sutton023

(click on photo for bigger views) Badgersett Research Farm 20th Annual Field Day: Saturday, August 20th If you want to learn about growing hazelnuts in the Midwest; it makes sense to go and see where it's been done the longest. That would be us, we're at 32 years, and counting. No other grower or researcher has production rows like ours. We're making a concerted effort to expand our Field Day event this year; we're inviting quite a few other folks to bring what they have to show and sell, and set up booths in the chestnut rows, where we can guarantee good shade. Stay tuned to this blog, where we'll be announcing the specifics as we have them. We're inviting hazel growers, graziers, wool spinners, wood carvers- anyone who makes a living, or wants to, from sustainable farming and integrated woody crops. And our Amish neighbors will be here, of course. Plus- in a change from the past few years, we WILL have plants available for sale this Field Day; hazel, ...

The sheep are doing outstanding work in the apples. So much so that I had to take a couple "before and after" pics to show you. Before: Looking down the hillside at 2 rows of apple trees. The second row is obscured by the unmowable stuff under the first row of trees. After: To my astonishment, they eat not only the tops of thistles and wild parsnip; they ate the leaves off the invading honeysuckle and sumach, and pruned the apples up to boot. If we'd had to clear all that brush/weed stuff by human labor- there's really no question it would have take twice as much work, time, and sweat as it took to set up the mesh fence and move the sheep. And the sheep seem to be getting big and fat off the process.

The 4th of July is exceptionally appropriate for this development. We're hoping to become a little more independent of fossil fuels. After decades of mowing grass between nut bushes and trees, and paying for endless and increasingly expensive (now to the point of ruinous) gas and diesel fuel; we've acquired sheep. The hope: we can make it actually pay. Not this year; of course. But we've chosen two breeds to try out at first, and both are versatile in their produce. Sue wanted Babydoll Southdowns , which she'd been studying about for some time; and I wanted Icelandics ; likewise. Both breeds bring high prices for their meat and fleece, and the Icelandics have also been selected for milk production, for hundreds of years. In case we ever want to go there. Two of the Babydoll lambs; we have 3 lambs and one ewe. And; Three of the Icelandics; we have one ram lamb, 4 ewes, and a wether. Today, for the first time; we really put them to work. We've had them f...

When we started growing and breeding chestnuts here in SE Minnesota, there was no chestnut blight ( Endothia parasitica at first, then Cryphonectria parasitica ; though my own preferred name is Cryphodothia pseudoparasitica* ... long conversation...) known, for at least 50 miles, perhaps 100. It had been identified in Ames, Iowa, and seen once briefly around Zumbrota, Minnesota; but it certainly was not here. For the first 20 years, as our chestnut plantings expanded, we never saw it. When we were ready to test our chestnut genetics against the blight, we sent seed both to Auburn University in Alabama, and to the Hubei Academy of Agricultural Science in China. Tests in both places were overseen by Dr. Hongwen Huang; I will put his reports here, originally published in our Root & Branch #4: Date: Fri, 05 Apr 96 11:18:53 EST From: hongwen huang Subject: RE: report of blight resistance of your breeding lines in Alabama Dear Phil: In response to your request for the results of m...