Photo taken at Golden Glen Creamery / Jensen & Son Dairy in Bow, WA

Monday, October 31, 2011

Side Dish: Running Away, a poem


There are so many beautiful roads to run away to in Skagit and the North Cascades. I hope to never stop finding them.
"Yah, running away, driving fast in one direction and never stopping until the cops run you down, the car runs out of gas, and you are too tired to think about anything ever again. Running away, hard and fast and long. Finally, what mattered and worried and feared no longer has the same hold. And, you can finally find a toe hold into some rest. Not peace, but rest for a moment. And, that little moment lets a ray of hope land. Not conscious hope, but the glimmer of freedom from what distorted the conscious mind and stirred out of balance the thoughts and emotions. A little window at the edge of the universe. No matter about the dragons and demons at the edge of known existence, at least they are out there....and just maybe they will eat all our inequities for lunch so we can be free and beautiful and perfect, and so we can return to a perfect place of existence."
By LJ

Saturday, October 29, 2011

TEDxDirigo - Roger Doiron - A Subversive Plot: How to Grow a Revolution in Your Own Backyard

The video of this TED talk is about 18 minutes in length. Give a listen with your morning coffee.

For those who aren't familiar with TED you MUST check out their About page. You can follow them on Twitter @TedTalks and on Facebook at Facebook.com/TED. The project is doing good things in the world.

A few of my notes from Roger's talk follow:

90% of vegetable varieties went extinct in the 20th century. (source?)
 31 minutes. The average amount of time the American family spends preparing, eating, and cleaning up after meals, per day. (per day? dreadful)
 Gardens grow important economic savings for families. (amen!)

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Friday, October 14, 2011

Going to Gothberg Farms

Will be at Gothberg Farms in Bow in a few minutes. Decent afternoon in this part of the valley, overcast but not raining and I see shadows on the ground so I have hopes that the afternoon. I'm looking forward to visiting Rhonda Gothberg's farm, seeing her goats, getting some cheese, and hearing about how her life led to a dairy at 50 years young. Rhonda sounds like a fun and inspiring person.

Stay tuned, I'm still editing the video of my visit with Anne at Blue Heron Farm and Kai at Hedlin's Family Farm. Those will be posted shortly, too.

Monday, October 10, 2011

a morsel of wisdom from Dwight Eisenhower

about farming and government ...
Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Coming Soon: Rhonda Gothberg + Gothberg Farms = CHEESE, BABY, CHEESE

Thrilled to say that it looks like I'll (we'll) get to meet Rhonda Gothberg of Gothberg Farms in Bow very soon! Hopefully we can coordinate in the next week or two! I'll have video and photographs to share of my time with her and I absolutely will hope to leave her farm with a collection of to-die-for cheeses which I will brag about for days and days.

As a primer, get on Rhonda's website and read about the farm and goats. You can follow her on Facebook and on Twitter as @gothbergfarms.

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And with that, I leave you with a poem by one of my favorite authors of all time ...


BLAME
by Shel Silverstein  
I wrote such a beautiful book for you
'Bout rainbows and sunshine
And dreams that come true.
But the goat went and ate it
(You never knew that he would),
So I wrote you another one
Fast as I could.
Of course it could never be
Nearly as great
As that beautiful book
That silly goat ate.
So if you don't like
This new book I just wrote
Blame the goat.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Video & pics from the Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms 2011

Do you know how far cows can smell? I had no idea!!!!!! I learned the answer at Golden Glen Creamery / Jensen & Son Dairy in Bow, WA. Watch this short video and you'll know too, you can tell all your friends and sound super smart at trivia. 



Couldn't leave Golden Glen Creamery without getting some chocolate milk, eggs, and variety of cheeses (plus an assortment of other stuff). Got apples, strawberries, honey, raspberry jam, and grilled corn from Sakuma Farms. Got some pie apples and a couple bottles of wine from Eagle Haven Winery, and some yummy felted soap from Country Time Alpacas ... and the FUZZZZZZZZIEST little teddy bear with the softness of baby alpacas. 

Always a good time!