apples / carnival / local / reusable bags

How to Buy Locally: 9 Easy Steps

I’ve been working on my post for the APLS Carnival for a couple days now and it turned in to me blabbing on about reasons why buying locally is good, etc.,etc. I decided to put together something quick and basic instead. I’ll leave the philosophical parts to someone else. Assuming you support the idea of buying local products here are 9 easy steps to get you started:1. Get yourself some reusable bags. Ironically, you may not find these locally. You could always make them yourself, or the organizers of you local farmers’ market may have bags with their logo on them. My personal favorites are baggu bags, available on Amazon.com. There are several options out there so if you can’t find some locally look around online. It is still better than using plastic or taking new paper ones every time. Plus, a lot of vendors don’t even have bags. 2. Get organized! Find a spare little notebook in your desk or find a spot in your PDA for “local” contacts. When you find the one guy in 100 miles that grinds flour, you don’t want to lose his phone number! It helps if you have a place to store business

Continue reading
dogs / horses / sunday stroll

Sunday Stroll

So today I went strollin’, and this is what I saw. The leaves are so thick you can’t see the grass in a lot of spots. I’ve still got some peas trying to grow in the garden. I don’t think they’lll make it much longer. Temps are supposed to be down to 27 tonight. Here’s a bigger picture of the garden, all done now. That’s the asparagus there in the middle (I didn’t want anyone thinking my weeds were THAT tall!) Maci, enjoying the fall. And the horses. They were very happy to get a new round bale. Check out who else is strolling over at Quiet Country House. Also, thanks to Joyce, I’ll be mentioning something that I am thankful in each post this month, in no particular order. What a great way to carry the Thanksgiving spirit all the way through! Today I am thankful for my dogs. We have 3: Bear, Sam, & Maci. I appreciate having them around because they are always in a good mood and happy to see me, even when I’m crabby and not particularly nice to them. They keep us from being lazy by waking us up every day – there pretty

Continue reading
bread / carrots / challenges / chickens / local flour

Living Like A Pioneer

So in honor of Crunchy Chicken’s Pioneer Week I’m doing things a little different this week. The idea is to live as much like a Pioneer as you can by using local, non-processed goods and giving up some modern conveniences. For me this means no TV this week. I did watch the election coverage last night and I’m not avoiding my husband by leaving the room when he watches TV, but I am keeping my attention on my book (currently reading You Can Farm). I’ve also been baking like crazy. Honestly, I just pulled the last breads out of the oven and now the entire length of the counter is lined with homemade goodies. Today I finally got my first order of locally grown & ground flours from Hampshire Farms. Perfect timing for this challenge! The flour is definitely more coarse than store bought. The whole wheat bread flour didn’t work too well with the dough hooks in my mixer so I kneaded it by hand for the whole 10 minutes. I also got some pastry flour and cornmeal, so I made a pan of cornbread with dinner. I cooked pork chops from our local meat market where most of

Continue reading
president

Thank you

Just wanted to take time out to thank all the people who worked hard on this election and helped promote our future President. If you baked cookies, held fund raisers, registered people to vote, or even put a sign in your yard – THANK YOU! In the blog world I know Eco-burban worked hard on this election and I’m sure there are many others. On the other hand, if you promoted the opposing team – we’re thinking of you too. I can’t imagine what it must be like for someone who lived and breathed the campaign all these months to have a disappointing result. Please don’t let it get you down, there are still plenty of ways to get your opinion out there and make changes in your community. Even with the problems we have here, I am thrilled to live in a country were we have a right to freely express all our different opinions, and still be friends in the end of it.

Continue reading
cattle / venting

BIG CATTLE (Sorry, just have to vent!)

So I got this little gem in my inbox today from a close friend: *********************************** I’m sure those of you who aren’t in the cattle business don’t understand the issues here. But to those of us who’s living depends on the cattle market, selling cattle, raising the best be ef possible… this is frustrating. As far as my family, we don’t eat at McDonald’s much (Subway is our choice of fast food), but this will keep us from ever stopping there again, even for a drink. The original message is from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association American cattle producers are very passionate about this. McDonald’s claims that there is not enough beef in the USA to support their restaurants. Well, we know that is not so. Our opinion is they are looking to save money at our expense. The sad thing of it is that the people of the USA are the ones who made McDonald’s successful in the first place, but we are not good enough to provide beef. We personally are no longer eating at McDonald’s, which I am sure does not make an impact, but if we pass this around maybe there will be an impact felt.

