In the News

Posted on by under Family, Farm

Page A01

Our Greater Mille Lacs Sustainable Farmering Association was featured in the Aitkin Independent Age this past Wednesday on page 4 of the Progress Edition. Click the picture to the right or on “page 4” to read all about it. There were lots of pictures from our farm. I think Peter took pride in being on the front page of the paper and full page of the Progress Edition.

Mat has also been working on a farm to institution event that will be happening March 29. We hope to promote connection between local producers and institutions like schools and nursing homes. Local foods promotes health and local economy. Click NEWS to see the link to that article.

Lard, Have Mercy

Posted on by under Uncategorized

IMG_6065We are drawing extremely close to our butcher date and I wanted to get the word out that we still have five whole hogs available. These were born and raised here on pasture and they are definitely happy hogs. On Saturday, March 12, we’ll be bringing them in for processing. As part of the process we had to try out the ham and bacon from the new butcher. It was excellent.

Today we ate Grilled Ham and Cheese, so yummy. The boys devoured it. We are very happy with the quality of the ham we received and look forward to the sweet Mangalista cross pork that will end up in our freezer.

Here are some of our favorite meal ideas lately to make your mouth water:

  • Slow cooker pork roast and homemade sauerkraut, cut up and served over spinach (or rice) with homemade thousand island dressing.
  • Pulled pork on homemade buns, ham hock beans, salad
  • Pulled pork tacos with all the fixings, refried beans
  • Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, cut fruit and veggies
  • Perfect pork chop from the Beyond Bacon cookbook
  • Ham and scalloped potatoes, veggies
  • Biscuits and gravy, cut fruit
  • Sweet and sour pork with rice and sugar snap peas
  • Peanut butter pork, rice, cut fruit and veggies
  • Homemade pizza with sausage and bacon
  • Lard for frying fish patties, eggs, venison sausage or most anything
  • Grilled Ham and Cheese, fruit, chips and salsa

Give half a hog a try. You won’t regret it. Get your ham for Easter. They have been raised outdoors with GMO-free and soy-free feed. We charge $3.10/lb hanging weight and the butcher charges $0.58/lb for processing off that same weight. Your butcher costs will be higher if you have them make ham, bacon or sausage for you. Our average hanging weight is around 150 lbs. So a half hog would cost you somewhere around $300.00. Let us know if you are interested.

Don’t know if the title is appropriate, but I couldn’t resist. Please forgive me…

Mathew’s Book List

Posted on by under Family, Musings

Here’s a quick post I thought some of you might like. It’s a book list. Mathew has a very ambitious list* including biography, agriculture and Christian discipleship. I hope to join in reading a few. Are you reading any of these this year?

January:

  1. Shepherding a Child’s Heart – Tedd Tripp (215)
  2. Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand (528)
  3. The Reformed Pastor – Richard Baxter (256)

February:

  1. The Trellis and the Vine – Colin Marshall and Tony Payne (196)
  2. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt – Edmond Morris (960)
  3. Holiness  – J.C. Ryle (419)

March:

  1. Fields of Farmers – Joel Salatin (304)
  2. Team of Rivals – Doris Goodman (945)
  3. The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment – Jeremiah Burroughs (143)

April:

  1. Age of Opportunity – Paul Tripp (265)
  2. John Calvin – Robert Godfrey (208)
  3. The Bruised Reed – Richard Sibbs (64)

May:

  1. Love Walked Among Us – Paul Miller (274)
  2. John Newton – Jonathan Aitken (402)
  3. All Things for Good – Thomas Watson (126)

June:

  1. Reforming Marriage – Doug Wilson (154)
  2. The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert – Rosaria Butterfield (208)
  3. Charity and Its Fruits – Jonathan Edwards (352)

 

 

 

 

 

 July:

  1. Church Discipline – Jonathan Leeman (146)
  2. The Forgotten Spurgeon – Iain Murray (269)
  3. The Holy War – John Bunyan (190)

August

  1. The Imperfect Pastor – Zack Eswine (272)
  2. Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor – D. A. Carson (163)
  3. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God – J.I. Packer (129)

