Thank You!

Ag Bloggers Communicate -- In Defense of Food, Land and Our Children

Wow. Go pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea, turn off the radio, and clear your schedule for 15 minutes. You're gonna want to read this without interruption.

This farmer's wife blogger is part poet and says the things I would like to but can't even begin to. If you've ever wondered about the motivation and the thinking that drives a farmer, you need to read this. There's even a bit part about how the farmers have never set their own prices, which reminds me that I haven't addressed Mulchandmore's question about dairy prices.

Ready? Click here.

Still No Harvest

Combines have begun working all around us, now that things are drying up from the recent monsoon season. We do not have tracks to put on our combine, so we wait for further drying, or for a neighbor to finish with his fields so that we can hire him (and his tracks) to do the job.

It's a difficult time, knowing the snow (which will make harvesting impossible) will come soon, yet having to wait. There is plenty to do, but the thought is always there--will we get it off? Last year an entire field of corn had to be left in the fields, and was winter fodder for the deer. Nothing was left, come spring.

The weatherman predicts dry and warm. Perfect weather. Here's hoping...

Friday Fun Farm Facts Follow-up

I recently posted on the fact that most US farms are family farms here. Pam left a comment:

Wow! I had no idea. This is actually very happy news. Giving a shout out to small family farms! I shopped at our local farmers market last Saturday for the last time this year and I was sad that it was the last time til summer.

(and what is it...the media? marketing? that makes us city folk think most farms are big corporations now?)

Well, our farm is a corporation. We farm 160 acres, small by most standards. We have one employee (The Farmer). But if you want the statistics to lean in a certain direction, you could say we are a corporate farm.

I suppose the same is true of the statistics that I posted in the Friday Farm Fun Facts linked above. A family corporation could farm thousands of acres and involve 8-10 people spanning 3 generations. It could be a huge operation. But it's still a family farm. So lesson #1 is always take statistics with a grain of salt.

Lesson #2 might be that while farms are mostly family operations, the businesses we buy our seeds and supplies from and sell our products to are NOT. In some peoples' minds it's too much trouble to distinguish between the two sectors. So everything is lumped together under agribusiness. Very tidy to deal with if you're a journalist or activist. Think of another industry--say tourism--and start imagining all the different types of jobs that fall under that umbrella. Everything from the hotel moguls to the entertainment crew at the theme park to the cab driver in the destination city. Are they the same? No. Is it convenient to lump them all together? Yes. And in the "lumping" you lose some clarity in communication.

And finally, now that your eyes are glazing over, there is a very real set of folks who would like to put animal agriculture out of business. The Hum^ane Soc^iety of the US (not affiliated with your local shelter) and P^E^T^A* have on their unstated agenda to at least eliminate animal agriculture, and maybe even make everyone eat only non-meat foods. I don't have a problem at all if you would like to eat vegetarian or vegan. Your food choices are your business. And I, too, would like my food choices to be my business. I would like to be able to choose to eat meat if I want to, and raise food for those who also choose to eat meat. They would like to take this choice away, or at least make it very painful or costly.

*I put those symbols in so that hopefully this post won't show up in their google searches--I would rather remain somewhat incognito to these people.

Herb Lamb Stew in the Slow Cooker

Disclaimer: I am not the greatest cook, and it's not something I enjoy very much. I tend to make the favorite 7 or 8 meals over and over again. But occasionally I step out of my comfort zone and try something new (because I like being married, KWIM?). I am a by-the-book cook, and find it scary to tweak recipes.

But this tweaked recipe worked well, so I'll share it here.

Herb Lamb Stew in the Slow Cooker

2 lbs. lamb stew meat
1 large onion, cut in chunks
6-10 small red potatoes
4-5 carrots, cut in chunks
1-2 ribs celery, cut in chunks
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup red wine (I used a cheap merlot)
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. thyme
2 bay leaves
6 Tbsp. Minute Tapioca
12-16 oz. of canned tomatoes*

Layer all in the slow cooker in order. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours.

*I used 12 oz. of a chunky salsa from last year that we didn't like--I'm trying to use it up by cooking with it. We tend to not like quite to much liquid in our stew, so I opted for much less canned tomatoes than the recipe called for. You could easily go upwards of 16 oz. if you like lots of tomatoey liquid.

No, I didn't take photos. We were hungry! Besides, who can compete with the photos in cookbooks and on cooking blogs? You'll just have to use your imagination...