Even after living over half of my life in the Chicago suburbs, I consider myself a small town girl. Until I was 12, I lived in Central Illinois in a town which no one has ever heard of before. Sometimes when I describe what the town looks like from I-57, that you can see a tall church steeple as you drive by, people will say, “Oh, I think I’ve seen the exit sign!” Unless you live in Buckley, there’s no reason to get off the highway.
As a child, I ate a lot of fresh food in the summertime. I picked green beans and ate them right off of the bean stalk. We always had a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers that Mom would slice and serve for lunch. We would also have freshly picked sweet corn, and I would get sick of eating corn on the cob for supper. In the winter, we would eat the frozen and canned food Mom had prepared during the summer months. At the time, I didn’t appreciate all the fresh food we were able to eat.
As a suburban mom who tries to prepare healthy meals for my family, I now realize how lucky I was to have all that local produce as a child. I used to live in the middle of corn fields, now I’m surrounded by subdivisions and strip malls. My farm experience is limited to hayrides at pumpkin farms. When my friend from MOPS asked me if I wanted to be a Field Mom, I jumped at the chance to be able to visit a real farm. I applied to be a Field Mom through Illinois Farm Families, and am thrilled to have been accepted into the program!
As a Field Mom, I’ll be able to visit family farms to see how they grow the food that we eat. I’m a late-comer to the program, so I missed the first visit to a hog farm. Fortunately, the other Field Moms have written about their visit. I haven’t even gone to the farm yet and I’ve already learned so much from these moms!
Throughout the year, we are going to watch an acre of soybeans and an acre of corn grow. Planting season is coming soon! Not only that, but as field moms we will also watch baby pigs grow up. We had a conference call online this week to meet our little pigs, and the Mayor of Crazyville wrote a nice summary about the Field Moms’ pig pen.
Just a note: I’m participating as a Field Mom under my real name, not as Ginny Marie. 😉 Watch for more updates soon! If you are also an Illinois Field Mom, please leave a comment with your blog link so that I can make a return visit. I’m looking forward to our May farm visit!
I can't ever imagine being sick of eating corn on the cob! I hope you post about your experiences. I love learning about farming. I was so excited to take pictures of cows on our recent trip to Galena and even saw a calf running around in the pasture!
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I know! Now I love corn on the cob. And I also love watching calves! They are so cute! I'll be sure to keep you updated. 🙂
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That is SO COOL!! I would LOVE to have more opportunities like that around where we live. This is a great post Ginny Marie! 🙂
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Thank you! I'm pretty excited about it!
My recent post New Girl on the Farm
It sounds fun! Can't wait to hear more about it!
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I'm looking forward to being a Field Mom!
My recent post New Girl on the Farm
That sounds so cool! I participate in a local produce delivery program called Green Bean Delivery where we get weekly orders of fresh fruit and veggies, but I think it would be so cool to see how it all starts. Very cool
I'd like to be a part of getting local produce, too, but haven't looked into it very much. I'm looking forward to finding out more about Illinois farming!
My recent post New Girl on the Farm
Sounds like fun….enjoy!
Thank you, Debby!
My recent post New Girl on the Farm
That sounds like fun! We also had a lot of the fresh vegetables out of the garden and canned food. It was fun helping mom with the canning!
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It was fun! I wish I remember a little bit more about how to do it!
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This sounds so cool! Do you benefit from the produce after? Do you have to do any farm work?
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Thanks, Eva! I'm following you back!
I'm mostly going to the farms as an observer, so I won't get to do any of the farm work. I think that would be fun, though!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
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Make the farmers proud, they deserve everyones support. Enjoy your farm visits and ask questions.
I'll do my best! I agree with you, they do deserve everyone's support!!
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