Monday Staycation – In Rewind

I am on vacation this week, and I have instructed the office not to call me unless it is a dire emergency.  Since I work with very smart and understanding coworkers, I am sure they will heed my plea. (Seriously. I have awesome coworkers.) I need this week off. We don’t have big plans and, …

Panera Bread (Or How to Pluck an EZ Chicken).

Panera Bread Company certainly got an earful this week! A dairy farmer/blogger – Dairy Carrie – wrote this post lambasting the company for its ridiculously misleading advertising campaign that essentially called livestock and poultry farmers who use antibiotics “lazy.” Misleading. And offensive to farmers everywhere. I know many farmers and I can say for certain …

Garden Joy in July

The gardens are in full bloom now, with the zinnias, coneflower and daisies putting on quite a colorful show. I think my favorite flower changes almost daily now – I love all my zinnia varieties because the colors are amazing and bright and so happy. But, the coneflower is a classic Minnesota perennial that is …

Cripes – A Minnesota Turkey Hotdish!

Mid-July seems, in theory, like a very weird time to make a hotdish. Wait, I should back-up for any of you who are not from Minnesota and are wondering what this strange word – hotdish – is all about. Here’s a quick tutorial: “Hotdish” = casserole. And just so you know right up front, in …

Common Sense Chicken Truths

Full disclosure: I have been stewing a bit about a comment about eggs and laying hens I read on Facebook for at least a week now. If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know I’ve written about eggs and the misconceptions about egg farming before – in fact, my post “Can …