Saying Goodbye to Dana

When was the last time you went to a funeral that ended with wild applause? I don't think the honoree, Rev. Dana Ferguson, would have had it any other way.

Just a few moments before the standing-room-only crowd (about 1,200 or 1,500) began clapping, there probably wasn't a dry eye in the house.

It's just so unnatural to watch two beautiful young boys follow behind their mother's casket. Heartbreaking.

Except for a few moments of laughter celebrating her life, it was a pretty somber service. Dana had handpicked just about every detail of her funeral, the Psalms, readers, preachers, and music, down to a special request for 4th Church's phenomenal Morning Choir and Tower Brass.

Rev. John Buchanan delivered a powerful sermon, half eulogy, half message. A bagpiper, playing Amazing Grace, led the funeral procession out of the church.

We were asked to hold back for the postlude: a raucous New Orleans brassy arrangement of "Just a Closer Walk With Me."

Hilarious. A fitting tribute to Dana Ferguson Myers.

Dr. Buchanan noted that Dana's last sermon was on April 20, about the stoning of Stephen.

I'll leave you with this excerpt:

[L]ife is a gift. It is a gift that comes to us free and clear. At the beginning of it we are given no guarantees or warranties or agreements. Unfair is when we’ve been assured one thing will happen and another does. But that isn’t the case here. There is a promise that comes with life in Christ and it is this: "I will be with you always." That’s it. That’s the promise. And it's the here and now for which we continually strive. But it doesn’t end there. It goes on eternally. Jesus says to the disciples, "When I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also." When all is done here on earth, all isn't done for us with Christ. In fact, all is made complete.

Whew. Turns Out the FFA is Still Very Much Into Farming

Good news 4-H Champ and anyone who was surprised by the FFAers who told my future farming kin in Indy last week that the FFA wasn't about farming anymore and instead was about business (not even agri-business).

Why would an FFA member deny farming and not even talk about agriculture to a group of would-be FFAers?

Julie Adams, FFA's national spokeswoman, has a few answers (though none of them really addressed why FFA members wouldn't more clearly be able to articulate the ag-connection).

First, she notes in a message to VFG that FFA isn't an extra-curricular activity or club. Indeed, FFA is intra-curricular, which means that as a core requirement, members need to be enrolled in agriculture courses to be involved.

I had asked if one of the reasons for the answer might be that FFA was more focused on youth development, than agricultural education.

Julie says: "[T]he short answer to your question is that no, FFA is not shifting its focus toward general business and youth development."

Like many farmers and folks in the ag industry, the FFA is faced with a common misperception of the word agriculture.

"We believe Agriculture in its largest sense encompasses production farming, biotechnology, food and commodity processing, marketing, and multiple other careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture," she says. "We all realize that we stand on the shoulders of those men and women who work the land, enabling Americans to enjoy the safest, most abundant and most affordable food supply in the world."

And here's something that Julie said that I believe too, that "by educating young people and adults alike – by opening their eyes to all the ways agriculture touches their lives – we help instill in them respect for those who produce the food, fiber and natural resources that fuel our nation."

Sound familiar? I think I may have said something like that a few times here.

So anyway. The long and the short of it is this.

Is the FFA still into farming?

"Yes," says Julie. "FFA will continue to recognize an American Star Farmer every year, along with American Stars in Agriscience, Agribusiness and Agricultural Placement. We will continue to confer more than 3,000 American FFA Degrees to the best and brightest of our members each year."

Remembering a Light in the City

Our prayers go out tonight for the family, friends, 4th Pres co-workers and the people touched by the faith, love and devotion radiated by Rev. Dana Ferguson.

We were sad to learn today that Dana died Monday of heart failure brought on by complications from cancer treatments. She was only 42.

Our hearts ache for Dana's husband, Rev. Wayne Myers and their two boys.

Our prayer is that they are comforted by the fact that she lives in all of us, all of those whose lives she touched and that she is at peace.

BTW...if you want a good read, check out some of Dana's sermons online in the 4th Church archive.

