One lovely meal caps off one long day in Germany

Sunset last night over the Atlantic Ocean.

My ride to Frankfurt.

I arrived in Frankfurt at 6:30 a.m. this morning. I spent the day at the airport people-watching and being reminded how much I am NOT into the skinny jean fad.

At long last, I met my travelling companions on our 4 o´clock train to Bonn.

The trip was lovely as our group chatted it up about our varying interests in agriculture and the scenery was breath-taking. The tracks wound along the Rhine River for the two hour trip. Perched on nearly every vineyard-covered hilltop was a "schloss" or castle, reminding me of how new North Dakota is as a state how much longer Germany has been "developed"...hmm...going to have to think more on that one another day.

We arrived in Bonn, the former capitol of Western Germany, and checked into our hotel, the Andreas Hermes Akademie. What a neat and tidy place, with very gracious hosts that handed each of us a pack of sheep-shaped gummy bears as we signed in. A big bonus to a weary traveller. Will have to find some more to take home to my kiddos.

The view from our hotel room.

Mr. Willi Kampmann, Director of International Affairs for the Deutscher Bauernverband (German Farmers Assn.) picked us up and all five of us piled into his car, quite smaller than the `Hi-Ho Diesel` or `Silver´, our family pick-ups. We went to a restaurant called `Bastei`, where we met Willi`s predecessor, Dr. Klaus Lotz.

View of the Rhine from the restaurant.

L to R: Herr Kampmann, Herr Lotz, Frau Connecticut, Herr Maryland ö

Over an amazing meal of a crisp salad with smoked salmon and lemon-caviar, we sipped Reisling, we discussed many of today´s agricultural issues while looking out over the sunset on the Rhine River and a ferry shuttling cars back and forth across the quickly flowing waters.

Lots of ideas were exchanged on farmer´s organization structure, risk management tools in agriculture, the animal rights movement, financial challenges for farmers, politics, and last but certainly not least, our shared passion for FOOD- producing it and eating it!

One LONG day, with a perfect happy ending....

A dessert menu in ENGLISH!!! Ö

oh, and did I mention the ice cream? Simply delectable!

I have now been awake since 7:00 a.m., yesterday. Good night world!

Made it!

Well, I made it to Germany. I'm in one piece, but very sleep-deprived. Flew overnight to Frankfurt. Poor litle boy screamed every couple of minutes the entire flight. I felt SO badly for his parents! Was able to procure calling card and woke my parents at 2 a.m. to let them know I got here. Hey, they said they wanted me to call...so I did :)

Should have learned German. REALLY should have learned German..more on that later!

Well, I've got to go attempt to find my travelling companions now. We all arrived on different flights at different times. This should be interesting.

Germany-bound to Study International Agriculture!

Today is a VERY busy day of errands and packing, packing, and some more packing.





I depart at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning for the trip of a lifetime- the McCloy Fellowship in Agriculture. I am honored and extremely grateful to have been awarded this opportunity through the American Farm Bureau Federation. I am also grateful that my family "out east" has agreed to take care of my children while I'm gone so that Jeremy can focus on harvest here on the Wilson Farm.




I will do my best to update my blog with my experiences abroad, but I'm not quite sure about the access I will have to the internet over there, so stay tuned.

I am also excited to get united with my "fellow Fellow's" from Kansas, Maryland and Connecticut! From what I've already gotten to know about these folks through phone, email, and Facebook convo's, they are stellar people, and we're going to have a great time!

Please say a little prayer for safe travels for myself and my girls, and for a safe and abundant harvest here on the farm.



Well, I'm off, toting the following:





2 children. (One of which has been asking me as soon as her eyes opened EVERY day for a week "where are we going tomorrow?", hoping for "on an airplane!" as my response. Today she got her wish!)





1 portable DVD player (so I can maintain my sanity on the flights with one wriggling 1 year old on my lap, and 1 uber-independent 3 year old in the seat next to me).





2 suitcases





1 diaper bag





1 backpack





1 double stroller (Freshly scrubbed to rid the corners of the seats from an accumulation of dismembered Teddy Grahams, and a small rock collection I found in one of the pockets).





2 car seats. (Didn't scrub them...whoops. It's okay, if we are struck by famine, we could live for a week off of the Goldfish wedged under the cushions.)

