A strange item arrived in my mailbox

There are precious few magazines that I subscribe to: Backwoods Home, Stockman Grass Farmer, Country Woman, Farm and Ranch Living, Simple and Delicious. There's a pretty common theme to these periodicals. Because I subscribe to these magazines, I often get offers (as I'm sure you do) for other magazines like Hobby Farm, Small Farmer Journal, Chickens Illustrated. (OK, I was kidding on that last one.) Seed catalog companies will often share their lists so I receive plenty of them, but I know where they've come from.

Today, however, something arrived in our mailbox I had never had my hands on before. A Glamour magazine. John saw it and said "Check the address!" (Sometimes our mail carrier mixes up the mail with a neighbor.) Nope, this one was addressed to me.

"Why? For Pete's sake!!" I don't read Glamour, I don't want to read Glamour, I've never read Glamour. It's the December issue, so I'm guessing they were cleaning out for the new year and just dropped it in the mail to me. The question remains: How do they know about me? I doubt my favorite magazines are sharing information with Glamour...they just don't have the same clientele.

Looking at the cover, I'll share with you the cover stories and then discuss why this magazine is NOT for me.

Shall we begin?

9 NAUGHTY THINGS EVEN NICE GUYS CRAVE IN BED
Really??!! This should go without discussion, but I promised. I'm married. I'm married to the nicest man to walk the face of the planet. He's the only man I've ever been with and I have no desire to know what any other male wants in bed. I'll take the man I have, thank you very much!

THE BEST BEAUTY SECRETS OF 2010 (OUR ULTIMATE LIST OF NEW TRICKS TO TRY)
Why does there have to be trickery involved? Why can't I just look the way I look? Why does it have to be a secret? And if I spend enough money, will I then have the secret? Nope. Not for me. I am what I am. It is what it is.

SO SEXY (THE 24 MOST FLATTERING PARTY OUTFITS FOR YOUR BODY)
I never partied in my single days, I'm certainly not going to start now with a husband and 2.95 children. Flattering or not, I think I'll just stay home and party in my new pink pajamas the nicest guy I know gave me for Christmas.

A VERY VAMPIRE CHRISTMAS
This one was touted as an exclusive. I'm sure. No one else wants to read it. I am a voracious reader, but I simply cannot get into vampire books. I don't want to get into them. I actually feel dumber for wasting this much time talking about them.

WOMEN OF THE YEAR! TWO DECADES OF LIFE AND LOVE INSPIRATION
OK, I must admit, this one slightly intrigued me. Enough that I went to the page number and started scanning. And there are some good ones on the list, but as a non-TV viewer there were plenty of names I didn't know. And many faces I couldn't name. And I think I like it that way.

85 AMAZING GIFTS FOR EVERYONE YOU KNOW ($10 & UP)
What's wrong with a less than $10 gift? And does everyone I know have to receive a gift? I didn't read the article, but what the headline tells me is that everyone I know must have a gift and I must spend more than $10 on it. Well, I hate to break it to all of you that I know....most of you didn't get a gift and those of you who did, I probably didn't spend more than $10. I probably made it...by hand...put some thought into it...didn't use my credit card...you know, all those horrible gift-giving faux pauxs.

DIPS! DRINKS! DESSERT! EAT ALL THE GOOD STUFF AND STILL STAY SLIM
This article incorrectly assumes right off the bat that I drink alcohol and that I am already slim and wish to stay that way. (In all fairness, it does correctly assume that I like dips and desserts.) I flipped open the article and it was pretty straight forward. Don't eat cheesy dips, eat hummus and guacamole. Don't drink eggnog, drink champagne. Don't eat pecan pie, eat pumpkin pie. It was the least obnoxious article on the front page.

I'd like to say that I opened the magazine and went further. I tried, I really did. But it was 3 pages of ads to 1 page of article and I had a hard time telling which was which. Perhaps I'm too used to reading "Pajama Time" and "Curious George Gets a Job".

Needless to say, I will not be subscribing to Glamour. As I proven, we have very little in common. Now, Backwoods Home...that's another story!!

Ritz Cookies - A White Family Favorite

My "family of origin", as the government calls it, is pretty calm when it comes to Christmas traditions. We aren't fancy or complicated, just a lot of family time, church and gifts on Christmas Eve, probably a puzzle and Ritz Cookies. And, just like my family traditions, they aren't fancy or complicated. In fact, they're super easy and very tasty!

Here's what you'll need:

Ritz crackers, creamy peanut butter and chocolate almond bark. Really, that's it.


Open the package of crackers. Set aside broken ones to be eaten by small children or hungry husbands.


Scoop out a teaspoon or so of peanut butter to spread on the bottom of the cracker. And if you measure out exactly a teaspoon of peanut butter, I'm calling for help.


