Making eggs the antique way
From organic eggs to antique tractors, Tony Swinehart's farm reveals his commitment to the conservation of nature and history
Joy Pavelski
Issue date: 2/28/08 Section: News
Associate Professor Biology Tony Swinehart says he doesn't know why he has lived for six years in the "suburbs" of Jonesville, Mich., population 2,300. He likes his place, surrounded by earth, sky, tools and rusting metal. It's half a mile to the next neighbor, at least.
Two years ago, Swinehart moved 11 miles from campus, down a dirt road barely above the Ohio border.
Swinehart cultivates four acres with restored antique tractors and equipment, and will soon use organic corn he has grown to feed his chickens. On Feb. 18, he posted in the Hillsdale College public e-mail folders offering farm fresh, organic eggs for $1.50 per dozen. That post was his only advertisement, and already college students and staff have ordered all of the six or seven dozen eggs his chickens lay per week.
Ecology: one egg at a time
Walk up behind his black Jeep with its shining silver grill in the front and Purdue University decals winking through the windows, and he will walk down his porch steps wearing a black Purdue baseball cap and camouflage Army jacket to give you a tour in the snapping winter cold.
His barn red, 8-by-12 foot chicken coop is the first stop but last result of his work. There, 10 rather large chickens and one rooster nest in cubbies spilling hay. They are the last of 25 barred Plymouth Rocks Swinehart bought on June 25 from a hatchery in Pennsylvania. This heirloom breed is good for both eggs and meat, he says. An upside down tear-drop shaped patch of pin feathers behind a chicken's eye indicates whether the animal lays white or brown eggs. A patch means brown eggs. These all have patches, mottled black and white like their bodies.
"They're far better than what you get in the store," Swinehart says. "I was kind of skeptical when people told me that at first."
Squawks erupt from behind the coop's closed door while Swinehart fetches the rooster for closer inspection. He comes out calmly, rooster tucked under one arm.
His chickens lay about a dozen eggs per day. That number must double, he says, to meet demand generated by his post.
Swinehart currently feeds his chickens natural grain he has bought, but soon he will grow his own feed on four acres sitting about two hundred feet away from the coop.
He plans to farm the land and grind the grain using tractors, a harvester, plow, sickle mower and gravity bin, all antiques he has restored or will restore. None of his equipment is more new than 1942. He calls his farming a hobby, but junior biology major Chris Duncan said it fits something bigger: Swinehart's concern for conservation.
"Sustainable practices save land, save energy, and in the end save time and money," Duncan said. "It's just efficiency, really. I think we get caught up with, today, looking at short-term efficiency, using it and throwing it away, but that's short sighted."
Mechanics: restoring machinery
College employee Rich Day sold Swinehart a 1937 Farmall F-12. Day, Swinehart and mutual acquaintance Frank Bechler trade tractors and tips.
"We always talk and swap, and if they got any questions we try to help 'em out," Day said. "I don't belong to no club or anything. But if the question arises, we help each other out when we can. The old fellows do. We're not that old yet."
Swinehart's step quickens as he moves east around his bright, well-kept 1875 barn to display tractors surrounded by its cobblestone foundation, waiting in silence for spring. Here are two tractors, one rusted beyond belief, another nearly shiny as the day it was sold. A dusty set of blueprints lies on the seat of a stubbly, rust-brown tractor.
The shiny red 1942 McCormick-Deering Farmall H he bought for $400 from a friend. It had rusted outdoors for several years and would not run when Swinehart began working on it. Restoration required dismantling the machine and sanding, sandblasting or dipping in acid each part to smooth it for filling and painting.
"Every bolt and screw was out of this thing," Swinehart says in a torrent of words bursting dates, part names and details. He runs his hands over his machines and gestures to demonstrate their operation.
Swinehart guesses he spends roughly two hours each day renovating old farm equipment. He said his father "knew how to do everything," and taught him to work with engines and fix things in the house and yard.
"It's just not as easy as what most people think, putting some paint on it and there you go," Day said. "You have to rebuild engines usually. [Swinehart] seems to enjoy it. Lot of stuff nowadays you can't work on, not unless you have special tools. But with a hammer, pliers and a crescent wrench you could almost work on [antique tractors]."
Conservation: a philosophy of life
Swinehart points over his four acres of farmland, telling how a bulldozer leveled the ground from an ATV track. He built in a strip of prairie on one side of the rectangle to preserve a pheasant habitat, and left a line of trees growing along another side for a windbreak. He will plant heirloom feed corn and Indian corn seeds on this plot and spread chicken manure sparingly for fertilizer.
Biology classes with Swinehart such as ecology often discuss the relationship between humans and our environment, Duncan said. He said Swinehart lives his concern for the environment from sustainable agriculture to deer hunting. Since humans have displaced deer's natural predators, Duncan said, a true conservationist hunts to restore an imbalance in the deer population and enjoy "cheap, lean, red meat."
Swinehart closes his tour by mentioning how his mind joins conservation and sympathy with the Republican Party.
"Sometimes people feel if you're an environmental advocate, you're a left-wing liberal," he says. "But the political movement for conservation started with conservatives like Teddy Roosevelt. The two words are even related, and for good reason."
Will Swinehart raise his egg prices because people want more eggs than he currently can provide? He raises his eyebrows in surprise at the suggestion.
