Country Lifestyles
The Modern Farmers — My Epicurean Farm, Slidell, Texas
By Jessica Crabtree
Five years ago Yseut Berlingeri and Betty Beard’s surroundings looked like that of a professional’s kitchen as both were former chefs. Yseut attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York and Betty attended Le Cordon Bleu in Dallas. Sharing a kitchen while working and opening together the Flower Mound Market Street location, the two blended, forming a friendship both in the kitchen and outside. “She [Betty] was like me, OCD and ran a very organized kitchen. We clicked right away,” Yseut shared. Jokingly, the two always conspired about owning their “own thing” one day. While Betty is a native Texan, born in Longview, Yseut was born and raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico, leaving for the United States at the age of 17.
With 22 years experience in AAA and 5-Diamond eating establishments, in 2014 Yseut grew tired, ready to walk away from the kitchen. Moving to Washington, D.C., to be with her husband Michael as he traveled for work, the former chef busied herself with consultant work for another chef. Wanting a business of some sort, Yseut gained knowledge on the retail side of things. That same year a cousin came calling, needing help with her hobby in Florida, an aquaponic farm that she started for educational purposes and to sell to chefs.
What came of it? Yseut fell in love and trained under her cousin for eight months, learning all aspects of what aquaponics is and from that experience drew up a business plan. “I knew I wanted to be a farmer. I loved it. I wrote my business plan and the next thing was a location,” Yseut said. Establishing a few principles up front, Yseut knew she did not want to grow lettuce, specifically only grow micro, petite and baby greens. The final must, Yseut knew exactly who she wanted to be her farm manager: her former kitchen assistant Betty.
To read more pick up a copy of the July 2018 NTFR issue. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.
(Photos by Jessica Crabtree)
By Nicholas Waters
As winter plods along – come Spring and gopher mounds – homeowners and farmers find themselves playing a familiar song – fiddling while Rome is burning.
Let’s make a mountain out of a molehill. Those mounds on your lawn and pasture could be moles, but they’re more than likely gophers; Plains Pocket Gophers to be pragmatic – Geomys bursarius to be scientific.
These rodents dig and chew, and the damage they can do goes beyond the mounds we mow over. Iowa State University cited a study in Nebraska showing a 35 percent loss in irrigated alfalfa fields due to the presence of pocket gophers; the number jumped to 46 percent in decreased production of non-irrigated alfalfa fields.
The internet is replete with academic research from coast-to-coast on how to curtail gopher populations, or at least control them. Kansas State University – then called Kansas State Agricultural College – also published a book [Bulletin 152] in February 1908 focused exclusively on the pocket gopher.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Annette Bridges
Everyone needs a room with a view that makes their heart happy. My honest favorite panorama would be either the mountains or the ocean. I have yet to convince my hubby to make permanent moves to either, although he does enjoy the visits as much as I do.
The location of our house on our ranch does not provide the expansive field of vision of our land that I would enjoy. So, I have created a room decorated and furnished in a way that gives me smiles, giggles, and a wonderful peace-filled feeling when I am hanging out in it. I am in that place right now writing this column. I am in a lounging position with my computer in my lap on the chaise that was once my sweet mama’s. I had it reupholstered this year to give it a fresh look.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
Local celebrity dancers of the greater Gainesville area brought the house down recently at the second annual “Dancing With Our Stars” contest in Lindsay. The event raised more than $200,000 as the sponsored dance teams did their best to take home the grand prize.
The money raised will go to the “Heart of NTMC” Campaign for the purchase of a cardiac capable CT machine for the Gainesville hospital. Rodolfo “Rudy” Martinez and Sherry Sherriden took home the Mirror Ball Trophy.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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