Red is My Favorite - part 2

Yesterday I shared with you some of our favorite things that come in Red - Simmental cattle, Canadian mittens, scarfs and of course Red Red Wine.  But I forgot my newest favorite Red.  I never thought I would say this because of Toby Keith......but Red Solo Cup makes the list.





  I love this little tune and when I hear it, I think of a few things that he left out.  Like:

•  Caesers at Agribtion with the Tableland Crew
• Yukaflux at a cattle show
• Red Red Wine at a cattle show
• seems like beverages at almost any cattle function.

We haven't purchased JJB and CDY their wedding gift yet.  Maybe a set of Red Solo Cups would be a gift they'll never forget.

 "Red Solo Cup, let's fill you up.  Let's have a Party!"

Red is my Favorite

Now this can mean a lot of different things to different people.  For Rob it would be one of his favorite colors of cattle.  To Crystal it might be her Red Canadian mittens, I know that Stacy probably has a favorite Red scarf but for me my favorite Red is wine!

My love of wine and red in particular came from my first visit to Australia.  We would spend our weekends touring different vineyards and spending sometime in the tasting rooms.  I highly recommend this as a weekend event.  I like to try different wines and though I would share a couple of my new favorites just in time for Christmas

Yalumba

 The first was given to me for my birthday by Stacy's BF.  They picked it because of the label and it was from Australia.  Not really the most scientific way to select a wine, but a very good choice none the less.  It is produced by Yalumba Winery - Australia's Oldest family owned winery.

Yalumba - Shiraz Viognier 2010

Deep crimson purple in colour, the 2010 Y Series Shiraz Viognier has aromas that are both wild and exotic. Blueberries, violets and cherry ripe notes from the Shiraz are elevated by the subtle influence of Viognier, which brings an alluring Turkish delight character. The well rounded palate is medium to full bodied and shows Turkish delight and cherry ripe flavours that are in harmony with the silky tannins. This sells for about $18 / bottle.





Middle Sister Wines
These are a fun of wines.  The fun part is to take the personality quiz on their website and find out whichof their wines is for you.  I recently gifted "Rebel Red" to my friend Dawn on her 50th birthday. There really is a little Middle Sister in all of us.

the story
Did you know that birth order is commonly believed to have a profound and lasting effect on psychological development? And that the middle sister has a greater chance of having a special wine named just for her? A sassy blend of our three favorite red varieties perfect for sipping before, during and after our favorite family meals. Some people are just born lucky. Now give me back my blouse.
what's in it?
38% Zinfandel, 34% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Syrah, 2% mixed red varietals.
100% California grapes with 42% from the Lodi appellation.

smells like...
...ripe red and dark berry fruits like plum, blueberry and blackberry. Sassy dash of black and white pepper with a dollop of crome de cassis.

tastes like...
...a huge mouthful of ripe summer berries. The fruit goes on and on, ending in a luxurious finish.

yummy with...
Roasts, grilled meats, pizza, pasta, salmon, burgers, burritos, soups and sandwiches.

If you have a favorite, please pass it on.  I'm always looking to try something new.  Cheers!



Year in Review

2010 is almost come and gone.  Another decade finished.  If someone would have told us a year ago that we would be writing a blog in 2010 we probably would not have believed them.  Sometimes the year goes so fast or we are looking forward to events in the next year that we sometimes forget the things that were memorable in the current year.  So let have a look back at 2010.

January

• First calves of IPU Revolution 172U arrive......we are very pleased.
• Old man winter makes sure we remember what winter can be like

• Rob gets a new calving shed

February

• Simmental bull sales are going strong
• Tickets to Australia are booked

• We say good bye to good friend "Auger"  His family honors us by giving us his show stick.

March

• We get to listen to Crystal speak at Lethbridge College on Agriculture Advocacy and Social Media in Agriculture
• Rob's dad has a massive stroke....family is in shock

April

• April Showers and more rain.  Thank you Mother Nature.
• Bulls are all out working

May

• April showers bring Grass and lots of it. 

• Lots of 4H shows to judge
• We say good bye to Rob's dad - "Howard Young"

June

• Champion Bull and Res. Champion Female at Drayton Valley Show, great night for a BBQ and tunes by Ty Wilson

• Cows and calves are out to pasture, no grasshoppers this year.


• Excellent Alberta Simmental Tour through Central Alberta

July

• Fun times showing steers at Calgary Stampede.  Res. Champion Charolais

• Honored by the AYCS (Jr. Simmental Association) as the Friends of YCS
• Great visit with Buddy and Francis Leachman while watching Lance judge at Synergy

August

• Great long weekend at the Saunders reunion on Vancouver Island
• a few games of golf
• Starting fall work so we can be away for a few weeks

September

• World Simmental Congress in Melbourne Australia

• Sale cattle selected for National sale, Agribiton and Checkers
• Spending some time with Crystal down under

October

• Res. Senior Bull at Olds Fall Fair.....thanks Stacy for taking care of things

• Wine tasting in Australia along with snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef and Kangaroo hunting
• Great visits with friends at National Trust Sale

November

• National Champion Bull at Brandon - IPU Revolution 172U
• Grand Champion Bull at Farmfair - IPU Revolution 172U

• Won a Featherlite Stock Trailer for being a contender in Super Saturday at Farmfair - Thanks Warren from Allan Dale Trailers, Red Deer. Ab
• Res Sr Bull - Agribition along with a class winner - RJY Joy's Firstdate 1W.
• Meeting "the Boy"  Crystals friend Jon.

December

• Being a part of the $8400+ average Checkers Sale
• Adding "Elegant Force" to the herd and having her arrive all the way from Kentucky.

