 I thought I would share a few thoughts about North Dakota's weather for those of you who aren't avid weather watchers.
So in partnering with the Old Farmer's Almanac, a gardener's tool, I have put together a few observations about or weather. Now, whether or not I am will be accurate in my guesstimations will remain to be seen. Let's face it; this has been an outstanding winter to date. This week is our annual January thaw week. Since the temperatures have been above average and running somewhere between 30 and 40 degrees since October's little cold air blast, this week, we saw temps closer to 50-degrees. I have always looked forward to the week of January thaw and a reprieve from the harsh winter weather we are all accustomed to. Axiom number 1 says that the first three days of January rule the next three months. Wow, we are in for pleasant days because the New Year kicked off mildly. Secondly, have you heard the birds? If birds begin to whistle in January, frosts to come. We have thousands of Canada geese that have not left the river bottom. Turkeys number about 40, and yes, I have heard some birds. So, following the January thaw, I expect we will be seeing a January freeze. It has always been in the back of my mind and sometimes spoken aloud that I feel the cold so much more after the days begin to lengthen. I chalked it up to the quiet darkness of December, feeling cozy and warm. However, as the days lengthen, the cold strengthens. The sun is at its farthest south from the earth, and days are about or less than eight hours on the winter solstice. You might expect this to be the coldest time of year but wait. If you put water in the freezer, it first has to cast off its warmth to freeze. So, December seems warmer as the earth begins to cool and then boom – in January, we feel the cold with the lengthening days. My husband and I argue all the time about whether I can predict the weather by observation. I document the fog days in December and then plan on planting radishes 90 days later when it either rains or snows. My best radishes have indeed been snowed upon. I put the date on the calendar and then plant shortly before the anticipated moisture. I swear it works. Then, there's the moon. I heard tell that the weather on the day of the full moon will be the average for the next cycle. It changes with lunar cycles. Whether or not I am correct in my predictions, you have to pay attention to the weather when you farm or garden. It seems like I remember as a child watching my parents check the weather first thing in the morning. When I stayed at my friend's farm in the Red River Valley, they had the weather on the computer's home page. It is said that no one knows the weather like a farmer. Okay, things are changing with our climate. North Dakota has gained some growing season and is a Zone 3 or 4 depending on whether you reside in the "Banana Belt" region of western North Dakota. I found a few funny axioms regarding the weather that may or may not be accurate, but it sure is fun to observe Mother Nature in her finest on the Northern Plains.
Oh, and before you get out your garden spade, think. This is still North Dakota and with this mild winter, expect payback in the spring. That includes a heavy frost in May. So, wait to plant those warm crops like tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and beans until Memorial Day weekend.
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 Happy New Year resolutions
I say Happy New Year resolutions for a good reason. Let's make our resolutions happy. Everyone wants to start the year losing weight, running a marathon, filling in an artistic bullet journal, eating healthy, planting a garden, learning how to paint, you know. Me, I get the urge to clean and declutter my house. It is to no avail. Somehow every year, I start with this – "I'm going to use up all my yarn and not buy anymore unless it is for a specific use. No more buying on sale and stashing it away for another day." I have been known to save yarn, buttons, etc., that are special to me for something special. Guess what? The day never comes. Every day should be special for us. We woke up, and our families are safe, and we have jobs to go to and work to do and money to buy food and drinking water that flows from the tap, clean and cold (or hot). Think about how many people in the world cannot say that. So, again I fill in my first month of the year in my bullet journal. Yes, I keep one, and it's handy