Positive and balanced farm-to-fork messages have never been as important as they are now, says a food writer and hog farm owner.
Diana Prichard, author of the new children’s book The Cow in Patrick O’Shanahan’s Kitchen, said knowledge is waning about where food comes from.
“My hope is that it spurs discussion among children, who are our next generation. They’re really the ones who are most open to hearing new messages,” said Prichard.
“I’m also hoping that it engages their parents in that discussion.”
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Her 23-page illustrative storybook is about a boy who thinks his source of food is the grocery store. Coming down to breakfast one morning, a yawning Patrick O’Shanahan meets up with a mooing cow, pecking chickens and offbeat trees in the family kitchen.
The ensuing events prompt young Patrick to question everything he’s always thought he knew about the ingredients that go into his father’s batch of french toast.
By the time he has eaten his breakfast, Patrick has seen an egg laid, milked a cow and learned where maple syrup originates. The book ends with the smell of bacon.
Prichard, her husband and two young daughters own a small farrow to finish hog operation on their 16-acre farm near Fowler, Michigan. They sell their pork directly to consumers.
She was raised in rural Michigan but said she was not born a farmer. The hook came 10 years back when the family began growing farm-raised chickens.
“It didn’t take long to realize how much work it is with such little return,” she said.
However, they next experimented with pigs, which encouraged them to specialize and self educate.
“We didn’t grow up on a farm but learned everything as we’ve gone along. I think that’s one of the reasons I’m so passionate,” said Prichard. “We started out with ideas that were a little pie in the sky and through learning, day in and day out, with the animals and trying to do the best thing by them.”
Pritchard jokes about how her mother told her when she was young to marry a hog farmer.
“I think she was confused at how much money hog farmers make because she also said I have champagne tastes on her beer budget,” she said.
“I think that was the motivation there, but she clearly was wrong.”
The Prichard’s farm is available for tours, especially for children, who often appear awestruck when they first learn how their food is produced.
“Usually they’re just really curious. Every kid is different, but they’re all really kind of funny and it’s always interesting because they don’t necessarily have that filter that adults do. They don’t worry about what they’re asking,” she said.
“I kind of love that because you get really raw feedback from them, whether it’s about the animals, our lifestyle or about things they thought farmers should do that were not doing.”
She fondly recalls one young visitor.
“We had one kid come out and he was really funny and he said, ‘what time do we get up in the morning.’ I said we have to get up pretty early. He said, ‘yes, but you probably have a great breakfast.’ I said, ‘actually, my kids eat Kashi cereal for breakfast because we don’t have time in the morning.’ He looked at me kind of dumbfounded and said, ‘but farmers are supposed to eat eggs and bacon.’ ”
For more information, visit www.righteousbacon.com.
