A Tutorial on Ironing, Sleeves, Creased Pants, and Ruffles

The Old Farmers Wife instructs us on ironing.

Now we are home enjoying our semi quarantine

and I am tidying up some of my neglected mending and ironing.

So it seemed a good time for this.

First you want dampened cloth or you can spray or steam as you go.

For a laundry basket full of predampened clothes go back to one of the early posts

Called "Tueday was....". (It followed Monday is Wash Day)

SLEEVES

These are tricky if you don't know the tricks.
Start with the shoulder over the end of the board and iron it.
Then lay the sleeve out flat and iron it. Now the trick!

Flatten it with the outer side centered over the inner seam 

and lay one edge over the side of the board.

Then you can iron the middle out with the iron off the edge 

of the board and not pressing the other edge, ergo no inadvertent creases.

TROUSER CREASE

If you don't want creased pants iron them as you would sleeves.
Start your pants with the tops put over the end of board and iron around
the waist and pockets. Then lay them out lengthwise along the top of board.
 with the inseam and outside seams lined up over top of each other

from the crotch down to the hem. Iron flat to the edges.
Them fold back the top leg and iron the bottom leg.
Flip them over and repeat on reverse side.

Perfectly centered creases.

RUFFLES

These may just require a little practice to get the feel of.
You stretch out the edge of ruffle following the curve as it goes.
Iron along the edge with the tip of the iron working into ruffle.
You may only be able to do a few inches at a time depending on how wide the ruffle is.

You will get the feel for this after doing a few inches.

So there it is.
Wishing us all luck clearing up these odds and ends
lingering around the house until we have time! 

Slavian Patica. A holiday tradition.

Families have traditions. Its passed down from generation to generation. It may morph over time. But it ties us together.

Our farm family went out and cut our own tree. We gathered to decorate Christmas cookies. The Old Farmer loved Hush Puppies- not what you think! A relative delivered old world pecan cookies in a Hush Puppies shoe box one year and they were  forever after hush puppies! We took turns wrapping presents Christmas Eve. 

AND The Old Farmers Wife made Slavian Patica. We always came home from midnight mass and warmed up around the big oak table with coffee or hot chocolate and the Slavian Patica. And so follows...

SLAVIAN PATICA

Dough

2 cups milk

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp salt

2 beaten eggs

1 yeast cake

  Or 2 dry yeast packs softened in a bit of.    warm water 

6 cups flour

1-Scald milk. (This is an interesting direction. It comes from YEARS ago. Raw milk was scalded to kill any bacteria, and enzymes that affect the dough process.)

2-add butter, sugar, salt

3-cool to lukewarm 

4-add beaten eggs

5-add yeast

6-add flour, a couple cups at a time.         kneading when getting thick enough.

 I now use my kitchen aide so you can go   from mixing in the flour to kneading   easier.

7- knead lightly until smooth

8- set to rise in oiled bowl until doubled,   not more.Gently "punch down". Fold over.   in thirds and let rise again. Two rises.   gives a less coarse dough.

9-roll out, if sticky on floured board, but   

 hopefully it will not be sticky! Spread with   filling

10-roll up and place on greased baking   sheet or better yet an angel food tin.

            ( old school method)

Filling

1/2 cup butter melted

2 cups brown sugar, I recommend dark 

1 1/2 cups ground nuts

1-Add in order listed one at a time

2-Spread thinly on dough if thinly rolled. If.    dough thicker you might want to spread 

  it with more!

Bake at 325' for approx 40 minutes. Watch the time until you find what works best for you and your oven. 

*Warning. Not unusual for it to spring a leak. Seal edges good, but still delicious if it does leak out!

   

Getting the Household Ready for Winter

Winter in New York. 

It can be very cold and very snowy! 

You have to be prepared for possible power outages

and have food supplies. 

So the pantry cupboard is full of the Old Farmer's Wife's canned goods. 

Peaches and green beans, corn and applesauce, tomatoes, tomato paste and tomato juice.

A summers work from the Old Farm garden.

And stash of dry goods is always on hand. Sugars and flour and salt.

The Old Farmer goes out and comes home with 5 or 6 bushels of potatoes.
(He once mentioned the Spud King being the biggest grower of potatos, 

his brother thought it was a hilarious joke. The Old Famer, very offended, 

assured him it was a real farmer's moniker, he would not joke about a thing like that :  )

These went in the outside stairwell he basement, cool but not freezing.
And as it got colder out they would be covered with a heavy blanket.
And deeper into winter what was left was moved 

into the potato bin in the basement proper.

