Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion

Today Harold and I took some time off for fun.   We went to the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion at Rollag, MN.  This is an annual event every labor Day weekend since 1954.  It celebrates the old time tractors, steam farm machines, farming history, old-timey crafts, music, fashion, cars and foods.   This event attracts thousands of folks every day for the 4 days it runs, and the event is spread out over 210 acres.  There is a steam locomotive train to haul folks around the park, and also shuttle buses, shuttles run by tractors, and wagons pulled by horses.   The old steam threshing machines are huge and smokey and noisy, and the entire park soon smells like steam engines.   But it's a fun event with something for everyone.  We feasted on everything from carmel rolls and lefse, to sandwiches and potato salad.  There is an hour long Parade of Tractors in the morning and the afternoon, and hundreds of old time tractors come slowly up the hill and down the road.   There are historical demonstrations of old farming techniques and crafts and cooking and soap making, and lots of street musicians playing everything from ethnic Norwegian music to gospel to old country.  It was a hot day and we did a lot of walking, but really enjoyed the day.   I also bought a 5 lb bag of my favorite cracked wheat grain for bread making.   The cracked wheat was ground in a steam powered mill.   Every few years Harold and I try to go to Rollag for this event and we always have a good time.   Here are some photos from the day.

The old steam threshers are fired up and ready for the parade. 

Smokey steam rises from the old machines in the parade. 

A close up of one of the old steam threshing machines. 

The tractor parade featured tractors from the 30's to the 60's. 

Another one of the big steam monsters. 

A 101 year old tractor!

One of the horse drawn shuttles.  Rollag countryside is in the background. 

Lots of antique cars around the grounds.   Wish I had this one!

A wall of old wrenches - any kind you would want. 

An old 1930's gas station in the history village. 

The old steam locomotive that drove folks around the park.

This photo shows the size of these machines compared to normal sized tractors!

Four draft horses hooked together and ready to pull threshing equipment. 

The steam locomotive comin' down the track.

Canning Pears

Today I canned pears, and Mom helped me.   She always enjoys canning fruit, and it reminds her of times past when she did this for her own family as we were growing up.  Pears are putzy to work with, and slippery.  But opening a jar of home-canned pears on a cold winter's day is wonderful!  Pears are "nature's candy".  While Harold was taking chemo and treatments and nothing would taste good to him, pears always tasted true-to-taste.   So I make sure to can up plenty!  This year I am doing 7 boxes of pears, which should give me about 48-50 quarts.    I bought the pears on Monday, and here it is Saturday and they are finally ready and ripe to can up!  The pears come from Washington state, and I buy them every year in 14 pound boxes for a little over 8 bucks a box.

First the pears are peeled and quartered and put into a lemon juice/water bowl. 

Peeling pears over a bucket is the biggest chore.  They are so slippery!

Jars are filled with pears and a very light sugar syrup. 

The finished jars!  I have canned 28 quarts so far.

An Essay on Aging

This week has been a good reminder of what it is like to get old.  My Mom, who is staying with us for the summer, had a major episode on Tuesday in the wee hours of the morning.   We found her gasping for breath, and not very responsive and unable to move.  We called 911 and an ambulance was sent out at 1:30 a.m.  Meanwhile, a raging storm was brewing outside and we had a power failure as we were speaking to the 911 dispatcher.  Could anything else happen??  We got reconnected, the ambulance and sheriff's deputies arrived and took Mom to the emergency room.   Next day she was transferred to the Fargo hospital via another ambulance.  Bottom line - her 91 yr old heart is just wearing out.   So her heart and lungs were filling with fluid.  If we should all live so long, we might also be in that predicament, too.
     It was a long week of daily, long drives to Fargo.   But Mom is home now and doing well and OK.   She always enjoys coming up here in the north country and helping me with canning season and garden produce and just enjoying country living.   What better thing for an old person than to feel needed and wanted and to be busy!  Mom is back helping me today (but on a very slow schedule!) and doing what she loves.   I think if we could all find something for our elderly loved ones to do, and something to make them feel needed and useful, this world would be a better place.   I think too often in this busy world we just put our elderly away in some nursing home somewhere and think we are doing the best for them.  That's OK if they truly cannot do much, but there are thousands of elderly folks wishing they could do things again, no matter how small.   It used to be that we would take in our older parents and aunts and uncles and care for them at home.   Those days are gone.   Or, should they be??  This week put my own aging into perspective.   I am 65, but someday if I should be so lucky as to live to 91, where will I be?  Let us all treasure our elderly relatives, find things for them to do, and let them enjoy life as much as possible like they used to.   If they are able.  Life is indeed a fragile thing.  I like to think that I am at least helping my Mom to enjoy her later years to the fullest.  But scares like what happened last Tuesday morning, when she nearly died, is not in the plan.!  Like one of the 10 Commandments states:  Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother - let us all strive to honor our elderly loved ones as much as we can while they are still here.  We will ALL be elderly someday, if we live long enough..................

Chokecherry Time

Today Harold and I picked 2 gallons of chokecherries.  Yesterday we picked some, too.  I will make these chokecherries into syrup and jelly.   We always sell syrup at our stand at the Farmer's Market, and it is especially good on ice cream and waffles, particularly wild rice waffles.   Chokecherry jelly is a deep burgundy in color and very fruity tasting - slightly tart, sweet.

Two gallons of beautiful ripe chokecherries.

All sorted out, cleaned and ready to boil up for the juice. 

