Drama Queens

This week, our bees arrived! A good friend, Mark Lee, is helping us along the way. He's a bee expert, an experienced tree farmer, and and all around fascinating, good guy. Melissa and Sean are doing a sort of partnership/apprenticeship: teaming up with him to keep bees at our place and our farm, process honey in Mark's certified kitchen, and help sell/trade the honey! Melissa met Mark while doing bee research for the University, and now their relationship has evolved to get us into the "beesniess". Oh, my.

Here Mark is helping Sean with the bee delivery. We got 5 hives for our Camp Pleasant land and 5 hives for the farm. They come in the small boxes that Mark has set in front of him, and they are then put into the frame boxes on the left.

Melissa dumps the bees into their new home! Some people might not believe it, but if you are calm and peaceful, the bees have no troubles with you and will not sting you.

Melissa, whose name literally means "bee", beams as she holds a small box with a queen bee.


And Sean shows off his favorite drone.

The bees at the farm were happily foraging on the fields of dandelion the next day. But some drama insued at Camp Pleasant, where one queen "escaped" from the hive and the swarm followed her! Melissa tries to find the queen, which is just a bit larger than the drones and worker bees:

When the queen is nowhere to be found in the box, its assumed that she is nestled on the crate, in a big pile of buzzing bees. Melissa tries to capture the pile of bees:

At this point the bees are a bit confused about what is going on, and buzzing wildly all around us. I had never been in anything like it! Its like you are in another world, ruled totally by the buzzing group movement that is the hive. Its really exhilerating.
When the attempt to move the queen didn't seem to work, the hive box was set right next to the little swarm, with hopes that the queen would enter the hive again and the drones and workers would follow:

Later in the day, Mark came over and helped move the queen into the hive, by hand. So far, so good: all the queens are home and safe, and the workers are out foraging the spring wildflowers and trees. Never a dull moment. . .!

Making Compost Tea in a Rain Barrel

First off, rain barrels. There are many good reasons to catch rain. Water is useful, obviously. It also costs money. Rainwater can be used for many things, and of course, its totally free. Gutters that are currently used to divert water away from things can simply be used to divert water into catchment systems. We have friends that live without city water, living off rain water, caught from roofs and purified with simple countertop water filters. They have water when there's a drought, and they have water when the water line bursts and the rest of us are waiting for the city to fix it! They have fairly developed, clean, reliable systems. Ours is rudimentary.

I like to use rainwater in gardens as a substitute for using tap water. (Tap water contains chlorine, which is toxic to many soil microbes.) I also like the idea of building ponds to create places for frogs and fish. The permaculturalists remind us that water is moving through the land, so why not play with it a little as it passes by? Why not use it, store it, purify it, grow things with it, grow things in it. . .

Below is a pic of our first, simple rain barrel that Sean and I built last year. Its made from a 55 gallon plastic drum with the top cut off of it. The gutter simply empties into it at the top. At the bottom of the barrel is a fixture that has a garden hose attached, so we can water the garden out of the barrel when it is full. At the top of the barrel, the black tube is fixed and serves as an overflow. When it rains, the barrel fills up quickly, and the overflow is diverted to a pond in the garden and to other barrels for more storage and garden watering. (We have had to attach a screen to filter the debris from the water coming from the roof...)

It works well in the summer. In the winter, the water freezes and becomes a massive block of ice. Its not a terrible problem, but it could potentially burst some of the fixtures...

The overflow pond, just after being installed last year:


Secondly: Why compost tea? Compost (and/or manure) tea is a way to fertilize soils and plants. If watered with it, the soil and plant roots are given a good serving of nutrients, and if sprayed on, the leaves of plants can also be feed, called "foliar feeding". If compost tea is allowed to brew for a day or two, the beneficial microbes in composts (fungi and bacteria) can proliferate and then be spread into your gardens. Some people even "feed" compost tea molasses so that the microbes will populate quickly.


So here's how we do it: a simple bamboo frame is constructed that sets on top of our rain barrel. An old pillow case is filled with composts and manures, tied at the top and hung from the frame. Its basically like we are making a massive cup of tea, hence the name. It sits like this, brewing, for 1-3 days before we use it. You can do smaller batches in 5 gallon barrels in the same manner.

