Thanksgiving Part 1....Eat Local

I have so much to tell about the week before Thanksgiving so I am going to divided the post up into 3 different parts so you don't get too bored!

Part of our job as being farmers is to educate people whenever we get the chance. I was asked by a friend to speak to her class of 4-5 year olds about turkeys. I had a power point presentation for the kids to watch and I answered any questions they had to ask me. Most of these kids have never seen a real turkey. It was a lot of fun & my friend has already told me that she would call me again next Thanksgiving!

Lee was asked to be a panelist at Davidson College to speak about A Local Sustainable Thanksgiving. As luck would have it he double booked himself and already had another speaking engagement for that night. So I got to be his fill-in that night. There was a panel of 3 women each with a different prespective. I was the farmer, we had the manager of the Davidson Farmer's Market & a chef who is a big supporter of eating local. The chef also did a cooking demo using local & seasonal foods.

I was nervous at first about being on the panel not because I had to talk about the farm because I do that all the time at the Farmer's Market but I was afraid there would be a question that I could not answer. I got through it and everyone said they enjoyed it so I guess I did alright!! A lot of the people that were there I recognized from the Farmer's Market so it was like talking to "friends."

We also got a little publicity in Farm Bureau magazine:

http://www.ncfbmagazine.org/2009/11/a-glimpse-into-the-wild-side-of-turkey-farming/

This is actually a funny story. The guy who wrote the story contacted Lee because he wanted to do a story on wild turkeys. Lee told him about our operation and our Thanksgiving turkeys. He said he would talk to his editor and get back to us. He never did. The on a Monday afternoon he called Lee and said the story was wrote could we send him some pictures. Before the kids went to school on Tuesday morning Lee's dad took some pictures and the result is what you see in the article.

One correction though,

"Menius adds that raising the free-range turkeys is a nice complement to the chickens and pigs that he grows for commercial operations on a family farm that dates back to 1885."

We do not grow for a commercial operation. Anyone that knows us knows this!!!!

I was also able to share about turkeys & our farm with Rosty's Kindergarten class. These kids feel like they know me so they don't mind sharing stories with me. I think 5 kids all had the same story. "We were driving down the road and my mommy hit a turkey....." Who knew we had so many turkeys around!

Thanksgiving Part II will be our adventures in processing Thanksgiving turkeys!

Events

We have had the opportunity to do several things this past week.

One was to attend The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) 2009 Sustainable Agriculture Lecture featuring Will Allen.

Check out what he is doing in Milwaukee:

http://www.growingpower.org/

We also attending a workshop entitled "The Secrets of Marketing & Selling Success." There were several sessions including local NC companies that shared their stories of how they got to where they are today.

I forgot the cake pictures

This year Rosty decided that he wanted a cake instead of cupcakes (although I still made cupcakes too). So we had a Transformer cake made for him. They did a great job on the cake!

Rosty's 6th birthday

Around our house birthdays tend to be celebrated for at least a week! Rosty's birthday was on a Friday so he opened his gifts from us on his actual birthday.....I couldn't make him wait until his party that would have been to cruel. Here are a few gifts he got from us on his birthday.

A transformer

Another transformer

A bakugan



No birthday is complete without a trip to the Mexican restaurant to wear the sombrero!

Mommy & Rosty

Grandma & Popa bring presents....
Transformers & Bakugans

& a new Transformer lunchbox

The Scavenger Hunt

The pinata

The day before the party it rained and rained. It was also very cold and damp the day of the party. We still did our scavenger hunt outside...very quickly. The kids found clues which led them to the next clue (Rosty may have had a little pre-scavenger hunt hints given to him) and in the end they found a pinata. We took the pinata into the playroom for the kids to get the goodies out of it. Then we had pizza, chips, cake & cupcakes.

Fresh

Some weeks nothing happens and then other weeks I have so much I want to talk about but not enough time to blog about it.

Last week was crazy with Rosty's birthday, then Halloween and then his actual birthday party. We celebrated his birthday for 3-days!! Plus, it was our last Markets of the season so we worked 2 Farmer's Markets on Saturday also.