You know it takes a special kind of brilliance to be able to deliver a powerful sermon that asks, "What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?"

Indeed it is, she concluded in this 2002 Ash Wednesday message: "[J]ourney on to Jerusalem and Golgotha not only to repent but also to receive from a God with outstretched arms waiting to receive us, waiting to love us, waiting to redeem us. Go out now to turn yourselves around. For that is what it’s all about!"

Just One More Kid Video, I Promise...

I couldn't resist. We call this one "Screech," for obvious reasons.

Blast from the Past

Just found this buried in an old file. So cute:

Ready for a Food Fight?

I'm getting excited about movie night this week because by Friday I should have my advance copy of Food Fight, a documentary about agricultural policy and food culture in the 20th Century.

I expect we'll see Michael Pollan and Alice Waters front and center in the film, but I won't know until I watch it.

There's a trailer here and the promoters have a facebook page to create some buzz.

My favorite quote from the snippet is this, "Social activism can be making a good meal."

Now that's my kind of counter-revolution.

The free movie screening is at 3:15 p.m. Nov. 8 at Mann Chinese 6 on Hollywood Blvd. Too bad I'll miss that. Maybe they'll schedule a screening in Chicago or Indy.

Farming Future Secure With These Young Innovators

Still no word from the FFA.

I sent the national organization an e-mail noting the exchange that 4-H Champ and family had with FFA conventioners this past weekend. I had hoped for at least a form message telling me that FFA still accomplishes its goals with an underlying agriculture teachings. No such luck.

Meanwhile, I've been reading through the local reporting on the convention and am heartened to see that on the awards stage, agriculture connections still matter. No doubt about it.

Here's a roundup of the best of the best:

This may be my favorite award and I'd love to see some pix: the Chevron Delo Tractor Restoration Competition. According to this painfully short brief in the Eufaula, Ala., Tribune, the Eufaula High School FFA Chapter won first place. A little more detail here in Hoosier Ag Today about runners up from Nappanee.

Crowned Star in Agribusiness was college student Jason Hanstedt, who owns and operates a tree removal and wood recycling business he started when he was a freshman in high school. (See story in Wisconsin Ag Connection.)

The 2008 American Star in Agricultural Placement is Derek Lowrey, who is a farm manager of a dairy operation in Missouri, according to this Trenton Republican-Times piece.

I had to go to the FFA site to find the name of the American Star Farmer (is anyone reporting on agriculture in Oklahoma?). The '08 winner is Travis Schnaithman, who thought about giving up farming before going to college. "I feel like when I went to college, I didn’t know if I could keep on farming," the Oklahoma State University student is quoted saying in a release. "But the fire inside of me kept burning and I knew that I couldn’t stop. It's important that you never let anyone or anything talk you out of something you like doing or squash your dreams."

Speaking of squash...

Special applause goes to Farmgirl Laura Bruner, who was this year's American Star in Agriscience. Early in FFA, the Buckeye began researching the genetic potential of a variety of squash that she believes could alleviate world hunger because it is cheap and easy to maintain, according to Ohio Ag Connection.

Here's the golden quote from Laura, "I have come a long way from the high school freshman who did not want to be in FFA. I would not be where I am in my life or who I am today if I had not joined FFA. I have become both confident in who I am, my skills and abilities."

So there you have it 4-H Champ. Rest assured, there's plenty of farming left in the FFA.

Photo taken by 4-H Champ at this year's FFA convention in Indianapolis.

FFA Not Into Farming Anymore? What's Up With That?

I received this curious dispatch today from 4-H Champ, who's been enjoying a fall trip with family through the Hoosier state.

While touring, they witnessed a blue-jacket invasion, some 53,000 Future Farmers of America in Indy for their national convention.

But is the FFA even about farming these days? Or are members shunning their ag roots?

TO: VFG

FROM: From Farmgirl in the Field

Indy Invaded by FFA

Everywhere I looked navy, corduroy jackets spilling from downtown Indianapolis attractions. Future Farmers of America (FFA) members were joining together for a conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.

