Rubbing Elbows

How does a dairy mom and dairy son get to rub elbows with the Minnesota Vikings football team? Be a super fan, of course. Son Michael was the grand prize winner of the Radisson-Vikings Super Fan contest and he asked me to go as his guest.

Friday- Off to Minneapolis in our chauffeured Town Car.

After checking in to the Radisson Hotel, exploring the skyways and shopping at Macy's we settled in at "The Shout House" for some dueling pianos.

Saturday- Arriving at Winter Park, the Vikings training facility, for a tour.

 

The practice field where the magic begins. We weren't allowed to take photos during the practice.

We got a private "meet and greet" with punter, Chris Kluwe.

 

Sunday- Game day against the Green Bay Packers. We got to be down on the field before the game to watch the warm-ups and take photos!

Kicker Blair Walsh and Punter Chris Kluwe in action during warm-ups.

In front of a packed stadium, the MN Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers, 37-34!

After the game we were invited to attend the press conference. We were the only fans allowed in, along with the press. What a treat! 

Minnesota Vikings head coach Leslie Frasier

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson

Monday- It was time to head back to reality and back to the farm, but at least for a weekend we got to rub elbows with the pros!

PS- This may sound cheesy, but if you want to grow up healthy and strong like a pro football player, don't forget to eat 3 or more servings of dairy each day. I bet Adrian does!

Late Night Visitor

We had a late night visitor last night, just as we finished milking. One of our cows that had just had her calf earlier that day, was having signs of milk fever. She was having tremors in her muscles which eventually led to her laying down, and not able to get up. We never take the "wait and see" approach when it comes to our animals. The veterinarian was called, and within a short time Vet Dave was at our farm. 

Milk fever is caused by low blood calcium levels after a cow has calved. Milk and colostrum production drains the blood of calcium, and some cows are unable to replace the calcium quickly enough. Vet Dave injected a calcium solution into the cow to replenish the calcium she needs. She will not be milked for the next 24 hours, and then gradually increase her milking for the next 2-3 days.

We work closely with our veterinarians to keep our cows healthy and comfortable. Our commitment to providing high-quality milk begins with taking good care of our cows.

The Secret Ingredient

"My fudge recipe includes Velveeta Cheese," my friend Barb said. "I'll have to try that," I said. Who was she kidding? You don't put cheese in fudge. Who was I kidding? I had no intentions of trying a fudge recipe that included a cheese product. Well, never say never! My curiosity won out and I went to the Kraft Foods web site to seek out the recipe. My first batch was shared with family and coworkers, and my "secret ingredient fudge" was a hit. It is very smooth and creamy, and delicious. 

It's no secret that cheese is versatile, but using it as a fudge ingredient was a surprise. Click here for the Velveeta Fudge recipe.

PS- Santa emptied the milk in the refrigerator too. You've got good taste Santa!

Barnyard to Front Yard

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

From our barnyard to your front yard,

Wishing you and yours a happy, blessed Christmas!

Jan, John, Sara and Michael

Through the Eyes of a Child

Holidays seems to be a time of reminiscing. Here is my memory of Christmas Eve as a child.

Christmas Eve day began as usual, except for the fact that my mom was probably putting the finishing touches on the matching dresses she had sewn for my sister and I to wear that night. My dad started farm chores early on Christmas Eve afternoon. Calf feeding and milking began about an hour earlier than usual so that we could get to the annual Sunday School Christmas Eve program on time. My sister, brother, and I each got to open one gift before church. It was often a new pair of socks or something else that we needed to complete our holiday attire. Mom rushed us kids off to church, while dad stayed home to finish the milking, only to slip into the back pew just in time for the program to begin. 

 

My dad's family is close, and I mean close. Besides getting along very well, my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents all lived within five miles of our farm. Each of my uncles were dairy farmers too. We all went to the same church too, so all our Christmas Eve schedules were quite similar. After church, we all invaded  Grandma and Grandpa's home. The 16 grandchildren couldn't wait to dig into the Christmas gifts, but we had to wait until after digging into the feast that the mom's had prepared. Due to our dairy farmer schedules, Christmas Eve dinner was after church. While the moms cleaned up the dishes, the kids separated the gifts into piles for each person. We each got a gift from the family member who was lucky enough to draw our name from the hat on Thanksgiving Day, when we were all together to celebrate "turkey day." Of course there was always a gift from Grandma and Grandpa too. Often times we each received a pad of rainbow colored paper, and we always patiently waited for Grandma to hand each of us an envelope with $2.00 tucked inside!