and fun, but it doesn't look anything at all like the Pinterest photos of fancy lettering and watercolor illustrations. My old-handwriting (I use a mechanical pencil cause I love pencils) and maybe some taped notes or pieces of paper. It works. I can write stuff down that clogs my brain when it should be focused on things elsewhere. I do grocery lists and calendar events and reminders to pay bills and stuff — line items next to bullet dots. I have never been very good at writing on the line, just like my garden rows all over the place — big letters, little letters, printed letters, cursive letters. Anything goes. The reason for that is if I wait to be as perfect as the journal pages on Pinterest, I never put pen to paper. That defeats the purpose. So, the rest of the house gets a once over big time. You know, fan blades, move large pieces of furniture, light fixtures and desk drawers. Granted, it's not as thorough as I would like, but what's the point? It just gets dirty again anyway. Now, there are the bathrooms. Showers, in particular, are challenging to clean once they are more than a year old. I have a friend that cleans for a living, and she gave me this recipe for a cleaner that I have begun to use in the whole bathroom. I'm susceptible to chemical smells and things that give my sensitive skin a rash. I usually wear a mask and turn the fan on and open the windows to use most chemical cleaners. So, this recipe, my friends, is a god-send. SHOWER CLEANER 1 cup vinegar, heat in the microwave ½ to 1 cup Dawn original dish soap, the blue stuff 1 spray bottle, glass or plastic Put the Dawn in the bottle, add the hot vinegar and mix. Spray on the dry shower and allow to rest. Then go to work. The scum lifts, and the shower looks brand new. I also have started using a squeegee in the shower to eliminate droplets. This cleaner is amazing, and your bathroom smells like you are canning pickles. To dust, I found this recipe to use instead of toxic sprays. One time my spouse brought an anti-allergen dusting spray home that just about threw me into antiphallic shock — not kidding about my sensitivity. So, I sprayed it into the atmosphere; sorry about that, I didn't know how to get rid of it and replace it with yet another spray bottle from the big box store with this recipe in it. DUSTING SPRAY 1 cup water ¼ cup vinegar 2 tablespoons olive oil Lemongrass essential oil, optional Mix and spray There are many more cleaning recipes out there in the world of Google if you are also interested in homemade laundry soap or a general cleaner. Using baking soda and peroxide or vinegar really does work on glass top stoves and inside the oven also. These cleaners are so much better for you, your family, your pets and the world. So resolve to try an inexpensive household cleaner when you do your spring housecleaning.  Regardless of your ethnic background, all Christmas bakers celebrate by breaking out their favorite family recipes for cookies, breads and pies sometime before Thanksgiving. No other holiday has the many sweet and spicy treats with grandmother’s giving permission to indulge.
Coming from the German-Russian county of McIntosh, we enjoyed several cookies every year whether from my mother or my grandmother’s recipes. There was some sort of anticipation in knowing what would be on the dessert table following a large holiday meal with a large family. When I think back to those days, my heart is filled with love and then I realize “holy cow, those cookbooks I have collected over the year are considered antiques and are filled with vintage recipes.” After all, it’s been 30-plus years since I lost my grandparents, and my cookbooks predate those events. On a side note, I do still have, however, about 20 aunts and uncles still keeping our family traditions alive. In these COVID-19 quarantine days, people have been honing their kitchen skills by baking bread and cooking meals at home. I have involved my children and granddaughters in the kitchen from the time they could sit on the counter. They learned how to count by cracking eggs or measuring cups of sugar into mixer bowls. Such messy memories. One of my grandfather’s favorite cookies were ginger snaps. My mom passed down to me a recipe for what she termed “cracked-top ginger cookies,” or “molasses cookies.” Molasses was a staple in our childhood cupboard, usually kept there until the holidays. These dark-colored cookies are soft and chewy right out of the oven and when cool become “dunkers,” with your choice of milk or coffee. My original recipe card for these lovely cookies has been used so much the shortening has made invisible ink out of the ingredients and you have to hold it up to the light to read it. Cracked-Top Ginger Cookies 1 cup lard (okay, use shortening – but remember it’s an old recipe) 1 cup sugar 1 egg 1 cup molasses 4 cups flour with 2 teaspoons soda ½ teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons ginger ½ teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon cloves. Beat shortening and sugar, add egg and molasses. Sift flour and soda with spices and blend. Chill dough for at least an hour or overnight. Roll into balls, roll into white sugar and press down slightly on cool cookie sheets. Bake at 350-degrees for 18-20 minutes. Sugar cookies are a staple at our hour year-round. I have a collection of cookie cutters for Easter, Christmas, Halloween and of course, my various size heart cutters can be used to fill in between holidays. I love sugar cookies. There are three recipes I cherish for sugar cookies, each with a personality of its own. Not all sugar cookies need to be cut out and decorated to be enjoyed. I don’t recall where this first sugar cookie cutout recipe came from, I have had it for years and shared it with my favorite editor mentor some 30 years ago and he still uses it today. Sugar Cookie Delights 1-1/3 cup shortening 1-1/2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs Cream together and add the zest of one orange. To this add: 8 teaspoons of milk Followed by: 3 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 4 cups flour Mix well, wrap tightly, chill, roll and bake at 375-degrees for about 6-8 minutes. NOTE: I prefer crisper cookies, so I bake mine till brown. If you are decorating them you may want to bake until lightly brown as to not interfere with the frosting colors. This recipe, also from my mother, is for “to die for sugar cookies.” They are fast and easy to bake and can be frosted and sprinkled for the holidays, if they last that long. Sugar Cookies 1 cup sugar 1 cup powdered sugar 1 cup butter (may use half butter, half shortening) 1 cup oil 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 4-1/2 cups flour sifted with 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cream of tartar ¼ teaspoon salt Mix ingredients together, roll into balls. Place on cookie sheets and press down with sugar-dipped drinking glass. You can use colored sugar and then you don’t have to frost them. Bake at 350-degrees. Watch closely. Finally, this recipe came from my mother-in-law born in Pennsylvania. I love these cake-like enormous soft sugar cookies. No frosting needed. Pennsylvania Dutch Sugar Cookies 3 cups sugar ½ cup shortening (or a ¼ cup each of butter and shortening) 3 eggs 1 cup buttermilk 1 tablespoon baking soda ½ teaspoon cream of tartar 4-5 cups flour Cream sugar and shortening, add eggs, beat. Add buttermilk alternately with dry ingredients beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Bake at 375-degrees for about 10-12 minutes. An Aunt Sally success story Not one to ignore the comments people have been making about Aunt Sally cookies, I had to try them. Every time I made Christmas cookies, the recipe in the middle of the old Lutheran cookbook stared me in the face. I turn to that page so often it has torn loose from the binding. Somehow the edges of that cookbook look like they have been dipped in coffee or maybe molasses. Now the first time I tried this recipe, I was amazed at how soft the dough was. I put off frosting them as the recipe for the white frosting seem complicated. The cookies need the frosting though because they bring a strong molasses flavor and need the balance of sweetness that the marshmallow-like frosting brings. Well, needless to say, the cookies worked fine, but the first time I made the frosting, it was disastrous. I had to try again. It worked and executed correctly the frosting is a keeper. All I could think about was chocolate cupcakes would be awesome with this frosting. Now, why these are called Aunt Sally’s is beyond me. I do know someone had to sacrificially eat Spam in order for me to get the can needed to cut them into the familiar rectangle shape. Granted, cans are made with safer edges and pull-top tops so I’m thinking that the old Spam cans would be sturdier and have a sharper edge. The second batch of cookies turned out so well, I’m wondering where I can get an Aunt Sally’s