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Beginning farmer/rancher opportunities meeting in Concordia on November 20

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Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunities Meeting Scheduled for November 20 in Concordia

MCPHERSON, OCTOBER 27 – All beginning farmers and ranchers are invited to a Beginning Farmer & Rancher Opportunities meeting at Cloud County Community College in Concordia, KS, Thursday, November 20, from 4:00 to 9:00 PM, hosted by Kansas Farmers Union and the Kansas Beginning Farmers Coalition. The meeting’s featured speaker is Dan Hromas, owner and operator of Prairie Pride Poultry, a small pastured chicken operation located on the northeast edge of York, Nebraska. Hromas started the farm in 2013 in order to support the growing local food movement by providing healthy, farm fresh eggs to area consumers.

“At the farm, we pride ourselves on the humane treatment of the flock of heritage Rhode Island Red chickens,” Hromas says. “The farm’s standards and practices are conducive to a happy and healthy flock.” Coops are moved around the acreage, each one having plenty of floor area, roosting space, and nesting boxes. The flock’s pasture diet is supplemented with feed that does not contain any chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, or animal byproducts. The feed also comes from a local cooperative that recently achieved HACCP Certification, the highest level of accreditation for food safety in the United States.

In addition to providing the local community with farm fresh eggs, Prairie Pride Poultry also assists in educating consumers and potential farmers about the “Incredible Edible Egg” by sharing interesting facts and information about the widely used and versatile protein source, as well as fostering an environment where everyone can feel welcome and connected to the farm. “I’ve engaged local communities through the York Chamber of Commerce, establishing a great working relationship with Grand Central Grocery in York and participating in the Center for Rural Affairs “Farm to School” initiative by selling eggs to York Public Schools, setting up at local farmer’s markets, and raising awareness about importance of a healthy diet that can include eggs,” Hromas says.

 

Before working on the farm, Hromas served in the U.S. military in Iraq. He also served as a Captain in the Nebraska Army National Guard as a Transportation Corps Officer. Hromas notes, “I am fortunate enough to have had my hard work receive national recognition through the Farmer Veteran Coalition’s national marketing campaign, “Homegrown by Heroes.” I have utilized services from the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society, Center for Rural Affairs, and the Farmer Veteran Coalition as a platform for outreach to other fellow disabled military veterans so that they know a future exists for them in the field of agriculture.”

 

Hromas was recently honored by the White House as a Disability Employment Champion of Change. Disability Employment Champions of Change have done extraordinary work to make workplaces more accessible, and to create employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. “I am honored to receive this Champions of Change award. I hope that other veterans with disabilities will similarly find their own entrepreneurship opportunities, gaining meaningful employment and contributing to their local communities,” he said.

 

Featured North Central Kansas producer panelists include Dan Kuhn, produce and pumpkin grower of “The Depot Market” near Courtland; Warren Sutton, green bean and pumpkin grower near Norway; Chris and Christi Janssen, high tunnel produce growers and CSA distributors in Scandia; Dan Stehlik, sheep producer near Concordia, plus a number of other specialty crop and livestock producers from the surrounding area. Republic County Farm Service Agency executive director Tamie Buckley will discuss the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP), and USDA FSA farm loan manager Emily Allen will discuss recent changes to the Beginning Farmer microloan program. Linda Sutton from the NCK Small Business Development Center will also be on hand to discuss business planning and management tools provided by her office.

 

The only cost to attendees is the evening meal, which will be served in the college cafeteria at the midpoint of the meeting. For more information, and to register, please go to www.kansasfarmersunion.org/events, call Nick at (785) 527-0941, or email [email protected] by November 15.

Kingman Historic Theatre will be showing Gone Girl

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Kingman Historic Theatre is  showing Gone Girl at 7:30 Fri ( Oct 31), 7:30 Sat (Nov 1) and 7:30 Sun (Nov 2) This movie is rated R and stars Ben Affleck,Rosamund Pike and Neil Patrick Harris.

With his wife’s disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it’s suspected that he may not be innocent.

Movie cost is $6.00 presented on will be shown on the recently updated digital system!

