Farmhouse Lunch

For every butchering group of pigs, we reserve back 1/2 a pig for our own family. From that we can taste the quality of the meat, the cures, and in general quality control. Today we broke out the best bacon our farm has produced.

The best? Honestly, it tasted much like our other best bacon, from the sows....but this bacon was different in a really important way. These pigs had no corn or soy input the last 6 weeks of their life. They had very little before that too. We were able to get enough real food inputs, with enough variety that they didn't have to eat the grain ration. That was awesome.Our worry was that the bacon  and the pork might not taste as good?

A couple observations right off: the fat that was bagged up for me to render into lard was very bright in colour, a lovely pink/peach. It will render white, but the colour is indicative of vitamin and nutrient content. I am excited about that.

The bacon fried up slow and had a good sound to it while sizzling. That is something I started noticing once we started paying attention to quality. The end product was the perfect crisp/chew ration.

So, for lunch I served up local apples, white cheddar, and bacon. My little foodies were all very attentive and gave good feedback too. Lily said the fat was very bright in taste, Holly thought it was just salty enough. Isaac liked to eat it with the apples.



Me? I liked how well it went with my maple cream coffee. It was that kind of day, y'all.

Beautiful Dancer

Iowa Blogger Meet Up

Saturday I got up before the rooster and ducks and silently loaded up the car with bacon and sausages and my laptop....and hit the road for Iowa City....alone (well, until I met up with Diana for carpool magic!).

I plugged in to cooking podcasts and enjoyed the sunrise as the frosted fields rolled on by.

I was terribly nervous. I had been invited to an Iowa Food Blogger meet up and meeting authors that I read regularly in person was something I was looking forward to. I also wanted to learn how to grow audience and make my blog more focused and readable. I needed feedback on my book in progress.

But I started thinking that I was going to hang out with the amazing people who have thousands of followers and huge audiences and published books and I very much did not belong. I blog because writing make me happy and it amuses me. I blog so my kids will have a written record of who I am and that I love them so much.

Anxiety.

Panic.

What was I worried about? I spent the day getting to know some of the most amazing voices emerging on the web right now. No one thought I was a big ol faker. No one demeaned mommy blogging. No one was rolling their eyes when someone brought up creating content or using social media to direct traffic. It was so nice.

Bonus is that Iowa City is gorgeous and just vibrates with creativity and memories. Love.

The day started at the New Pioneer Co-op.

Just gorgeous. A grocery store that cares about the food politics that I do. No dyes. No crap. No GMO's. Varieties of carrots. That's right VARIETIES OF CARROTS. They visit the farms they buy from and insist on living wages, fair trade LOCALLY. This is so amazing that if I could afford to, I would drive to Iowa City to do my grocery shopping. Not kidding.

Then we headed downtown and of course my phone/camera died. Sigh.

I bought a cool pair of shoes, watched my friends eat cupcakes (what? My blood sugar was making me dizzy so I opted not to sugar high so early in the day), and talked about trolls, blog stalkers, and Internet safety. Good company. Beautiful weather. So many memories flooded me, as place and sensory does with me. Iowa City was an escape for me as a teenager. I often drove out there overnight without my parents knowing and drove back in the morning. I didn't partake in typical teenager trouble, usually I walked around, met up with people for coffee, wrote poetry, and just enjoyed being where other writers were living and breathing.

I don't know why I didn't go there for college, but I am glad I ended up where I did instead. I forged my own path, as I do now.

The whole day got me thinking about what I am doing here with this blog. Should I change the focus and stop being all over the place? Should I claim I am a feminist farmer and forge ahead a new politic? Yeah. No.

I am still finding my voice. I am finding more and more that I am called to give words to the experiences that we share and tell the stories that others cannot and are afraid to.

Plus, I love sharing recipes.

So you get me. All of me. The whole hot mess and the kitchen sink.

Thank you for reading here. Thank you for sharing your experiences and laughing along with me as I share mine.

Here's the blog list of the fantastic and funny folks I met up with:
Simplify, Live, Love
Ally's Sweet and Savory
Been There, Baked That
Herbalist Eats
My Humble Kitchen
Chez Bonne Femme
Sawdust and Embryos
Iowa Food Blog
In the Kitchen with Jenny
Culinary Bliss
The Sustainable Couple 
Make the Best of Everything

and a few others I still need to look up and add....and will do once I get caught up with grading papers, laundry and dishes.

Happy Birthday Little Buddy, Science Center Style

Isaac had so much fun that we bought a membership and plan to go back every other week as weather allows. Happy birthday buddy.