Salt of the Earth: Ag Day 2023

 

Salt of the earth. 

 

 

When I started thinking about what I wanted to write to observe National Agriculture Day today - March 21 - I remembered some photos I took during a drive through the mama cows and babies. On a couple of trips, I'd asked Randy to park the pickup near a tub containing salt blocks. My goal? To capture that lip-smacking reaction as the calves sampled the tasty treat. 

Do you know how hard it is to catch that split second of the tongue escaping the confines of the mouth for a quick slurp? Let's just say I had a lot of near misses on my camera roll.  

Case in point? This one:

 

Persistence is key in agriculture. In photography, too. And I don't think it's much of a stretch to call agricultural producers "the salt of the earth."

The phrase is from a portion of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5: 13: "You are the salt of the earth." I'd just heard the verses again a few weeks ago at church as part of the Bible reading,. It's always been one of my favorites.

 

Jesus meant that the common people he was addressing – fishermen, shepherds, laborers – were worthy and virtuous. He was alluding, not to the tang of salt, but to its value.

 

Two for one on this shot - both calves had their tongues out! 

 

 

In other parts of the Bible,  salt is used metaphorically to signify permanence, loyalty, durability, fidelity, usefulness, value, and purification.

 

That sounds like America's agricultural producers to me. 

 

I learned more at World Wide Words:

Salt has always been one of the most prized commodities, essential both for life and for preserving food. Roman soldiers were paid an allowance to buy salt, the origin of our salary. A man worth his salt is efficient or capable. To eat salt with someone was to accept his hospitality and a person who did so was bound to look after his host’s interests. The Bible also speaks of a covenant of salt, one of holy and perpetual obligation. ...To Jesus, therefore, salt of the earth was a great compliment.

I've been writing these Ag Day blog posts since I began Kim's County Line in 2010, but this was the first time we aren't actively farming. I wasn't going to be working calves or riding a 4-wheeler to move cattle or performing some other task on our farm. 

 

But I kept thinking about the cattle and their attraction to the salt.  Just like we humans, the bovines seem to want to flavor their diets with a bit of salt. As a child, I remember going with my dad on salt block deliveries. A little residue from the salt cube was left behind on my fingertips, and I couldn't resist a secret taste. The cows also seem to crave the mineral in the cattle lots. I certainly prefer my food with a sprinkling of salt, too, even though my doctor would recommend I limit my sodium intake.

 

 

Being the "salt of the earth" is a worthy goal. This Ag Day 2023 is a good time to celebrate the American farmer. America's farmers are the world's most productive. Today, each U.S. farmer produces food and fiber for 168 people annually in the U.S. and abroad. This number was 19 people in 1940, 46 people in 1960, and 115 people in 1980. I can't think of many industries in which productivity has increased that much! 

 

And even though consumers often complain about the price of food, U.S. shoppers still pay much less of our disposable income on food each year, about 10 percent.

Information from Kansas Farm Bureau. Click on the link for a complete fact sheet about farmers and agriculture.

That's definitely not a reason to stick out your tongue - unless you're savoring a tasty slice of wheat bread made with Kansas wheat and slathered with butter made from Kansas dairy cattle ... or you're enjoying a perfectly-grilled Kansas steak ... or you're scrambling up eggs from a Kansas poultry house (with a sprinkle of salt)... the list goes on and on! 

 

Farmers receive just under 19¢ of every consumer dollar that is spent on food. The other 81¢ is spent on processing, packaging, marketing, transportation, distribution and retail costs of the food supply. 

 

There is something that might cause my tongue to stick out in aggravation: It seems consumers would much rather get their information about how their food is produced from someone who has never set foot on a farm or a ranch. They let restaurant public relations gurus define what is safe to eat. Yet it is America's farmers and ranchers who devote their daily lives to it.  

 

Farmers and ranchers are the original "environmentalists." The National Ag Day theme is "Growing a Climate for Tomorrow." Agricultural producers intentionally prevent soil erosion, preserve and restore wetlands, clean the air and water and enhance wildlife. Since 1982, the erosion rate on U.S. croplands has been reduced by more than 40 percent.

 

 

Farmers and ranchers truly are the salt of the earth. 

 

 

Kansas Farm Bureau has a fact sheet about farmers and agriculture. To see more facts about U.S. farmers, click HERE.