1 Lightning McQueen backpack. (We can't go anywhere without the Lightning McQueen backpack. Thanks Santa. GREAT idea Santa. Santa, you maybe should have thought of dragging that thing everywhere before you decided to leave it at our house.)

Oh, and let's not forget...1 partridge in a pear tree.



Here's what I will look like at the airport :)








We'll return in about 25 days, my children having had some quality time with family they don't often get to see and myself having filled my brain with all sorts of new knowledge about international agriculture and having made a gaggle of new friends.

What I will miss while I'm gone:
1. My beautiful girls and my sweet, hard-working husband, in no particular order.
2. My pickup and the general independence of being able to drive.
3. The prairie.

Auf wiedersehen! Uh, that's about all I know in German. It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks :)

Another North Dakota Fall on the Way

It's Labor Day weekend and I've got family "back home" in Maryland making one last trip to the beach for the year, but here in North Dakota we're getting out the long pants and jackets. The Weather Channel tells me it's going to be 46 degrees tomorrow night...brrrr...

So to celebrate the arrival of fall, here is a collection of random late summer/fall pictures from across south east and south central North Dakota that I snapped in my days as a Farm Bureau field staff.

I am now working part-time off the farm as the coordinator for the Young Farmers and Ranchers Program and enjoying more time with my kiddos, but a part of me misses the quiet evening drives across the prairie to go meet with the wonderful farmers and ranchers in the 13 counties I covered.

They will always hold a special place in my heart and so will the beauty and serenity of the North Dakota landscape.

Stutsman County, ND sunset (nearby one of our fields)...

Hawk in flight, LaMoure County, ND.

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam. Sargent County, ND.

I honestly can't remember where this was taken. Somewhere between Stutsman and Emmons County, ND.

Stacks of hay bales, Emmons County, ND.

Buffalo calves in the sunset, Sargent County, ND

This was taken during 2006 wheat harvest after sunset on our farm. That's Jeremy climbing into the combine. We're finished wheat harvest this year, just waiting on the soybeans and pinto beans now.

Hope you liked the virtual visit to the prairie.

Top 12 Tips For Road Tripping With Tots and a Farmer

C.W. and M.W. riding in style in "Hi-Ho Silver" (Mama's pickup). Yes, they say "hi ho Silver...awaaaayyyy!" when we take off :)

We recently took a 10 day road trip as a family from North Dakota to Pennsylvania so my 3 year old, C.W., could be the flower girl in my cousin's wedding. This took some serious planning because it is VERY difficult to just pick up and leave the farm while the crop is in the ground. I am grateful for our assistant farm manager, Ben, who stayed behind picking up the slack and working some very long, hot days while we were gone. THANK YOU BEN!

This is Ben. Sorry Ladies, I know the combo of the bib overalls and sunglasses is really something, but he's already got a girlfriend...and we really like her :)



Yes, Jeremy and I spent over FORTY-SIX hours in drive time alone (without potty breaks), and yes, we are still happily married :)

Here's a count down of our top 12 tips that made the trip a relatively stress-free success:

12. CAFFEINE. Jeremy, my farmer husband, who usually works at least a 12 hour day at least 6 days a week, is a coffee addict but even I grabbed a soda (it's called "pop", if you're in ND) on occasion so we could eat a quick supper put the kiddos in their PJ's and drive late into the night while they snoozed in their car seats.

Jeremy's absolute favorite flavor of coffee is Dunkin' Donuts Original Blend, Medium Roast. He will empty the entire display at our local grocery store just to make sure he doesn't run out when he's working long days/nights in the fields.




11. WIPES. When I asked Jeremy for his top road trip tips he said "OMG, wipes...lots of wipes!" Having extra "baby wipes" and a roll of paper towels on hand made for quick clean ups because my children are just like their mother- they spill EVERYTHING and after using numerous highway rest areas, you can't sanitize enough!


THIS is why we stocked up on wipes...the remnants of a s'more.




10. KIDS TUNES that won't drive you crazy. I made two new CD's for this trip just to have some fresh music. I downloaded the girls' favorite themes from PBS cartoons and threw in some Jack Johnson and Taylor Swift that we could all enjoy.




