Category Archives: Uncategorized

It was super cool to download my digital edition of Small Town Living and see, smack dab in the middle of the publication, a story about the Alpaca Farm Girl Katie Spears. Check it out. Katie tells the story of how she first started thinking about raising these fuzzy creatures when her child got aContinue reading “Farmgirl Katie's Alpaca Adventure”

I think we managed to pick out our best tree ever. It’s a beautiful spruce from a tree farm in Spalding, Mich., which is practically Canada. Not exactly local. Oh well. We hauled it in from the sleet this afternoon, let it dry out a bit, then decorated it this evening. It’s the first timeContinue reading “It's Not a Village Without a Newspaper”

I don’t like turkey. I’ll eat it, but I don’t particularly care for it. I’ve even made it before and am getting better at seasoning the bird. I mainly endure it during the holidays when it’s served, then dream up as many ways of doing leftovers that I can think of to drown out theContinue reading “I Have a TXG Confession…”

If truck and plane deliveries ceased, Los Angeles would run out of food in just three days. On the flip side, if the Detroit area got just 20 percent of its fresh food from local sources, it would create 40,000 jobs. Wow. This according to a piece in Project for Public Spaces. I certainly agreeContinue reading “Here's a Disturbing Thought…”

Cast iron is the most awesome cookware. And the best part? There is no way I’m going to bust up this pie dish. After breaking at least three glass and ceramic pie plates and either losing or damaging my supposedly sturdy metal ones over the last five years, I hesitated to drop any more cash.Continue reading “Who Needs Fine Crafted Ceramic When You Have Cast Iron?”

Finally have my feet up after two days of running around, grocery shopping and menu planning. It’s really not so much menu planning as it is food transport since we’ll be at three pitch-in Thanksgiving meals in as many days. I pretty much have it all scheduled out, ingredients purchased and travel dishes at theContinue reading “Warming the Kitchen Up for the Holidays”

Mine haven’t. But it’s really only a matter of time. I’ve mapped out a place in the backyard for a chicken house and a run. But I’m not in any big hurry. My neighbors may beat me to it. Seems like backyard birds are all the rage. Thanks to a good friend, a New HavenContinue reading “Has Your Child Asked For a Pet Chicken Yet?”

A colleague sent me this video made by a woman about her mother, a Chicago-area farmer and food activist: Debbie Hillman. It’s a sweet little documentary and mommy tribute. Only takes about five minutes to watch. And if you like it, you can vote for it and help the filmmaker Saya and her mom winContinue reading “The 'Humble Strength' of an Urban Farmgirl”

Checked out this story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about a hog farmer who is spreading the gospel of “natural farming.” What does he mean by that? Well, with a growing demand for humanely raised and slaughtered animals, Russ Kremer has come up with a model via Ozark Mountain Pork Cooperative and Heritage Acres. TheContinue reading “Pig Farmer Takes on CFO Model. Is He Winning?”

I’ve been looking for a good UFO post since I noticed a dramatic uptick in traffic on VFG (for me anyway). The draw? A while back, I posted a note about a UFO seen over Kokomo, Ind. Apparently there was a program on HBO recently, UFO Hunters, and I’m getting a bunch of Google referralsContinue reading “Crop Circle Mystery Solved”