Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Emily Race!!!

Emily Race (#3591) has received a certificate of achievement in Outpost for earning an Intermediate & Expert Level Woman-at-Arms Merit Badge!

“I am applying for both the intermediate and expert badge. I have been a hunter for around 9 years. I drew a permit to hunt moose this year and began practicing with my 270 at the rifle range. I learned to be comfortable shooting accurately. I practiced at 100 and 200 yards. I also learned about different grains of bullets that could be used and cleaned my gun.

I then went hunting with my husband and found a beautiful moose.

I became very confident using and taking care of my 270. I was ready when I found the moose to make good, safe hunting choices. We now have 325 pounds of meat we processed in our freezer to feed our family for the year.”

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,065 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,688 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …   

For this week’s Garden Gate/Grow Where You’re Planted Intermediate Level Merit Badge, I took a good, hard look at my lawn. I narrowed my baby blues and really considered and contemplated. And then I marinated in the knowledge of what I learned …

That manicured, square shaped piece of grass in the front of your house? The one that—may I venture to guess—is not getting much use, takes up a lot of water to keep green, needs mowing at inopportune times, and doesn’t seem to have a point in life. Am I being impudent? (Look who’s been brushing up on her grammar. Over here! Pick me!) Perhaps you’re not as bad as I am at neglecting the space out your front window, but if you are, let’s chat.

Front lawns are pretty enough, I suppose. But they’re a surprising amount of work for a little patch of green. All that watering and mowing and removing of crabgrass or dandelions (although I like to let ‘em live if I ‘fess up. I’m a closet dandelion lover).

But, Jane, you say, I need a place for the kids to play! Can’t roughhouse in a garden, can they? Well, says I, let’s be honest. Half of us are guilty of spraying our patches of lawn with toxic chemicals just to keep it pretty and green (and keep the homeowner’s association from frowning at us). Did you know that 100 million pounds of pesticides are used on lawns and gardens each year, many of them highly toxic to humans and pets? The CDC studied over 9,000 people nationwide and found pesticides in ALL of them; the average person tested for 13 of the 23 pesticides tested.

Do we really want the rugrats playing on all that nastiness?

There are lots of alternatives to just plain grass. Let’s explore some, shall we, my little chickadees?

• Raised beds for veggies

• Rock garden
• Wildflower patch

• Shrubberies (go all Edward Scissorhands)

• Cobblestones in a pathway or even a mini labyrinth maze
• Fruit trees
• Lawn art (doesn’t have to be kitschy … although it could be!)

• Move some of your backyard life into the front. If your chickens have a pretty fabulous coop and they like to visit with the wandering pedestrians, move them out front. Have nice patio furniture? Don’t hide it in the back; be sociable and put it in the front. Kids have a swingset? I bet it would do your senior citizens heart’s good to watch them play from across the street.
• Herb plants, such as thyme, rosemary, mint, oregano, basil, etc. They smell a-MAY-zing when it rains! (And—helpful hint—they are perennials. Yay!)

• Groundcovers such as: Irish Moss, Creeping Jenny (gosh, just the name alone makes me want some), Pretty Lamium, Blue Star Creeper, Green Carpet, Stone Crop, Creeping Wire Vine, Viola, Fleur de Lawn, Black Scallop Bugleweed, Chamomile, Pink Chintz, Elfin Thyme, Snow-in-Summer, Hardy Ice Plant, and Clover. Check to see which ones are native to your area and go crazy.

One of the neatest things about ground covers? A lot of them can really stand up to traffic! This isn’t your granddaddy’s lawn, with your stereotypical elderly person shouting at the neighborhood whippersnappers to get off his lawn! No way, my peeps. This is my lawn, with your stereotypical well-dressed doll shouting at the neighborhood whippersnappers to come on over! I have tea!

 

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Heather Neeper!!!

Heather Neeper (#4701) has received a certificate of achievement in Make it Easy for earning a Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert Level Grease Chicks Merit Badge!

“Since I don’t travel many places, I changed this badge up a little. Instead of focusing on the truck, I focused on the skid loader. It’s the most important piece of machinery on the dairy farm!

