The Farmer's Wife

Pie Crusts Part 3

July 11, 2013 · Filed under Baking, Pie · Tagged Pie

Here is the final part of the 3 part series on pie crust. The first part can be found here, and the second here.

June 1983

For a fitting climax to this 3- part series on pies, I went to the queen supreme of pie bakers, Eleanor Manning, for advice. Her pies have melt- in- your- mouth goodness and the crusts are tender layers of flaky goodness. Behind her stretches a lifetime of pies, and she’s still going strong. Apple, cherry, rhubarb, custard, lemon meringue – name the pie and Eleanor has made it.

“Surely she has a carefully guarded secret for perfect pies,” I thought.

When I asked her, “How do you make such perfect crusts?” Eleanor quickly went to the kitchen and returned carrying her old high school home ec book, Basic Principles of Domestic Science, by Lilla Frich. The cover was worn and bespattered. The pages perilously loose, but the recipes were all still there – having served a lifetime dating from Eleanor’s marriage in 1917 when she was only eighteen years old.

While Glenn ran a dairy farm Eleanor cooked for hired men and her three children, Norman, Martha and Elizabeth, plus friends and relatives they collected from far and wide.

In the community she was active in Eastern Star and went through all the offices. She was a devoted member of the Christian Church and the Ladies Aid Society and helped by tying comforts and quilting.

Eleanor and Glenn loved to travel and went to every state of the union, Canada three times, to Nassau, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Europe, Nova Scotia, and Mexico many times. They often drove in a camper.

When they weren’t working or traveling they were square dancing or having fun. Eleanor has a rare gift of friendship and their home overflowed with guests, both family and friends.

They spent many summers in Colorado – often with some of their 10 grandchildren and their young friends. They all knew grandma would welcome them with open arms and feed the whole gang. In the winter for the past ten years they went to Texas where in 1982 they celebrated their 65th anniversary of marriage.

After Glenn’s death last year Eleanor has lived at their home in Sedgwick where she leads an active life and entertains often. Even though she tragically lost two grandchildren in the prime of their life she perseveres and is an inspiration to those who know her.

When asked her secret for such a rich, full life Eleanor replies, “We worked hard and drank lots of orange and grapefruit juice. We were always ready to take up anything we wanted to do.”

PIE CRUST

1 ½ cup flour ½ cup lard or Crisco

3 tablespoons water, cold ½ teaspoon salt

Sift flour before measuring. Mix flour and salt. Cut fat in with pastry blender or rub shortening in with hands (I prefer my hands). Add cold water. Combine lightly to form a ball of pastry. This makes one 2-crust pie or two 1-crust shells.

Bake at temperature called for in pie recipe.

LEMON MERINGUE PIE

Filling: 1 cup sugar 3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup boiling water Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon

2 egg yolks

Meringue: 2 egg whites 2 tablespoons sugar

Directions for filling: Mix sugar and cornstarch. Add boiling water. Cook until clear and thick. Add beaten egg yolks, lemon juice, butter and rind. Cook for a minute or two. Pour into baked shell.

Directions for meringue: Beat whites until stiff. Add sugar gradually. Spread over filling to edges. Brown at 350° until delicately colored.

COCONUT CREAM PIE

Filling: 2 cups milk ½ cup sugar

2 or 3 eggs, depending on size 3 tablespoons cornstarch

½ cup coconut

Meringue: 2 eggs whites 2 tablespoons sugar

Extra coconut

Filling: Combine sugar and cornstarch. Add milk. Cook until thick. Add to beaten yolks (save whites). Add coconut. Cook another minute or two. Pour into baked shell.

Meringue: Beat whites until stiff. Add sugar gradually. Spread on pie. Sprinkle with coconut. Brown lightly in 350° oven.

CUSTARD PIE

2 eggs 1/3 cup sugar

2 cups milk Nutmeg

Beat eggs and sugar. Add milk. Pour into unbaked shell. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes. Turn oven down to 350° to finish. Bake until jiggly in middle. No exact time. Be careful not to overbake.