cookie cutter made. These cookies brought out so many memories at our coffee party, you really should try them. Aunt Sally whoever you are, thanks. Aunt Sally Cookies This recipe comes from Emma Miller, Gackle, ND, and was printed in the Emmanuel Lutheran cookbook published in 1975. Cream together: 1 cup sugar 1 cup shortening Add: 2 eggs (well beaten) 1 cup molasses 1 cup buttermilk (I substituted milk made sour with vinegar) 4 teaspoons soda with buttermilk 2 teaspoons cream of tartar ½ teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon ginger 1 tablespoon cinnamon 5 cups flour Mix well, chill dough. Roll medium thin and cut with Spam can. Bake in 350-degrees oven. Icing: Boil to medium hard stage: 1-1/2 cups sugar ½ cup water ¼ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vinegar At the same time, beat two egg whites until stiff. Add cooked ingredients and 12 large marshmallows. Beat until all melted. Cool a bit. Frost cookies and let dry before storing. And, last but not least, the two most traditional cookies of my childhood – Grandma Meidinger’s honey cookies and Pfeffernusse. Without fail, my mother’s mother would have honey cookies at Christmas time. They were simply a mound of delightful honey-flavored goodness topped with a white frosting and sprinkles. Somehow, she managed to get them perfectly shaped and baked. It took me a couple of tries to get the right amount of flour. As with Pfeffernusse, there’s a wee bit of guessing in the amount of flour, but fear not – they will still taste good, even if they are not perfect. Grandma Meidinger’s Honey Cookies 1 cup sugar 2 teaspoon soda 2 teaspoon anise 1 cup warm honey 2 teaspoons baking powder 3 eggs 1 cup flour Mix these ingredients and let stand overnight (not in the refrigerator). In the morning add enough flour to make a stiff dough. Bake at 350-degrees. NOTE: I apologize, I cannot find the frosting recipe. Someday, I will need to call one of my aunts and hope they can remember. Here’s a recipe for Pepper-Nut Cookies from Mrs. Helen Elhard, Gackle, N.D. from the aforementioned cookbook. Pepper-Nut is English for Pfeffernusse, in case you were wondering. Pepper-Nut Cookies Heat, then cool: ¼ cup sugar ¼ cup butter 1 pint honey Add: 3 eggs, well beaten ½ cup sour cream ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon allspice 2 teaspoons cinnamon ½ teaspoon nutmeg 4 teaspoon soda 2 teaspoon anise 5-1/2 cups flour Mix in order given. Refrigerate overnight. Make into small balls and bake at 350-degrees for 15-20 minutes. Roll in powdered sugar after cool. WAIT, I have to add this final recipe in honor of my Aunt Alice Kaseman. It was her husband and my uncle, Ed, that encouraged me to research and try all the recipes of old handed down by my grandparents. I miss the small Christmas dinners Alice would host for the Bismarck cousins, but I do not miss making this recipe. If you have ever been in your mother’s kitchen or made Hirshonsaltz Keacha yourself, you understand why. Aunt Alice used to make these and decorate them with her granddaughters. A family tradition I hope these recipes has inspired you to try. Alice said they made the best cut outs. Oh, the first time I attempted these I was thinking to myself, “Mr. Clean? What?” Do not, I repeat, do not use cleaning ammonia. Baking ammonia is available online at Amazon.com. Unless it has been outlawed since I last tried these cookies. Hirshonsaltz Keacha Baking Ammonia Cookies 3 eggs 1-1/2 cup sugar ½ cup soft butter ½ teaspoon vanilla ½ cup sour milk (milk with a teaspoon of vinegar works) ½ cup sour cream 1 tablespoon baking ammonia 5-1/2 cups flour Dissolve ammonia in milk. Mix all ingredients and let dough set overnight ina acool place. Roll dough to ½-inch thickness on heavily floured counter. Bake at 350-degrees for about 10 minutes. While warm, frost with powdered sugar frosting and sprinkle with color sugar or coconut. NOTE: you can color coconut by shaking it in a jelly jar with a little food coloring. Bake yourself some Christmas memories this year while in quarantine. Share those cookies with your neighbors and friends. You can do a “ring and run” to stay safe. But most of all, have a blessed Christmas holiday. Everyone of a certain age is familiar with the phrase, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Do you know where that came from? Did your mother permit you to eat all the apples you wanted? Did you go around and steal apples from neighbors trees, as I did?
