The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,518 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—7,301 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ

For this week’s Farm Kitchen/Unprocessed Kitchen Merit Badge, I was moving up the ranks to Intermediate and Expert Levels. That’s right: you’ve come a long way, baby! Why yes, I have, and thanks for noticing. First up:

Level Deux

This badge, my little dears, is a piece of cake. Well, not a literal piece of cake, more like a cracker. Unprocessed, organic, nutritious and delicious, homemade Cheez-its.

Oh. Yes.

You. Are. Welcome.

But not just homemade Cheez-its. Oh, never let it be said! For this particular level, I needed to replicate two used-to-love-em-had-to-have-em-not-so-good-for-you-unwholesome-guilty-pleasures. For the second recipe idea, I had to wrack my noodle.

And then it came to me:

Noodles!

More specifically, macaroni and cheese. Ah, that blissful bowl of ooey gooey, melty, comfort food! It’s like heaven in a bowl.

A large bowl.

Continue reading →

Why would hubby be driving Lucille, our tractor, to town?

And then …

What’s this at our little retail store? A crime scene?

Continue reading →

Have you ever wondered whether the money you spend ends up funding causes you oppose? Like an industry that hurts honey bees?

That’s the burning question posed by a new app called Buycott …

and it’s out to find the answer.

“A buycott is the opposite of a boycott,” explain the app’s socially conscious creator, Ivan Pardo. “Buycott helps you to organize your everyday consumer spending so that it reflects your principles.”

How?

After you download the app (free from iTunes), you start “buycotting” by searching for and joining available campaigns—or creating your own—in order to establish a profile of your social conscience.

Then, you can scan a product’s barcode with the Buycott app and it will set out to determine what the product is and who owns it. Buycott will then trace the product’s ownership back to its original parent company and cross-check this company against campaigns that you care about, from homelessness to GMO foods and beyond.

Conflicts between a company and your campaigns will send up a red flag, helping you make an informed choice about how you spend your money.

Buycott already boasts over 100 campaigns and the list is growing. If your cause can’t be found, it’s quick and easy to add it. All you need is a goal and a list of companies that you know either support or undermine your cause.

I’m so proud of our son, Brian. Every year, he invites a kindergarten class to the farm for a field trip. He figures out ahead of time what he wants to teach them and how the morning will go, and afterward seems so energized. He’s such a good daddy himself, and yesterday’s visitors are our future farmers, so thank you, Brian!

Continue reading →

Another new baby Jersey was born yesterday to Mama Emma. I named him Yore, not because he’s harmless and sweet like Eeyore (who is surprisingly good at Pooh-sticks), and not because Yore means
yesteryear, time past, and especially long past as in Heritage Jersey, the breed I’m big on because they’re so small. I named him Yore because when I rolled him/her over to find out we’d just had our third GUY in a row (we want girls—they give milk), I said …

Continue reading →

“Look! There’s a farmer riding down the road.”

In a bulky Carhartt coat. And leather gloves, work jeans. And … a flashy speedo helmet. “Where did Spandex go?,” said Helmut.

Why, it’s …

This story has its origins in an era long ago, 34 years ago, to be exact. I was pregnant with my daughter and living in a 14-foot travel trailer parked next to a public restroom, located next to a small bungalow “house” on the outskirts of Grangeville, Idaho. I’d just spent the winter living on a remote ranch on the Joseph Plains without electricity, or phone, or TV, or … you name it, I was without it. Travel to the 30,000 acre ranch took 4-6 hours via dirt road or 4-6 hours on a jet boat coming up the Snake River from Lewiston. Did I say remote? If you know anything about that part of the country, you know it’s the place that time forgot. It isn’t a popular designated wilderness area. It’s wilder than that. And emptier. Along that 4-hour-dirt-road-drive, there were probably 20 old, crickety, barb-wire gates you had to stop and open, stop, shut again. These were unimproved, bumpy, SLOW, dirt roads. You knew to travel with a saw in case you came across a tree that was down. That’s the 6 hours part of 4-6 hours. We did have “neighbors,” about 10. Total. All of us living hours apart. The 4-hour trip up the Snake River was made 6 hours not because of trees that were down, but because the operator of the boat stopped every few miles to check his traps and toss a dead beaver or muskrat into the boat.

Continue reading →

You know I’m passionate about transforming waste into wonder,

but here’s a story that goes beyond anything I’ve ever dreamed possible …

and left me with tears streaming down my face.

It begins in Cateura, Paraguay, a shantytown that’s built upon a landfill where the water supply is dangerously polluted and rains bring floods of refuse.

More than 1,500 tons of solid waste arrives each day, according to UNICEF, and Cateura’s 2,500 families, young and old, survive by separating the garbage underfoot for recycling.

And yet, amid squalor beyond most Americans’ comprehension, beauty is blooming from the most unexpected places …

An old coffee can.

Bottle caps.

Discarded kitchen utensils.

………………………………………………………………….

One person’s trash,

it seems,

can become another’s …

Bach?

“A violin is worth more than a house here,” says Favio Chavez, director of the Landfill Harmonic.

A few years ago, one of the garbage pickers, “an untutored genius of the slum,” joined forces with Chaves, a local musician, to make instruments for the children of Cateura using what they had—trash.

Like magic, violins and cellos emerged from oil drums,

flutes sprung from water pipes and spoons,

wooden packing crates became guitars,

and garbage-picking kids were transformed into musicians.

The Recycled Orchestra was born.

As the dream continues to flourish in the hearts of blossoming musicians, the orchestra is beginning to take tours around the world, stunning audiences with the quality of music that can be produced from “waste.”

At the same time, filmmakers are working on a new documentary, due to be released in 2014, which tells this tale of trash and treasure. Take a peek:

In the coming month, Landfill Harmonic is trying to raise over $113,000 to support their ongoing effort and complete the film. If you’d like to help make it happen, visit their Kickstarter page to pledge as little as a dollar.

Photos courtesy of Landfill Harmonic

Photos courtesy of Landfill Harmonic

Photos courtesy of Landfill Harmonic

Photos courtesy of Landfill Harmonic