I had my husband show me where everything was and then I made sure to check all the fluids—oil, hydraulic, and coolant every week, along with checking the tire pressure. I did not keep track of the hour usage, since it varies greatly, depending on what we’re doing—like making hay, for instance.

Next stop: changing the oil. Surprisingly, it is much easier to change the oil in the skid loader than it is in my car! The oil plug is conveniently located on the skid loader rather than having to jack it up and climb under it like my car. And we save the oil for a friend that has an oil burner on his farm.

For the expert level of this badge I stuck with maintaining the skid loader. After learning to check the fluids and change the oil, I learned to change the filters—oil, fuel, and air—change tires, and grease all the bearings.

It’s very satisfying to know that I can properly care for the most valuable machine on the farm.”

Great job Heather! It’s always heartening to see a Sister taking the reins on the farm.

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is …Mary Jo Boyd!!!

Mary Jo Boyd (Quiltsister413, #5559) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning an Expert Level Knitting Merit Badge!

“While in Lincoln, NE for a business conference, my friend and I stopped in to the local yarn store and found an adorable shawl pattern that we both had to make. We purchased two skeins of Crazy yarn and got to work right away in our hotel room. It took me about a month, but I finished it.

I think it went well. The pattern was by far the most challenging one I have tried, but I enjoyed knitting a little each night and watching it grow. I got to use circular needles for the first time and found I really loved them. The edge called for an I-cord bind off which was completely new to me. Youtube videos are so helpful in these situations! I found several videos to help me through and it turned out very nice.

I taught four ladies how to knit at our last Faithful Farm Girl meeting. Each of the ladies brought size 7 knitting needles and some practice yarn and I taught them how to tie a slip knot, do a long tail cast on, how to knit and how to purl. I also provided them with two patterns for knitting dishcloths and they are off and running…or is that knitting.

The fifth person I taught to knit is actually my friend and knitting teacher. I actually got to teach her two techniques I had learned that she didn’t know. How cool is that! I taught her the long tail cast on method and also a new way to add a new color or skein in the middle of your project. She now uses both new techniques and loves them!”

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Erin McBride!!!

Erin McBride (#3762) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning a Beginner & Intermediate Level Herbs Merit Badge!

“My herb garden this year had sage, rosemary, mint, basil, Greek basil, purple basil, oregano, cilantro, marjoram, chives, and mustard. The sage did not grow very well, so I didn’t end up harvesting it, but it did grow a little. Rosemary, I use for many recipes, such as crockpot rosemary apple chicken, minestrone, and rosemary bread. Mint is used to garnish, and I have plans to make a shrub with it. Basil, I use on pizza; roasted tomatoes, for freezer sauce and any recipe that calls for it. Greek basil, I made pesto out of, and I currently have some drying in my kitchen. Purple basil is drying in the kitchen, also. Oregano is used for roasted tomatoes (freezer sauce) and any recipe calling for it. Cilantro, I use for guacamole and a few crockpot recipes. Marjoram, I will dry for pizza sauce. Chives are used for buffalo turkey burgers, scrambled eggs, and my kids love to just grab a bit and chew on it. The mustard, I’m really not sure what to do with. I planted it because I had the seeds, but the only thing I’ve read about it is that it’s good ground cover and natural mulch for other plants. So I might try that.

I’ve loved my herb garden this summer. It’s right next to our side door, so I see it every time I walk out of the house. It always makes me happy. I love the fact that I’m drying my own herbs. I love that, for a little while longer at least, I can just walk out my back door and snip some rosemary, chives, or basil. Most of what I need is right there. I have all the usual suspects herb-wise for my recipes, and that’s so convenient and wonderful.”

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,035 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,663 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

Zan Media is looking for female farmers, female ranchers, and contributors for a new documentary film, Golden Girls: Cultivating an Amazing Life.

In the U.S., there are currently more than 300,000 female farmers. The film will unfold through the narratives of some of these women. “Their stories will convey the universal themes of the contemporary farmer/rancher. It is through their eyes that we frame the message: It is a rewarding life, a life worth celebrating in complete harmony with all living things,” say producers.

Watch the trailer:

The goal of the movie is to showcase the special relationship women share with the land and its bounty as they forge a prominent role in the locally grown food movement. The film is hosted by author, environmental activist, and vegetarian cattle rancher (see more about that here) Nicolette Hahn Niman (author of Righteous Porkchop and Defending Beef).

