A Couple of Turkeys Walk into this Bar...

A visit to a girlfriend's house this afternoon and I got a glimpse of the wild turkeys in the yard! Gracie the Yorkie was not enjoying their company. The male turkey gobbled back at Gracie, who was barking her head off, but the female paid the dog no mind...

This Northern Illinois area is still suffering from drought, so no smart girl in farm town will be complaining about the rainy days. The ground is frozen solid, so the water is simply sitting on the top of the earth, we hope it doesn't all run off...

This girlfriend of mine "grows her own", unlike a gardener, my girlfriend "grows her own" beef and pork. As a family, they raise cows and pigs, several of each at a time, and they sell them and start all over.

As a city girl, I would refuse any of the meat that didn't have a UPC code on it from the grocery store. Many times, I've passed up a gorgeous looking hunk of something because I thought it would taste funny. Somehow, something changed and now I never purchase any meat at the grocery store. My Boss and I split half a cow. Well, I went and got some of the pig, today. A boneless pork roast, grown just miles from here, fed by an 8th grade girl with blonde hair and cowboy boots, I kid you not.

I will be sure to post photos of that lovely roast AND the sweet 8th grader, very soon.

Today, I also came home with a haul of jam. That's another item I had no idea tasted so good, when grown at home.

They glisten like gems, to me!

In the back, is a quart of homegrown organic honey. A teaspoon a day of locally grown honey is the best way I know to cure the symptoms of allergies like runny nose, congestion and all the good stuff that comes with spring allergies! Left to right; crab apple, blueberry, strawberry, red raspberry and black raspberry. Another little jar had just a question mark on the top and I laugh at that one, every time I spy it. My girlfriend canned all this jelly in a short amount of time and it got away from her and a batch of purple is simply marked with ? because she forgets what went in! That very much is her personality in a nutshell!

These jams are much more flavorful than those you purchase in the grocery stores. They taste more like the fruit they are made from, less like High Fructose Corn Syrup, which is what is in so many of them now.

I cannot imagine the work that must go into this, and her generosity comes so easy, she fills a canvas bag for me, not allowing me to leave empty handed, ever!

Before I met this friend, I had only had homemade jam once, the strawberry freezer jam that my mother in law made, she filled little margarine containers full and passed some on to me.

All of this jam giving and meat sharing makes me wonder....what do I share??

I honestly can't think of a single thing I have shared with my girlfriend OR my mother in law.

Surely, I must have something worth sharing?



The White Death is supposed to come, tomorrow, I hope all of my pals are safe and warm and can sit this one out, at home! I really don't believe we will get any amount worth freaking out about, but I freak out about 2", I just try to stay out of the ditch!