Everyone is familiar with their “food budget”. It’s how much you plan to spend on food each month. The United Sates has the lowest percentage of disposable income spent on food in the world. In 2019, Americans spent an average of 9.5 percent of their disposable personal incomes on food—divided between food at home (4.9 percent) and food away from home (4.6 [...]
The number one question John and I get asked these days is “how is the farm doing?” Well the farm itself is doing fine. There has been farming on our land for 250 years and this spring and summer arrived like many of those in the past- green shoots, new life on wobbly legs, and [...]
There's a , running joke that when you can't descibe wha you're eating you say "tastes like chicken", but what exactly does that taste like? We spend too much time and money in life not to be eating something good. And, when I say "good" I mean flavorful. The ingredients for great flavor in clude [...]
Link-It: Sites we like and think you’ll find them useful too. Farms: Our farm– evermorefarm.com Organizations, Associations, Agencies: Future Harvest CASA– www.futureharvestcasa.org Alternative Farming Systems Information Service (USDA) Maryland Agriculture and Resource-Based Industries Corporation (MARBIDCO) Maryland Deparment of Agriculture University of Maryland Extension-Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) University of Maryland Extension-Maryland Rural Enterprise Development Center Johns [...]
October is National Pork Month. Have you had some bacon today? Pigs are one of the most prolific animals in the world since their young are born in litters (our sows have 10-12 pigs per litter, twice a year) and they do well outdoors as foragers. Did you know that on average we each consumer [...]
Summertime ushers in a host of carnivals and local fairs. Have you been to a local fair yet this summer? This year the Maryland State Fair will be held from August 23 through September 2, at the Timonium Fairgrounds Did you know that the concept of the modern day fair dates back as far as [...]
With so many choices for a festive meal centerpiece, eating ham for Christmas seems a little blasé. Featured as the centerpiece of the prototypical Dickensian Christmas, it’s said to have its roots in ancient pagan ritual. Supposedly, the tradition started with the Germans, who wanted to appease the god, Freyr. He was the god of [...]
About a year ago a fellow Berkshire hog farmer, Amy Thames, in South Carolina posted a blog article about pig’s ears. We use the same notching practice on our pigs. It’s about how we identify them. Pigs will get an ear tag caught in a feeder or waterer and pull it out, often slicing their [...]
Life on the farm revolves around watching the weather and in this growing season, the view hasn't changed much- rain, rain, and more rain. For crop and vegetable producers the abundant spring rains delayed planting or even worst rotted transplants. Now all the rain may delay or even prevent their harvest before the produce or [...]
I have a lot of cookbooks. I have boxes of them that were my mother’s packed away in the attic. In her time, cookbooks were how you stored recipes and boy did she store a bunch. I think she had a copy of every Ladies’ Sunday School Class cookbook that was ever printed in Franklin [...]