Oh, probably, even if you don't admit it. We never had snacks growing up. Maybe if we were visiting someone who treated us now and then, but regularly, snacking was not in our vocabulary. We were expected to be at every meal, and we ate whatever my mother served, mostly because we were hungry little peeps. In between meals in the fall, we foraged for apples from trees easily assessable by short children. "An apple a day" probably came from a phrase coined in 1913 based on a Pembrokeshire proverb that originated in 1866. Notes and Queries magazine was the first to publish the original quote: "Eat an apple on going to bed, and you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread." So, the burning question, "is it true?" Well, maybe and maybe not, like most medical news you hear. One day it's good for you, the next day it isn't. Apples are good for you, eaten right off the tree. They contain vitamins and fiber and fulfill one of the five servings of daily fruits and vegetables. I love crabapples and the oldest varieties you can find. There's something about that wild taste that I find very appealing (pardon the pun). There are many different varieties of apples on the market. Some are better for eating, some are better for baking, and some are better left in the store. Red Delicious, you know who I am talking about. Baking apples should be tart to offset the amount of sugar in a pie or crisp. They also hold up to baking and don't become mush in the oven. Suitable apples for baking include: • Cameo • Cortland • Granny Smith • Jazz Some apples can be eaten fresh, and they hold up to baking. I love a crisp tart apple to eat and, at one time, made a point of running to the supermarket every noon and eating an apple. I have since become lax in my healthy habit. • Braeburn • Empire • Fuji • Golden Delicious • Honeycrisp • Pink Lady Of course, everyone loves Honeycrisp. Developed in Minnesota, Honeycrisp is a cultivated variety of apple developed at the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station's Horticultural Research Center at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Designated in 1974 with the MN 1711 test designation, patented in 1988, and released in 1991, the Honeycrisp, once slated to be discarded, has rapidly become a prized commercial commodity, as its sweetness, firmness, and tartness make it an ideal apple for eating raw."...The apple wasn't bred to grow, store or ship well. It was bred for taste: crisp, with balanced sweetness and acidity. (SOURCE: Wikipedia). A little pricey out of season, Apple Crisp are the best eating apples on the market. Okay, in my opinion. This is the apple season. Be sure and get out there and eat a few, bake a pie or freeze some for winter. Fall is apple season. While my friend, Diane, maintains it hasn't frosted hard enough yet to pick them off the trees, they are still readily available at your farmers market and in the supermarket. So, enjoy an apple or two today. It's pepper season at the farmers market. Peppers for pickles, salsa, stuffed peppers and jalapeno poppers are abundant at your local farmer's market this year.
There are 50,000 varieties of peppers ranging from the typical green pepper on grocery shelves year-round to Carolina Reapers. What set's peppers apart? The Scoville Heat Index, of course. Some people don't like peppers, and some people especially don't like hot peppers, and then there are the brave souls that dare to explore the high end of the Scoville Scale. First off, the Scoville Scale and Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) were named for scientist Wilbur Scoville in 1912 for measuring a chili pepper's pungency and heat. SHU represents the amount of capsaicin present. The higher the rating, the hotter the pepper. To determine the SHU, they mix an alcohol extract of capsaicin oil from a dried pepper. Then, they mix it with a solution of water and sugar. Nowadays, they determine the hotness of peppers by high-performance liquid chromatography. This test measures the chemical capsaicin in chili peppers. However, due to nostalgia, scientists still convert their results back into Scoville units. Green pepper score 0 on the scale and Reapers range from 1,500,000-2,200,000 SHU. What a difference that would make in your chili recipe. Whew. Some people can't even tolerate green peppers at 0, but usually it’s because of their stomach or the fact they do not like the sometimes-bitter taste of green pepper. That taste can be removed simply by peeling your pepper. How? Might you ask? Roasting. You can roast peppers on the grill, on your gas stove burners or under a broiler. Just heat at a high temperature until they are blackened all around. Place them in a paper bag and let them steam for a bit until cool enough to handle. Remove the core, seeds and stem, and you have a delightful pepper strip that can be used on a sandwich or chopped with some onion and tossed with olive oil and vinegar for a quick side dish. If you use the tri-color pepper packs you find at the store, and you will add some beautiful color to your plate. And peppers are good for you. Peppers have a lot going for them. They're low in calories and loaded with nutrition. All varieties are excellent sources of vitamins A and C, potassium, folic acid, and fiber. Peppers from the farmers market are fantastic. Cutting into a fresh-picked pepper means a potential squirt in the eye cutting through the crisp exterior to the juicy flesh. They also last a long time in your refrigerator. You can also freeze pepper for use during the winter months. I love jalapenos and leave most of my peppers on the vine until they turn a lovely red. Jalapeno jelly from red peppers is beautiful over cream cheese. And, who doesn't like poppers? If you can't stand the heat, there are jalapeno varieties with all the flavor and none of the heat. Another new favorite way to eat the abundant peppers is stuffed. Wait, don't like to make stuffed peppers, well make soup. Stuffed pepper soup is lovely and a one-pot meal on a busy evening. Just brown your hamburger with onions, and maybe celery, add chopped peppers, a jar of home-canned tomatoes, chicken stock and simmer away. Serve in bowls over rice. Your family will love it. Thursday, August 6 episode of Main Street Eats is all about pie. Listen on Prairie Public Radio between 3:30 and 4 p.m.
