What does "Farm Style" mean to you?
Sometimes I feel hopelessly out of step with American culture.
I went to a grocery store to buy Tillamook extra sharp cheddar cheese. Years ago, on the way to the Pacific Ocean I stopped at Tillamook Dairy. Love their ice cream and cheese! The mother of a friend who grew up in Tillamook, Oregon likes to say:
"Tillamook has trees, cheese, the ocean breeze,
And water up to your knees."
But I digress. The only Tillamook sharp cheddar available said "Farm Style" on the package. What does that mean? Nothing on the package said it was sliced.
It meant thick slices. In the wonderful book, "Crow Lake," by Mary Lawson, farm worker's lunches had sandwiches with thick slabs of ham and cheese. They do hard work.
At 15, I turned down a marriage proposal from a farmer's son. "My parents will give us 40 acres to farm," Darryl said. "I'm going to college," I replied. Broke up with him the next day. I could never be a farmer's wife.
Can't stand the smell of shit. "It's the smell of money," a farmer said with a grin.
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Timely comments about farms. I took my oldest son out to my grandparents old 40 acre place today. Nothing but the old house left. Surrounded by other houses.
It's still a great location, but alas, will never be the same with the old barn, hand water pump, chickens, berries, Grandma Ninny, weeping willow tree behind the house.
Some of the old hardwoods are still there tho. I remember a blue jay chasing me, scaring the shit out of me: "Grandma, Grandma" I cried and I ran inside. She didn't care. Old Slovack woman. At that point she had had a much rougher life than me. She didn't want no candyassed grandson pissing her off!
twill
Level 7
Nov 16, 2019
1
Shit, 40 acres out here in the Aussie Outback is nothing more than a tiny drop in a bucket when compared to the size of Sheep and Cattle Grazing properties.
My friend has a Sheep Property 50 kilometres from my home town which measures out to 93,000 acres, his son has a property that measures out to 87,000 acres and in the 'cattle country of Northern Australia they call about measuring out their properties in Hundreds or Thousands of Square miles.
Triphid
Level 9
Nov 16, 2019
1
It works that way out west here....'cause there is not enough water
@twill It's an odds on bet you have much more water available where you are than we have had for the last 16+ years though.
At LEAST 60+% of Australia has been classified as being Severely Drought Stricken for the last 10+ years, east of where I live, about 100 kilometres away, we ONCE had a series of lakes that, when full to capacity, held MORE water than the whole of Sydney Harbour at High Tide, now, like the river than used to fill them, they too are BONE DRY thanks to the MIS-managements of Governments and Government Authorities.
Broken Hill, Western New South Wales, has been on Water Usage Restrictions since 2016, the countryside out here is becoming more like a desert every day, native fauna and flora is dying and disappearing at a very alarming rate and Graziers are IMPORTING hay in huge bundles EVERY week just to feed what stock they can keep in hopes of good decent rains so they can again begin to breed and restock their properties.
@twill Yes, it is mostly BUT in drought times like this it IS far worse than can imagined, though in the Northern Regions such as Queensland, Northern Territory and Northern Western Australia where they get Monsoon type rains it is, for the most part, only seasonally dry.
The 'average' rainfall around here is usually approx. 10 inches per year BUT in really good years we can get that in 6 months at times BUT we have not had rainfall of more than 10 millimetres per year since around 2003 to 2005.
When I was a child and a teenager we used get Dust Storms so thick that you could NOT see more 2 feet in front of you BUT regenerating the countryside did put a stop to those UNTIL this drought hit.
I stopped at Tillamook too while looking for property out there, being in the dairy industry (manufacturing, not cows) for 32 years gave me interest. Unusually clean plant. I lived in SoCal the whole time I worked so I for sure have no interest in farm life. I did really hard work too, I ate burritos.
clarkatticus
Level 7
Nov 16, 2019
1
Was the cheese slicer a converted John Deere?
GeorgeRocheleau
Level 8
Nov 16, 2019
2
I went to a commercial business, something of a convenience store or the like with food service There they had "homemade" donuts, so the sign said. A person purchasing the donuts could watch an automated machine make the donuts from dough to a finished fried ready to eat item for sell.
I have never known of anyone to have such a large donut making machine in their home.
Word
Level 8
Nov 16, 2019
1
"The smell of money" is now failing farms ad agro business takes over. Perdue, the Sec of Ag just told Wisconsin farmers to stop whining as they were doomed.
Beowulfsfriend
Level 9
Nov 16, 2019
3
We stopped at a Tillamook cheese plant SW of Portland once in the 90s. The thing that we both loved was the fresh curd. Ah, the days.
RichCC
Level 8
Nov 16, 2019
1
I had a friend in Seattle whose wife's father was an English professor at a small college. When he retired he gave all he could to his daughter and bought a small subsistence farm in Tuscany.
Thereafter he would only return to the US once a year -- he claimed there were no good dentists in Italy.
I've always wondered how close he was to the right idea -- no reason to follow the social world. 
For those who do not like it Greek style
godlessguy
Level 7
Nov 16, 2019
3
lol not many do
My dad once wanted to go to Alaska and homestead. My mom said "no way in hell." She grew up on a farm and didn't want that life. Knowing my dad... I'm so glad mom stood her ground.
HippieChick58
Level 9
Nov 16, 2019
1
Alaska is a hard life when the salmon run you have to fish and catch all you can cause the growing season is short and food is not easy to just go get or so I hear and bears and other considerations
Thick slices are farm style, huh? I was going to offer it means your kitchen table is probably a heavy, potentially unfinished slab of wood. (Thick slice?
). Your story is too cute!
LisaFultonave
Level 6
Nov 16, 2019
3
Thank you! I appreciate your humor and kindness.
" doin' it " up in the hayloft ...
evergreen
Level 8
Nov 16, 2019
2
fun but hay pokes at the wrong time in the wrong places
Marketing terms like low fat, natural, and many others.
Times change, marketing and advertising change with them.
Sugar frosted flakes are now just frosted flakes. Sugar pops are...... gone now I think...
moosepucky
Level 7
Nov 16, 2019
1
For it means shitty hours, government handouts, and men having sex with small barnyard animals. 
Sticks48
Level 9
Nov 16, 2019
1
Only the small ones?
@LisaFultonave Probably not just the small ones.
which ones I hear sheep flirt cause they know they are good
@Sticks48 and I heard chickens lol it was a movie I laughed the first time I heard it
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