Governor Tony Evers proclaims Sept. 27-October. 3, 2021 Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Week. Yahoo!

Looking for the Great Pumpkin

And what a perfect time of year to celebrate the hundreds of farmers and agribusinesses that invite visitors throughout the growing season, and across. Enjoy the fall colors equally yous to selection crisp apples, wander through a corn maze, pet baby farm animals, sip vino among grape vines, try some hard cider, or take a pasture walk.

Governor Evers' proclamation

The Governor's proclamation recognizes agronomics's impact on the land economy: nigh 64,800 farmers on 14.3 meg acres; 435.7K jobs; and a $104.viii billion impact on the country'southward economy.

Many thank you to the Governor and to the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association for this formal recognition.

Our subcontract, Balderdash Brook Keep is a pocket-size, grass-fed-grass-finished cow/calf operation, and nosotros market our beef directly to consumers in Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota. Visitors are not only welcome to Bull Beck Keep, they're fundamental to our mission. Dave and I intentionally established our farm as a platform for chat, education and recreation. We welcome over 200 adults and children every year. We appreciate every opportunity to explain why we're committed to regenerative practice, and to farming in harmony with the seasons.  We like walking the pastures, introducing visitors to the moos, and learning nearly your food journey.

We hope you'll come out to the farm some time this week. Just give a call. Nosotros'd like to hear from you lot.

You can learn near ag-adventures near Amery, WI:  amerywi.gov/703/Agritourism. For venues all across the state, visit wiagtourism.com.

Sylvia and Dave Toftness
We'd similar to be your farmers
651-238-8525
sylvia@bullbrookkeep.com

Wasn't information technology just Memorial Twenty-four hour period? Yup, some other growing season is coming to an end. Fog hangs heavy over the pastures in the mornings. The days are getting shorter and the evenings much cooler. Copse are turning on nearby hills. The sumac at the northern contend post is blazing red, as are the hawthorn berries. Bees are a loud cloud above the chive blossoms, and bright yellowish heads of goldenrod sway in every ditch and contend line.

The herd has been grazing happily all summer and fall. Every bit usual, they take a mid-morning lie-downwardly from about 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM. It's a sign of a healthy, contented herd.

And that's a major goal: salubrious cattle raised on healthful grass. Another is to work in harmony with the season.

And so, it's time : We begin the 2021 beef harvest in a few days. If y'all'd like to order, delight exercise so early to secure your beef.

Delight know that you don't have to purchase half a cow to savour the great taste and high nutrition of grass-fed-grass-finished beef. Our variety packages start at but 30 pounds. (A multifariousness package includes basis, steak and roasts.)

Don't hesitate to call, email or text with any questions. We'd similar to be your farmers.

Sylvia & Dave Toftness

I don't know if there are any words to describe the 2020 most all of us are struggling through. Every mean solar day nosotros're assailed with news stories and personal accounts that feel more bizarre than the previous mean solar day'due south reports.

Dave and I are really grateful for these months of relative peace on the farm —  working for the wellness of the land, our cattle, and ultimately, our family and friends.

Well, I'm non going to attempt deep philosophy, but I volition offer one brilliant note — our online shop is open up again and yous can now order grass-fed-grass-finished beef to accommodate your budget, freezer infinite and appetite.

A few of our grazing Buelingo beef cattle

Reserve 25 pounds of ground beef, or several packages of delicious summer sausage — made without bogus nitrates or nitrites.

Choose the size diversity parcel that meets your needs. These packages range from 30 pounds to 200, and comprise a pick of steaks, roasts and ground beef. All cuts are vacuum packaged, clearly labelled, and frozen to -20 degrees to preserve season and quality.

Boost your allowed system past making bone broth with our grass-fed soup bones — lots of meaty bones also as marrow. Our cattle never get hormones, subclinical antibiotics or grain, so you lot can be confident of the nutrition in your broth.

Quantity is limited and we've scheduled our concluding harvest. Reserve now.

Questions? Call 651-238-8525, or electronic mail, sylvia@bullbrookkeep.com.  Dave and I await frontwards to being your farmers.Sylvia Burgos Toftness

Every bit a child in the S Bronx, I loved this time of twelvemonth because it meant new: yellow #2 pencils, notebooks with crisp clean pages, maybe a fresh book bag (this was way before backpacks), and spanking new clothes to first the school year. There would be one or 2 brilliant white shirts, a couple of new skirts (no pants or shorts back and then), and fancy dresses for special ocassions.

The first couple of weeks might exist a bit warm, but then the winds would start as the East Coast shifted into hurrican season. There were days when I'd walk to school at a 45-degree angle into the wind merely to stay on my feet. It was pretty common to run across an umbrellas tumbling down the street, spokes twisted and fabric turned inside-out by the gale.

