VIDEO: How To Make Maple Syrup & Other Breakfast Ideas

Most of us laugh a bit when Will Ferrell’s character in “Elf” proclaims maple syrup as one of the four food groups. But then again, most people think syrup is a required part of breakfast involving pancakes, waffles or French toast. And even though I knew the difference between some of the syrup used and maple syrup, and even though I knew maple syrup came from trees, I loved seeing how maple syrup is made during a brief trip to SwissLane Farms, near Grand Rapids, Michigan in February. Here are some of my photos from my second dairy farm visit!

My friend Annie Link (@DairyDiscovery on Twitter, who was at AFBF11 & GLRDC11) and her friend Jenna spent the day showing me around the farm and although the maple syrup part was at the end of our day, I was delayed posting it thanks to a crazy schedule & wanting to be sure I got it right. Every time I see breakfast foods, I think about Annie’s maple syrup…. real (homemade maple syrup! continue reading “how to make maple syrup & other breakfast ideas“)

Discovering the Dairy at SwissLane Farms in Michigan

(This is mostly a photo post, showing some of the sights I saw while visiting Annie’s family farm in February)

continue reading & checking out the photos at Discovering the Dairy at SwissLane Farms in Michigan

What’s the Fabric of our Lives About? Why Advertise Cotton?

I’m not sure about you, but I often find myself humming or singing along as someone on TV sings “the touch the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives.” But have you ever stopped to wonder why there are ads for cotton on TV?

Well, its easy enough of an answer. The ad campaigns for cotton are funded through a commodity program that seeks to increase the marketability of my favorite fiber. And Cotton Inc. comes up with the awesome creative (as you probably guessed, the Zooey Deschanel part of the campaign cause I love her voice and sense of style too).

What a lot of people don’t realize is that cotton farmers pay for those ads as do people who import cotton. It’s a way for these groups to pool funds to support market awareness. It’s fairly easy to understand that farmers would like to keep cotton top of mind and since the makers of all the synthetic fibers like polyester have ad budgets, advertising is part of it. I can certainly remember various fibers — rayon, tencel, etc suggesting they have benefits over natural fiber. Read the rest of What’s the Fabric of our Lives About? Why Advertise Cotton?

Creating the #BlogChat Community Leads to Hero Status for @MackCollier, Darlin’

Writing that headline was fun. Blogging and social media have to be fun for me, cause this blog is a personal passion. I have no interest in “monetizing” my blog (I hope all the scammy folks who send weird messages will read that). I have a great job where I get to do communications.This blog is just a way to share my story. Somewhere in time, it was more than two years ago, I stumbled into a Twitter chat I wasn’t sure was meant for folks like me — Mack Collier and some of the others who had been participating in the chat for a while were awesome. But that was two years ago, so why would I write about him now? Or asking that same question another way, what qualifies Mack as a social media hero of mine?

Community Builder Extraordinaire

Some of you may know that the chat I stumbled into & met Mack in was #BlogChat, but plenty are asking yourselves “what is #blogchat?” Mack’s written a great post on that question – so just check out the link if you blog. But the short of it is #Blogchat is the weekly conversation on Twitter that has bloggers of all sorts talking about topics of shared interest, discussing ideas and tips. When I stumbled in, unsure of whether someone like me who just writes a personal blog should participate, I got an almost immediate welcome from Mack and several of the folks who had probably been participating since it started a year earlier. Read more about the awesomeness that is Mack Collier, a social media hero for me!

New content will be going up quite a few times this week so feel free to sign on up!

How Good People Can Make a Difference Through Social Media - March 14, 2012 – The reality for me is that since I took to social media, I’ve met INCREDIBLE people. In that same time, some incredible things have happened too! Sure, we’ve all heard about bullies using social media, but why give them attention? Recently I’ve had a few friends who showed me how something really small I did had a bigger impact. I think more of us need to do the small things more often. That’s the type of impact social media can and SHOULD have! Read the whole post on doing good with social media here.

Perfect Day to Spend Time at the Zoo – March 13, 2012 – Spring break for Memphis area schools meant my dear friend Marjory brought her precious girls to St. Louis to visit! HOW LUCKY AM I??? I had spent the weekend with friends from back in the day and was lucky enough to have Monday off for a great day at the zoo! You can tell with all the photos how much we all enjoyed it!