It seemed every state in the union was represented. This "Farmgirl" regrettably did not keep a tally chart though. Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, California and more showed off their FFA seals on their backs.

While on a mini fall vacation, two of my daughters and I took a trip with my sister and friends to visit Connor Prairie, the Children's Museum and the Zoo.

Every location those FFAers were represented.

Banners lined the streets to welcome these farmers of the future.

The children with us (ages 11-2 years old) wanted to know who those boys and girls in blue were?

Being investigative in nature, I approached a seemingly friendly group of FFA girls who were eating their dinner in the food court of Circle Center mall. I began, "Tell these children what being in FFA is all about as they are very curious...."

Being both critical and a kindergarten teacher, I was disappointed with their long-winded, lofty response that left the children completely clueless and me confused.

What disturbed me most was the FFAer that said that the FFA was not about farming anymore. It is about business. Great.

I said,"Ag business?" "No," she said.

Virtual Farmgirl...please get to the bottom of this!

Future FARMERS of America ... no longer farming?

Can this be? What is going on?

Very good question 4-H Champ. I'm just as confused.

The FFA's national website notes that it's dedicated to developing leadership skills through "agriculture education."

But if the kids involved are denying that premise, it's a disappointment. My bet is that most of the activity in FFA is about youth development and that this "through agriculture education" business is often secondary. I hope that's not the case.

Urban Ag Backup Plan

So if my canning class falls through because not enough folks register by Sunday, I'm looking at an alternate activity this fall.

On Nov. 8, at the Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ, there's going to be a class on...hold your breath...backyard chicken management. I could hardly contain myself when I saw the note on the Chicago Locavore blog.

The post reiterates the raising chickens for pets and eggs is legal in Chicago.

And experts from Chicago and from the Ottawa-based Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm will share tips "on how to keep both your chickens and your neighbors happy."

All I can say is: Awesome.

Here's the Soup Recipe

This is for Chase...and because I'm feeling too icky to blog anything else.

Espanola Butternut Squash Soup

Extra virgin olive oil
1 Medium Butternut Squash, peeled and chopped
1 large sweet onion, chopped
2 large carrots, sliced into small pieces
1 stick of salted butter
1/2 cup white wine
pinch of sage
pinch of herbes de Provence
1-1/2 tablespoon salt
1 heaping tablespoon New Mexico green chili or ancho to taste
6 cups of stock (or enough to cover)

Add olive oil and half of butter to heavy pot; add onions and some of the salt. Cook until translucent; add wine and cook on medium heat for several minutes until the alcohol cooks off; add chopped carrots and squash; add sage, herbes and stock. Cook until squash breaks apart with a fork; add chili, more salt/pepper to taste. Puree with hand blender or puree in batches in a blender.

Note: The carrots take longer to cook than the squash, so be sure to cut them into small pieces. I think if you have a store-bought carrot, you may want to use more of them. I had organic carrots from a local farm, which were extremely flavorful.

This was a pretty creamy recipe, especially with the butter and chicken stock I used. If you're using vegetable stock or broth, you may want to add more fat, maybe milk/cream.

Fall Canning Class in Danger

Bad news. My canning class for the first weekend in November is in danger of cancellation.

Apparently there just isn't a ton of interest in pickles & chutneys. Me, on the other hand, I couldn't wait and have already been stocking up on chutneys when I find them.

They're fantastic for marinades and to kick up salsa.

We only need four more people. So if you're close enough to Chicago and want to learn how to pickle, check out the registration info.

BTW...I love the Chicago Locavore logo for the canning event.

Farmgirls: Ready. Aim. Shoot!

Agriculture Online is sponsoring a photo contest as a way to promote its new social network.

Yes, a social network for farmers: Farmers for the Future. It's pretty new. It would have to be if I'm Member No. 26...as if I need to develop one more online profile. It's yet another Ning community, but I couldn't resist.