As midnight quickly approached, it was time for the mom's to return to church to sing in the church choir for the Midnight Carol Service. Grandpa was comfortable in his tan leather rocker, smoking his pipe, while the dad's each found a spot on the couches to take a little nap. The cousins, however, were exploring the newly received gifts and sharing their hopes for what Santa would deliver the next morning.

That's me in the center, with the cool glasses.

Faith, family, and farming, it was a perfect way for our family to celebrate Christmas Eve. What childhood memories do you have?

As American As Cheeseburgers

I'm guessing you have heard the phrase "As American As Apple Pie." It is not my intention to appear Un-American or to "dethrone" apple pie, one of Americans favorite foods, but in our house the cheeseburger is king! Perhaps we love our cheeseburgers because they are easy and quick to prepare in the middle of a busy day of farm chores. Or perhaps we love our cheeseburgers because each of us can customize our burgers to fit our taste buds; different cheeses equals different flavors. Since today is National Hamburger Day it seems only fitting to salute the day with a cheesy, flavor packed cheeseburger recipe. Thanks to Midwest Dairy for this recipe.

Cheese Stuffed Burgers

1¼ pounds extra-lean ground beef
2 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs
¼ cup egg substitute
¼ teaspoon seasoned salt
½ teaspoon chili powder
4 slices part-skim Mozzarella cheese
4 tablespoons low-fat plain yogurt
4 tablespoons salsa
4 thick slices red onion
4 thick slices tomato
4 pieces arugula or lettuce
4 whole-grain hamburger buns, toasted

Preparation

Mix beef, breadcrumbs, egg substitute, seasoned salt and chili powder in a medium bowl. Divide mixture evenly into 8 patties. Top four patties with a slice of cheese and cover with remaining 4 patties. Press edges together to seal in cheese. Grill burgers over medium-hot coals about 5 minutes each side.
Mix yogurt and salsa in a small bowl. Place a burger on each bun and top with onion, tomato, arugula and salsa mixture.

ATTENTION DAIRY LOVERS: You can find more dairy recipes at Midwest Dairy 

The Twelve Days of Dairy

On the twelfth  day of dairy, Hannah Holstein made for me, twelve flavored yogurts, eleven ounces of co-jack,  ten cups of cottage cheese,  nine pints of sweet cream,  eight cups of Swiss cheese,  seven ounces of cream cheese,  six gallons of ice cream,  five cups of cheddar (it's golden!), four pints of whip cream, three pounds of butter, two pints of sour cream, and a gallon of wholesome white milk!

Hannah Holstein, and the rest of the herd, are always busy producing milk for a long list of dairy foods. Enjoy three servings of nutrient rich dairy foods, such as milk, cheese and yogurt every day, because these foods deliver incomparable nutrition, value and taste.

Hannah Holstein has something for everyone including low-fat and fat-free varieties, as well as lactose-free products. Families can choose from a variety of dairy to meet their taste and nutritional goals. Thanks to Hannah and the herd, every day is Dairy Day!

Our Resident Foodie

My daughter is our resident foodie. Sara loves watching cooking shows. She knows everything about Iron Chef, Cupcake Wars, Top Chef, and every Diner, Drive-Inn and Dive across America. She subscribes to Food Network magazine, which she reads cover-to-cover. She is one of the few people I know that actually enjoys grocery shopping. One of her favorite places to shop is kitchen stores. So I shouldn't be surprised when she came home last week with a Linzer Cookie Cutter. Linzer cookies are European inspired jam-filled cookies. They are quite time consuming, but full of delicious buttery goodness. Perhaps your resident foodie would like to try this recipe.