What is the World Population? Does It Impact Ag Day Events? – March 7, 2012 – March 7th was National Ag Day…. For those of us who work in agriculture, it seems like everyday is ag day just like everyday is earth day, but by setting aside a day on the calendar, we have an opportunity to increase awareness in others. This post gave me a chance to do my part of that responsibility. So I decided to talk about the way the world population has changed since I produced the flyer shown here…. my how the world has changed. Read more of the story on global population growth here.

As I mentioned, in a previous post, I’ve moved the content from here to the new self-hosted site that gives me additional growth potential. I’ve already begun posting to the new site — janiceperson.com — and would love to have you subscribe there. The person helping me with this, may get a fix that allows me to move subscribers over naturally, but I am not sure.

In the meantime, I’ve gotten back to busily posting about new adventures:

• This week I’ve been sharing the adventures from Commodity Classic — LOTS of familiar faces there! Farmers, media and industry a plenty! Meeting Corn, Soybean, Wheat & Sorghum Farmers — The Faces of #Classic12
• For Wordless Wednesday, I wanted to showcase my alma mater that is shared with four generations of women in my family. We are linked with the past and future as The University of Memphis Celebrating 100 Years Leaves Me Wordless
• And finally, I took time to observe National Ag Day tomorrow with my just posted What is the World Population? Does It Impact Ag Day Events? entry.

I hope you and yours have a great day of adventure ahead and that you’ll join the conversation on the new blog.

• The domain — That’s a no-brainer after what I typed in the headline and above, but for me, the change was carefully considered. A lot of my social media friends know me as JPlovesCOTTON and I have no plans to change my Twitter handle. But as I grew my blog to more completely represent me by adding in more travel, social media, etc I thought the domain made sense. Besides I already owned it.
• A header that showcases what the site is about — Since so many people come to the site as a result of the link sharing on Twitter or Facebook, I thought I should find a way to on a first visit help them “get” the blog. This is my attempt:

• Easier to use sharing options — Sometimes as I read a post, I think about someone who would want to read it. By putting the sharing options on the side, they are accessible whenever the mood strikes!
• I also tried to make things a bit easier to read, etc

So the nervous part now is getting other people to say what they think….. As new content goes up in the near future, I’ll make sure more people know its out there, but for now, I’m looking for feedback from you.

Lots of excitement & activity this winter!

When I started blogging a few years ago, I picked WordPress.com for a couple of reasons. I started the blog on something of a whim when I wanted to tell a story that went with photos I wanted to share. I had no idea how many things I’d one day want to rethink. Last year I rethought having two blogs — one on travel & one on ag — and when I asked what readers though it was clear! I should go for it! I’m so glad I rethought that as it has given me so much more flexibility! But hosting was something I suppressed thinking about too much because there were too many unknowns that made me worry. So I put that off to another day. Well I’ve reached the other day.

Starting out, I figured I had a couple of options, several friends were using free versions of blogger or WordPress and the price seemed right. I had a private blog on Posterous, which I love but found didn’t offer enough ooomph for where I wanted to go, but it remains a great choice for the project I have there. The lack of commercial activity on WordPress was a draw for me — I had seen some blogs that I thought were so overly commercialized that I had trouble finding content. It’s funny to say, but I never even thought about doing my blog as a self-hosted effort. To me, that seemed like something that only companies would want to do.

Once I had been blogging for a while, I wrote what I now consider a breakthrough post that shaped my first year as a blogger. The day I posted my first blog post that was getting a lot of traffic at once (it was about being speechless or ready to rant but choosing the middle ground instead) I saw that an ad from WordPress was put there based on Google keywords. That’s the day I began paying for my blog’s services. I didn’t like the ad showing up, so I paid a fee to have ads stay off my blog.

Over time, I paid for more ways to customize it. There was the fact that I wanted to have my own domain there rather than keep the WordPress in the address. So I registered domains with a service and paid WordPress to put one of them on here. I was putting lots of photos up and wanted the flexibility to put up audio too… and then I wanted to upgrade the look of the blog so I got a premium theme that allowed my home page to get a spark…. and then I wanted to fine-tune that a little and…. I started writing more and posting a lot more. And I started planning what I could do to make it better.