 

Wild Rice Waffles

2 eggs

1 1/2 c. flour

1 c. COOKED wild rice (about 1/3 c. raw)

1 3/4 c. milk 

1/3 c. salad oil, or melted butter 

2 T. brown sugar 

4 tsp. baking powder 

1 tsp. vanilla

1/3 tsp. salt 

Beat eggs, then mix in remaining ingredients.   You may need to add a little more flour.  Batter should be thick.  Bake on a waffle iron as usual.  

Makes about 8 waffles. 

Making Pierogies!

Today I had such a taste for some fresh homemade pierogi, so I made some!  My favorite is potato and cheese filling.   Here are the steps it takes to make a fine batch of this Polish specialty. 

Here is the dough and the potato/cheese/onion filling. 

I cut out the dough into 5 inch circles with a large cutter. 

A heaping spoon full of filling goes in the middle. 

They are crimped into half circles and put on a cloth to dry a little before boiling. 

After boiling, the pierogies are fried.  These are served with sauerkraut for a great Polish meal. 

I grew up with pierogies - they are sort of Polish "soul food".  Here is my recipe for them:

For the Dough

1 stick softened margarine

2 eggs, beaten 

1 c. sour cream 

1 tsp. baking powder 

1/2 tsp. salt

3 cups, plus, flour 

Mix all ingredients and knead a little adding more flour as necessary to make a smooth dough, but don't add too much flour or the dough will be tough.   divide the dough into fourths, and work with one piece at a time.   Keep the rest of the dough under a bowl.

Roll out thin and cut into 5 inch rounds.   Put 1 heaping T. filling on dough and fold in half and crimp edges with floured fingers.  Crimp well.  Place on a floured cloth while you prepare the rest.   You can re-roll scraps and if you have a little leftover, cut into strips as for noodles, or small pieces like for soup dumplings.  You can use these in soup or with cabbage for 'cabbage and dumplings'. 

     Set a large pan of water to boil, salted, and boil about 6 or 7 at a time until they float - about 3 minutes.  Use a slotted utensil and put them on a cookie sheet with edges to dry a little.    When all are boiled, you can fry up what you will eat - melt some butter or margarine in a heavy pan (I use a cast iron skillet) and over medium heat fry them until they are just a little brown on each side.   Season with salt and pepper.  the remaining pierogies can be frozen individually in baggies.  When you want to cook some from the frozen state, let them thaw just a little, and put them half frozen in a skillet with butter and gently fry them until thawed and brown.   

     This recipe makes about 35 to 38 pierogies.

The Filling

4 cups of mashed potatoes (mashed with butter and milk and salt and pepper)

2 c. shredded cheese - I use cheddar or Havarti or Gouda or Monterrey Jack

2 medium onions, chopped and cooked slowly in butter 

salt and pepper, to taste 

Combine everything well.

Hey! The Kitchen Smells Like A Pickle Factory!!

Today I picked a bunch of various size cucumbers, and Mom and I made them into three different kinds of pickles:  garlic dills, bread and butter slices, and sweet relish.   People sometimes say that cukes are "worthless", but they actually DO have plenty of minerals and vitamins.  They are a good source of vitamin K, too.  And they are supposed to boost the power of antioxidants.   I use the relish in egg salad, potato salad, and macaroni salad (the relish is also good on hot dogs and hamburgers if you eat that sort of thing).   Sometimes I stir a few tablespoons into baked beans for an added zip.   Pickles seem to round out a meal and provide just the right contrast in taste.   Having a pantry with homemade pickles and relishes adds a lot to home cooked meals.   So, it is well worth the effort!

Today's 'raw materials' from the garden!

 

 

Left, ground cukes and onions for relish, top, small pickles for dills, and right, sliced cukes for bread and butter pickles.

The finished products!  Dill pickles, bread and butter slices, and relish. 

Here is my favorite recipe for the Sweet Cucumber Relish.   It makes about 7 or 8 jelly jars of relish.
6 cups ground cucumbers (I use a hand cranked meat grinder)
2 cups ground onions
3 T. pickling or canning salt
3 cups sugar
2 cups cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
1 1/2 tsp. celery seeds.
**Optional:  I sometimes add a small hot pepper or two ground up, or a large bell pepper to the relish along with the cukes.  

In a large bowl layer the cucumber and onion and sprinkle canning salt between layers.   Add enough cold water to cover the vegetables and let stand for 2 hours.  Drain thoroughly and press out the excess liquid.
     In a 6 to 8 qt. stainless steel pan, combine the sugar, vinegar and seeds.  Heat until sugar is dissolved.   Add the drained vegetables to the syrup, and simmer gently for about 6 minutes.  Stir frequently. 
     Ladle the hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.   I use a slotted spoon to put most of the ground cukes in the jar, and use a ladle to put juice and ground veggies on top of that.   Wipe the jar rims and threads with a damp cloth, cover with hot lids and apply rings.   Process jars in a water bath for 15 minutes. 

Got the Porch Done!

Finally, after 8 years, the sun porch is finished.   That's how things go when you do your own construction work.   We are very pleased with the way it turned out.   This porch is the entrance to the kitchen area, and the place where we bring in produce at first.   It's also a good place to sit in the evenings when the 'skeeters are really bad!  I need a couple more chairs, but I will eventually find them at a sale somewhere or maybe an auction.   The chairs I do have on the porch, I bought for one dollar at a local online auction site, and then painted red, white, blue and yellow.  It's hard to take a full photo of a porch, so here are many views.   Indulge me while I gloat a little over a completed project!

The entrance to the kitchen. 

A good place to sit and relax. 

New flowered curtains I sewed. 

Compare this photo to the one I posted a while back!  See the progress!