"Old MacDonald had a farm ..."

"E-I-E-I-O!," Madeline always replies. I've got to get her on video singing this song because it's a 10 on the cute-o-meter.

She loves this song and we sing it at least a dozen times a day. Sadly, my 18-month-old has never seen a cow, up close and personal. The drive by a herd of cows last Sunday going 60 miles an hour on the highway doesn't count.

She hasn't seen a chicken. Or a pig. Or a horse. Or a goat. Nothing.

So I'm determined to do something about that. I wish the zoo was like, oh, about three hours closer than it is. Or that we were descended from a long line of farmers where we could go visit the family homestead but that lineage ended at my great-grandparents.

Crap.

Is my little kiddo destined to think that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, like a co-worker of mine thought until about eight years ago? (laughter ensues...this is still so damn funny.)

Today I got to visit a fabulous family farm about an hours' drive from here to do a story on a group of about a dozen local families who formed a raw milk club. They take turns driving to this farm to get gallons of raw, or unpasteurized milk straight from the milk tank (which came straight from the cows that morning) and bring it back to town in coolers. It was a fun experience - the people were great - and it's fun to speak with those who care about where their food comes from.

Anyway, it was cuteness overload at the farm. There were baby chicks, baby ducks and newborn calves and little boys playing with all those cute little animals. Oh, and the boys got to run around the farm with an egg carton and try to find eggs recently hatched by the free range chickens - like an all-natural Easter egg hunt.

Good times.

I didn't want to leave and have to go back to work to my sad little office cube.

This farmer does offer farm tours so I may have to bring Maddy back to be able to run around the farm herself. I tried to talk my husband into letting me get some hens for our backyard - urban chickens rock! - but sadly, he nixed that idea. Especially since I can't stand changing the kitty litter box.

But hey, it's not like our cat is laying eggs in the box - I do have standards when it comes to our food.

I've read a lot of great books lately about sustainable and green living and local foods (yep, me. I read them. I swear.) I loved Barbara Kingsolver's book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," about her family's experience growing and raising their own food and am now reading "Compassionate Carnivore" by Catherine Friend, a Minnesota author and sheep farmer.

Hmmmmm....I never talked to Nels about raising sheep. Maybe, if we fence in our backyard ...