Yes, we love pie. It's the time of year that the peaches and cherries and blueberries and soon local apples will be picked right off the tree. If we don't grow it here, trucks are pulling through offering fresh fruits for the asking. Since COVID-19, many people are doing more baking and cooking at home – and watching movies.I love pie, and I love movies, and three of my favorite films reinforce the beauty of a well-baked pie. So if you love movies and you love pie, you should try and find these gems. 1. "Labor Day," with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin 2. "Michael," with John Travolta, Andie MacDowell and William Hurt. 3. "Waitress," with Keri Russel and Andy Griffith Of course, these are love stories topped with pie. You have never experienced sexy until you see Josh Brolin make a fresh peach pie. Whoooeeeee. While we are on the subject, here are a few tips to make a great pie. CRUST is everything in my book. Some people eat pie for the filling. I love crust. Making good pastry is an art. In high school, I made and sold apple pies to my mom's boss for $2.50 each, because he loved my crust. I have perfected my crust recipe over many years of making apple pie, but I also love rhubarb, blueberry and fresh peach pie. If you do not have a family crust recipe or have never made a pie before, I would highly recommend Ken Haedrich, the dean of the Pie Academy's videos and live broadcasts. You can find him at http://thepieacademy.com. Ken demonstrates and sells cookbooks and makes excellent savory pies, hand pies, slab pies and yes, even wide-mouth canning jar lid pies. Here are my tips for making a great pie crust.
My mom used a fork around the outside and made little lines. You can get as fancy as you wish. Create a woven lattice crust, etc. Remember, your pie might run over, especially if it finds a weak spot around the edge. Don't forget your pie needs to breathe, so cut some slits, poke holes with a fork, whatever you wish design-wise to create steam holes in the top crust. Sprinkle with sugar and 1. Freeze it till later 2. Bake it immediately. HOW YOU ASK? Place on a drip disc (find them at Amazon) in a 425° oven for about 15 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350° and continue to bake until you see that filling bubbling for at least 30 minutes. Remove, cool before cutting and eating. Last tip: Do not allow a frozen pie to thaw before placing in a hot oven. So have a piece of pie and watch a great movie about pie. Like my Grandpa always said, "Eat it now, 'cause when you get older, they start taking it away from you."  July means potato blooms and bugs. What do the Fourth of July and potato bugs have in commonIn my work capturing the German Russian food culture, holidays were part of farm life, but in a very different way than today. With the pandemic of 2020, many activities have been altered or canceled completely, so I thought it would be nice to remind you all of the way the Fourth used to be celebrated.
Nearly all the elders I interviewed said the same thing about the Fourth of July holiday. “We had to hoe the potatoes before we could go anywhere. Some families celebrated the Fourth at home. To top it off, those same little hands had to eliminate the potato beetles by picking them off the plants by hand. One person said their mom used to deal with bugs on potatoes and worms on cabbage by sprinkling flour over them. What they didn’t know was it was more than likely laced with Paris green. The Colorado potato beetle was successful eradicated around the 1860s with Paris green, an innovation in insecticide application, it was used with the first hand-operated compression sprayers, first wheel-drawn sprayers, first traction-operated dusters, first engine-operated sprayer and first air-blast sprayer (Gauthier et al., 1981). Potatoes were also one of the first crops to be treated by airplane. Many of those Depression farmers did not have the means or large enough fields to invest in air spraying, but they did have children. Delphine and Benjamin Vetter of Linton remember picking bugs off garden vegetable plants. Benjamin said, “We would use kerosene. Put it in a little pail and pick them and put them in there or else they would crawl out. You had to kill them somehow.” Hoeing those rows was done around the first two days or three days of the month or no body was allowed to go to Fourth of July Celebration. The Vetter’s had a celebration on their farm and as far as Benjamin could remember, it has been going on more than 75 years and draws up wards of 400 relatives to go horseback riding, cook outdoors, visit the cemetery and catch up. Ellen Tuttle who was close to 100 years old in 2013 recalls the excitement of getting up early on those holidays and to milk and get everything ready before hopping into the wagon hitched