Author Archives: Virtual Farmgirl

Good news from a friend of VFG: There’s a new Butler Winery tasting room getting ready to open in Chesterton. I’ll be looking forward to that. I love that little artist’s community by the lake. Chesterton is full of suburban Chicago and NWI hidden treasures. Now back to American Idol.

I opened a bottle of Indiana Red from Butler Winery near Bloomington this week. I’d say it’s much better than my experience with the too-sweet Reggae Red. Indiana Red, on the other hand, is a nice, smooth table wine. Still a bit on the sweet side, but just about right for me. Butler Winery billsContinue reading “Hoosier Wine Update: Butler Winery”

I stumbled across this great Farmgirl feature in the Sunday Green Bay Press Gazette, “Women take the lead on more Wisconsin farms.” The piece notes that Wisconsin is among the top 10 states in which women are principals in farm operations. Deb Reinhart, who was the 2007 Dairy Woman of the Year at the WorldContinue reading “More Women than Men Enrolled in University of Wisconsin Ag Program?”

We ran out of milk over the weekend. So this got Future Farmboy wondering…”Why don’t we get a cow?” That would surely solve the problem. But I asked him where he’d put it. “In the backyard.” When I said that the cow would need shelter, he said daddy could build it a barn. When IContinue reading “Backyard Milk?”

If our schedules permit, we’re going to try to get it together to go to this Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse. It’s supposed to be the largest organic farming conference in the country with tons of workshops and more than a hundred exhibitors. If we go a day early, there’s an Organic University, withContinue reading “Ready for a Road Trip”

Finally, the iFarmer figured out where we were folding wrong to make a pressman’s hat. We can, however, now confirm that the incredible shrinking newspapers mean that the hats are truly child-sized. I doubt there were many full-grown pressmen who could fit these on their head… Folding and Instructions: On the old toy horse, withContinue reading “Eureka! A Pressman's Hat is Born!”

Apparently, I don’t know how to follow simple instructions. At least that’s the only conclusion I can possibly reach after going through whole sections of the newspaper to try to properly fold a pressman’s hat. [Pressmen used to fashion the hats out of newspaper to keep the ink that spewed out of the presses fromContinue reading “Easy as 1, 2, 3…But Not for Me”

Love this story by Laura Putre in the Chicago Reader about a former psychologist, turned used book store owner who chucked his city living for a farm in the Arkansas Ozarks. Great storytelling Laura. I read it all the way to the end, which is pretty amazing considering I have a pretty limited attention span.Continue reading “From Wicker Park to the Ozarks”

Now that I have my little tiny iPod Nano, I’ve been able to catch up a bit on my Geek Farm Life podcasts. I still have a ways to go, so I’m starting with podcast topics that might be useful. I started with the hallmark 100th Podcast on making soap. I have to admit thatContinue reading “Portable Farmlife Training on the Train”

Here are a couple of pix by Future Farmboy honoring Dr. King, or as Ben Harper called him, “Our picture of Jesus.” The pencil drawing was inspired by this coloring book sheet from school…