I haven't tricked out my page yet. That may have to wait until I get bored with My (facebook) Farm.

I will probably start with pix...any photos uploaded are automatically entered into the contest. Clever idea.

Farmgirl straw hat tip to Women in Ag.

What's in Your Fridge? 'Food Fighters' Bare All

The good thing about insomnia is that it gives me time to catch up on blog posts and small farming websites that I've neglected.

While tooling around, I realized I missed an entire section of the NYT's Magazine devoted to "Food Fighters" earlier this month.

The Food Fighters featured in a slide show include one of my favorite farms to watch: Maverick Farms , an education oriented farm in North Carolina.

I also have a new hero: Farmgirl/filmmaker Severine von Tscharner Fleming. She created Serve Your Country Food, a site devoted to tracking farmers younger than 40, a fast-growing population.

I love the audio that goes with the show. The foodies profiled talk about what they have in their refrigerators.

No surprise that Tom Philpott, of Maverick, has his fridge loaded with farm fresh goodies from his place and from neighboring operations.

I wonder if the food photographer showed up unannounced. I'd be horrified if someone starting taking shots of the innards of my fridge. God only knows what's really back there.

Test Kitchen Success: Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

Even on day two, my Española Butternut Squash is, if I may say so myself, excellent.

I couldn't find a recipe I liked after my butternut purchase at the farmers market this weekend, so I decided to enter uncharted territory...at least for me.

The recipes calling for fennel and the like didn't seem appealing. Instead, I infused my soup with homemade chicken stock, sage and, the key ingredient: New Mexico green chili powder.

[I'm lucky to have a baggie left from one of the River Runner's visits. He used to bring us dry ice-packed fresh roasted green chillies before hopping on a plane. But airport security measures have made these hand deliveries more difficult.]

Because I just haven't been able to successfully grow my own New Mexico greens in the Midwest, I'm stuck with powders, flakes and, when I'm lucky at the right grocery, cans of green chillies from Hatch, NM, where in August, the city celebrated its 36th Annual Chile Festival, drawing in some 30,000 chili lovers from around the country.

Let me know if you want the recipe and I'll email it along, with suggestions for substitutes. I served our soup last night with homemade panini. My thoughtful and romantic husband got me a Le Creuset grill skillet and panini press for our anniversary, so of course I had to use it right away.

OdioGone

Just a quick programming post to note that I've dropped Odiogo's podiocast from VFG. It took up space, was sometimes slowing down my load time (I still have dial up readers to consider)...and, well, the robo-farmer voice was kind of creepy.

I'd listen to him read my stuff for entertainment some evenings, but I don't see that it was a benefit to this particular blog. So Odiogo is OdioGone.

Thanks for the compliments on the new layout choice and colors. Feel free to send me any feedback.

New Discovery: A Southern Indiana Pyramid

After my goat meat post, I started craving my favorite cheese these days, Little Bloom on the Prairie from Prairie Fruits Farm in downstate Illinois.

My appetite gave me a chance to finally check out the new Marion Street Cheese digs. Wow. The space is impressive. And so is the cheese selection. [I was disappointed that the otherwise lovely display of wines didn't have good local labels. I gave up on searching and went back to the cheese fridge and olive bars.]

I ended up skipping the Prairie Fruits option because I saw a cheese new to me: a paprika topped Piper's Pyramid from Capriole Farms in Greenville, Ind. I had to look it up, but Greenville is way down in Southern Indiana, a stone's throw from Louisville, Ky.

But it's still Indiana for sure. Yes, a Hoosier-made artisanal goat cheese. Yay! It's slightly sweet, creamy, almost like butter, and slightly tangy. Perfect for tasting with my bottle of Spring Splendor from Leelanau Cellars, which is very nice, btw. [The wine is slightly dry, not too sacharine and had no unwelcome aftertaste.]

If you're not anywhere near Greenville, the farm has a gift order section.

Goat. It's What's For Dinner

Check out this article from the NYTs about goat ranching and the prediction that goat meat is the new red meat.