9. NAP TIME TRAINING. Three weeks before we left, at every nap time and bedtime I began playing the same CD of lullabies. By the time we went on our trip when I put the CD in it was a matter of minutes before the kids would zonk out. I had read that this worked, but it AMAZED me how effective it really was. Only problem is that it was so soothing pretty soon Jeremy, who is accustomed to the fast pace of farming and rocking out in the combine and tractor, was passed out too!






8. TRAVEL JOURNAL. I brought along a new composition notebook and a roll of scotch tape. Along the way, C.W. saved little mementos and we taped them in her journal. Each day she would tell me her favorite memories of our trip and I would record them for her and she would make a little drawing to go along with it. It is precious! I still haven't started her baby scrapbook (and she's nearly four! eek!) so I knew this would be a quick and fun way to have an "instant scrapbook" of our trip as soon as we got home. She is very proud of it and shows it to everyone who visits!







7. SNACK BOWLS. Pre-pack little "take and throw" snack bowls for the entire trip. Each morning just pick the day's snack bowls and hit the road. Also, my 1 year old had nearly mess-free snacks when I tucked the bowl in her bib pouch.





6. SURPRISE BOX. I'm a frugal farm wife, so months before our trip I began hiding away small toys/DVD's/play jewelry from around the house and wrapped them up individually. Putting small toys in the little favor bags we got from a recent wedding worked well too. I felt a little guilty saying to the kids "Gosh, I don't know where such-and-such got to" for a while, but the joy the surprise box brought far overrode the guilt. If the girls behaved themselves, each time we completed a leg of our journey, they got to pick an item out of the surprise box. It worked like a charm and it was FREE!







5. ARTS & CRAFTS BAG. I put together a little tote bag of crayons, markers, coloring books, sheets of stickers, pipe cleaners, and a mini clip board with pads of paper. I also printed out coloring sheets of CW's favorite characters and instructions for simple paper crafts. It made for many hours of creativity, but be sure to ration out the supplies.







4. FM TRANSMITTER for DVD player. This gadget allowed us to run the sound from the DVD player through the pickup's stereo system. I was impressed at the "theatre experience" in the back seat when we set the speakers on "rear" and if you want to listen along, you can. Jeremy says the movie "Cars" rocks on the surround sound! Our transmitter cost about $30 at Radio Shack.







3. No surprise here...DVD PLAYER. I'm not one to "plug in" my children. We don't have video games, and we borrow one movie a week from the local library, but boy oh boy was that DVD player handy! Take more DVD's than you think you will need. We watched two each day- one in the mid- morning and one after supper before bedtime. A lifesaver!

2. TOM TOM or whatever GPS gadget you prefer. It helped us plan an efficient route and find good stops along the way. It was pretty funny when C.W. asked "are we there yet?" and Jeremy responded "Nope. 17.3 miles remaining with light traffic until we reach our destination". We even caught C.W. saying "Thanks Mandy!" to the voice on the Tom Tom once when it told us to turn :) The Tom Tom appeased Jeremy, because he's used to having GPS in all our farm equipment. It was also good motivation when driving late at night to see the miles count down!



....and....drum roll please....the Wilson Family's Top Tip For Road Tripping...



ATTITUDE! We set it in our mind that we were leaving the farm behind and we were going to have a good time, no matter what :)

Except for daily calls to check in on things with Ben and mildly obsessive hometown weather checks on the radar app on Jeremy's cell phone (hey, we've got an operating loan to pay back with those crops in the field!), we were able to get away and make some wonderful family memories together.

We built in "fun" stops along the way. We visited water parks (http://www.kalahariresorts.com/, http://www.greatwolf.com/), a train museum (http://www.strasburgrailroad.com/) and of course, Cabela's (twice). I'm thinking this pic of Jeremy at Cabela's will make the family Christmas card this year :)




Hope you've found these tips helpful! Good luck on your next trip!

Change the Price of Food?

On a flight to Chicago this past week I experienced a bit of divine intervention. I was seated right next to a gal, Kate, who was about my age. She appeared to be well-traveled, educated, and friendly. Having recently watched Food Inc., once she found out I was a farmer, she was full of REALLY GREAT questions and one in particular has got me thinking.

"When you go into a grocery store, do you wish you could change the price of food?"

My response was "yes...er...no...er...well, maybe...uh...no."

I fumbled over my answer a bit because that is one loaded question, but then a great conversation ensued about the following points:

1. If increasing the price of food in the grocery store meant that as a farmer I would make more money, then, well sure that would be nice. Wouldn't any business person trying to make an honest living want to increase their profit margin? YES, but it's not that simple.

