Jeff Cassman

One decade ago, Jenny and Will Ledlow bought 6 acres in central Oklahoma, where Jenny dove into hobby farming. Raising a vegetable garden, pigs, guineas, rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese and quail, Jenny provides most of the family meals and a lot of fun. Plus, through social media and farmer’s markets, she sells what the family doesn’t use. 

“I’m not a quail expert,” Jenny says. “But I’ve had poultry since I was a kid. I learned quail care online, reading books and through years of experience. After reading about quail, I decided to try raising them. In 2014, I hatched around 20 quail eggs that I bought online. I chose coturnix quail because they are fast growing, very productive and fairly easy to care for.

“Quail are not a big investment, and they can provide eggs and meat for people without land. Plus they are quiet and small.” 

Quail-Raising Basics

During the first four weeks, Jenny feeds her quail game bird starter. Then she switches to game bird feed, kale, herbs, lettuce, cucumbers, corn on the cob, mealworms, berries and insects. 

For living quarters, Jenny says, “Housing needs to be safe and easy to clean. Most people who raise quail for eggs use stacked cages with roll-out spots for eggs. Metal, wood and wire are common materials used. I move my housing according to the weather. I like movable pens that are about 4 by 5 feet because it is easy to move them outdoors when it’s nice and onto a clean area so I can clean the previous place where they were. It also lets me add things for them to do such as sand boxes, clumps of grass and dirt, and places to hide.Jenny Ledlow

“I protect my quail from predators using small wire on the pens or hardware cloth. Or I move them indoors. I never allow them to free range because coturnix quail are not native to Oklahoma. Also, they would be eaten by cats or other predators. I’ve seen them raised with chickens, but I haven’t tried it. I house them separately from other birds.” 

In winter, Jenny’s quail are in sheds, chicken coops and Will’s shop. In summer, Jenny keeps the quail in the shade and monitors for fresh water. One summer she kept them in the garage with a window air conditioning unit. 

The Value of Quail Eggs

Coturnix begin laying tiny, spotted eggs at 6 weeks of age. Jenny says they lay any time during the day and during all seasons, including winter (depending on the quails’ ages and housing). 

“The chicks hatch in 18 days but can hatch earlier or later,” Jenny says. “They are similar to baby chickens, but they need food, water and bedding changes a lot more often. There are special food and water…

Continue reading here

The flower farming movement has been generating more and more momentum. And with that momentum, more farmers, market gardeners and entrepreneurs are opening up their flower farms for business. With so many new flower farmers entering the market, it can feel tough to establish yourself among the competition.

Flower farms are setting themselves apart with branding and marketing. But perhaps the most critical distinction a flower farmer can make is their choice in sales channels. Not all flower farmers target the same markets for their business, and here are just a few of the most popular and successful sales niches in the flower farming industry.

Cut Flower U-Pick

Flower farms across the country are opening their doors to guests. Agritourism is nothing new, but cut-flower u picks are becoming an increasingly popular choice. Some farms choose to focus on single varieties, such as mass plantings of tulips or sunflowers. Other farms are taking a more comprehensive approach and planting large varieties of flowers, allowing guests to pick and design their own flower bouquets.

Many of these farms also charge photographers for photo sessions and will often host special events and workshops  on the farm. These flower farm u-picks can greatly increase profits while also decreasing labor costs, as the end customer is also cutting the  flowers themselves.

Farmers Market

This is the traditional small-farmers sales outlet, but farmers markets can be excellent places to build a customer base for your flowers. Consider growing more spring crops and entering the farmers market earlier in the season, when there is less competition from other cut flower farmers.

A combination of mixed bouquets, a few arrangements and some single stem (buy by the stem) options would make a nice display and offer your customers variety.

Flower CSA

Flowers CSAs, Community Supported Agriculture, are increasing in popularity with customers enjoying the “earthy” and “wildflower” aesthetic touch that fresh cut flowers bring to their homes. CSAs are basically selling a subscription service from the farm.

Supporters buy in at the beginning of the season with a lump sum payment. Then they receive a weekly, biweekly or sometimes monthly bouquet of flowers. These can be wonderful sales channels for flower farms as they provide investment capital at the beginning of the season.

CSAs do have some drawbacks and can lock you into fulfilling large volumes of bouquets weekly all season. While that may sound great, being paid for all of these bouquets upfront can cause some cashflow issues throughout the season.

Florist Sales

Florist sales can be an excellent sales channel for a flower farmer. Florists can take large volumes of flowers all at once, and they do not require designing time or bouquet creation. You simply harvest, process, and send the flowers to the florist. Retail florists often will take regular weekly orders, and event florists may have standing orders as well as large volume special request orders.

Florist sales may seem most intimidating to begin…

Continue reading

Between more extreme weather than usual and an onslaught of head-clipping weevils, my butterfly garden took a beating this season. Usually I don’t have to do much to keep my milkweed, black-eyed Susans and other native perennials looking their best. But within a particularly dense planting of purple coneflowers, things went off the rails when aster yellows disease moved in.