And it should look something like this. Not so much the chubby, late-pregnancy fingers however...


Add another cracker, bottom side to the peanut butter. I pile them on a cookie sheet and when I've made all my sandwiches, I freeze them for at least an hour or two (or overnight). In the winter, the front seat of my van works quite well.

Why freeze them? It keeps the peanut butter from melting in the warm chocolate and oozing out between the crackers. I've been short on time and tried to skip the freezing and, trust me on this one, it wasn't pretty.


Then, when you're ready to dip them, heat the almond bark in a double boiler setup. If you have a double boiler, great. If you are like me and don't have one, use a glass bowl (it distributes the heat more evenly than a metal bowl) over a simmering pan of water.


Keep stirring the almond bark to keep it from burning on the bottom, because burned chocolate has no place in life.


When the chocolate is smooth throw three or so cookies in.


Use a fork with longer tines to flip the cookies.


Remove the cookie from the chocolate and wiggle your arm back and forth slightly to remove the excess chocolate. Then wipe the bottom of the fork on the side of the bowl to remove the rest. You don't want the cookie sitting in a pool of chocolate when you set it on the wax paper lined cookie sheet.


There they are! Sweet, salty, chocolate-y deliciousness.

They keep very well in the freezer and are great in the frozen state. If I have to describe the taste: a crunchy peanut butter cup.

Give 'em a try!!

Thoughts and apologies...

So I had all these great intentions of blogging more often. The blogs I read are updated at least weekly and hold my attention because I know what's happening. Sadly, my best intentions of blogging often have gone astray! Not that I don't think about it, I think about it a LOT! "I should blog about this" is a common thought in my mind.

Here are some other thoughts I've had recently:

1. I think mothers with toddlers should be exempt from ANY kind of housecleaning code. Particularly when your son feeds himself sauerkraut and mashed potatoes and then you spend days finding all the things he touched on his way to get clean in the tub.

2. Cats. Why can't they stick around our farm? We have terrible luck with cats. My poor daughter got a kitten from a neighbor and promptly named it "KittyBoy" (and it was, I checked). She spent the day bossing it around and it died two days later! To her credit, she accepts death with a "KittyBoy all gone" and a shrug of her shoulders.

3. My daughter is a copy-cat of her mother. She has a kitten at Grandma's house named "Socks" that only comes inside when she's there (at her insistence) and is wrapped in blankets and read to. Grandma and Grandpa didn't know if it was a boy or a girl so when I was allowed to hold "it", I discreetly turned it upside-down and took a look. I turned to Grandma and said, "Boy" and gave it back to Jana. A while later she was walking around with Socks and flipped him upside-down and said, "Boy!"...twice!

4. Will people appreciate my homemade Christmas gifts? I love homemade gifts, but maybe others don't...I guess we'll see.

I have a super easy, super good cookie recipe to blog on later.
Until then, I think I'll go sample one...

Sauerkraut, aka How I love fermented cabbage

[I'd like to dedicate this post to my friend, Laurie, who steadfastly refuses to eat sauerkraut of any kind. Even the homemade stuff. Laurie, here's what you're missing...]

At the end of the gardening season there is always, ALWAYS some reject cabbage out there. Either one you forgot about and it got huge and split or a bunch of small heads that aren't enough for much or an animal of some sort was snacking. However you come across your misfit heads, well, that's your business...

Traditionally, sauerkraut was made in large crocks with weights. You'd have to babysit it and check for scum and the whole batch could be ruined by a tiny little bit of cabbage poking out of the brine. I don't have that kind of time and thankfully, neither did my grandma. This is the way she always made sauerkraut...

Here are my split and tiny heads. At first glance, ick.


Peel off the outer layers, the darker green ones, until you get to the firm, light colored leaves.


Slice that bad boy in half with a giant knife. The one you are afraid to use and only bring out for watermelon and cabbage.


The cut it into quarters. Family members may want to remove themselves for safety at this point. The chopping, oh the chopping!!


Slice off the nasty core part on each quarter. Feed to your pigs or chickens or put in your compost pail.


My grandmother hand shredded all of her cabbage on a mandolin slicer. I have moved into the 21st century and use my food processor. I use the slice blade rather than the shred. I find that the shred just makes mush out of my cabbage and you want pieces of cabbage, not mush.


See? Isn't that lovely?? At this point you can set some aside for a late season coleslaw...


Or, you can persuade your manly husband to use his muscles to pack the cabbage in wide-mouth jars!!


You really want to pack those jars tight because the fermentation is an anaerobic process. Which means you don't want a lot of air in your jars.


Then add 2 tsp of non-iodized salt to each quart. Do NOT use iodized salt as it will inhibit the bacteria that make the sauerkraut. The good, healthy kind that help digestion and all that good stuff!!