My favorite part of this piece was well after the jump when the article touched on the goat-cattle symbiosis.

Goats and cattle work particularly well together in a pasture. Goats don’t like clover or rye grass, which the cattle love, but they make fast work of scotch broom, poison oak and other plants that can take over good grassland.

"Nature is so perfect," says rancher Bill Niman.

Niman hasn't given up on cattle. But he's skipping the step of finishing his cattle on corn/grain and keeping them, as nature intended, grass fed until slaughter.

Not surprisingly, San Fran's Bi-Rite sells Niman meats. But most of the rest of us will have to track down local specialists or order online.

You can order Niman's BN Ranch products through Preferred Meats. I didn't see any goat available on the site.

The Times article included several links to goat ranches and places to buy local.

Flickr photo from Red-Star's photostream.

Year-Round Buy Local Market in Chicago May be on the Way!

I'm very excited about a new shop sponsored by the ChiTown Department of Cultural Affairs: Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand.

I am so going there this week to check it out if I can get time at lunch or after work. According to reports I've seen, all the inventory is produced within 250 miles of Chicago. That's actually a pretty large radius, more than most locavore limits.

But that fits nicely within my own travels. In less than 250 miles, I can make it to The Farm, to the iFarmer's hometown and to all the places we love to visit in Michigan and Wisconsin.

So I know for sure that there's a potential that the store can stock some of my favorite items at least through mid-December.

But there was good news today from the Trib, the store might stay open through the holidays and eventually become a year-round operation. The same article notes that Lincoln Park's Green City Market may stay open year round.

Both these news items make me wonder what "fresh" items these markets will sell locally? Will it all be greenhouse, aquaponics stuff?

New Ag Labeling is So Un-COOL

This San Francisco Chronicle story, "What raw milk and the economic meltdown have in common," might be the best argument I've seen to buy local.

Here's the lesson from the piece, which compares the global financial crisis to the melamine contaminated raw milk from China:

The hopeful news in all this is that in the process of creating so much toxicity both the distressed loans and the distressed food are teaching us important lessons about the limits of scale and regulation that support the massive globalization of the last decade. We are learning that regulators have lost the ability, if they ever had it, to truly monitor the extent of the danger.

At least if you know the farmer, and something goes wrong, you can more easily trace the problem.

I've been eating processed food with a blindfold on, trying not to imagine where the meats and coatings originate. The blindfold is off and now I want better labels to be more sure.

Unfortunately, as the article notes, the Department of Agriculture's Country of Origin Labeling that went into effect on Oct. 1 doesn't apply to processed mystery meats.

Flickr photo showing COOL label from amgrz469's photostream.

Nothing Like Waking Up to the Smell of Warm, Spiced Apples

The Midwest apple harvest is in full swing, so many of us are finding ourselves loaded down with extra fruit.

Thanks to 4H-Champ, I learned how easy it is to make crock pot applesauce.

The hardest part is actually cutting, coring and peeling the apples. There are gadgets available that make that easier. It took me about 15 minutes last night to prep 10 apples for this super easy Cooks.com recipe so that my family could have steaming hot applesauce for breakfast.

Here's the recipe, plus my notes:

10 lg. cooking apples, peeled, cored & sliced or cut in chunks [Keep the chunks large if you want more texture.]
1/2 c. water
1 tsp. cinnamon [Pick any spice that goes with apples.]
1/2 to 1 c. sugar [I like how you can control the sweetness. I used a variety of apples, many of them were very sweet, so 1 cup of sugar would have been way too much.]

Put all ingredients into crockpot. Should be about 3/4 full. Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours (high 3 to 4 hours).

Next time I'm going to play around with the spices, maybe add allspice and some citrus rind or mix up the fruit a bit. I also want to see about adding tapioca.

My grandmother used to make tapioca applesauce, collecting apples from the trees in The Farm's orchard. I absolutely loved it, but have never been able to repeat it on my own. I'm thinking the crock pot (which is more patient than me), will do the trick.