 *   *  *

It was pretty at-home this forenoon at Balderdash Brook Go on. The hydrant that feeds the line to the moo-cow'due south water trough is just 50 yards from the back door, merely by the time I reached it this morning time, my boots were drenched and my jean cuffs were begining to soak through. Late Baronial-early September in the Upper Midwest usually means heavy dews on the grass and fogs that hang above the pastures and hay fields. The mists have longer and longer to burn off as we movement through fall, until one day nosotros're closer to wintertime and the air dries again.

Parker greets the dominicus

Russian kale

Every surface was dripping this morning and it took just five seconds for the dogs to await equally if they'd jumped into a stream. Ah, nothing like a wet corgi jumping on your jeans for a pat on the caput.

Sourdough loaves are baking and it'southward time for morning tea. Lots of calls to make this morning, and notes to accept as I schedule this year's harvest and upcoming deliveries of our grass-fed-grass-finished beef. Fortunately, I've got a new pen and a spiral notebook at hand.

Savor the irresolute seasons!

Sylvia

China tea pots, linens, teas to match the food and the seasons. Flavors from around the world. Reserve now for July 28, Aug 25, Sept 22, and October. 20. Each tea goes from eleven:30AM-3:00PM. Seating limited to eight.

I honey tea, but relish it most when lifting a cup with proficient company. Come and enjoy a Cowgirl High Tea where the setting,and bootleg sweets and savories are informed by travels most and very far, lucious local ingredients sustainably grown, and the love of skillful nutrient.

Our BueLingo cows and I promise you'll enhance a cup with us soon!

Loftier tea with our grass-fed herd of BueLingos at Bull Brook Keep.

Bull Beck Go on is merely a stone's throw from Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN.
Questions? Text, telephone call or email – 651-238-8525, sylvia@bullbrookkeep.com

Sylvia

I have to acknowledge – I really loved the thaw this past weekend – temperatures in the upper-30'southward, sunshine and no wind. And that's what did information technology. That combination of warmth and sun-filled breezes melted the snow, transforming snowy tractor tracks to rounded ice ridges, and making every level surface a skating rink. All across the farm, snow crusted over shoals of deep, loose snowfall and ice crystals. 16-second video: Farming ice and sugar snowfall

I had to move hay this afternoon, regardless of the treacherous conditions. It was snowing sideways, and every surface posed a challenge. My boots slipped and slid as I walked to open fence gates. Sleet encrusted the tractor's windshield and doors. Fortunately, the engine block heater did it'south job, and the machine rumbled to life on the beginning try.

I could've never imagined weather condition like this when I was growing up in the Southward Bronx. And the thought of raising cattle and moving hay never entered my mind. Only hither I am, decades later, raising 100% grass-fed beef cattle in western Wisconsin with my husband David. And that ways feeding them high-quality hay throughout the winter. (They graze grasses, legumes and herbs during the growing season.)

Information technology was boring going today. A job that might take 15 minutes on a warm summertime afternoon, took hours as I carefully negotiated ice-packed hills and crossed drift-filled pastures, often plowing my path as I went. When I wasn't sliding on glare ice, the tractor's nigh four-foot high wheels would spin in pockets of snowfall the consistency of fine carbohydrate. Lovely to look at, only a real challenge to pull out of when I get stuck. And, yes, I got stuck more than one time.

When that happens, I use the front saucepan like a claw to drag the tractor onto solid basis. It'due south an inch-by-inch process that can take forever. It'south one reason I make sure at that place's enough diesel in the tank. Funny – the cows dearest to picket as I struggle.

It always feels good to get this chore done, to park the tractor and walk dorsum to the firm, my Corgi Siggy trotting forth side. I thank God for my late-in-life journeying from city-girl-to-cattle farmer. (And cheers, Dave) I'm grateful for this opportunity to gain a ameliorate appreciation for the piece of work life-long farmers tackle every day.
Sylvia

Veal wasn't something my Mom put on the table when I was growing up in the Bronx. A dinner of pork or fish, rice and beans, and a salad was the usual fare at our house in the 1950s and 60s.

Veal also never made it to my shopping list in the 1970s and 80s, when I was erstwhile enough to stock my tiny kitchens in Manhattan and later in Duluth, Minnesota, because past that time, news stories told usa that those pale cutlets were the result of calves kept isolated and in the nighttime. Ugg.

