Let's start at the very beginning...A very good place to start!

To borrow from the popular musical, "Sound of Music", let's start at the very beginning. My name is Kelsey Pagel. I grew up on a farm and ranch in Northeast Kansas. Both my mother and father are self employed farmer/ranchers. I grew up with cow/calf pairs, pigs, corn, soybeans, wheat, brome hay and native hay. We always had horses, dogs and cats. I have two older sisters-Kristen and Kayla. Also, worthy of note...my grandma (my mom's mom) is 100 1/2 years old. She lives in her own home and gets around pretty good with a walker. 

I'm going to be using a lot of wedding photos since that's what I
have at the current time. This is my family. From left to right front
row, my sister Kayla, myself, Grandma, my amazing niece Autumn,
my other sister Kristen. Back row L to R, Kayla's husband Garett,
my husband Matt, my mom Dori, my dad Butch, and Kristen's
husband Levi.

My new family since October. Front row L to R, Matt's sister Melissa,
her daughter (my new niece!) Sawyer, my mother-in-law Margaret, myself,
Mauricio (a new nephew!), my father-in-law Henry, Matt's sister Jenny.
Back row L to R, Jason-Melissa's husband and Sawyer's dad,
my wonderful husband Matt, Samuel (another nephew!),
 Matt's brother Will and his wife Dora (parents of Mauricio and Samuel) and Greg-Jenny's friend.

Since October Jenny and Greg have blessed our family with twin boys-Greyson and Granger. They arrived in November-a month early, but they are both well and growing!

I'm 21 years old, married and living my dream. I'm a farmer/rancher. I help to produce the food that arrives on your plate.  Farmers/Ranchers (producers) care a great deal about their animals, environment, land and the safety of the food they produce. We care about all of these things because the same food that is put into grocery stores from our farms is the same food that we put onto our dinner tables for our families. We want a safe and healthy product to feed to our families, the same as you want for your families. Bottom line, farming is our livelihood. It's a lifestyle. We're all helping to make sure that the food supply that is offered is safe, healthy and sustainable so we can feed a growing worldwide population. We're working to make sure NO ONE goes hungry. Producers care. Kansas Farm Bureau (see www.kfb.org for more information on KFB) has a great tag line that sums this all up...care and respect practiced daily. 

My husband Matt and I. He did all the decorating for our wedding ceremony.
I did the reception hall. The first time I saw the set up outdoor wedding was
when I was walking down the aisle. He did an amazing job.

My goal with this blog is to help educate consumers about producers and why we do what we do. I'm a farmer and so is the rest of my family. We have cows, horses, and all sorts of crops between all of us. I encourage you to ask questions if something I say doesn't make sense. If I don't know the answer, I'll find someone that does. If you want to see an operational farm, we'll work something out so you can. I want to be a voice for farmers making their living feeding the world because that's what I am. I care about consumers being given correct information. The choices you make are yours, but I want to help make sure that you are given factual information and know just how much producers care! 

Okay some more about me and mine...

Growing up I always wanted to be a doctor. That changed when I was about fourteen and decided that I didn't like seeing blood, or stitches, or shots (giving or receiving), or seeing people being sick (normally I get sick too) or just about anything else a doctor would have to be around. That's when I decided that I wouldn't be a very effective doctor. From there I changed my mind dozens of times on what I was going to do with my life. Finally, I landed on opening an Agri-tourism business to help connect the unconnected urban family to a farm where food is grown. With less than 2% of the American population involved in production agriculture, there is a growing gap between the producer and the consumer. So many different options line the store shelves from organic and natural to big commercial and everything in between. I hope to help consumers learn about what happens on farms and give them a resource to ask any questions they have. 

Where am I on the progression of opening an Agri-tourism business? Well...right now it's still just an idea, but it's a life goal of mine. 

Levi, Autumn and Kristen. Autumn has
grown so much since then!

Some more background...my oldest sister, Kristen, got married in February of 2010 after graduating from Cloud County Community College and Kansas State University with an Animal Science degree. She married a farmer from Abilene, Kansas, that she met while in college. Levi farms with his parents. Kristen helps as well when their beautiful 2 1/2 year old daughter, Autumn, isn't keeping her busy. She has made me decide that being an aunt is the absolute greatest thing ever! She's the first child I've been around so I'm learning a lot! 

This is Autumn and I from a while ago sporting our K-State shirts!
That's my parent's hay barn in the background.

My middle older sister, Kayla, got married in July of 2012 after graduating from Johnson County Community College (where she ran cross country and track) and Emporia State University with an elementary education degree. Garett, her high school sweetheart, is a parts salesman for KanEquip. He farms on the side with his parents. Kayla is helping my parents with their farming operation. Kayla and Garett currently have, I think, 3 children. They have four legs and moo. Yes, their children are baby calves. 

See they really are high school sweetheart,
they went to prom together!

I attended Cloud County Community College and Kansas State University and graduated in May 2013 with a Agri-business degree. Matt and I got married in October of 2013 in the middle of a hayfield. My outdoor wedding dream was not even close to comparing to the absolute beautiful and perfect wedding that we actually had. Matt is in partnership with his parents and grandma in their farming operation. I work with Matt and my father-in-law a large majority of the time. Whenever my parents need help in their operation, we try to help as well. 

Middle of a hayfield, under a beautiful tree, we walked through a
hay ring, there were stalks of corn, our guests sat on hay bales, our unity symbol
was soil from a special place on our farms, absolutely gorgeous day to be outside in mid October.
 Yep, it was more perfect than I could ask for.

So as you can see I come from a family that is very agriculturally oriented. Please ask any questions you have. I'll find someone that knows the answer if I don't.

That's about enough information for one blog. I hope to have a blog about once a week, but can't promise anything since we all know about what happens to the best laid plans. I'm going to plan on ending my blogs with a recipe. This whole blog is about food so I think that's one of the best ways to tie everything together so you can make the same foods in your kitchen as I make in mine. I don't get a lot of time to cook/bake, but enjoy it when I can. I'm blessed with a mother-in-law that cooks enough food on the weekends to get us through the week while she's working. Anyway, for the first recipe...not sure what the official name is, but they are a cross between a turnover and pie. My friend Laura made them all homemade for her wedding and shared the recipe with me. I tried making them today with some extra time I had. They turned out good! Keep in mind that normally my food isn't the prettiest, but it normally tastes pretty good. 

This is Laura and I. Not only is she a great cook, but
her voice is absolutely beautiful. She sang and played
her guitar at our wedding. 

The recipe...

CRUST: 3 c flour 1 1/3 c yellow Crisco 1 T sugar 1 t salt Shake vigorously for 1 minute.

½ c cold water 1 T vinegar Add and mix again. Roll the dough thin (1/16th container size). Cut with 4”cutter (Cool Whip or sour cream).

FILLING: Put 1 tablespoon of pie filling in center. Fold in half; wet your fingers and press to seal the edges with water. Crimp the edges with fork tines.

Bake at 350 for 12 (+10 minutes) until golden brown. Spread with glaze when still warm.

GLAZE: ½ c powdered sugar 1 T milk ¼ t vanilla

These freeze well.

My finished product! Like I said, they may not look the greatest,
but they taste pretty good!!