The corn crib was full and hay in the barn

 for the farm animals. 

Coal was loaded into the basement coal bin.
Altho a lot of work a coal furnace worked 
when the power is out too! 

Storm windows were pulled out 
and washed and changed out with the screens.

The winter clothes came out and were sorted.

All the clothes were laundered,
 summer ones put away and the winter

ones put out or donated if outgrown. 

Now the family was ready for winter on the farm.

Old Fashioned Spaghetti Sauce

On the farm Thursday was spaghetti day. 

Today the Old Farmers Daughter is cooking Spaghetti, 

so it seemed a good place to start the "recipe book". 

The Old Farmer's Wife's technique, slightly updated from home canned 

to store bought tomatoes, also a couple cans 

as opposed to 3-4 quarts home canned tomatoes and puree.

2 cans diced tomatoes, recommend 

good brand without to many

stem end pieces or skin in it

2 cans tomato paste

12 fennel seeds, ok...more or less!

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp basil

1/3 cup sugar

A couple halved garlic cloves

This is a good start....will smell great simmering as low as you can set it, stir everytime you pass thru the kitchen, hopefully at least every 15 mins! The Old Farmers Wife was working around the house so passed through the kitchen often.   Don't worry....

see note 1*

A couple hours before supper it's time to do the meatballs and sausage.

Take 1 pound of hamburger

Add 1/2 cup bread crumbs
         1/4 cup parmesan cheese
          Few shakes of mixed Italian
    seasoning
          Some minced or diced onion
          Salt/pepper to taste
          1 egg
Mix well, form balls to preferred size, fry or bake, then add to sauce.

And the Sausage, cut mild or hot to 3-4" lengths
Saute until done. Prick in several places to release the grease. Some modern sausage is so fat free you might want to add a bit of oil to pan, it will cook better.
Add to sauce

  NOW the magic

Add diced onion (1/2 to a whole depending on onion and batch size)

to the sausage drippings and saute. 

When tender add a couple scoops of the sauce, drain excess grease if any.

Stir up the sausage flavor into that bit of sauce and add to the pot!

Adjust seasonings, maybe a shake of Italian seasonings. 

Maybe a shake of red pepper flakes, careful, very spicy! 

The Old Farmer used to shake a bit on his plate. 

A tsp. of salt...While it continues to simmer cook your pasta. 

Then enjoy.

*1 - if sauce is to thin you can let simmer longer or you can cheat 

and thicken with cornstarch.

Its The Little Things

Its the little things...

 Speaking in pig latin,

    the Old Farmer was quite proficient.

Playing games around the table after dinner,

    guessing state capitals and national capitals.

Jigsaw puzzles and bedtime stories.

Board games on Saturday night.

 Homemade popcorn.

Homemade milkshakes!

 Sitting on the porch 

watching a storm.

Riding on the tractor.

Learning to drive the tractor!


Blowing out the birthday candles.

Hanging tinsel on the Christmas tree.

Learning to ride a bicycle.

 


Climbing trees, 

picking blackberries,

 apples, and pears

 Making snowmen.

Throwing snowballs.

Piggy back rides (a bucking bronco!)

A hidey hole, (a blanket over a card table)

Hide and seek, outdoors at night!

Tag and move up baseball and croquet.

 Spur of the moment ride in the country.

Hiking on the railroad tracks.

Niagara falls and Watkins Glen.

Olcott Beach 
and amusement park.

Welland Canal, the Erie Canal.

Finding a bird's nest

 or some baby rabbits.

 Catching frogs and crawdads at the pond.

And then letting them go.

 Nightmares and fire sirens 
and hearing ghosts at night.

Hiding under the covers.

Playing with a flashlight at night,
 can you see through your hand.

What is this shadow animal, 
duck, dog, bird flying!

The things a child will remember all of their lives.

What are some of yours?

Fireman's Field Days

Farmers worked hard in the summer.
We also played hard!

Those were the days of volunteer fire departments.
The siren would go off and could be heard for a couple miles away.
The first ones to the department would get the location
and head out with the trucks.
Volunteer firemen farmers would converge on the site.

Volunteer firemen also had a band at each department.
All were recruited if they could play an instrument.
The old farmer's oldest daughter played a glockenspiel.
Then every weekend over the summer a different department hosted
a field days event and parade.
They all marched in each others parade.