When I walk by, I like to take an old bamboo pole and stir/swish the water around. It helps mix the compost and tea in with the water as well as introduce oxygen to the brew, which helps good microbes grow. When we are ready to use it, we simply open the garden hose at the bottom of the barrel, and fill up our watering cans. If I am going to spray the tea onto plants or land, in a backpack sprayer, I'll attach a small piece of cloth over the end of the hose to filter out any debris, so the sprayer doesn't get clogged.

There's a massive amount of effort that people are putting into developing compost tea brewing and application methods that you can read about. For now, we keep it simple, but you are free, of course, to get crazy with it!

Starting Sweet Potato Slips

We love sweet potatoes. They are nutritious, sweet, versatile, and easy to grow. We are still eating last year's sweet potatoes, which we keep packed in dry hay, in cardboard boxes, in our kitchen. Our favorites are sweet potato hash browns, simple baked sweet potatoes, and sweet potato muffins! The chickens like sweet potatoes, too.
Starting your own sweet potato slips is easy. All you need are a few sweet potatoes, a space to keep them warm, and some soil or sand to cover them up with. You can get a LOT of fresh, healthy shoots for transplanting without a lot of effort. Your shoots can be much nicer than the bunched sweet potato slips you often see at garden centers in spring. And besides, they usually sell out before most of us can get any, anyway! So here's how we do it:


Our process starts around late March, about 8-10 weeks before we will be transplanting. We start our sweet potatoes in our hoophouse, a 10X30X6' single-layer plastic tunnel. In the above picture, you can see how we start them; we set a small wooden box frame (just four walls) down into the soil, and set the potatoes in the bottom.

These potatoes are two different varieties. One variety is the organic sweet potatoes from our local coop, and the other, called Mahon, is from a friend and heirloom enthusiast, Rodger Winn. According to him, it is "the" sweet potato to grow. You can find more about him at www.rodgersheirlooms.com


Next we cover the sweet potatoes with about 6-8 inches of sand or soil. For the next few weeks, we just keep the sand (or soil) warm (65-85 degrees is good, but warmer is better), and moist. The sweet potatoes will send shoots up that will emerge out of the sand and put on leaves. When we are ready to transplant into the field, (which is hopefully when the shoots have a good 4-6 inches of leafy growth, we simply dig up the tubers and shoots. Each tuber will have 10-20 sweet potato "slips" that we can plant and that will become their own sweet potato plant! Since the shoots had to emerge through 6-8 inches of sand, they have a long, rooty section that helps them get established in the field. We simply snap off each shoot from its tuber, and transplant it into the field. As always, it is essential to keep the transplants moist for their first few days.

An old window provides an extra layer of heat on those cooler spring days. Sweet potatoes need warm temperatures to put on new shoot growth, so don't be afraid to heat them up to 85, even 90 degrees. I tend to keep the window open a bit just so it doesn't get too hot on a sunny day. If the night is going to get too cold, I make sure to cover the window and box with a heavy blanket late in the day, before the sun goes down, to hold in heat through the night.

The Organic Association of Kentucky

In January of 2009, some of us who were working at Kentucky State University had an idea to get people together to explore the creation of an organization dedicated to organic agriculture in Kentucky. It came from the University perspective; we thought we needed an organization that could help guide research priorities for research and extension agents.

That January, a modest but empowered group of farmers, grocers, nursery people, University workers, and Kentucky Department of Agriculture folks got together and agreed the idea was a good one. A steering committee was formed, and for the next year, the Organic Association of Kentucky, or OAK was crafted.

In January of 2010, the first official meeting was held and a board was formed. It was exciting for me. I had just left the University to farm full-time and was asked to serve on the board. I figure its a great opportunity to be a part of an organization that is sure to go somewhere.

OAK Board (clockwise from top left): John Bell, Brian Geier, Jake Schmitz, Tony Powell, Larry Brandenburg, Shayne Wigglesworth, Kim Jordan, Deborah Hill, Molly Stotts.

We have had our first few meetings. Right now the priority is to build the membership. We have about 80 members now and hope to grow a lot in 2010. Within the next few weeks we'll be distributing our first newsletter. We hope to use the newsletters, farm tours, and events to build the membership, and to culminate the year in a conference for organics in Kentucky this winter.

You can learn more about what OAK is up to at its website: www.oak-ky.org Members can access forums there to chat about issues, ideas, bulk buying, etc.