September

  1. Every Square Inch – Bruce Ashford (176)
  2. The Wright Brothers – David McCullough (336)
  3. The Fountain of Life – John Flavel (386)

October

  1. Generous Justice – Timothy Keller (268)
  2. Churchill – Paul Johnson (192)
  3. Luther on the Christian Life – Carl Trueman and Robert Kolb (226)

November

  1. Evangelical Ethics – John Davis (360)
  2. Here I Stand – Roland Bainton (464)
  3. Augustine of Hippo – Peter Brown (568)

December

  1. Above All Earthly Pow’rs – David Wells (339)
  2. Truman – David McCullough (1120)
  3. Newton on the Christian Life – Tony Reinke (290)

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to me, this is ambitious considering the number of pages and the amount of time Mathew has to read. He’s too busy trying to sell the last of our hogs for Easter. However, he is not a speed reader and in no way compares to others, such as Albert Mohler.

Also, all the above links are affiliate links in case any of you like buying things off amazon. Sorry Jackie Lea, Truest didn’t make Mathew’s list this year. I guess it didn’t fall into his categories.

Time To Tap

Posted on by under Farm, Maple Syrup

It’s February and it looks like Spring might just come early for Minnesota this year. Yes, March is known for abundant snow. Could we get 66 inches like they did back in March 1965 (wikipedia fact)? The way our weather has been this year, it would be rain instead. Spring isn’t just rain and flowers for us anymore. This will be our fourth year tapping maple trees and harvesting the sap for something I don’t think I’ll ever be able to live without. Using syrup instead of sugar cane is wonderful in all the recipes I’ve tried (just use the correct ratios). I’m fortunate I don’t have to use sugar beet sugar anymore due to the fact GMO variety make up approximately 95% of the crop.

Tomorrow, we start tapping. Eighteen days earlier than last year. It is likely to be warm (50F is shorts weather in Minnesota), sunny and wet in the woods.

Continue reading →

Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta

Posted on by under Uncategorized
Personal Trainer

Photo Credit: Eric Berget

Fueling our boys for their constant activity is proving to become a big chore. Thankfully we have nutrition packed food and some quick and easy recipes to help us out. The following is now one of our favorite recipes. We had been given a taste when some family brought it over to encourage us during a difficult time. It is also easily a gluten free and non-GMO option in our home since we buy Sam Mill’s pasta in bulk through azurestandard.com; however, you can get this at amazon as well.  Here goes… Continue reading →

High Tunnel Success

Posted on by under Farm, Garden

Celebrate with us friends. We have raised a high tunnel. Thank you to all our friends that came to help. We have a great community of farmers around here and many of them were here to help as well. With this hoophouse we hope to raise plenty of nutritious veggies for ourselves, our community and our animals (the pigs are so happy), surely leading to greater health all around. We knew one couple in our area that was still harvesting tomatoes at Thanksgiving this year. We are feeling blessed with this new addition, our community and friends, and the beautiful weather God has given this fall.

A Tough Year

Posted on by under Family, Musings

It seems I always have the goal to keep this blog up to date and then life happens. In the last twelve months, we’ve gone through two births of twelve week old gestation babies, fully formed and dead in our hands and the death of my mom. Part of me says, no one wants to hear this, it’s depressing. Then I think about how I’ve been helped by those that don’t exclusively share the happy times, but reveal that they too have suffering and struggles. I am not alone. We have also recently left our church which is a different kind of grieving, but has left us broken too.
All this to say that all these things have not left us hopeless, but since we know who God is, through His word – the Bible; we are all the more hopeful because of what He has produced in our lives because of these sufferings. We have found the sweet times all the sweeter. We have found His word all the more satisfying. We have found the hope of 2 Corinthians 4:17 all the more real, that “These light (though they feel so extremely heavy) and momentary (definitely momentary in light of eternity) troubles are producing an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
Thank you to all of you who have walked with us through these times, who have and are praying for us, and for the gifts of many of you who are reading this. We are so grateful for your support and now know better how to love others in hard times because of your example to us.