Wednesday, December 30, 2015

The Healing Professions

We live in the shadow of the Mayo clinic. Many years ago I heard a statistic that there were 3000 MDs in Rochester, MN where the Clinic is. There are probably 5000 by now. Pretty cool to know there is an answer for identifying just about any ailment just minutes away and they are very good. If you have some weird tropical malady they have you covered. If you have an obscure genetic deficiency they have the tools and tests to future it out.

This is kind of an antiquated term but they used to call those that sought the decades of training  to heal the body and mind as the, "The Healing Professions".

I think that farmers are in the "Healing Profession" too and here is why..

Monday, December 28, 2015

I Love to Teach

Our oldest daughter Andrea is a music education major in college. Which means she will be a music teacher some day. She loves the teaching environment. She hadn't been on campus two weeks as a freshman before she had been asked to be a tutor for music theory. Doing what you love and getting paid...what a deal.

I "get" the teaching part of this equation. You have an experience or expertise you want to share. Whether it is music, farming or personal finances the act of teaching holds incredible value for those being taught and society as a whole.

I don't know much about music like Andrea does. But we do share a common value of teaching.

I love to teach.

Here are 5 reasons teaching is important.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Should the Church Borrow

The topic of church borrowing comes up at strategic times of growth and change. The Bible is clear on what the path should be...don't borrow.

Below are links to Bible Studies on my website in support of this teaching.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Ten Reasons Your Church Should Be Debt Free

We often talk about personal and farming financial matters on our blog.

Here is a topic for your church to consider for 2016.

If your pastors and elders aren't encouraging agressive debt reduction. Please talk to them about searching scripture on this and pray about becoming debt free.

The list below will give you 10 reasons to be debt free.

Friday, December 25, 2015

End of the Year Giving for Farm Families

Farm income, and many types of business income, is notoriously seasonal. We do our best to smooth it out by shifting sales to early in the season and doing some canning, drying, smoking and storing to provide some income during slower times of the year.

Because of this seasonality many farm families do the largest share of giving to their church and other charities at the end of the year.

Beside being scriptural. Generosity changes us as a person from a potentially tight fisted miser to an open handed happy person. You must open your hand to give, but it is also necessary to open your hand so that more blessings can come your way. 

Farm families also have the possibility of giving of the fruit of their labor. My father used to give and extra wagon full of corn at the end of the year. He would have them make the check out to the church.

We give left over produce to Channel One (the local food shelf) all summer long. We often bring extra with them in mind. Again in the fall we take a load of squash or pumpkins. Usually this is produce that God has blessed us with above and beyond our needs for the business. I could wholesale this abundance to a store or something but I like to give it. Kinda of a picture of what God is doing all the time through our paychecks and other income.

Here is my check list for end of the year giving:

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Pickup Trucks and Business Success

I have come to believe that success and failure in farming may be tied to the pickup truck the farmer drives.

You mean if you choose Ford over Chevy you may fail? No I'm thinking more about buying an expensive truck versus a good used truck no matter what the brand. Especially in the early years of building your farming business.

Not saying I'm perfect, but here is what we have done over 35 years of farming. I offer this for your consideration.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Numerous Reflections From The Rochester Compost Pile

I wrote an article last year about people I have met and the funny things they do at the compost pile. This is a continuation of that theme.

I got approximately 150 pickup loads of compost this last growing season at the waste to energy facility in Rochester. So I am down there a lot. This season was a bit unusual in that I got several loads of compost just last week. The weather was so mild that I could apply it without worrying about frost.

Here  are some stories from the folks I have met at the pile...

Monday, December 21, 2015

Why Are Minerals Important

There are two major catagories of minerals your body needs they are macrominerals and micro minerals.

Macrominerals are sodium, cloride, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and sulfer.

Microminerals are needed in smaller amounts iron, zinc, iodine, selenium, copper, magnesium, chromium, molybdenum, nickel, silicon, vanadium and cobalt.

I won't go into all the ways the body uses these minerals but one key use is...

Friday, December 18, 2015

Petersen's Market Menu for December 19, 2015



Winter Stir Fry Vegetables, Photo Credit Reed Petersen
I was asked at least 10 times this week what you can find at the Winter Farmers market. This post should answer that question for our customers. For supper tonight I'm making a stir fry with the vegetables in the picture above. You can get all of them at the market this week.

We still have an excellent selection of pumpkins so don't forget the pumpkin pie, here is a link to 15 different Pumpkin Pie Recipes we have developed. From classic to low carb, these are great creative ways to work a little pumpkin into your life.

The carrots and parships are now safely in storage for the winter. November is the best time to pick the best carrots and parsnips of the year. Can you guess why? Frost! You need a few hard frosts to bring out the sweetness of those carrots. The children call our carrots "candy carrots" because of this crunchy sweetness. Here is a link to an article on our web site about why carrots are sweeter with frost?



We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, December 19, 2015 (New items are in Bold Print)


Cabbage - Red and Green

Garlic
Carrots
Parsnips
Leeks
Walla Walla Sweet Onions
Brussels Sprouts



Fresh Cut Herbs: Mint, Chocolate Mint, Oregano, Cilantro
Baby Kale- Regular and Red Russian

Full sized Kale - 4 varieities
Herb Plants - Rosemary,


Pickles: Spicy Dill, Sweet Sandwich, Okra, Dilly Bean, Corn Relish, Pepper Relish.
Salsa

Chipotle Smoked Peppers

Charcoal (home grown, home made). Made three fresh batches in the last week.