Leave a comment »

Make your own flour

July 5, 2013 · Filed under Nutrition, Wheat

If only I had the space to grow my own wheat… July 1979 So much field work is being done by local farmers that the landscape along the road changes each time I go to town. What was a gold plated expanse of wheat in the morning is nothing but a short stubble by early afternoon and then transformed to a soft brown carpet of disced earth by nightfall. Resounding in the air is the throb of trucks, tractors and combines as working hours are extended almost indefinitely in order to take advantage of favorable weather conditions. Now in the middle of all the other household and garden work pressing to be done is the time to take some covered containers to the field to fill with wheat fresh from the combine. If it is kept in a fairly cool place the wheat can be used for flour and cereal until next harvest. The flavor of products made from home grown wheat is excellent and the nutritive quality is unsurpassed. It would be great to have a home flour mill, which is available on the market, but if you don’t, a good blender can make both wheat cereal and flour. To do so, wash a quart or two of wheat. Remove the chaff that floats to the top and dry thoroughly. It usually requires several hours to dry. If you want to make whole wheat flour, put ½ cup of dry wheat in a blender and turn to a high speed. You will get almost 1 cup of flour. Feel the texture with your fingers and continue until the flour feels quite smooth but with some crunchiness left in it. Continue making flour until blender gets hot, then stop and wait for it to cool down. Make only enough for immediate use, since this flour will be free of preservatives. Consequently, its shelf life is short. The finished product is not as fine textured as whole wheat flour in the stores but it makes bread with a wonderful satisfying flavor. To prepare wheat to eat as a cereal proceed the same way as for flour but stop the blender when the grains have been cracked several times. Some will be fine and some coarse. Stir into boiling salted water and simmer for twenty minutes. Serve warm with light cream and brown sugar. This can also be enjoyed at dinner or supper as a paste or potato replacement.
Whole Wheat Bread Sticks
	2 cups white flour	2 cups milk
	1 cup oatmeal	2 eggs
	1 tablespoon sugar	2 tablespoons fat
	2 teaspoons salt	2 tablespoons molasses
	1 pkg. dry yeast	4 cups whole wheat flour
Mix first five ingredients in large mixing bowl. Scald milk. Cool to 115 to 120°. Add milk, eggs, fat, and molasses to dry ingredients. Beat on medium speed 10 minutes. Remove beaters. Add more wheat flour stirring it in with a spoon until too stiff to handle. Turn out on bread board and knead for 5 minutes. Set to rest in a bowl. Cover with damp towel and keep at about 80° for 1 ½ to 2 hours. Punch down. Divide in 3 or 4 parts. Cover with damp towel. Let rest 10 minutes. Roll each piece out on a lightly floured board to ½ inch thickness. Cut in strips 5 inches long and 1/3 inch wide. Put on greased cookie sheets. Let rise at room temperature for 1 hour. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes or until brown. Remove from pan and cool on cake racks. Eat as is or return to 325° oven and bake until hard and crisp. Store in air tight containers or plastic bags.These are good served with cheese, fruit and milk. As a snack for children they are tops in nutrition. Kids will eat them instead of cookies which are too full of fat and sugar to be eaten as a regular part of the diet.

Comments (1) »

Pie Crusts Part 2

June 26, 2013 · Filed under Pie · Tagged Pie

Below is an article from May 1983. It is part 2 of a series on pies and pie crusts. The first part can be found here.

May 1983

After giving three basic recipes for the old- fashioned type of pie crust last month, crusts made with shortening, flour and water, I began to think of some of the new types of crusts that are widely used. Included in these would be oil, meringue, graham cracker or vanilla wafer, and a shortbread type of crust.

Each of these crusts has advantages – either in ease of preparation or in having just the right characteristic for a particular type of pie. For some, a recipe using oil is preferred since the crust is pressed into the pan instead of being rolled out. The mess of flouring a board and rolling pin is avoided.

No-Roll Sweet Pie Shell

1/3 cup margarine

½ cup sugar

1 egg yolk

1 cup unsifted flour

Cream margarine and sugar with electric mixer. Add egg yolk and beat. Stir in flour. Press mixture into bottom and up sides of 9-inch pie pan. Prick surface with fork. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes or until light brown. Cool. Makes 1 pie shell.

