Welcoming Bloggers to My Community

If you are a regular reader you've noticed things have been a little quiet on my blog.  We started soybean and corn harvest on September 22nd and have yet to have a rain day.  This is great, because harvest is coming along nicely and we should be done by mid-November.  But at the same time, this means long days, every day, which means I frankly want to go to bed when I'm at home.  Don't worry though, harvest hasn't been all work, work, work.  A couple weeks ago I got to be apart of the Franklin County Harvest Bloggers Tour, sponsored by the Franklin County Farm Bureau and Franklin County Tourism.  

Five years ago I was apart of a group of business owners, community leaders and our local Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce staff, called Franklin County Partnerships.  We got together to figure out 1.) how to bring people to Franklin County, and 2.) how to work off all of our strengths to create memorable experiences.  From these discussions, one idea we came up with was putting together theme based itineraries - girl's weekend, foodie lover, etc.  One of the themes revolved around our county's rich Agriculture roots and history.  Many people brought up that it'd be great if we could include in that theme an offer for people to go on tractor rides who never had the opportunity before.  So from all of these conversations, the Franklin County Harvest Bloggers Tour was created.

The 2015 Franklin County Harvest Bloggers Tour started on the evening of Friday, October 2nd and concluded with our community's annual Harriman-Nielsen Historic Farm Fall Festival in the afternoon of Sunday, October 4th.  Bloggers from across the country are invited to come, stay and explore our exquisite little community in return for a blog post(s).  They have to find their way to North Iowa, but once they get here, we take care of everything.  This year's tour included everything from a wine tasting, to exploring our local shops, going to a couple museums, getting entertained by our local talent at a vaudeville show, and of course going on combine rides.

This event couldn't be possible without all of the support of our community.  A special thanks to the Franklin County Farm Bureau, Franklin County Tourism, ABCM Corporation, Franklin County Historical Society, Latham Hi-Tech Seeds, North Central Iowa Ag in the Classroom, Rustic Brew, and La Frontera, just to name a few.

Also, a special thanks to this year's participants that came from Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska:

The Gingered Whisk

Her Heartland Soul

Midwest Wanderer

Oh My! Omaha

Simplify, Live, Love

It was great to meet you and your families!

And no true welcome to any community isn't complete without sharing our community's food heritage.  This year's tour included sampling local wines, coffee and beer, authentic Hispanic food, and some good, hearty farm table style food, including my Sweet & Spicy Hog Wild Baked Beans.

Sweet & Spicy Hog Wild Baked Beans

1 pound bacon, cut into bite sized pieces

1 medium onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

2 - 28oz cans of Bush's Honey Baked Beans

1 can apple pie filling (chop up the big chunks)

1 pound crumbled cooked pork sausage

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup brown sugar

2-3 T chopped chipotle chiles in adobo sauce

2 T worcestershire sauce

2 T prepared mustard

1 1/2 t cayenne pepper powder

Brown bacon and saute onion and green pepper in bacon grease.  Throw all of the ingredients in a crock pot on low for 2-4 hours.  This recipe makes a half gallon and feeds around 25 people.

This side dish is a memorable, crowd pleaser, that is always good down to the last spoonful!  It has also become a tradition for me to make for the Franklin County Harvest Bloggers Tours, and it always include some of our own bacon and pork sausage from our hogs that My Farmer makes.

If a group of bloggers came to your community, what would you want to share?  If you are a blogger and interested in being put on the 2016 invitee list, be sure to contact me!  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Explore Franklin County This Weekend #FranklinCoHarvest

I love being involved with my community, and one exciting program that I've enjoyed being a part of the organizing team for in my county is happening this weekend!  Franklin County Farm Bureau and Franklin County Tourism have partnered together to bring in several bloggers this weekend to explore Franklin County, Iowa for the 3rd Annual Franklin County Harvest Bloggers Tour.  Starting tonight, the bloggers will experience a little of everything that Franklin County, Iowa has to offer, from a wine tasting from our local TownsEnd Winery, to combine rides, to seats at our community's vaudeville show.  The whole weekend is on Franklin County and our citizens are excited for these bloggers to be our guests:

Beth Ann Chiles (@bachiles) - It's Just Life: Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary
Jeni Flaa (@JeniEats) - Jeni Eats
Donna Hup (@donnahup) - DonnaHup.com
Bethany SyWassink (@SawdustEmbryos) - Sawdust and Embryos
Lisa & Time Trudell (@WalkingTourists) - The Walking Tourists

Be sure to follow all of these bloggers to see what they are doing throughout the weekend and check out their blogs next week for recap posts.  You can also follow the excitement through the #FranklinCoHarvest hashtag.

