It all starts with a conversation.......

I have this horrible habit of getting the local newspaper out of the mailbox, scanning the front page for anything that looks interesting, and then throwing it away.  Rarely do i move past the front page.  I love the nostalgia of getting the paper in print and cant come to terms with switching to an online subscription.   A couple weeks ago I called my dad to ask him a quick question and at the end of our conversation he quickly threw in "hey be sure to look at the newspaper tonight in the page of opinion section."  My instant response is.......why?  He chuckles and says "oh it will just get your blood boiling."

I went home that evening, grabbed the newspaper, and quickly turned to the public forum section.  Inside was an article from a local lady with a clear passion and concern for food.  With the title of her article being "Avoid GMO's: Choose organic, chemical-free foods."  While I didn't allow myself to get worked up, I more so just felt bad that this lady had been clearly filled with false information.  Many of her claims and concerns were just not the truth.

While I sat there going over my options of rebuttal it quickly dawned on me that writing an article in the paper to clear up her claims wasn't really getting to the root of the issue.  I quickly turned to social media to seek out this lady.  I sometimes forget that not everyone in rural america understands agriculture and all that is entailed.  I sink into the thought of the "city people" are the only ones that don't get it.  But here is a lady that lives out in god's country of rural america.   I went to Facebook first and quickly found her and sent her a message.  It went like this.....

To my excitement she responded!  We set up a time to chat and I waited.....patiently......  While trying to decide my plan of attack I quickly realized I needed to go into this convo with no agenda to shove research at her.  For all she knew, her info was the correct info.  Their is no good ending to a research war.

As I spoke to the woman that following Saturday I opened the conversation by saying that I grew up in Ag, currently work in the seed industry, and would love to be a local resource for her to ask questions if she had any concerns.  While their was hesitation at first it didn't take long for her to open up and the questions just started flowing.  We discussed everything from gmos's, organic, spraying roundup on wheat, farm subsidies, and health issues.   She was shocked to hear that organic used pesticides and wasn't "chemical free".  She didn't realize that 80% of the farm budget went to food stamps and that every farmer didn't receive over $500,000 in subsidies.  (Wouldn't that be nice though!)  She was also surprised to learn that not all wheat in the US, actually very little, is sprayed with glyphosate pre harvest.

After over an hour of talking we found that we are both very interested in learning more about canning and she gave me tips on dealing with renters (as we now have a rental house) because she currently works in that area.  She even asked me to send her articles on the studies of gmo's because she said she clearly isn't able to find enough credible information.

I was extremely pleased with our conversation and we will be staying in touch and sharing information.  It quickly made me realize how far I have come in my agvocacy journey.  At the beginning I used to get so mad and quickly lash back with research and information instead of listening to the real concerns.  We are all human and sometimes all it takes is finding common interests that builds a little bit of trust and people will open up and actually listen to what you have to say.

Happy National Ag Day friends!!!

Farm to Plate with no guilt!

Last week I finally made it to the new(ish) Red Haven Restaurant that has been taunting me on social media with its amazing food pics for months!  What I found unique about this restaurant is that it advertised as farm to plate and is considered a small plates restaurant.  If you have never eaten at one of these the idea is small portions to share so you try multiple dishes among your couple or group.

You all know by now that I love anything that supports the farm and even local for that matter.  I was hesitant to what I would see when I went inside. I just imagined that since it sets right in the heart of East Lansing/Okemos, which for those of you that don't already know it is the epicenter of the one and only Michigan State University, their would be some agenda being pushed.  I assumed since local was their forte I would walk in to a menu that screamed organic, grass fed, hormone and antibiotic free, natural.....etc.   You get my point.  Having me sit there feeling guilty that I would rather have grain finished over grass fed and not caring if it was given hormones or antibiotics because I understand animal agriculture and trust those that raise my food and know they are doing what is best for the animal.

Once I walked in and looked around and got a good glance at the menu I was nothing but relieved, excited, and thankful!  None of my initial thoughts were validated.  I was able to try some amazing food and enjoy an atmosphere that didn't consist of fear marketing or pitting one industry against the other......Just good local food and for that Red Haven I THANK YOU!!!!!!

Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against organic, natural, hormone/antibiotic free etc.  They all have a place in this wonderful food system we have.  I just get annoyed when people use fear marketing to sell a product.  It was refreshing to go somewhere of that caliber and the only agenda being pushed was Local (first).

Now onto the important stuff..........the FOOD!!
My taste buds haven't been on this type of overload in quite some time.  Everything I tasted was out of this world delicious and just to help you understand I took pics of everything I consumed so you can drool and instantly want to make a reservation.

Disclaimer: I was so excited to try the food many of these pics may not be the best quality because all I cared about was getting the food into my mouth.

We started out with these 2; the ravioli stuffed with chevre with a butternut squash sauce.  I hate goat cheese because it legit tastes like a goats udder smells, but this was phenomenal.  The cheese was mild and the sauce was pretty much amazing.  We also tried the truffle fries with a poached egg on top.  Sounds crazy but dipping the fries into the yolk was delish and lets be honest......truffle makes everything better.

This was by far my favorite dish of the night! Mini fajitas however the sauce they used is what made this dish.  The steak was perfect and the peppers were the perfect pair. You must try this!!!

We then had what you might call the "main" dish.  We chose the salmon and chicken.  Here is the salmon with roasted brussel sprouts over mashed parsnips.  I don't know if any of you have had mashed parsnips but they were delish and could seriously give potatoes a run for their money.

