Things have changed quite a bit for me in the last year. As many of you know, I went through a divorce last summer. My cousin came to help over this past winter, but left in the Spring. My son also moved out of my house this Spring. That leaves me alone on the farm. As hard as I try, I cannot keep up with all the work and demands of running a farm myself—there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do all the chores, sales, marketing, etc. that goes along with this demanding job. Therefore, I will be getting out of farming this fall and putting 2silos up for sale.
I realize that I can’t do it all myself. I feel bad because I have fallen behind on communication with my customers, and customer service has suffered. Customers and potential customers have fallen through the cracks and I feel terrible. This is one reason why I am not doing a Saturday farmer’s market this year. Even with the help of our CSA members, it’s still not close to what I need to effectively run a sustainable farm.
My family is glad to hear that I am shifting jobs. They were concerned about my workload and the difficulty of the work. I recently had a health scare which served as a wake-up call that I can’t do this work alone.
I am now living in an apartment in Marengo, OH and have moved the chickens, sheep and geese to a vacant barn on nearby farm, I will honor the CSA commitments I have made through October. I will be entertaining offers on the business beginning in August.
Thank you for your patience with me during the past year. Also many, many thanks for your patronage during the past 6 years. It’s been lots of fun meeting my customers and seeing everyone each week at market. I’ve enjoyed being your farmer. I am grateful for your support.
Denise Beno Anderson
2silos
Today is the first pick up day for the 2silos Meat CSA. You can pick up at the Upper Arlington Farmer’s Market today from 3:30 to 6 pm. You can also sign up for meat and produce shares. Our next pick up day is this Friday, from 2-4 pm at 255 Piedmont Ave. in Clintonville.
The 2silos pick up locations are shown here.
http://bit.ly/bxGf4n
I am looking for two or three apprentices/interns for short and long-term positions. Room/board included. Must have drivers license, high work ethic and willingness to learn all aspects of farming. Send me an email for more info!
Black gold 2silos compost is now available for order. $15/50# bags delivered to Columbus this coming Wednesday and Thursday. Drop us a line with your order. $5 delivery fee. There may be some worms left in the pile, but the hens have gotten to the pile and have enjoyed many of the tasty worms!
Hey, meat CSA pick up tomorrow from 10-12 noon in the Auto Zone parking lot on High St. in C-ville. Also, from 1-4 pm at Eco-Tastic in UA. Next pick up is Saturday, April 17.
Have a great Easter!
Hey, meat CSA pick up tomorrow from 10-12 noon in the Auto Zone parking lot on High St. in C-ville. Also, from 1-4 pm at Eco-Tastic in UA.
Recently, Harrison Hove with ONN came to the farm and did a story on chemical-free farming. Click on the pic below to read the article and see the video!
On Friday, February 12, Beth Elder with Terra Verde Farm and I journeyed to Granville, OH to attend an all-day workshop entitled, “Ballet in the Pasture” presented by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia.
Joel is considered one of the foremost authorities in the pasture raised meats movement. He has written several books on his approach to farming. He is a leader in innovative, sustainable farming and inspiration to small farmers like me. Most recently, Joel was featured in the film “Food, Inc” where he showed us that raising meats on pasture is beneficial to all life systems.
I was looking forward to Joel’s presentation, “Ballet in the Pasture” which describes his method of pasture rotation on his farm with many species of livestock. I had been looking forward to this workshop for months. I was introduced to his work early on in my research days of chicken farming. His model of raising chickens on pasture appealed to me and the model works on my small farm. I had seen Joel Salatin once before near Berlin, OH at a workshop presented in the Amish community there in March 2008.
When Beth and I arrived, we grabbed our name tags and walked into the auditorium to find our mutual farmer friend Joan Richmond. Joan is involved with OEFFA and owns Meadow Rise Farm in Bellville. Joan was saving us seats up front in the second row. Joel came in for a sound check and asked everyone to move down front. People continued arriving, even long after the workshop started. We were not early, so part of me was surprised the auditorium was not full. The other part of me was excited to see so many farmers and enthusiasts come out on a Friday to hear what Joel had to say. I estimate there were about 300 people in attendance that day.
Joel is actually older than his press pictures convey. Take off the hat and stick him in a cardboard suit and you might miss him in a crowd, well, if it wasn’t for his chicken tie…. His stature is average and his smile is broad. He tells great stories and puts things into a fun, easy to understand, common-sense perspective.
Joel began his workshop with a smile and techno oopsie as he tried to figure out the slide projection equipment. Joel’s eyes lit up and started dancing over us as he began his talking about his farm. We watched Joel’s slide presentation and listened as he explained his approach to raising livestock in a sustainable fashion using careful pasture management on his Virginia farm. Joel spoke well and keep my attention with his antidotes and timing.
Joel talked about creating value and our role of stewardship of those things we give value. He talked about his mob grazing approach to pasture feeding cattle and hows and whys. He talked about how to prevent your cows from falling out of the barn during the winter months and how to raise the mangers as the floor of their enclosure rises. Joel spoke about the “pigerator” and how using pigs to assist in composting respects “the pigness of the pig”. Of course, Joel talked about pasture raising chickens. He has developed a new design for the layers portable pasture structures which makes a lot of sense. He discussed some of the particulars of equipment for animal management along with the biology of farming.
Joel discussed his marketing and sales approach. It gave me several ideas and my wheels are spinning now. 
We broke for lunch at noon. Over lunch I caught up with David Gary Cox, legal counsel for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. I also chatted with my farm women buddies over extra helpings of whole wheat pizza, yum!
Joel’s talk resumed at 1 pm. He answered questions from the audience during the second half of the workshop. Questions came up about egg mobiles, ratios of pigs per acre, deep bedding approach, how to deal with predators, how to meet demand, where he sees himself in 5 years, and so on. As these question/answer things go, there was someone who monopolized Joel for a while with several questions, but it wasn’t too bad.
I met John Oas, a new landholder here in Morrow County. John gave me a ride home and we had a great chat about the workshop and our own personal farm projects.
I could go on and on, but I’m more focused on putting to use the information I received in this workshop. Meeting up with like-minded folks to hear a legend in raising wholesome food was inspirational. I look forward to putting some of these methods to use on my farm this year.
I want to welcome you to our new website! It’s not fancy…not a bunch of bells and whistles, just the information you want and need to know. Take a look around, comment on my posts or download a flyer.
Again, welcome. I’m very glad you stopped by.
