Illinois Farm Families Blog

Did you have the day off of work Monday?

Since my "boss" lives in one of our upstairs bedrooms, there was no day off here in our little white house on the prairie.

But at least I don't have a morning commute...and I get to wear my sweatpants to work...and the boss takes a two-hour nap every day which allows for a little down time. (Just between you and me, when she's not around I drink iced coffee and plan my spring time assault on our garden and landscaping. When I'm feeling really crazy, I also watch Friends re-runs...Shhh.)

This spring-y-ish weather has really given me the gardening itch. My garden catalogs have started rolling in by the mailbox-fulls and they are starting to resemble my daughter's Toys R Us catalogs around Christmas time, dog-eared pages that are full of thick red magic marker circles. Truth be told, I already have an order prepared for everything from sunflowers to cilantro.

Matt and his cousins, Jack and Christopher, have been spending their winter "down time" helping local farmers do exactly the same thing. Only instead of sunflowers and cilantro, they are placing orders for corn and soybeans.

In modern agriculture, filling out your spring seed order isn't as easy as choosing between corn or soybeans. Genetically modified or non-gmo? Drought resistance? Food grade? Disease tolerance? How many acres of corn are you planning to plant? What about soybeans?

When farmers are paying an average of $260 PER BAG of corn and $50 PER BAG of soybeans, it's not a decision that one should take lightly.

Just as a point of reference, one bag of soybeans will plant just over one acre (1.1 to be exact) and one bag of corn will plant 2.3 acres. If a farmer plants just one 80-acre field of corn, his seed bill will be just a shade over $9,000.

Eeesh. That's like 45+ grocery trips.

I'm no math whiz, but I'm not sure that my $100 off any order of $200 or more coupon from Gurney's seed and nursery would get anyone very far. But for those farmers who really have their ducks in a row this winter, the earlier the seed order is submitted the larger the discount.

While my "boss" gives me my own daily dose of education on every subject from what's in Dora the Explorer's backpack to the finer points of proper princess tea party etiquette, Matt, Jack, and Christopher are spending their winter "down time" attending Pioneer seed meetings to learn about different varieties of seed corn and beans so they can better help farmers prepare for the fast-approaching spring planting season.

When the boys aren't attending meetings, they are visiting with local farmers, preparing seed information, organizing the seed shed, and training our seed shed watch cats to be fierce guardians.

I think they aren't spending as much time as they should on that last part.

Roganne Murray

Roganne is a farm wife, mother to a spunky two year-old and all-around farm girl. She and her husband Matt live in a white house on the Illinois prairie, and you can follow their adventures raising what they hope will be the sixth generation of Murrays to farm in Champaign county at White House on the Prairie.

Last night was Back-to-School Night at my son’s elementary school.  Families crowded through the doors to visit classrooms, the library, the gym, and the science room – by far the most popular with Buttercup the hamster, two aquariums of fish, two parakeets and the guinea pig Violet and her new baby.  Teachers passed out important papers about homework, the new report card, parent-teacher conferences and school snacks.

School snacks.  According to the handout I brought home the state requires school districts to form a wellness committee that focuses on “health and nutrition education as well as physical activity for students”.  In that effort, our district has mandated all snacks and birthday/holiday treats be store-bought and individually wrapped in order “to protect students with food allergies, prevent spreading illness and foster better nutrition.”  The handout listed suggestions of “healthy” snacks like packaged apple slices, fruit cups, baby carrots, and the list goes on.  

My reaction was this:  Now our children, many who do not have any connection to our food production system, will learn that an apple comes sliced in a sealed plastic bag with a little tub of caramel dip on the side.  That carrots are deep orange in color, uniform in size and shaped like a mini-hot dog. Think that’s a stretch?

 What color of cow produces chocolate milk?  I’ve been pen-paling with students through the Farm Bureau’s Adopt-A-Classroom program for six years, and I’ve heard the sincere answer, “A brown cow.

That is no fault of the child or his/her parents whose lives may not include a direct connection to food production.  I don’t know that it can be blamed on any one thing or person; however I do believe in our societal effort to combat childhood obesity; our school’s wellness ways could actually hinder the movement to healthy living.

I don’t have any founded research on which to base my argument that growing your own food will foster healthy eating.  I’m a mom of two (ages 6 and 4) and have learned their willingness to eat broccoli lies in their connection to the food.  Every spring we plant a vegetable garden.  The kids help – to the best of their ability – to plant, water, dig, weed, mulch and squish bugs who like our veggies as much as we do.  This summer, my personal reward came when I sent them to the garden to harvest broccoli for dinner.  Normally, not a vegetable voluntarily touched at the table, their excitement over displaying the product of their hard work trumped any upturned noses.   Broccoli was eaten with pride.   There is something to be said about literally having a hand in growing our food.  

If healthy snacks are on schools’ menu, then I propose we till a small school-yard garden, plant some carrot seeds and maybe an apple tree.  I have a hunch those snacks would satisfy so much more than a child’s appetite. 

Katie Pratt
Grand Prairie Farms

 
Paul and I love to have friends, new and old, visit the farm.  Living so close to Chicago has given us the opportunity to welcome many folks to our family farm from all over the world.  Just Monday, we had eight visitors from Japan.  All of these men and women work with farmers and companies that help to provide food for the Japanese people.  It was most interesting learning about their lives in Japan.  We took them to the fields to see corn and soybeans growing.  We showed them the machinery that we will use to harvest the corn and beans, beginning in September.  We talked about walking through the fields to “scout” or check for diseases and insects that may harm the corn and soybeans. They told us about working with farmers in Japan who grow cattle and pigs and chickens.  One man was a professor at Rakuno Gakuen University.  He works with Japanese farmers who raise dairy cows for milk and cheese.   After two hours of walking around our farm, our guests joined us for a supper of Italian Beef, chicken, baked beans, broccoli and cauliflower salad, tomatoes from our garden, fruit salad, and chocolate cake.  We visited another couple hours and then our new friends had to return to Chicago, where they are staying until they fly home on Wednesday.  It’s always fun and interesting to meet new people.  I hope through the Illinois Farm Families Blog, I can get to know a little more about you.  And you about me.  And I look forward to answering, or at least, trying to answer all of your questions about how we grow your food.  Or anything else you may wish to ask a farmer but didn’t know a farmer to ask!

Remember, we are only a short drive from the city.  We would love to sit on our porch and have a conversation with you anytime!

P.S. In case you were wondering, none of our visitors today lost family members due to tsunami issues.  One young man said his family lived close to the nuclear power plant that was affected but that all his family is now safe.

Donna Jeschke
Mazon, IL

While most of the animals go to market, we also fill our own freezer with the animals we raise on our farm. I treat all our animals with the same care and have pride in the animals that go to market.  The meal just seems to be more satisfying when I know how much work went into the meal, and it sure does taste great!

My dad has always had a large garden.  He probably got that from his father, my grandfather, as I can remember as a child; my grandfather would put out 6 dozen tomato plants and what seemed like miles of potatoes.  Also my grandfather started at a young age planting melons and my father has continued that on our farm. We have grown “Scholl” melons for 103 years, by saving back seeds from the best melons each year.

Our family likes to grow plants and animals because we enjoy having great things to eat!

Brent Scholl
Polo, Illinois