Food Morality

Bugs on the windshield the past several days?! It’s just now March 1st today!  The calendar says spring is still nearly a month away yet the grass is greening and jonquils have pushed through the soil and leaves are trying to open their tender buds.

It may seem that farming is only a three season occupation—spring, summer and autumn, but I suspect those are just the months my husband escapes on his tractor…

The winter months occupy farmers with book work, tax preparation, marketing, moving grain and livestock, seed, fertilizer and chemical ordering, equipment tune-ups and/or trades, fertilizer and lime application, building terraces, rebuilding drainage structures and meetings, meetings, and more meetings. (No wonder he is ready to escape.)

These meetings are usually about Precision Agriculture, Crop Insurance, Root health, Grain Exports, Environmental and Energy policies, and get this—Food Morality.

When I first heard Food Morality was the topic, I couldn’t help but picture my farmer reading the 10 Commandments to his soybeans—I guess that would be legal as long as it is not too close to a federal or state highway…I know he prays over his fields but perhaps he should teach those stalks of corn to bow their tassels and close their ears to worldly lusts. I can’t imagine how to teach morality to the livestock… although our daughter used to baptize her kittens…

In all seriousness, it should please you to hear this is a meeting topic! We want the world to know that YES…farmer’s care about the morality of the food – how it is grown, it’s purity, ethics of funding and how healthy it is for the public. Farmers are not your moral enemy…

I understand though.  It is easy to blame the food for my lack of self-discipline at the table. Maybe this healthy soup will help boost you into the new month!

Cousin Tom’s Vegetable Beef Soup…it’s moral as far as I know…

1. Saute’ 1 pound cubed stew meat in canola oil.  Sprinkle with garlic powder as it cooks.

2. Dice 4 carrots, 3 medium sized potatoes, 3 stalks of celery (leaves included), 2 small onions, 4-5 kale leaves (cut up with scissors, or ¼ c. frozen), 1 quart green beans, 1 quart tomatoes,  and place in stock pot with enough water to cover vegetables.

3. Add meat to this with enough water to cover.

4. Add 1 T. of beef bouillon and 1 T. of chicken bouillon (rounded), 3 T. of all purpose seasoning, ½ t. Basil, 1 t. Italian seasoning, 1 T. garlic powder, and 1 t. onion powder.

5. Bring to a boil for 15 minutes, then turn back to simmer for about 3 hours.  Add a little water as necessary.

(From Tom’s sisters and my scrapbooking buddies. They tell me Tom is a fantastic urban farmer.)