to the team of horses and traveling to Linton to celebrate. Of course, they had to be sure to head for home early enough to get the cows milked again. By the Fourth they chickens were big enough to have fried chicken for the celebration, she said. Donna Eszlinger recalls her aunt and uncle and her cousin lived a little way from their farm. They had a nice shelter belt and would invite her parents and another uncle for a picnic in the space amongst the trees. They would build a fire and roast hot dogs. Everyone would join in the baseball game, even the moms and dads. It was a nice time as she remembered with watermelon and ice cream. Her dad would chop out the ice from a big wooden cow tank filled with winter’s ice and kept insulated under straw in the coolest place in the yard. He would put the ice in a gunny sack and crush it so they could take turns with the hand cranked ice cream machine. After the potatoes were hoed ad the garden was weeded, Rose Voller Glas’ family would go to Strasburg for a parade of a few new cars. The kids would walk around and join in some races. For lunch, the family had ham sandwiches and cookies. “Molasses cookies at that time,” she said. “When times were really poor, we would get molasses to feed the cattle and to put on the calves feed from the government. It was kind of a commodity and so then that’s what they got when we went to the Fourth of July.” Rose’s sister said there were some fireworks. Just the small firecrackers on a string that you took off one at a time. They weren’t dangerous, well unless we threw them at each other. They did make noise. Today, most children wouldn’t be too involved in hoeing before going to the fourth of July parade, but potato bugs still should be deterred before they destroy your crop. A couple of things help prevent infestation (potato bugs can reproduce three times in a season):
Good luck with your potatoes and have a safe Fourth of July.  Yes, that's me harvesting dandelions for soap. You see them everywhere in late spring. Fields of yellow blossoms waving in the sun and warmth of coming summer. The word must be out. Bees need dandelions. More and more people are allowing at least one crop of dandelions to gracefully age into white-headed ladies before casting their future into the air and dying.
It’s a good thing for pollinators, but dandelions are also good in many other ways as well. If you are harvesting dandelion root, you will see earthworms gather around dandelion roots for it is a natural humus producer. Humus with one “M” is not the chickpea-kind you eat with fresh veggies. Humus is soil with an ecosystem and is the ultimate goal of most people who grow. Of course, I am not going to plant dandelions in the garden, they proliferate on their own quite quickly. But I do appreciate dandelions for their benefits. My favorite uses are soap and dying, but I have eaten their young leaves. It’s taken a few years, but my husband now allows them to grow freely. In many cultures, the herb Dandelion was more highly valued than a green lawn. While I realize I revisit the Dandelion every spring, it’s important information in light of the ever-declining bee population. Dandelions are a common member of the sunflower family and there are about 100 species. Like sunflowers, you may have noticed dandelions open with the sun and close down overnight to sleep. The serrated leaves reminded someone of a lion, hence the French name “dent de lion” or lion’s tooth. I have never been that close to a lion so I cannot attest to that description. Dandelions are survivors and spread like wildfire. They do not need to be pollinated to form seeds to survive even though insects and bees consume the nectar or seed of these yellow beauties. Because I love folklore and such, you should recognize the three celestial bodies of the dandelion. The flower represents the sun, the puff ball resembles the moon and the seeds floating away on a summer breeze (in North Dakota, it’s flat line 100-mile-an-hour wind) represent the stars in the sky. Also, three parts of the dandelion are useful and edible. The leaves can be eaten when young as bitter greens in salads or frittatas. Also, the leaves make good tea. The root can be dried and ground and used as a coffee substitute. Green leaves can be mixed with basil and made into pesto with a healthy kick. Blossoms can be dipped in egg white and fried or taken off the bitter pod and sprinkled over salad and such. Yes, that’s a lot of work. But if you have small children, they are attracted to the dandelion anyway. What mother hasn’t received a dandelion bouquet in her lifetime. Do you ever try to grow something that just doesn’t perform well? It may be you or it might be it’s been planted next to something it doesn’t like. Yes, plants either love each other or hate each other.
