Our 2020 Steward team finished yesterday in time to get gussied up for our year-end celebration dinner last night. Lots of old farmers my age don't cotton to spending days surrounded by 20-somethings (or younger) but when they're on board, engaged, and enthusiastic, their vitality is infectious. And when you're well over 60, vitality infection is a good thing.

Today I introduce you to Niti Bali, author of Farm to Fork Meat Riot and guru of rogue food commerce. I talked about her back when her book came out, but today I want to explain something else she's up to: a Food Church.

Albert Einstein is said to have said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and hoping for different results.

I've been listening . . .

I don't know about you, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the conversation surrounding wildfires and was especially surprised and interested yesterday that it turned to questioning public ownership of land.

First, let me thank everyone for your wonderful comments on my fire posts, especially those of you who live at fire ground zero. My heart breaks for you and your communities. Few devastations are as overwhelming and complete as fire; it's akin to losing a spouse because it's all your hopes, dreams, and "youness." Be assured none of my posts are meant to be condescending, insulting, or unfeeling.

Today's teaser for the new book POLYFACE DESIGNS features the Harepen, a portable rabbit grazing structure. Like all the designs in this beautiful 4-color compendium, this developed through many years of trial, error, and refinement.

Yesterday the skies over our Virginia farm were white with smoke from the California and Oregon fires. It was surreal to see the clear line of smoke coming across the Shenandoah Valley traveling east toward Norfolk. If you looked south, the sky was white. Looking north, the sky was a brilliant blue. I'm not sure I've ever seen that before, and knowing that this smoke originated from 3,000 miles away was mind boggling.

With farm bankruptcies up 8 percent and the federal government doling out an unprecedented $33 billion in direct payments to farmers this year, average isn't good enough. In Virginia, the average cattle farmer loses half of his hay to weathering--all those round bales you see stacked outside along the field edges.

The last broiler chicks went out this week, which means that for the first time since March the brooder is empty. Seasonality is a defining characteristic of farming systems that imbed with integrity into the ecological womb.

Over the weekend, daughter-in-law Sheri and I did a marketing school for the Back to Your Roots conference near Shreveport, Louisiana. This is tall pine country, but it has become a monoculture rather than a polyculture due to the last half century of forestry management.

A registered nurse in Colorado sent me a memo received from the Department of Regulatory Agencies prior to Labor Day. Here is the pertinent portion: