Showing posts with label Washington DC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington DC. Show all posts

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Corned Beef and Cabbage & US History

Corned Beef and Cabbage & US History


As we celebrated National Agriculture Day this week, it made me think back to a trip I made to Washington D.C. in 2010.  

Touring Washington D.C. can be a great lesson on US History, if you take the time to take in the sites.  We attended a USDA lockup in the Department of Agriculture building.  There were older pictures hanging up in the Department of Agriculture building that have always stuck with me. I love this picture! At that time, the area seemed more of a swamp area, and cattle around, with the Nation's Capital in the back ground.  I bet it would be hard to find pasture in those areas today.  

The first masonic stone for the US Capital was laid on September 1793 by President George Washington. It was a large building to complete, and it passed through a few architect hands.   The US Capital building was opened on November 17, 1800.



Not only do we celebrate National Agriculture Day this week, but also St. Patrick's Day.  Even if you are not Irish, you have to at least appreciate the food that is served on this day as a tradition.  The first thing that comes to mind is Corned Beef and Cabbage.  We decided to make a special meal for the guys at work.  We did cook the cabbage separately, because cabbage was not a crowd favorite around here.  They were told they had to eat cabbage to get dessert, still didn't sway them to try the cabbage.


The corned beef was cooked all morning long on the stove.


The carrots and potatoes were cooked separately.


And of course, the cabbage was boiled in a separate pot.  We try to keep everyone happy.



The final result with everything together was delicious.


Ingredients:
3 lbs corned beef       
16 oz cabbage
2 lbs small carrots
5 lbs potatoes
Garlic, sea salt, onion powder, and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat skillet on stove.

Add corned beef, onion powder, sea salt, pepper, and garlic salt.

Chop up 16 ounces of cabbage to add to boiling water until cooked down.

Add carrots and peeled and chopped potatoes to a separate pot of boiling water.


When the cabbage is starting to cook down, keep stirring occasionally. Add to corned beef if you prefer, or keep separate.  Add some sea salt and pepper to season. Make sure to taste test, corned beef has plenty of seasonings.



Read more »
Crystal Kellner
0 Comments

Monday, April 28, 2014

What do the USDA Crop Reports mean to you? - Part 2

What do the USDA Crop Reports mean to you? - Part 2



What do the USDA Reports mean to you? Are you a farmer? Consumer? Are you the government?  If you are the government or if you are a farmer, you would have two different opinions of the USDA Crop Reports.

 USDA Building - picture taken September 2010

In September 2010, I had the opportunity to travel to Washington, DC and be a part of the USDA lockdown and release of the September USDA Crop Report. USDA allows only a certain number of general public in these releases.  You check in, give up all your forms of communication, cell phones, tablets, laptops, they all left in a conference room.  I remember being escorted into another room, where we were prepped on the procedure of the reports, then we were shown the media room.  Certain media personnel had the numbers, and they were allowed to enter the numbers into programs, but everything was encrypted until the time the report was released. Nothing could be sent out until after the release time. USDA reports were released in the mornings.  7:30 Central time.  Now reports are released at 11:00 Central time.    

If you work for the USDA, and your job was getting the USDA numbers ready, be prepared to spend the night. You aren’t going anywhere.  The USDA employees were not allowed to leave the building until after the report was released.  I think the purpose of these trips is to show the farmers the level of security and secrecy used during these reports. I think sometimes the farmers question where the numbers come from.  Sometimes we are surprised with more or less acres. 

 USDA Crop Report - September 2010 - Picture opp with Agriculture Secretary Vilsack after the
USDA Report Briefing (note to self: Don't stand by the tall guys)
   




March 31st was the USDA Planting Prospective Report. This report tells us what farmers are expected to plant. This is the most anticipated report before spring planting. Markets are affected by this report, and farmers are always worried about if it will make the market go up or down.  How will the spring weather forecast affect the markets? We were expecting the report to tell us more of a shift from corn to beans. 
 

USDA estimated corn acreage to 91.7 million acres, smallest crop since 2010. The USDA projected a record soybean acres at 81.5 million acres. With a late spring, we might see more acres going to soybeans.   These numbers were expected, so the market did not react too much to these numbers. 

We are experiencing a very wet spring. Some farmers were in the fields last week, but we have a long way to go here in Northwest Indiana.


This post is part 2 of a 3-part series sponsored by Indiana’s Family of Farmers. 
 

 
Read more »
Crystal Kellner
0 Comments