An unbelievable honor

Late last month, we were graced with an honor that, to us, is still pretty unbelievable. Our family farm was named 2012 Producer of the Year by the Minnesota Milk Producers Association.

To be honest, we thought awards like this were only given to larger, well-established farms. My first reaction when we were told was actually, "Are you kidding me?"

But, disbelief aside, we are honored to represent the dairy farmers of Minnesota and hope that this award is proof that every Minnesota dairy farm — regardless of size — and every dairy farmer — regardless of age — is important to our state's dairy industry.

---

Here's the video of our farm that was used during the presentation of the award at Midwest Dairy Expo in St. Cloud:



(If the video doesn't work, try this link.)

Our story was also featured in several publications:

• The Dairy Star

• The Country Today

• Agri-News


Finally, here's one last photo of our family before Little Frericks #3 arrives.

Butter Crunch Lemon-Cheese Bars

New life for old cottage cheese

I hate throwing food away. For that matter, I hate wasting anything. But it really bothers me to see food go to waste, so I try hard to gauge our grocery needs and purchase accordingly. I also try to minimize leftovers (for fear they'll get lost in the back of the fridge) and find ways to use up fresh foods that are past their prime.

This anti-waste philosophy of mine is what led to the discovery of Butter Crunch Lemon-Cheese Bars.

A buttery, crunchy crust topped with a tangy, lemon filling.

When we got home from our trip to Hawaii last January, I found an outdated container of cottage cheese in the back of the fridge. Oops. Even though it was outdated, it still looked and smelled like normal cottage cheese, so I decided it was still edible. I was not, however, willing to eat it without cooking it. So, I turned to the Internet for ideas on how to use it up.

After scanning several potential recipes, I settled on this recipe from myrecipes.com. Not only did the recipe use ingredients I already had on hand, it was originally published in Cooking Light, a magazine known for its more health-conscious recipes.

There was only one problem with the recipe: it was designed to fill an 8 x 8 baking pan. In my opinion, there's no point in making a pan of bars that small. If I'm going to put in the effort to make a pan of bars from scratch, there might as well be enough of the finished product to last at least a day. Plus, I needed to use up more than one cup of cottage cheese, which is what the original recipe called for. So, I did some tweaking and ended up making the bars this way.

---

Butter Crunch Lemon-Cheese Bars

Crust:

2/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger*
2 cups whole wheat flour

Filling:

2 cups cottage cheese
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 teaspoon ground ginger**
1/2 cup bottled lemon juice***
1/2 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with parchment paper and coat with cooking spray. (I use the nifty non-stick Pan Lining Paper from Reynolds Wrap.) If you use a glass pan without parchment paper, you might need to reduce the cooking time for the crust.

To prepare crust, combine butter, brown sugar, salt and ginger in a mixing bowl and beat with a mixer until smooth. Lightly spoon flour into a measuring cup, level with a knife and add to butter mixture. Beat at low speed until mixture looks like large crumbs. Firmly press crumbs into baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

To prepare filling, place cottage cheese in large food processor. Process on high for two minutes, scraping sides of bowl half-way through. Add granulated sugar and remaining ingredients; process until well blended. Pour filling over crust. Bake at 350° for about 40 minutes. I start checking at 35 minutes and bake until filling in center of pan is firm and edges are lightly browned. Cool bars and chill for several hours before serving. Once cool, I lift the whole bar out of the pan, remove the parchment paper and set the bar back in the pan to cut. Cut the bars small; they're very rich.

*The original recipe calls for ground mace or nutmeg. I think you could also use cardamom, allspice or no spice at all.

**Original recipe uses grated lemon rind. I've also used raspberry extract.

***Original recipe calls for fresh lemon juice. I think they turn out fine with bottled juice.

---

After taking his first bite, Glen, who serves as my main recipe critic, said, "You can make these again!" He also wouldn't let me give any of them away.

I agree that these bars are super delicious. I also like that the recipe is very flexible. I've made these a couple times now and, each time, I've tried something new. For the last batch, I used three cups of cottage cheese and increased the other ingredients accordingly. I also keep reducing the amount of sugar, to try to obtain a less-sweet bar.

If you give these a try, let me know how they turn out for you. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

P.S. You'll need a large glass of milk to wash these down!

One combine, two happy kids...

...and a happy farmer

It's hard for farm boys to keep up with their farming after they start school. Dan was pretty bummed about missing out on chopping corn silage and earlage this year, since all the chopping was finished before he got home from school. So, when it was clear that we'd still be combining corn into the early evening, Glen asked Erv if there would be room in the combine for a little boy. Erv said there would be room.

Right after we finished our after-school snack, Erv pulled into the yard with the combine. I asked Dan if wanted to go ride in the combine. No, he said, he wanted to play. I told him this was the last harvest work of the year, so it was his last opportunity to ride along. He still said no. I asked Monika if she wanted to go and she jumped up and yelled, "Yes!" As I was bringing Monika out to the combine, Dan decided that he wanted to go, after all.

I asked Erv if there was room in the combine for two little people and he said he thought so. We all climbed up and I helped Erv get Dan and Monika buckled in. As they drove out of the yard, their smiles were mile-wide.

I can only imagine the chatter inside the cab of the combine while the last of this year's corn was gleaned from the field for one last semi-load. But, by the time the combine pulled up to dump the last bushels, everyone was still smiling — including one happy farmer.

