Farmgirl at Large

And I haven’t figured out what to say about it. I love the opportunity to be at the Center for Rural Affairs. I’m learning lots, and getting work done, which is fantastic. It’s kinda like being at school, but they are paying me, instead of me paying tuition. I like the gig!  I’ve always felt that if you are going to complain, you have to be willing to put “rubber to road” and try to change things. This is some of that, but it’s also about me learning HOW to make it happen, so I can show other folks, and keep expanding the change.

Grassroots is so where it’s at… Because! Da roots hold da soil, so when da rain comes down hard, da soil doesn’t slide off da hill. Lotsa roots hold more than fewer roots, and little roots end up holding more than big tree roots, soooooo……

All we have to do is figure out where we intersect, so we can twine our agreement around each other and hold our beliefs firmly, but gently, to allow our dreams to grow.

Come play with me!

So, I created a haiku for caring for mushrooms. I decode it over on the mushroom page. Sorry for confusion, thanks for coming and taking home a mini-garden!

Ok, so it was “just” the Mushroom Open House. But I think it went well! I think I had about 50 people thru. It got packed enough at times I couldn’t count them, and I forgot to try til after most of the folk had come and gone.

Pretty good for a first effort. Next time it’ll be better. WHEEEE!!!

It was fun to have people thank me for doing the event, and growing mushrooms in general.

One of the things I am loving most about having Olaf home on the farm is getting to see my brothers more regularly. It’s not that we hang out more with “quality time” but I am able to ask their opinions, and I did ask Thor if he had time next week to hang out and he said yes! I really do like my family, and it’s pleasant to be able to interact with them. Like when Thor wanders by to get the feed for the calves when I’m feeding my pigs. I like that I’m not the only one out there, and there can be some interactions with Humans. And it’s even humans I like!

I also love this time of year. I love the weather, I love the harvest, I love the crisp in the air, and how a 50 degree day is seen as a blessing. I love the angle and quality of the sunlight.  I love my job.

Hot damn, life is good!

A pigger bit my boot tonight.

A new mushroom room is done, with shelving and spawn run happening, tho it needs a door.

Half the ceiling insulation is done for my fruiting room.

I’ve got more product in Lanesboro Local, and my great-auntie kicked me an email about helping/manning/selling at a IN MY OWN BLOODY HOMETOWN LOCAL local farmers market as a potential for next year. With deliberate stations/ areas for strictly educational aspects. I’m a bit shell shocked on that one. In a good way. But still.

It occurs to me I can alter the legs of my new shelving units to fit what I need. Just because they came at that length doesn’t mean they need to stay that way. Sometimes I wonder if I was dropped on my head as a child. Then I realize that it’s more that I still don’t think I’m an adult in some respects and I keep waiting for “permission” and the “person in charge” to tell me what to do. D’ur da durp dur. As my boyos say “When the head is dumb the whole body suffers.” Too bad the business suffers because I can’t keep it all going at once.

I found a new mantra.

Inga Haugen, owner
Farm Girl at Large
507-246-6848
farmgirlatlarge@gmail.com

MUSHROOMS CAN BE BOUGHT FRESH AND LOCAL YEAR ROUND

Fresh and local are the current buzz words when buying food. In cooler climates many people think it is only in the summer months that we can buy foods grown by our neighbors, but that isn’t the case. Mushrooms are a great local food source. Inga Haugen, a local oyster mushroom grower near Canton, Minn., wants people to see the type of produce they can buy. She is hosting an Open House from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 29th at her farm at 12620 Deer Road, Canton.

People will see the indoor production area Inga uses to produce oyster mushrooms year-round, as well as equipment in use as she will demonstrate the whole process during the event. From steaming sawdust to harvesting the product, if you’ve ever been curious about fungus, come and see!

The mushrooms are currently sold thru Lanesboro Local, GROWN Locally, and directly to the consumer. The restaurant; Optimo Farm Market, Restaurant and Cafe of Viroqua, WI; has used the oyster mushrooms Inga grows.

“Farm Girl at Large oyster mushrooms are among the tastiest that I’ve ever tried. As a mushroom guy, I appreciated that they were very fresh mushrooms, tasty and flavorful! It’s nice to be able to buy and eat more of them anytime.”  John Grabko of Historic Forestville and Historic Adventure Travel and Tours, based out of Spring Valley.  Loni Kemp, of Kemp Consulting, Canton, MN says, “These locally cultivated mushrooms are wonderful. Just a few bring an ordinary omelet to a whole new level. And they taste divine. They are packaged just the right way for best storage in the fridge– a brown paper bag. Outlasts the plastic wrapped trays of commercial mushrooms by many many days.”

For more information please contact Inga Haugen at 507-246-6848, farmgirlatlarge@gmail.com, or visit farmgirlatlarge.com. (That’s right here!)