As I was asking for input from people on things I could do to take it to the next level, I considered whether to go self-hosted or now. Its not that others suggested it, many didn’t realize I wasn’t already thanks to the money I had put into design, etc. But I wasn’t sure so I asked the folks I know through #blogchat, and talked directly to Mack Collier for his thoughts. I decided it was the right time for me to make a move and started looking for the expertise to do that knowing I personally didn’t have the time to develop that expertise at this time of year. 

my reflection on my ipad that can't pull up my blog

After I already had someone on-board helping me, I got a real scare as WordPress.com took my blog down one day and said I had violated the terms & conditions. I was able to get it back up quickly as it was a mistake, but for me the reality that I had spent so much time creating something that was no longer in the space I had built it, made me certain self-hosting was best for me. I’ve had someone working on it, and although its taken longer than expected…. I hope Monday I can showcase the new set-up.

That’s made it a little complicated to keep my regular posts coming, especially with the amount of travel I’ve been doing, but I hope to have things back in working order soon.

I’ve been rethinking some other things as well and they are going into the new, improved site along with some of the friendly feedback people have given me as I asked for opinions. Some of those ideas didn’t fit what I want to do though so don’t expect to see a big shift… I like the way my blog community has been growing, I just want to make sure I’m doing my part to encourage its continued health. And I think the new changes will do just that!

Related articles

• Migrating this blog to WordPress (startupiceland.wordpress.com)
• A Step-by-Step MySQL Tutorial For Self-Hosted WordPress Bloggers (makeuseof.com)
• What to Do When Your Blog is Removed (blogher.com)

What Complicates the Ability to Eat Cotton or Cottonseed?

There is a natural chemical produced by cotton plants called gossypol. I love when I have a good friend who’s awesome at science who has already explained a scientific topic I need to refer to, that’s the case with Jesse Bussard having posted about gossypol. Jesse writes about gossypol and livestock saying:

Gossypol is a toxic compound found in the cotton plant.  This compound is concentrated in the cottonseed but can also be found in other parts of the plant such as hulls, leaves and stems.  Gossypol exists in two forms: free and bound.  The free form is toxic, while the bound form binds to proteins is not toxic.

Amounts of free gossypol in cottonseed can vary.  Many factors affect gossypol concentration in seed including species of cotton plant, climatic conditions, soil conditions, fertilizer, etc.  With all these factors it is impossible to come up with one easy way to determine gossypol levels.  The only way is to test the cottonseed….

Gossypol affects mainly the heart and liver.  The reproductive tract, abomasum, and kidneys are also affected.  Monogastric animals, such as pigs and horses, are hightly susceptible to gossypol toxicity.  Ruminants, cattle and sheep, can tolerate higher levels of free gossypol because free gossypol bings to proteins in the rumen.  Even so, gossypol exposure can be toxic to cattle over a cumulative period.  Levels of 800 ppm are considered toxic.  The longer the cattle are on the ration the more likely toxicity will develop.

Common symptoms include:  weakness, depression, loss of appetite, difficult breathing, blood in the urine, inflammation of the intestines, and reproductive problems.  Gossypol toxicity must always be considered anytime their is a death loss in young animals that have been on cottonseed for several weeks (less time if gossypol levels are extreme).

No treatment exists to cure gossypol toxicity.  Removing cottonseed from the ration may have some reversal effect but is not guaranteed.  Some animals have still died even 2 weeks after gossypol was removed from their diet.

via Forage Facts: Gossypol Toxicity in Livestock | Pearl Snaps’ Ponderings.

Is there the potential for change?

Indian cotton farmer using flood irrigation near Hyderbad several years ago. Could he benefit from potential gossypol-free varieties?

If you can read that and think you want to eat cotton seed, you are much stronger mentally than I am. Cattle eating a diversified diet that includes cottonseed is okay, but that’s because they are ruminants — they have multiple stomachs that assist in processing gossypol. BUT as I started this, I said maybe because a researcher at Texas A&M has been working on reducing the levels of gossypol in cotton in order to make the high protein source an option for both people and a wider array of animals. The researcher, Keerti Rathore was honored with recognition in January 2012 for his breakthrough work:

According to Dr. Don Jones, director Agricultural Research for Cotton Inc., Rathore’s ultimate goal is to create cotton plants that produce seeds that contain gossypol at levels below what is considered safe by the Food and Drug Administration while maintaining normal levels of gossypol and related chemicals in the foliage, floral parts, boll rind, and the roots. Gossypol helps cotton plants defend against insects and pathogens.

