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This May 8th; Mothers Day, Badgersett will hold our First  Annual Lamb - Blossom - Mom Day! 10 AM  to 7 PM May 1 - On Schedule! We intend that this will become an Annual event - there will always be apple blossoms; there will always be new lambs, there will always be Moms who need a little time to enjoy the world with their kids, and there will always be friends we want to share it all with.             We have a Spectacular Day arranged for you!  Look below here for Authors, Artists, Things To See, Things To Do; and Things To Buy. — Authors — Artists  — Beth Dooley -  One of Minnesota's most beloved food writers - WILL BE HERE - to sign her new book In Winter's Kitchen !  How do we rate such wonderfulness?   Well.  One of the chapters in Winter's Kitchen is - "Chestnuts".  And we get mentioned a bit.  So she'll be signing her books- under chestnut trees for you.  (We hope you're bringing some of...

And the mud that goes with it.  Just a quick post here, something nice to share: We're still very much in the experimental stage with sheep; but so far; I'm really liking the Icelandics.  This is Flora, and the first two lambs of the year, one girl, one boy.  And yes- this is all the cover they had; all winter; and all the cover they have for lambing.  Icelandics actually do poorly inside.  I did tie a tarp up into the pines yesterday, to shed rain, in case they cared- so far; they've sniffed it, stuck their heads under; but nobody is interested in getting out of the rain.  The lambs were - just there, up and dry and walking (wobbly) on Friday morning; they're about 36 hours old in these photos.  One of the things telling me they're healthy- they're bedded in the shade, even though there's sun available. All this tangly wood is Scotch Pine; selections from the day when we grew Christmas trees here.  We've been thinning them all winter- and the she...

As you know, we're experimenting with incorporating livestock of several kinds into the nut crop practices. The goal being to find pathways that make economic sense, and to sort out at what scale which practices might make sense. Livestock require attention; 365 days a year; unless you are just buying feeder stock, selling them on, and not over wintering anything. In our case, we're still learning what makes sense, and therefore we do winter chickens, guineas, the sheep, and of course the horses. About a month ago we suddenly hit an urgent need to increase the protection of our sheep from the local coyotes. In fact the first livestock we acquired were dogs- specifically trained and intended to be livestock guard animals. We have two, who are well trained (now), roam free on the farm 24 hours a day, and who have been doing a fine job of keeping predators at a distance, from both sheep and poultry. There have been coyotes here from the outset; and while the dogs have been...

A comment from the previous post- my answer started getting long, and it dawned on me it would work best as a post- "Hello, my name is Elinor . I am a farmer from MN and today I read this article. http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/chestnuts-for-cattle-feed-12326.html "This story fascinated me! I wanted to learn more about chesnuts and see if there were any growers in Minnesota. "What do you folks do with leftover chesnuts? Hello Elinor, and welcome. Many thanks for the link to the chestnut fed beef story, we'd missed that. After googling it, I can see why; as far as I can tell there's only one farm selling it right now- and they're in Australia. The farm in Florida is just feeling their way into it. Reading as much as I could on the Titania Farm beef; they mention having to learn how to feed it to the cows, which concerns me slightly. The well known problem of cattle eating acorns is a major reason we have not tried it; while acorn poisoning in cattle ...

(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...