For those of you not familiar with my columns when I wrote on behalf of the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board, welcome.
To readers of my regular PMMB columns, welcome to an ever-so-slight change that I hope you’ll embrace.
It was time for me to leave Milk Marketing Board employment. Just behind missing my staff was going to be missing the opportunity to share my ruminations about the dairy industry through a Lancaster Farming column. When the opportunity to continue was presented, I jumped at the chance.
So here I am. Rather, here we are. A monthly column, “Mushrooms to Milkshakes,” that I hope to use to generate discussions about agriculture, in general, here in Penn’s Woods.
We certainly have a lot to talk about. There will be some on the dairy industry, of course, but also historical and current looks at other important sectors of Pennsylvania agriculture.
Then again, perhaps I should put “potatoes” somewhere in my column title, having just finished reading an article on how Pennsylvania has so many potato chip companies.
The emphases for my career path, with few exceptions, have been the promotion of agricultural literacy through education in some form and the dissemination of meaningful agriculture- and education-related research to the general public.
Farming has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. And, like many of you, I fondly think about those good old days with a tendency to forget how difficult times were and how hard everyone had to work.
Also, like many of you, I have seen changes in all facets of life, including agriculture, that are sometimes difficult to fathom. We have lived through Sputnik, walking on the moon, the invention of cellphones, and the development of technologies so sophisticated they make my head spin.
Who would have thought? I can connect all my kitchen and laundry appliances to an app on my smartphone. My dishwasher tells me when it needs to be cleaned!
Aside from the obvious changes in the mechanization available to farmers to increase efficiency, I think the first big change in practice that I became aware of was a move to milking three times per day versus twice daily.
I was initially a skeptic and did read relevant research, but I was old school enough to think that a cow needed to be kept as long as possible to avoid the expense of purchasing a replacement.
I had to learn that the dairy business had changed to prioritize increased production per cow.
I also had somewhat of a rude awakening when I learned that alfalfa may not be the most important feedstuff in today’s modern dairy operation.
For Mushrooms to Milkshakes, I plan to look at many other aspects of our agriculture industry in the commonwealth.
Some things of interest are related to the history of the fruit industry in south-central counties such as Franklin, Adams and York.
I particularly want to look at those pockets of local, unique agriculture practices and products to find out how they evolved.
For example, our wine industry is growing, and I am sure this has changed what crops are grown in certain areas (to grapes, of course).
And how did Pennsylvania become home to more local and family sausage and processed meat companies than any other state? I personally notice the difference in how plain breakfast sausage tastes when I travel to other states — ours is definitely better.
Fortunately, some of the larger grocery store chains in the South are beginning to sell Pennsylvania Lebanon bologna. Now we have to get scrapple into the markets there.
As I have written in my previous column, a lot of what we have in Pennsylvania springs forth from our values, and those are in place in part due to our unique cultural heritage.
It has always been my position that our state and local governments find ways to promote and encourage economic development — in agriculture and other sectors — within the context of this heritage.
Speaking of heritage, my grandfather raised cantaloupes that people traveled miles to purchase.
And just as New York City bagels are said to derive their unique “best ever” texture and flavor from being boiled in the city’s water, my grandfather’s cantaloupes were said to be so good because of the soil where he lived.
There is so much to write about, and I look forward to doing so. If you have an idea for a column, please email me at cahardbarger49@gmail.com. This is your column too.
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