Category Archives: Corn

Okra Paradise Farms is disappointed in farmer Bill Gates 2021-06-08

Okra Paradise Farms doesn’t always get into national news, but when we do it’s about Bill Gates.

April Glaser, NBC News, 8 June 2021, updated 9 June 2021, McDonald’s french fries, carrots, onions: all of the foods that come from Bill Gates farmland: Gates does not appear to count his farming investments as the nation’s largest farmland owner as part of his broader strategy to save the climate.

The story goes into some detail about how a few big corporate farmland owners crowd out small farmers. She didn’t go for my comparison to Wal-Mart, and I suppose my comparison to the Highland Clearances was a bit too obscure, but she got the point and backed it up with documentation.

Then there’s this part:

“Shell of a shell of a shell”

Public records suggest Cascade Investments has bought its farmland through a web of at least 22 limited liability shell companies across the country. These shell companies have made it difficult to find out where and how much farmland the Gateses own even for local farmers, like John S. Quarterman, a farmer and landowner who grows okra, corn, squash and other vegetables in Lowndes County on the southern edge of Georgia.

[John Quarterman on his farm in Lowndes County, Ga. Matt Odom / for NBC News]
John Quarterman on his farm in Lowndes County, Ga. Matt Odom / for NBC News

That’s where the Gateses began buying land in 2013 through two limited liability corporations registered to an address in Kirkland by Derek Yurosek, then head of agriculture operations for Cascade.

When Quarterman first heard about Gates’ firm buying land in the area, he began digging through local property records, linking addresses and business records from registered owners to Kirkland-based companies, until he was able to piece together that the companies buying multiple tracts of land in the Suwannee River Basin were all a “shell of a shell of a shell company investing for Bill Gates.” NBC News’ independently confirmed that there were, in fact, shell companies tracing back to Gates’ firm that purchased 6,021 acres across four counties in Georgia.

That includes Continue reading

Pigweed 2021-06-08

Pulled this out of the corn this morning.

[Palmer amaranth]
Palmer amaranth

We have very little of it. Nearby, where renters grow cotton doused in Roundup (Glysophate), they have a lot of it. Because it has mutated to be resistant to Roundup. So over there, it’s the only weed growing. They’ve resorted to everything from 2,$-D to Paraquat to pulling it up by hand.

In our fields, pigweed has to compete with everything else, and it is not very successful. We have more issues with dog fennel and sandspurs. Nothing a little hoe work and weed pulling can’t fix. Good morning exercise. We do not use any pesticides.

See also Andre Gallant, Modern Farmer, 18 July 2013, Pigweed in the Cotton: A ‘Superweed’ Invades Georgia.

-jsq

Gretchen relaxing with 50-pound bag of fertilizer 2021-03-22

To relax after her second virus shot, Gretchen hoisted 50-pound bags of fertilizer while we were planting red corn.

[A few hours after second virus shot]
A few hours after second virus shot

Seems like a fair distribution of labor. After all, I drive the tractor.

Today she got five more bags, and loaded them in the truck herself.

-jsq

Cornbread 2020-12-15

Note to self: oven timer is merely advisory; does not turn off oven.

[Ingredients, Oven, Baked Cornbread]
Ingredients, Oven, Baked Cornbread

Gretchen didn’t mention that in the recipe she gave me. Here are the cornbread ingredients, including our own Okra Paradise Farms blue corn flour. Continue reading