Does eating out or at someone else's house cause you anxiety? Cibophobia is the fear of food, and for me it always seems to strike at get-togethers with a meal involved. What a gesture it is, for our families and friends to offer to feed us! Food has always linked us together as a cultural glue, and to refuse to eat at a gathering would just come off as an insult, wouldn't it? So foregoing the meal or even worse, vocalizing your dietary restrictions, just makes you come of as a control freak... Neither of these seem like viable options without crumbling the very foundations of jovial family cordiality at annual get-togethers-to-come... BUT, you have worked so so so...
You have probably heard this statistic before... The average age of farmers and ranchers in the US is 65 and climbing. This means the art of farming and ranching is fading in our country, rather than being passed down to the next generation. Some of the biggest reasons for this trend are: -lack of access to productive land and water -lack of available capital it takes to start up a conventional food production operation -high risk associated with running an Agriculture-Based business This past week I had the unique opportunity to participate in a Land Access Summit to help lay the groundwork for a Beginning Farmer/Rancher Program on private land in Buffalo, Wyoming. My friend Caitlin Youngquist with UW Extension...
I heard the most interesting conversation on dairy products the other day on Science Friday on NPR. Did you know that 30-50 million Americans are lactose intolerant? Listen to this interview of the Associate Professor of Anthropology at Harvard, where she talks about how the ability to digest lactose could partially depend on your gut microbiome. Check it out HERE. I found this episode particularly relevant because my relationship with dairy has been long and winding... I found out that I was lactose intolerant when I went to college. I discovered, a few years later, that I could enjoy goat and sheep milk, as well as A2A2 cow milk sometimes, without the same consequences I experienced when I drank ultra-pasteurized, homogenized cow...
Things are starting to feel a lot like Spring around here. The chicken egg yolks are just starting to turn orange again, our fridge is full of sheep milk, Peter has been coming out more often to lend a hand with chores with the nicer weather, and we are surrounded by babies! I even saw that the green grass is really starting to sprout this week. Woohoo! We have had 14 lambs so far, we are officially past the half-way point, and I am pretty excited (mostly for night checks to be over so I can maybe get some sleep) but also to have a full clan of bouncy lambs out on pasture again. Nothing makes me happier than watching...
Lambing Season is well on its way! We are up to 10 lambs and almost half-way done. We have had some interesting ups and downs so far this year. But everyone is looking spry and healthy and enjoying the beautiful weather we have been getting this weekend! If it won't load in the box above, you can Check out this video here of what I like to call "The Taste of the Wind Lamb Races." In case you missed it, here is my latest podcast episode where I shared my interview with Dr. Tammy Grey-Steele of the National Women in Agriculture Association. It was kind of fun to talk about my own farm on the podcast for a change. Although, I do prefer learning...
