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Biz Bites: New snack; geese control
Snacks for man and beast
A Leesburg woman has an interesting way to cut back on shopping: Buy the same snack for your dog, your horse and yourself.
Marisol Fernandini-Gaffney has devised an organic cookie made from oats, honey, flour and several other simple ingredients. It's tasty enough to satisfy the snack-attack needs of most mammals.
“My horse and dog love them,” she said.
Fernandini-Gaffney's company is called Toats, which started production of the cookies in January.
The snacks, which are being marketed to people and animals, are available online, but Fernandini-Gaffney is trying to convince local stores to carry them. She's already had some success, with Leesburg Pharmacy selling the cookies for $10 a box.
Fernandini-Gaffney is proud of the fact that her company is green and organic. She said she cleans her kitchen exclusively with organic products and wraps the cookies in biodegradable packaging.
As for the ingredients, there is not a single poly-this or gluto-that listed on the box.
“I'm not reinventing the wheel,” she said. “These are ingredients that have been around for millenniums. It is all very basic.”
To learn more, see www.toatsorganic.com.
Permit to kill geese available
Virginia farmers whose crops are being damaged by Canada geese can for the first time apply for a permit to kill the animals.
Called the Agricultural Depredation Order, the federal act authorizes landowners, operators and tenants engaged in commercial agriculture to use lethal methods to control Canada geese populations.
"Geese can strip a field bare by plucking the young plants out of the ground,” Todd Haymore, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said in a statement. “They eat crops and grain, and where they occur in large enough numbers, they can raise the fecal bacterial levels in water supplies.”
The permit is free and can be applied for by calling 804-739-7739.
Geese may not be killed using hunting methods such as decoys and calls.
To learn more, see www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/waterfowl.
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