The elder gardeners in my family always planted marigold borders around the garden to ward of pests. It works, but they have to be thick and planted annually to be effective. Maybe hate is a strong or wrong word for plants. There is some truth to the fact that some plants fare better when interplanted or planted next to complimentary plants. For instance – I have small garden beds, the first garden we dug after we got married some 13 years ago and planted French intensive to utilize the space. The garlic was planted next to the peas. Of course, they performed, but after researching companion planting I found that garlic and onions hinder the growth of peas and beans. Sometimes things like seem like old wife’s tales, but the book called “Carrots love Tomatoes,” by Louise Riotte, gives scientific facts about how plants either thrive next to each other. You know that motivational speakers recommend hanging out with like-minded positive people, well the same is true with plants. Carrots love tomatoes and tomatoes love basil. Sometimes you can pair up your plants according to culinary taste. Everyone loves tomato and basil combos so it makes sense that they will grow well together. Beans also benefit from carrots. Lettuce also grows well with carrots and radishes grown with lettuce are supposed to be more succulent. Diversified plants are beneficial to warding off plants’ insect enemies. By planting multiple rows of various companion plants or interspersing plants in a single row will confuse insects seeking their favorite tasty treat. Native American agrarians planted Three Sisters gardens for good reason. It was a method of companion planting at best. And, the corn, beans and squash made a nutrient rich dish when prepared together. These three plants grew symbiotically to deter pests, weeds, enrich the soil and naturally support each other. (we can investigate this at a later date). That being said, in a nutshell, the benefits of companion planting are:
When people ask me about planting in straight rows, I simply say, “God doesn’t plant in straight rows so why should I?” In addition to being of benefit to your garden, Louise’ book has so much more information that would be helpful to maintain your garden organically. I’m so sorry I let it collect so much dust on the shelve before I really read it.  It's Mother's Day COVID style. It's not that I mind being home alone, but it should be appropriate that my children spend little time with me. I am, after all, the only mother they have. They may have had other women in their lives that meant as much to them like me, or maybe even more, but you cannot change who your mother is - can you?
Sorry, it's not so bad. There are FaceTime calls, and supper plans and a Sunday afternoon nap in the works. But, with the cold fierce wind and social distancing, I was missing my mom today in the worst way. So I made one. That's correct, I made a "grossmuther" doll as a surrogate mother/grandmother. She's lumpy and doesn't yet have a face or shoes, but she's wearing a dress from fabric my mother purchased when she was quilting. I inherited it. But, that's not all of the gifts from my mom and grandmother. When Covid19 hoarding began, I said to JC, "aren't you glad I am prepared?" I had no immediate need to run to the store and buy toilet paper, flour and yeast. These are a few of the staples in my pantry, along with bleach, vinegar, sugar, oatmeal, coffee, whole grains for grinding, flax seed, etc. etc. etc. My mother was a prepper, and my grandmother grew up in an era of preparedness. There was no running to town every time you are out of something. You either made due or didn't do it at all. My mother was also a master at opening up the cupboard and creating something to eat from whatever was available. I love to do that. There are times that I do get a little tired of similar dishes and make a list, go to the grocery store and have a party buying things I don't usually cook with. But for the most part, if push comes to shove, I would be able to create the things that my ancestors thrived on in the great Depression. We are sooooo much better off. Yet, we still complain. I miss my mom more than I thought I would, so if you have yours around, tell her what she means to you today. I am so blessed to have my grandchildren close enough to see whenever I wish. Granddaughter Lucy and brother, Oliver, were out here a couple of weeks ago, just hanging out. We took a garden tour because it was much nicer a few weeks ago than it will be this week, ugh. I want to plant my garden so bad and I have to be patient because it's just not time. I said to Lucy, "well, I didn't take a shower today, how does my hair look?" She thought a moment and then said, "like a doll." And, you know what, she's right. My hair is like a Barbie Doll's hair. The more you comb it the wilder it gets. I have had to live with that nearly my whole life. I am sure wondering what it will be like when it's all over gray and even finer than it is today. My mom's mom, Emma, had fine white hair. She used to pin it in circles on her head crossed with two bobby pins (for those of you who do not know what a bobby pin is... Google it). Before the whole family arrived for a holiday or church, she would pull out those pins and fluff it up and it looked kinda like my new doll's hair. Oh, how I miss them and my Aunt Alice and a few other people who are "in a better place." And, without further rambling, I hold this in my heart - an old German saying, "until we meet again in heaven." Have a wonderful Mother's Day. PS: here is a post I wrote for Mother's Day in 2011 - it's cute and about my son. |