Making Lefsa Today - You bet'cha!

Today I am making that Scandinavian specialty called lefsa.  It is sort of like a potato tortilla, baked on a hot griddle.  Just about everyone in Minnesota eats this delicacy around Christmas time.  I am of Polish heritage and before I came to Minnesota, I never heard of lefsa.  For sure, we never ate it!  But when I first tasted lefsa I just KNEW I had to learn to make it!  It is so delicious.   It takes some practice to make it just right and to make it thin.  Oh sure, a person can eat thick lefsa, but it's a matter of housewife pride to make the thinnest, most delicate lefsa!  Over the years I have learned a lot, so I think I make a 'pretty good' lefsa, as the Norwegians up here would say.   It's a two day process to make lefsa.   On day one you boil up russet potatoes and put the cooked potatoes through a ricer.   Then you add lots of butter and cream and a little bit of salt and sugar and let this cool overnight.   The next day you add flour and mix it all up until you have a dough, but you try not to mix it too much or you will have "tough" lefsa - oh horrors!  This is the messy part.   I just figure on getting bits of potato and flour all over the floor and on my hands.
     Then the dough is rolled out very thinly on a floured cloth, transferred to the hot griddle with a traditional long stick, flipped over, and then set to rest between warm towels.  When it has set enough, you spread it with butter, sprinkle with sugar (I like brown sugar) and roll it up and eat it.  It goes SO well with a cup of hot cider or tea or coffee.   And quite filling, too!
     Here are some photos I took this afternoon of my lefsa making session:

The dough is first rolled into little patties and placed on a floured cloth.   Some ladies have a special round lefsa cloth, but I use a sturdy piece of linen, duct-taped to my pastry board. 

A special grooved rolling pin is used.  The rolling pin is covered with a stockinette cover, and a 2 foot long thin stick is used to handle the lefsa dough.

First one side is cooked until light brown spots appear on the underside.

The lefsa piece is flipped over using the long stick, and the second side is cooked.

A stack of cooked lefsa pieces.  They are folded in half and kept warm.

The cooked lefsa pieces are kept warm in several layers of towels, and I usually put a damp warm towel on top.  (Note my towel from 1971!)

A piece of lefsa cut in half and ready to eat with a mug of hot cider.   Yum!  This is Christmas in Minnesota!

I usually make about 24 to 28 pieces of lefsa.   That's enough for us during the holiday season, and some to share with neighbors.   It takes me an afternoon to do, but it is so worth it!  Merry Christmas!

Harold's Sawmill - Part 2

Last June I wrote a post about the sawmill that my husband Harold designed and built.   Since then he has tweaked it a bit and added some things to it, and it really cuts well now!  He has been busy lately sawing up logs for lumber to build a chicken house this spring.   We hope to have chickens again, and since we have 100 acres of woodland it only makes sense to use what we have for lumber!  After all, why buy lumber when you have it right in your own backyard.   Several weeks ago Harold brought in a huge red oak saw log.   It was about 30 inches in diameter and over 10 feet long.   Red oak may seem like 'overkill' for a chicken house, but this is a log that has been down for quite some time and is not the best wood for furniture or hardwood flooring.   I took some photos yesterday of Harold cutting up wood.  He sure enjoys his sawmill!  If a person was going to buy a sawmill such as this from Cook's Sawmill Co. it would be over $6,000.  Harold built this from new and used pieces for about $600.  That's a big savings!  Of course he isn't going to just use the sawmill for chicken house wood - he hopes to saw logs into usable lumber for others, too.  And someday we would like to make our own hardwood flooring. 

Harold gets things lined up before the cut.  He has already cut some pieces off of the huge 30 inch diameter log.

He begins to push the blade through the log.

A close up of the blade cutting through the log.

An even better photo of the blade cutting through the log.

A beautifully cut red oak piece about 1 inch by 24 inches.  (still has a bit of saw dust on it)

Harold adds this piece of lumber to the pile already cut.  After everything was cut for the day, he stacked the wood inside his shop.

Harold gets the log lined up to flip over to another side for cutting.

The log is still too heavy to flip easily, so he used his tractor and a chain to turn the log over.

The rest of the log is in position for cutting.  Harold will slice off the top bark piece, then saw up the rest of the log into lumber.

A lot of saw dust is generated cutting logs into lumber!!

Harold has a ways to go yet before we have enough lumber to build that chicken house.    Most of the trees he will use are poplar, ash, and oak .   Perhaps this summer I can show you a picture of that chicken house, truly "built from scratch".

