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Another milestone….
…another successful experiment. We decided to try our English traditional Devon bulls on a few of our heifers…here at Thistle Hill and in South Carolina. And yesterday afternoon, without any warning, came the result: a heifer calf by a fairly small heifer. Delivered without problem. The problem is we’re not sure which bull is the sire: Churchill or Wellington. Both were with her right at the conception date. We’ll let DNA sort that out. Meanwhile, Mom was busy holding court all afternoon….introducing the curiosity to the other heifers who are waiting their turn. We liked that the dark ruby red coloring of the English animals prevailed. This was a thoroughly photographed…
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Still sold out but….
….here’s one of our pure English bulls: TDA Ransom. Our partners, Bill and Nancy Walker, have been raising him in South Carolina. But it’s time to bring him up to Thistle Hill. He also has a full younger brother…same flush but implanted a year later…in Georgia and he’ll soon be here, too. Ransom is out of Goldings Snowdrop in Cornwall…we saw his mother on our last trip…by Ashott Barton Millennium Falcon. (Saw him too!)
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Lift a glass….
….to Philip Carter Winery. Well, at the winery. The Hume, Virginia vineyards is hosting a “welcome Springtime” party tomorrow, May 17th, from noon to 7. And the day of fine wine, good music and special foods is made even more special with the featured attraction: 12 local farmers have been invited to set up tents and highlight their products. We’re honored to be one of the “lucky dozen” and it was a close call. We’ve been out of meat since last Fall but we arranged a quick harvest of one of our animals and Blue Ridge Butchers got us some hamburger right at deadline. So whether you’re an old customer…or…
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Blogging for dummies….
….sorry, the links on the previous four posts have now been fixed. WordPress instituted a “new and improved” system for linking and it took a while for me to notice….and even longer to fix. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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What difference does it make?
No, not switching subjects. But the New York Times food columnist, Mark Bittman, makes some interesting points about organic farming, GMOs, and eating healthfully. There is a lot of hysteria among the “foodies” and Bittman makes the point that the alarm over GMO would better be focused on antibiotics which are demonstrably a real threat….and sail along untouched in Big Ag. You have to wade through some typical New York Times biases but it’s worth reading. www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/opinion/bittman-leave-organic-out-of-it.html?action=click&contentCollection=Africa&module=MostEmailed&version=Full®ion=Marginalia&src=me&pgtype=article&_r=0
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Organic vegetables may not be safe either….
….leave it to Dr. Joseph Mercola to give us something else to worry about: organic vegetables may well be a major carrier of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Organic farmers are the ones most likely to use “natural” fertilizers….but do they know where that cow manure comes from? Probably the regular factory-raised cows….who are routinely fed huge doses of antibiotics. So far, no one has focused on the threat. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/07/antibiotic-resistance-genes.aspx
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Dog bites man….
….this is getting to be old news. One more report on how Americans have been “conned” by our betters to eat all the wrong things. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303678404579533760760481486?mod=trending_now_1
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For what it’s worth….
….and it’s not much. But some marketing outfit allegedly does polling to advise businesses on the political leanings of their customers. Undoubtedly there are some niche outfits that target politically….like the Washington Post and CBS….but I’m around businessmen quite a bit and a find they will encourage patronage from just about anyone. (not that there’s anything wrong with that)! http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/05/02/liberals-eat-here-conservatives-eat-there/
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Just in time for the next show…..
….spotted in Cornwall….a politically-correct sentiment.
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England…Stop 4….
….way out at the tip of southwest England…in fact, you can just make out the American colonies over the horizon. That’s my mate….and my other “mayt”…Ivan Rowe at Land’s End. Ivan’s Goldings farm is home for a number of our Traditional English Devon and Wooz and he are looking at a definite candidate to be next. The trouble is the darn Schmallenburg virus which has clamped a lid on exports of all genetic material. Right now we have about 25 embryos tied up by the embargo so there’s not much sense in going ahead with more flushes. Ivan is even older than me (ok, by a couple of weeks) but…