Christmas

If you want to support Indiana businesses this Christmas, you might consider gifting the Indiana Grown Holiday Box — a curated box filled with Hoosier-made products.

Roll up your sleeves and get ready to make the most delicious cookies. You will impress your family and friends, as well as Santa, by incorporating this secret ingredient — nonfat dry milk.

The best holiday gifts for gardeners are the ones that keep their minds in the dirt, even during the off-season.

We finally got a frost that finished off our corn after wheat. I have been busy pumping manure and did not get involved with chopping that last field of corn, but Brett reported it had made 12 tons.

For the farmers of Will and Kankakee counties who volunteer with Wreaths Across America, the time and labor to receive, unload and transport over 10,000 Christmas wreaths to a national cemetery goes beyond a good deed.

On my way to Kansas City a couple of weeks ago, I stopped at a Dollar General store to pick up some Halloween candy for the kids that come by our stalls at the American Royal cattle show.

Harvest is going very well for us. We finished beans and have moved on to corn. The weather has been excellent for fieldwork. We have only been rained out twice. Hopefully, that trend continues.

Wouldn’t you know after all these years of January lambing we switch to an April drop and we enjoy the mildest January, so far, I can remember. Not complaining, though, since it is nice chore weather, especially when ground turns to winter’s concrete.

The future is easily predictable, especially if you have access to a photocopier and a fax machine. At least that was the successful business plan of a central Illinois neighbor who maintained she had received the “gift” of clairvoyance after surviving a lightning strike.

They say you never know what you have until it’s gone. I agree. My years as the resident barn owl at Wonderland Farms have taught me that many take what they have for granted. It’s not until they lose something — no matter what that thing is — that they truly understand what it meant to have it.

The rush is on as the hustle and bustle of the holiday season ramps up. It seems like there’s never enough hours in the days or days in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

I reviewed my article from one year ago and read that I started to graze my eight-way annual cover crop field in the middle of November and it lasted until Feb. 1. This year I’ll be done grazing the annual field by mid-December — what one year and a slow lack of rainfall can do.

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. We will be sending the last of our pastured hogs to the locker, so one less winter chore. We take orders in the spring from our regular customers and add a few more for new customers and buy our Berkshires from Ralph by East Peoria.

The holidays are just around the corner, and for those who celebrate Christmas, it’s almost time to pick up an evergreen tree. But will it be real or fake?

Even though it is becoming the dreaded winter out there, it is good to feel the fresh air and get away from the noise. No, I am not thinking of the traffic or another distraction, but the constant pounding we have taken from the political ads.