The post below this one is an article I wrote for the OAK Leaf, our newsletter.

Thoughts on Soil Fertility

What makes soil fertile? How can my soil provide what a plant needs? Andwhat can I do to make sure this happens this year? These questions fill our house in spring, as winter’s farming ideas start to take shape.

There’s a tendency these days to take the quick and easy route.  If
there’s a question or a problem, we want an answer or solution.  We want
it now, we want it here, we want it cheap, and it helps if we can pick up
some soda and dog food while we’re at it.  The “conventional” way of going
about soil fertility (which isn’t really conventional, given it’s only
decades old) is to send a soil sample to the University, get a read-out of
nutrient deficiencies, and accept a recommendation for how many pounds of
10-10-10 to apply.  It’s here, it’s now, and it’s cheap.

Many people understand the problems of this kind of thinking when it comes to farming.  While lab tests may show
certain nutrients are needed, and synthetic fertilizers may make a plant
green, we sense there is much more to soil than a read-out of nutrients,
and that there is no synthetic substitute for a healthy, living soil.

But there are a thousand ways to go from there.  Hit the books, and you’ll
find hundreds of takes on soil fertility.  Talk to farmers, and you’ll
hear a different perspective from each one you ask.  Surf the internet and
find more information than your eyes should handle.

A few broad concepts they all seem to agree on: organic matter, cover
crops, manure and composts are good.  Plants need certain nutrients, and
soils need to be balanced.  Biodiversity is key, and reduced, careful
tillage is essential.  But what do these broad concepts mean for me, when
it comes time to start making decisions about what to do in 2010?

This isn’t a sob story, but ultimately, when making decisions on the farm,
we are terribly alone.  Sure, there are broad concepts, but no one has
faced the decisions I am making, about this farm, right now.  The
following is a discussion of some of the ideas and experiences that form
the basis for my soil fertility decisions, for what it’s worth...

This year I “upgraded” from the University soil tests and coughed up the
$25 for a “better” soil test that contained things like organic matter
content, estimated Nitrogen release, cation exchange capacity, and percent
base saturation for Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, and Sodium.  If that
sounds a little involved to you, that’s because it is.  Trying to figure
out the science of your soil given the tests available isn’t the easiest
homework assignment there is.  I’ve heard tales of farmers who could chew
on a tiny bit of soil and tell you what needed to happen based on taste
and feel.  If you know of one, tell them to call me, by all means.

As I tried to interpret these test results, a few things stuck out.  There
were deficiencies in a few nutrients (Boron, Zinc, Copper, and Magnesium),
and the “percent base saturation” of Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium and
Sodium were less than ideal.  A few weeks earlier I had heard a popular
Biodynamic farmer, Jeff Poppen, aka “The Barefoot Farmer” (and author of
the book by the same name), mention that you want a certain relationship
between levels of Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, and Sodium.  And a book
by Gary Zimmer, “The Biological Farmer”, validated this idea.  (Both books
I highly recommend.)   By this point I accepted that my soils are
deficient in some nutrients and that the high “base saturation” of Calcium
and Potassium may contribute to a Magnesium deficiency.



What do you do when a soil is deficient or imbalanced?  The Biological
Farmer’s perspective suggests supplying any limiting nutrients, in part,
with rock applications based on soil tests.  Greenview Farms Coop in Ohio
helped me develop a custom mix based on my soil tests.  For three acres
it contains:  500 lb of a mix of several kinds of rocks (sulphate of
potash, magnesium sulphate, boron, zinc, and copper), to supply limiting
nutrients, humates (plant deposits that are almost coal) for humic acid
to improve soil structure and feed microbes, molasses to feed microbes,
kelp (seaweed) for minerals and nutrients, and beneficial bacteria and
fungi.  All in all, about a $150/acre treatment, for those of you keeping
track.

Now I don’t know about you, but I’m constantly striving to reduce inputs
and costs, and I’m well aware of the dangers of relying on industrial
systems that use a lot of energy.  I wrestle with this idea that my farm
“needs” to import rocks from Utah, or that it relies on mining and
pulverizing that uses massive amounts of energy.  Isn’t there an on-farm
or local alternative?  Maybe in time these answers will come.  For now,
this is just “where we’re at”: farms that aren’t yet ideal, plenty of good
questions, and lots of work to figure them out.