The Covered Dish: Pear Honey

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I can’t recall a more perfect day.  I slept in, drank my coffee and relaxed with a good book on the screened porch.  Amongst the covered chapters I got in a roast beef dinner and a couple loads of laundry.  Like many of you I’ve been embracing the beautiful fall days over the past week.  At work it’s time to greet the holiday season.  If that doesn’t put a person into gear to get things done for winter I don’t know what does!

This week I’m doing a bit of canning.  My good friend, Tammy, delivered enough organic pears to my front door that I can make a batch of pear honey.  Then my friends, Willis & Irene, from Minnesota, brought us Macintosh Apples so I can make some of Irene’s apple pie jam.  I can hardly wait to get started in the kitchen tomorrow.

My mother called a couple of weeks ago to find out if I had ever found any pears.  I told her I had not so she said she thought she had it covered.  Someone at her church had given her pears so she was going to make me a batch.  Have I got a surprise for her, now I get to make my own!  The pear honey will be utterly delicious this fall and winter over ice cream and on biscuits and toast.  Of all the dishes my grandmother, Lucy Richardson, made this was always my favorite.

In the early days I used to make this without the addition of the lemon zest.  Now I always include it in the honey because it just ‘lifts’ the flavor to higher zone.  As I always tell my students:  ‘Look for the ingredient that is going to make your dish set up and ‘sing’.”  Well, the lemon zest definitely does it for us here.

You’ll just love my measurement system with the ground pears.  For some the idea of 3 dinner plates of ground pears may sound a bit unusual.  But take my word for it this is truly the amount of ground pears.  As usual I will grind my pears in the antique grinder my parents gave me so many years ago.  Sure, I have a food processor, but the honey comes out just right when I grind it like Grandma did back in her day.  Though I lost my grandmother when I was only 9 years of age her influence in my life has continued.  Seems like the older we get the more we can see the impact our grandparents and parents have had in our lives.   I told a class just last week that I wish I could have given my son, Phillip, the upbringing on my grandparents farm that I had.

As our culture pushes forward it is so vital that we collect recipes and cherish the memories that connect the strands of our lives.  The time is ‘now’ to go over grandmother’s recipes.  Just this week I had a recipe given to me by a young lady from England.   She was born in Iowa and married a European and lived abroad for many years.  The recipe shared was a Christmas pudding.  She told me it took her 10 years to get her mother in law to divulge the recipe!  Wow, and now I get to try this treasured dish.

Start the organizing friends, though its warm, winter is very near.  Get the pantry stocked and ready for the cold weather.  Simply yours, The Covered Dish.

Grandma Lucy’s Pear Honey

Pears; cored, peeled and ground using a grinder or food processor

3 dinner plates of the ground pears

3 cans (20 oz. each), crushed pineapple, drained

4 pound bag of sugar plus 3 additional cups

(There are approx. 2 1/2 cups of sugar per pound of sugar)

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ginger

Dash or two of salt

9 tablespoons lemon juice

Lemon Zest to taste

Put everything into a large stockpot and stir over medium heat until it boils gently for 20 minutes.  Allow the mixture to boil down and get rid of any unwanted juice.  You will find it thickens a bit more as it cools down.  Pack into sterilized jars and seal with a boiling water bath.  Yields approximately 12 pints.

Kansas hunting rises again

By
Steve Gilliland
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Friday morning Joyce and I joined dignitaries from the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism

(KDWPT) and representatives from numerous Kansas tourism related groups at Horse Thief Reservoir

in Hodgeman Co. for the 2014 Kansas Hunting Showcase. Shining like a jewel in the otherwise empty

western Kansas landscape, the 400 acre lake sort of sneaks up on you, suddenly appearing from out

of nowhere as you top a hill about 10 miles west of Jetmore. Horse Thief Reservoir is a recreation and

water management project of the Pawnee Watershed Joint District #81, which by the way is the largest

watershed district in the United States, encompassing over 1.5 million acres in 9 southwest Kansas

counties. Besides pleasure boating and water skiing, Horse Thief has 42 campsites with full hookups

and many primitive campsites, plus 2 cabins and a yurt that can be rented. There are also hiking and

bicycling trails and an archery range that’s open 24-7 for the public to use. The fishing at Horse Thief is

coming into its own, with good catches of largemouth bass being reported. Walleye were stocked this

past spring and crappie and channel cat numbers are growing steadily with time. The hunting showcase

was held in a very nice, large heated/air conditioned multi-purpose building which is available to rent

along with the rest of the facilities for church functions, concealed carry classes, etc.