• Spending time with friends and family at Christmas





100 Mile Food Challenge

Last night we were channel surfing - you can always tell when summer is here by the  low choices of quality TV. When we came across the show 100 Mile Food Challenge on the Food Network.  This may have been a rerun, but the concept was very interesting.  For 100 days the city of Mission, BC took the challenge to only eat foods that were grown and produced within 100 miles of their municipality.  Sounds easy right?  Then they showed the residents cleaning out their refrigerators and pantry's.  They meant everything that wasn't local.  Salt, soy sauce, ketchup, pepper etc.  Now the goals for this project were to bring an awareness of the food that is available to residents produced by local farmers and to have people eating less packaged food from other countries. 

I started to think about what I would eat on a daily basis, if I was to only buy from local farmers.  I know there would be a great supply of beef, pork, chicken, eggs, potatoes on a regular basis.  For our vegetables there is several Farmers Markets and the local Hutterite colony.  I would probably have to take more time preparing meals and shopping.  The real challenge for me would be the spices, and staples - salt, flour, sugar.  The mayor of the city was one of the families highlighted.  He had to change his drinking habits too - only locally produced wine and beer.  No Vodka from Russia and even Whiskey that was Canadian was off the list.  The one item that affected almost every household was coffee and tea.

Our local county started a project last year called the  100K Kitchen Party.  Based on the 100 mile diet philosophy the 100K Kitchen Party takes the Canadian spin on it. All components of the project are based on utilizing the foods grown within a 100K radius of Drayton Valley, this takes in portions of the Counties of Parkland, Yellowhead, Woodlands, Lac St. Anne, Clearwater, Leduc, Wetaskiwin, and Ponoka.

The 100K Kitchen Party is looking to the past to preserve our future, here are some of the reasons why.  As the agriculture industry faces the trials and tribulations of the global economy, we are seeing more farmers retiring and the Ag parcels getting smaller and smaller. There is an opportunity for the agriculture industry to capitalize on the growing demand for locally produced foods that have not been treated with pesticides and chemicals so that they can be transported from far away. Between health concerns, concerns regarding carbon emissions used to transport the foods, and our awareness of our global dependence in this shaky economy, people are starting to remember the old days where the food you bought was from your neighbor, and you or someone you trusted processed it. There were no scares of listeria or melamine years ago, there weren't the allergies and reactions either - people are catching on and the 100 Mile Diet is taking off, this is an opportunity for our agriculture community to remain doing what they love to do and to profit by it.  The 100K Kitchen Party is sustainable in the triple bottom line of economics, environment and social. It is a huge 3 year project, that includes:

• Traditional Food Processing
• International Food Processing
• Eat Local Program
• Food Processing Cooperative
•  100K Map

I'm not sure I am up for eliminating all food from our diet that isn't local, but trying to only eat Canadian for a while seems manageable.  Could you be successful at the 100 Mile Food Challenge?

Summer Time

Well summer is almost half over.  I know that it officially doesn't change until September but it seems like when August is done and kids go back to school, summer is over for the most part.  We are heading into our third long weekend of the year.  It will be fun as we are heading to a family reunion on Vancouver Island.  This is the first time in 27 years that we have made it to one of the BC Reunions.  Rob will be in his glory with all the shrimp and smoked salmon that is promised to be there.  The BC relatives get equally excited when we host them in Alberta, with all of the steak, burgers and ribs that we cook up.  Here is what we think of when we think of summer. What do you treasure the most?

Wine, Wine, Wine

Those of you that know our family, know that we like to entertain and try to get together with our friends and family as often as possible.  We like to try different social beverages.  Rob likes nothing better than a nice cold beer after a long hot summer day or a Ceaser, Stacy is creative in her Martini's, Crystal can be found in the duty free shop when she comes home purchasing a bottle of Gibson's Rye whiskey and I like a glass of red wine. 
Many of you know that we are traveling to Australia this fall.  So when I have been purchasing wine this last while I have been trying new ones.  I have found 2 that I really like. 

The first is Banrock Station Cabernet Merlot.

Banrock Station is situated 200km north-east of Adelaide at Kingston-on-Murray, South Australia. This wine is Rich plum flavours of plum and cherry with hints of cinnamon, subtle vanillin oak and soft fine tannins. I really like the wineries that indicate which protein  (beef, pork, lamb, fish) is best served with it.  This wine retails for under $10. 

I then purchased a bottle of The Formula  -  a Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz. 

 This was for a hostess gift of the people we were staying with on the Alberta Simmental Tour.

 Our hosts  - Jim & Gwen Smith, have been known to make their own wine. 

Now when I went to make this purchase Stacy sent me to a wine store near her home.  Once I entered the store I found that their was not a bottle in the place under $20.  So most of these I had not tried before.  My range was usually under $15.  The store owner made this recommendation to me.  The Formula a Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz is produced from Clare Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and Barossa Valley Shiraz this blend is a well balanced, full flavoured wine. Herbaceous Cabernet notes together with full berry Shiraz characters compliment each other producing a blend with elegance and structure.  Now when Jim opened the gift, he happened to leave the bottle with the other wine that was set out for the guests.  And we decided to try it. 

Randy one of our other hosts for the day took the first taste.  I don't think it was his favorite, but after Randy heard that it was a $25+ bottle of wine, he started to acquire a taste for it.  Being the good guests that we were, we made sure Jim & Gwen got a glass of it too. 

My next purchases are going to be from the Peter Lehmann Collection.  My friend  Sean Trenoweth works with their organization.  We hope to see Sean on our travels this fall. 
Now that I am expanding my tasting of wines, I think I may have to follow this Spanish saying "Good wine ruins the purse; bad wine ruins the stomach."

Cheers