With rising food prices, there’s been a lot of talk about modern “Victory Gardens”, a little vegetable garden in the backyard to grow some fresh and free food. Another source of fresh, organic and free food is the north country. For some this means game, fish and fowl. For others this means foraging for edible ‘wild’ plants: morels, fiddleheads, leaks, rice, tree nuts and berries.

A simple way to begin wild foraging is to be on the lookout for blackberries and raspberries, one of the easiest natural eats found in the forests of Wisconsin and Michigan. Here’s some photos of the raspberry patch I came across the other day. Sweet, juicy and 100% wild; the bounty of the northwoods!

For more on the subject of wild food foraging in the northwoods take a look at Wisconsin author Sam Thayer’s website: Forager’s Harvest

Sam Thayer’s book can be found on his website and also on Amazon along with many other excellent books on the subject: The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants

Vacation, recreation, relaxation; there are many reasons why people seek a northern lifestyle. For many, consumption is near or at the top of the list. When up north people like to take a break from their daily diet and dig into something hardy or even sinful like a greasy burger, big bowl of chili or deep-fried cheese curds. One such northern gastronomical delight can be found just a few miles outside of Crivitz, Wisconsin at Shaffer Park Resort on the Peshtigo River.

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“With sweat equity investment and a little scratch you can build your dream cabin without breaking the bank”

Many people dream of owning a log home in the country, in the woods or on the water. What often prevents the dream from becoming a reality are the perceived costs of the project. A recent article in Heartland USA magazine dispels some of those fears and myths.

Naturally it all starts with finding the right land to build on. After that, this cabin building article may help get that new vacation property ‘off the ground’.

Read the entire article by Tracy Breen at Heartland USA here: http://www.heartlandusamagazine.com/lifestyles/life_cabins.php

Dear Farmer Smith:

I have a friend of a friend of a friend who found a lake lot that a little old lady just wanted to get rid of it and didn’t know what it was worth. How do I find a real estate deal like this?

Sincerely, Ben Robbed

Dear Ben,

Kind of reminds me of that old urban myth about the Dead Vet’s Vette. You know that old tale about the old lady whose son was killed in Vietnam and years later sold his mint Corvette for $50 because she only saw it as an old ‘63Chevy?

First of all, whenever a story begins with ‘A friend of a friend . . .’ it is a myth. We want to believe the story because it sounds like we’re only one person away from such a fortuitous event happening to us. Second, the key word is myth. If you’re waiting for some sort of miraculous deal on property someday you’ll look back and wonder why you just didn’t go out and find some property that fits your needs at a fair price. Life’s not getting any longer. Last, please don’t tell me that you’re the type of scoundrel that would take advantage of some little old lady or any other person for that matter. Would you really enjoy the property with that weighing on your moral conscience?

Good luck on the property search,
Farmer Smith

P.S. My nephew, an honest to goodness computer geek, found this here link on his telephone:

http://www.snopes.com/autos/dream/deadson.asp

P.P.S Can you imagine such a thing? A telephone that goes on the internet? I remember when if you needed to get information from the telephone you just picked up the phone and listened to old Ethel Fleming gossip to Doris Kramer on the party line!

This is just a little test of a newer search feature offered by Google. Try it out and give me some feedback. Thanks in advance, Patrick

You know summer has finally arrived in Wisconsin when the wind carries the fragrant smell of freshly cut lawns, and brats on the grill.  For those of you not familiar with this Wisconsin delicacy, a brat (rhymes with hot) is a German style sausage served on a bun, a bratwurst.

This past weekend at the World’s Largest Brat Fest, held annually in Madison,  189,432 bratwursts were consumed, a Brat Fest record.  That amounts to 37,886 pounds of brats, or over 200 miles of brats if ‘linked’ (pun intended) end to end.

On your next drive up north just imagine a line of brats strung down the center-line guiding you home.

Read the full story here:

http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2008/05/wisconsin-plent.html

Crivitz is one the central hubs of Northeast Wisconsin.  Although most of us can’t be up north every day, thanks to the webcam at the Crivitz High School we can take a look at the weather and the Crivitz ’skyline’.

Check it out the Crivitz webcam here:

http://www.instacam.com/showcam.asp?id=CRVTZ&size=L

Dear Farmer Smith,

How come it’s so hard to find a large lake that I can run my boat on that’s not way up north?

Thanks in advance, Will Waterski

Dear Will,

It’s been good while since I sat in that little one room schoolhouse that I went to, but let me pull out some basic arithmetic on you.  80% of Wisconsin’s lakes are in the northern part of the state; and, of Wisconsin’s 15,000 lakes, 13,000 are less than fifty surface acres, therefore no-wake lakes.  If I divide the numerator of boatable lakes by the denominator of southern Wisconsin lakes that leaves you with only about 400 lakes that are “not way up north”.

But, you’d better act fast, there’re well over three million people in Chicago and Milwaukee alone, and more than a couple of’em are also looking for lake property

See you on the lake, Farmer Smith

There have long been unsubstantiated rumors of cougar sightings in Wisconsin, ‘bar talk’ as the grapevine is know in these parts, but now it is a proven fact. Sadly, our only cougar crossed the border into Illinois where he met his demise. Too bad he didn’t take a left at McHenry and head up north.

Here’s a link to the article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-cougarautopsy,0,4441738.story

Here’s an interesting take on the ‘cougar-cide’: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=746216

And, for some real good info about cougars in Wisconsin browse around the excellent WI DNR site: http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/er/mammals/cougar/index.htm

If and when you get up this way we can’t promise you’ll witness your own cougar sighting, but we’ll give you a good shot at seeing eagles, deer, porcupines, otters, muskrat . . .

If you’ve ever experienced a classic Wisconsin wedding you’ve either witnessed or participated in a polka known as the ‘Chicken Dance’.  While this dance is often seen in other parts of the country, the Chicken Dance is a mandatory ritual of getting hitched in Wisconsin.

If you ever get invited to a wedding in Wisconsin here’s how it goes: Read the rest of this entry »