Now, hither I am, selling veal! Nosotros're offer our Nature's Veal in limited quantity for the health of the pastures, the cattle, and for economic sustainability.
– Rotational grazing. Considering we rotate the herd from paddock to paddock throughout the growing season, we have to manage the herd size to promote elevation-quality grass. We've reached our maximum herd size given the 72-acre size of the farm. Our pastures are lush and diverse, but can provide highly nutritious grasses, herbs and legumes for 35-twoscore animals during the growing flavor. It's likewise near giving the pastures time to recover and regrow for xl-sixty days betwixt grazings.
– Cow, pasture and economic health . If nosotros keep more and more cattle on the pastures, they'll turn down, and the cattle will require hay to proceed growing and staying contented. Fresh grass is more desirable. An alternative would be to sell the extra calves to the conventional nutrient arrangement, where they would end upwards in feedlots. We don't want that! So we offering naturally raised veal.
– Working in harmony with nature. All our cattle – bulls, cows and calves – are provided fresh water, open pastures and a natural nutrition every 24-hour interval of their lives. That means grasses, legumes and herbs on the fields throughout the growing months, and good quality hay in the wintertime. They never go grains, hormones or subclinical antibiotics. Information technology also means the calves stay with their moms, nursing 9-10 months and grazing more than and more as the season progresses.

A few of our grazing Buelingo beef cattle

Know that when you buy our veal, you lot're function of a sustainable food system. You lot can buy footing veal in bulk, or diverseness packages that include delicate, low-fat roasts, cutlets and basis veal. Order here.

Questions? phone call, 651-238-8525, or electronic mail,
Sylvia

I sat down to the keyboard a flake before 8:00 this morning, and now it'due south afterwards 1:30PM. How is that possible?!
Well, there were all those emails with a subject line I love to write: Your beef is set up!
So there were the follow-up calls with customers to ostend delivery to drib sites in and around the Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN metro area.
And there were Google Map searches to detect out where I'd have to make dwelling deliveries.

Bulky soup!

And, of class, while all of this was going on, I was keeping a mental inventory of beef merely picked up from the USDA processor. Hmmm, T-basic, ribeye, sirloin, chuck and cross-rib roasts, briskets and flank steaks, and lots more than.
This is the record-keeping-and-communications fourth dimension of the twelvemonth that adds the final links to the nutrient chain. To exist honest, information technology's a time I value and respect – delivering beef straight to the client.
It represents well over ii years of work on Bull Brook Keep farm.

BueLingo calves

It starts in the early on spring with the arrival of our BueLingo calves. The herd grows sleek and fat every bit nosotros move them from pasture to grassy pasture throughout the growing season. Midsummer marks the breeding flavour. We separate the bulls from the larger herd in mid-fall (away from the heifers too young to breed). Grasses shrivel as frosts hit and snowfall blankets the subcontract. That's when we provide the cows with hay grown in our own fields. As the days warm in April and May, the cycle begins again. Dave and I work to manage our pastures and herd in harmony with nature.
Cattle that spend the terminal several months of their lives eating grain in feedlots reach harvest weight by the time they're 16-eighteen months sometime. It's a confinement approach that is frequently accompanied by subclinical antibiotics in the feed, and the administration of hormones.
In dissimilarity, our 100% grass-fed cattle, take nine to 10 months longer to achieve harvest condition. It means an extra year of feeding and intendance for us, but we're committed to convenance and raising our beefiness cattle on grass – and only grass. No grains, no hormones, no subclinical antibiotics. And by practicing rotational grazing, our cows are contented and salubrious, and the pastures improve. We're seeing more farmers in our area adopting this approach.

Fresh air and sunshine 24/7

Dave and I fabricated a home delivery last night, and I'll be making several stops at drop-sites this week and next. It'southward hard work, simply to me it feels like a advantage. When I manus over the boxes, information technology's almost like placing a big bowl of delicious beefiness stew and a thick piece of homemake sourdough bread in front end of a love friend or family member. (It's then much more fun to cook, when yous're cooking for someone yous value.)
I thank God for the farming stewardship He has given Dave and me, and for the wonderful customers and friends walking the path with u.s..
Sylvia

Deep Roots Radio

Deep Roots Radio

Alison Martin, Exec Dir, The Livestock Conservancy on why we demand to save our heritage breeds for tomorrow'south food and farming

I hope you'll savor this Deep Roots Radio chat with Alison Martin, Ph.D., Executive Director of The Livestock Conservancy. Ms Martin describes why nosotros need to conserve the genetics, and the behaviors, of our erstwhile heritage breeds of cattle, goats and sheep, donkeys and horses, poultry and waterfowl. They are living storehouses of biogenetic diversity – strengths and traits we need to meet the food needs of tomorrow.

Sylvia

Spring has arrived on Bull Brook Proceed. We greeted our first calf, a trivial bull, yesterday morning. He's at present tagged #82, and he the cow are doing fine.
I'll exist at the CSA Fair at the Farm Table Eating place in Amery, WI tomorrow afternoon, March 25, 12noon-4:00.
I thought y'all might enjoy some pics and videos, old and new, from the farm. This cursory slide show includes a short video clip of the new calf.
I promise to encounter y'all at the Fair.

Sylvia