2. Here in the United States, we enjoy the LOWEST food costs in the WORLD. Only about 10% of our disposable income is spent on food. In some countries that percentage can be as high as 55%. Can you imagine what you would have to chop out of your household budget these days if you had 45% less money to spend? Say goodbye to your SUV, electronic gadgets, vacations, nights out on the town, even "spendy trendy food". You'd just be trying to get the biggest bang for your food buck. So in that respect, NO, I would not want the price of food at the retail level to go up. Our entire economy benefits from our current food affordability.

3. The price farmers receive for what we produce really doesn't change retail food prices very much. As you can see from the illustration below, farmers only receive about 19 cents of every dollar you spend on food (Source: Corner posts at http://www.ageducate.org/).

4. I'm a shopper too. On our farm this year we are raising corn, wheat, soybeans and pinto beans. I do cook quite often with our pinto beans straight from the field. This just involves picking out small stones, rinsing off some dust/dirt, and they're good to go. They make GREAT soups/stews. However, everything else has to be processed before it is in human edible form. So, in that respect, NO, I do not want food prices to increase, because I'm just like every other Mom out there trying to stretch the family dollar.

5. Now this point I stewed on after my flight had landed and I had bid Kate farewell and I hope the good Lord will forgive me for this one. Some part of me wants to say YES, if I could change the price of food, I would charge an arm and a leg for the food my family produces, but only to those who are leading anti-agriculture activist groups that are making millions of dollars by selling fear of modern farming to the American public and duping people out of their hard-earned dollars. Ironically, people have so many of those hard-earned dollars to donate to the anti-agriculture fundraising machine because innovative farmers have kept our food so affordable...Hmmm...

I know that might sound mean, but please hear me out. It takes a pretty thick skin to take a verbal lashing from the media every single day, where farmers are blamed for everything from obesity, cancer, diabetes, health care costs, the price of food and fuel, etc. We're doing our best to stay focused on the task at hand- producing safe food in the most environmentally sound and efficient manner possible. My family works so very hard to raise our crops and to make sure our soil is healthy for generations to come. Even tonight, Saturday night of Labor Day weekend, my husband is working long past sunset, seeding cover crops to protect our recently harvested wheat fields.

PLEASE be like my new friend, Kate, and ASK A FARMER next time you're wondering about how your food is produced.

If you have seen Food Inc. and have questions/concerns and don't personally know a farmer, the American AgriWomen put together a GREAT document to set the record straight about the myths in Food Inc.

http://americanagriwomen.org/files/response%20to%20food%20inc.pdf

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend everyone. I hope you'll remember to THANK A FARMER when you're sitting down to eat with your family and friends.

"Farm Tech" Exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry

WELCOME...

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the "Farm Tech" exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I hope that someday you will get a chance to see it too!

The place is HUGE! As you enter the exhibit you are greeted by a real-life tractor!

I had fun trying out the combine simulator. Inside the cab a recording of a local ag report was even on the radio! You'll see they've got some real corn plants that blend right into the GIANT screen.

This combine simulator is a real combine, it's just running really sssssllllllooooowwwwww....this way you can see how all the parts move and the corn is harvested. They also have video kiosk's surrounding each piece of equipment so you can learn more detail about how the machines work.

There are some FUN stops too! This life size cow photo op. was a big hit with the kiddos (and their parents who were snapping away)!

Even with all my ag. experience, I learned a lot. Throughout the exhibit there are "farm facts" along the walls. I was so happy to see that the exhibit really embraced and celebrated the innovations in agriculture that have helped us to have such a safe and abundant food supply!

I even found my self-portrait! This soybean farmer welcomed me into her kitchen....

Where I found chocolate cake.... yum...

...and the icing on the cake (pun intended) was that I learned that soybean farmers (like my family) provide so many of the ingredients that I use to cook with everyday in my own kitchen!

For example, the chickens that made the eggs for this cake were fed a diet containing soybean meal, the wheat flour was fortified with soy flour for added protein and vitamins, the oil in the cake is made from soybeans, and the chocolate icing contains soybean oil to help it maintain it's liquid form!

Hope you enjoyed this "virtual visit" to the Farm Tech exhibit!

For more information:

http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/farm-tech/