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The Laughing Frog Farm — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 08:40:19 +0000

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These old hands

The Laughing Frog Farm — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:03:55 +0000

We recently saw the movie “Mirror Mirror”. The moral of the story is that the punishment for being an evil woman is to grow old. We watched as Julia Robert’s hand changed from youthful to looking a lot like ours. Oh the horror!! If a woman is measured only by her beauty and youth we are wasting a lot of resources. My grandmother taught us all until she was 95, and my mother at 85 still is a wealth of knowledge. I don’t remember youthful hands.

Hands like these contribute a lot in this world. Growing old is a reward, not a punishment, and we are proud to be part of the growing movement. These hands will keep picking and planting.

Kenan Rote

The Laughing Frog Farm — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:34:51 +0000

Someday she will post something.

Glen Miracle

The Laughing Frog Farm — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:29:06 +0000

I am the farmer. I grew up in a rural farming community in Kentucky where getting your vegetables out of a garden was normal. Almost all of the vegetables that I ate in my first 17 years came out of our yard. Seeds were saved in the freezer in mason jars. The lima beans I grow today are named after my stepfather. The beef came from our family’s cattle. My grandparents had the chickens and a milk cow. The menu was repetitive and pretty healthy. The family farmed cattle and tobacco and most of what I learned was how to do physical labor.
Twelve years after leaving home for college I got my first piece of land in Houston, Texas and started a 10’ x10’ garden. I decided (at Kenan’s insistence) to try my hand at organic gardening. That was 1979 and organic produce was only, and occasionally, available at The Moveable Feast on Dunlavy at Alabama. On a good day they might have 10 pounds total. I started looking for guidance and found only one book at the store–John Seymour’s The Self-Sufficient Gardener.
I learned a lot from books, lots more from mistakes, but nothing from colleagues because I had none. But now–30+years later there are many people researching and practicing organic farming and we are all connected through the internet. We continue our education at a rapid rate.
The job that brought me to Houston was art. First I was a scenic artist painting sets primarily for the Houston Grand Opera, and later I moved into the mural and decorative painting business.
Kenan and I always planned to move to the country and have a small farm, but I wasn’t thinking of it as a business. I designed and built my own house, became a certified permaculture designer to help with the farm plan, added chicken coops, greenhouses, fish tanks and barns. At that point we had about 20 fruit trees and a 1500 sq. ft. garden.
In 2009 I woke up one April morning and decided to make the farm profitable enough to support us. I started adding hundreds of fruit trees and berry bushes, got nursery and aquaculture licenses, increased my planting area to about two acres and packed up every Saturday morning for market.

I have been self-employed all my life, but the farm is different: you can never say that you are off from work because your life and the work have become the same thing.
I’m loving it.

Why did Elvis and McDonalds try to kill me?

The Laughing Frog Farm — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:02:44 +0000

At the beginning of our family life Kenan and I discussed how food would fit in our lives. We decided that the whole family would eat supper together every night, sitting down, preferably at home and we would avoid feeding our children food from chain restaurants, especially fast food chains. This was a difficult task because I was in theatre and the hours were onerous, but we worked through most of the problems, including two kids in high school, sporting events, art openings and theatre productions with few exceptions to our principles. Often Kenan would make sandwiches and bring the kids to my work so we could eat as a family on a piece of plywood supported by two sawhorses before I pulled an all-nighter painting on the set for Traviata or Nutcracker.

Occasionally we would be at a swim meet or a soccer game where the coach would announce that the team would meet at Fuddruckers or Burger King after the meet and we would succumb and feed the kids, but those were rare exceptions because our kids were not very athletic and the art and kung fu groups met at wierder and more acceptable locations.
But–and there is always a but–in the late 80s we were traveling through Tupelo Mississippi, the birthplace of Elvis with a 10 year old and a 5 year old. We arrived at 2:00 am and spent the night in a less than desirable motel due to multiple conventions in this small city. The next morning we faced a long drive home to Houston and long lines at all the diners. We just needed something to eat before we hit the road and we looked at each other and decided to do make an exception to our values and eat breakfast at the Mcdonalds across the street. Entering into the ordering area we laughed at the large glass panels with heads of Elvis etched on them separating that area from the eating area (I refuse to call it dining). On cue the two people in front of us were discussing their belief that Elvis was still alive and hiding in some romantic location. We were mocking them and making fun of the “food” we were about to eat when suddenly, without anyone touching it, one of the panels–and these were 8 foot by 5 foot panels of 3/8 inch glass–fell from its hanging wire and landed right by my feet crashing all over my shoes.
I knew that it was a sacrilege to enter a McDonalds, but I wasn’t aware that Elvis was so in control until that moment. My fear of fast food has only grown these past 25 years and I will avoid mocking Elvis yet he might not miss the next time.

