Tabla de contenidos para January/February 2023 en Grit

A quick reference of drugs moved under GFI No. 263 guidelines*: Cephapirin Cephapirin Benzathine Chlortetracycline Dihydrostreptomycin Erythromycin Gentamicin Lincomycin Novobiocin Oxytetracycline Penicillin G Benzathine Penicillin G Procaine Polymyxin B Spectinomycin Sulfabromomethazine Sulfachlorpyridazine Sulfadimethoxine Sulfamethazine Sulfomyxin Sulfisoxazole Tylosin *To see the full list of approved new animal drug applications affected by GFI No. 263, visit www.FDA.gov/Animal-Veterinary/Judicious-Use-Antimicrobials/List-Approved-New-Animal-Drug-Applications-Affected-gfi-263.…

TUNE IN TO OUR PODCAST The “Mother Earth News and Friends” podcast is produced by our sister publication Mother Earth News. Explore these episodes and more at www.MotherEarthNews.com/Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. EXPLORE GRIT.COM The Whippoorwill Bird By John E. Marshall Birds often get their common names for many reasons: what they look like, where they live, or the sounds they make. A few even sing their own name in their song. Three of them are the Eastern whippoorwill (Antrostomus vociferus); the close cousin, Chuck-will’s-widow (A. carolinensis); and the common poorwill (Phalaenoptilus nuttalli). Their song, heard mostly in the evening and night hours, is a distinctive “whip-poor-will”! Whippoorwills and their related species belong to a family of birds called “nightjars” (Caprimulgidae) and are mostly active at night. The…

I’ve used several homemade brooders for brooding and raising quail over the years. Storage tote models work well, especially if you’re just starting out. After brooding several generations of chicks, though, I decided to design a sturdy, durable brooder guided by the experience I’d had with other setups. In designing this homemade brooder, I considered ease of access for cleaning, options for heat lamp placement, security from potential predators, and, of course, price. After buying new lumber, hardware cloth, and paint, the project cost about $100. However, repurposing or sourcing used lumber, hardware cloth, and paint would greatly reduce this cost. Before constructing the brooder, you should consider some details regarding materials. While cedar boards might seem tempting, this aromatic wood isn’t suitable for quail or other fowl. It can…

The bitterly cold evening in early February was unproductive. I spent 90 minutes still-hunting across our 38 mostly wooded acres in southwest Virginia, and then stand-hunting next to a massive sycamore pocked with squirrel dens. But every time a bushy-tail emerged from its lair, it quickly scampered out of shooting range. With only 30 minutes of light left, I had to make a decision. I could continue to monitor the sycamore’s cavities for squirrels or head for the wildlife opening and hope to jump a cottontail. Squirrels or rabbits, which would it be? I chose the latter, and I quickly moved across the frozen landscape until I neared the opening. Edging around the perimeter as darkness began to set in, I spooked a rabbit, quickly mounted the 20-gauge, and downed…

Last spring, I planned to teach an apple-grafting class. I found a supplier and discussed ordering rootstocks. I asked friends if I could collect scions from their trees, and they graciously said yes. Fast-forward a month—almost time for the class—and both miscommunication and problems from the C0VID-19 pandemic meant I had a fridge full of scions and no rootstocks. The class didn’t happen. What would I do with the scions, feed them to my goats? Around the same time, my shipment of apple trees from Trees of Antiquity arrived. I got a ‘Smokehouse,’ a ‘Pink Pearl,’ and a ‘Niedzwetzkyana’: a rare and stunning heirloom from Kyrgyzstan that has dark-pink blossoms and apples with brilliant crimson flesh. One of my little goats nibbled the bottom branches of the ‘Niedzwetzkyana’ tree before…

Not all areas find more the following year of the country are blessed with rich, loamy soil. In northern New England, where I live, we have to deal with the remnants of glacial retreat, meaning our topsoil is so thin that barely anything takes root, and when there’s enough soil to grow something, it’s full of boulders, stones, and rocks. This abundance of rocky soil is one reason some of the early colonists packed up and moved away from this place, heading to “greener pastures.” Making a living from the soil here, or just feeding your family, can be a challenge. We have a standing joke that our No.1 crop is rocks, because no matter how many you remove, you’ll always New England isn’t the only area that deals with…

Many of us might’ve chuño, Andean-style preserved potatoes, without even knowing it. Every few years, you might be down in the basement storeroom or under the sink and find something rock-hard and shriveled that could be useful for scrubbing off callouses. “Oh,” you remark, “that must be a potato that missed the bin.” It might’ve gone bad in the process, turned mealy, and stunk to high heaven, but it also might’ve lucked its way through a few gradual drying steps and be quite comfortable staying like that for a decade. It may even be ready for reconstituting and cooking up into a delicious breakfast with some cheddar, chives, and eggs. While it isn’t prudent to fish mystery relics off the cellar floor and start cooking them in hopes they won’t…

