A Community for Farm Dreamers

View of the Farm Dreams homepage

Farm Dreams -

Social Networking for Farm Geeks Like Us

  
Ever wish you could commiserate with other farm dreamers? A place where you could find a community of existing farmers, aspiring farmers and foodies alike? Starting tomorrow (or today if you visit the Facebook page) you’ll be able to do just that. Boasting a multitude of farm-related groups, forums, and other social applications comes Farm Dreams, a new social networking site dedicated to all the farm dreamers out there.
 
In addition to the groups, forums, classifieds, and other resources, there will be a daily blog post from five dedicated bloggers. I’ll be posting on Mondays about the ups, downs and sideways of starting a farm. You can find me under The Aspiring Farmer Blog, which begins this Monday. The rest of the week you'll be treated to tips on homsteading, survival skills, cheesemaking and commentary on food law (legalize raw milk anyone?).
 
Get over there and take a look, it doesn’t disappoint.

 

Local, Organic, Free-Range. Is it All About the Taste?


Truly free-range chicken enjoying the pasture

Does Your Local, Free-Range Turkey Taste Better?

 
When it comes to “alternative” food production, such as organic and local, there’s plenty of skepticism. Recently, I’ve heard a lot people asking whether the food tastes better. Whenever the origins of a free-range Thanksgiving turkey are discussed there’s almost always someone asking if it tastes better. In another instance I asked our brewing grain provider if he could source some local or organic grains and his response was the same: “I’d be curious if the beer would even taste better.” I’m always baffled because better taste is one of the last things I think about.
 
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We're Moved In!

Not to the farm, unfortunately. After filling up on turkey we spent the weekend moving to a new apartment. Our lease ends at the end of November, so that put us in a precarious situation.  We're about to own a farm about 1,000 miles away, but that’s no help! We need a place to live for a few months. In addition, we have the mortgage to shoulder and NY rents aren’t known to be very affordable.

Thankfully, one of my long-time friends had a spare “room” in her apartment, so she let us move in for a few months. I say “room” because it’s quite small and has no closet, but hey, it does the trick and we consider ourselves pretty lucky. By the end of last night we had moved everything we own into 200 square feet of space. One-hundred sq. ft. is in a storage facility in Queens (good thing they have high ceilings!). The other one-hundred sq. ft. is our new room.

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