FARFA conference

The Laughing Frog Farm — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:53:29 +0000

I attended the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance conference a month ago. Farfa is a policy organization that works to help small farmers primarily through political lobbying. The keynote speaker was John Ikerd and the text of his speech is available online. The major issues were the corporate consolidation of our food, the federal farm bill, food justice, effective activism, animal ID, water rights, food safety, raw milk and GMO’s. A summary of my notes would go something like this.–Our food system is in crisis. We are more food insecure today than 50 years ago. We seldom have three days food available in any area. Any natural disaster requires a massive effort be directed at trucking in food. A few huge corporations have hijacked the entire system seeds–growing–processing–trucking–retailing.
We cannot afford the cost of cheap food. We spend 50% more on health care than we do on food, our waters, our soil and our air are polluted and our climate is being effected. American’s health is in crisis, our rural communities are hurting and unemployed workers have been replaced by expensive machines running on fossil fuel that is contributing to the climate woes. Real farmers cannot get the healthy foods people need to the table at a cost competitive to grain corn. Presently we farmers are living off the crumbs that fall off the corporate table. To heal it we need to kick the corporate pigs away from the trough. The only food security there is the natural productivity of the land and the commitment of the farmers that tend it. The farm bill and its subsidies are one of the enablers of the system, lining the pockets of large landowners and seed corporations.
The system is corporatism not capitalism. Anytime a market is mostly served by less than 4 companies, capitalist competition does not exist. Most areas of our food system are monopolized by two or three major players
The farm bill (the primary agriculture and food policy tool of the federal Gov.) is up for debate and restructuring next year. It is 2/3 nutrition, rural development, farm credit, conservation and research. The remaining 1/3 is 5 billion in subsidies to growers, of a few crops –cotton, wheat, corn, soy, rice, etc–half a billion dollars go to the profitable ethanol industry. $46 million goes to specialty crops.–that’s fruits and veggies.
Systems are created by people to serve those that created them, so it is necessary that we have a say.
The ag bill was created by lawmakers that were guided by big ag insiders and it will be again if we don’t intervene.
Become an activist.
One of the successes of the past year was the Texas cottage food bill. This bill allows people to process low risk foods (jams, baked goods, dried herbs) in a home kitchen and sell them direct. It was going to include selling them at the farmers markets but the Harris County health department lobbied hard against the bill & they alone got that freedom stopped.
The issue of food safety is a big obstacle to small farmers. Most of ag is specialized down to you are a spinach grower and here are the spinach rules and they were actually shocked when we told the USDA listening sessions last year that some farmers grow 100 different crops. A 1000 acre spinach farm might have one set of rules and one form to complete and I could potentially have 100 forms to complete and 100 different sets of rules. Food safety regulations are only necessary where trust is destroyed. Farfa and others worked and got the Testler amendment to the federal food safety bill which exempts most small growers selling direct to the public. But this isn’t over.
Water rights, the destruction of riparian areas by the state and army corp of engineers and the suburban sprawl into sensitive aquifers were addressed
NAIS animal tagging system is back and will be an ongoing fight.
The right to buy raw milk at a farmers market is still on the agenda for next Texas legislative session. Some progress was made this year.
Food deserts, acceptance of wic cards at markets, the need to get more healthy food into institutions, and the intervention of health departments, bureaucrats and insurance companies, all will demand our attention.
A highlight of the conference was Howard Vlieger’s talk on GMO seed/food and the horrors that they are unleashing on this planet. There have been no independent scientific studies confirming the safety of genetically modified seed and there is a lot of scientific evidence that points to serious problems in nutrition, immune system, brain function, sterility, pollution…. One might also question the morality of allowing a entity to patent seed, the basis of life on earth. Farfa is a policy organization and should be supported by people who care about food.
More members = more voice.
DVDs of the entire conference should be available soon.

