[AT] Al Jones

charlie hill chill8 at suddenlink.net
Fri Jul 20 13:48:55 PDT 2007


Al,  Now I understand organic farming.  Way before I finished reading your 
message, along about where you described the pigweed I realize that organic 
farming is what we did when I was a kid!  Well we did use manufactured 
fertilizer but I agree with you, the plants don't know the difference and 
there are no paracites in the manufactured variety.

$14 a bushel?  Hmmmmmm.  It must be fun fleecing Yuppies!

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Al Jones" <aljones at ncfreedom.net>
To: "'Antique tractor email discussion group'" 
<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 3:00 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] Al Jones


> Charlie, I can say this about organic production:  It's different, and
> if one can pull it off, there's money to be made.  One farm we looked at
> near Faison does organic butternut squash.  When we pulled up to the
> field, you could hardly tell any squash were there.  They had bushhogged
> across the ends so we could walk around. When you checked it out, there
> were LOTS of squash.  THe field was about a day from being harvested,
> they said their average yield was only slightly less than "conventional"
> and the squash looked just as good to me.  They also do organic sweet
> potatoes and organic corn (for grain) and beans.  We only looked at the
> squash and the corn. The corn had been irrigated and looked good, and
> fairly clean, but the pigweed you did see were big enough to cut down
> with a chainsaw!
>
> I'm not one bit afraid of 'conventional' grown food, genetically
> modified crops, etc.  And I don't see the hoopla about not using
> 'chemical' fertilizers.  N, P, and K are chemicals, and from the botany
> and horticulture I took in college, the plant can't tell if it came from
> Dixie Chemical Co. or from a turkey's butt.  They showed us some
> pelleted manures that could be spread like fertilizer.  I don't see much
> difference in that and synthetic fertilizer, in terms of both are
> processed.  Then, they are stressing the positive environmental effects
> of organic, and in the next breath they are talking about 6-10 tillage
> trips across a field of corn in a season. There are just a lot of hoops
> to jump through.  But, the fact is there are people willing to pay $14 a
> bushel for organic grain corn, and so I see nothing wrong with supplying
> their demands.  It comes down to me in consumers being able to choose
> the organic, or the "regular."
>
> One more thing: Daddy is still growing hogs on the ground, for the last
> 8 months or so he has been selling them to Wholefoods Market. They have
> grocery stores in Raleigh, Cary, Chapel Hill, and one more in NC but I
> forget where, as well as other states.  Most of his pork is going to the
> Raleigh store as I understand.  He has been asked to visit the Raleigh
> store several times--one time they actually had him passing out cubes of
> cooked pork as samples like at Sam's Club!  Wholefoods stresses organic,
> and locally grown.  (His pigs are not technically organic.)  Anyway, I
> can say having eaten a "hoghouse hog" and one of his hogs, side by side,
> there is definitely a difference in flavor.  If people are willing to
> pay extra for it, all the better!  Again, it gives consumers the option
> to choose, and I like that. (Plus, though it is negative to say so, I
> feel like we are sorta giving the finger to Joe Luter and Wendell
> Murphy, which I enjoy immensely, but that's another story)  Every time
> my wife takes out a package of homegrown pork chops from the freezer, I
> tell her we are "eating gourmet!"
>
> I can see an old tractor application with organics though, since it
> requires a lot of cultivation.  One made the comment that narrow row
> beans (15-20") was tough because you couldn't get a tractor down the
> rows.  All I could thing was, give me a Cub, Super A, even a C Farmall
> with one of those veggie cultivators on it, and I could clean 15" beans!
>
> Al
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of charlie hill
> Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 8:05 AM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Al Jones
>
> Hey Al,  were depending on you to tell us all how to get rich in organic
>
> farming now that you're an expert!  grins.
>
> John, you can share the Coke location with me too if you like.  I'm not
> very
> far from Al and I'd like to try one.
>
> Charlie
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Al Jones" <aljones at ncfreedom.net>
> To: "'Antique tractor email discussion group'"
> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 11:24 PM
> Subject: Re: [AT] Al Jones
>
>
>> John, I am about to send an email.  I have been swamped.  My dad had a
>> hernia repair surgery last week so I have been taking care of his
> hogs.
>> Spent two days going to an ag teacher workshop on organic/sustainable
>> agriculture at the Cherry Research Farm in Goldsboro. We had a bad
> storm
>> in the wee hrs. Wednesday morning which took out our fridge,
> fortunately
>> it seems to be economically repairable.
>>
>> Al
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
>> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of John Hall
>> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 4:28 PM
>> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>> Subject: Re: [AT] Al Jones
>>
>> Thanks for the replies. Although I'm getting ATIS mail OK I am having
>> trouble getting through to Al.  I found a supply of made with sugar in
>> glass
>> bottle sodas not too far from him I need to tell him about. But I
> won't
>> be
>> doing it here so as not to upset anyone.
>>
>> John
>>
>>
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