A Toast to the Melding of New & Old World Traditions

I'm liking the Bonterra Vineyards Merlot.

It's not local to us here in Chicagoland. The grapes are from Mendocino County. But it's an organic wine and is really smooth.

I had a sip (hey, it is my day off) before adding some to my simmering pasta sauce. The taste reminded me that I hadn't noted it yet.

I'm starting to realize that I prefer sulfite-free wine though. I sampled some over the weekend at Remus farms. The vintner was a NW Indiana fellow who gives kit-based wine-making classes. Not for me, but his wine was excellent.

Now if I can find a local (St. Louis will do), organic, sulfite-free wine, I should be set.

As for Columbus Day themes, grapes predate the New World explorers, though varieties of grapes were likely in some parts of of the Americas during that period.

This Cook County Forest Preserve site notes that in "1000 AD, Leif Ericsson the Lucky sailed from Norway across the North Atlantic Ocean and returned with stories about a new country he named Vinland [somewhere on the North American east coast] because of the abundance of wild grapes found growing there."

Thankfully, Columbus and others did pass along cultivated varieties that we benefit from to this day.

Columbus Day Treats

In honor of Columbus Day, we're celebrating with some Americas-inspired treats:

Peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies and oven roasted pumpkin seeds.

I don't know enough of my food history to credit Columbus with peanut butter.

As I recall, the Spaniards, after Columbus reached the Americas, are widely believed to have spread this legume throughout the world. Peanuts are an Americas original.

Chocolate is also a South and Central American rainforest native, so my semi-sweet chips count too.

As for the pumpkin seeds, we can thank early settlers for alerting us to what our Central American neighbors had already enjoyed as a dietary staple for thousands of years.

Tonight...something with another Americas contribution to the world's diet, the tomato.

I Confess. I'm Addicted...

...to popcorn. I don't have my own popcorn maker. I never really considered getting one, except for campfires.

But I've changed my mind. And I now have my first entry on my Christmas wish list: A 6 Quart Silver Whirley Pop Stovetop Popcorn Popper.

I saw one in action on Saturday. When the 4H Champ offered a popcorn snack to my kids. I expected to hear the microwave humming. Instead, there was the Champ pouring buttery oil into a stainless steel contraption and popping fresh kernels.

It's clearly superior popcorn, more hearty. Plus, I like the idea that I can buy local and experiment with flavored, trans-fat free oils.

Best part of this kitchen gadget? It's made right in Monon, Ind. According to the Wabash Valley Farms site, it's made right in the barn.

Update: I got some feedback on Twitter that the Whirley Pop's plastic pieces don't hold up to long-term cranking. I checked Amazon customer reviews and the popper gets a 4 1/2 star average out of 325 reviews. That's pretty good. It's mostly praise. Where there is criticism, it's like UrbanApe says...the plastic parts give out.

Today's Agri-Tour Near Misadventure

What a fantastic day. It wasn't the day I planned, but thanks to some good company, great produce and fairly well-behaved kids, we ended up with the makings to have quite an adventure.

4H-Champ, 3 Future Farmkids and 1 VFG started the day thinking we were going to be picking apples at County Line Orchard in Hobart, Ind. But after we got there, parked in the already packed reserved lot and saw the line of people (at least 50 deep) to pay the dollar admission, we decided to change plans.

There was no way I was going to fight crowds on my day in the country experience. It's a testament to the success of this agri-tourist attraction. But I'll be scouting out a different orchard experience for the family if there's time this year or next.

So instead of grilled burgers at the orchard, we opted for Taco Bell. Then we went Remus Farms for 10 $2.99 pumpkins and bags and bags of local produce, including, um, Michigan apples. I thought it was strange that we couldn't find County Line Orchard apples at the local farmers markets. Maybe somewhere else in NW Indiana?

The kids got to paint pumpkins and I got some Amish butter to try.

We topped it off with a visit to Marilyn's Bakery. That was worth a trip just to get the $8 key lime pie I just sampled.

