"HON, WHY IS THEIR PLUG SPAWN IN OUR REFRIGERATOR?"

Yes, I placed my order for seeds for the garden last month and they are starting to arrive!  Yay!  I now am storing plug spawn in my refrigerator and the seeds continue to arrive every day, it seems.  Very excited about this year's plantings! I've got some new items like totally purple carrots that are purple inside and out!  A hop vine, grapes, a cherry tree, Yin Yang Beans and of course the plug spawn, which is to grow mushrooms!  Yay!  Mushrooms!  I've got a ton of old logs laying around and thought that, because we love mushrooms and only one person really sells them at market, it would be a good investment to make and product to sell.

I decided to go with seedlings this year for the tomatoes, peppers and other crops instead of growing them myself.  Much easier and they arrive when they need to be planted and all I have to do is put them in the ground. Easy, schmeezy! I like the easy button.

PIG, ROASTING BY AN OPEN FIRE

SCORE! WHY WOULD YOU SHOP ANYWHERE ELSE????

This is my score of items from my last two trips to farmer's market.  Tell me - if you can get this great, locally grown, no pesticides, hormones, nastiness and know the farmers who grew/raised it?  Why the heck would you go to a supermarket???

The other week I even went into the local co-op/health food store, with all it's organic items, I thought I could find items more organic and local for the Dark Days Challenge I am doing.  I was looking for similar things I could buy at market but couldn't even find what the market had to offer, not even close! and it was considerably more expensive. I bought just a few things and it came out to $40!  not to mention only about $15 was from a local farmer.  Not good enough for me!  So look at this score:

Jan 2012:
1 lb beef, mushroom and swiss brats
4 lbs bacon
5 onions
2 tomatoes (yes - TOMATOES in Jan, in MN)
1 very large cucumber
2 lbs sweet potatoes
1 lb beets
3 lb pork chops
6 beef sticks
2 lbs carrots

all for - are you ready for this???     $52!  yes, I said $52!

Feb 2012:
2 lb carrots
3 tomatoes
1 lb green beans (yes - green beans in Feb - in MN)
1 1/4 lb beets
2 lbs sweet potatoes
2 lbs onions
2 cucumbers
1/2 lb salad greens
1 1/2 lb grass-fed beef steaks
2 1/2 lb bacon
1 lb ground grass-fed beef
1 lb hamburger patties
1 lb free-range lamb for kabobs
1 lb beef, mushroom, swiss cheese brats (they were soooo good last month I had to buy them again)
4 lbs pork chops
1 1/2 lbs chicken thighs
1 lb summer sausage
6 beef sticks

all for - are you ready???   $83!  yes, $83!  Now why - I mean why??? would you buy from a grocery store?  Soon, i am going to the store and try to purchase all these same items, albeit they will be nasty, factory farm meat and veggies, which is NOT the same, but see if they all cost about the same or cheaper.  I'm on a mission…. from farmers.

WHAT IS A PROCESSED CHEESE FOOD PRODUCT? AND WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO EAT IT?

Just a question I put out there on Facebook and this is some of the answers I got:

• Tracy van Eijl I know it is NOT cheese.

  53 minutes ago ·  ·  1
• 

  Lindsey Danger Hobbs it is a synthetic product that has the main qualities of cheese : mouthfeel, meltableness, spreadableness, taste with an increased shelf life. depending on how you view food, this can be a good or a bad thing. :-/

  45 minutes ago ·  ·  1
• 

  Taylor Huston A waste of time and brain space. Just say no

  42 minutes ago ·  ·  1
• 

  Dawn Sanborn My cat Cheeto - is named after a processed cheese food product!

  38 minutes ago · 
• 

  Becca Stiles-Nogosek What's cheeto made of?

  11 minutes ago · 

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Now this is what more people should be concerned about!  What really is their food made out of?  Why can't you just buy FOOD?  Food is grown not made. 

  
  

  
  

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE

more info here

I've been kinda ignoring my Dark Days Challenge with being gone so much and all this work coming my way, I decided last Thursday night would be the challenge for me, but the problem was: I was running low on items and because I missed the last market due to my birthday celebration and the "day after the night before syndrome" caused by one thing: sake bombs! (I don't want to talk about it!) I failed to get up and get some more items from market to sustain us through these dark days of winter. So needless to say, there wasn't much in the freezer/cupboard to choose from.

I dug through the freezer anyway looking for some type of local meat, and ransacked the pantry to find what ever I had left for veggies.  Luckily I did find some leeks in the bottom of the crisper drawer that I had picked up a long time ago that were still good (see? you buy locally and the food doesn't go bad in two weeks - I think I bought these back in December!)

I also had some beets I found buried under some potatoes in the basket and found some pork chops in the bottom of the chest freezer in the garage.  I decided to fire up the grill (nice weather this winter) and get them cookin'.

Not only do pork chops taste better in the winter when you grill them, but they look good too!

GRILLED PORK CHOPS WITH 

SAUTEED LEEKS AND BEETS SEASONED WITH ROSEMARY

 Nummy, nummy, nummy! (and all grown within 20 miles of my house!) 

THESE CHICKS ARE HOT! *update*

Time lapse of nearly 2 months and how fast a chicken grows!

Dec 15, 2011

Dec 15, 2011

Jan 15, 2012

Feb 8, 2011

Yes, they grow REALLY fast! Now my trouble is - when to put them out side with the other chickens?  

They don't have quite enough feathers on them just yet, and they are not making too much of a mess down there in the basement of the granary.  I am planning on turning off the heat lamp soon - soon after this 10 degree cold front moves on!  It's been such an amazing mild winter with temps sometimes reaching the 40's - 50's that I could've moved them out doors a while ago, but they were just too small.

As much as I love this winter - I am afraid we will be paying for it this summer in hay prices and dryness, low water tables and so on.  Maybe we'll get a huge downfall of rain in the spring to make up for the lack of precipitation this winter.  I'm ok with that. I like not having to dress up like an eskimo to do chores.

But for now, my new baby chicks will have to stay warm under their heat lamp.  Next week it's supposed to get back up into the 30's, plus of course they will have more feathers by then too. 

: )

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE

More info here.

Work has been plentiful this month and I am really enjoying it! So needless to say, bloggin' gets put on the back burner.  Honestly - I think I could post 4 times a day with all the things that happen here, but I'm lazy sometimes. Ha!

So here's the Dark Days challenge I missed a couple weeks ago.  Since I was gone to Illinois that week and the challenge of the month was Valentines Day Treats (and if any one knows me - I shy away from cookies, cakes, pies, etc as much as possible - my thighs jiggle enough)  - I passed on that challenge.

We had a couple of good friends over for dinner that night, Kari & Ryan, and in exchange for me taking an image for my Ryan's next play poster, he made me dinner! Ryan is a very talented writer and actor and I am always willing to help out a friend, and yes, ya know I am a sucker for food, you can pay me in food anytime!

This is what we produced out in the studio!
 of course with some help from a great graphic artist.

We made a fine dinner of grilled local pork chops, with a sweet potato mash made by Kari with local carrots and raisins, and served with a colorful salad of spinach, local tomatoes and cucumbers.  Nummy, nummy!

The pork chops were from Hidden Stream Farms - Elgin, MN.

Sweet potato mash made from local sweet potatoes from Whitewater Gardens and included local apples from Seekap Orchards, Rochester.

Spinach salad with cucumbers and tomatoes from Whitewater Gardens as well.

We had a fine Chilian Carmenere, although not locally made - locally bought and from an organic winery.  Does that count?

We were having a good time with locally grown, excellent food and fun, wonderful friends, what more could anyone ask for?

She loves him, really she does!