 

The field days involved many booth of games.
Dart throwing, ping pong balls tossed into ivy bowls.
(With a gold fish in each!),  hammering a nail into a 2x4
(who could drive a nail with one blow?), knocking down the weighted critters,
target shooting, and on and on. 

Guess who always came home
with a 50s ruby or green glass ivy bowl and a goldfish!

So this was actually a lot of work too, building the booths,
volunteering to run them, barbecuing the chicken, parading.
But the work was on the host department,
you got to enjoy everyone elses!

What do you remember about field days? 

Did you ever run a booth or march in the parade?

Time to Plant the Garden

Well here it is towards the end of  May.
We started thinking garden at the Old Farmer's House at the first of the month.

And we had weather cold enough to snow in Western NY.
This is why safe planting time there was mid May.

"If you plant peas on St. Patrick's Day, 
and then it snows on them; you will have a bumper crop."
Perhaps the peas and onion sets are in early, they will survive. 

Soon the carrots, beets, swiss chard, kohlrabi etc will be planted

We would eagerly go out each morning to see if any had sprouted.

Then the squashes, tomatoes,
 and the corn at the north end of the garden. 

After the tomatoes are planted we would go out the next

morning and see how they were doing.
The Old Farmer would point out where one
was chopped down like a little tree
The damage was from the "cut worm".
It would eat through the stem just above the ground level.
You would loose a few each year and if you had extra
plants you could fill in. This only happened the first few
days before they "hardened" up.

The Old Farmer had nice straight rows in his garden. 

It was a big garden, he kept a line rolled up on two sticks in the barn.

Each spring it came out and started the first row, the line must have been

100 feet long! Then each row after he moved the line over 2 feet, more
or less depending on what was being planted. 

After the line was set he would go down along it with the hoe
and make the furrow in which to plant the seeds.  

I will never forget The Old Farmer taking me out to the new garden

after a heavy shower. It had been very dry.
He said that he supposed I thought we had a good rain now
and the garden was well watered. I agreed. 

The he bent over and flicked over a bit of dirt with his finger.

Only the thinnest bit on top was set, underneath was still dry dusty soil.  

The Old Farmer's Wife

The Old Farmer's wife was a good mother.
She cooked and cleaned and canned the produce of the garden.

The Old Farmer's children learned cooking
by helping prepare vegetables and observing.
They were sent to the basement to bring up potatoes
or the back room to get canned goods.

 

They learned cleaning with weekly chores.
Each was responsible for their bedroom and a living room
or dining room or bathroom as assigned.
These became daily chores when school was out for the summer.
Beds were made and sinks scoured daily.

They learned canning by picking the produce and washing the jars.
And watching the loading of the canner
and hearing the lids pop when the jars came out.

 

When the old farmer's back was out she got the heating pad
and made him comfortable.
When the children had the mumps and measles and chicken pox
they were babied and loved back to health.

And she had lots of favorite sayings. Mostly was "it takes two to tango".
We could not get away with saying it was the other persons fault!

The Old Farmer's wife was a good mother.

Easter Egg Hunt

   If you have been reading my blog, The Old Farmer's Daughter

you know the Old Farmer was a big kid at heart! 

Every year the night before Easter the whole family

gathered around the big round table in the kitchen
and we colored the hard boiled eggs in colored dyes. 

 Overnight the magic happened courtesy of 

The Old Farmer hiding the eggs and a basket for each child. 

Usually it was still winter in our neck of the woods so

the big hunt was held in the large dining room. 

There was a basket in the corner of the bay window. 

A blue egg in the middle of the snake plant! 

One under the radiator! 

One egg was missing...the Old Farmer hinted,

warmer, warmer, oops cooler, warmer, warmer, HOT ! 

Where was it? Aha! Climbing on a chair it was found

overhead in a flower wall pocket!

Then off to church in our new Easter clothes and hats.  

Back home to a breakfast of hard boiled eggs and coffee cake. 

Dinner of ham and deviled eggs. 
And chocolate bunnies for desert. 

HAPPY EASTER from THE OLD FARMER"S DAUGHTER! 

New schedule for the Old Farmer's Daughter

The Old Farmer's Daughter 

Is going to start posting periodically

As seasonal posts come up.

This is an effort to avoid repeating myself.