The 2014 Kansas Hunting Showcase promoted the quality of our state’s hunting (and fishing) and

highlighted the importance of hunting (and fishing) to the Kansas economy. Here are some astounding

figures shared with us by Assistant Secretary for Parks and Tourism, Linda Craghead;

• Hunting brings in over $401 million to the Kansas economy each year.

• Fishing brings in over $211 million.

• Non-resident hunting and fishing license sales bring in $10.7 million each year; while accounting

for less than 16% of total license numbers, this is 60% of the total license revenue.

• Resident hunting and fishing license sales bring in $7.8 million.

• Hunters and anglers coming to Kansas spend on average 32% more during their stay than

traditional leisure travelers.

We also heard the forecast for this year’s pheasant, quail and waterfowl seasons.

• Pheasant – Conditions throughout the spring and summer have reflected a statewide increase in

summer brood counts by 70%. Remember the past 2 or 3 years pheasant populations have been

paltry at best, mainly because of the drought, so numbers are just now rising again to where

they had been prior to the drought years.

• Quail – Roadside surveys reflect a statewide increase of 50% compared to 2013. The drought

years affected quail numbers also, but 50% is a nice increase.

• Ducks – American fall flight estimates show breeding duck populations up 8% since standard

surveys began in 1955. Kansas is situated smack in the heart of the Central Flyway where

breeding ducks surveyed this spring showed numbers up 68% above the long-term average.

• Geese – While I wasn’t able to find specific percentages or numbers, everything I read placed

goose populations as a whole above objective numbers.

Isn’t it amazing how rainfall or the lack thereof affects wildlife? Many parts of the state have gotten

good rainfall amounts this year and wildlife in those areas has responded. Our trail cameras are

recording many nice young deer this year, pheasant and quail numbers are up dramatically, there is

water in most of the waterfowl “honey-holes” again and even though wild turkey populations state wide

are just considered “stable,” turkey populations around us are booming; all good reasons to Explore

Kansas Outdoors. And while you’re at it, check out Horse Thief Reservoir in Hodgeman County just west

of Jetmore and on their website www.horsethiefres.com.

Steve can be contacted by email at [email protected]

Mato wins again, Lady Cougars take 8th at Region VI Championships

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The Barton Community College women’s cross country team finished 8th at a very tough Region VI Championships today held at the Colby Country Club.   In what is one of the nation’s top regions, the meet had three teams ranked in the NJCAA Top 10 and six overall in the Top 25.  Barton’s finish was also good for 6th in the rugged Jayhawk West division as the Cougars finished the 5k race in 1:46:03 for an average of 21:12.60.

Adding another championship to her illustrious collegiate career, sophomore Lydia Mato easily captured the race breaking away before the two-mile mark to easily win.  Averaging 5:29.2 per mile, Mato finished the race in 17:33.80 as second place finisher Grasiela Navarro came in at over a minute later at 18:50.60.

Great Bend freshman Kaitlynn Tuey continued her fantastic development throughout the season to earn All-Region honors for her 19th place finish crossing the line at 20:31.80.

Holly Pierce came in third for the Cougars as the Texas freshman placed 56th in 22:35.80.  Battling down the stretch sophomore multi-event Trenna Cox made a late push to catch teammate Dodge City freshman Yazmin Rendon both crossed in the 60th position in 22:40.80.  Lauren Samson placed 74th in 23:44.20 while Julee McAtee rounded out the Cougar runners coming in 85th at 25:19.40.

Barton will next compete at the NJCAA Division I Championships to be held Saturday, November 8, in Lubbock, Texas.

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