Continue reading
apples / recipe

9 Things We Do With Apples

Sorry for the long gap in posts – I lost my internet connection for awhile this week. I have apples coming out of my ears and there is no end in sight – STILL! I thought I would share some of the things that we do with them around here to preserve the harvest. Here’s the list: 1. APPLE BETTYThis recipe was suggested by my mother-in-law and can be found in the Better Homes & Gardens “New” Cookbook (mine is definitely not new, more like 30+ years old). The recipe calls for 4 cups of apples so I peel and slice mine and freeze them in 4 cup portions. As you’re peeling drop them in some water & lemon juice to preserve the color, then drain & freeze. I don’t bother rinsing mine. Here’s the recipe: “Apple Betty Pie”4 cups sliced pared tart apples or 1 No. 2 can (2 1/2 cups) sliced pie apples, drained1/4 cup orange juice (I’ll skip this if we don’t have any)1 cup sugar3/4 cup all-purpose flour1/2 teaspoon cinnamon1/4 teaspoon nutmeg1/2 cup butter Mound apples in buttered 9″ pie plate, sprinkle with OJ. For topping: combine sugar, flour, spices, and dash salt. Cut in butter

Continue reading
farming / local / pumpkins / sugar / wal-mart

I Used to Love Wal-Mart

Yup, I used to love it. I remember when they opened a Super Wal-Mart about 20 miles away from where I grew up. It was the new cool place to go. After all, they were open 24 hours. That was when I was just starting to do my own grocery shopping and buy my own stuff. I would always get nervous at the checkout trying to organize my coupons and find my debit card, and I remember more than once having to put something back because I had miscalculated and gone over my meager budget. For all those reasons and more, my favorite time to shop was the middle of the night. I would go to bed early and get up at 3 or 4 to go. Besides, you couldn’t beat the traffic. I remember getting e-mails way back then encouraging me to “boycott” Wal-mart because of their crappy treatment of workers. I even read a great book in which the author experimentally tries to live on the wages she makes working for Wal-mart. That was awhile ago but I remember liking the book and would recommend it if you’re interested in such topics. I’m still not sure that I

Continue reading
independence days challenge / updates

Independence Days Challenge Update

Okay, time for an update: 1. Plant something. Well, I should be planting garlic. Instead, I’m about to order some. I kind of forgot now was the time to plant it until I saw the post about it over at Children in the Corn. So that’s next for planting. 2. Harvest something. We’ve been busy lately harvesting our cash crops (soybeans & corn currently) and doing all the fun stuff that comes along with that, such as paying crop insurance and deciding when to sell our bounty. Crop prices have been a big roller coaster with the economical issues going on lately.In my home garden I have vegetable spaghetti that needs to be picked and probably some peas. Our apple trees are finally done. 3. Preserve something. Ugg. I didn’t know canning season was so long. I’ve made a big dent in my apple stores but bought some more the other day. I’ve got 2 dehydrators going making apple chips and their is no room to even make a sandwich on the counter with all the cans of applesauce and pie filling. The end is near, I hope. Then I’ll be canning pumpkin. 4. Prep something. I finally got Brian

Continue reading
dogs / harvest / soybeans

Harvest, My First Farm Meal, & Pictures!

Okay since my memory card is full I think this is going to be picture week around here. I tend to snap pics with the intent to share and then never quite get there. But first – guess what!!? We harvested our very first soybeans on the new farm! We had 30 acres of them and they went 61 bushels to the acre. For those who aren’t familiar with farm terms: 1 bushel = 60 pounds 61 bushels to the acre is a very good yield, we haven’t heard any higher in the area so far, but there are lots of soys left to come off. I can’t help but think of the part in Omnivore’s Dilemma about yields increasing astronomically in the past 100 years. I am breathing a big sigh of relief because the payment from them will cover about 1/2 of our mortgage this year. If all goes well with the corn we should be just fine. So Saturday since Brian and the guys were working on our fields I felt obligated to make dinner for them. Normally the senior farmer’s wife provides meals for everyone who helps in the field. These meals range from ordering pizza

Continue reading