Zucchini Orphans

Something for all those who have found these orphans on the front door step...

Are there a surplus of zucchini? 
The stores pay you to take some.
Your neighbor finds them every morning in his mailbox. 
You have a flute made out of a Zucchini.
Someone leaves a basket full on your porch overnight....

So what to do, I will offer a sweet and a sour, or a sour and a sweet.
You can find many great recipes with zucchini, breaded, lasagne, breads, etc.

ZUCCHINI RELISH (tastes just like pickle relish)

 10 Cups Seeded, skin on zucchini
4 cups onions
5 Tbs Salt
 ...Coarsely ground vegetables, salted, soak 8 hours drain and rinse
2 1/2 Cups Vinegar
4 1/2 Cups Sugar
1 Tbp Nutmeg
1 Tbs Dry Mustard
1 Tbs Tumeric
1 Tbs Cornstarch
2 Tsp Celery Salt
1/2 Tsp Pepper
1 Red Pepper
1 Green Pepper
...Simmer all for 30 minutes, stir occassionally.
Hot water bath can. 

ZUCCHINI BREAD (really good lightly toasted and buttered)

  2 1/2 Cups Sugar
3/4 Cup Oil
2 Eggs, Beaten
2 Cups Grated Zucchini (or more)
2 Tsp Vanilla
3 Cups PreSifted Flour
1 Tsp Soda
1 Tsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Nutmeg
2 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Cups Nuts
Mix all up to and including vanilla.
Mix the next 7 ingredients together and add to the first.
Grease and flour two bread pans.
Bake at 350' 60-70 minutes, until firm.

    

Reaping the Rewards of the Garden

Time to reap what we have sown, this is a good thing.

Canning time is full upon the farm in August.

Beans are cut in 1" lengths and pressure canned.
Peaches halved and canned in heavy syrup.
Corn cut off the cobs. Applesauce is made. Pears canned.
Maybe some pickles and cherries were canned too.
It is a busy time of year!

 Tomatoes are a big project calling into action the whole family.

The Old Famer's Wife cooked the tomatoes in huge pots. 

When soft they were sent outdoors to the Old Farmer and daughters

who ran them through the mill, this required a crank turner (the daughters)

and a pusher (the Old Farmer) who encouraged the tomatoes to the bottom of the mill. 

The seeds and skin came out the end of the strainer corkscrew

very dry and the sauce went into the chute.

We added a mesh strainer over the pot which caught the puree

and the juice ran through. Thus we had tomato juice for drinking

and puree for weekly spaghetti!

Halved tomatoes were also packed into the canning jars for

stewed tomatoes (for these the Old Farmer's Wife would pour boiling water over

the tomatoes to split and loosen the skins), when heated they

were seasoned with garlic, salt. pepper, butter and a tsp sugar.

Cinnamon Pears

Make a sugar syrup, pears are sweet so you may not
want too heavy a syrup. Heat with a couple cinnamon sticks
for 5 mins or so with halved pears.
Can, unless you have to eat immediately, these are really good!
Process quarts 25 mins in boiling water bath.

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The Games Children Played

Tag! Your it!

Race you to the barn,
Last one home's a rotten egg.
1 2 3 ......ready or not, here I come!

 

 These were the sounds of summer in the country.

 

Late summer evenings, hot and still;
Locusts, katydids, and cicadas loudly singing,
Then crickets starting to sing in the night.

 

This was the best time to play hide and seek.
Especially after it started turning dark and the shadows were deep.
The porch lights would go on making the shadows darker.

The Old Farmer and his wife sitting on the porch

making sure everything was safe as they relaxed

from their busy day.

One night, before the game started

a couple neighborhood boys came by. They walked up to us

on the front porch steps carrying two full grown skunks!

Us kids were fascinated, at least I knew I was.

They explained that carrying the skunks by the tail

they couldn't spray. I never knew how that ended, 

when they went to put them down!

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Driving accidents

 Bicycles were freedom in the country.

And learning to ride was a rite of passage.
And a trauma in some cases. 

  

 

Our driveway was lined with large maple trees
with the sidewalk on the opposite side. 

The Old Farmer gave the bicycle lessons.

When I old enough to stand up on the peddles of a bicycle

way too big to sit on I was given a few rides with the
Old Farmer holding the back of the seat and running alongside.

When it was determined that I  had the feel of it
I was pushed off from the step, did a few wobbles,
took off ..... and rode right up a tree!

