Mmmm…spaghetti sauce, Lighthouse Farm 100% grass-fed ground beef or lamb and spaghetti squash noodles. We love to eat this dish. It is an easy gluten-free meal to prepare. We’re busy around here, so I like delicious, easy meals. Occasionally, we substitute for spaghetti pasta with spaghetti squash. It adds a new twist to a favorite dish of ours. If we have any left-over’s, the next evening’s meal will consist of chili made from the spaghetti sauce and squash. I just add tomato sauce, chili powder, garlic and salt.

Our spaghetti squash has been harvested and put away for the year. We let it cure a bit before moving it to our root cellar. I prefer to grow spaghetti squash and Hubbard for their long-storing capacity. We actually had a few spaghetti squash leftover from last year. The rinds on these are pretty tough after curing which is why they last so long. The only drawback of these rinds is the longer they’re in the root cellar the greater the chance that I might need an ax to break those babies open.

My ingredients are simple:

• 2 pounds Lighthouse Farm 100% grass fed ground beef or ground lamb (we’re meat eaters)

• Tomato sauce

• Sautéed onions

• Oregano

• Real salt

• Garlic or garlic powder (whatever happens to be available)

• Sometimes, I’ll add finely chopped beet green tops or kale or dandelion greens or nettle to boost nutrition.

I cut up the spaghetti squash in chunks, remove the seeds, place it in boiling water about 30 minutes, scrape off the squash meat, feed the rinds to the pigs, add a little salt and either olive oil or butter and serve.

Apparently when one weighs about 1,100 pounds, one would be capable of birthing a baby that size. We witnessed the birth of one of these big-as-a-cow first-time mothers in the middle of the pasture on a warm sunny day recently. As we approached her to make sure she was OK, she looked us square in the eye with wild-looking eyes, started walking rapidly toward us and told us exactly what was on her mind, “MOOOOOO!!!!!”

OK, I got the strong sense we weren’t welcome. When this normally docile, sweet 1,100-plus pound animal did what she did, you intuitively read between the lines while taking in the non-verbal communication. I’m quite certain that emphatic moo didn’t mean, “YOOOOOu!!!! MOOOOve over here and give me my epidural!!!”

Hey, I’m an RN, but I didn’t need 4 years of higher education to tell me she didn’t need a doula or midwife or cheerleader or coach… or an audience. I’m quite certain beyond the shadow of a doubt it meant, “MOOOOOve out of my space or I’ll give you the bOOOOOOt, er, hOOOOOOf!!!!”

We immediately complied with her request and watched from a distance (while wishing we would have brought the binoculars with us).

Like most of our farm animals, cows prefer to go away from the herd to a secluded place and birth alone. This one labored with her huge baby quietly. Several times she pushed and a little amniotic fluid emerged. Being the good mama that she is, she immediately stood up, turned around and gently coo’d (moo’d) at the fluid. I’m sure she was hoping beyond hope that this was her baby and she needed to clean her off and begin the bonding process. Boy, is she in for a surprise. Wait until those front hooves and nose start to emerge. Ouch.

It wasn’t long before she laid her huge body down to push quietly until those last few pushes when she belted out a few loud moo’s to give her that extra umph needed to get this big baby out. As the baby’s nose and two front hooves emerged from the birth canal, we noticed another appendage sticking out at us. What in the world???? Oh, it’s the calves tongue! The not-so-little-bugger is sticking her tongue out at us!

We had a friendly little debate while sitting in the pasture watching this bovine do her thing about what we should name the baby. We seriously considered naming her “Raspberry”, but we already have a goat kid named Raspberry (because she always left her tongue sticking out after she nursed her mama). So, since this one looked like she had a bonnet of red fur around her face, we named her “Bonnie Little Bonnet.” We realize she won’t be so little for long. But when she reaches her full growth of 1100-1200 pounds and becomes pregnant and as big as a cow in about 1 and a half to two years, she’ll still be a Bonnie Little Bonnet to us. “My Bonnie lies over the pasture…”

As I sat beside the 900 lb milk machine we call “Valery,” extracting the most delicious, creamy, pure food on earth, I looked around and took in the beautiful sight of the sun starting to break through the misty, fog-like soup low on the eastern horizon.  The beef cattle were making their way out to pasture after spending the night on the hill in quiet rest, calves following mommas.  There were no mosquitoes, thankfully, due to the cool air and the recent rains.  Valery was patiently chewing her cud, thankful that I’ve come to relieve her of her daily burden.  The black guard dog was quietly waiting for her turn to sample the leftovers, her breakfast.

