The Story of how we came together 💘

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posted on

February 14, 2022

I thought Valentine's Day would be a good time to share the "how we met" story.

Short answer: in a bar - it was Wisconsin 2002, I think that's how most people met.

But then there's The Story....

It was summer and I was home for the weekend from my internship in Duluth to visit a few friends in Green Bay.

My friends wanted to go out. I did not because I was dressed and mentally prepared for hang-out-at-the-girlfriends-all-day not its-saturday-night-lets-hit-up-the-big-city-bars (I tended to stay at my little country bars).

So to make things more enticing for me and my preference for little bars where everyone knows your name, these friends of mine (Carrie & Angela!) decided on a little dive bar I had never been to (T.A. Verns) so I said fine but I only had $20 and when that was gone, I was gone.

Okay, let's go.

Well, turns out this place is the dive bar of dive bars - the first thing you notice is the smell (this was back when you could still smoke everywhere). The second thing you noticed is the shag carpeting on the walls and everywhere (probably explains the smell). And the 3rd thing that gets noticed is a stranger walking in.

👋🏼 Don't mind me. I don't really want to be here. Just spending my $20 and leaving.

So, I spent my $20.

But, in the meantime, had met this Andy fella.

So once the money was gone I told him "sorry but I gotta go". He said I should stay and that he'd just pay for me (boy has he ever 😂), I said "No thanks - I'm not like that." 😇

He says "well, what if I loan you the money?"

Me: "okay, that could work but I promise I will pay you back. In fact, here's my name and address in case you need to track me down to get your money back because I swear I'm not trying to steal from you." and I proceeded to give him my address (not my phone number though).

And then we closed the bar together and had a super wonderful night (no, not like that - I'm not that kind of girl, remember 😇). Did get a kiss though!

And then I did give him my number - never got his though.

Funny side note: the girl that was hitting on Andy when I walked in had left him an angry note on his truck - but it was written on the back of a free drink card so it all worked out. And I got to see what his truck looked like.

So then I go back up to Duluth and tell the guys I work with what a wonderful amazing guy I met and how we totally clicked and I just KNOW he's going to call and I can't wait to talk to him again. 🤩

Day 2 goes by. 😒

Then week 1. 😡

Hmmm, maybe I read the entire situation wrong?

Maybe the angry free drink girl convinced him that long distance relationships don't work, maybe there was a new stranger that walked in but she was physically, mentally and financially prepared for going out...thinking, thinking, thinking....

Then, once the summer internship was done, I was back in Green Bay and I asked those girlfriends of mine if they would go back to his little dive bar with me because I'd like an explanation.

They say no. Thanks ladies.

But this bar is right on main street and is impossible for me to not drive by when I'm in town (or when I'm being kind of stalker-y) so I do and of course I notice his very obvious truck sitting there - so I pull in.

What to do? What to do?

I very clearly remember sitting in the parking lot and thinking through how this could go, there's really only two ways and neither are particularly flattering for me:

I walk in, he's sitting there with the 3 other bar patrons with whom he is good friends, they all look at me like I'm an idiot and ask me what I'm doing there and tell me I should leave with my head hung in shame

I walk in and find out what the heck happened and use the excuse that I'm there to give him back his $20.

I was terrified but also dying to know what happened - how could I have read this so wrong? So I say "F* It" and walk in albeit scared and nervous.

Andy sees me and immediately starts cheering! 🥳

Says he tried calling me a million times but some old lady always answered.

So to back up a little.....I had just gotten a new phone the day we met and so when I wrote down my number I accidentally switched two numbers around.

I GAVE HIM THE WRONG NUMBER! 😲

After the millionth time of calling this other woman he decided that maybe I purposely gave him the wrong number.

But then I walked back in!

He did say he almost drove out to my house but I guess meeting my dad for the first time that way was not a situation he could talk himself into.

And here we are. 20 years later.

They tore the bar down many years ago but Andy was able to get the sign so he could hang it in his workshop as a memento to the place where he met the love of his life! Awww.

Morals of the story:

don't get dolled up to go out because then if you meet your significant other, you've set the bar too high, mine is nice and low.
Completely unbeknownst to me, I have probably been the root cause of most of our problems. oops.
While 99% of the stories that start with "F* it" do not end well and you should avoid them, a few are worth doing, the trick is knowing which is which.
Don't believe anything people tell you in a bar, no matter their sincerity, I still haven't paid him back that $20.
People don't change: I am still always unprepared physically, mentally and financially for every situation and pretty nervous every time Andy takes too long to call or text me back.
And if you ever hear me angrily whisper to myself "should've just kept driving through that parking lot!" now you know what it means.