Linzer Sandwich Cookies

2 cups flour
2/3 cup finely chopped almonds
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
Confectioners sugar
In small bowl combine flour, almonds, and cinnamon. Set aside. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Add flour mixture; mix only until incorporated. Divide dough into 2 pieces. Press into small discs, about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On floured surface roll out one disc of dough 1/8 inch thick. Keep remaining dough chilled. Cut half the dough using the center cut-out (top cookie) and cut the remaining half with out the center cut-out. This will be the bottom cookie. Bake on parchment paper-lined baking sheets 10-12 minutes. Let cool completely. Spread bottom cookie with about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon jam. Cover with top cookie which has been dusted with confectioners sugar.
(This recipe was printed on the Wilton Linzer Cookie Cutter package.)

Sara used our KitchenAid mixer to make these cookies. What? You don't have a KitchenAid mixer? You could! Check out Real Dairy Holidays Contest sponsored by Midwest Dairy to see how you could win one.

A Day In the Life

" Hi, it's Flat Aggie again. Today I want to share with you a few more things that are done every day on the farm I am visiting."

"Every morning and every evening, every day, the cows are milked. Cow milking 101 will tell you all about how it is done. Dad John and son Michael milk in the morning and John and Jan milk at night. If you remember the other day I told you that Jan, Sara, and Michael work off the farm too. With this milking schedule, everyone is able to do the farm chores, as well as their job off the farm!"

Ready for the milking to begin

I got to help put on the milking machines!

"After morning milking, it is time to do the feeding. Grandpa Roy uses a big machine called a feed mill that mixes corn and oats and other nutrients together. Besides this feed, the animals eat hay and drink lots of water. Did you know a cow drinks about a bathtub full of water each day?"

Grandpa lifted me up to see the feed through the little window.

Dad John is feeding some of the heifers (that's what cows are called when they aren't old enough to milk.) 

"After the feeding is finished, it's time to clean up. Grandma Karen cleans the milking barn and John or Michael clean the animal pens. The manure (cow poop, in kid language) is removed everyday to keep every animal as clean and healthy as possible. The manure is loaded into a wagon (pulled by a tractor) called a manure spreader that spreads the manure on the fields. This helps the fields get back the important things called nutrients that help the crops grow. John said the crops will be planted again in the Spring and I can come back and learn about that too!"

Mike and I used a skid steer loader to put the manure into the manure spreader.

"Today I say good bye to Minnesota, but I am not heading back to California just yet. Jan has made arrangements for me to visit Susan and her family farm in Arkansas. Although I am sad to leave Minnesota and my new friends here, I am excited for my Arkansas adventure. And to Miss Sarah and her students- Jan sent you a package full of surprises for each of you, and there is something tiny and purple in the package too!"

A Lot Of Babies

"Hi again. It's me, Flat Aggie from California. Remember me? You first met me when Jan and John took me to the Midwest Dairy Expo. It's time for me to share another adventure with Miss Sarah's first grade class, and you too. It's colder in Minnesota, than California, so Jan made me a coat and hat to keep me warm while I helped FEED CALVES!"

This is the calf "hotel." Each calf gets it's own room!

"Daughter Sara and Grandma Karen take care of the calves on the family farm. Each calf lives in it's own pen, in a solar building. The word "solar" means the sun provides the heat and the light for the building. The calves are fed every morning and every evening. Each calf has 2 buckets on the front of their pen, one for milk and one for feed. The calves like to drink warm milk. When they are finished, they get lots of fresh water to drink too. The youngest calves get special feed made from corn, oats and molasses. It smells really good! The older calves get feed without molasses, but they must really like it, because they moo a lot until they get fed!"

 I helped Sara feed calves, after she got home from teaching school.

"Sara and Grandma also keep the building clean. They sweep the floor everyday, and give the calves clean straw to lay on. This keeps them clean and comfortable so they stay healthy. And just like people, if a calf does get sick, they get medicine. That's one of Grandma's jobs. The farm also has visits from the veterinarian (animal doctor) to make sure the animals stay healthy. In the last 14 days, 15 calves have been born! That's a lot of babies!"

Grandma Karen and I with a 1-day-old calf.

It's National Cookie Day!