Oh...and the last-minute trip to my favorite Indian grocery/fast food restaurant, House of India. Now I'm stuffed with Samosas and Thali. Yum.

Bloomington Restaurant Cooks Up Three Rs

I got a message today from Chef Daniel Orr at FARMBloomington about reducing, re-using and recycling. He does all three.

In addition to farm-fresh ingredients when he can get them, the So. Indiana chef does his share of composting of kitchen waste and coffee grounds. He also uses biodegradable containers for carry out to decrease the carbon footprint his restaurant leaves.

It was interesting to learn that his fryer oil doesn't hit the garbage bin and instead is picked up by Tree Farmer of the Year, Robert Woodling, who transforms it to bio diesel to power vehicles and to fuel a greenhouse boiler.

So...are we going to check this out for the big 4H-Champ B-day?

Town on the Rocks Looks to Farming for Salvation

Thanks to Urban Dweller for sending me this great story in the New York Times this past weekend about a small town in Vermont, just the size of Gas City, that's trying to rebuild itself as a collective farming community after its granite businesses went bust.

One of my favorite parts of the story is that Hardwick is about to open a year-round farmers market...major progress considering the market started 20 years ago as one farmer selling out the trunk of his car. Now that guy was an entrepreneur.

So far some 75-100 jobs and a huge increase in customers has resulted from the efforts.

But will it be enough to sustain a whole community? So long as these healthy operations don't get so big that they sell out and trade quality for the ease of consolidation, it just might.

After all, the public is hungry for local foods from sustainable farming operations. I'll be pulling for this community and hoping its a model for small towns across the country.

The photo is a vintage image of an old Hardwick granite company.

Cheap Apple Juice Goes Down Down Down...the Drain

Today I threw out an entire bottle of apple juice.

I had wondered why my kids didn't want juice anymore. Then I went through my own fruit craving period recently and tried the juice myself.

Ick! It had a horrid metalic aftertaste.

No wonder my Future Farmkids -- who are thankfully (and cursedly) developing taste buds for fresh, local foods -- have been turning up their noses.

I'll push the apple cider from Hardin's Family Farm that I bought at the market over the weekend.

I've certainly enjoyed my evening cup of hot spiced cider with a pat of butter. At my holiday party, I add more spices and, um, kick it up a notch.

Bay Area Grocery Farms Own Produce

I've been enjoying finding grocers and chefs who buy direct from local farmers. But this grocer in San Fran has earned a special place in this Virtual Farmgirl's heart.

Not only is Bi-Rite Market committed to selling local produce, it's growing its own on a 1/3 acre in Sonoma. The San Francisco Chronicle has this story about it online.

The Chronicle also notes that Bi-Rite butchers its own hogs and for the last four years has had a rooftop herb garden.

Check these stats from what the owner/farmers are billing as an experiment. In one summer:Bi-Rite's farm produced more than 3,500 pounds of tomatoes, 500 pounds of eggplant, 400 pounds of peppers and 200 pounds of basil.

That's a lot of pasta sauce and pesto.

Anyone know of any grocers in the Chicago area or in the Midwest that do this? I'd love to check it out.

Throw Out the Seeds? That's Crazy Talk

More today from the Virtual Farmgirl Test Kitchen: Garlic roasted pumpkin seeds.

The iFarmer claims these are the best pumpkin seeds he's ever had. I'm not sure about that. But I do think I finally got a good Kosher salt, garlic and butter ratio. Plus, these are crispy.

I've learned if I don't dry them overnight, my choices for texture are chewy or burnt.

I also have a pesto update. I created a pretty tasty chicken salad that we had for lunch today with leftover pumpkin soup. I used pesto, chopped white meat, a bit of mayo, roasted red bell pepper and red onion.

Let me know if you want me to email you the recipe for VFG's Presto Pesto Chicken Salad. **Growing and harvesting instructions not included.

Presto...Pesto!

More inspiration from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle led me to pull one of my large basil plants before the bugs took over. I pulled off all the good leaves and was left with a bucketful.