No- Roll Oil Pie Shell

1 ½ cup sifted flour

2 teaspoons sugar

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup oil

2 tablespoons milk

Combine dry ingredients. Add milk and oil all at once. Stir with a fork until a ball of dough forms. Press into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie pan. Flute edges. Prick with fork. Chill for 30 minutes. Bake at 425° for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 1 pie shell.

Tart Shell

1 cup butter or margarine

½ cup sugar

2 cups sifted flour

Cream butter and sugar. Add flour. Stir into a ball. Roll out and cut with round cookie cutter to line muffin pans. Bake at 325° for 15 minutes – just to a faint tinge of brown. Cool. Remove from pans. Fill.

Makes 24 shells. This recipe will also make 2 regular pie shells or provide the base for a desert made in a 9×13- inch pan.

Meringue Pie Shell

3 egg whites

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

1/8 teaspoon salt

¾ cup sugar

Beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until foamy/ Add sugar slowly, beating all the time. Beat until peaks form. Spread meringue over the bottom and up the side of a well buttered 9-inch pan. Bake at 275° for 1 hour. Cool on rack. This can be used many ways. I like it filled with whipped cream and strawberries.

Comments (3) »

Ice Cream and the Vineyard

June 19, 2013 · Filed under Ice Cream, Travels

My grandmother loved ice cream and wrote of it often in her columns. Below she describes an interesting ice cream shop that I plan on visiting again next week at the Vineyard.

June 1980

A feature story in Time last month covered in detail Americans’ passion for ice cream which reaches its peak in the New England states. They lead the nation in per capita consumption of the sweet confection. Having just spent two weeks in Connecticut and Massachusetts my farmer and I know that New Englanders do, indeed, have this addiction.

Ice cream stores are everywhere to tempt one with their delightful delicacies. One day I polished off 4 double dip cones, each with 2 different flavors of ice cream because I couldn’t choose which one of the beguiling flavors I wanted to lick for my own personal gustatory pleasure. To be perfectly objective I tried all of my top eight favorites and left the rest to be sampled on other days.

It was during the week spent on Martha’s Vineyard, an island 23 miles long and 7 miles wide, located in the Atlantic Ocean about an hours boat ride from Woods Hole, Massachusetts, that I came face to face with the Cadillac of the ice cream business – Mad Martha’s Ice Cream Store.

The owner was driven to writing poetry on his walls to express himself lyrically on the epicurean delight he offered in his store. His listed 35 flavors ranged from plain vanilla to an exotic mixture called heavenly hash. He also specialized in some distinctly peculiar flavors.

I sampled Large Mouth Bass ice cream made, as he bragged, with only the freshest vineyard fish. After tasting this, I personally, would just as soon eat pickled pigs feet ice cream. Wiser from this revolting experience I steered clear of quahog chowder ice cream, chicken noodle ice cream, (boasting the finest white meat of Perdue chicken) and bubble gum ice cream with a wad in every cone.

The store’s prize listing was advertised as a pig’s dinner which you ordered by oinking. It was billed as 1 dozen scoops of ice cream, 2 bananas, hosed down with whipped cream, many cherries, and a nose full of nuts – all this for $9.95.

This type of humor was working. It looked as if every one of the numerous visitors who land on the island daily came in for ice cream.

Getting away from the temptations of the coastal town we decided the island didn’t have much potential for farmland. The sandy soil was covered with scrubby oak trees, beach plums and salt grass. Also, it is a little expensive to farm – the going price is $20,000 an acre. Jackie Onassis had bought 300 acres more or less and built a palatial home on it last year.

In the early days the people on the island made their money from shipping and later the towns and harbors became centers for the whaling industry. The land itself was devoted to grazing sheep and raising grapes for wine.

The greatest attraction now is the ocean and the fragile beauty of the countryside. The bays and inlets are alive with sailing craft and the beaches are full of people when the sun shines.

For me I found the ocean fun, but so cold it took most of the afternoon to muster enough courage to go in. Then when I was in, the rolling waves had a bad habit of knocking me down. On the last day I learned to ride a giant size inner tube through the waves and was beginning to feel like an old salt when it was time to say farewell to the beach and ocean and return to gloriously green Kansas, where the milo had grown a foot taller in our absence.

