Blogs

This is a blog that was originally posted in August of 2010 by Dan Harvey, aka Farmer Dan, who was my father. He had a great love of the outdoors, gardening, hunting and cooking. Farmer Dan passed away recently after a long illness. He will be greatly missed.

— Chef Brad

As I peered down the hill, I could see that my fishing buddies had just pulled their boat into shore and were heading up to our camp. They looked tired and hungry. I quickly grabbed my trusted Cee Tee pliers out of the belt holster and clamped onto one of the five one-pound coffee cans on the campfire grill and dumped a medley of vegetables and a juicy hamburger inside each can onto the oversized plates. Read more »

Mexican food has long been one of the most popular ethnic cuisines in the United States. But lately, Americans' never-ending search for new and exciting dishes has led them to venture further afield to sample the cooking of Mexico's neighbors on the Central American isthmus. Read more »

There are basically two types of chefs: culinary chefs and bakers. I'm not much of a baker, and I never have been. No cakes, cookies or scones for me. I prefer the messiness and quick gratification of grill and saute, chop and mash. But bread-baking is the one exception. I love baking bread. The transformation from flour and water to the staff of life is magical to me. So I was excited to hear that a colleague of mine was publishing a bread-baking book. Read more »

My favorite week of the year is the week between Christmas and New Year's. No, it's not because of all the post-Christmas shopping specials. We don't do that out here on the prairie. It's because it's the week that my rural mailbox becomes inundated with bunches of garden and seed catalogs for the spring planting season. Read more »

As I pulled out of the parking lot, I caught a glimpse of red and noticed that the homeless gentleman had his right hand held at ear's level, holding a large ripe red tomato. The tomato had a big bite out of it, and juices ran down and off the man's elbow. Read more »

A couple of weeks ago I received a phone call from Cousin Joni. She said, “What are you doing Saturday morning?” Since it was early in the morning, and I had not finished my first cup of coffee, I absentmindedly said, “Nothing.” Joni said, “Good, we need some help butchering our rabbits!” Read more »

Out on the prairie, in the southeasternmost corner of Iowa's Pottawattamie County, on the eastern slope of the Nishnabotna River Valley, located on the third terrace at the south end of my upper garden is my perennial vegetable garden. Read more »