To complicate things, I have questions surrounding application techniques.
When is it best to apply rocks, humates, and microbes?  Before a rain or
in the sun?  Just before you till or onto a growing cover crop?  Waning or
waxing moon?!?  Members of the Greenview coop suggested, “As soon as
possible right onto the cover crop.  The cover crop will take up the
minerals and if tilled in as a green manure, it will be cycled back into
the soil.”  Makes sense.   But when I started spreading, something didn’t
seem right.  Leaving the microbes and rocks baking in the direct sun
seemed wrong.   Fearing a waste of money, I decided to try another method.
Philip Lyvers (of Lyvers Farm, a 2,600 acre hog operation in Kentucky
integrating Biodynamic practices into a conventional system) suggested
that any fertility inputs be “buffered” with compost.  My interpretation
is this: the ideal farm uses on-farm compost from animals and materials on
the farm.  This stimulates a build-up of microbes in composts that is well
adapted to your soils.  By putting mineralizing materials into the
compost, you “introduce” the composts to the rocks and increase the rate
and potential for the rocks to act on your soils.  Considering Philip’s
farm hasn’t gone the way of almost every other hog producer in Kentucky
(he’s still farming), I figure there’s a good chance his advice is solid.
So I will be adding about 1/3 of the rock mix to composts and adding that
mixture just before spring tillage.

Speaking of compost and microbes, plants need more than just a balanced
soil; they need a live soil high in microbial life and organic matter.
Sounds simple enough.  But again, how do I make decisions that will
support soil life and organic matter?

For instance, we hear that green manuring is a good idea.  By
incorporating cover crops into the soil, we can increase soil organic
matter and feed soil microbes.  And yet we also know that tillage is
destructive.  With each tilling of the soil, microbial populations
drastically drop and some even vanish from our topsoil.  A friend asks:
“If tillage is bad, then why till in a cover crop?  Why not just cut it
and allow it to mulch on top of the soil?”  Good questions.  No-till
proponents say to leave the roots undisturbed; if you can kill the cover
crop with mowing or crimping and leave the root zone undisturbed, those
roots die and leave all their exudates and microbial allies in the soil
for your next crop to utilize.  Tilling would only wreak havoc on these
fragile, important organisms.  Other people may point us toward studies
that show that incorporation of cover crops increases organic matter and
microbial diversity more than no-till strategies.  Ultimately the decision
to till or not to till depends on many factors, and each of us must weigh
those factors independently.

Similar questions arise with animal manures.  It is well-known that animal
manures are a good thing for soils.  (Although I’ve read that some vegans
have taken up gardening/farming and are working on systems that use no
animal manures or confined animals of any kind.)  In my mind, the “ideal”
farm puts animals and crops together, and fertility needs of the crops are
met with the manures of the animals (including people).  But let’s look
again at “where we’re at”.  Many folks just raise animals, and many just
raise plants.  And human-based compost (“night soil”) has been blacklisted
for the moment. Of those of us who raise crops and livestock, few, if any,
are providing all their own fertility and feed needs.  Luckily, it’s easy
to find folks who have a barn they are happy to have cleaned, and I can
truck in load after load of horse, sheep, rabbit, cow, chicken...all sorts
of great poo.  I’ve trucked enough loads of manure that upon arrival, one
farmer exclaimed “it’s the Great Poo Guru!” (that’s a compliment to me).
Indeed, picking up poo is one of my favourite neighbourly activities.  But
it takes a lot of time and energy.  I truck by cows dropping manure right
there on the fields of other farms, and I marvel at the simple efficiency
of grazing livestock.  At a certain point, trucking manure no longer makes
sense.  Gas is expensive, pitchforks are small, and an unknown poo can
have any number of residual toxins.

Another organic option for adding animal manures are “granular” products:
composted and pelletized manure, bones, and blood from slaughterhouses,
and grease from dumpsters, among other things.  They are fairly cheap,
easy to handle, and potent. Of course, we are supposed to overlook the
inter-dependency we then have with large, industrial slaughterhouses and
food chains, as well as any toxins that can pass through their processing.
Some suggest we are doing a service by using wastes; others suggest that
the horrors of industrial meat production can only exist if organic
farmers keep buying those wastes.  Whatever floats your boat.  I say it’s
alright to use such products to build a farm, and while we should strive
for an ideal that moves beyond it, we should support evolving farmers
wherever they are.