This was the chicken......and if I had to choose this one beats the salmon.  Don't get me wrong the salmon was great but this stuffed chicken made my taste buds dance!!  Not only was the chicken phenomenal but the green beans and roasted cauliflower were just as amazing.

Dessert........what everyone waits for. Why don't we start with dessert?  For real.......

We ended the delicious meal with dessert and french pressed coffee.  Nothing beats french pressed coffee friends.  Trust me.  The top one I have no idea what it was called but just imagine a huge lucky charms marshmallow with whipped topping and fruit and a lemon drizzle on the bottom.....fancify it by 1000 and that is what we had.  It was bangin!  The bottom was called candy bar and it was chocolate with a mint creme and raspberry drizzle.....omg friends....omg.

All I can say is if you are up in Michigan near MSU campus you must try this place out!  I can't rave enough about it and will now make it a staple when I am in the area!  Thanks again Red Haven for such a great experience!!

Enjoy!

September Madness!

Is anyone out there?........  I apologize for my absence but the last couple of weeks have been crazy busy!  A couple of the days I literally have forgotten what day it was.  The saddest news I have to share is that it is currently 54 degrees and I don't think it will be getting much warmer.  Is summer really gone?  While my fat really enjoys this cool weather because I don't particularly like to sweat I do miss the warm 70 degree days.....is it really over already?

In other news.....
Our fair was last week and while the bad part about that is I had way too many sausage sandwiches and milkshakes along with the staple fair fries and 50 thousand other delicious delicacy's that you can only get during the fair.  The good part is that my nephew won Reserve Champion Market Steer!!

Preparing to make his debut in the ring

 Once fair was over I had a little more down time and in honor of finally getting to sleep in I had extra ambition to try out a new breakfast recipe.  I love pizza so having it for breakfast is pretty much a genius idea!  I had a left over thin crust pizza crust from one of those Little Caesars pizza kits (i'm sure you all have some as they are the only fundraiser kids do anymore i swear!)  I basted it with olive oil and baked it for 10 min.  Meanwhile i scrambled up 8 eggs and cooked some bacon and ground beef so when the crust was done I loaded it up with egg and meat and topped with cheese and put back in oven for 5 minutes.....viola!

Pretty much amazing!

Last but not least....

I don't know why I have spent my last 10-12 years of my life using tweezers from walmart that cost approx $1.99 and wondering why they don't work?  It never dawned on me that perhaps all tweezers were not made equal?  Well my life was changed last night.  On a random trip to town with my sister I quickly realized at checkout that I forgot tweezers as mine have disappeared somewhere (I bet they are out in shop as hubs used them for god knows what).  My sister in all her glory was like "revlon slanted fine tip, get those"......what does that even mean?  I sprint to the makeup isle, grab what seemed to be closest to her description and run back to checkout...... $10.99 LATER!!!!!  Who buys tweezers for $11? Well friends, one I got home I decided to try them out on my eyebrows which seem to be growing a winter mane and have I never been so impressed with an $11 purchase in my life!!  Ladies stop wasting your time like myself using the $1.99 walmart tweezers and using both hands to try to pinch them together tight enough it may just pull something out and go get yourself some worthy tweezers......you can thank me later.  :)

Enjoy!

The life of a corn seed: Part 1

It has been a little while since I got to blog, mostly due to the fact the it is prime planting time and for someone that sells seed this is quite a busy time to say the least.  Driving around dropping off seed to customers and putting in test plots takes up quite a bit of time.  While putting in a test plot last week I thought it was the perfect opportunity to start a series of what all phases a corn seed goes through from start to finish and all the different things applied to it to help it grow. 

Many people have preconceived ideas about certain companies forcing people to do certain things and farmers just spray chemicals on seed all year round.  Why not show exactly what DOES happen to a corn seed?  Now granted this may not be what all farmers practice but I have chosen one of my customers and you will get a first hand look at what all is applied and why!

First they work the ground to make sure it is all nice and smooth and the big clumps of dirt are broken up.  It also helps with weed control by ripping up the weeds and killing them.  Now like stated not all farmers work ground.  Many farmers practice no-till in which they don't work the ground.

Next we put the seed into the planter.  This farmer chose a seed that is corn borer, earworm, armyworm, and cutworm protected as well as rootworm protected.  That makes this seed genetically modified to protect against these insects.  The reason this farmer chose those protections was because he has had these insects cause a problem in the past.  A farmer could easily lose a whole crop to an insect so to have this protection in the seed is insurance for the farmer.  It is like having a tomato plant and coming out and seeing a bunch of tomato worms have eaten the whole plant and ruined the tomatoes.....not a good day.  Being able to protect these plants from those insects is huge for farmers.  Granted not all farmers have these insects present and therefor do not need to use the technology.

You will also notice that there are 2 different colors of seed.  There are green and some small amounts of purple.  The purple seed is what we call refuge seed.  Refuge seed is not genetically modified with Bt traits which are the insect protection.  The purpose of the refuge is prevent pests from becoming resistant to the technology. 

Before heading off to plant the farmer added talc to the bins of seed to act as a lubricant.  As the temp warms up along with humidity the chance for seeds to stick together and bridge up increases.  When that happens seeds can fall inconsistently which then can effect yields come harvest.  This keeps that from happening!

Last but not least we head to the field and plant the corn seeds into the ground!  Nothing like some sunshine and 75 degrees to get the corn growing.  We also made sure the soil temp was at least 55 degrees to ensure the corn seed would grow.

Stay tuned to watch the different stages of growth and to see what gets applied to help this corn grow. 

Enjoy!