Happy Valentine's Day!! ❤

We were married in the courthouse so I don't have any pictures at all but mom has this one!

Celery in meat - more deception?

UPDATE, 12-19-2025: I just learned that synthetic nitrites, aka pink salt, are pink because red dye is added to it. But, since it's at such a low percentage it is not required to be labeled on the meat (more bs in my mind). So that would be a point for Team Celery; however, with red dyes being banned, all the red dyed pink curing salts are now being phased out. So point is nullified, Team Celery still loses. Today we're talking about something that really irks me, really gets my britches in a bunch, really makes my blood boil, really drives me up the wall....but I will do my best to not devolve into anger and name-calling, I am clearly a professional so we'll keep this educational and factual because that's what you're here for and I don't even know where to get knickers from to twist. I'm obviously in such a state of controlled rage because it's Easter and so up popsCELERY. 😡Obviously. The gist of it: My belief is that nitrates and nitrites in meat should be avoided due to the creation of nitrosamines and that this is created whether the nitrates/ites are from the chemically pure lab-created (aka synthetic) nitrate/ite or if they are from concentrated nitrates/ites derived from celery because the same reactions will occur and be treated by your body in exactly the same way and it's best avoided. To further confuse matters, "their [synthetic nitrate/ites compared to those derived from celery] chemical composition is absolutely the same, and so are the health effects," says Joseph Sebranek, Ph.D., Morrison Endowed Chair in meat science at Iowa State University. 1 Just like how my blood sugar will spike if I eat a spoonful of sugar or a hunk of sugar cane. 🥄🌿REGARDLESS of what the label on the raw sugar cane says - it could say "natural", it could say "organic", it could saw "raw", it could say "derived from natural locations".....my blood sugar will spike because my digestive system is 100% immune from marketing gimmicks or downright deceptions.A+ work digestive system....please teach the eyes. 👁👃👁 Finding smoked meats without any added nitrates/ites in ANY form from animals raised well and organically on a small farm and then processed by an animal-welfare approved butcher that cares about health is quite a feat! Congratulations! 🎺🎺🎺Pictured: our $99 March Bundle of the Month (not pictured: included recipe cards and all the transparency we offer, mostly because it's transparent).Now that it's Easter time, the SMALL FARMS I follow are out there telling their customers that their hams are "uncured" and contain NO nitrates/ites because they use "celery" and therefore it's healthy....either they are directly saying it's healthier or are very heavily implying it. But they are literally say "NO nitrates/ites included" in their emails and social posts.Which is actually 3 lies. ‼ Lie 1. It's not uncured. Celery-derived nitrates/ites are chemically the same BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. No literally. There's more. Since the USDA will not classify celery-derived nitrates/ites as being a curing agent (which makes zero science-sense) they will also not regulate it's use and so it's basically it's like the wild wild west.Not only that, but I have had butchers personally tell me that they then use MORE just to be "safe"!And the fact that nitrate/ite levels in meats using celery-derived nitrate/ite compounds is at least the same as synthetically sourced nitrate/ite was actually found to be true by researchers. So again, the chemical will behave the same, like a curing agent, regardless of how it came to be. Chemistry. Lie 2. It's just some celery - you know, the green leafy vegetable that is good for you. Well, yes but no. That's just like saying high-fructose corn syrup or glucose syrup is corn. 🌽Yes, but no. Yes it was derived from corn but after extensive further processing and concentration. If you told me "here's some corn for you to eat", I would imagine a cob of corn or perhaps a bag of frozen corn, I wouldn't think you were handing me a spoonful of glucose syrup. Same with the celery.They are not rubbing the meat with a stalk of celery, they are highly refining and processing the celery to extract out the naturally-occurring nitrates/ites and concentrate them which they then use as a substitute for pure synthetic nitate/ite curing salts. The entire point of adding the celery-derived nitrate/ites is for the nitrates/ites, not for flavor or nutrients or color or anything else. Nobody is even pretending there is any other reason for it's use except to act as a cure. Lie 3. It's healthier. I feel like we proved the point as far as celery nitrates/ites are the same chemically as synthetic ones and your intestinal tract also can't read, so just like my intestinal tract, it is what it is.The nitrosamines are created and probably cause colorectal cancer. But, wait, the celery option itself actually gets even a little bit worse. Okay, so it's true that nitrates/ites naturally occur in foods - especially leafy vegetables or any veggies with higher water content (because nitrates/ites occur in water) so then the veggies themselves concentrate that, some a little more than others, and we eat it, but that is seemingly okay. Kind of like how nicotine is naturally occurring in some veggies and actually might be good for you in small doses of that raw form, but I'm doing my best to stay focused here. Just remember, the problem seems to be the heating up of the nitrates/ites in a protein-rich environment, not necessarily the nitrates/ites themselves.Okay so what else are veggies that are full of water going to be full of? That's right - pesticides, herbicides and whatever else is floating around in or dissolved in all that water they are drinking or being splashed with. Celery currently ranks #16 on the EWG's pesticide contamination list (again, they don't look at any of the other -ides) and, here's the kicker! Non-organic celery is used to make celery-derived nitrates/ites even for organic products! 