An American Farm Family Telling Our Story

Hooray! With great pleasure I have added the video from our 3rd annual “Dinner on the Farm” that Farmer Joe and I host during two week-ends in September. This is a free event and our way of connecting the farmer to the consumer. My friend and former co-worker, Camille Rigby taped & edited this magnificent footage from one of our dinners held last month. The images she captured show the true quintessence of what I try to say in every blog: that we love farming, we are an American farm family who makes our living providing food for the consumer, and we want to tell you our story as well as answer your questions and concerns about American agriculture.

I’ve been blogging about our farm for the last 2 or so years and this blog has taken on a life of its own. It shapes the way I think and view things around the farm. Farmer Joe and our hired-man, Cody have joined with me in giving you a “hands on insight” of what we do, day in and day out.

One of my goals with this blog is to be able to have a broader audience and give the consumer that connection to where their food is grown and who grows it. I also hope to someday garner the interest from one of the major women’s magazines and have a regular column that answers questions from the consumer about where their food comes from. So far Better Homes & Gardens, Country Living and a few others have repeatedly turned me down or just ignored my suggestion and offer to write for them. So I will keep doing what I am doing and am thankful for each and everyone one my blog readers. =)

In December, I will be in Chicago to be on a forum for Top Producer’s Executive Women in Agriculture to talk about being an “Advocate for Ag”, and if you have something you would like me to share about what you like most from this blog, please post a comment or email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com . Thanks and as always, appreciate you stopping by. All my best, Gayle

Dinner on the Farm Series for 2011

There is a hunger out there, not just to fill your stomach with food, but also for knowledge about  agriculture, the farmer and our values. It seems that people want to have a connection to THE AMERICAN FARM and to those who raise the food they eat. And that is the reason why Farmer Joe and I host our (free) Dinner on the Farm series each year.  Is a lot of work? Yup, and we love every minute of it.   Connecting with people and sharing what we do has lasting effects, at least for us and ( hopefully) for our guests.   We set the stage for the event and the guests write the script for the evening.  It is like that  Lowe's TV commerical, you have questions, we have answers. 



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A vintage farm book says it all

  Name tags are printed and ready..... not only for us, but our guests as well.


As no one knows each other, name tage are helpful

 Our daughter, Jen helped take photos of the first dinner and my sister-in-law, Denise helped take photos of the second dinner.  The first dinner was also video taped by friend and former news reporter, Camille.(I'll post that once she finishes it) We were really excited to have Camille's expertise to document this.

The menu

The menu is the first thing the guests see, I like to have a variety of entrees and try to focus the food on what is grown locally around this area.  I love to make desserts so I have 4 different kinds as well.

Table decorations that include wheat kernels

The table is set and ready for the guests.  Special special attention is paid to details as a nice ambiance helps set the stage for a perfect evening filled with good food and  great conversation.

The outdoor setting of our farmhouse is decorated as well.

Me and Sheila, our farm host wife for the dinner on September 10

Facing the camera is farm hosts, Eric and Sheila visiting with guests

Eric, our Farm Host shares a laugh  guest, Pat

A good glass of wine poured before dinner.

We like to feature local wineries for our dinners and our guests loved getting to sample some great wines.

Each dinner is different and sometimes there is a group conversation that includes the entire table or several conversations at once.  The latter was the case for this dinner. 

Guests getting to know one another

Below is a picture of Ray & Cathy, our farm hosts for the second dinner, along with myself and Farmer Joe.  This year both of our farm hosts were both farmers and ranchers, a bonus for our guests as many had questons about animal agriculture.

Ray, Cathy, me (holding a bowl of freshly harvested garbs) and Joe



Farmer  Joe explaining about the combine

 The guests were good sports as the weather for this dinner had turned cool and windy, but we all still went out into the field to see the equipment.

A question and answer session

Below is a Flickr photostream on more pictures.  If you are unable to view it via the email subscription, please go directly to the blog site at http://www.idahofarmwife.net/.  Thanks.

 

Well, there you have it, a view of our Dinner on the Farm series.   As in the past our local Pacific Northwest Farmers Co-op furnished cookbooks and 2 pound bags of lentils for the guests.  The Pea & Lentil Commission furnished a baggie of garbanzo beans, magnetic recipe cards and a magnetic clippie and I also added homemade lentil brownies to the guest packs as well. 

All my best, Gayle.  I can be contacted at Idahofarmwife@gmail.com or leave a comment.  I will be posting the recipes (soon) on my recipe pages.