Sweet Potato Harvest

Our 2012 sweet potato harvest.

Whoo hoo! Our first sweet potato harvest came in this morning. Pulled from a 4' x 8' raised cedar bed at the side of the house, one that I threw together last fall and filled with layers of compost and shovelfuls of the clay that passes for soil in these parts, the harvest proved quite fruitful. (Sorry, pun intended.)

Although the soil had not matured fully by spring, after pulling the wintered-over cabbage plants and tossing in a few more errant red worms to work, I had tucked in a small flat of sweet potato starts late in the spring and hoped for the best. The fellow at the feed store where I picked up the plants had told me that "some folks hill 'em" (the plants) but that he didn't know if that was necessary. During the summer, I occasionally treated the plants to the raw-milk rinsings from the milk bucket, and infrequently side-dressed the plants with a dose of humic acid in hopes of enriching the soil and the plants. Starting out with virtually no research and with plants fed mostly on prayer, I guess we can count ourselves lucky to have hauled in 14.5 pounds of the rich vegetables.

As eager as I am to taste these, I will insist that we deplete the backlog of sweet potatoes garnered from local farmers' markets first. They may keep well, but the last several batches we've purchased have been less than optimally fresh to begin with, so I would rather eat them than allow any to go to waste.

Humic Shale for Livestock

Meet Marcie, our most prized dairy doe.

The other day I was speaking with a gentleman about his friend's aging horse. Oftentimes, when horses get old they are unable to obtain the necessary nutrition from their usual  feed rations. Stories abound of horse owners who do all that they can for their aging friends, yet not only do they have to watch them become unthrifty with age, even skeletal in appearance, but also many must suffer the indignities of having animal inspectors visit pursuant to claims of animal abuse. As one who has loved horses in her life, I find these stories incredibly sad as these owners are doing their very best to care for their equine friends.

The other day while I was having this conversation, I thought of what I have been doing with Fulvic Ionic Minerals for my own health and wondered aloud if livestock might not obtain similar benefits. Promising to consider the question and blog here about the result, I bid my visitor good day and marched uphill to milk my goats before sunset.

Now, with all I have been learning about nutrition in this past year, and all the benefits my physical being has gained from the goodness I gift to it, I am still not the quickest wit in the neighborhood. Indeed, it was not until the next day that I recalled that I do already know something about the topic. You see, Optimally Organic, the site from which I order Fulvic Ionic Minerals, has already considered the question and has a partner site for agriculture, Optimally Ag.

Not only that, but I purchased a bag of their Organic Raw Humic Shale powder to include with the feed of my dairy does...and forgot to mention that in our conversation! (This goes to show one of the benefits of an ongoing relationship with any nutrition counselor because important thoughts often occur "after the fact" and can simply be added into the conversation at the next session.) While I do not mix the powder into the feed on a daily basis, most particularly because I do not feed grain every day, my herd has never once turned away an opportunity to gobble it down. Since I have not invested in laboratory testing, I cannot attest to any improvement in the quality of the milk; however, as I continue to learn more about what the Fulvic Ionic Minerals do for me, I am more inclined to believe that similar benefits may well be going to my herd.

Bobby, if you do read this, please share the information with your friend. Then, let me know how his aging horse does with the addition of humic shale to its diet.

For other agriculture and farm related blog posts, I invite readers to visit Precious & Celestial Wonders Organic Farm's blogspot page.