 

Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

It took a couple of days for my plunger finger to recover, but the sunflower cookies were a hit in Kinley's classroom on Kansas Day.

I have an old-fashioned cookie decorator set, and my "trigger" finger got tired after carefully decorating 30 cookies, using a leaf tip. But it made the most realistic-looking sunflower petals, so a little discomfort was just the way it was!

I spoke to one of the first-grade classes at Amanda Arnold Elementary School for Kansas Day at the request of Kinley's teacher, Jennifer Monaco. Jennifer grew up in Stafford, and her dad was Jill's middle and high school science teacher.

 It truly is a small world that Kinley ended up in Jen's classroom - a definite bonus for this Grandma!

When Jen asked me to come and read my farm counting book to the students, she also mentioned that they love cookies. What kid doesn't, right?! I asked Jill if she had a sunflower cutter. She didn't either. But, after some perusal, she ordered me a daisy cookie cutter from Amazon, saying that's what was shown for making sunflowers, too.  (She has Prime -and I don't - and I am cheap, so she had it shipped to me.)

Jen gave us these awesome Kansas tea towels. I'm using mine for the first time when I host PEO at my house today!

Thanks to Jill for also revamping her work schedule so she could help with farm bingo and other logistics. Thanks to Kansas Wheat for the bookmarks and pencils, as well as the Kansas Wheat pins we used for bingo prizes.

Jill also recommended the sugar cookie recipe as one that held its shape well. She used it for her Christmas cookies this year. So I went through the extra steps of bringing ingredients to room temperature and then chilling the completed dough before cutting them out. Even though I sometimes want to skip steps, I think those tips were critical to the successful cookies.

I had enough dough left to use a couple of heart cookie cutters for some Valentine shapes, too.

It seems all the professional cookie decorators use royal icing. It does make a beautiful cookie. But I'm a fan of actually using good-tasting frosting, so I used a buttercream to ice the cookies. I like using both vanilla and almond flavorings to boost the yumminess. And it's always fun to bring out my arsenal of sprinkles, too. (I used a chocolate disc in the middle of each sunflower cookie. You could also use chocolate chips or chocolate stars.)

Both Jill and I highly recommend this cookie recipe if you're looking to make cut-out sugar cookies. Enjoy!

But, first, a little bit of housekeeping: Mary Jo Taylor was the winner in my blog anniversary drawing. She chose to receive my book, "Count on It! Adventures from a Kansas Farm." Thanks to all of you for your wonderful comments! 

Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction blog

3/4 cup salted butter, slightly softened to room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla (or vanilla bean paste)
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Using a stand mixer, beat the softened butter until smooth, about 1 minute. (Note: Don't melt the butter. Just have it softened to room temperature.) Add the sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Scrape the bowl to make sure the sugar and butter are well incorporated. Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract; beat on high until fully combined. Again scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Turn the mixer down to low and slowly add about half the mixture, just mixing until it's barely combined. Add the rest of the flour and continue mixing until just combined.

Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Roll each portion onto a piece of parchment paper to about 1/4-inch thickness. Put on a baking sheet and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Don't skip the chilling step!

Once chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Use cookie cutters to cut as desired. If you are using a medium-sized cookie cutter (like the largest sunflower cutter in the photos above), it makes about 18 cookies. The heart cutters were smaller, so that translated to more cookies.

Bake for 9 to 12 minutes until very lightly colored on top and around the edges. Rotate the baking sheet halfway through baking. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Frost as desired, using buttercream icing and sprinkles.

Quick Vanilla Buttercream

Recipe from Food Network

3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract (I used 1/2 tsp. of each)
1 to 2 tbsp. whipping cream
In a standing mixer, mix together butter and shortening. Add powdered sugar, a little at a time, incorporating after each addition. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla (or almond) and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.

Color the icing and decorate as desired. 

Notes:

• If you want, you can sprinkle the raw cutouts with colored sugar before baking. Then they are decorated without frosting.
• I am not a royal icing fan, but you could use a royal icing to frost these cookies. For a recipe for that, check out Sally's Baking Addiction. (Note: I did not try her frosting recipe).
• I doubled the recipe, using my Kitchenaid mixer. I would NOT try to triple the recipe because it would be difficult to get the cookie dough mixed. (Jill said she tried tripling at Christmas and it didn't work. So we are saving you the trouble!) When doubling the recipe, I divided the dough into four parts and rolled each part to 1/4-inch thickness.
• I am a big fan of vanilla bean paste. It's expensive, but it provides lots of flavor. 
• If you want step-by-step photos, Sally's Baking Addiction has those for you.

