The past month has been tough work. We are still jumping through hoops and unraveling the red tape involved in the purchase of our farm. It’s a good thing we are committed to the idea and are passionate about our family business or we would have have given up on this idea a long time ago. When we started on this journey, 3 years ago, we heard that buying land was hard, that farming was hard, that it was all going to need a lot of cooperation but the experience has really gone above and beyond and taught us what we are made of.

Currently as we enter the busiest week of our spring season and as we enter the final stretch on our road to farm ownership I’ve committed to keeping things nice and simple. Like the simple pleasure of a baked potato for lunch or dinner.

It’s easy: {Unlike getting a mortgage on land. Ha!}

Heat your oven to 400

Wash and Scrub 1 large potato per person

Poke with fork holes on one side

Rub each potato with butter and coarse salt

Place directly on over rack

Walk away and ignore and bake for 1 hour.

As I am clearly a little ambitious, once they’re baked my “just keep it simple philosophy” stops. It’s time to add more butter, salt and pepper, sour cream (I found lactose free sour cream!), crispy bacon all crumbled up, and thinly sliced leeks. The leeks ARE part of the simple plan, as they’re in season here in Ontario and therefore in my fridge.

On this month’s frequent drives from the city to the farm we passed quite a few of the Gay Lea Foods new advertisements. Their theme seems fitting; What are our foods made of? What are our farmers made of? Are our family businesses worth a little hard work? The answers should be simple.

Disclosure: I am part of the Gay Lea Blogger Campaign with Mom Central Canada and I receive compensation as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.