Down on the farm

Maybe you've heard of farm-to-table restaurants. Farm-to-table dining is inspired by a direct relationship between a farm and a restaurant.
In central Illinois, we have dined at June (Peoria Heights), an upscale restaurant that uses local and seasonal products from a network of farmers. From their web site, I also learned that "the chefs stretch the season by canning and preserving seasonal items; all breads are baked in-house; and all butchering is done in-house".
We have also discovered the Harvest Café in Delavan. Here they use use products such as cheeses from Prairie Fruits Farm (Champaign), and meats from Meadow Haven Farm (Sheffield).

On our most recent breakfast at the Harvest Café, I tried the eggs Benedict, made with local eggs and home made Canadian bacon. The fried potatoes, which I think were fingerling, we crisply and delicious.
Not only are these great restaurants supporting local farms, they are also able to reduce some of the cost associated with transporting food from out of state and provide you with a meal that contains fresher ingredients than some establishments serve.

I put some new shoes on

Many years ago when we first started seeking out made in USA products we found out about New Balance shoes. I'm happy to say New Balance still produces several styles of shoes right here in the US.
I've had a pair that's probably eight years old now. I started walking during lunch recently, and found that my shoes no longer fit my feet very well, and paired with some bad socks gave me a killer blister that kept me sidelined for a few days.
I hopped on the trusty Internet once I noticed that not only were my shoes kind of old, they were also size 6 1/2, and for the last few years I have mostly been buying size 7.
I checked out the New Balance tennies at Sierra Trading Post and Zappos, both of which display whether the shoes are made in USA on their site. I have also found New Balance in some brick and mortar stores including TJ Maxx.
I picked out a pair that received good reviews and ordered them from Sierra.

The shoes arrived within a couple of days and I was pleased to see that rather than putting a box of shoes into another box filled with peanuts, as has been the shipping method of many a package I have received over the years (not specifically from Sierra), Sierra had simply taken the shoe box, put it in a bag and sent it on it's way. It arrived fully intact.

I took the shoes out of the box and checked the tag on the tongue for the familiar made in USA designation, which you may be able to make out on the top line of the tag in the photo here.
I put my new shoes on Saturday for a breakfast outing to a local farm-to-table restaurant and a day spent enjoying the great outdoors to break them in for a few hours, and I think I managed to step in sheep poop, dog poop and some thick mud, so I now call them properly Christened!