Back To Indiana For A Visit

A week ago my husband and I took the Amtrak train to Indiana to visit my Mom and sister and niece.   We enjoy riding the train, as it is roomy and relaxing.  No worries about driving.  You can walk around, eat in the dining car, view the scenery in the observation car and also meet interesting people.   It's an unhurried old fashioned way of travel, and we're definitely old fashioned folks!  It was difficult to take photos on the train with all the movement so I didn't even try.   But I did take a few pictures of the lovely train depots we were at.   This time we took the train to Niles MI instead of Indiana.  Doing this made for better connections in Chicago.

Harold waiting inside the Niles MI train depot.   This is a lovely old building built in 1892 and it was decorated nicely for Christmas by the local Garden Club. 

The Niles MI depot is a large building made of beautiful stone.

The other end of the building.  This lovely stone structure has been in use since 1892.

Before we got to Niles, we had to change trains in Chicago.   Chicago's Union Station is a HUGE building and the hub of Amtrak.  It's a busy place - like an airport.   The main waiting area is called the Great Hall. 

This photo doesn't capture the size of this room or the massive height of the ceiling, but it is a beautiful place to wait for the trains.   

There are four staircases leading out to downtown Chicago from the Great Hall.  This Chicago depot was built in 1925.

One part of the Great Hall had a massive Christmas tree, decorated with railroad signs. 

Another part of the Great Hall had a display of a Christmas train. 

I am standing in front of the Christmas tree on the other side of the hall to give you an idea of how tall it was.

My sister and I with our Mom who is 96!

Mom enjoys playing cards, so we made sure to play plenty of games with her.  Doesn't my Mom look good for being 96?

Don't Call It Turkey Day!

Around this time of year, there is a little "pet peeve" that riles up my senses.  Every day about a week before Thanksgiving I hear folks on the TV, news shows, radio and even in general conversation call Thanksgiving "Turkey Day".   No!  This is NOT a day to glorify the American turkey!  Ever since 1621, this has been a day to give thanks to God for His many blessings.  Like everything else these days, holidays have become so secularized that the original meanings have been lost.  Today it seems that people think Thanksgiving is just a day to eat turkey, watch football, and then go shop for early Black Friday specials!  It has also become the kickoff for the Christmas season.   I truly hope that many of us can set aside this day to reflect on blessings that have been a part of our past year, and spend time in fellowship with family and friends.   It doesn't matter if you eat turkey or not.  In fact, I am vegetarian and don't eat turkey, and my husband doesn't like turkey (he used to work in a turkey processing plant for Jenny-O turkeys - enough said on that!).  It really doesn't matter what you eat on Thanksgiving.  Any meal can be a feast if shared with love towards family and friends.   To be truly accurate regarding the original Thanksgiving from long ago, a person would have to eat venison, clams, wild duck, boiled pumpkin, and corn hominy.  Wild turkey might have been part of the Pilgrim's feast, but historians say that venison and clams and wild duck were the prominent foods at that time and locale. So this business of eating turkey and pumpkin pie and stuffing and green bean casserole for Thanksgiving is a modern thing.   People often ask my husband and I what we "do" for Thanksgiving, since we don't eat turkey.   I always tell folks that I eat seasonal foods, well prepared.  Then I get blank looks.   Our menu varies every year (this year my husband has actually requested meatloaf), but I usually include winter squash, cabbage, cranberries, something with pumpkin,  and some sort of potato dish. These are all ingredients that are plentiful at this time of year.  The markets also have lots of varieties of table grapes at this time, and we especially enjoy the dark black seedless grapes called 'holiday grapes' at our Thanksgiving meal.

     About 5 years ago on this blog I also did an article about Thanksgiving (see November 2013 post).  I wrote about visiting Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts long ago.  Plimoth Plantation is a living history museum/place where the lives of the original Pilgrim settlers is re-enacted.   Here is a photo of that place:

Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts

Please join me in my campaign to urge others to quit calling Thanksgiving "Turkey Day" - because the day means so much more than just gorging on turkey!
     Along the lines of being thankful, last week our church sponsored a sign stenciling lesson.  Those who were interested in learning how to use stencils and paint to make decorative signs came to learn a new skill.  I had never used stencils in my life, and I am certainly no artist.  but I decided to give it a try!  The session was so much fun, and I was able to bring home my "masterpiece" sign.  This is what I made - my first attempt at sign making.