If you were to host a bloggers tour in your community, where would you have the bloggers go?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Breakfast Battle Celebrates National Food Check-Out Week

Some of you may know that last week, February 17-23, was National Food Check-Out Week.  National Food Check-Out Week represents the short time-frame that it takes for the average American family to pay for their groceries in a year.  I am the PR chair for my local Franklin County Farm Bureau and this year we recognized Food Check-Out Week by hosting the 2nd Annual Breakfast Battle at our local Fareway grocery store in Hampton, Iowa on February 27 (It was originally on February 22 but due to snow got postponed to this past Wednesday).

This event not only raised knowledge of National Food Check-Out Week, it also increased awareness of finding solutions to eating healthy on a stretched budget by having twelve teams race around the grocery store finding breakfast, dinner and supper for a family of four between $45 and $50.

Members of the Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce and
First National Bank teams racing in the dairy and frozen sections

The Breakfast Battle included two races; the first was a competition between nine businesses and the second was a battle between two Tall Corn FFA chapter teams and a Fareway team.  Teams consisted of three members each.  Team members drew menus for breakfast, dinner and supper Wednesday morning and then raced around the grocery store getting all their recipe ingredients, plus adding in optional food and drinks for a day’s worth of meals to get their cart total between $45 and $50.  Teams were timed from the moment they left the cart area till they reached the checkout lane.  Time bonuses were given to those that answered agriculture and Farm Bureau trivia questions correctly before the race and there was a time bonus for the team having the most votes on the Franklin County Farm Bureau’s Facebook “Fan Favorite” team poll.  Time penalties were given for every dollar over or under the $45 to $50 cart total range.  Following the race, twelve Franklin County families that utilize the Franklin County Food Pantry in Hampton and the Immanuel UCC Food Pantry in Latimer received the bags of groceries, which included both perishable and non-perishable items.  Donations were also collected for both food pantries.

“We feel like everyone was a winner!” said Brook Boehmler, Executive Director of the Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, who had a team in the business race.  “All nine teams (in the business race) are Chamber members and the food collected in the battle went to families who need it.  All the teams had a good time, and we really look forward to being a part of it next year.”

Members and Supporters of the
1st Place Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce team

In the business battle, the Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce came in first place with a final time of 2:55.  Second place went to CellTech with a final time of 3:32 and third place went to Franklin County Extension with a final time of 3:36.  Other business teams that competed were Latham Hi-Tech Seeds, First National Bank, ABCM/Rehabilitation Center of Hampton, Farm Bureau Al Menning Insurance, United Bank & Trust and Immanuel UCC.

I had so much fun being a part of this event.  Did you celebrate National Food Check-Out Week?  If so, what did you do in your community?

Harvest Blogger's Tour 2012

For the 2nd year, Franklin County Tourism, Franklin County Farm Bureau and Latham Hi-Tech Seeds, hosted a Harvest Blogger's Tour.  This year's Harvest Tour took place over this past weekend and had bloggers from Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and New Hampshire.  This is a great opportunity to showcase Franklin County, Iowa from agriculture, to entertainment, to great food!  There are two requirements of the bloggers that participate:

1. They must find a way to get themselves to Hampton, Iowa for the weekend.
2. They must blog about their experiences.

If they do those two things, the entire weekend (Friday-Sunday) is taken care of for them - lodging, food, entertainment, etc.  A few things the bloggers did over the weekend this year include going on a tour of the Old Stone House, toured the REA plant, went star gazing while sampling wine from a local winery (Town's End Winery), went on a tour of the Franklin County Historical Society Museum and Grandpa's Farm, went shopping in downtown Hampton, went to the Windsor Theater for a live Vaudeville show, and participated in the Harriman-Nielsen Historic Farm Fall Festival.

I was happy to be able to join the group for awhile on Saturday while they focused on agriculture.  To start with, the group traveled to Latham Hi-Tech Seeds and heard from the North Central Iowa Ag in the Classroom staff about the program, as well as went through a couple of the lessons that they do for kids in local schools.

Ag in the Classroom

Then the group went on a tour at Latham's.  Following the tour, the group went to the Roy Arend's Farm, where they got to go on tractor and combine rides.

Blogger group with the Roy Arend's Farm Family

It was great to interact with the bloggers.  They had a lot of great questions about agriculture in Iowa.  The Harvest Blogger's Tour is a great opportunity to not only promote tourism to Franklin County and Iowa, but it is a great chance to spread the messages of agriculture to new audiences through the bloggers followers.

I can't wait to see what results from this year's Harvest Blogger's Tour and I can't end this post without linking my requested Sweet & Spicy Hog Wild Baked Beans recipe!