Keep Families Farming...still!

I know you all read the last post about the #Keepfamiliesfarming campaign that I participated in because of the recent DOL move to remove children as workers from farms.

If you'd like to read another one, I'm going to send you to a fellow Food For Thought blogger's personal blog. Brandi Buzzard gave her two cents on the topic also.

Also, I was remembering a few things that my dad taught me growing up while helping on the farm. These safety and conservation tips were ingrained in my mind at a very young age because I had the opportunity to help him on the farm.

• ALWAYS slow down at a dirt road intersection that has corn growing on both sides. Even if there is no stop sign, you have to yield because you can't see who is coming. 
• SAFETY GLASSES are the most important investment you can make for employees because our eye sight is so precious. 
• GRAIN BINS and SILAGE PITS are the most dangerous places to be on a farm and kids simply aren't allowed there. 
• LOOK AROUND! You have to be aware of large machinery running around the farm and keep yourself at a safe distance. 
• ELECTRICITY is not a fun toy, it's serious business. We always had to check the electric fences for the cows and learned the safe way to do that. Also when working on a sprinkler for irrigation we always had to be sure the power was off.
• DIRT BLOWING means that precious top soil is being lost. Farmers are stewards of the land and do everything within their power to prevent this loss to erosion.

Keep Families Farming

It's trending on twitter: #keepfamiliesfarming.

You can make a comment on this website: http://moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/keep-families-farming.

It's an important issue on every farm in America and it really grinds my gears.

I worked on my family farm while growing up and before I even stepped foot on the farm I was informed about safety precautions that were enforced by my parents and grandparents. I worked hard on the family farm, but it wasn't work to me. It's not about the labor, it's about raising kids in agriculture.

Please share, tweet, check it out. If you are a consumer or a producer please share your views here. We'll pass them along to Senator Jerry Moran if you would like.Senator Moran is the US Senator from Kansas and he is taking an initiative to speak out on this important topic. Will you speak out too?

Foods You Don't Have to Give Up in 2012

First of all, whenever I read an article in a magazine or on a website, I tend to err on the side of skeptical at best. While it's important for a journalist or writer to be responsible when gathering facts and figures, it's just as important for readers to be responsible when deciding which facts and figures come from reliable sources.

That's why when I found this article, I bought it all. Hook. Line. Sinker.

The Top 5 foods You Don't Have to Give Up in 2012?

1. Beef
2. Roasted Nuts
3. Chocolate 
4. Whole Eggs
5. Coffee

It comes from a reliable website.
The author is a registered dietician.
The author quotes scientific studies for which I can verify the facts.

Don't give up the "bad foods" you thought you needed to in order to get healthy in 2012. The author of this article says it best, "how depressing!" Instead, try embracing these foods and choosing better portion sizes of all food groups.

Enjoy,

Tera Rooney

Food Suppliers: I'm Lovin' It

I am in love with this new ad campaign from McDonald's. Mostly I am fond of it because it's real and you get the chance to meet the suppliers of different food products that are served up at the McD's near you.

The people are real. The videos are touching. The process is transparent.

Potato Supplier

Beef Supplier

Lettuce Supplier

Farming is a family tradition and agriculture is the backbone of the nation. Farmers are truly stewards of the land. See for yourself.

Enjoy!

Tera

Winter Woes? Think about Spring!

Winter is underway in Kansas and snow has blanketed the state and is slowing melting away with warmer temperatures. For those of you who are wishing for spring to be here already, here is a glimpse of the green prairie grasses and some beautiful (in my opinion, of course) Red Angus cattle.

Taken in the Flint Hills of Kansas, the pictures detail one of nature’s gifts to mankind – a gift that we have the responsibility of caring for and preserving. Farmers and ranchers take great pride in acting as caretakers and environmentalists, and you can see why above. This beauty is a reason in itself.

There’s your glimpse of spring (and summer, as the cattle picture was snapped in June). Hope you enjoyed it! You can almost feel the warm breeze as it causes the grass to sway and the leaves of trees to rustle…

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

Cassie Kniebel

Christmas Chicken

I know Thanksgiving is over and that holiday kind of owns the turkey, but sometimes the holiday cheer spills over into Christmas. Since many of you will be roasting, baking, grilling or frying a bird this Christmas, I thought I would share this video with you.

Coming from Kansas State University, an institution of which I hope to be a proud Alumnus of one of these days - the proper way to thaw a turkey.

Thaw A Turkey Video

Enjoy!

Tera

Making Our Own Food

I wanted to learn how to make noodles like my Grandmother used to make for her prized Chicken Noodle Soup recipe, so my mom decided to share the recipe and process with me. While we were creating these noodles, I thought about all of the farmers who had a hand in getting the ingredients to our table.

The recipe started out with these guys. Eggs are produced in many states across the US, but the top three egg producing states are Iowa, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 2009, US Farmers produced 246 eggs for each person living in the US. That's a lot of omelets!

 

We mixed the eggs with some flour. Flour is made from wheat which is a crop grown very readily in the state of Kansas. Over 240,000 family farms in the US grow wheat. About 2/3 of that wheat crop is grown on farms in the Mid West, the belt that stretches from Montana down to Texas. Of the wheat grown in the US, over 70% of it is used for human food products. Every year each American consumes around 136 pounds of wheat in different food products. 

We mixed the eggs and flour together. I kneaded it until it was smooth and stretchy for the noodle roller. The noodle roller made the dough very very thin for cutting.

Here's a shot of my mom running the dough through the pasta roller to get it very thin.

And here we are cutting the noodles into the shape we wanted to do for our Chicken Noodle soup recipe.

We had to let the noodles dry on the rack before we were ready to store them or cook them. Mom told me that her mom had laid them out on tea towels on their beds to dry all day. We used the clothes drying rack to consolidate the space. They didn't need to dry very long at all.

Here is the final product! Our noodles were very delicous in the soup that we made. These noodles could be used in a lot of dishes, but they are very thin so you have to be careful how much you handle them once they are cooked. In the US, people consume 9 kg of pasta every year, which seems like a lot to me. Until you look at the 28 kg of pasta every year a person consumes in Italy.

If you'd like the recipe for the Chicken Noodle Soup or the noodles my mom and I made, just share a comment and I'd be happy to share this family recipe with you. Enjoy!

Best,

Tera



All facts and figures from this post were taken from the USDA website.