Recently there has been a lot of talk about how farm animals are being raised. I have received several calls here at the farm about whether or not Niman Ranch farmers use something called, gestation crates. If you are wondering about that too the answer is no. Niman Ranch protocols don’t allow the use of gestation crates. “Then how are the gestating sows handled?” a journalist recently asked me. FYI: Sows are a breeding female that has had at least one litter of pigs. Niman Ranch farmers know the best way to treat their sows is to allow them plenty of room to move and behave naturally. I offered to provide some pictures to the journalist, but they said they would rather take their own. So I arranged a tour with one of the earliest members of the Niman Ranch network, Farmer Paul Menke and his wife Lenice. He has been farming with his family for generations. Raising pigs just comes naturally for him.
As we enter the New Year it has been unusually warm and it doesn’t look like winter. The landscapes are painted in toasty yellow ochre and sepia tones, not the high contrasts of bright white snow and stark grayish blue shadows we’ve come to expect from our winters here in Iowa.
With the beginning of a new year I like to take inventory of the previous year. I believe it’s important to reflect and recognize the little things that made us happy during the year. Of course there are always a few things that stand out. One of my favorite memories of 2011 was just a simple little thing. In June, I picked a bowl full of tart cherries at the farm while my daughter was busy climbing the fruiting trees. Cherries don’t hang on the tree forever; there is a small window of opportunity and if you miss it, you’re out of luck. Fortunately for us, our timing was perfect.
After I filled my bowl to the brim with tart cherries I brought them inside and began to whip together a pie. I followed the same techniques my mother has used for the past 15 years. I have made my fair share of pies in the past but there was something about the freshness of the fruit that made me feel more confident than ever.
With Thanksgiving behind us I have noticed my friends and family posting updates on Face Book about the things they are most thankful for. I saw one that said, “The happiest people don’t have the best of everything they just make the best of everything”. I just love that saying and it made me think about the life we have here on the farm. I was contemplating that while looking at one of my favorite photos of my father with my daughter, Sophia, holding a newborn piglet. I cherish the memory of that day, Sophia’s look of delight as she holds that baby pig in her arms while my dad looks on with his encouraging smile. This picture shows the joy we find in everyday moments. Instead of seeking out special moments we often find it right here in our own backyard
A group of our friends from Minneapolis came for a visit this weekend taking in the beauty of the changing leaves of fall on their drive down. The children, Micah, and Ben were looking forward getting a farm tour from my daughter, Sophia. They are 6 and 3 years old and have always looked up to Sophia since she is a bit older at 10 years of age. They were especially excited to see the pigs and tractors. As a country girl it’s easy to forget the allure of the tractor. I made arrangements with my dad to make sure they would get a ride of some sort.
They arrived around lunch-time. Sophia, Steve and I made lunch using our favorite fresh seasonal ingredients. We oven roasted blue heirloom and fingerling potatoes and carrots and served them with rich homemade polenta and pork burger sliders garnished with fresh mixed greens It’s also apple season, we had picked buckets of apples off the tree and off the ground around the bottom of the trees and made a homemade apple pie for dessert. 
After lunch we headed to a local pumpkin patch and Halloween maze. Foraging for pumpkins in the crisp fall air was wonderful. I was so happy we did this, because sometimes it’s easy to put these things off t’il tomorrow and then forget and time slips away from you and it’s too late. It’s great to have your friends come and force you to get out there and do those things you’ve been meaning to do.
The concept of the Niman Ranch Farmer Appreciation Dinner came about when my father, Paul Willis, was asked to be the guest of honor at a special restaurant anniversary dinner for Café Rouge located in Berkley, California. Chef Marcia McBride asked my dad if he would speak about our farm operation and why it was different or noteworthy, while the diners feasted on the masterfully prepared and flavorful pork from our farm. He was delighted to attend and was welcomed at the restaurant like a celebrity. “They really gave me the red carpet treatment”, I remember him saying. He explained how rewarding it was to interact with Chef McBride at the restaurant and be treated with such high regard. Mostly, it was amazing for him to see and taste what she was doing with the pork from our farm. How could bring this experience to all of the Niman Ranch hog farmers?
We have been sort of slow on the uptake with stories from the farm because we have been anxiously waiting for the technical team to post some exciting new changes to the website to create a new look and feel. In fact they actually redesigned the entire site to allow us to connect with you in a more visceral way, by that I mean that it will be easier and faster for us to post updates and be more interactive. When you visit our homepage www.nimanranch.com, everything you want to know about Niman Ranch is laid out in front of you.