My very first ever attempt at using stencils and paint!  Not too bad, eh?  Every year this will be part of my Thanksgiving decorations.

I hope that everyone will have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving Day!  And remember - please don't call it "turkey day"!

I Guess Winter Is Here Already

It's snowing today.   Supposed to get 2 inches or so.  I guess winter is officially here.   This is rather early for us.  We usually get our first snows of the season around Thanksgiving Day.  The long range forecast calls for temperatures to dip down into single digits at night for at least the next week or so - as low as 4 degrees.   So this snow will stick around for a while.  We really didn't get a chance to winterize the yard yet, or tarp things down.  We had lots of rain, and working with tarps in the rain is no fun.  We didn't get a chance to get our bees squared away better for winter, either.   We had hoped to combine  a couple of the hives into one winter hive box, but it was too rainy and cold to do that.   A person kills bees if you work with them during weather that is too cold.   Hopefully we can still get some hay bales around the hives before the below zero stuff gets here.   It was a very rainy fall.  The farmers around here had a tough time getting crops in because of muddy fields.   In fact, Harold is still not finished with sugar beet hauling.   They had hoped to finish today, but that's not going to happen.   They hope to finish tomorrow if it stops snowing.

Well, we knew winter was coming............................

The snow is piling up quickly on our driveway.

The back yard looks pretty bleak.

We got snow during the night, and a fresh layer is settling down on our vehicles.

My Annual Bittersweet Project

Every year around this time the bittersweet is ready to pick.   I just love bittersweet!  It grows wild around here, and is so colorful.   The birds love it, too, so I leave plenty for them.  But I pick enough to do something with.   Bittersweet makes wonderful fall decorations, really nice for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.    Thanksgiving is a forgotten holiday now - stores come out with Christmas stuff right after back-to-school sales.  I get very upset when I hear folks call Thanksgiving "turkey day".  Thanksgiving is not a day to glorify the turkey - it is a day to give thanks to God for all our blessings!  It seems like anymore Thanksgiving has become just a day to eat a big turkey meal, watch football, and shop for Christmas gifts on early black Friday sales.   Well, we don't eat turkey in this house - my husband doesn't like it, I don't eat it (I am a vegetarian), we hate football, and don't do all the crazy shopping.  For us, Thanksgiving is truly a day for visiting friends and family, and prayerfully reflecting on all the blessings of the year.   But I digress............

Usually I make some sort of wall decorations with bittersweet, but this year I decided to do table decor instead.   My first project was to do something special for our front porch, the enclosed entry to our house.   I always like that room to look good.  I had a few sprigs leftover and used them to make a harvest look basket for the living room table.   Here's what I did today:

Here is the pile of bittersweet I gathered from the wild.  It is hard to gather, as the vines wind around tree branches so much that it is hard to unwind!  Some of the bittersweet grew in deep ditches that I couldn't get to, and some vines were a little too high to reach.  Now, what to make with all of this!?!

My first project was to dress up the porch table.  I put sprigs in a large brown ceramic bowl, added a paper twist bow, and bound some of the smaller pieces into a sort of nosegay to set by a small pumpkin from the garden.   The white tablecloth sets things off nicely, don't you think?

I had a few small pieces left,so I tucked them into a basket of squash and pumpkins from the garden, added a checked paper twist bow, and added some dried corn cobs.   This makes a nice centerpiece for the living room!  To me, this says "fall" in a very natural way.

Decorating with things found in nature is so much fun!  Using what I had on hand, and a little imagination, makes for cozy country-look decor.   No need to go to the hobby store or spend big money!

Riding Along In The Sugar Beet Truck

Today I rode with husband Harold in the beet truck out in the fields.  The sugar beet harvest is a fascinating process and I always enjoy riding along for part of the day.  Harold has driven a beet truck during harvest time for about 15 years now, and always the same old Mack truck.  This is a very busy time now around here as farmers are harvesting beets, soybeans, and corn.   Everyone who is willing to drive a truck of any kind can find a job working in the fields.  And there is a real shortage of drivers, too.  Many of the drivers are older guys who are retired.  Some drivers are guys with regular jobs but take their vacation time to drive a beet truck.  Sad to say that younger guys have no desire to drive a truck in the fields, and even if they did, most of the trucks are clutch type trucks and younger folks only know how to drive automatics!  During harvest season the pay is very good (high hourly wage!) in an effort to attract drivers!  When Harold finishes the beets he is often asked to drive a truck for corn harvest, too.
      Here are photos I took today while riding along.  Most were taken from inside the truck, as there wasn't time for me to step out and get the 'proper angle'!  Harvesting beets is a dusty and often muddy job, so the windshield gets rather dirty.  The pictures here reflect that windshield full of field mud!  It is also a bumpy ride so some of the photos might be a little on the blurry side.
     I have written articles before regarding sugar beets.   There are more photos on the Oct 2015 post.