Says Producer Christine Scioli, “By contributing to the production of the film and sharing individual stories of a diverse group of women, we can further understand and embrace the most basic and human female instinct: to nourish, with respect and appreciation.”

Ultimately, producers plan a similar film highlighting each state in the country.

Are you a California farmgirl with something to say? Find out more and learn how you can participate at their Kickstarter site.

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Nancy Boyd!!!

Nancy Boyd (#2508) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning a Beginner Level Gaining Ground Merit Badge!

“I began earning this badge in August 2013 by reading the book Worms Ate My Garbage by Mary Appelhof. Then I purchased my worm bin from a local store here in the Columbus, Ohio, area named “City Folks” that has a lot of great stuff for the urban farmer. Shawn, the owner of the store, was able to get my supply of Red Wigglers from a local guy she uses for customers. I came home and started up the bin and added my great Red Wigglers to do their stuff. I feed them a lot of good decaying and moldy stuff, along with making sure they stay moist with newspaper sprayed with spring water.

The Red Wigglers have created a great bin of Black Gold for me to start using in my flower beds and raised-bed gardens. In fact, I am getting ready to start a second-tier bin on their tower. YEAH!! Go Red Wigglers!”

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,035 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,663 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Each Other/Connecting Growers and Eaters Beginning Level Merit Badge, I volunteered to take over the gardening duties of my neighbor, Mr. Midgely. Recently, he had taken a tumble down his porch and his shiny new cast wasn’t compatible with getting down in the dirt, weeding, and foraging for vegetables. I said to myself, “Self, you can be neighborly and earn a new merit badge while doing so.”

What could be better?

That was before I knew of Mr. Midgely’s obsession preoccupation with zucchini.

Now I love a grilled zucchini as much as the next farmgirl. They’re a tasty veg, and we’re close friends.

But I never want to see another zucchini again.

Mr. Midgely evidently was preparing for alien takeovers, the zombie apocalypse, or a simple famine, because the dear man planted enough of the giant green vegetable to feed our entire town. And the next one over. Plus, most of Rhode Island and maybe Texas.

Before I knew what I had gotten myself into, I was knee deep in squash. Everywhere I looked, every time I turned around, I found myself surrounded. At first, they seemed a friendly enough sort of veggie, but after a couple of hours in the hot sun, my baskets laden with what felt like hundreds of pounds, they began to form menacing faces.

Remember the singing violets and roses in Alice In Wonderland?

Like that. Only more creepy. And less singing.

I seemed to be making no progress. Zucchinis were pressing in on me from each side. As soon as I picked one, I swore three more grew up instantly in its place! Like amorous bunnies, they were procreating right before my stunned eyes!

I had to get out of there. I lugged my two tons of squash with me as far as the porch, then left them behind when I started to hear them chuckling maniacally at me. It had to have been sunstroke, but I wasn’t taking any chances. When the produce starts guffawing, it’s time to take a break.

Mr. Midgely was watching his soap operas when I burst into the house. He seemed to understand my panicked look … after all, it wasn’t his first garden. But I didn’t appreciate the twinkle in his eye, all the same.

After a quick cookie and tea break, I went back to work. I wasn’t going to be licked by a Curcurbita pepo! (You’re welcome for that little bit of knowledge.) I hunkered back down in the dirt and threatened my enemy with all sorts of graphic promises:

• to be sautéed in butter, and sprinkled with garlic salt
• grated and used in muffins and quick breads
• diced into a summer squash salad
• sliced thinly and added to pasta
• sliced thickly, battered, and fried
• puréed into baby food

Or how about …

• filled, for Stuffed Zucchini with Spinach and Bacon
• pickled (Overnight Zucchini Pickles)
• made into delicious Baked Zucchini Chips
• or used as wraps for Sweet & Smoky Salmon Zucchini Rolls

After my chilling guarantees, the zucchinis started to seem less intimidating and even began behaving themselves. I got each and every one picked, by Zeus, and wrestled into the house to be washed. Mr. Midgely’s kitchen looked like a Zucchinis R Us store when I was done.

He watched me from his recliner, munching on cookies.

I’m getting skeptical about that leg.