Author Archives: Virtual Farmgirl

I was so excited this week to see a Tweet late yesterday from my friend Ron. It was shorty, even for a Tweet: My house was a barn. This farmgirl could not resist following that link. Here’s the photo from Flickr: The historic photo is of Ron’s street in Wichita, Kansas. In the photo isContinue reading “Were You Raised in a Barn? This Family Can Say, "Yes!"”

The iFarmer has a new job, so we’ve been making an adjustment in our routine. I did some advance planning so that our meals wouldn’t suffer, which made me wonder why I haven’t been doing menu planning all along. The first thing I did was dust off a crock pot cookbook that Urban Dweller giftedContinue reading “Holy Mole, This Was an Easy Recipe”

Yay. It appears my nomination of Terry Himelick and Victory Acres in Upland, Ind., has been accepted by the editors of White House Farmer. Check out the description of Victory Acres and see the other 74 nominees on the site so far. Nominations are only open until Jan. 31, so if you have someone inContinue reading “Hoosier Now in the White House Farmer Nominee Mix”

I’m loving that this site — White House Farmer — has been established to help answer the call of Michael Pollen, who urged then-President-elect Barack Obama to appoint a First Farmer. The idea would be that this sustainable-loving, eco-friendly, progressive idealist would plow a few acres on the White House lawn and show the worldContinue reading “My Vote for First Farmer Goes to…”

If you’re a movie buff and have pretty much seen most of the hot flicks getting all the Academy Award press, Tree Hugger reminds us that there are plenty more films that have flown below the Oscar radar. Five actually.I’ve only seen two of them: Food Fight and King Corn. Both are definitely worth screening.Continue reading “Five Oscar Should-Be Honorees You May Have Missed”

All of my family’s recipe books…at least the ones with the best, comfort-food recipes, rely on shortening. These include the ubiquitous church cookbooks that are filled to the brim with recipes for casseroles, sweet breads and cookies. The problem is that in my trans-fat free home, I can’t use shortening. At least I haven’t beenContinue reading “What Happened to Crisco's Promise to Eliminate Trans Fats?”

Finally a good sign for sustainable agriculture from the Obama administration. Last week, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s political blog noted that Obama’s transition officials have been in touch with one of VFG’s heroes, Will Allen. As you’ll recall, Allen is the recipient of a $500K MacArthur Genius Grant and is the founder and CEO ofContinue reading “Team Obama Calls on Urban Farm Expert for an Ag Chat”

This may be one of the scariest stories I’ve read about food, “The New White Meat: Raising Chicken Nuggets in a Petri Dish” in the latest issue of New York magazine. The story bills this as a major scientific advancement that could end the world’s reliance on, you know, dirty nasty, environmentally unfriendly livestock. TheContinue reading “No, Really? Chicken Nuggets From a Petri Dish? Yes, Really.”

If Google had groupies, I’d probably be one…even though the mega world-dominating company scares me a bit. Google is my search engine of choice. VFG’s on Google’s Blogger. I manage my blog photos on Picasa and I use Google Analytics as a backup (I only prefer Sitemeter because it’s real time). So when I learnedContinue reading “Rock Star Google Chef Serves Slow Food Fast”

I realize I’m a little late to the table, but I’ve finally started reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. I’m excited to finally read this book, a work that’s clearly had so much influence on how and what Americans eat. With excitement comes a certain amount of fear, which wasContinue reading “Food…It's What's For Dinner”