The first thing you will see is that it’s all about traditional family farmers treating animals humanely, protecting the land and our vital natural resources. This commitment to sustainability is easily seen in the photos posted here from some of the different farms in the Niman Ranch network. The picture of two mother pigs or sows in the foreground surrounded by their piglets in the pasture was taken here on the Willis Farm. We really liked this picture because you can see how the pigs are able to move freely in the pasture while the corn field behind them was planted on the ground where the pigs had been the previous year. This is part of the rotational system we use that enhances and replenishes the land.
Guest Blog by Simran Sethi , who was our featured guest speaker at the 2010 Niman Ranch Farmer Appreciation Dinner held on September 18. Simran Sethi is an Emmy award-winning journalist and associate professor at the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications, where she currently teaches courses on sustainability and environmental communications and diversity in media. She was named one of the top ten eco-heroes of the planet by the UK’s Independent and lauded as The Environmental Messenger by Vanity Fair. We were thrilled to have her speak at this year’s dinner.
I ran into Chef Martin Murphy of Canoe Club (Hanover, New Hampshire), one of the featured chefs at the Niman Ranch Farmer appreciation dinner, on a Saturday afternoon at the Gateway Market in Des Moines and he told me he brought butter from New Hampshire to share with everyone. He said, “We have to break bread as family.” And he was right.
That’s what food does. It brings us together as one. As heard during recent Rosh Hashana services, “There is holiness when we share our bread, our ideas, our enthusiasm.” For this, I give thanks.
It is beautiful as June approaches, the trees are leafing out and the birds are busy building their nests. If you will recall my daughter, Sophia, conned her grandmother into purchasing some baby chicks from the Tractor Supply Co in Mason City just a few weeks ago. They have already grown so much and have begun to feather out. We made a cozy little home for them in a tank in our outdoor dining room. Sophia takes them outside everyday just as a mother hen would, they love it. They explore and search for delicious bugs to eat. We also welcome the warm spring weather and all that comes with it, including wonderful things for us to eat; like asparagus, morel mushrooms and rhubarb.
Every spring when the rhubarb comes up it is hard not to be reminded of Garrison Keillor’s Rhubarb Pie song. Everyone seems to have their own patch of Rhubarb and that means lots of Rhubarb Pie! We love warm Rhubarb Pie fresh from the oven with a scoop of old fashioned vanilla ice cream. My mother, Phyllis, says it’s all in the crust and the best crusts are made with lard. We like to use our own lard from our very own Niman Ranch pigs. Making Rhubarb pie is like a competitive sport. We all have our own way of doing it and of course we think ours is the best. Here is my mother’s recipe off the top of her head this morning.
This guest blog is written by Phyllis Willis, my mother, who lives at the Dream Farm with my father Paul in Thornton, Iowa. They were the first hog farmers supplying Niman Ranch in the early 1990’s and eventually formed the Niman Ranch Pork Company, building a network of farmers to supply the increasing demand for Niman Ranch Pork. Phyllis often holds the Fort down while we are traveling. The Dream Farm is surrounded by farmland my parents took out of production and placed into the Wetlands Reserve Program. It is a breathtaking vision of native Iowa prairie bustling with activity.
Yesterday was a perfect spring day, except that we were out of cat food. I had been watching my granddaughter, Sophia (who is 9 years old), for the day. I asked her if she wanted to go to Mason City to go shopping and pick up some cat food to which she replied, “Can we go to Tractor Supply Co and get some baby chickens?” Here is where the real story begins. Baby chickens are quite the responsibility and I wasn’t sure I was up to the task. They need heat, a safe place to sleep out of reach from natural predators as well as food and water. We already have two flocks of chickens in our yard now with two separate houses. Where would we put these new babies if I agreed to allow Sophia to get them?
This guest blog entry has been submitted by Amy Pachay, who along with her husband Andy raise Niman Ranch pigs on their farm located in Cass County, Michigan. Andy has been farming for many years raising pigs and sheep in a pasture system and growing corn, soybeans and hay to maintain a crop rotation. The Pachay’s also have a small Black Angus herd, Chantecler chickens, Royal Palm turkeys and a pet goat named Tilly, who believes she is a dog.
It’s officially spring! Here on our farm we’ve been seeing the signs that spring was on the way for a couple of weeks now. We’ve spotted the first Sandhill Cranes on the pasture and an early Robin flying through the backyard. The Bluebirds have been staking their claims on the birdhouses that we have provided for them and two of our Chantecler chickens have gone broody and are sitting on a clutch of eggs. In the garden, the crocuses are in bloom and the daffodils and tulips are starting to emerge. For me, the beginning of spring is bittersweet. After the long winter I’m certainly ready to welcome this change and look forward to the growing season that is ahead. At the same time, however, I realize we are about to become extremely busy with field work and planting! We’ll be putting some long hours in the next few months, so right now we try to concentrate on enjoying the weather and spending as much time together as possible.
