first efforts

Make goats, not roads

Another year, another March trip to the goat farm to see the new kids. And their moms and dads. This afternoon we (along with hundreds of other locals) drove out to Prairie Fruits Farm to see the goats and lend our support to landowners in the area who are fighting the proposed (and unnecessary) extension of Olympian Drive into the land they use for their businesses. Interested locals among you can go here for more info (and to sign an online petition, I hope).

Prairie Fruits is an amazing local business that has brought a lot to this community in a relatively short time. There's the cheese, of course, which is spectacular and has gotten lots of attention in the food world. Their summer farm dinners have become a hot local event that we all treasure. And let's not forget the goats. The awesome, awesome goats! Here's a smattering of the ones we met today. Check out that randy fella up on his hind legs: "Bring it on!"

     

    

Monday at the Arboretum

Pretty good for a cellphone camera...

Dinner at the farm

Since last summer the folks at Prairie Fruits Farm, our local purveyors of awesome goat cheese, have been hosting public farm dinners at their place just north of Urbana. My beloved and I went last night for their vegetarian dinner (menu here). The food was fabulous, as was the ambience. What a joy to live in a place where Saturday night means you can dine outside with 46 other goat cheese fanatics, watch a lovely prairie sunset, and drive home to the flickers of fireflies. Reminded me yet again of how much I have come to love this place.

The pre-dinner entertainment was, of course, the goats themselves. Here they are, fresh from a day in the pasture, heading inside to get milked. They definitely get a little antsy as they wait their turns. As you'll see, there's even a little head-butting.

Prairie Easter

Mahomet, Illinois

Saturday morning at the goat farm

 

 

Sunday afternoon walk

Lake of the Woods park, Mahomet, Illinois

Locavores, Ripped from the Headlines!

This past week I've been reading Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. In the book Kingsolver chronicles one year in which her family went totally locavore. Locavore? That's eating only locally grown, organic food - what you can grow yourself or find in your area farmer's market, CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and, well, wait a sec - let me have Robin Williams explain it to you:

Not only can eating local save the world, it can also help you beat a murder rap! (That Law and Order. Always on the cutting edge of cultural change.) For the record, I ran across this clip when I got online to search for recipes for the chard that I picked up at the farmer's market this morning. I'm a chard virgin so it was important to start out small. I found one for chard and another for the stems. Now that's maximizing your local returns!

We had an earthquake here this morning. Honest to God.

Earthquakes do happen here, but they are rare. It's even rarer that you feel them. We felt this one.

(image courtesy USGS)

Barn door askew

Admit it - you're dying to go in there and poke around, aren't you?

Study in yellow

Allerton Park, Monticello, Illinois