I thank all my followers and if you are not

following on my blogg or via blogger

I hope you will consider doing so

so that you don't miss any of my great upcoming stories !

Snow Days

Snow Days.

Didn't we all love them! 

A play day, a fun day, a romping in the snow day. 

Unfortunately they were few and far between.
If the side road was impassable The Old Farmer's children

had to hike to the top of the hill on the main road to catch the bus! 

When we had one we made the most of it.
One of this Old Farmer's daughter favorite memories of a day at home

would be when The Old Farmer's wife covered a card table with
a blanket to make a tent, a cave, an igloo! 

We would use a dining room chair as a doorway
to crawl into the cozy space. 

When getting outdoors in our snowsuits

we would play fox and goose, making concentric circle paths

in the snow with a cross through them to a safe space in the center. 

When the fox caught a goose (one of the other players)

they became the fox until they could catch a "goose". 

There was a lot of slipping and falling down in the 

bulky suits which were hard to move in! 

Hot Potato

It was really cold out and The Old Farmer 

decided it was time to take us out into the wild

for a cookout. The old fashioned way.
None of these civilized picnics with the grill and charcoal stuff. 

We trekked through the snow to the field at the far side of the garden

from the farmhouse. There The Old Farmer lit a wood fire

and got it going good. We picked up any sticks and limbs we

found around to help stoke it. 

When there was a good bed of coals he put foil wrapped potatoes

deep back under them, pushing with a stick.
Then we had to wait, and wait, "how much longer!" 

Sitting in the snow around the fire we shivered and chatted for an hour,

until the taters would be ready. 

When the Old Farmer deemed it had been long enough
he raked the foil packages out with another stick,
digging until he found them all. Hot potato, hot potato!
Tossing from hand to hand to unwrap them hot potatoes

which were charred on the outside and did not look to appetizing! 

Ah, but inside they were light and fluffy
and so good to have something hot to eat on that cold day outside. 

Skating on the Pond

Cold Cold Cold

Like we are having now. 

It is time to check the pond and go ICE SKATING! 

Before we were allowed on the ice the old farmer would

sweep snow off the edge to see how thick it was.

If 3" or more he would edge out farther into the ice

and check again. 

And he would show us how to check. 4-5" was good to go.
It was amazing how clear the ice might

be so you could see how thick it was. 

Then let the fun begin! 

Someone would start with the snow shovel

and make paths until there was a large clear area. 

We were warned to stay away from the left side

along which there were muskrat holes and thinner places in the ice. 

At the far end a spring ran into the pond so that was thinner too. 

So when deemed safe we spent many a winter day
down on the pond. Just skating back and forth.
The neighbor boys would play hockey. 

Occassionally the top of the ice would get wet with snow on it

then the ice would refreeze all tiny bumpy and be unusuable,
pretty much for the rest of the winter :   ( 

Play safe everyone!~ 

Happy New Year 2018

Christmas Candle Tradition

Christmas 2017

GIFT WRAPPING

So it came to pass as the excitement of Christmas approached
a gift wrapping table was set up in the back bedroom.

The Old Farmer's Wife helped the little ones wrap their packages.

The older ones wrapped themselves! 

The Old Farmer was many things, 

but he was not an artist when it came to wrapping packages! 

Fortunately the Old Farmer's Wife helped out.

 

Guess which was from The Old Farmer to The Old Farmer's Wife?

Christmas On Main Street

The Old Farmer's Daughter would like to say how much I enjoyed

the past couple weeks on her school's facebook page. 

We have been remembering our small town and the stores on Main Street
It was fun to remember many and learn of some I didn't remember.

Go Starpoint! 

So there came a time when The Old Farmer

and The Old Farmer's Wife decided I was old enough

to go Christmas shopping by myself!  

I was dropped off at the corner of Main Street
just above the bridge (widest bridge in the world! at that time).

The street was decorated for the holidays. 

My heart was pounding with excitement! 

With some trepidation I set off up the street.

I had $10.00 and 5 gifts to buy. 

First stop the menswear store to get a tie for The Old Farmer.
Second stop the 5 and dime.
Evening in Paris gift set for The Old Farmer's wife.
Then some gifts for the brother and sisters.
Life saver's gift book? Pez? 
A dollar went a long ways then!

All to soon the adventure over and I waited on the corner

for The Old Farmer's Wife to pick me up.  

Are all those celebrating ready for Christmas?
What are you doing for the holidays?