I turned back to my work, my forearms starting to ache with the familiar lactic acid build up that comes from extended flexing of the hands during milking; and just then, the sun’s rays came full on to where I was sitting, warming me, reminding me that each day is new, full of opportunity and grace.  For a moment, the only sound was the milk hitting the side of the pail, and I found myself grateful for the work which called me out this day to experience the renewal of God’s faithfulness.

As I sat beside the 900 lb milk machine we call “Valery,” extracting the most delicious, creamy, pure food on earth, I looked around and took in the beautiful sight of the sun starting to break through the misty, fog-like soup low on the eastern horizon.  The beef cattle were making their way out to pasture after spending the night on the hill in quiet rest, calves following mommas.  There were no mosquitoes, thankfully, due to the cool air and the recent rains.  Valery was patiently chewing her cud, thankful that I’ve come to relieve her of her daily burden.  The black guard dog was quietly waiting for her turn to sample the leftovers, her breakfast.

I turned back to my work, my forearms starting to ache with the familiar lactic acid build up that comes from extended flexing of the hands during milking; and just then, the sun’s rays came full on to where I was sitting, warming me, reminding me that each day is new, full of opportunity and grace.  For a moment, the only sound was the milk hitting the side of the pail, and I found myself grateful for the work which called me out this day to experience the renewal of God’s faithfulness.

-Robert A. Heinlein

At first, Roundup did kill all the weeds in a field of Roundup Ready Soybeans.  While I wouldn’t call it a “miracle chemical” as the article does, it did perform as promised the first couple of years.  At first the resistant weeds were either complained about and tolerated, (Monsanto, after first blaming the chemical retailer and applicator, was known to pay a little money to the farmer for poor performance of the product).  But by 2000, it was apparent that the only way to control these refined weeds was to introduce another chemical, and now just like Farmer Anderson said in the article, “we are right back where we were 20 years ago.”

I would take issue with what Mike Owen, a weed scientist at Iowa State University, said in the article about “Darwinian evolution in fast-forward”.  What we are seeing here has nothing to do with Darwin to be sure.  Think of this:  Ever seen a dog with 6 toes? Imagine if we just started the wholesale slaughter of all dogs with only the normal 5 toes. (I’m not advocating this! Please don’t tell me I’m cruel.) It doesn’t take a PhD biologist to figure that after a while there will be only 6-toed dogs.  The dogs surviving the purge would not be a new species, they would have always been here in low numbers, but with no other dogs around to mate with thier numbers would blossom.

Secondly, “Darwinian evolution in fast-forward” is an oxymoron.  Darwinian evolution requires millions of years as essential to its theory of change.  These resistant weeds were showing up 2-3 years after the widespread use of Roundup.

This is not evolution, but rather UN-NATURAL selection.  This is a man-made disaster!

Monsanto and other companies knew of this tendency long before Roundup Ready crops were introduced.  In the 80′s and 90′s weeds began to develop resistance to atrazine, arguably the most widely used agri-chemical in the US over the last 40-50 years, forcing the development of “tank mixes” of multiple chemicals to defeat the adapted weeds, and broadening the reception of Roundup Ready crops to begin with.

I say again, Know Your Farmer.  Support Your Farmer.  Help Your Farmer Survive Without Monsanto and Big Ag.

-John Mesko has degrees in agronomy and agricultural economics from Purdue University, and early in his career sprayed thousands of acres of Roundup and other herbicides.  He’s scouted acres and acres of corn and soybean fields, consulted with farmers all over the US regarding crop production decisions, worked as a university extension director, and as an information manager for Dow Agrosciences.  After seeing the impact of his work, he now builds agricultural productivity rather than destroys it by raising organic, grass-fed meats in Minnesota.

Recently, the producer was told by his milk buyer, Horizon Organics, that unless he stopped selling milk directly to consumers, they would stop buying his milk. He commented to my friend, “It’s either quit selling to you, or go bankrupt.”

This is a tragedy of industrial ag. Its even reached to the level of mid-sized organic farms. I only wish this farmer had the customer relationships and fortitude to tell Horizon, “OK, fine, pull the truck…”

However, as most farms are saddled with debt, and are on a treadmill of continued reduced profit margins, this option was just not available to him.