The large, purple flower heads I expected to see were replaced with blooms right out of a Dr. Seuss book. Green, leafy “petals” ringed bright green cones. Weirder still, in some spots the leaf-like petals were replaced with additional flower stalks—also sickly green and badly deformed.

At first I thought it was just some genetic anomaly. Looking into it further, I realized the news was much worse—a classic case of aster yellows disease.

Aster What?

Caused by a phytoplasma—a special type of bacterial plant pathogen—aster yellows disease is transmitted by leafhoppers. According to John Bonkowski, a plant disease diagnostician at Purdue University’s Plant and Pest Diagnostic Laboratory, “What typically occurs is the phytoplasma will be within the gut of the leafhopper. So, while feeding, a leafhopper pokes its piercing, sucking mouthpart into the leaf and sucks out some of the [the leaf’s] contents. They sometimes also push out saliva, and the phytoplasma comes out when they do that. It goes into the plant.”

A kind of parasite, phytoplasmas are bacteria that lack cell walls. As such, they cannot live outside on their own. “They need to be inside the host,” Bonkowski says. “That’s why they’re being moved around by the insects.”

Echinacea plants are among the most commonly affected by aster yellows disease. However, marigolds, zinnias, daisies and chrysanthemums are some other susceptible targets.

Disease Symptoms

Once an infected leafhopper transmits the disease-causing phytoplasma to a plant, the entire plant is systemically affected. “It’s going to be throughout the plant,” Bonkowski says. “The phytoplasma can affect the hormone balance in the plant, which is why you end up seeing these very particular symptoms in coneflower and zinnias and these other aster plants.”

“Flower parts will start developing leaves,” he adds. “So, in the case of echinacea, you have the cone itself—the spiky part—and it actually will start developing bunches of leaves.”

In general, plant growth may be very stunted and small. “There might be more stems compared to what a normal plant would produce,” Bonkowski says. “You’ll have these offshoots that are very green and maybe smaller than you might expect on a typical flower. The big thing is that the hormone balance is disrupted, and you have these odd plant growths because of it.”

The Fix

When it comes to eradicating aster yellows in affected plants, there’s really no good treatment. What’s more, simply pruning them down to the ground isn’t enough. “The aster yellows phytoplasma will not survive in the debris of infected plants. But it can survive in the crown and roots of infected…

Continue reading

In a world where modern conveniences can quickly disappear in the blink of an eye, the ability to adapt and rely on your survival skills is becoming more apparent by the day. One such skill, often overlooked in favor of firearms, is archery. In a total all-out collapse situation, archery is a skill that can help you survive no matter how harsh conditions may become.

Picture a world plunged into chaos – a world where the comforts of modern civilization are mere memories. In this new landscape, food is scarce, threats lurk everywhere, and the ability to protect oneself and secure food becomes the ultimate currency.

It’s not a dystopian fantasy; it’s a scenario rooted in history and one that could be the future we are heading towards, thanks to the elites who wish to crash everything into the ground in some great reset fantasy. From natural disasters to societal collapse, numerous events could lead to a world where survival skills mean the difference between life and death.

But why should you learn to shoot a bow and arrow when firearms are readily available? Hey, no one is saying to give up your guns, but we like having options and having as many backups as possible. So here are five compelling survival-related reasons why mastering archery is worth your effort.

1. It helps Provide a Food Source

In times of crisis, securing food may become a challenging task. A bow is an invaluable tool for hunting game, including everything from deer to smaller prey like rabbits and birds – you can even retrofit your bow for fishing as well. Its stealth factor and ability to reclaim and use your arrows are what sets it apart from firearms. The quiet operation of a bow allows for stealthy hunting, increasing your chances of success without giving away your position.

The ability to hunt game silently could be a game-changer. Additionally, as we pointed out above, bows can be used for bow fishing, a versatile hunting method to catch fish silently.

2. Portability

Survival scenarios often demand mobility and adaptability. Traditional bows, mainly takedown bows, excel at this task. Takedown bows can be disassembled into compact pieces, making them easy to transport even when you need to travel light. A takedown bow can be your trusted survival companion when space and weight are at a premium.

3. Low Cost

In these turbulent times, budget-conscious choices are essential. You can acquire a reliable takedown bow or compound bow without breaking the bank. The affordability extends to ammunition – arrows are cost-effective and, with practice, reusable. Unlike firearms, where ammunition can be scarce, archers can even craft their arrows using readily available materials.

4. Less Paperwork and Less Strict Laws

Owning a firearm often comes with a maze of regulations and paperwork. Archery, in contrast, involves fewer legal hurdles. While there are some rules to follow, they are generally less restrictive than those governing firearms. Archery offers a more straightforward path to self-reliance.

5. Improved Fitness Levels

Survival situations demand physical fitness….

Continue reading here