Christmas seems like forever ago, but I finally got around to packing up my tree and putting away the red and green (leaving the blue, snowmen, and penguins because it is still winter after all 🙂 ). But it’s finally time for the big reveal from The Country Christmas Connection (TCCC) 2017 exchange! This was my second year participating, and I had a lot of fun shopping for the *perfect* gift to send off. My recipient this year was Mike…
Reflections and Resolutions
January 8, 2018Happy New Year week 2 of 2018! After all of the excitement of the holidays towards the end of the year, it’s hard to be excited about January. Seriously, what happens in January? It’s super-cold, society pressures you to take down your Christmas decorations, and it’s back to work after a week-long holiday. And you know all of that stuff you put off until next month because you wanted to relax around the holidays? Yeah, it’s next month now –…
A Farm Kid’s Guide to City Life
August 27, 2017Sometimes it’s necessary to leave the farm and the small towns (yes, plural) you call home for the opportunities a city has to offer. That could be for college, or a job, or frankly, you just want to get as far away as you can for a while. I’m in boat number two. I stuck around home for college (that wasn’t my intention, but the university near me offered everything I wanted and needed in higher education post-high school), so…
What Agriculture Means To Me
March 21, 2017Happy National Ag Day! Have you ever sat down to think about where you’d be without agriculture? I haven’t, and this is an especially important day to do so. In college, we celebrated by hosting Ag Day on the Quad, offering a peek into the world of agriculture to our classmates wondering why there were two giant tractors sitting in front of Schroeder Hall. Another year, I had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. with the Ag Future of America…
Loaded Potato Soup
February 14, 2017Hungry for soup but want something more filling? Try this loaded potato soup! I’ve been looking for the *perfect* potato soup recipe with the right ratio of potato:bacon:spice and finally decided to just make up my own. After weeks of potato soup for lunch, I think I’ve finally perfected the recipe and am excited to share it here- both for you to try and for me to remember the recipe. 🙂 Loaded Potato Soup Ingredients: ~2 lbs. baking potatoes (I…
Classic Apple Pie
January 23, 2017Happy National Pie Day! What’s a better way to celebrate than with the classic apple pie? I had every intention of turning out a couple of pies last night and taking them to work as a Monday treat for National Pie Day. Yeah, that didn’t exactly happen. As it turns out, pie making isn’t exactly like riding a bike for me. Sure, any pie I make is tasty (if I do say so myself), but my top crust laying and…
Don’t Waste Your Time Sticking Around the Farm
January 16, 2017I mean exactly what you just read in the title: Don’t waste your time sticking around the family farm. Do you really want to deal with the low commodity prices, working seven days per week (especially true if you throw some livestock in there) with pay entirely dependent on the markets, and the inevitable family arguments? If you’re around my age, you’re still trying to figure out what you want to do with life. You’ve gotten the basics down in…
The Country Christmas Connection
January 9, 2017Last month, in the midst of the chaos that was year-end projects at work, finals season for school, and packing for the AgChat Cultivate & Connect Conference in Kansas City, I had the awesome opportunity to connect with other ag bloggers through The Country Christmas Connection. I was sooo excited when I found out that I was the Secret Blogger for Hannah Neuenschwander of Texan Meets Midwest. We “met” via Twitter about a year ago as #AgChat participants and I…
Kathy’s Coffeecake
January 1, 2017For as long as I can remember, my mom has made coffeecakes and given them to everyone [friends, family, neighbors, teachers, the school bus driver, her hairdresser, the mailman and newspaper guy…] as a Christmas morning treat. And everyone loves them. The coffeecake doesn’t last until Christmas morning in most households and some even go as far as measuring it to make sure everyone’s share is equal so no one sneaks an extra piece when no one is looking. It’s…
Tomayto, Tomahto
December 29, 2016Has the Hunt’s “no GMOs in sight” tomato field campaign/subsequent response blown up anyone else’s newsfeed this week? All any of this really is anymore is a marketing tactic (and it’s driving me nuts, too).  But I stopped to think this time (to keep myself in check before I blew up on anyone– call it an early new year’s resolution). There used to be GM tomatoes on the market (not anymore) and that there are other ingredients that *could* be…