raising food

  • Milk Cow Retrospective

    Here’s me and my favorite cow ever with her new heifer ‘back in the day’ on our farm in South Dakota! It was the spring of 1982 and the calf was the first heifer after a run of 6 bull…

  • Munch, Dig, Laugh: 2nd Wednesday’s with Leni

    The final gathering of my 2nd Wednesday monthly open house will be in October on the 13th and I have decided to give it a theme – see the title above. : )  All summer I have been delighted to…

  • The Value of Self-reliance vs the Ideology of Self-sufficiency

    None of us are self sufficient.  We all need somebody! Despite the often nostalgic retro-interpretations (our idealization of Little House on the Prairie comes to mind!) Americans weren’t self sufficient in the Colonial past, the Revolutionary Era nor the long…

  • My garden progress report for Summer 2010

    In the empty soil days of winter and early spring my imagination fills the spaces with row upon row of veggies.  A pile of seed catalogues lives by my chair and I could spend far more $$$$$ then is in…

  • Thank you to my cooking class students

    Cooking with people who enjoy food is a great pleasure!  Thank you, Tracey and Catherine. Tracey and I canning  peaches                                        …