3So along with those celery nitrates/ites comes the concentration of whatever else was in that celery. I mean, at this point, if we didn't have this godsend of an option with our butcher of "D. None of the above".-------> we would choose synthetic over "celery". <------- Now at this point I should just leave well enough alone and send you on your merry way to digest all this info but I'm not really a professional like was indicated earlier so before we go, I'd like to show you this label and you tell me if it's telling you the truth and can be trusted or if it's deceiving you: It's hard to read but under the white banner it says "No Nitrates or Nitrites Added" and then in the asterisk at the very bottom in the white it says "except those naturally occurring in....celery powder" which you'll see below was added. 🤣 what?? so which is it? added or not added?That would be like if the Snickers or whatever candy bar said "no sugar added except for those naturally occurring in corn" instead of "high fructose corn syrup". 🤯And, of course, it says "uncured" in giant letters as part of the name, which it chemically is not Again, the back is hard to read though it does say you can have "peace of mind" eating this (more like, I'll give you a piece of my mind Applegate).A close-up of just the ingredients is included. Notice that the celery is not organic even though this is an organic product. It's not just celery. Some butchers will say "vegetable" or use carrots or beets or some other veggie or combo of veggies but it's all the same - a veggie being highly processed to extract and concentrate nitrates/ites to then be used as a better sounding cure. Could actually be worse depending on how much those other vegs concentrate bad stuff. Okay so they both said "no nitrates/ites added" but also then added the concentrated form of celery nitrates/ites which is chemically exactly the same as the synthetic nitrates/ites and behaves exactly the same way....as a cure.Okay and here's a picture of our label - what do you notice? The label says "uncured", the ingredient list does not include any vegetables or any asterisks that say "except for..." so it really is uncured and there really are no nitrates/ites added. Just good meat that was in a salt & sugar brine and then smoked the old-fashioned way using a smokehouse and hardwood chips! No water injections or reforming either. Just a smoked ham. That's right - actually no nitrates added. Congratulations! You have just unlocked a new set of decoder glasses complete with a ring! 👓💍This is a big deal, as the "Celery in Meat" ring + glasses are both are very hard to collect. This got much longer than I expected so I am going to save the butcher story for next week. I am also a little concerned I'm on the verge of starting a cult with all these secret super powers I am giving you so stay tuned for part 2 as to why and how we ended up here - clean meat, raised organically on our small farm and processed well. No way are we going to work so hard on raising the best meat we can (hand-fed pastured pigs!) only to have questionable ingredients added at the butcher! Hard pass. Of course if you want to eat meats with nitrates/ites in any form - great! If you aren't worried about nitrosamines, great! If you don't think I'm right or my references are not trustworthy, that's all fine. Of course, you probably shouldn't expect to be invited to present at the Annual Convention of Chemists, aka ChemCon, but that's fine, you've got better things to do anyway. 🧪 I just want you to be able to have the CORRECT and trustworthy information you need to make those decisions. And right now, "uncured" meats and "celery" are a huge pile of lies, deception and greenwashing. This really might be the worst example of greenwashing I can think of, specifically because we assume the word celery = better and we assume we can trust all these small farms. It's actually worse even than meat being able to be labelled "Product of USA" no matter where it's from because at least small farms aren't doing that to their blindly trusting customers. Ugh, it all just makes me so sad and frustrated. Also a small pro-tip, according to my chef friend, celery is best left out of broth making too as it brings some unpleasant flavors with it (nitrate is that you??). So keep celery in its place: Bloody Marys and we'll all be fine and live forever. Hmm, a drink actually sounds really good right now. Thanks for being a part of our little farm and I hope you really can trust us - I don't think we are self-deceived (although that's the thing about being self-deceived) and we do our best to be as transparent and honest as possible, but you'll never get the full story until our reality show becomes reality. ❤ Your farmer & founding-member-of-the-Church-of-the-Flying-Anticelery-Monster friend, Stephanie Schneider