If you took the time to read clear to the bottom of Market Menu I'm going to include a thoughtful article from our website archives. This week's "thought for the day" is entitled Beware the Cat With the Deaf Eye. It is a story from when Reed was in second grade.







Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Ashes to Ashes

The phrase "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust" is often used in funerals but doesn't appear in the Bible. It comes from the funeral service in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. It is based on Genesis 3:19, Genesis 18:27, Job 30:19 and Ecclesiastes 3:20. Those reference all say we are made from and return to dust. The Bible uses the word dust for the elements of the earth.

When a body decays what is left is compost and minerals. Not trying to be morbid here, those are just the facts.

How do these minerals and other nutrients get into our bodies in the first place. I'll bet you are way ahead of me here. They come from the foods we eat.

Did you know when the cell utilizes nutrients there is an ash formed from the metabolism of the nutrient. Nutritionists talk about some food being alkaline and others being acidic. It is this ash that they are talking about. So when they say limes are alkaline even tho they taste very tart and acidic, it is the ash that is alkaline. I'm getting off track a little here as I wanted to talk about soil.

Soils are formed from the weathered minerals, pyrogenic minerals, and organic matter. Let's dig a little deeper...

Monday, December 14, 2015

Thomas Alva Edison

"He led no armies into battle, he conquered no countries, and enslaved no peoples...Nonetheless, he exerted a degree of power the magnitude of which no warrior ever dreamed." A quote from the Edison.com website.

Edison was a prolific inventor and businessman. His inventions included the phonograph, motion picture camera, the light bulb and perhaps the invention that did more to shape modern society than even the light bulb was electric power generation and distribution.

We know from history that on Monday, September 4, 1882 at 3 pm on Pearl Street in Manhattan, NY. That Edison's first power generation network was engaged. This and subsequent improvements were a breakthrough development in what was to become the industrialized world.

But there was another unintended consequence of this breakthrough that was to affect the health of the American family for generations to come.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

The Measurement Stick

Remember when you were little and mom or dad had you stand by the door to the closet in your bedroom and measured your height. This became a measure of progress for your growth. Your siblings were likely recorded in the same spot.

This may have been the first time you encountered the measuring stick, but it certainly wasn't the last.

Here are some other examples...

Monday, December 7, 2015

Our Passion


Our passion is farming and we love to grow great vegetables for our customers. You cannot be a leader in your field without a passion for that activity, its technologies, and the result. 

Passion causes us to move towards our goals and it creates leverage or a force multiplier to our efforts. It keep us going when the days are long. The market and face time with our customers is a catalyst for this passion.

For example:

Friday, December 4, 2015

Petersen's Market Menu for December 5, 2015

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Q-288gsIrr0wzMQAwScmb3BB-GfYb4SwMuQJh1dBq9vaL7MVYmeEIWVBpy_jPOANyas_KPymTVfq82Oox3aShWZRVyePzdPe6vRre0645yxoFrdfZHBBc-imuge3m2Y7q__RWDSyK_gh/s1600/Pepper+Salad.jpg
Fresh Peppers Used in Our Spicy Pickled Pepper Relish

Welcome to the fourth week of winter market. This picture in this week's market menu are the fresh peppers used in our Pepper Relish. Lots of reds and greens for your holiday stocking stuffers or entertaining.We love to use these on sandwiches, salads or on a relish tray.

We still have an excellent selection of pumpkins so don't forget the pumpkin pie, here is a link to 15 different recipes  we have developed for pumpkin pie. From classic to low carb, these are great creative ways to work a little pumpkin into your life.

The carrots and parships are now safely in storage for the winter. November is the best time to pick the best carrots and parsnips of the year. Can you guess why? Frost! You need a few hard frosts to bring out the sweetness of those carrots. The children call our carrots "candy carrots" because of this crunchy sweetness. Here is a link to an article on our web site about why carrots are sweeter with frost?



We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, December 5, 2015 (New items are in Bold Print)


Cabbage - Red and Green

Garlic
Carrots
Parsnips
Leeks
Walla Walla Sweet Onions
Brussels Sprouts



Fresh Cut Herbs: Mint, Chocolate Mint, Oregano, Cilantro
Arugula - Wild
Mizuna
Mesabi Arugula
Baby Spinach
Spring Mix
Baby Kale- Regular and Red Russian

Full sized Kale - 4 varieities
Herb Plants - Rosemary,


Pickles: Spicy Dill, Sweet Sandwich, Okra, Dilly Bean, Corn Relish, Pepper Relish.
Salsa

Chipotle Smoked Peppers

Charcoal (home grown, home made)


If you took the time to read clear to the bottom of Market Menu I'm going to include a thoughtful article from our website archives. This week's "thought for the day" is entitled Beware the Cat With the Deaf Eye. It is a story from when Reed was in second grade.







Wednesday, December 2, 2015

The DNA Soil Connection

DNA is some pretty amazing stuff. It was only recently that the human genome (DNA) was mapped using super computers here in town at the Mayo Clinic. I know the guy that lead that team of scientists.

It is very important that our DNA replicate faithfully if we are not going to have genetic issues and health issues in general.

Many of our cells replicate frequently. Our eyes, for example replace all the cells on the surface of the eyes every three days. The villi in the intestine are replaced every 5 days. All the cells are new every two years.

So it is very important that the DNA has the right raw materials to reproduce itself faithfully.

So where do vegetables come into the pictures...