Connecting with Consumers: Carbetarians Unite!

Leaving the farm during wheat harvest isn't standard operating procedure. Well, unless it's a flying trip to the parts counter. (Is it a bad thing when they call you by name when you walk in the door of the Case dealership? Yes, yes, it is. But it happens when you visit the parts counter three times in 24 hours.)

Anyway, on June 17, I didn't make a parts run or a grocery store stop. I drove 2 3/4 hours (one way) to Manhattan for the National Festival of Breads.

I could say it was for these two cuties. But in reality, they live in Manhattan and were going with their mom and dad anyway.

 

Plus, they know a little bit about wheat after visiting Grandpa Randy's and Grandma Kim's farm during harvest and having specially-designed reading material about farm life from Grandma.

I try to do my part in connecting the farm with consumers through blogging, something I've done since beginning Kim's County Line in January 2010. But face-to-face interaction is better in the long run. So I spent some time on Saturday, June 17, in the children's activities area of the National Festival of Breads. (I actually worked with the two ladies below, and yes, I intentionally moved out of the photo when it was taken.)

Photos from Kansas Wheat

With all the gluten-free promotion and companies marketing "non-GMO" to consumers, it's important for those of us in production agriculture to tell our stories. Goodness knows, popular restaurants and so-called nutrition experts aren't shy about doing it.  (For the record, there is no GMO wheat commercially available at this time. And yes, those with celiac disease must avoid gluten. However, many of those who don't have celiac disease avoid gluten based on inaccurate information from non-medical professionals who make unsubstantiated claims.)

So I was glad to do my part to develop a new generation of "Carbetarians" at the National Festival of Breads by baking up silver-dollar-sized pancakes featuring three grains grown in Kansas - wheat, soy and corn.  The smell of freshly-baked pancakes had little consumers and their families lining up for a nibble.

The children also got to mix together the dry ingredients to take home to use to make their own pancakes.

Kinley and Brooke already help in the kitchen at home, but I hope it gave other children - and their families - a glimpse of using Kansas-produced commodities to make nutritious, cost-conscious meals at home.

Our daughter Jill also helped behind the scenes in the afternoon, setting up and cleaning up for the on-stage demonstrations.

She grew up on a farm and is a dietitian who went to school for five years to study nutrition and the role it plays in our lives. She promotes eating a balanced diet, all things in moderation, including carbohydrates and gluten.

Earlier in the week, Kinley and Brooke had experienced harvesting the wheat with Grandpa Randy.

The girls learned that Mommy had driven the truck during harvest during her high school years. But at the Festival of Breads, the girls - and other children - tried their hand at grinding wheat with a mortar and pestle. 

They tried a hand grinder ...

... and then an electric grinder, taking on milling in miniature and making whole wheat flour.

While our two granddaughters had just ridden a combine that week at our Central Kansas farm and have a tangential connection to Kansas agriculture, fewer and fewer consumers do these days. In 1870, 50 percent of the U.S. population was directly involved in agriculture. Today, farm families comprise less than 2 percent of the population.

So, in a nutshell, that's why I left the farm during the middle of wheat harvest. (I left the noon meal in the slow cooker and had the supper coolers packed and in the fridge, ready for the guys to grab at noon. Randy worked it out so they could be in the same general area and didn't need to move repeatedly during the day. And we all hoped and prayed for no breakdowns since the go-fer parts runner was hours from home. Thankfully, all that worked out.)

Timing for the festival is a legitimate question, and one that I heard on Sunday at church.

"Why would they schedule a Festival of Breads in Kansas during wheat harvest? Aren't people too busy? Doesn't it make it harder to involve farm families?"

Yes, summer is busy. Yes, it does make it harder to involve farm families. But, yes, it makes perfect sense. If I had any question, it was answered as I talked to some of the eight finalists.