Holiday & Sale Updates & Deadlines

Since the weather refuses to co-operate I've been trying really hard to get all the products online but whooo boy! It's a big task. I've added a TON though and am actively working through all the candles. It's day 8 of the 12 days and today all candles, melts & diffusers are 20% off!! I love these new candles made from upcycled wine glasses, check them out here! I'm working through the milkhouse candles now - my success here will depend on my level of success in the physical farm store, if we are busy, you won't see much more added, if we are not, they should keep showing up! We have something for all the candle lovers out there:🐝100% beeswax only.🐝100% beeswax with essential oils.🕯️Diffusers with essential oils only.🕯️Soy-wax with high quality fragrance oils.🕯️Electric candles with built-in 6 hour timers, they are even dipped in and made from wax so they look really legit but without the fear of fire or forgetting to blow them out. And without the pain of turning them all on every day! I love them. We have every shape and size: taper, tealight, small and large pillars, toads, mushrooms, fox, corn and more! Even the DIY candles are on sale today! So no matter your candle preference, you'll want to stop by the farm store for some free sniffs today! Open 2-6pm Table Centerpieces Unfortunately, we are woefully low on holiday centerpieces for your table (you guys are learning from all of our selling out in past years!). We have some beautiful pork tenderloins that make a great centerpiece especially when wrapped with bacon (or use a pork roast and make the family-favorite (and easier-than-pie) Bacon-Wrapped Kalua Pork which will IMPRESS). We have hams, but we may need to combine a few smaller ones to get to your desired poundage. No whole beef tenderloins but we do have filets (again, bacon wrapping is pretty spectacular) pair them with a whole side of one of the wild Alaskan salmons and you'll have the perfect surf & turf! Deadlines Until Christmas, ignore the online default deadlines (every time I try to override them, I screw something up): we will ship non-meat orders ASAP until the 23rd (flat $9, free for orders over $179). To bypass the store's limitations, follow these steps. Order MEAT and we'll ship this week if you are ready with Monday the 22nd being our last ship day (and a risky one for some of you, especially since the meat will arrive frozen, so plan accordingly!). Thank you so much for shopping small! Ironically, it makes a WORLD of difference to not just our little farm family but to all the small businesses you buy from through us too. We have 100s in our little farm store that we'd love to show you. ✨ Holiday Sale

Day 4 of 12! Books & Jewelry Sale

It's day 4 of our 12 Days of Christmas Deals at TF! with ALL BOOKS & JEWELRY on sale today only!! Farm store is open 2-6pm, a few products are online too but if you see anything you'd like in the photos that you can't find online, reach out (steph@togetherfarms.com) and I'll add them for you. I have amassed quite a diverse book collection and I would LOVE to show them off to you today (or really, any day). And the jewelry is best described as eclectic. It ranges from classy to fun with statement pieces made from the most gorgeous feathers you've ever seen, spoon jewelry you didn't know was possible, clay art, copper bracelets, porcupine quills....all the way to silver cuffs featuring the periodic table for those science nerds that also like to be fancy sometimes. 🤓💃 (it's possible our niche is getting a little too narrow.) We'd love to see you at the farm today but if you need virtual, we can do that too! Farm store: Mon & Tue: By appointment. Wed: Closed. Thur, Fri & Sat: 10-6pmSun: 2-6pm. 📍 w93 Norden Rd, Mondovi, WI.

The Story of how we came together 💘

More from the blog

Celery in meat - more deception?

Holiday & Sale Updates & Deadlines

Day 4 of 12! Books & Jewelry Sale

Local Farm • Grass-fed Beef • Meal Kits • Burger Nights • More