Dinner on the Farm 2012

"Your Dinner on the Farm is different from what I had imagined it would be like" was the observation from Pam Fretwell of  Farm Journal magazine .  Chatting as we both were cleaning up after the dinner, Pam went on to say the overall feeling of the evening would be hard to convey into words.  How do you write about rapport and relationship building without it sounding sappy?  But we both had zeroed in on the bond of mutual trust and respect that developed between our guests and us. 

This year's dinner conversation flowed just like the wine, where we talked some about farming, shared stories and we were never short on laughing (a lot)... although that could be attributed to Farmer Jay & Lisa's witty personalities, but I did notice this year's dinner guests seemed to share a deeper than normal rapport with us.

The guest list included 2 of the 3 person management team from the Moscow Food Co-op along with their spouses, 2 University of Idaho college students, and a new neighbor whose family moved in just down the road from Farmer Jay and Lisa. Besides Pam, Farmer Jay & farmwife Lisa, was our daughter, Kaitlyn and son in law, Andrew.

Dinner on the Farm Menu for 2012

Below Farmer Joe and Pam were visiting after she had interviewed him, of which the live radio link is below.

Farmer Joe and Farm Journal reporter, Pam Fretwell visiting 

http://player.delvenetworks.com/preview/?m=c414154f86a74f9e9b766765def8835d

Highlight from the Dinner on the Farm.... click here if unable to view video


Well we are still in the midst of harvesting garbanzo beans, although Farmer Joe's combine has had lots of breakdowns this past week (& expensive ones too...eeek) so as it was being repaired, Farmer Joe (who is the President of the Idaho Grain Producers Assoc) took a couple of days off to fly to our nation's capitol to attend and represent Idaho farmers for the Farm Bill Rally that took place on Wednesday.

Farm Bill Rally

As always, thanks so much for stopping by and drop me an email or comment at idahofarmwife@gmail.com.  All my best, Gayle

P.S.  I wanted to expand on my guest list as we not only welcome all those interested in where their food comes from and who is growing some of what we all eat,  but my rational is I do tend to target the clientele from our local vibrant Moscow Food Co-op.  Why? Because their customers tend to care deeply about where their food comes from, they want that connection to the farmer, they have the disposable income to buy organic, and they are the ones who tend to watch the “Food, Inc.” kind of movies.  Plus they are typically highly educated & they vote.  So what better way to connect to this type of consumer to share the why and how’s of what a conventional farmer does (we do not  grow organic crops).  Thus, at least they have a better understanding behind what we do and  the guests then have a personal farmer contact to ask questions if they see/hear something when they read/watch something from one of those kinds of movies.  Because if we do not tell our story, then the anti-Ag unfriendlys who try to portray the family farm in an unfavorable light will try to tell our story their way.   Plus I really try to cultivate a good rapport with the Food Coop management because together we can help their customers understand American Ag methods and together keep a common ground and conversation going about the people who grow America's food.  G