Atop a high hill in the heart of Appalachia in 1988, I first learned about salt-rising bread. I was making soap at my neighbor’s house, and as we entered the kitchen, I noticed a unique, pungent smell that was new to me. The smell turned out to be salt-rising bread delicately browning in a frying pan for grilled-cheese sandwiches. In all my decades of studying and baking bread, I’d never smelled a bread like this. After the first bite, I fell in love with its delicious, rich, and tangy flavor. A Unique Fermentation The Appalachian people have always been proud of their salt-rising bread, and rightly so. It’s a tricky bread to make. It uses local grains to raise the dough, and it has a reputation for making excellent toast.…

In late March of 2022, hordes of migrating black ducks and mallards descended on our farm pond and departed the next day, only to be replaced by another wave. In Maine, where we live, that’s the time of year when migrating birds pass through in massive numbers. That year, the ground was still frozen, with patches of dirty snow everywhere, but ponds and rivers had opened up, and the fields were saturated with water. I’d heard warnings circulating among the poultry community about highly pathogenic avian influenza, so when I saw the wild birds, I considered our options for protecting our flock of geese, chickens, guineas, and ducks. Unfortunately, they’d all outgrown being kept in any indoor space we had available for longer than overnight. I’d heard similar warnings about…

No matter where you are on the sustainable lifestyle journey, The Best of Mother Earth News Collection Set is packed with information that’s relevant and helpful. Featuring hundreds of our top articles from years past, it won’t take long for you to find the inspiration for your next project or the guide you have been needing to upgrade your homestead. With such a wide array of topics covered, there truly is something for everyone in this illustrious set. Item #11204 $39.99 THIS SET INCLUDES The Best of Mother Earth News Collector Series, 1st Edition This 192-page collectors guide is filled from cover to cover with beautiful color photographs, detailed step-by-step illustrations for building projects, valuable resources, easy-to-follow recipes, and more. Learn how you can turn that unused grain bin into…

“These for your dogs?” the rancher-asked us at the farmers market, as my husband and I loaded our cooler with three beef hearts, 10 pounds of sliced liver, and a magnificently huge beef tongue. “We eat them!” we replied. The rancher leaned forward in curiosity. “How do you manage that?” She confessed that, though she and her husband often sold out of choice cuts of grass-fed beef at the market, they never managed to sell even half of the organ meats. And frankly, she admitted, she had no idea what to do with them. This isn’t unusual. The typical American diet is entirely absent of organ meats. Instead, we refer to unwanted animal parts as “offal,” a term of disgust. “Chopped liver,” after all, is an expression of inferiority. But…

Why learn to graft fruit trees? Because it can save you a lot of money—that’s my favorite reason. My second-favorite reason is the immensely satisfying “Look what I did!” factor. Michael Janik—the “Apple Guru” of Reno, Nevada—taught me to graft my first trees using the whip-and-tongue technique. In the class, I spliced 2-inch twigs onto tiny rootstocks. These trees, less than 12 inches long, would be 6 feet tall within two years. I later interviewed Michael, and he showed me his amazing tree, a ‘Black Twig’ apple cultivar grafted onto dwarfing rootstock; the mature tree reached no higher than 9 feet. As the tree grew, he grafted more scions onto the branches, marking the cultivars with gleaming aluminum tags. The tree held more than 100 grafts, producing multiple types of…

The quest for a self-reliant lifestyle seems to be as relevant today as it was 30 years ago when I began my journey. While many different roads converge to bring one to a place of less dependency upon others, a major component of self-reliance for many is being able to source food locally or provide most of their food from the land they live on. Taking this a step further, many consider access to local milk to be the ultimate in food sourcing. Buying fresh milk from a small, local dairy works well for some, but for others, having a milk cow (or dairy goats) is a dream come true—the apex of the farming lifestyle! But having access to a steady supply of fresh milk is only the beginning; learning…

Raising rabbits in colonies can give them a more natural life, one where they live in groups and can socialize, rather than each rabbit having a cage to itself. This allows rabbits to play, groom one another, and possibly — depending on the style of the setup — mate when they choose. This is impractical for commercial-style breeders who need quantity on a consistent schedule, but it can work well for a family or homestead. Colony setups come in a number of styles. Some people have access to outbuildings they turn into indoor colonies, usually by filling them with dirt or other bedding and letting the rabbits roam throughout the structure. Other colonies are outdoors, either aboveground or belowground. An example of a belowground colony might be an old swimming…