Leave a comment »

Healthy Family Eating

June 12, 2013 · Filed under Chicken, Nutrition

This article from June 1979 contains advice that is still very relevant today, avoid processed junk foods and stick to whole foods as much as possible. There is also a nice chicken stew recipe at the end. June 1979 Balancing the food budget and a family’s nutritional needs can be a tricky proposition these days. If you add family food preferences the balancing act becomes even more precarious. Complicating the problem even further are the TV hucksters who convince the kids that this overpriced, highly sugared cereal or that chemical ridden soft drink is essential for them to eat or drink if they are going to pass the third grade and become a fourth grade beauty queen or football hero. What is a mother to do short of jumping off a bridge, running away from home or letting the offspring consume what they want until their hair and teeth fall out from malnutrition? First, decide that you are the family’s nutritional food expert in charge of the food budget in your own household. Be sure to check your credentials and see that they are in order for this big assignment. Remember if junk food is not in the refrigerator and cupboards, it will not be eaten – at least while the kids are home. Of course, if you take the family off junk food you have to cook good meals 3 times a day. One plan for a nutritional main meal is to use a pattern of serving broiled, grilled or baked meat, a potato prepared without grease or oil, a plain or cream cooked vegetable and a leafy salad accompanied by whole wheat bread with milk for a beverage. At the present time potatoes are cheap and contain high grade carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins. Canned vegetables are less expensive now than frozen. Fresh carrots are much better buys than canned or frozen ones. Celery and lettuce supply food fiber at low cost. Of course, home grown products are the best of all. Another way to serve a good meal at a reasonable cost is to use a casserole for the main item containing ingredients from all 4 food groups such as meat or fish, complementary vegetables, cheese topping and a crust of pasta base. There is a pitfall to beware of in casserole recipes in popular cookbooks. Many of our current recipes were originally put out by soup companies and feature cans of prepared soup which increase the cost and at the same time reduce the food value. Try to find recipes using basic ingredients. A homemade white sauce can be substituted for cream soups in casseroles.
Farmer’s Chicken Stew or Pie
	2 ½ cups chicken stock	1 cup sliced carrots
	1 cup chopped celery	1 cup diced potatoes
	½ cup chopped onion	1 package, 10 oz. frozen peas
	1 teaspoon salt	¼ teaspoon pepper
	2 cups milk	½ cup flour
	2 ½ cups cooked cut up chicken
Bring chicken stock, carrots, celery, potatoes, onion, salt and pepper to a boil and cook 5 minutes. Add peas. Cook 5 minutes. Slowly add flour beating to remove lumps. Slowly add flour mixture to hot chicken stock and vegetables stirring constantly until thickened. Add chicken. As a chicken stew this can be served plain or over toast, cornbread squares or biscuits. 2 ½ cups cooked beef and 2 ½ cups beef stock may be substituted for the chicken if desired. For a chicken pie prepare this topping:
	½ cup all purpose flour	1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
	¼ teaspoon salt	½ cup rolled oats
	1 egg, beaten	1 tablespoon melted shortening
	½ cup milk
Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Add oats, egg, shortening and milk. Pour stew in a 2 ½ quart casserole. Spoon topping over hot base. Bake at 425° 20 to 25 minutes. This is a complete meal and a strawberry sundae would be a perfect ending.

Leave a comment »

