Back From the Dead!

I am the Bacon Blogger and I have come back to life!

I realize it has been a while since my last transmission but I have managed to crawl out of my grave and with my zombie pig friends we are ready to blog. My piggy minions and I are stalking back to blogger to talk shop, cook pork, and agvocate like crazy. Stay tuned for some recipes, pork news, and more photo shopped (or not) piggy pics.



"We're coming for you..."



Soupy Winter

With all this blizzard talk and snow caked in the corners of my windows, I can't think of anything better than a big bowl of hot steamy soup. So, here are two porktasitic bowl fetchers that you will just love. Grab your bibs folks, you're bound to drool for Hash Brown Soup and Pork Chili...

I just love me some chili on a cold winter's day and nothing tastes better in chili than a mix of ground pork and a little ground sausage. Next time you make a patch of chili try two parts ground pork and one part ground sausage and let me know what you think. Trust me, you'll love it!

Chili is a very personal recipe--at least in my opinion it is--but this is how I make it:

• Diced onions (however oniony you want it)
• 1-1.5 lbs. ground pork and ground sausage (it depends on what I have thawed in the fridge)
• 2 cans diced tomatoes (if I have fresh I will use them, if not I like the chili ready ones)
• 1 big can of chili beans
• 1 reg. sized can black beans
• 1 can beef broth
• I also swish a little water in each can and add it to the pot with a beef bouillon cube
• The seasonings are up to you, smell, add, smell, add more, taste, smell, add, taste again, etc.

After you finish off that big steaming batch of pork chili try some hash brown soup with ham. I used leftover ham steak for this recipe. It's really easy, all you need is:

• 3-cans chicken broth
• 2-pounds hash browns (approx., it depends on how thick you want your soup)
• 1/2 pound Velveeta (you can add more if you  like it really cheesy)
• 1 stick butter
• 16 ounces sour cream
• tid bits of ham, however hammy you want it
• Again seasonings are up to you, lil' salt, lil' pepper, whatever you fancy

Grill up a cheesy sammy and enjoy!

What are some of your favorite soup recipes?

Entertaining Swine

Recently, the question was posed, "What do they do all day?" It is a valid question but let me back up and start from the beginning.

As most of you know I posted our first video on YouTube, don't worry there are  more to come, and a teacher of mine watched it. She mention how much she enjoyed seeing the inside of one of these barns and was impressed by the size. However, she noticed that there was no entertainment in the pins. She was concerned that they would get bored and asked, "What do they do all day?"

Well, I am trying to make a video to show some of the amusing items we put in there I just haven't had time with work, school, preparing my own children for their return to school, weddings, family events, etc. Hopefully after this week things will start to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n and I can get some blogging done.

Currently my mother-in-law "hogs" most of the hog "toys" for her own barn so we have to do some scrambling to get some in ours (and keep them there). Keep an eye out for my future videos. One will be on this very subject and don't forget, fall is around the corner and if you've ever wondered what we do with the waste stay tuned.

So, back to the question at hand, "What do they do all day?" To give you a hint....

 

Can you guess what one of the "toys" we give them to play with is? You'll find out soon.

I just watched an amazing YouTube video about agriculture. It is a must see!! It's called One Hungry Planet by BASF Ag Products. If you've ever wondered about the history of farming or wanted to know how it has grown and evolved this is the video to see.

Just one click and you're there...you don't want to miss this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd-48Zw0Tr4

Well, what did you think? Was I right or was I right? Come on, tell me true...did you love it?

American Farming--Something to Appreciate

Yet another great blog from FBlog, written by fellow pork producer Chris Chinn.

Farming in America
by Chris Chinn


I spent the last two weeks in Europe with my ALOT (Agriculture Leaders of Tomorrow) Class learning about agriculture in France, Belgium and England. It was a great learning experience and one that opened my eyes to how fortunate I am to farm and live in America.

We learned a great deal about the EU farm policy known as CAP and we had great conversations with farmers from the EU. The one thing that stood out to me was hearing that the EU Common Ag Policy (CAP) was focused on feeding the EU, not feeding the world. As American farmers, our concern is not only feeding the people in our country, but to feed people in other countries as well who don't have the resources (land) we do in the United States to produce food.

We learned that approximately 50% of a farmer’s net income in the EU comes from government direct payments. The government sets the price which farmers receive for the goods they produce. They also do not want the farmers to over produce so there are incentives or penalties in place to prohibit farmers from producing too much. As a result, the cost of food in the EU is higher than what we pay in America because the farmers are not allowed to run their farms efficiently and the increased regulations add to their cost of production.

Each farmer we spoke with told us they didn’t want to be farming for a direct payment check. Each farmer wanted less government involvement in their farms but they knew that wasn’t a possibility. The farmers told us groups outside of agriculture were influencing how policy was set in the EU.

After visiting with the EU farmers and representatives of the EU Commission on Agriculture, I realized how great it is to farm in America. I also realized if American Farmers don’t stand up and speak out about how we farm, we could find ourselves in a similar situation to the EU farmers with more regulations that run up our cost of production. If this happens, the cost of food in America will be much higher than what it is today, and every American will be challenged with how to put food on their dinner table.

This article really puts things in perspective and helps farmers and ranchers appreciate what we have here in the U.S. It's easy to loose sight of how lucky we Americans are especially when we hear more negatives than positives about our industry. As Americans, we tend to live by the "out of sight, out of mind" rule but that is really hurting agriculture in this country, among other things. Chris Chinn had an amazing opportunity to see what agriculture is like outside of our U.S. bubble. Hopefully, this article will encourage other farmers and ranchers to tell their story and correct the misconceptions.

Introducing BaconCam--Playing at a YouTube Near You

Drum roll please................The BaconCam is officially up and running! I'm no Spielberg and even though my films are rough around the edges at least now we can give the world a first hand view of a modern hog farm from a farm family's perspective. In Modern Hog Production Part 1 A Family Affair viewers can see how our family pulls together to get the job done--even the kids, although they mostly just play.

Modern hog production has been a controversial issue for some time now. I've heard things like CAFOs are "factory farms that cause animal abuse" and that "CAFOs aren't real farms." I've also heard people say, "Those big hog businesses are putting family farmers out of business." It's past time the pork industry got some positive press. I hope this video, which is only the first of many, will help others to understand modern hog production for what it is--a family affair.

What did you think of the film? Was it what you expected? Do you have something special you would like the BaconCam to film? Please drop me a line in the comments box. I'd love to hear from you.