I thought that the discussion panels that took place after the movie were informative and helpful.  As a member of the local food movement here in MN as both a farmer and director of Sustainable Farming Association, I say, “Bravo” to all the participants and moderator Tracy Singleton.  Great job getting at some of the key issues in local sustainability.  Obviously, Minnesota in general and the Twin Cities in particular is blessed to have so many dedicated, thoughtful, sincere folks working to advance the cause of local food sustainability.

Many options for folks to be involved in response to the stirring FRESH will lend them were discussed.  Local restaurants, Co-ops, backyard gardening, etc.., were all discussed.  However, I’d like to add one option that wasn’t there:

Find a Farmer. Buy Food Directly From Them. Simple.

There are many, many, many farmers out there desiring to direct market meat, veggies, etc…, We are one, but there are many others.

Recently, we attended a lecture by Joel Salatin, where he discussed the higher costs associated with sustainable food. I wish I had taken notes, but one component he discussed was the government regulations imposed on farms almost regardless of scale.

A second comment he made really applied to us. It centered on the artisanal quality of food produced at the very small scale, like ours here at Lighthouse Farm. And that’s really how I’ve described our food in the past. “Hand Made.”

Most people wouldn’t think of asking an artisan potter to produce hundreds of copies of his best work, at a reduced “bulk” price, but often that’s the thinking of some folks who consider food produced at any level a commodity.

We are thankful for the many well-food-educated customers we have as fans and followers! Thank you!

You’ve probably already researched this at length, so I’m going on the assumption that you know that before WWII, most milk was sold as raw, unpasteurized. The decline of raw milk is closely tied to the rise of industrial agriculture, big box grocers, and long distance food transportation. You may have consumed raw milk as a child, your parents likely did, and you grandparents most certainly did. Really, pasteurization is a pretty recent thing..

My opinion is that in general, raw milk is safe for kids and for everyone..

However, lets think about how we get milk.. I mean, if the cow is healthy, the milk inside the cow is healthy. The baby calves never die from unpasteurized milk. In fact, they probably would be very unhealthy if they drank pasteurized milk. Anyway, lets assume a healthy cow, and therefore, healthy milk in the udder. (Actually, that’s a pretty big assumption if you are talking big, industrial dairies, that push the cows with hormones and antibiotics. Animals confined in large numbers and fed mostly grain are just not healthy, or clean.) If there is any contamination in the milk of a healthy cow, it is added after the milk comes out. This could be due to improper cleaning of the cow prior to milking, dirty milk equipment, dirty trucks, dirty processing facilities, etc…

In the old days, each little town in the country had a creamery. There were 6 within 30 minutes of our place. the local farms all delivered to their local creamery. If there was a problem at an individual creamery, it was isolated at the local level. Now, you ‘ve got massive quantities of milk traveling co-mingled with milk from lots of other farms into a few enormous dairy processing facilities. The milk is handled way more now than in the past.

Pasteurization became popular when milk needed to be consolidated over large area, transported over large areas, and therefore became open to all manner of contamination.

E. coli is a good thing. In the right place!! our guts are loaded with E. coli in the lower bowel. If we didnt’ have it, we’d die. But if it gets in the stomach, you’re going to be spending the night in the bathroom!! I say that to remind folks that all bacteria, even “bad” bacteria are not “bad” There is a place for some bugs, and actually, a healthy individual can handle a certain level of “contamination.” Why do they tell us, “Don’t drink the water…” in certain other countries, but the locals are fine? Because they are used to it, their systems can handle the additional bacterial load.

I say this, because each person probably has a different constitutional make up and some can handle more load than others. At least while they adjust… All this to say, if you wanted to introduce raw milk to your kids, take is slow, give them some time to adjust to the change in the bacterial load they are taking in. Milk is the stuff that makes yogurt. We all know about beneficial bacteria in yogurt. You could make a simple batch of yogurt or even easier kefir. Kefir is like “pre-yogurt” Pretty easy to make, and really boosts the good bacteria in the gut. If you made kefir from raw milk, I would think you could get your family adjusted to raw milk easily.

I would say your best source of information on raw milk is the Weston A Price Foundation.. If you haven’t already, you can check out their website for more info.

As for a farmer, I don’t have a recommendation for you. We would like to get into raw milk here, and are headed that way. We have a couple of cows that we milk for our own use, but not really in quantities to sell.. That Weston A Price website might have a few leads