“Life of a Southern Farmer: Bees”

When people think of agriculture, bees may be the very last thing that comes to mind. However, bees are very important in the state of Georgia. According to the Georgia Department of Agriculture, about one third of our food is directly related to the pollination of insects, one hundred of these crops being pollinated by bees (Georgia Department of Agriculture, 2014). Most southern bee keepers do not make a living off of their bee hives. They tend to only obtain a few for various reasons. If a bee farmer wants to sell his or her honey, they do not have to have a license to sell in their farmers markets, fairs, own homes, and own businesses. Yet, they must be producing in a sanitary environment. Honey bees can be found in the flowers around my house.

http://agr.georgia.gov/honey-bees.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Honeybee_landing_on_milkthistle02.jpg

“Life of a Southern Farmer: Home-cooking”

Life on a farm can be pretty crazy. For example the neighbors goats getting into the cow pasture. Your dad yelling at you to jump on top of them. Finally finding your eight year old self, scared to death, riding a goat with nothing to hang onto but its horns. That little girl happened to be me. This sort of thing can be stressful as are droughts, money troubles, etc. This is why farmers always tend to have a great wife who loves to cook. In Georgia, we love our fried chicken. As odd as it may seem, I am one of the few that do not like sweet tea or any form of tea for that matter. A typical southern meal is soul food such as mashed potatoes, corn bread, fried okra, turnip greens, dumplings, and so on. Trisha Yearwood is from Montecello, Georgia which is about forty-five minutes from my house. She is a famous singer and now Food Network star. According to her website, “Trisha notes on her TV show that for making an impeccable fried chicken, temperature is key.” My mom must have her recipe because hers is delicious. A stressful day on the farm calls for a good meal cooked by the one and only farmer’s wife.

http://blog.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/2014/06/trishas-best-fried-chicken-ideas/
http://www.thesoulfoodbistro.com/

“Life of a Southern Farmer: Steps to Raising Cattle Part Two”

The second step in the cattle production process is weaning the calves or straying them from their mothers milk. This step tends to be harder than the rest. Calves love their mothers milk, so getting them to give it up is almost getting a smoker to give up cigarettes. Weaning causes stress to the farmer, the calf, in addition to the mother. Preparation can be key to weaning by speeding up the procedure. It is highly difficult to preform this task. During this particular time in development, the cattle do not understand why weaning has to take place. Every calf of age, which is between six to ten months, has to undergo this aspect. These calves must be at least 450 pounds, states Explore Beef. To parallel, these calves go from babies to toddlers.

http://www.explorebeef.org/raisingbeef.aspx                           http://jakeslongview.com/feed-and-farm/cattle/weaning-calves.html