Add your canning funnel. This was my grandmother's funnel. It's a little bent up, but I wouldn't can without it!


Get some boiling water. It's a good idea to start this when you start shredding the cabbage. Add the boiling water to the jar. You're going to have to wait a bit to let the water percolate down to the bottom. I usually run two jars at once and poke down with the handle of a wooden spoon to help the saturation process.


When you have filled the jars within 1/4 inch of the top with boiling water, get a ring and a lid.


Wipe the rim clean of stray cabbage bits.


And then tighten that lid right up. You don't need your manly, muscular husband to do this part. In fact, if he does, he'll have to unscrew the rings anytime you want to make sauerkraut. Trust me, husbands don't like phone calls that say "Can you hurry home to open this sauerkraut?" Just tighten it yourself....


Now, set the jars on a shelf and leave for a few weeks. They are fermented and ready to eat when the cabbage has changed color from the greenish-white to the tannish-white.

How far is too far?

One week from today I take my local foods show on the road. I love to talk about local food, local food systems and the need for sustainability in our food network.

Did you know that if trucks couldn't get into North Dakota, most grocery stores would only have enough food for three days?

I'll be on my soapbox on Saturday at the Women's Showcase in Fargo. As my colleague and I were discussing our talk, we knew we didn't want to pull any punches. But at the same time..."How far is too far?" Should we show them the video of chicken nugget production? Should we talk about high fructose corn syrup?

I hate the fact that the USDA and their cohorts have painted the local foods picture as "cute". "Come, everybody, let's buy a tomato at the farmers market this week!" Local food sustainability isn't cute, it's vital. But it's a wonder of modern science that we can buy tomatoes in the grocery store in January! Right? WRONG. On so many levels.

So I'm torn, what do I say? How much do I say? And, most importantly, will they listen before it's too late?

A New Form of Slavery?

A couple of weeks ago, I drove into a yard to make a delivery. One of our regular customers was out of town and wanted to share that week's produce with her neighbor. As I drove in my jaw dropped at all the new farm equipment, new machinery, new buildings and new house. I was staring at roughly millions of dollars. Now, this neighbor is younger than my husband. I'm willing to bet every bit of it was financed.

I can almost guarantee that I would choke if I had to look at that much debt every single day of my life. How is a farmer supposed to make a living, and I'll even add a life, when they start out in debt to the tune of millions of dollars? Lending institutions are making loans based on recent production trends and prices. Which, history will substantiate, are the best we've had for quite some time. What happens when we get a drought? What happens if the prices drop? What do those farmers do then? Will the government bail them out? Is there enough price support and insurance built into today's production models that the farmers are insulated?

Could the farmer leave or change production models? I don't think so. Agri-business is making money, lots of money, based on conventional production models. Chemical agriculture at its finest. But the farmers are basically indentured to those models because of the debt load they carry. I can tell you from experience that if a farmer went in to his (or her) lender and said, "I'd like to plant 100 acres of organic raspberries. Will you back me?" The answer, after the laughter had died down, would be no. A farmer who wants to break free of the bondage has a long and difficult road to climb. How can agri-business keep the farmers buying from them? Make it near impossible to do anything else.

I just don't know the answer. I don't know if they know. All I know is it would scare the living daylights out of me to have signed my name.

Do you read?

One of the truly great ideas I've had in the past month that I've been working to further sustainable agriculture (in an official capacity) has been the idea of a Sustainable Library. Where we would have all the books/DVDs/etc. from the world of sustainable living and agriculture and lend them to people in a manner similar to the ND State Library. You could check them out for a month and only have to pay the return postage.

Brilliant, right??

Someone would surely give me a $10,000 grant to do this, right??

Then a co-worker mentioned this tiny fact to me. People don't read anymore. Really, they don't read. 50% of Americans will never read another book after they leave school.

This shocks me. Me, who is a voracious reader. Me, who would read the back of shampoo and shaving cream bottles in the bathroom, just for something to read. Me, who has at least 2 books going at all times. Me, who has 500+ volumes in her home and those are just my favorites. Me, who checks out 5+ books a week (during the winter) at the library and reads them all.

I can't believe this. Why wouldn't people want to read? Why wouldn't you want to learn something? Go somewhere? Become someone? Have we become so dependent on TV and the internet that we cannot use our imaginations anymore? Have we lost the ability to imagine?

We don't have TV in our home. It's been over three years since I saw any television on a regular basis. I've never seen Glee or The Office. I certainly don't watch the news. And you know what? I think I'm much better off then when I planned my week around Grey's Anatomy, ER, House and The Closer. Come November, we'll renew our subscription to Netflix and watch a movie or documentary every week or so. But that's the extent of our TV entertainment. I can live without TV.

Books, I can't live without.

Am I the only one?