National Dairy Month

June 5, 2013 · Filed under Farming

This article from June 1982 celebrates National Dairy month. Enjoy a glass of milk while you read about the work that goes into getting it there. There is also an added recipe at the end that goes nicely with milk. June 1982 June is Dairy Month. We are so accustomed to seeing the dairy case filled with reasonably priced milk that most of us take it for granted. Few people realize that behind the scenes is a complicated set of marketing problems that must be solved in order to provide consumers with an adequate supply of fresh dairy products. Since the demand for milk varies from season to season it appears on the surface it would be simple to produce milk only when it is needed. It isn’t. Unfortunately, dairy cows are temperamental creatures who hate cold, wet weather and love warm, sunny days. They like to freshen in the spring, feast on lush green pastures, lie in the shade and give torrents of milk just when school is out and the lemonade and soft drink season hits the whole country. Result: less demand for milk at the time more milk is being produced. This situation has long been a problem of the dairy Co-ops who constantly work to even out the yearly supply of milk and, at the same time, have the dairy cases full when the consumer is ready to drink more milk. Behind every tanker truck of milk you pass on the highway are several dairy families who get up early 365 days a year, slosh out to the barn in the rain or snow or early sun to get in the cows, wash the udder, and start the milking machines. Since no one has bred a profitable one- time- a- day milking cow the whole process of preparation, feeding, milking and clean- up is repeated again in the afternoon. It doesn’t matter if it’s graduation day, a wedding in the family, or Christmas. To the cows each day is the same. Family vacations are a problem since cows definitely prefer milkers to whom they are accustomed. Often the family takes no vacation or arranges for some member to stay behind and milk, which partially spoils the fun for the ones vacationing. When you buy a gallon of clean, health- giving milk say a silent word of thanks to the people who have chosen dairying as a way of life. They’ll keep right on making personal sacrifices in order to keep the barn conditions serene and the milking schedule regular for that most temperamental of all prima donnas – the dairy cows.
Beef/Corn Bread Casserole
Casserole:	8 ounces lean ground beef	2/3 cup chopped onions
	¼ cup sliced pitted ripe olives	¼ cup catsup
	1 teaspoon chili powder	½ teaspoon salt
	1/8 teaspoon garlic powder	1 cup all-purpose flour
	1 cup yellow corn meal	2 tablespoons sugar
	4 teaspoons baking powder	½ teaspoon salt
	1 cup milk	¼ cup ( ½ stick) butter, melted
	1 egg, slightly beated	1 ½ cups fresh corn kernels (3 to 4 ears) OR 1 can (12 oz.) whole kernel corn, drained
	8 slices (8 oz.) Monterey Jack cheese
Sauce:	1 can (16 oz.) tomatoes, undrained	2 tablespoons tomato paste
	¼ cup chopped celery	¼ cup chopped green pepper
	2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce	1 bay leaf
	½ teaspoon salt	½ teaspoon sugar
	1/8 teaspoon pepper
For casserole, cook meat and onion in skillet until meat is browned and crumbly; drain off excess fat. Stir in olives, catsup and seasonings. Cook and stir 2 minutes; set aside. Preheat oven to 400° F. Combine flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder and salt in mixing bowl. Add milk, butter, and egg. Stir just until all ingredients are moistened. Stir in corn until combined. Place half of the meat mixture over batter. Place 5 slices of cheese over meat. Cover with remaining batter and meat mixture. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Cut remaining cheese slices into 2 triangles each. Place cheese over meat. Return to oven just until cheese is melted. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes before serving. Meanwhile, for sauce, combine all ingredients in medium-sized saucepan. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf. To serve, cut corn bread mixture in squares; spoon sauce over each serving. Serve with a green salad, milk and ice cream for dessert. The bland coolness of dairy products will cool the palate after a zesty main dish.

Leave a comment »

The Sewing Area

May 29, 2013 · Filed under Sewing

Cleaning out a sewing drawer, closet or room is always a special project. I find fabric scraps and come up with new ideas of what to make. I always find a few unfinished projects, disappointed that I never finished them, I come away with a new resolve to finish them. And hope they are done by the next cleaning.

May 1984

To clean out sewing drawers is to review the last twenty years of one’s life. Here are all the bits and pieces left over from the small everyday jobs and the big mind- boggling projects. Each has a special significance.

As I open the bottom drawer I see a jumble of blue denim material torn from the back of overall legs. They’ve been saved to patch worn out overall knees. How hard it used to be to keep ahead of the fine assortment of holes three active boys and one farmer could generate without even blinking an eye.

Here is some pretty pink wool from a suit one of the girls made in home ec sewing class under Mrs. Bender.

Along with most other sewing drawers in Sedgwick, a red pleated pep club skirt is quietly awaiting the sounding of the last trumpet.

This heavy white cotton lace dress was worn and loved for years. Maybe it can be recycled into another life as a pillow top.