I will post birthday party pictures next week.

Which leads me to the fact that I will not be posting pics for awhile. My camera had an unfortunate accident and no longer works:-( The good news was that it happened after the birthday party. So, any recommendations for cameras???

Me & Lee went to a screening of the movie Fresh last night.

This is from the website :

http://www.freshthemovie.com/

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy

It was very interesting. It was made like a documentary and followed Joel Salatin around his farm and then urban farming with Will Allen.

After the movie there was a panel of 5 people. The panel included someone involved in urban & community gardens, Slow Foods president, nutritionist, co-author of book on sustainable agriculture and soil science/agronomist professor.

Halloween 2009

Optimus Prime

Batman

I know there are a lot of you out there like me who always made their Halloween costumes when we were young (or had our mom make them).

So that tradition continues with the Menius Family.

Rosty decided that he wanted to be a Transformer so I went to saving cardboard boxes. The body is a box that I spray painted red, the grill is the flaps from the box covered in duct tape. The mufflers are a wrapping paper tube cut in half and spray painted gray. The lights are a paper towel tube cut in half and covered with blue painters tape. The legs are Capri Sun boxes covered in red duct tape. You do have to use your imagination but several people guessed that he was a Transformer (the t-shirt probably helped too).

Rosty wanted it to actually transform but I couldn't figure that one out.

Charlie got the Batman shirt during the summer and decide that he wanted to be Batman after getting the shirt. His was a little easier to put together though.

Who knows what we will be next year.........

As promised... State Fair pics

Rosty wanted to come down this BIG slide & he did. Although, I did not get to capture that look of fear on his face as we was about halfway down.

Charlie thoroughly enjoyed himself at the State Fair this year.
He loved riding all the rides!





Rosty
The boys had to climb up a rope ladder, walk across a swinging bridge and I'm sure there were a few more things but the final was this fast slide.
They did it twice in a row....they loved it!






Charlie

I know, I know.....only a DOT worker would take her kids picture in front of this!!!

Halloween & Birthday Parties

Rosty's birthday was on October 30th. He was actually out of school that day but he went to his after-school program. His daddy did pick him up early though!

We did the traditional eat Mexican & wear the sombrero at our favorite Mexican Restaurant. When our waiter came to take our order Rosty ordered his usual and then added "it's my birthday so I'll need a cake too!" Luckily, I had brought a cake with us.

I did take pictures but Lee has my camera so I'll have to post them later. Plus, I never posted pictures from the NC State Fair.

We let Rosty open gifts from us on his birthday it would be unfair to make him wait until his party. He got lots of good stuff!!

Then Saturday was Halloween.

I'm old school.....we usually made our own costumes so of course I do the same with my kids. Rosty wanted to be a Transformer so I collected cardboard boxes, wrapping paper tubes, and paper towel tubes. Then I bought some red spray paint, blue, silver & red duct tape and Optimus Prime was created. A few people actually knew what he was when we went trick or treating.

Charlie had gotten a Batman t-shirt this summer so he decided he wanted to be Batman. His was really easy. He wore the t-shirt, blue sweat pants (because he didn't have black), a cape we got last year for 25 cents on clearance and a Batman mask we found at the consignment store. He was a cutie.

At our last house we went to it started raining. And it rained and rained and rained. We had over 2 inches of rain at the farm.

I was a little disappointed when I woke up on Sunday morning because it was wet and cold outside. We had all these really cool things planned for Rosty's birthday party and the weather did not won't to cooperate.

We had a total of 13 kids plus their parents. Rosty had both set of grandparents at his party and my granny (his great-granny) came too!

We still had a great party despite having to be inside most of the time. We did our scavenger hunt outside and then we brought the pinata inside.

I sent all the kids to the playroom to eat. I figured it would be easier to clean one location than to have them eating all over the house. Petey & Freckles (our dogs) enjoyed being on crumb patrol after the party.

Thanks to everyone who was at Rosty's party- he had a great time and we hope you did too!