Banquet in a Field - Intro to From the Farm Friday

On Tuesday I was invited to enjoy a fantastic meal in the middle of a field

- A Banquet in a Field -

The lovely Katie Pinke and volunteers of CommonGround made this event possible - CommonGround is a group of women who are passionate about agriculture and their main goal is to help consumers understand that there are real people behind the food they eat and it doesn't come from a factory! {I think this is a group I could volunteer for}

This was the 2nd Annual Banquet and it was held at Peterson Farms Seed. Guests were shuttled out to the field where the food and refreshments awaited. Live food plots were planted to showcase what crops can be grown right here in North Dakota and if that wasn't enough there were appetizers at multiple stations to showcase how delicious the different crops {and meats} can be!! {the potato croquettes were at the top of my list}



One Bushel of Duram Wheat makes 210 servings of Pasta || 96% of North Dakota's Barley is used for Beer

North Dakota grows over 2.7 billion pounds of Potatoes each year and has 30 Thousand Farm & Ranch families

My Farmer wasn't busy combining yet so he got to come with me to the event and enjoyed farm chat with producers from around the state - it is always nice to hear how things are going for others that aren't in your immediate area. I was excited to chat with a few bloggers who were also hanging out in the field for the evening!

Food was prepared by the husband/wife team: Tony & Sarah Nasello along with some NDSU BBQ Bootcamp cooks. Local FFA chapter leaders helped serve the food, including our hometown Lisbon member! As you can see from the images below the food was a.m.a.z.i.n.g!

Menu ||
Primo Piatto- Tony's Handmade Gnocchi Pomodoro 
Intermezzo- Chilled Watermelon Cube with lime juice
Secondo Piatto- Carved Beef Tenderloin with Horseradish Cream Sause
Contorni- Easy Potato Salad, Pickled Radishes & Beets, Rustic Italian Cucumber Tomato Salad
La Dolce- Sarah's Honey Vanilla Ice Cream (served in a Belgian Cookie Cup)

The seating arrangement was designed to engage people of non-agricultural backgrounds with those who lived and worked in it every day. At our table was Nancy Jo Bateman, the executive director of the ND Beef Commission, fellow blogger Amanda & her husband, and Peterson Farms Seed employee Kristi Schultz. Amanda and I took the normal jokes from our husbands for taking too many photos of our meal while we all enjoyed chatting about farming and current events!

Can't beat a ND Field Sunset

I want to give a giant Thank You to Katie for inviting me to this unique dining experience and I hope I can be part of it again next year! This event made me proud to be from this state and equally proud to come from a farm family while continuing on with my husband as the 4th Generation with his family farm!

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Even though I am immersed every day in farming at my job and live on the farm I still find myself not knowing much about what's going on around me at the farm. Well, that is about to change and I've warned Steven he is going to get more questions from me soon!! I am introducing From The Farm Fridays. This will include some kind of farm update from me every Friday - this could be short posts with photos of my backyard cow friends or long posts on harvest. I hope these will educate you and also keep me more informed with what is going on in my backyard!!

Thanks to Amanda for the photo 

*PS I will be inviting any farm ladies to link-up and join in on From the Farm Friday*

Have a great weekend and if you ate today … don't forget to Thank A Farmer!!

Homesick for Norway

On July 21 I thought maybe we would have been immediately teleported back to the beautiful country of Norway but instead we were still in North Dakota just wanting to relive our trip from one year ago. Every time Steven or I see beautiful landscape we say "I wish we were in Norway" … it was hands down the most amazing experience!!

Do you have a trip you wish you could relive again and again?

Slightly

I went to a concert last night and the first thing I did when I got home was pull up this brand new post. She {the singer} inspired me to write and I'm running with it because the will and want to write lately hasn't happened very much.

So here it is - the posts I like reading most on other people's blogs ... Honest Ones!

I have been in a rut and not a blogging rut because there was never a clean and/or clear pattern to my writing but more so I've been in a life rut - since March. What I've come to realize is you can hide from your feelings for so long before ultimately they bump crash into you! Now some things I single handily brought on myself like the fact that "if I became involved in 20 million things I wouldn't be able to think, therefor I would be fine" … and raise your hand if that has ever worked out for you *pssshh I know, I know I was just kidding myself.

In the spirit of true blogging transparency I think I was slightly depressed - {don't you like how before depressed I still find the need to say 'think' and 'slightly'} okay I was depressed aka sad, unhappy, downhearted. I let the grief get the best of me. I wasn't depressed in the clinical sense, sit in my room and hate myself I was just super sad and downhearted about our situation and while everyone around me was celebrating life milestones of happiness I was stuck in feeling sad no matter how happy I wanted {and tried} to be for them.



S O U R C E

My clarity moment in realizing I was slightly depressed came when we spent two weeks caring for a dog that was just not right for our family, in so so many different ways - I thought for sure that is what we needed when in reality I needed to come to terms with what was going on in my head and how I was actually feeling. {ps the dog has already found a lovely home}

I needed to start saying no and drop out of the 20 million things I'd signed up for since March. So I'm slowing it down {well I'm trying} and I'm taking some time for me. I'm praying again and building up my relationship with Him - feeling foolish I let it slide in the first place.
The best part of all of this, is now that I realize I was depressed {and I really think that is the most important - realization} I'm starting to feel unstuck!!

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Have you ever thought  you were slightly depressed?? How did you handle it?

Wordless Thursday

A wordless Thursday post maybe isn't a thing but I have an abundance of photos so this is what you get!! 

There is a Season

According to God (Ecclesiastes 3) there is a season for everything and not just season in terms of weather.

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

I feel I'm caught in verse 4 - weeping, mourning; laughing, dancing. I have so much in my life to be thankful for, so many reasons to laugh but at the same time I feel stuck with all the feelings that come with loosing Brea.
365 days ago we met her for the first time and my heart was so full of joy, so excited that after the loss of Gunner we could have a family again, this time was going to be different - until it wasn't.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of her and miss her like crazy. As sad as it makes me that she is gone I have to read {and re-read) the verse above and know that God has a plan and this hurting is part of it.
With time I know the hurt will fade and a new season will begin!