Blog
Credible nutrition information, cooking tips, product recommendations, and reflections on sustainability from Dietitian Ann.
Farming when the Ground is White and the Temp is Low
I work an 8-to-5-ish job. I have weekends and holidays off, I accrue PTO, and if I’m deathly ill, I have (amazing) coworkers who will step up to cover for me. This does not describe the life of a small business owner, such as a farmer. The Old Red Barn A small business owner works the…
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Kansas Wheat Harvest
My favorite childhood playground: the grain truck, followed closely by the time I spent in the kitchen with my mom helping her “make lunches” for the harvest crew. Most people think that Kansas is land-locked. They would be right — except for June, when seas of golden wheat stretch across the plains. Millions of stalks of…
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Sustainability Spotlight: Community Based Agriculture
Meet Amanda Lindahl. She’s an expert baker, extrovert, wonderful friend, and a passionate gardener. She works for The Giving Grove, a non-profit organization which is part of the Kansas City Community Gardens. Jessica, myself, and Amanda when they came to visit me in Colorado! The Giving Grove is a unique subset of American Agriculture –…
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Sustainability Spotlight: Miller Farms Local Vegetable Farm
Meet Joe Miller. Joe Miller of Miller Farms Joe and his wife, Chris, are the full-time owners/operators of Miller Farms, a medium-sized vegetable farm in Northern Colorado. Miller Farms consists of 400 acres of vegetables, additional acreage in field corn, and a few more acres of hay. In addition to farming, a couple of years…
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Making Lunches
We visited the farm last weekend to introduce two of my favorite people in the world to wheat harvest. It’s a busy, dusty, exhausting, fun time of the year. Wheat Harvest The days are usually really long – starting in the morning and reaching until way past sunset as long as the grain is still…
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What’s a CSA: Community Supported Agriculture
Visiting the Miller Farms booth at the local Farmers’ Market to pick up our basket of CSA veggies last summer! Get your World Peas Tee, too! Support your local farmer with a CSA this season and enjoy best quality fresh, seasonal produce. Spring is (finally) here, which means that summer – my favorite season –…
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Sustainability Spotlight: Florida Orange Grove Farmer
Learn about citrus farming in Florida in this interview with Victor Story, an Orange Grove Farmer in Lake Wales, FL “I’m going to quote my daddy,” Victor Story told me on a January afternoon, “‘Farming is an honorable way to make a living.’ You’re raising something wholesome and healthy. There’s a satisfaction about that.” Vic…
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The Quest for Sustainability
Sustainability. It’s a buzzword. It’s a fad. It’s a culture shift. But really, what is sustainability in terms of how we grow our food in the world? As a dietitian, I have had the pleasure of meeting many people who care deeply about this topic. People who buy local or organic or avoid certain products because…
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Nitrogen: the Building Block of Building Blocks
Protein. I’ve ranted over its popularity in the American diet. I’ve warned that we’re getting way more protein than we need (although so far there’s no evidence that this is necessarily harmful). Yet still for most humans on the planet today, lack of protein remains a major source of malnutrition. Falafel – a great (and…
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Nitrogen Fertilizer, a Comparison
A few weeks ago I wrote about how nitrogren fertilizer is an essential part of farming because it is an essential part of protein, and thus nutrition for humans. Across farming philosophies – from conventional to progressive to organic to local – the fact that nitrogen is essential to life is an undisputed fact. Beyond…
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