Field Report 5-20-08 from Mark Wagstaff, Dry Dock Farm in Silex, MO

"HERITAGE BOURBON RED TURKEYS
Here at Dry Dock Farm we hand raise our Bourbon Red Turkeys. We gather our breeding birds eggs and place them in the incubator for 25 days, then they are moved to the hatchery till hatch time. After hatch they are placed under heat lights till they are fully feathered. They are then moved to the big red barn to be placed in starter cages to ease them into the transition to the outside. From there they will be placed in the outside grower cages. There they are moved on fresh grass daily and fed a grain mixture, mineral supplement till right before Thanksgiving.
The Slow Food Movement chose the Bourbon Red Turkeys for their exceptional flavored meat. If you have not had a Bourbon Red Turkey you are in for a real treat. Their meat is succulent, moist with a deep rich flavor naturally. We don't inject our turkeys with artificial flavor enhancers, salt, water,--not anything.

The Turkeys will range in size from 10 to 20+ pounds depending at what age they are in November. When you order your turkey, please include the size you need and we will try to accommodate you. We have a limited number of turkeys available, it’s on a first come basics. We ask for a $25.00 deposit per turkey to help offset the ever rising feed cost and to secure your turkey. (If you are having a large gathering for Thanksgiving you might want to order two smaller birds rather that one larger bird.) Please, send your deposit thru Fair Shares made out to Dry Dock Farm and Sara and Jamie will forward them to us.

If you have any other questions feel free to email us at drydocfarm@windstream.net "

Field Report 5-8-08 from Tricia Wagner, Yellow Wood Farms in Hermann, MO

"While I was supposed to be planting potatoes and celebrating my birthday we
were removing electric fence (that had just been put up); debating whether
to rearrange our house (moving first story furniture to the second story);
moving plants out of the greenhouse (not something I suggest doing in
mid-march); and turning our front yard into what looked like the oddest yard
sale full of our vegetable equipment. Luckily, a gentleman at the John
Deere dealership had called the previous day to let me in on a little rumor.
The water was coming up.

"It looks like it might be as bad as '82. Now, that's just a rumor," he
said.

Well, I knew what that meant. Not because the previous owner told us the
land had once flooded pretty badly but because our realtor's husband knew
about it and let us know before we bought the place. (You have to love
small towns!)

The Gasconade River flows from South to North into the Missouri river just
west of Hermann. We live toward the end of the river. Although we only saw
4 inches of rain in a couple day period some places up river (down south)
from us saw 12 inches. All of it accumulated to one of the highest floods
our area has seen.

My family has never experienced a flood like this. It is quite overwhelming
and difficult to capture the enormity in pictures. To give you an idea...We
have 190 acres and about 160 were underwater. Our building and house are
about 1/2 mile from the river and we could see it flowing from our bedroom
window. Our buildings were spared on a peninsula shaped piece of ground
with water on 3 sides. It was quite amazing. Some of our neighbors were
not so lucky however. Many of them had barns submerged and water in their
homes.

The family that originally settled this land back in the 1800's, still lives
in Hermann. From what we can gather this rivaled the worst flood they had
ever seen back in the 1980's, which then was called a "500 year flood."
1993, on the Gasconade was not as bad because that water was mostly coming
from the north.

We found out just this past week that a levee that protects some farm land
down river from us, broke during this year's flood. Thank goodness it did
otherwise we would have been in a lot worse shape. Levees are a tricky
thing. They allow people to farm and build where they might never have been
able to before but they have such a dramatic affect on others and cause
floods to be more drastic in areas without them. The water has to go
somewhere. It is unfortunate that folks utilize them in such great numbers
now. Funny thing is that I am sure more will be built due to the flood of
2008 which will just cause another "500 year flood" in 20 years or less.
Which might mean homes like ours that are 150 years old and have never have
seen a drop of river water could be in danger of flood waters. This is not
a matter of climate change but a need we have to control nature's path to
suit our desires. While many levees are built to protect people's homes, I
believe they began as a way to profit off land that was flood prone and
previously unprofitable. Thus creating a need to build more as a "public
service." But again the water has to go somewhere and those levees are
simply causing greater flood damage in other areas.

Well, enough of my tangent, all in all, we came through it, and now know
what to expect next time. Potatoes got in a month late but we are happy to
report are coming up. Same goes for the Beets and Carrots. Broccoli is
doing well in the field should be somewhat on time. Beans and edamame have
been planted the last 3 weeks and we got tomatoes out just before this last
rain. Oh yeah, and the onions we were able to plant in a small area right
after the flood so some of those actually got out in time :).

And now we look forward to celebrating Oliver's first birthday next week!!

Tricia, Scott, Henry and Oliver"