have a hay rack ride. A great excuse to bundle up, slow down, eat treats and hang with family.This year we were very short on adult females as daughter and both daughter-in-laws were all working. That's what you get when you all work in heath care, a weekend schedule.

So with lots of drinks and snacks and blankets on board we headed out to the wilds of rural Chatsworth

Giggling girls probably had the best time

But young men and little boys enjoyed the ever popular and oh so high tech rock-scissors-paper game

Youngest son Kyle and our youngest grandson Wes
(son of daughter Raven, the night shift nurse)

The highlight of the ride is always tricking someone into getting off the wagon and then leaving them behind

Oldest son Colton demonstrates that turning 30 has not affected his ability
to chase a speeding hay wagon one bit. Puff-Huff-Puff-Puff

Getting family, especially MEN to pose for pics is always fun. You would think they would learn to just  pose and smile as the more they argue the longer it takes. You would think. Getting blogger to work so I can load photos in less than one hour each would be nice too. You would think. Therefore end of family hay rack ride photos you lucky people you.

Raw Milk Advertising in Illinois Continued

Michael Schmidt is on day 25 of his hunger strike. So, as promised, today was was Monday and I started making phone calls. This time around I am working from the top down. My reasoning being when I reach someone on the local level who tells me an untruth I will have the date and source and individuals name at the top levels to back me up. Well, its a theory anyway.

I started with NASDA, an organization brand new to me I am sad to admit. But then again the layers of  US government are so deep its hard to know what you know and what you don't know. NASDA is The National State Department of Agriculture, not to be confused with the plain old Department of Agriculture. NASDA's mission is

"to represent the state departments of agriculture in the development, implementation, and communication of sound public policy and programs which support and promote the American agricultural industry, while protecting consumers and the environment."

Apparently in July 2011 NASDA sent a Raw Milk survey to every state in the US. The survey had 9 very interesting questions which each state then returned to NASDA. The summarized results were published but I wanted to specifically see the exact responses made by Illinois and I wanted to see the individuals name who answered the survey. NASDA's web site would not allow me to open the survey in its entirety. So I called NASDA. A very nice woman felt confident I could indeed see the results but was unable to do so herself when she got on NASDA's web site.

She gave me a contact name, Bob,  to call "tomorrow." And I will.

Next I called the Illinois Department of Agriculture to see if I could get the answers to the raw milk survey which they gave to NASDA, from that direction. Several transfers got me to Steve who was pleasant but stated it would take him a little time to find those answers his department sent to NASDA. He said he would email them to me "tomorrow."

Stay tuned as I work my way through the US law layers looking for answers to my questions about why its illegal to advertise raw milk sales and how, pray tell, might I go about changing that law?  Something tells me I am going to discover so much more on this little road trip of mine then I bargained for.