Christmas baking has always been a big part of our family holiday traditions. When Sara and Michael were very young, I was asked if I would be interested in selling home-baked Christmas cookies to my sister-in-laws co-workers. Making some extra holiday shopping dollars while doing something I enjoy seemed like a great opportunity. It became a whole-family activity. Sara became the expert at Russian Tea Cakes. Michael rolled the balls for the sugar cookies. John always helped with the date balls. My mom and I spent a day rolling the dough for the gingerbread people! The first year of cookie sales, we sold 79 dozen cookies, enough profit to buy a new front door for our house. Fifteen years later, we topped off our sales at 652 dozen (that's 7,824 cookies)! We no longer have our cookie business, but we will always have the "sweet" memories.

One of our favorite's is M&M Cookies. I use this recipe for many holidays, choosing the appropriate color M&M's to match the holiday. Thanks to Julie, a past co-worker for this recipe.

M&M Cookies

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
4 cups flour
2 cups M&M's ( reserve 1/2 cup)

Mix all ingredients. Add M&M's last. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheet. Top each cookie with M&M. Bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes. Makes 8 dozen.

Another favorite Christmas cookie recipe can be found on my June 10, 2012 post. I top them with red and green sugar for Christmas.

A Tiny Purple Jersey

"Hi, Flat Aggie here in Minnesota. If you read the previous post you know that I am visiting from California. I'm staying with Jan and her family, learning all about their family dairy farm so that when I return to California, I can share what I learned with Miss Sarah and her class of first graders. Please read on to see what I've learned so far."

"The family has a 120 cow dairy farm, just 20 minutes from St. Paul, Minnesota's capital city. The farm is right across the road from a golf course too! Jan farms with her husband John, daughter Sara, son Michael, and John's parents Roy and Karen. Jan, Sara, and Michael also have jobs away from the farm, so everyone has specific farm chores at different times of the day, but I'll talk more about that next time."

"Since today is Sunday their schedule is a little different. After morning milking and feeding, and attending church, it was family time. As you can see in this picture the family loves their Vikings football. Jan even made me a tiny Vikings football jersey! The family invited some of their family to watch the game too. We had lots to eat while cheering on the Vikings. I really liked the hot ham and cheese sandwiches, and the cheese curds, and the ice cream cake! Jan reminded me that we have the cows to thank for the milk they give us so we can have these yummy dairy foods."

"After the game, we all went to do our chores. I got to help feed calves and milk the cows. I'll send pictures soon. The family said they have to take care of the cows and calves everyday, even Sundays and holidays! The family works everyday, and they still love what they do!"

Flat Aggie From California

Perhaps you have heard the story of Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. Stanley is a young man who wakes up one morning to discover he has been flattened while he was sleeping. Yes flat...as a pancake (only thinner, like paper.) Imagine the adventures you could have if you were small enough to stow away in an envelope to see the world. Stanley did just that! Now think about what a great way this would be to learn about agriculture around the United States. Sarah's blog, House Ag Built along with her first grade students, constructed Flat Aggie (Agriculture, cute, huh?) to visit farms to learn every thing they can through the eyes of Aggie. I invited Flat Aggie to visit our dairy farm in Minnesota. Here is the first of our adventures that I am sharing with Sarah and her first graders.

Flat Aggie went to the Midwest Dairy Expo with John and I. This is one place farmers can go to learn more about being a great farmer and about the newest farm machinery and supplies. Flat Aggie really liked this big plastic cow at the Dairy Farmers of America booth. Aggie learned that the milk from our farm is sold to Kemps, which makes it into yummy ice cream. 

After a tasty ice cream snack, we visited the Midwest Dairy booth. Barb, Jodi, and Sami explained to Flat Aggie that dairy farmers get paid to sell their cows milk and a little money each month goes to Midwest Dairy to advertise how important it is to have dairy foods every day to keep our teeth and bones strong and healthy. Midwest Dairy also teaches people how dairy farmers, like us, care for our animals and our land.

After a busy day, Flat Aggie was getting pretty worn out. His tired little feet couldn't hardly walk another step, but wow, you should have seen him perk up when he saw the sparkly crown on Princess Kay of the Milky Way, Christine Reitsma. She spends many days traveling around Minnesota, representing Minnesota Dairy farmers, to help share our story about how much we love what we do to make delicious milk for everyone to enjoy! (I think Flat Aggie would have liked a little kiss from Princess Kay, but he was too shy to ask.)

Flat Aggie was so sleepy from our long day, he slept all the way home. But he is so excited to help with calf feeding and cow milking tomorrow! Stay tuned!