Gene,
I cannot believe all the hog farms that have sprung up in the last couple of years. I don't know where they are spreading all that manure. I pretty much refuse to eat pork. I only buy bacon in the summer for BLT's. I guess it's mostly exported. I don't mind the smell of silage. It's not too strong or widely used around here. Wow, a mint farm. I can't imagine.

Krist,
Most of the fence rows were torn out many many many years ago here.
South of me a few miles out of town is a dirt road between two fields. They slowly took trees out shading their fields. There is a bit of wild bramble in the middle and that's the only place I've seen bluebirds. I love wild tangles. I hate to see them cleaned up.
You're an interesting addition. Keep posting and we will come. This thread goes inactive off and on.

Betty,
My family were farmers too, but back in the day. I know there are two sides to every story and not all farmers are the same.

Ginny,
Yep, you get that odor a lot! Thankfully it doesn't last long. There are a couple of places that still use the old-timey manure wagon.

RpR,
That is a sad situation. I don't like to see the bit of black dirt in the ditches around here.
People are slowly learning they have to put things back. Three miles east of me at the T intersection, it goes from my loam, to blow sand, and yes it blows hard out there in the open. They put windows in and I think belonged to Peasants Forever because of the strip plantings. Now it's all torn out and farmed again.
I had such a visual from that!

Rj,
You know you are from the Midwest when it's in the 30's and you don't even wear a coat out to haul Christmas in from the garage.

Awesome conversations everyone!

RpR said:
Ten below zero, a new six inches of fresh fluffy snow and a bright full moon night with no wind.
Heaven on Earth, I miss those days and they are now rare again.

At the end of December 2012, I had flown in for a funeral (of course) and was driving to New Ulm to meet with my siblings for dinner. It was dark (hate the short days of winter in the North) and bitter cold. The moon and starlight reflected with fresh snow on the ground. Farm homes were light with the brilliant colors of Christmas lights. It was so beautiful (from the inside of a heated car). Of course it brought back many good memories.

So... you know you are from the Midwest when you look out the window and absolutely nothing is moving but man. That was when my spouse said, it is time to move south so I was officially from the Midwest!


Thanks to all of you for making me feel welcome. I have followed this thread and am often humored by it.

Hey, us Midwesterners are a funny lot.

Midwest smells. There is an area in SE WI, about 1/2 a county where they grow onions. You can drive through it in the winter with your windows closed and get tears in your eyes. Small town just east of me that has a sauerkraut factory. I would have to stop in and fix their time clock years ago. After 30 min. there I stunk for the rest of the day. Not a fan of sauerkraut. Gene

They grow a lot of vegetables in WI. Green Giant has a large presence. Spent a day inside on of their sweet corn plants. Huge steamers. Smells wonderful until you are there for over a few hours. Had to go to a pickled beet factory a few times but it wasn't as aromatic as you might think. Sweet Corn is huge around here. The UW has many test plots close to my house. Stopped and talked to some of the field techs. Asked when would they have picked what they needed. The day after that we raided the fields. All kinds of interesting sweet corn. Different sizes and shapes and colors. Done 2 ears at a time in the M/W, of course. Mentioned this one before - one year they grew peas next to my house. The machinery showed up one day to do the picking. It picks the pods, shreds them, dumps waste back onto the field. I walked out to one of the machines with a white (of course) 5 gal. bucket in hand. Not a word was spoken. He stopped the machine, climbed in the back and dipped my bucket and handed it back to me. You may not have any idea how much 5 gal. of fresh peas is!

OK, now I will go a bit off topic. Cranberries (they are not aromatic) are grown about 90 miles NW of me. I go there to take pix of the Eagles and Cormorants that hang out there. The plant is actually a 100 - 200 year old ground hugging vine. When it is time to harvest, they flood the pits they are grown in, send in a large, floating beater machine and the cranberries float to the top. Interesting, IMO.

Kristi,
You paint a beautiful picture and I feel the same way about viewing it from a heated car.
I love that! Back to simpler times and less crowded land!
I'm glad you came!

Gene,
It was before my time but Nichols had a pickle and kraut factory. It's now Kile's Grain and Feed.
Laughing! Beets cooking, do not smell that great.
Wow! Those had to be the best peas.
I think the cranberry method is interesting too.

You know you're from the Midwest when you see people using tractors to blade the snow.

Gene be glad the clock repair was not at the horseradish factory
I remember when most spinach and beets were canned , most spoiled and smelled terrible , mild description ,

The sun is not shinning, it is below freezing and I am about to describe the weather as mild.

So true Gene!

You know you're living in the midwest when you have to design your kid's Halloween costume to fit on the outside of their winter jacket. LOL

And I'd love to have a neighbor offer me cukes, zukes and tomatoes. Have you guys ever tried slicing zukes the long way, so the slices look like planks... put them in a frying pan with some butter, get them slightly soft, then drizzle BBQ sauce over them, turning ever so often, the dropping them into a hotdog bun? Delicious!

As my husband and I don't eat meat, this is a wonderful alternative to BBQ'ing.

Bobbi,
LOL! Halloween sure seems colder than it was when I was a kid. It must have been those plastic masks that kept me so warm.
That's a new way to eat zukes!

You know you're from the Midwest when the neighboring house is an Agricultural area with bins, and today they are noisily filling semis with corn.

Bobbi the BBQ zuke sounds like a winner. Not sure I'd do a bun, but maybe over zoodles. The son is crazy about zukes, in tin packs that were grilled, zoodles, and one of my favorite zucchini chips with a spicy coating.

Hmm, nobody's posted here in a while.

Well, one thing I've noticed since being here is that everybody is so nice, and would definitely be willing to pick you back up if you were to fall. When someone drives by, they always wave. It's so nice.

That's the midwest and also small town living for you. Nothing beats it.

When you wear cut--off blue jeans and a down vest while doing yard work in November.

That hasn't been us yet!

It's because of the CA wimps still inside of us.