Join FARFA

organic tilapia

The Laughing Frog Farm — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:16:44 +0000

This week we ordered our first tilapia for our aquaponics system. We obtained a water quality permit and a Texas department of agriculture aquaculture license and because tilapia is considered an invasive species we had to get approval from the Texas parks and wildlife. All that took from Feb 19 until July 1. I am a committed environmentalist but I now understand why many complain that such regulation stifles business. This could have been done in three or four days and the fish would be ready for market in fall.

This first group of fish will be mostly experimental. The fingerling stock that we start with will not be organic but we will raise them organically from the time we receive them. We have organic breeding stock on the way to provide us with next years truly organic fish (though still not certified organic).

Tilapia provide a great tasting white fish but most farm raised fish are fed unnatural diets of corn and soy that result in a fish high in omega 6 fatty acids. That combined with the hormones and antibacterial additives fed the fish make for a rather nasty addition to your diet. Our fish will not get this crap. A natural diet of worms, vegetation, bugs and small fish should provide a fish high in omega 3 fatty acids and clean of toxins. We will be raising them in an aquaponics system mimicking the ones used by Growing Power in Milwaukee. In the growing beds we will raise watercress and propagate herbs.

Wish us luck and feel free to inspect our system. I expect to have a few kinks in the works. I have been around long enough that it won’t all go exactly according to plan, but it will go. The first fish will be in January if all goes the way it should and probably won’t.

Diagram of system

Is sustainable the same as organic?

The Laughing Frog Farm — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 14:50:40 +0000

At the Laughing Frog Farm I grow my fruits and vegetables following the organic standards set by the USDA in the “7 CFR Part 205 National Organic Program”, with the exception of the record keeping requirements. I am not certified organic and, therefore, cannot advertise my produce as organic. At the Urban Harvest Farmers Market they have decided to use the term “sustainable” for this type of business, but, of course, that term means different things to different people. To clarify what products go into the food I grow and you eat, I have compiled a list of everything I use or might use. Usually we start with organic seed and dress with compost. Our normal fertilizer is compost tea, molasses, fish meal and seaweed extract. We use the other organically approved products when necessary. I strongly believe that neither the human body, nor the soil and water that feeds us, should be exposed to synthetic nitrates, pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides or genetically modified crops.

Many of these products belong in multiple categories.

About half of these products I have never used but would feel comfortable using if needed.

Fertility :
Compost and compost tea Fish emulsion
Cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal, seaweed extract, rock phosphate, greensand, apple cider vinegar, lava sand, epsom salt, potassium sulfate, kelp, humic acid, molasses, dolomite lime, cornmeal, micronutrients,
magnesium sulfate

Herbicides/fungicides:
Orange oil, corn gluten meal, baking soda, potassium bicarbonate

Pesticides:
Garlic and pepper emulsions ,      diatomaceous earth
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt),        neem oil
orange oil soap,       beer (snails)

Other stuff:
Mycorrhizal fungi, sulfur, copper sulfate , sodium hydroxide, lime, sharp sand,
hydrogen peroxide, perlite, peat moss, coir

We test our water and our soil regularly. Contact me if you have more questions or wish to schedule a farm visit— glen@thelaughingfrogfarm.com 713-542-6615

Why the Laughing Frog Farm

The Laughing Frog Farm — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 22:40:23 +0000

The first winter that we were here it rained a lot. We were attempting to build a house. One day I was stuck up to the axle in my four wheel drive truck attempting to pull it out with the tractor whose battery was dead. It had been a hard day and we sat down for a moment to catch our breath when the frogs began their mating call– a series of “ack”s that started loud and descended to a rhythmic pattern that sounds a lot like a frog’s attempt at a sitcom laugh track. My wife looked at me and said, “Glen even the frogs are laughing at you” and the Laughing Frog Farm was born. A lot of laughing still goes on–some of it by the frogs.