Dr. Wayne Smith, Texas A&M soil and crop sciences associate department head, applauded Rathore’s honor.

“Keerti has lines that show 95 percent reduction in seed gossypol that makes these seed – an excellent source of oil and protein – edible by humans,” Smith said. “This effort could lead to a new, high-quality food source for people around the world.”

Rathore earned his bachelor’s degree in animal and plant sciences from Rajasthan University, his master’s degree in plant biochemistry from Gujarat University, both in India. He earned his doctorate in plant physiology from Imperial College, University of London. Before joining AgriLife Research and Texas A&M in 2003, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate and a research scientist at Purdue University for 10 years

via Keerti Rathore Receives 2011 Cotton Genetics Research Award.

Yes, No and Maybe

So I guess you see why I answer the question of whether people can eat cottonseed with a yes, no or maybe. For now, it’s best not to because gossypol can be toxic to people. Cows can eat it though and veternarians like my friend Kathy Swift look at the feed combinations to make sure cows are not getting too much of it (sort of like too much sugar is bad for us & leaves us hyper or crashing). But researchers are looking for a way that cottonseed could be eaten as a protein source. If that were to happen, it could bring a protein source to parts of the world where there are currently few options. That’s good for the cotton business but more importantly, it would be fantastic for people in parts of Africa and India.

What do you think, can you picture yourself eating cottonseeds instead of sunflower seeds at a ballgame?

Now and then, when I get garbanzos for my salad or happen to eat something else featuring the bean, I send a #thankafarmer tweet to Gayle. Its something so uncommon to think of — who grew the chickpeas we’re eating — but now I have a name and a face to go with my meals. That helps me remember to be thankful for the hands that were involved before the food got to me.

I’ve read some of her blog posts and watched some of the videos she’s posted. To see how her family grows the food that ultimately reach me through a supermarket to come to my house is pretty cool!

Right now, her family is in the prep stages for the 2012 crop. But you can see what planting looks like in the post from last year…. love how she does sort of a Garbanzo Seeding Season 101 showing how seed is delivered, put into the planter and planted by the cute farmer. She also got back in the field to get photos and videos showing garbanzos being harvested…. Her family’s crop had been ready for harvest earlier than a neighbor so with their crop in the bin and rain on the way, Joe & the team helped their neighbors get the crop in!

She’s been sharing their family farm story through blogging and Twitter for a few years. I think this video of her and her husband Joe talking about a “Dinner on the Farm” event they host each year to provide people a chance to see the way they do things up close is a great summary.

Garbanzos Straight From Gayle

Over time, as we visited, I was able to get some garbanzos straight from Gayle’s farm! She sent me a big ol baggie filled straight from one of their on-farm bins! So I’ve got a chance to see how the garbanzo beans she sent, match up to my old standby — the cans of Sultan Chickpeas I’ve bought for a while.

Before I could make any recipes though, I needed to clean the chickpeas up a bit. See, Gayle’s family plants the beans in the spring and harvests them in the fall but the steps after that were left up to me.  So, I’ve sifted through the baggie she sent me much the way the food companies clean up beans in bulk. A lot of shaking and gravity! I also pulled out a few pieces that seemed to be off color or shape.

ziploc full of garbanzo beans

closeup of garbanzos in a ziploc pre-cleaning

sifting the chickpeas to clean them up

a lot of stuff got cleared out

parts of pods, leaves, immature garbanzos & other plant parts I cleared out

dry garbanzo beans

Now I’m going to get to soaking & boiling some of these so I can make myself some yummy hummus! I’ll post on that soon (if you guys are interested). I also hope to meet Gayle in person this week so maybe I will have a blog post come out of that!

Related articles

• Chickpeas used all over the world, fresh or dried (sfgate.com)
• 10 Weeknight Dinners with Chickpeas Recipe Roundup (thekitchn.com)
• Eating Done Right: Chickpeas – Food of the Week (aarp.org)