Photo from the Kansas Wheat Facebook page

The day before the baking competition, the contestants traveled to a wheat farm near Brookville in Central Kansas. They took turns riding a John Deere combine as it "ate" its way across a golden field of ripened wheat. For most of them, it was their first time on a farm, their first ride on a combine and the first time they'd had a chance to talk directly to a farmer about producing the wheat that will eventually end up in the flour they'll put in their shopping carts and make into meals for their families and entries for the cooking contests they love.

Lunch for contestants and others in a farm shed on June 16, 2017 - From Kansas Wheat's Facebook page

After I completed my volunteer time in the children's area at the Festival, I talked to several of the finalists as they made their winning recipes three times during the day.

Cleveland, Ohio, baker Michele Kusma was ready for a job on a farm during wheat harvest. I told her it could be arranged.

She and the other finalists will go back to their homes in Maryland, Ohio, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Utah, Missouri and Minnesota with a story to tell.  The people in their communities may actually listen to them more readily. They can tell about their trip to a Kansas farm. They can share their memories of hospitality offered by Kansans and farm families. 

And that's why I left home during harvest to go, as did several of my fellow producers.

Here's the recipe for the pancakes we served. (I should have taken more photos, but I was too busy mixing ingredients and making pancakes)! For recipes from the finalists and more bread baking tips, visit the National Festival of Breads website.

Three-Grain Pancakes

From the National Festival of Breads

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups soy milk or regular milk
1 tbsp. corn oil
3 tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients and mix well. Add wet ingredients to dry all at once. Whisk until blended and still a little lumpy.

Pour 1/8 cup batter onto a hot, lightly greased frying pan or griddle. Flip when pancake has bubbly surface and slightly dry edges.

When cooked through, remove pancakes. Serve with butter, maple syrup, jelly, etc., if desired.

S'Wheat' Day!

Canned spinach was not on the menu. That's what Cottonwood Elementary School Principal Kyle Griffitts remembers from his childhood school lunches.

From a Cottonwood School mural

But during the Kansas Wheat Day celebration at Cottonwood last week, a school-made whole wheat bun was part of the "lesson plan" that connected Kansas farmers to the Kansas School Lunch program and students. (And, for the record, it was fresh broccoli with ranch dressing, for the vegetable - not canned spinach.)

Randy and I joined Julia Debes, a Hoisington farmer and Kansas Wheat staffer, as the farmers who shared our passion for wheat with second graders at Cottonwood Elementary. Kansas Wheat Day was one part of a week-long celebration, October 12-16, of the healthy and nutritious foods grown on Kansas farms that end up as part of school lunches. In addition to Kansas Wheat, the Kansas State Department of Education partnered with the Midwest Dairy Council and Kansas Pork Association to organize other school activities.

October is also Farm to School Month. Randy, Julia and I brought glimpses of our Kansas farms to the classroom, then joined the elementary school students for lunch.

Julia brought her own form of "show and tell" to lunch, with her bundle of wheat and her daughter's toy combine. I put together a slide show of photos from planting to harvest to help describe the 9-month journey that helps bring wheat products to school lunch rooms and their family's homes.

Salina Journal Photo, Michael Strand

We all shared the book, "Celebrate Wheat" by Dan Yunk.

 

Courtesy of Kansas Farm Bureau, each of the second grade students and two classrooms of students  at Heartland Preschool got to take a copy of the book home with them.

We are always happy to talk about wheat, but this particular event was even more special because we got to work with our daughter, Jill, assistant director of child nutrition and wellness with the Kansas Department of Education, and some of her co-workers, as well as two representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Jill happened to know where to find a couple of farmers willing to help her out.

Last year, Kansas schools provided more than 73 million meals and snacks to children through the federal Child Nutrition Programs. Wheat ends up as a component of many of those meals - in everything from rolls to pizza crust to tortillas. School lunches have been part of the school day for more than 60 years.

Randy would gladly take every one of the kids on a combine ride. But they had to settle for sticking their hands in a bucket of wheat kernels and asking questions ... lots of questions!

What do farmers wear?
How long does it take for wheat to grow?
Many much wheat fits in a semi?
Can I take some of this wheat home to plant?
What does harvest mean?
How does a combine work?
Wow! It takes THAT LONG to harvest the wheat? (Randy asked the kids how long they thought it took us to harvest wheat. The guesses ranged from 2 to 10 hours. They thought 10 days to 2 weeks was a long time! Me too, kids, me too!)

 

I, for one, was glad to have someone else cook lunch for a change!

