The Agrarian's Alcove

The Agrarian’s Alcove HOW TO GET INVOLVED WITH SMALL AG: PERMACULTURE WHAT IS SMALL AG Small ag is agriculture on a smaller, non-commercial scale. Today, many people are trying to incorporate backyard farming. A lot of people have chickens and sell farm-fresh eggs. There are a lot of small goat farms where they sell meat goats and goat-milk, and utilize the goat-milk to make cool products. Many farmer’s markets sell small locally farmed produce and canned products. All of this can be considered small ag. Some people consider doing small ag for a hobby, and others think that small ag is better for our environment than big ag or commercial farms. While there can be pros and cons to small ag as opposed to conventional ag, there are some ways you can implement small ag in your own backyard-even if you live in the suburbs! Permaculture is a great way to start. WHAT IS PERMACULTURE Permaculture is a coined term which comes from the words “permanent agriculture.” Permaculture...

Monday, August 14, 2017 6:58 PM Lately, I have been really kicking myself for the amount of food I have let go bad. I know there ways to avoid it; I know the impact it has on our environment. I also know that we are really blessed in America to have access to and availability of all this food, and yet I am taking it for granted.  I'm sure you have all heard that you can freeze almost anything, so that it doesn't go to waste. This usually is the first thing I see when I read about "how to make food last longer", or "how to save money on groceries." Today I'm going to discuss 5 ways to prevent food waste, that aren't just about using your freezer.     "Repurpose" bread, and other food We all think about upcycling and reusing material items, but how often do you think about using your food that is about to go bad in a different way than normal? When I was a kid, we would wait until we had a couple of heels of bread, or any...

I am so, so excited to share something new with you all today! I normally focus on animal agriculture and today I am talking about potaoes! If you don’t already know, I am a major in the College of Ag at Texas A&M University. And we ‘agvocate’ as much as we can. This semester I am taking an Agribusiness class and have the greatest professor ever! This last week he brought in John Pope and intern, Jack Harris from a potato company to talk to us. I was beyond impressed. I went up to Mr. Pope after his presentation and asked him if it was okay to do a blog post on their company. He was totally cool with it, so I am here to share with you the most awesome potato facts you’ve ever heard! MountainKing Potatoes are the current Potato Pioneers. They are making some huge efforts to make the potato industry a little more palatable to consumers. MountanKing knows that our generation cooks and prepares potatoes a lot differently than any previous generation. In the past, big family meals...

Hey everyone! I am going to begin a 4 post series called the Savvy Shoppers Guide. It will include facts on organic, locally grown, all natural, and free range products that you buy. This way you will be able to make savvy shopping decisions when you purchase groceries! You will also be able to understand why we have conventional agriculture and why we need to continue with conventional ag even if you choose to opt for non-conventional. Today we will be covering organic food items. So first I would like to say that I do not believe that there are any food safety advantages that come from producing organic foods. In fact, in 2002 Alex Avery, research director for the Center of Global Food Issues stated that natural and organic foods are eight times more likely to be recalled than conventionally produced foods 1 . The USDA has found that drug residues in ALL beef, not just organic, to be virtually zero 2 . Of course all foods from animals naturally have hormones. While organicall...