Breakfast on Farm

I can’t believe it took me more than a week to write about a small trip to a farm event on 6/18/2011 to St. Johns, Michigan; I have been busy and lazy since that event.

I have always wondered how farmers processed food and milk. Last Saturday, I received the chance to experience it. My friend, Amanda Bogart, invited me to the breakfast on farm event. I was super excited about it, because I have never been to a farm since coming in Michigan.

When I arrived at the farm at St. Johns, I met with a group of singers and their wonderful interpreter Molly Mckee. We had a wonderful, fresh farm made breakfast. This free breakfast consisted of pancakes, strawberries, coffee, and a bottle of milk. Doesn't that sound yummy!?

After breakfast, we had the opportunity to take a tour of the farm. I was surprised upon seeing the machines used for farming. I saw all kinds of modern farming machines such as harvesters, balers, and tractors. Back in my country, Somalia, most people would farm without the use of machines. In fact, there are not any farm tractors there. Sometimes, when I would visit my Aunt’s farm, I would see her harvesting, planting, picking up seeds, and milking cows with her hands all day.  But here, I saw all kind of farming tractors.

My inner child appeared as I started looking at all the different farming items. I even asked my friend Amanda to take pictures of me.  I learned that Farmers use a Machine to milk cows and I tried to see how the machine operated, as you can see in the picture below.

Farmers Milking Cows with Machine

me trying to see how the the Machine milk Cows

Max, Amanda's son likes feeding calf

Farmers in Michigan generate about 5.6 billion dollars a year; that is a great economic contribution. I always thought that Michigan’s economy only depended on the Auto industry, but I guess farmers also contributes to Michigan economy. Most of us don’t have any idea on the impact farms have on us. They process the food we consume, and we tend to take that for granted. We may have money to buy food, however, money is just paper. But the food and the milk that farmers produce are necessary for us to live. Without having hard working farmers, we would not be able to get the food and the milk we need to survive.