Sunday morning, I headed out to the farm to help my father-in-law make apple cider.  There’s three very nice trees on the land and the past few years we’ve been pressing our own cider.  Delicious.  We even planted a few more apple trees so we can keep doing this in the future.  The making of Continue reading

Having returned from a visit to our community garden plots, Steph and I feel that it is necessary to publicize several rules requiring Community Garden Plots.  (Click to enlarge all images.) Do Not Abandon Your Plot : Gardening is not a Plant-And-Forget technique.  It requires regular visits to remove weeds, prepare soil, tend to plants, etc.  This Continue reading

Continuing in our ever expanding line of torture devices for the modern kitchen, we introduce – The Corn Mill. It slices, it dices, it … well, it just grinds really.  Remember the corn we shelled a couple of weeks ago?  Some of that was destined to be made into corn meal and this was the Continue reading

Tonight, we had a rather nice dinner of local chicken, local BBQ sauce, home-grown beets, sauteed garlic scapes, and steamed rice.  Carving the chicken is my job and while doing so, I had the following conversation with our ‘children’: Tucker:  “Are you cutting chicken up there?” Matt: “Yes.” Tucker: “Can I have some?” Matt: “No. Continue reading

Decorah has a fantastic Farmers Market (one of the best in the state) and as I’ve lived in Decorah, I found myself enjoying it more and more.  It’s not just the local food, but also the opportunity to get to talk to the people who baked the goods and raised the produce.  I also know Continue reading

No, it’s not a bad euphemism.  I honestly waxed cheese tonight.  Actually, Steph did most of the work.  I stood around and made sure the fumes from the melting cheese wax didn’t render either of us unconscious or burst into flames.  But I’m getting ahead of myself. The process began this past weekend. We picked Continue reading

Of the following two choices, which would you rather have? Choice #1 – High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, salt, celulose gum, molasses, potassium sorbate, sodium hexametaphosphate, citric acid, caramel color, natural and artificial flavors Choice #2 – Sap The first option is the ingredient list of one of the most popular syrup’s found Continue reading