Posts by Peas and Hoppiness
What’s a CSA: Community Supported Agriculture
Visiting the Miller Farms booth at the local Farmers’ Market to pick up our basket of CSA veggies last summer! Get your World Peas Tee, too! Support your local farmer with a CSA this season and enjoy best quality fresh, seasonal produce. Spring is (finally) here, which means that summer – my favorite season –…
Read MoreMaking Lunches
We visited the farm last weekend to introduce two of my favorite people in the world to wheat harvest. It’s a busy, dusty, exhausting, fun time of the year. Wheat Harvest The days are usually really long – starting in the morning and reaching until way past sunset as long as the grain is still…
Read MoreSustainability Spotlight: Miller Farms Local Vegetable Farm
Meet Joe Miller. Joe Miller of Miller Farms Joe and his wife, Chris, are the full-time owners/operators of Miller Farms, a medium-sized vegetable farm in Northern Colorado. Miller Farms consists of 400 acres of vegetables, additional acreage in field corn, and a few more acres of hay. In addition to farming, a couple of years…
Read MoreSustainability Spotlight: Community Based Agriculture
Meet Amanda Lindahl. She’s an expert baker, extrovert, wonderful friend, and a passionate gardener. She works for The Giving Grove, a non-profit organization which is part of the Kansas City Community Gardens. Jessica, myself, and Amanda when they came to visit me in Colorado! The Giving Grove is a unique subset of American Agriculture –…
Read MoreKansas Wheat Harvest
My favorite childhood playground: the grain truck, followed closely by the time I spent in the kitchen with my mom helping her “make lunches” for the harvest crew. Most people think that Kansas is land-locked. They would be right — except for June, when seas of golden wheat stretch across the plains. Millions of stalks of…
Read MoreFarming when the Ground is White and the Temp is Low
I work an 8-to-5-ish job. I have weekends and holidays off, I accrue PTO, and if I’m deathly ill, I have (amazing) coworkers who will step up to cover for me. This does not describe the life of a small business owner, such as a farmer. The Old Red Barn A small business owner works the…
Read MoreCrop Rotation
In case you hadn’t noticed, winter is upon us. Snow has blanketed the fields, temperatures have dropped, and the days are short. Getting set for the family photo… it’s cold! So what happens on a farm when the ground is frozen? More than you’d think. Like all the other seasons, winter is a thread in…
Read MoreThe Harvest Crew
Every year my parents host a post-harvest celebration. They usually go out to a restaurant (that way mom gets to enjoy the time without worrying about cooking) and spend a couple of hours enjoying great company and great food. The crew has changed over the years. It used to take many more people to get…
Read MoreCleanse Diets: Do they Work? And Which one Should you Try?
Ooey-Gooey Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls: excellent Soul Food Should you try a detox diet to cleanse after the holidays? Before starting one, learn what you should cleanse from and which cleanses to avoid. ‘Tis the season… for cleanses. Now that the holidays are over and everybody is repenting from all of the treats in which they’ve…
Read MorePickles, Sauerkraut, & Preservation
If cooking is a giant chemistry experiment, fermentation is a lesson in biology. Preservation is a happy marriage of these two sciences. Easy Counter-Top Pickles Lately, between the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) basket I purchased for the summer (check out Miller Farms if you live in Northern Colorado!) and a very generous co-worker (THANK YOU,…
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