For Glen, the corn harvest always comes with anxiety. Between starting a day ahead of schedule, coordinating the combine and the trucks, and deciding how to market the corn we didn't have contracted, Glen was overwhelmed. He said he was more than relieved to be done.

All in all, the harvest went well. We don't have the last scale ticket yet, but it looks like our yield was less than we had calculated. The moisture levels and test weights on the first loads looked good, though, so we should do okay.

From the big picture stand-point, we did great. Given the growing conditions this year, we could have easily been left with no corn to combine.

And that would have made for one very disappointed farmer and one very disappointed little boy.


Thank you, God, for timely rains and for another safe harvest.

Before Christine was Princess Kay

I'm not sure words can adequately describe how I excited I became when Mary Zahurones, the 58th Princess Kay of the Milky Way, placed the crown atop Christine Reitsma's curls at the coronation held Wednesday, August 22 at the Minnesota State Fair Bandshell.

I was excited for several reasons.

First, Christine is from Stearns County. I may not be a Stearns County native, but Stearns County is my home now.

Second, Christine is the first Princess Kay from Stearns County in 59 years. Stearns County has sent dozens of well-qualified candidates to the contest in the past, but has never had one of its own crowned.

Third, Christine is the first Princess Kay I've had a chance to see in action promoting agriculture before she was Princess Kay. Through her FFA Chapter, Christine has been helping with the Stearns County Breakfast on the Farm for several years. This year she helped with the breakfast as a county dairy princess. Each of those years, she helped with the educational exhibits — the part of the breakfast I help coordinate. In the photo below, from the 2009 Stearns County Breakfast on the Farm, she was asking a small boy if he wanted to pet the piglet.

And that leads to the final, and most important, reason I was so excited when Christine was crowned: I know Christine will do an excellent job representing Minnesota's dairy farmers. Christine's enthusiasm for promoting agriculture is so evident, it's contagious.

I can't wait to see Christine at the 2013 Stearns County Breakfast on the Farm as Princess Kay of the Milky Way. This time, we'll be sure to get a photo of Christine with a dairy cow or calf.

Christine at the 2010 Stearns County Breakfast on the Farm

Our first show season

The Stearns County Fair was last week and now that it's over, so is our family's first ever show season.

The season started with the selection of calves.

With a little guidance from us, Dan picked a March Holstein calf named Bonita for his show calf.

Monika decided she wanted to take three calves to the fair — Star (aka Rockstar), Sandy, and Cookie.

Dan and I took Bonita out for a walk one nice April afternoon. Dan didn't let go of the halter when Bonita went from stubborn to wild, but he ended up with grass stains in his hair.

After that, I changed our strategy. We tied Bonita up in the calf pen so she could get used to the halter while Dan brushed her. Dan even managed to trap her in the feeder stall one time all by himself so he could brush her there. We did that for quite awhile before we took her outside again.

Monika was mostly content to socialize her calves by simply hanging out with them. She's hanging out with Star, an April Jersey calf, in the photo above.

Our first ever show was the Central Minnesota Youth Dairy Days show on June 15. Our goal was for this show to be a learning experience and an opportunity for Dan and Monika to see what showing is all about.

Dan and Bonita got third place in their class.

Monika took Sandy, a May Jersey calf, to the Dairy Days show and they got third place in their class, as well.

The show was a bit long for both kids' attention spans, but after watching senior showmanship, Dan told me he was going to lead Bonita every day so that she would walk nice.

We didn't lead Bonita every day, but she led very well at the Stearns County Fair, especially considering that she comes from a line of remarkably high-strung cattle.

Dan practiced saying Bonita's name, birthday and sire so that he could tell the judge when he asked.

Monika and Star did very well, too, but we didn't get any good pictures in the show ring.

Bonita was the first place spring Holstein calf in the Open Show at the Stearns County Fair. Star was the first place spring Jersey calf. I'm not sure if Dan and Monika understand how special that is, but we (Mom and Dad) are pretty darn proud.

We debated taking Bonita and Star back out for the Junior Champion line-up, because Glen said baby calves never get picked for higher honors. I decided we should take them back out because it would show good sportsmanship. Plus, who knows when we'll have a first or second place calf again.

As Glen predicted, older Holstein heifers were selected for junior champion honors, but then, the unthinkable happened.

In the Jersey Junior Champion line-up, the judge pulled Star and two older heifers out for top honors. I could hardly believe it and figured Star didn't have a chance against the other two. But she was named Jersey Reserve Junior Champion and also Top Bred & Owned Jersey of the show.

Monika definitely doesn't understand how incredibly well Star did, but she was beyond excited about getting a purple and a pink ribbon. She even wanted to take the ribbons along on the fair rides after we were done with the show.

My camera died right before the junior champion line-ups. I used my phone to take the picture of Monika with her ribbons so we could send it to Glen, since he had gone home to finish cutting third crop. But I got the dead battery to take one last picture of Monika at the fair.

Showing calves is hard work for a three-year-old. She sat down in this lawn chair by her uncle's horses while I was loading the trailer and promptly fell asleep.

Since my camera died at the show — and it was just a bit crazy there — I took a couple last photos of the kids and their calves together before we put Bonita and Star back in their pens.

Our first show season was fun and rewarding. We're looking forward to many more.