I just opened up a bottle of the blonde ale. This beer needs another 2 weeks of bottle conditioning at least. It was bottled December 28th but I can tell at this stage in the process that this is going to a great ale. I guess I just need to wait a bit longer for it to fully mature. It has excellent color, good carbonation and faint malt notes with a bit of sweetness. In 2 weeks that sweetness will be gone replaced with a fully carbonated beer.
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This is a post in an on going segment I like to call “Farm Rules.” They aren’t rules for coming onto the farm but rather things I have found to be true about farming. This rule is “Never buy a cheap wheelbarrow, because you are going to the one using it.” In our price driven society where everyone is driven to look at the price of a good rather than it’s cost or quality, hand tools have gotten cheaper and cheaper. They are made of poorer materials, poorer construction but WOW did we save at Wal-Mart on it! (I have nicknamed this the Wal-Mart effect because Wal-Mart demands suppliers lower their prices 5-10% yearly to the retailer. This results in race to the bottom where suppliers must substitute cheaper and cheaper materiel and construction techniques. This is a race to the bottom of quality. This means by the end of 5 years of selling to Wal Mart, a suppliers tools don’t even last a season.) Because of this instead of buying a quality tool like a wheelbarrow, you end up with something that is going to make your life harder and won’t even last a season. I always recommend that you buy the highest quality tools whenever possible. It’s a bit pricer in the beginning but worth it in the long run. For a wheelbarrow this is especially true because you don’t want to feel like Sisyphus using it. Fighting your tools because they are poorly made means a higher risk of injury and elevated risk of kick it because it doesn’t work. Don’t skimp on tools. I am incredibly excited about today. Today we bottle my own attempt at a Montana brown ale. I over hopped this batch relative to the normal brown recipe. I had no idea how it was going to turn out. Would it be too hoppy? I cracked up the primary fermentation tank and my nose caught the scent of a brown ale with a hint of citrus, with a little grapefruit undertone. It smelled delicious! You can’t really be a home brewer without the ability to delay gratification. After bottling the six gallons of beer today, it’s got to bottle condition for 3 weeks. So it’s end of January before we can enjoy this beer. Perhaps for my birthday on the 26th I can enjoy this brown beer. The New Mexico Locust is a great anchor tree for any food forest in New Mexico. It is in the sub family Faboideae in the Fabaceae(Pea Family). This means it’s a nitrogen fixing tree whose legumes can significantly improve soils. This is a native tree especially useful for erosion control due to its rapid growth and thicket forming tendencies. The legumes incorporate nitrogen into the soil improving the quality of the soil. It produces showy purple flowers in the spring. It has high calcium carbonate tolerance and low salinity tolerance. Optimum soil pH is 7.0 to 8.5. It is shade intolerant. The average crown width is 15 feet. It’s preferred elevation is 4500 – 8500 feet and should be considered essential to improving soil here. It’s preferred to the Siberian Pea Shrub in New Mexico as it’s more drought tolerant. The flowers are edible.
Bodhi Farms is looking for a winter/spring intern. Bodhi Farms is a permaculture based farm that also grows year round in greenhouses. We are looking for a long term intern (or interns) for our winter greenhouse season and our spring planting season. We are looking for in intern for at least 3 months (preferably 6 months). At the farm you will learn the following things.
You should be interested in permaculture, physically fit and comfortable with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. WE can accept couples as we have a private room in the house with it’s own shower and bathroom. We can accommodate vegan and vegetarian diets as well as meat eaters (assuming you like local grass feed beef or local free range chicken). If you are interested I would encourage you to view our profile on wwoofusa.org and see the type of experience we offer. Please feel free to email me at brian@bodhifarms.com. Please note we are located in Las Vegas New Mexico, not Las Vegas Nevada. This internship will provide room and board but is otherwise unpaid. We can certainly pick you up from Albuquerque or Santa Fe and Amtrak actually runs through Vegas. Brian Despain Just finished a batch of new Bodhi Farms Blonde ale in the primary fermentation right now. One week till it’s bottled and put in the wellhouse. BSD Enjoy a taste of spring with Bodhi Farms Winter Greens! Bodhi Farms is at the Santa Fe Farmers Market and the new Las Vegas Winter Farmers Market every saturday. We are growing arugula, pak choi, kale mustard mix, spinach, salad mix and romaine lettuce. The Las Vegas Winter Farmers Market is at Travelers Cafe at 1814 Plaza in Las Vegas. The market is Saturday from 8 AM to sellout. Las Vegas Winter Farmers market Please thank Teresa for hosting the winter farmers market in Las Vegas. Santa Fe Farmers Market Please come take a look at our selection of greens and get a taste of spring in the cold of winter! Please contact me if you need home delivery in Las Vegas. Brian Despain 505-617-1191 Jamar Fulton puts the finishing touches on our low tunnel in a high tunnel. Big greenhouse is now filled with product. Thanks to Shea McCann, AJ, Rachel coomer, Caroline, Dan 1 and Dan2, Sarah Keyt and all of our wwoofers. You made this possible and the farm owes you a big thanks!
The new CDC report on “Antibiotic resistance threats” cites the role that factory farms with their extensive use of antibiotics to creating super bugs.“Antibiotic resistance threats in the United States, 2013. Here’s simple graph from the CDC that explains the issue.  A simple graph explaining how factory farms contribute antibiotic-resistant germs. I encourage you to read the report and read how the factory farming system has yet another hidden cost to our health. The re-building has take time but Bodhi Farms has rebounded. We had some great help with our WWOOFers. We are adding a new greenhouse with a USDA Eqip grant. Our latest WWoofers had a great time building the infrastructure.
This is going to be our winter permaculture project. I am really excited. This will anchor our permaculture food forest and hopefully we can even add trout to the ponds in time. The recent 1000 year flooding we experienced this week has really emphasized the importance of water management in our environment. In many ways the flooding we received in the last week was far worse than July but it only highlights the need to address the problem in a sustainable fashion. We got over 12 inches of rain in less than 3 days. This is over half of our annual rainfall we would normally receive in Las Vegas, NM. I suspect this will be a regular occurrence – 1,000 year rain events at least once a year. |
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