At the bottom of the drawer is an apron made by an eight- year- old daughter in her first year of 4-H. Here is the plaid wool material from Melinda’s last try to win the county 4-H style show. As was her annual fate, she ended a finalist but not the winner. This pink quilted polyester material is left over from a bathrobe Joy made me for Christmas. Ten years later I’m still wearing it even though a new ready- made one hangs untouched in the closet.

In the next drawer is a plastic bag full of scraps from the bridesmaids’ dresses at Beth’s wedding sixteen years ago. I still am compelled to save them. They would make such good doll clothes. Now, if only the supply of small granddaughters holds out until there is time to make them.

Here at the back is a pink, double knit shift with white braid that was never hemmed. The style went out of fashion before I got in gear.

In the top drawer holding smaller items I counted: 7 thimbles, 4 tracing wheels, 33 cards of buttons, 43 spools of thread and a broken seam ripper, my most valued tool in its prime.

There is a pile of old patterns, a boxful of zippers, and a Mountain Mist roll of quilt batting.

I carefully sorted through all this plus 10 times more, items I won’t enumerate. For two days I worked, ironed all the material and sorted it into neat stacks, separated the straight pins from the safety pins and sorted out the laces and rufflings.

I felt very smug and organized and resolved to keep the sewing supplies neat for the rest of my life even if I had to give up sewing to do it.

Then Melinda stopped by on her way home from work.

“Mom, I need a one- inch white button and some seam binding to finish the shirt I’m making,” she said as she hurriedly headed for the now immaculate sewing drawers.

“Stop! I shouted, “Don’t touch a thing in those drawers. It’s all organized and neat and I don’t want anything messed up. Let me get what you want.”

As I opened the drawer I brazenly hinted for a compliment. “Doesn’t it look just wonderful,” I inquired and waited expectantly for my well earned praise.

“Oh, I like the drawers best when they were nice and messy,” Melinda replied. “Then I knew if I rummaged around long enough I could find almost anything I wanted.”

TYPESETTERS NOTE: Leftover scraps provide a good reason for family and group gatherings! With “all hands” working together on that “special” quilt or pillow, it can be a real fun time. And the end product made from pieces once worn by members of the family makes a never to be forgotten keepsake.

Leave a comment »

Class Reunions

May 25, 2013 · Filed under Stories · Tagged Class reunion, Great Depression

Reunions are a time for reconnecting and reminiscing. This article from May 1988 has some interesting stories reflecting the difficulties of going to school during the Great Depression.

Reunions Gives us Pause for Reflection

In the months of May and June school reunions blossom everywhere as thick as dandelions in a bluegrass lawn. Everyone you meet has just got back from a reunion or is preparing to go to one.

Planning to attend a school reunion is a big part of the fun. Months ahead of time weight- loss diets are reactivated. (Who wants to look as if they had spent the years since graduation in a rate-of-gain contest?) Stylish clothes are purchased. A new car is bought or the old one polished up. As the time to leave grows near, an appointment is made for a complete rejuvenation at a beauty shop. No effort is too great to achieve the successful alumni look. Everyone tries to put his best foot forward for the big event.

What is behind this current infatuation with reunions? For one thing, reunions serve as markers or milestones in our lives. They also bring back memories of what used to be. They let us reach out again and touch once more those who were a vital part of our lives in long- gone school days.

Looking at reunions from a practical viewpoint, modern transportation has made it easier for more people to return to their old stomping grounds. The more out-of-town alumni that get back, the more fun is had in sharing memories.

The act of remembering the past together has a therapeutic effect. Memory casts a haze over the bad times of our school years.

We fondly recall the teachers who inspired us to go out and meet the world head on and forget the ones who bored us stiff with their long lectures and corny jokes.

We remember the school musicals and plays, the athletic victories, the happy times with our friends.

We forget the long hours spent trying to understand geometry, the agony of not having the right clothes to wear, the anguish of not being invited to a special party,

At reunions we greet old classmates we haven’t seen since graduation with so much warmth and affection we surprise ourselves at the depth of our feelings. We forgive old enemies and can’t even remember what caused our hostility in the first place. We feel a deep comradeship with all who shared our youth.