"Probably not," he says. "I want to see if I can, at a minimum, break even. Pay for my hobby."
He would invite you inside, he says, but he's remodeling and it's a mess in there.
For more pictures of eggs and tractors follow the link.
Two years ago, Swinehart moved 11 miles from campus, down a dirt road barely above the Ohio border.
Swinehart cultivates four acres with restored antique tractors and equipment, and will soon use organic corn he has grown to feed his chickens. On Feb. 18, he posted in the Hillsdale College public e-mail folders offering farm fresh, organic eggs for $1.50 per dozen. That post was his only advertisement, and already college students and staff have ordered all of the six or seven dozen eggs his chickens lay per week.
Ecology: one egg at a time
Walk up behind his black Jeep with its shining silver grill in the front and Purdue University decals winking through the windows, and he will walk down his porch steps wearing a black Purdue baseball cap and camouflage Army jacket to give you a tour in the snapping winter cold.
His barn red, 8-by-12 foot chicken coop is the first stop but last result of his work. There, 10 rather large chickens and one rooster nest in cubbies spilling hay. They are the last of 25 barred Plymouth Rocks Swinehart bought on June 25 from a hatchery in Pennsylvania. This heirloom breed is good for both eggs and meat, he says. An upside down tear-drop shaped patch of pin feathers behind a chicken's eye indicates whether the animal lays white or brown eggs. A patch means brown eggs. These all have patches, mottled black and white like their bodies.
"They're far better than what you get in the store," Swinehart says. "I was kind of skeptical when people told me that at first."
Squawks erupt from behind the coop's closed door while Swinehart fetches the rooster for closer inspection. He comes out calmly, rooster tucked under one arm.
His chickens lay about a dozen eggs per day. That number must double, he says, to meet demand generated by his post.
Swinehart currently feeds his chickens natural grain he has bought, but soon he will grow his own feed on four acres sitting about two hundred feet away from the coop.
He plans to farm the land and grind the grain using tractors, a harvester, plow, sickle mower and gravity bin, all antiques he has restored or will restore. None of his equipment is more new than 1942. He calls his farming a hobby, but junior biology major Chris Duncan said it fits something bigger: Swinehart's concern for conservation.
"Sustainable practices save land, save energy, and in the end save time and money," Duncan said. "It's just efficiency, really. I think we get caught up with, today, looking at short-term efficiency, using it and throwing it away, but that's short sighted."
Mechanics: restoring machinery
College employee Rich Day sold Swinehart a 1937 Farmall F-12. Day, Swinehart and mutual acquaintance Frank Bechler trade tractors and tips.
"We always talk and swap, and if they got any questions we try to help 'em out," Day said. "I don't belong to no club or anything. But if the question arises, we help each other out when we can. The old fellows do. We're not that old yet."
Swinehart's step quickens as he moves east around his bright, well-kept 1875 barn to display tractors surrounded by its cobblestone foundation, waiting in silence for spring. Here are two tractors, one rusted beyond belief, another nearly shiny as the day it was sold. A dusty set of blueprints lies on the seat of a stubbly, rust-brown tractor.
The shiny red 1942 McCormick-Deering Farmall H he bought for $400 from a friend. It had rusted outdoors for several years and would not run when Swinehart began working on it. Restoration required dismantling the machine and sanding, sandblasting or dipping in acid each part to smooth it for filling and painting.
"Every bolt and screw was out of this thing," Swinehart says in a torrent of words bursting dates, part names and details. He runs his hands over his machines and gestures to demonstrate their operation.
Swinehart guesses he spends roughly two hours each day renovating old farm equipment. He said his father "knew how to do everything," and taught him to work with engines and fix things in the house and yard.
"It's just not as easy as what most people think, putting some paint on it and there you go," Day said. "You have to rebuild engines usually. [Swinehart] seems to enjoy it. Lot of stuff nowadays you can't work on, not unless you have special tools. But with a hammer, pliers and a crescent wrench you could almost work on [antique tractors]."
Conservation: a philosophy of life
Swinehart points over his four acres of farmland, telling how a bulldozer leveled the ground from an ATV track. He built in a strip of prairie on one side of the rectangle to preserve a pheasant habitat, and left a line of trees growing along another side for a windbreak. He will plant heirloom feed corn and Indian corn seeds on this plot and spread chicken manure sparingly for fertilizer.
Biology classes with Swinehart such as ecology often discuss the relationship between humans and our environment, Duncan said. He said Swinehart lives his concern for the environment from sustainable agriculture to deer hunting. Since humans have displaced deer's natural predators, Duncan said, a true conservationist hunts to restore an imbalance in the deer population and enjoy "cheap, lean, red meat."
Swinehart closes his tour by mentioning how his mind joins conservation and sympathy with the Republican Party.
"Sometimes people feel if you're an environmental advocate, you're a left-wing liberal," he says. "But the political movement for conservation started with conservatives like Teddy Roosevelt. The two words are even related, and for good reason."
Will Swinehart raise his egg prices because people want more eggs than he currently can provide? He raises his eyebrows in surprise at the suggestion.
"Probably not," he says. "I want to see if I can, at a minimum, break even. Pay for my hobby."
He would invite you inside, he says, but he's remodeling and it's a mess in there.
For more pictures of eggs and tractors follow the link.
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