And what a week it was! I attended the Summer Ag Institute this past week. I had a blast and learned so much. Our group met at the Farm Bureau each morning (way too early) and headed out to different locations around the region.
One of our first stops was an ethanol production plant. That nerd in the hard hat is standing in front of the ethanol facility. The air smelled like pizza dough/beer, and beer is essentially what they are making. In fact they have to add something to it to deem it undrinkable to avoid beverage taxes.
This is the byproduct of ethanol....grain feed. They sell this to local farmers. I couldn't not believe the size of this pile.
Next stop was at Flying S Farms. This farm was in the middle of nowhere. They have an aeronautical engineering plant out there where they make all kinds of top secret military aircraft parts. My mind was blown. They could hardly tell us anything they were involved with. She did mention something about wings for droning planes. They also create things for NASA. I couldn't believe this was happening in the middle of a field in central IL. Naturally they were also raising grass fed beef in addition to the aeronautical engineering stuff.
This little guy reminded me of Ferdinand.
We visited a horse therapy barn. Which serviced children and adults with special needs. It was truly amazing to see this facility and listen to the manager describe what goes on there. What a special place. The big red ball is used for games the kids play on horseback. The horses race each other pushing the ball with their noses back and forth in the barn. The manager said the horses love this game as much as the kids do.
We spent some time at a wholesale candle business. The owner is a former teacher that decided it would be fun to make organic soy bean candles for a living. She does it all in a little pull building in her back yard at her country home. It was a real production she had going on. She had orders coming in from all over. One of her biggest costumer was an artsy gift shop at Auburn University that buys her lemonade candles and then resells them with an Auburn label. We helped her get a few orders started.
The honeybee farm was one of my favorite stops. We learned some of the ins and outs of beekeeping and all the work each little bee has to do to produce just a small amount of honey. I sure have gained a much bigger appreciation for each little drop of honey I will enjoy from now on. I was feeling brave this day and volunteered to go out to the hives with the beekeeper. My job was dispersing smoke at the hive to confuse the bee's attack signal. He told me to pump the smoke every 10 seconds or so, but as the bees really started becoming aware of our presence I noticed I was getting very liberal with the smoke. One interesting fact I learned was that a bee's attack signal is the same make up as what makes the smell of a banana. The beekeeper explained that the worst thing you can do before you go out to the hive was to eat a banana. I have to say I really enjoyed this. I would love to go out and try it a few more times. I think I could see myself having some hives some day. Bees are so important to survival and the bee population is on the decline. The work of the beekeeper is vital, the honey is just a perk.
Some of our stops were at various greenhouses and gardens full of pumpkins, flowers, fruits and vegitables. They were breathtaking places. One of my favorites was His Glories Farm. It was row after row and plot after plot of the most beautiful bounty.
I don't think I'd ever seen a onion growing before. They were so charming.
They also had a HUGE sunflower patch. They had us all pick a bouquet to take home in a wine bottle. Sunflowers have always been so special to me (anyone who remembers my childhood bedroom can attest to this), so I particularly appreciated this.
Lilies were one of their specialties. Their lily plot rambled on and on.
At another stop we harvested shitake mushrooms. Let's just say I would not want this job. At around $10 a pound there is some money to be made, but the conditions in this environment were horrible. I could hardly breath in this building. We harvested about 13 pounds of mushrooms and took them to the Firefly Grill in Effingham straight after we left here. The chief made a delicious lunch for us using our mushrooms, which was kind of neat. The Firefly Grill was an amazing restaurant and I will definitely be back. They have gardens all over the place and grow their own produce. Their menu is always changing based on what's in season. They have been featured in all kinds of magazines including Bon Appetite. It was very "green". I really admired what they were doing there as far as sustainability. Not to mention the restaurant is beautifully made out of recycled steel and barn wood.
Our group spent a morning combing a vineyard at Castle Finn Winery. I learned that grapes are vary hard to raise and sadly there is a lot of chemicals involved in the grape business.
One stop was Forsyth Family Farms to visit the alpacas. I've been out here several times, but still this was one of my favorites. I just love these precious little creatures and the yummy fiber they produce. Not to mention I got to learn how to do something I've been wanting to learn for ages...Nuno felting! The sample I made is hideous and looks a lot like the first thing I ever knitted, but I totally want to get into this and I feel that the tutorial I got is enough to get me going. And of course I couldn't help my self...I had to purchase 4oz of fleece for my spinning wheel while there.
Mother and child....she was a good little mama and cried nervously when the herd manager brought her out to show us. Mama never took her eye off little baby Lily of the Valley.
This little dude was my favorite. He had an under bite you could spot a mile away, which is considered an "undesirable characteristic" if you were judging alpacas or breeding them, but I thought it was so enduring I would choose him if I had my whole pick of the liter. I think he is a children's book waiting to happen.
Littlejohn Grain was an interesting stop. I see these grain elevators all over the place, but never knew what they did or why they were there. I learned a lot here.
We traveled to melon country to learn about melon production. I had no idea the man/womanpower involved in bringing food from the field to the store. (A lot of the tedious work is done by migrant workers.) My eyes have been opened this week. This is another area in which I gained so much appreciation. I will never take my produce for granted again.
This is what a field of asparagus looks like.
We toured a Purdue research farm. Here they test everything from different seed, different treatments, organic vs. non-organic, hybrids, etc. In addition to the testing that went on in the fields they had three tunnel houses where they grew a variety of things. In this particular tunnel they were testing weather or not it would be economically feasible to grow yellow and red peppers in the U.S.A. The produce they are growing is absolutely beautiful yet since it is a research facility they can't sell it. The staff take all the vegetables they want, but sadly they through pounds and pounds of it away.
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