 

Apparently that is not the first time this happened
as the Old Farmer's Older Daughter also had this same tree
jump in front of her...

Remember riding double?

 

 

I remember the Old Farmer's Older Daughter also having
a tractor driving lesson. I stood back and watched from a safe distance.
The Old Farmer took the tractor down the hill behind the barns.
Then got her up, gave a few pointers on first gear and the brake.
Then set her off across the creek, (which was a very shallow small creek).
And right up into the bushes on the other side of the path!

(She has no memory of this incident.)

 

 

 But I digress, the bicycles were hand me downs that were too big
and we had no training wheels or helmets or knee pads.

We spent the summer happily riding back and forth

to our friend's houses along a mile stretch of our country road,
usually many times back and forth. Occasionally we strayed farther afield.
 

 

 

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Pheasant in the Pines

One of the 4-H projects was planting pine trees.

They would provide a quantity of trees if you signed up

with the deal being you planted them.

The old farmer would go along a line and hit the soil with a mattock

 and the farmers daughters would follow behind planting the seedlings.

Before our time the old farmers son did this too.

  

  

I was an introspective child, I enjoyed going out alone in the woods

 and fields seeing what was there and what was new. 

I could sit for a lengthy time quietly and see the woods come to life

 after the disturbance of my appearance.  

Soon the birds would start chirping again
and the squirrels would start playing from tree to tree.

 

 I had found a cozy place to sit in an older
stand of pines that were there from the old farmer's son's time. 
It was a small open space sheltered from the outside world.
No one could see you in the middle of the grove,

 a patch of sunshine showed through.  
It was also sheltered from the wind, you could hear the wind
blowing the trees, and feel it as I sat on a lower branch

 watching and listening..  

 

 

One time a beautiful ring necked pheasant ran into the clearing

 in the pines and stopped a few feet from me. 

He shimmered in a patch of sunlight allowing me to admire him

 for a few seconds (that felt like minutes) 

before he took off (on foot) again. 

This was a gift I have never forgotten.


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Old Farmers Memories 2

When The Old Farmer was in his teens they moved to a farm in Niagara County.

Spending a Sunday in Niagara Falls in January,

he was there when a great cry went up and a loud commotion was heard.
Everyone was running down to the river.

The Steel Arch bridge had collapsed that Sunday Jan 23, 1938, at 4:20pm.

Great masses of ice often came down river and over the falls from Lake Erie

and would form an ice bridge. This year it was the bridge's undoing
and pushed out the steel supports from it's foundation.

Here's a picture of the old bridge...

 

I have pictures and postcards of the bridge laying on the ice 
but they are copyrighted, look them up on the internet!

 

 I always found the many little falls of water over the gorge interesting

in these old photos, ca1910. Is it residential drainage, or a factory area.
Now the factories are above the falls, if you ride along the Robert Moses Parkway
it is a beautiful view of the upper river on one side
and the factories all lined up on the other.

One of his stories was about going out to Pontiac Michigan

as a young man to look for work, this would have been during 

depression years.

 

Finding work did not happen for him so he headed back home in the old model t.

It was the dead of winter driving along the southern shore of Lake Erie.

The car had no heater and it was an icy cold drive.

He ran out of money and was stranded and had to ask his father to
send money, he was wired 10.00 for gas and food, and eventually made it home. 

These winter story pictures are not very colorful.
I am sure many of you have heard the old story
that Henry Ford said you could get the Model T in any
color you wanted....as long as it was black!



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The Birdhouse

Between the house and the vegetable garden was the old farmer's wife's flower garden.
There was a  long winding path between two rows of beds.

Beyond that was a long straight row with roses, interspaces with tulips

 and some easter lilies.

 

Each spring the old farmer's wife would spend several days preparing

the flower garden for the coming summer.

The edges of the beds were dug out to make clean edges, weeds were pulled,

clumps of flowers separated if necessary.

There were irises, lilies of the valley, mums, zinnias, poppies, and a clump of chives.

Each easter we had a new easter lily and it was planted along the row of roses

 to come up each year thereafter.

 

Remember the story about insect collecting a few weeks back?

In this story the butterfly net comes into play in a bit different a fashion.

About midway in the flower garden was a mound covered with sweet peas

 and a bird house on a pole in the middle of it.

 

Each year it was inhabited by a little wren who raised her family there.

A cousin and the old farmers daughter, ahem, wanted to catch the wren.

One of us would hold the net in front of the birdhouse and the other would SMACK the backside and out would shoot the bird! Right into the net.