We start off in the field.  Harold drives the truck right alongside the beet lifter tractor, and we both follow the beet topper tractor.  The tops of the beets are cut off by the first tractor, then the second tractor pulls a lifter which digs and loads the beets via conveyor belt into Harold's truck. 

The loader tractor operator waves to us!

This is a very sizable beet field which took about 2 days of 24 hour shifts to finish.   We follow the topper about 50 feet behind.

Harold concentrates on keeping the truck alongside the lifter tractor and watching the two lights seen on the right hand side of the photo.  When the lifter guy wants Harold to slow down, he puts the red light on.  When he wants Harold to speed up a little more, he puts the green light on.   The truck and the tractor ride along less than 18 inches apart, and travel at about the same speed.   As one part of the truck bed gets filled with beets, Harold has to move slightly ahead or slow down to make a new space for beets to be loaded into.   Harold works the night shift from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. so he has to concentrate on this even in the dark!

Sometimes trucks don't follow the lifters and toppers.  This farmer has purchased "lifter carts" that go around the field gathering beets behind the toppers.  Truck drivers then drive up alongside a full cart and get loaded with beets.  You can see one truck being loaded in this photo.  The farm that Harold drives for has more than 18,000 acres.  The carts help somewhat, but many drivers are required.   They have at least a dozen or so drivers.

This part of the state is quite flat and pretty much all farm land.  There are very few paved roads, most of the roads are gravel.  Here you can see a loaded beet truck going back to the piler station.  The roads are very dusty and by the end of the harvest season they are quite torn up by the heavily loaded trucks.

Before going to the piler, trucks go to the scale house to get weighed.

Here are two kinds of trucks at the piler.  On the right is a bottom conveyor truck unloading beets.  On the left is the typical truck that unloads by raising the bed high.   We are waiting in line for our turn to unload.  All beets go to the middle and are then heaped onto the beet pile via conveyor belt. that moves from left to right spreading beets.

The truck beds raise quite high to unload the beets.

A view of the middle of the piler with beets on the conveyor belt.

The pile of beets is getting quite high already.  Many farmers from the surrounding area bring their beets here.  There are 106 beet pilers in the Red River Valley area.  Beets are piled about 32 feet high and covered with tarps and aerators during the winter.  American Crystal Sugar Co uses these beets to make various sugar products.

After the beets are unloaded at the piler, the tare (weight of dirt left in the truck) is unloaded in the tare field.  Here a truck is raising the bed high to unload the tare.

All day long at the piler, beets get spilled all over the place and crushed.  These are some stray beets in the picture.   Sugar beets are about 7 inches long and 5 inches wide on average, with some beets being much larger. 

All day long Harold gets load after load of beets - usually about one load per hour or less.   In this photo you can see how close the truck and lifter are from each other.

No matter what field he is in, the scenery is about the same!  Almost all of North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota looks just like this!  But this part of the country supplies a great amount of wheat, corn, soy beans, edible beans, sugar beets, barley, potatoes and oats to feed the world.   Some folks in big cities will laugh, but North Dakota puts a lot of potatoes and bread on American tables. 

This pile of sugar beets is already about 32 feet high.  (By the way, don't you just love the little silver bulldog on the hood of Harold's Mack truck?)  This truck is 36 years old, has over 750,000 miles on it, and was formerly a truck up on the Iron Range area in north central Minnesota, working in the mines.  Harold has driven this truck for 23 of the 36 years, as this truck used to belong to another farmer that Harold drove for many years ago.   None of the other drivers like this truck, so Harold gets his old #7 Mack every year.  He says he truly feels at home driving this old gal.  There is one other guy (old and retired) who can drive this old touchy, somewhat quirky truck, and he takes the day time shift.

Besides drivers, there are people who operate the piler equipment and direct the drivers, handle load tickets,  and also clean up beet spills.  These are workers from American Crystal Sugar.  They wear warm clothes and hard hats and spend all day outside.  A tough job.   Rain, shine, cold wind - they are outside for a 12 hour shift.