Monthly Archives: November 2013

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—7,653 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ

For this week’s Farm Kitchen/Pay it Forward Merit Badge, Level Two, I was excited to keep on keeping on with my own personal vendetta against hunger! Maybe I can’t change the world, but I can sure change a day in someone’s life, so that was my plan. Baby steps, girls, baby steps.

I got my bossy pants on (pinstriped, wide legged, look aMAYzing with heels) and set out. My plan for helping my corner of the planet and for earning my Intermediate Level Badge was simple: Collect as many canned goods as my little arms, boxes, reusable shopping totes, and car could carry, and donate to the same dear food bank I donated my handful of change to the other day (when I was earning Level One). Now the goal was to collect at least 50 items, but I just knew I could blow that number out of the water. I mean, let’s get real here, ladies, I could probably find almost that much in my own pantry (well, there was a sale on pineapple a couple months back … sometimes I get concerned that I won’t have the ingredients to make an emergency homemade, midnight Hawaiian flatbread pizza, you know? No? You don’t have homemade, midnight Hawaiian flatbread pizza emergencies? Huh. Curiouser and curiouser).

So, I parted ways with 12 cans of diced pineapple (reserving a couple for said emergencies) and went on a little manhunt.  A canhunt, actually.

HAHA! Get it? CANhunt? I know, I know! Wipe the tears of mirth away, my friends, and keep reading.

Naturally, I tried to let a few pals know I was coming (so as not to become a Canned Foods Mafia or something) and I was pleasantly surprised to see them getting into the swing of things, too. We were really in the spirit.

The farmgirl spirit.

In fact, they wanted to come with me in my collection rounds, but my seats were full of a case of water chestnuts, a flat of French sliced green beans, lots of soup, some unopened jars of spices, tons of bags of pasta, a box of Turkey jerky, a dozen home-canned jars of peaches, and the bumper crop of my neighbor’s zucchini.

Yeah, I’d say 50 items was going to be a piece of cake.

Everyone I met was happy to give something, even if it was just a tin of tuna or a carton of powdered milk. At Midge’s house, she was in the shower, and since the kids know me, they let me in and were only too happy to donate all the vegetables they could find! Sweet kids. Very generous, I thought.

I rounded out my afternoon of nonperishable food hoarding and drove the booty to the food bank. Together with the volunteers, we unloaded my car (which was sagging under all that weight!) and made the cook very, very happy.

Turns out HE has homemade, midnight, Hawaiian flatbread pizza emergencies all the time.

I knew I wasn’t the only one.

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Sharon Demers!!!

Sharon Demers (Calicogirl, #5392) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning an Intermediate Level Backyard Farmer Merit Badge!

“A friend that raises La Mancha Goats taught me how to milk. It is not as easy as it may appear. I know it is alot of hard work and I can only imagine how much milking it take to milk a cow.

My husband and I started raising hogs this past July. We did alot of research through the internet and books and finally decided on a breed we would like to raise. We chose Large Black Hogs originally from Cornwall, England. This breed is considered critically endangered. We chose the Large Blacks because of the critical rating but also because of their docile temperament, great mothering skills and their dark color. We live at a higher elevation and were concerned about sunburn.

We LOVE raising hogs and I never knew how much fun they would be! Endeavour is our boar and his girl is Trudy. We plan on breeding to keep the breed going but also for meat. Just today after feeding them I asked who wanted to cuddle and Endeavour came over and started rubbing his face against me 🙂 (The photo is from an earlier cuddle time.)”