Woody Agriculture Weblog
The Future of The World Is Nuts!(TM)

Posted by Phil Rutter, 6/10/08 at 9:19:11 AM.

As you may recall, we got very very wet on last year's Field Day; in fact the counties around here all wound up as official Federal Disaster areas.

Which did us no good; we lost both our commercial mowers- they were in Rushford for pre-harvest maintenance- and under 10 feet of water, for 3 days. No, you can't fix that.

Did FEMA help? Please. Not a dime. Insurance? Not covered. State of Minnesota? They had good intentions- but it was so late, we were just too exhausted to go begging one more time.

There was one organization that DID help - Sow The Seeds.

http://www.sowtheseedsfund.org/

Basically, these are folks who know us, and cared. Had to fill out about 2 pages of straightforward, non-humiliating questions- and we received $5,500 to help out.

It was/is a huge help. And here is the major outcome; a replacement for the lost Mainline walking-tractor, which we could not otherwise have afforded to buy.

These things are real tractors; designed for small rough farms in Europe, and work in vineyards. The agility of this kind of mower is critical when working around the hazels. And- it's a diesel.

So; the first thing we did, before mowing anything; was add some sacramental hazel oil to the diesel tank.

Works fine, of course; though this particular brand of hazel oil would be just a bit too pricey to use as diesel fuel on a regular basis.

The new walking tractor went on to mow beautifully, for about 9 actual hours of run time that day- and used up about 2/3 gallon of diesel.

That's about the annual yield you might expect from 2 good hazel bushes.

We're expecting a REAL hazel harvest this year; we may have 2-3 TONS of nuts coming on the bushes, and we're going to try to mount a real effort to get them harvested. We're going to need a lot of volunteers- check back here for more info as we get closer.

I can't emphasize enough how important the help from our friends and neighbors, through Sow The Seeds, was.

Thanks, folks. It made all the difference.

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