Later in the day, I found a basic pesto recipe from In Italy Online. I didn't have all the Animal, Vegetable Miracle ingredients. As it was, I had to use walnuts instead of pine nuts, which no doubt give the pesto a smoother taste. Plus, I used pre-shredded Parmesan. I'm certain this will taste even better with freshly grated cheese.

But this was my first homemade pesto, so I was mainly seeing if it was worth the effort.

Turns out, it was not only worth it, the whole process was a snap. All I had to do was dump the ingredients in a food processor and presto, I had pesto! And then some.

I had enough for supper that night. We mixed it with hot pasta topped with fresh shredded mozzarella. I served it alongside the last of our Farm-fresh cherry tomatoes.

There was plenty pesto left for our Sunday supper of grilled panini and pumpkin soup, and for three zip bags that I flattened and put in the freezer.

Camille Kingsolver says these pesto baggies are a snap to thaw in hot water and tossed into pasta as a quickie meal. Yay!

Perfecting My Pumpkin Soup

The pumpkin soup in its own shell has been in the oven for a little more than an hour now.

Here's the step-by-step, starting with making the container:


Fully carved terrine:


Filled with warmed milk, stock, salt, roasted garlic and sage:


After about an hour in the oven. Check out how much darker the shell turns:


Next pic will either be a total collapse or some version of success...


Definitely a success. For Thanksgiving, I think I'll bake another pumpkin to be sure I have a terrine. While this one didn't collapse, I wouldn't trust it to hold my yummy soup for long.


Other soup notes: Next time, I'll try to get fresh sage instead of dried. Also, I'll make my own stock to get the richer flavor. Finally, I could easily see doing this with a sweet twist with honey or sugar and pumpkin pie spices.

With this batch though, I plan to get a loaf of sourdough tomorrow and serve this for supper, with grilled sourdough sandwiches

Don't Forget the Cart

A wagon or a cart would have been helpful this morning at the Oak Park Farmers Market, especially since I went knowing I needed a pumpkin.

Even a 6-pounder along with a big bunch of bushy carrots, a 1/2 gallon of fresh pressed cider, a bag of onions, more zukes for side dishes this week and flowers for a splash of color, turned out to be a lot to handle with just me and Future Farmboy in tow.

Oh, plus a dozen donuts. No skimping today. We wanted to share with our neighbors, who we are sad to hear are planning to move.

If you want a beautiful home in a convenient part of Oak Park, let me know and I'll put you in touch. They're a lovely family and we'll miss them.

There's only three weeks left for the Farmers Market before the end of the season. We'll miss the farmers too, though I'm quite sure they're looking for a long winter's rest from the bounty of summer.

Farming & Art

I'll be spending my day at the library tomorrow for a retreat.

If I have a chance, I'm going to see if I can find this relatively new book: "The Cultivated Landscape: An Exploration of Art & Agriculture."

There's a non-spoiler review of the book in The Ontarion.

The authors, according to the book's own description, write in the book about "how we think about agriculture, its use of the land and impact on landscape, and how landscape has been portrayed historically in art."

Caution: Reading On An Empty Stomach Can Cause Weight Gain

I'm finally to the end of Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle."

Here's my recommendation to those who haven't read it yet: Don't read while hungry. I think I gained five pounds salivating over the recipes and food descriptions in the book.

One that I plan to try this weekend seems pretty easy and ambitious at the same time: pumpkin soup in its own shell.

The recipe is on Camille Kingsolver's AVM Recipes page in a PDF you can download.

I already have the organic pumpkin, garlic, pepper and stock. I just need to pick up some fresh sage...maybe from the farmers market tomorrow in the city or Saturday at Pilgrim. I promise to post pix...whether it's a success or failure. At least Kingsolver didn't set the bar high since her first effort collapsed in the oven.

If I can pull this off, I'll try it again for Thanksgiving (keep your fingers crossed 4H Champ). If not...I also found a nice recipe for "holiday corn pudding even a 9-year-old can make."