We cherish each moment and wish the euphoria of the day would last forever. Joy is in the air, waiting to be inhaled and savored to the last breath. The halcyon days of youth are recalled, the long ago events that, in retrospect, seem to have happened yesterday.

Reunions also give us a chance to take inventory of our own lives and secretly compare our accomplishments with those of our classmates. Reunions provide us with an opportunity to brag about our children and grandchildren. Modesty requires us to play down our own career achievements and not to ever, ever, mention the size of our bank account. But we are free to talk about the younger members of our families and list their achievements with quiet pride.

Two weeks ago I went to the reunion of the College of Emporia and Emporia State University students who had graduated before 1943. At a small luncheon on the last day, the alumni present were asked to tell what we had done in the years since we had stood in line, hearts beating fast under our long black robes, to receive our degree.

The men almost always began the summary of their lives with a remembrance of an athletic event or a dormitory prank, progressed on to tell of their careers in the business and professional world (not a failure among them) and finally mentioned their wives and children. The women told first of our children and husbands and then got around to our careers.

Since everyone there had lived through the Great Depression, the talk kept returning to the many economies we had practiced while getting our education.

“In my senior year I walked three miles every afternoon regardless of the weather,” one classmate recalled, “to do my practice teaching at Lowther Junior High School away down on 6th Street. A city bus ran right by the college to downtown, but the fare was a nickel and I didn’t have one to spare on such frivolity. In those days nickels were as scarce as a million dollar winning number in a lottery is today.”

We topped each other in telling stories of hard times and low wages. The winner was the man who told this story.

“When I graduated from high school,” he said, “the college offered me a working scholarship and the opportunity to play football. I did campus maintenance work (an euphemism for mowing lawns and shoveling snow) and got 25 cents an hour. Good wages for the times. Only the college kept 20 cents to apply on my tuition bill and paid me five cents an hour. On the football field I played my heart out for the dear old college. Then after I graduated the authorities refused to release my transcript until I paid the $200 they said I still owed them. I took a job on a railroad gang and labored through all the long hot summer to get the $200. I had the satisfaction of walking into the treasurer’s office and paying off the debt in one- dollar bills and walking out again with the transcript in my hand.”

Yes, school and class reunions are a time for renewal of old friendships, for recollections of past moments of glory and defeat, for sober reflections on the fleetingness of all things in life, and for staunch resolutions to make the most of the time left to us on this old planet, Earth. Long may they flourish.

Leave a comment »