We would reach in and pull her out. 

My cousin remembers we put it in a bird cage on the porch by the kitchen door. 

The bird flew out an opening in the cage that was designed to hold the food dish. 

My older brother and older cousin were playing catch in the front yard

and remarked on the terrified bird that went streaking past them like a bat out of hell.  

Since the birdcage was a failure we repeated the catch and release scenario many times and the bird always shot out into the net on cue. It seemed like great fun at the time.
Until the old farmer's wife caught us.... Uh OH!




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Picking up the cow

What is a farm without livestock?

The Old Farmer raised pigs and a heifer every few years-for the freezer!

We did not need all the pigs so there was some income involved there.

 

 

One year when we got the new heifer calf the old farmer propounded 

on the theory that if he picked it up everyday as it grew, 

his strength would grow proportionally.

We went down to the pen every day the first week and observed the calf lift.
Then the next week... and again...

fortunately for The Old Farmer we had short attention spans.
I think that lasted a few weeks and faded into history....

 

 I mentioned earlier the freezer, this was a huge double wide 

in the back room of the farmhouse. It was well stocked.

One year we had a big family dinner.
We were all sitting around the kitchen exchanging greetings
and the old farmer; who was proud of providing for his family;
told the cousins how the pork roast cooking in the oven;
and smelling delicious by the  way; used to be down running around
behind the barns. This was too much information for one young cousin,
I don't know if he has eaten pork to this day!

 

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What is a farm without a garden

Of course the old farmer raised acres of corn for the livestock,

and wheat as a cash crop, and with the related straw stashed in the barn.
But also there was a large vegetable garden near the house.

This was what is now called a survival garden.

There was a lot of fresh food in the summer snd lots of canning for the winter.

 

 

The garden was laid out with the smaller items nearer the house,

this was the south side of the garden. Radishes, swiss chard, onions, kohlrabi,

cabbages, green beans, cantaloupe, cucumbers  squashes, several rows of tomatoes,

and the corn on the north side. The reasoning for this is that the tall crops

would not  shade the rest of the garden.

 

 

Kohlrabi is an interesting vegetable. It is quite odd looking when growing,

this above ground bulb on a stem with a tuft of leaves sprouting out of the top.

I think it is starting to become mainstream now and if you haven't tried it do.
It is crisp and refreshing uncooked. Also very good cooked and buttered or in a roux.
We would pick it and eat it fresh in the garden.
Ditto the sun warmed tomatoes.

 

So guess whose job it was to hoe hoe hoe. The theory laid out for us was that if we each hoed one row a day, then back to the beginning to start over again so we could keep ahead of the weeds, this rarely happened, the weeds were winning the war in short order!

As we hoed, occasionally we might miss a weed and hit a bean plant or cuke or tomato.
We would look guiltily around hoping no one saw this indiscretion.

 

 

 

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The Swimming Pool and The Pond

The Old Farmer loved his children and the joys of childhood.

One year he got a scoop attachment for the old John Deere
and decided to dig a swimming pool for us.

He dug a nice long rectangle hole about 3  feet deep across the driveway from the house. Lined it with old shingles and waited for the rains!

Well it only got a few inches of water in it. To solve that problem he ran a line over to the hole from a downspout on the house.

Ha! Next rain it started to fill up and pretty soon we had a pool.

Next thing we see is a  mouse who fell into the water and couldn't climb out.

I was quite young at the time, the youngest in the family. Everyone surrounded
the pool so that wherever he swam one of us would be close enough to "rescue" him.

Of course he swam right to me and everyone is yelling "catch him catch him"!

So I caught him. Or maybe we should say he caught me! Right on the end of my

finger and he held on for dear life. I joined in the hollering and was jumping up
and down, trying to shake him off with little success.
Well I guess you could say he was rescued and at my expense!

Well after the rains came the mosquitoes and the pool was short lived.
Filled back in and soon more grass to mow.

 

A year or two later the township was widening our little one lane country road
and needed fill dirt. They came to the Old Farmer and asked if they
could dig a hole out between our fields and with luck a spring
would fill it up and a pond we would have!

It turned out to have several springs and filled in short order. Not being
stagnant there was no major mosquito issue, we spent the summer
swimming and playing and sharing the water with crawdads

and muskrats and tadpoles and frogs. The crawdads would craw over our toes,
we would catch the frogs and let them go (catch and release :  )
and I am glad to say I never came face to face with a muskrat.