To reach the Open House, get to the intersection of 52 and 44, (which is between Canton and Mabel) and go North on the gravel road Dove for .6 of a mile.  Turn right onto Deer Road. Go 1.5 miles on Deer; as you drive it, you will take a curve to the north, stop at a stop sign, cross a small bridge, and at the top of the hill, turn right into the driveway. There will be signs as well.

So, I was at Perkins yesterday, where I wanted to get a salad and a piece of pie, following a performance of Henry 4, pt 1 by the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona.

The server was kind and got me my glass of raspberry iced tea. And then my food didn’t get there for another 20 minutes. If you know me at all, I’ll say that I would have been fine if the food would have been there 15 minutes ago. And then! From the kitchen! Comes SHRIMP and spinach.  Yep, stuff that’ll kill me. So I waived the waiter over, asked him to wipe off my sticky table and take away the stuff that will kill me.

He comes back with a chicken and ice berg lettuce salad (with no foccacia!) and tells me “They made you a new one, they didn’t just pick off the shrimp.” How comforting. I’m halfway thru the salad when I realize it isn’t spinach, it’s ice berg. Now, this sounds funny until you remember that I get STUPID when I’ve not been fed in 4 hours. As I’m eating, the upper level humanity comes back and I start to giggle. I motion the server over (which takes several minutes each time I’ve mentioned it, tho the restaurant isn’t THAT busy) and mention it to him. He asks if I want them to make me another one. I agree that I really did want a chicken and spinach salad. I finish the ice berg salad as I’m waiting for the spinach salad. It comes out, it’s good, it’s what my taste buds wanted (and had expected, having ordered it.)  The server comes over to see if it’s right, I agree it is, and thank him. I ask for a slice of cheesecake strawberry dessert. He says they are out!  I give up and ask for the peanut butter chocolate  something or other that they have. I’m telling my tastebuds to expect peanut butter and chocolate, and he comes back with a box for the rest of my salad and the strawberry cheesecake! I decide I’ll speak to the manager, because the poor kid did everything right that he could, and he handled it very well. Granted, I’m fed at this point,  so I’m not a high maintenance customer, but still. I thought he should be praised for doing his job under difficult circumstances and remaining so pleasant and cheerful. So as the manager is wandering around, I ask her if she’s the manager, explain what happened (and was slightly off put that she didn’t offer to comp anything) but answer her question that yes, indeed, it’s right now, and the server did the best he could. She offers to get me a refill, confirms it’s raspberry iced tea, and leaves to go get it.  She comes back, nods to me, and wanders off as I sip… iced tea. No raspberry flavor at all. I start laughing out loud at this point, and make it a point to tell my server what happened. He laughs too and offers to get me different tea. I decline, but thank him for his offer.

This, children (and small bears) is the parable part of this story. It was a decent meal, but I still had to pay. If I had been mean and nasty, they would have given me the meal for free. As it was, I got a story from the deal, acted like an adult human, “paid my dues”, made folk laugh and reminded myself that even when I ask for exactly what I want, sometimes it takes a bit to get there. And, in the doing, I can ascertain if it’s still what I want.

so I thought I should do something “useful” as I am hiding in my house waiting for the rain to stop because I do have that luxury today. So here I sit, warm, dry, with thunder rolling over my head, with good music on my computer making me feel cozy and content. It’s been a challenging year. I don’t have all the answers. In fact, I’ve got more issues than answers, but today felt good anyway. Some things I learned today, in no particular order:

• I MUST be more careful with what I eat and when I eat it. I had rice for lunch, and then was snacking on chex mix and drinking a Mt Dew. I hit a wall where I had to sleep. Had I eaten cottage cheese and a pork chop, I would have been bright eyed and bushy tailed.
• I’ve given up on some of the bags of spawn I made. They are a nasty, mucky mess. Such is life.
• I need to track what I do better. I can’t tell you why those bags of spawn are yucky. Boo!
• I must fetch in all of my chickens. The raccoons have  started to find them at night.
• It feels good to pay my bills and care for things.
• Chickens walking around in the rain look cranky.
• Sheep’s ears flop when they run. Ok, I knew that one already, but it’s funny.

And for a while in the foreseeable future.

1/2s and wholes available, and individual packages.

Prices for packages are $3/lb for smoked meats (hams, bacons) and $2.75/lb for fresh (brats, chops, steak, ground, roasts, pork sausage, maybe a package of ribs)

1/2 pigs are around $2.55/lb when it’s all said and done. What cuts you get can change the price, but it’s generally around that price. The amount of meat works out to be around 100 lbs.

I’ve got no space for the pigs and want people to have good food, so I’m willing to work with people on payment.

Thanks!