When thinking about manures, I always return to that ideal farm, where
crop needs are met by animals and animal needs are met by crops. As I
haul loads of manure, I am well aware of the path that must be taken;
with each passing season it becomes clearer to me that I need to raise
more than chickens!  If there’s one thing I know, it’s that sometimes
you have to stop looking for what you want and just create it.

A mixture of manures, composts, and cover crops can increase soil
biodiversity and fertility.  What seems less utilized is a biodiversity of
plants (with the exception of cover cropping and pasturing) in order to
build healthy soils.  For instance, some say certain plants can root deep
into sub-soil, pull up nutrients, and distribute them into topsoil.  But
how many of us celebrate dandelions and docks, or encourage nettles and
comfrey?  Perhaps the answer to our reliance on industrial rock mining and
slaughterhouses lies, in part, in building relationships to these dynamic,
“bio-accumulating” plants.

A living soil needs sources (manures and plant residue), and it also needs
protection from toxins and tillage.   I feel little need to discuss the
dangers of using toxins when it comes to soils, but I do want to talk
about tillage.  In our vegetables, we are establishing semi-permanent
pathways of clovers and grasses that are mown instead of cultivated, and
can remain undisturbed for several seasons.  Even as we till the beds
where we plant, we are allowing these strips to (hopefully) become places
of respite for beneficial fungi and bacteria, which can then repopulate
the beds following tillage.  After several seasons the beds and pathways
can simply be switched.  This semi-permanent pathway system creates a
multi-year cover crop before a bed is integrated into a production
rotation.  I think it is a system for people with limited land (or rent
money) to have more cover crop and less tillage.  Additionally, to push us
to develop new ideas, roughly 1/10 of our production areas are hand-tool
based, no-till farming, where we are experimenting with vegetable and
grain production without the use of machines.  I call this kind of farming
“worm-till” farming to differentiate it from large-scale,
herbicide-intensive no-till systems.  “Earthworms make the best tillers,”
Susana Lien once told me.  And after seeing her farm (Salamander Springs,
near Berea) flourish on mountainous clay, I have to integrate that idea
with some sincerity.

Farming is simple and complex.  Simple in that farmers need only observe
and mimic nature as much as possible: be diverse, balance animals and
plants, cycle things endlessly, need few/no inputs, and always cover the
soil.  And yet farming is so complex!  No two farms are alike. Each farmer
has a different set of resources, every family a different level of needs,
and each farm a different relationship to a society that is changing with
lightning speed.  Farmers are jugglers, integrating broad biological
concepts and definitive economic and environmental realities with the
humilities of one plot of land.  I am convinced that there are no easy
answers in farming, only really good questions.  It is ultimately up to us
to move forward and incorporate the good questions.

Ultimately it is time that will bring us to a sustained, thriving farm
community.  Time farming.  Time living with a real dependence on our soil,
for income and sustenance. Time walking our fields in meditation and
observation; fertilizing with the proverbial “farmer’s footsteps”.  Time
adapting to the future. In time, we will do our best to pass on our
experiences, our questions, and our farms to a generation that can do the
same, and all along the way, things will continue to get right.

Low-Cost Seed Germination House

If you were to look at all the postings on this blog, at the beginning of each one there is a statement about how long it has been since the last, along with a hopeful declaration that there will be more postings in the near future. This one is no different! A LOT of time has passed, but I remain hopeful that this blog will soon take off with a buzz of springtime activity.

A friend of mine, Gary Millwood, sent me a link a few weeks ago with some helpful hints on using a light strand from the hardware store to create the heat needed to get seeds germinating indoors for early transplants. These strands are lights people generally use to stretch along walls, stairs, or other surfaces, and to cast a neat glow indoors. Here's one of the strands, running on top of a piece of cardboard, inside a crate that we're using to start seeds in:


Here is the basic idea: you find a crate or large tupperware container large enough to set a flat of seedlings in. You cut some holes near the bottom that are large enough to thread the light strand into it. Next, find some sand. We are lucky enough to have the Elkhorn creek nearby, which blesses us with sand deposits as it winds its way through the farms and forests of northern Franklin County. Our sand is dark and contains a lot of little creature's shells. (We're taking extra sand to add to our compost piles.) Here's what it looks like:

Next step: add a layer of sand about 4-5 inches deep at the bottom of the crate or container, burying the light strand as you go. I use about 4-5 feet of strand for a container that will heat one flat of seedlings. Next, insert your seedling flat into the sand, nestling it down into the sand so that the cells of the flat are somwhat buried. The lights will slowly heat the sand, then the seedling flat, its potting soil, and your seeds. Last night when I set this one up, the sand and soil were a cool 50 degrees, and within an hour the soil had warmed to 65+ degrees...just warm enough to germinate many garden seeds. My hunch is that by using more feet of strand per container you may be able to reach 75 degrees or higher, which would be ideal.


You can get these light strands in several different lengths, and they can plug into one another to create any length you desire. I bought a 24 foot strand that was around $30, and am able to use it in three containers simultaneously to germinate three flats of seeds. The crates we have are handy because they can stack on top of one another without stacking INSIDE each other, and so a flat of seedlings can fit in one while another container sits on top of it. This 24 foot strand is stretching into these three containers, and the containers can be stacked so they don't take up too much space in the house!

Thanks, Gary!

A New Chicken Coop

Ok, months passed again and no one posted anything on our blog. (Its difficult because our internet connection has limited bandwidth, and uploading pictures takes a lot.)

But much has happened.

As always!

Melissa has setup bees, Berea and Adam are finishing a sweet cabin, Sean built a composting toilet and revived our local buying club food coop, and I just finished a new chicken house and yard. We threw a couple nice parties, hosted some work days, and have gone on night-time bike rides in the country.

Here's some pics of the new chicken house:

This is a stationary house with a movable yard. It was important for us to establish a movable yard ("paddock") system. When chickens don't get moved around they get bored and sick. Several of our chickens caught diseases and died before we finally got this new system together.

This structure is simpe: it is a small pole-barn, made with four cedar posts, scrap wood, scrap metal roofing, and tarps and plastic for walls. It cost about $10 to make, for 2 tarps and some staples.

In the yard, you see the red automatic waterer hanging from a bamboo tripod. The netted fence is electric...it keeps predators out and chickens in. The solar panel charges the fence. The bucket hanging near the solar panel is filled with water, and feeds the red waterer. And inside the tires is a bucket full of feed.

Side note: if you are ever looking for advice on how to keep chickens, get "How to Keep Chickens-Naturally" by Alanna Moore. It is THE book to get for naturally-minded, permaculture-minded people. I found that a lot of farmers gave terrible advice when it came to keeping and caring for chickens, and it has taken a couple years and a lot of suffering on the part of my chickens for us to get the ball rolling with a system that (hopefully) keeps them happy.

We're starting to feed our chickens a 50/50 mix of pellets and home-made mixed grains. The pellets are from Bagdhad, Kentucky, which is nice. They are not medicated, which is also nice. However, they are conventional and therefore contain genetically modified grains and probably chemical residues. So we are trying to get away from this.

Our home-made mix consists of home grown (and home-cracked) corn, sorghum, and wheat, with dried and crushed nettle and comfrey. We'll occasionally add in a different grain or herb to give the chickens some diversity. We'll also hang bouquets of dried herbs for them to free-forage and self-medicate from, and occasionally put tea of garlic, onion, dill/fennel, comfrey, nettle, sage into their water, for prevention of disease and to provide nutrients.

Here's an inside look at the coop. In the back is the roost, which is made from cedar branches. (There's a door at the back so we can switch their entrance from one part of the yard to another while giving the other a "break" from all the chickens' traffic. The back door also allows access to clean out the bedding under the roost.) At the left are the laying boxes, which I moved from the other house.

A view from the outside, showing how we'll access the laying boxes and harvest eggs. Its basically a hole in the wall with a heavy rubber flap that latches down or up. The walls are sheets of tarp (outside) and scrap clear plastic (inside), stapled onto the frame through a piece of used T-tape (irrigation tape), to reduce tearing. This structure is covered much like the hoop house (see last year's hoop house entry...).

Free range! Well, pretty free, anyway. They are enclosed by the electric netting, but the idea is to move them around often enough to keep them happily engaged in scratching and foraging for bugs and greens. Here they are entangled in some thornless blackberries, eating basil seeds, and dining on baby turnip greens.

Yes!!!