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The Hazards of Farm Life

The Old Farmer enjoyed life, everything had a joke in it.
I previously referenced the tipping of the manure sled, aka the Stone Boat.

While it could have had serious consequences, it was a great joke in the retelling. 

 

In its former incarnation as a Stone Boat.

it was used to go around the fields picking up stones.

One day a stone wall appeared between two large trees in the back yard.

 

In the spring the tractor was hooked up to the plow, then the drag to get out the
weeds, followed by the disc to smooth it for the vegetable garden. Over the top
of the sharp discs was a square rack of angle iron that could hold stones to weigh
it down and more effectively dig into the soil.

The Old Framer's Daughters and any other kids that were around were sometimes
loaded up on the rack to ride around the garden, note that this rack was open,
and our feet dangled and the discs were inches below!

It is a wonder anyone survived childhood in those days.

 

 

Then there was the time they set the telephone pole on fire.

Poles were coated on the bottom half with creosote (coal tar)
back then to keep them from rotting.

 After a day of planting field corn the Old Farmer and his son

went to burn the paper fertilizer sacks at the bottom of the field where they were piled.
Need I say more? Fortunately there were burlap bags too and a creek nearby.

They were able to beat out the flames. After these minutes of panic

 this also became a funny story.
The Old Farmer could laugh at himself.

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The Swamp

The swamp was a bit of a wonderland for children.

 

 

Little streamlets running this way and that.

Intermingling with hummocks in between.
Theoretically offering safe passage!

 

It was a mystical place, quiet, eerie, peaceful by turns...and scarrrry!

But if you were quiet the abundant life would reveal itself to you.
And sometimes the noise of children swinging on the Yahoo Rope
would interrupt the peace!

 
The yahoo rope swung out over the swamp

from a huge old tree of some fame locally.
It was the largest tulip tree anyone had seen.
4-H clubs would come look at the tree on a yearly basis. 

 

 

While there they would combine the trip with the opportunity to scour the fields for insects.

Entymology (the study of insects) was a 4-H project most members did.

And most farm children were members. 

The luna moth, the large graceful green one was the prize of a collection.

I personally do not like to get to close to hymenoptera (bees, I remember that  term from...uhm...a long time ago!)

 and I found one for my collection along the roadside, 

(a long overdue confession-are they going to take away my blue ribbon?).

  

 

YaaaaaHooooooooooooooooooooo

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Old Farmer's Memories

 

The Old Farmer lived a long life and loved to share his stories.
He and his brothers grew up in Niagara Falls, NY. 

They ran wild around the gorge below the falls.

They would climb up and down the steep cliffs and found Milky Cave,

I think this cave was filled in for some reason, there are many other caves that are still there.

 

 

On hot summer days they would hang onto rocks in the river below the whirlpool! 
 

In the winter they would ice skate on Love Canal,
do you all remember that from the news!? Look it up, worth the read.

The Old Farmer said it would freeze, then the water level might drop

and the ice would become "hilly".
I wouldn't be surprised if he fell through a time or two.

I suspect he got in trouble more than once for leading his younger
brothers on these dangerous escapades!

 

Their mother died while they were young and a neighbor lady
who lived across the road would come in to take care of the cleaning
and cooking and take care of the boys when they got home from school.
When the father got home from work he would go in the back door
with his lunch pail and she would go out the front door and walk home.

It was all very proper. 

 

 

One day the boys were told to get on their Sunday clothes,

then a preacher came in and married their father and the lady
across the street became their stepmother!

The were not consulted or advised about this and it came as a total surprise.

 

We have strayed from the farm a bit, but I hope this
glimpse of life long ago was interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its Strawberry Time

All too short is strawberry picking season!

 

 

The Old Farmer's wife had a strawberry patch.
Early days on the farm these were picked and sorted and the
prettiest ones were sold for 50c a box.
This was a bad job for the Old Farmer's daughters, for it would take "forEVer".
I think I would eat more than I picked.

Geese were let in the strawberry patch to eat the weeds.
 

We would all enjoy a month of eating strawberries!
Strawberries for breakfast, straight or on cereal.Strawberries on ice cream.
Strawberry shortcake for dessert. With lots of homemade whipped cream.
Or that great new invention-Dream Whip!

And strawberries frozen for the future...
 

 

EASY STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE
Unfrosted Angel Food Cake or Pound Cake
Fresh Cut and Lightly Smooshed Strawberries, sugared to taste
Whipped Cream, (Highly recommend real whipped cream)
Assemble in order given