For more on the Kansas Wheat Day at Cottonwood, check out the article in The Salina Journal and the article at Kansas Wheat.

Ask A Farmer

"Ask a FARMER."

It makes sense, doesn't it? If you need help with taxes, you go to an accountant. A broken leg requires a trip to the doctor. In a little legal snafu? A visit to a lawyer is probably in order. We pay professionals to use their expertise to help us out.

So it would seem to make sense to ask a farmer questions about farming. But in these days of quick internet solutions, it seems there are an awful lot of people who profess to be experts about farming and food production who have never planted a seed or prayed for rain to bring it up.

That's one reason our trip to the Kansas State Fair last week wasn't just about eating a Pronto Pup or ice cream under the grandstand, though we did that, too. As a Kansas Association of Wheat Growers board member, Randy spent four hours in the Kansas Wheat booth, hoping people would "Ask a Farmer."

Most people just wanted the free pencils and the recipe books from the National Festival of Breads. And that's OK. He was there to parcel those out, too. But he didn't have a single question about GMO wheat. (For the record, there is currently no GMO wheat on the market, despite what internet "experts" will profess.) He did come close to selling an "I love GLUTEN" t-shirt, but no one talked to him about the research into celiac-safe wheat, a project at the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center in Manhattan.

I refuse to give these so-called internet experts or TV doctors who profess to be farming and food production experts any additional traction by mentioning them by name. I will not mention the names of restaurants who tell us they are superior because they use only "organic, grass-fed beef, not raised with antibiotics."

But I was genuinely surprised yesterday when some people blamed a farmer for being a victim of a crime. It's a bizarre story to begin with, but on Tuesday night, a guy abandoned his vehicle and took a combine on a joy ride in Ellinwood, a little town 30 miles from here. After law enforcement officers shot 18 rounds of gunfire into the machine, the suspect finally surrendered. But that was after causing thousands of dollars of damage to private vehicles and police cars, power poles and other property, not to mention the totaling of a massive - and expensive - machine.

In her blog, Faith, Farming and Family yesterday, Caitlin wrote that people were actually blaming the farmer. Sure. Let's blame the farmer. We'll just add it to the regular diet of anti-farming rhetoric that's only a click away on the internet. If farming isn't happening with a horse and "heritage" seeds, it's big, bad "modern" agriculture, right?

That's one reason Randy spent four hours in a booth at the fair. When we went to a Master Farmer/Homemaker event later that day, some of our friends had worked in the Kansas Farm Bureau booth. We also have friends who spent time in Agri-Land in the Pride of Kansas building. There were corn, cotton, honey, soybean and beef producers scattered all through that building, waiting for consumers to ask them questions. Different people took their turns during the 10-day fair.  I have other friends who regularly open their farms and dairies to school groups.

Randy has served on a number of different agricultural boards since graduating from K-State. He believes it's important for producers to be involved on a state level in groups that may influence regulations. If producers aren't willing to get involved, regulations would likely be set by individuals or groups who don't have a personal stake or investment in agriculture. As he says, "If I'm not willing to serve myself, why would I expect others to make that investment of time and energy to make the industry better?" Groups like KAWG also work to connect producers with consumers, giving a name and a face to agriculture - if people will actually "Ask a FARMER."

And while I haven't served on state or local agricultural organizations, I try to do my part, too. Offering information via Kim's County Line is an attempt to put a face on modern-day agriculture. Consumers are increasingly interested in how their food is produced and what happens to it before it appears on grocery store shelves, where it is purchased for family tables across the country and the world. And that's great.

Through the blog, I try to inform consumers, who may not understand why our beef isn't totally grass-fed or why we use growth implants and vaccinations in our feeder calves. Through blog posts, readers could learn why we make the business decision to use herbicides, pesticides and fungicides on our grain crops, but still stress the safety of the food supply.

Sometimes, it may seem efforts to staff a Kansas Wheat booth or write another blog post are like going around and around on a carnival ride: You keep getting on the "horse," but you never get anywhere.

But, farmers are - by nature - optimists. So they keep showing up to try and talk to consumers. We keep writing blog posts, even when the number of "clicks" on those posts pale in comparison to the thousands of followers of those self-professed experts on food and health.

We hope for light to leak through those storm clouds of faulty public opinion.

It's what we do. Shedding light is always important.