Farmers moving beyond water wars

In farming, we know nothing is truly separate. The health of the land, our bodies, and the economic health of our operations are all intimately tied. To be profitable and sustainable farmers, we must care for the whole system: how we use our water is just as important as how we build our soil. Across the U.S., and particularly in the West and Midwest, farmers are facing a looming Goliath: ongoing drought. With some places receiving as little as three... Read More

Bootstrap @ Hartwood – Reflecting on the Drought

Since last writing, we’ve had two of four weeks with “normal” rainfall—a .75” week and a 1.5” week!  What this means is that our plants are still alive and our pond, while continuing its steady decline, does still have water enough in it for irrigation.  These two rainfalls saved our pasture, which is a huge mental and financial relief.  With less than two months of markets and CSA distributions left in this season, we can finally breathe... Read More

Bootstrap @ Hartwood – Dealing with Drought

We planned to write more about farm finances, but were sidetracked by a lack of rain so bad that the corn fields around us are curling up to look more like grass than corn. The weird thing is in our area, if you weren’t trying to grow anything, you probably didn’t notice the dryness.  There were days where it almost rained (and seemed like it rained just one town over), days where it threatened rain, and days where it pretended to rain (with... Read More