Too Much Learning

May 16, 2013 · Filed under Gardening

Interesting thoughts from May 16, 1985. I have similar feelings about many things. Things I wish I’d never learned: How to peel asparagus to make the bottom part of the stalk edible. Thanks to Julia Child in the Sunday magazine I now feel guilty when I throw away the tough part of the stalk and feel even worse when I stand at the sink peeling away to gain two more inches of usable asparagus. How to paint a ceiling. How to mend sox. If I’d never started Pa wouldn’t be so upset by the sock mending moratorium I’ve declared. Things I wish others would learn: I wish Luke, our watch dog, would learn to leave skunks strictly alone. Or if he insists on being friendly with them he would soothe his injured feelings somewhere else than in the garage right by the kitchen door. Things I wish I’d learn: How much work a vegetable garden a half block square is. How to expand time. That grandchildren have more energy than I do. To walk right past a bargain and keep going. Recently I spotted the most wonderful bargain ever – 1984 garden seed marked down to two cents a package. Most of the seed was mustard greens, but what the heck! I grew up in the depression and can eat anything, though I’d never tried mustard greens. On the nutrition charts they show an enormous amount of vitamin A and hardly any calories so I bought three packets. That seed may have been old, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t fertile. Everyone of those microscopic black little fellows sprouted and fell in love with our sandy loam and took off growing. Oh, they were beautiful plants – a soft pale green with an adorable ruffled edge. In almost no time at all I cut some and cooked up a mess of greens. After dousing them with vinegar I tasted them. Without a doubt those mustard greens were the bitterest thing ever grown. Out they went to the compost pile. Since that, a friend told me that I should have drained the greens and put them in a skillet and them again with some bacon. I’m going to try her method, but just in case you are a mustard green lover, give me a call. The second and third planting will soon be ready. Here are a few rhubarb recipes this week:
Rhubarb Bread
	1 egg	1 ½ cup brown sugar
	6 tablespoons margarine, melted	1 cup sour cream
	2 tablespoons milk	1 teaspoon vanilla
	1 ¼ cup white flour	1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour
	1 teaspoon baking soda	¼ teaspoon salt
	1 ½ cups diced raw rhubarb
Beat sugar and egg. Add margarine, sour cream, milk and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients. Beat into first mixture. Fold in rhubarb.Pour batter into a greased and floured 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Bake at 325 degrees or 1 hour or until done. Cool. Yield: 10 slices
Rhubarb Sauce
Wash, cut off leaves and stem end of rhubarb. Cut into ½ inch pieces. Use half as much sugar as fruit. Add small amount water and cook until soft. If desired, flavor with grated and rind of orange.Another method is to boil 2 cups sugar and 1 cup water, add 4 cups rhubarb and simmer until rhubarb is tender.Hint: Pour boiling water over rhubarb. Let stand 5 minutes, drain, and use less sugar.
Baked Rhubarb
Place 2 cups sugar and 4 cups sliced rhubarb in baking dish. Cover. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
Rhubarb with Berries
Use equal parts of cut rhubarb and any fresh berry. Add sugar to taste. Let stand 1 or more hours. Heat slowly until sugar is dissolved. Cook until rhubarb is tender. Cool and serve.Raspberries, strawberries or mulberries may be used.
Rhubarb with Pineapple
Use equal parts of diced rhubarb and fresh diced pineapple. Add 1 ½ cups sugar to 4 cups fruit. Let stand 1 or more hours. Heat until sugar is dissolved. Cook until tender. Cool and serve.

Leave a comment »

Mother’s Day

May 8, 2013 · Filed under Motherhood

Mother’s Day

Since Mother’s Day is this Sunday I thought I would share these thoughts my Grandma had about the day from May 10, 1984.

Mother’s Day is almost here and all the little and not so little children are trying to find just the right gift to give Mother.

I remember the years when a plaster hand print or a crayoned picture or a crumpled bunch of violets were my gifts. I remember the year the whole bunch of kids pooled their money and bought a rose- colored, footed dish of Fenton glass. After buying the dish there was a bit of money left so they bought one bunch of purple grapes and draped it rakishly down the side.

The grapes are gone, but the rose colored dish reflects the afternoon sun from the shelf where it sits; reminding me of the thoughtfulness of little children, long grown but still dear as ever.

From a 6 or 7 year old kid’s point of view the best of all gifts is to serve Mom breakfast in bed.

For a Mom to stay in bed during the preparation of this Mother’s Day breakfast is the supreme test of motherhood.

The house may be disintegrating around you, the odor of burning bacon rising up the stairway, and the sound of pottery crashing to the floor, but you must stay in bed, steel yourself to the voices of children squabbling.

“Careful, Jimmy, you’re stepping in the egg I dropped on the floor.”

“Gee, this coffee looks funny.”

“I get to carry the tray.”

“Oh, no, you don’t, you got to carry it last year.”

Mothers, clutch the headboard and hang on. You must not, I repeat, must not rush to the kitchen threatening mayhem. It is essential to stay in bed- to pass the test that entitles you to be called a Mother’s Day Veteran.

Stay right there among your bitten- off fingernails and smile lovingly when the burnt offering appears at your bedside.

The kids will stand with beaming smiles as you look at the tray with its dandelion centerpiece.

“Mommie, try some of the scrambled eggs. I broke the eggs myself and only let a few pieces of shell get in.”

“How do you like the orange juice? I made it all by myself?”

“Did you have a good sleep while we fixed your breakfast? Oh, Mommy, we love you so much.”

Forget about the pains in your fingers from gripping the headboard to keep from leaping out of the bed in panic at the commotion in the kitchen.

Forget about the two hours you’ll have to spend cleaning up the horrible mess the kids made on the stove and floor. Savor the moment.

You have just been given the greatest gift in the world. Pure, unadulterated, shining love masquerading in the guise of burned bacon and scrambled eggs.

Comments (3) »