All Things Linen

For almost 45 years I've been collecting linens of all kinds.  And even before that, around age 8 or 9, us girls back in the 50's would embroider towels and pillowcases "for when we got married for our hope chest".  I still have some of those towels.  I think my love of linens came from years of seeing my grandmothers, Mom, and aunts put their lovely tablecloths on the table for special occasions.  My grandmother would embroider pillowcases and crochet beautiful edgings on them and when we came to visit, she would lay them all out and tell us to pick one for ourselves.  I remember looking at the array of pillowcases and having a hard time choosing because I liked them all!  Back in the 50's when I was growing up, kitchens were colorful, and everywhere in the home were colorful fanciful linens.  I knew when I grew up and had my own home someday, I wanted things 'just like that'.
     Over the years I have collected probably 90-100 tablecloths, a couple dozen pillowcases, and many, many kitchen towels.  I also have a collection of about 40 sets of table napkins that will match just about any tablecloth I use.   I enjoy setting a pretty table - somehow it makes even a simple meal seem like an elegant feast!  When my own kids were growing up, I always set a table with matching linens and nice plates.  I remember one time I must have been in a big hurry and just put the plates on a bare table, no napkins, and more or less tossed the silverware next to the plates.  My then 9-yr old son Jerry looked at the table for a long time, and then said:  "How come the table isn't all romantic like it usually is?"   He was just horrified that his Mom who always made things so pretty would set such a bare table!  After that, I made sure not to get into that big a hurry that I couldn't do things right!  Moral of this story:  Kids really DO watch and listen to what parents do and say.  You may think nobody notices, but they do.
     Whenever I go to an antique store or second hand shop, it is difficult to walk past the display of vintage linens without fingering the goods and wondering what to buy.   These days I don't buy much of anything - unless.........of course there might just be that one item I have to get!!!!
     Here are some photos of a small part of my collection.   I recently bought a used book on vintage linens from Amazon.  That book had many of my table linens pictured in there, and it was real "eye candy" for a collector like me.  It's good to know that there are plenty of other women who love fine old linens.  Whenever I put one of the cloths on the table, I always wonder about the lady who previously owned it, what she was like, what her family was like, etc.   I feel a sort of sisterhood with those homemakers from back when.   I have some damask linens from the 1920's, when everything was elegant.  I have some faded and small table linens from the 1930's, when feed sack material was all anyone could afford.  And then, most of my linens come from the heyday of homemaking times, the 1940's and 50's.   Brightly colored fruits, vegetables and flowers seemed to dominate kitchens and dining rooms at that time.  Today's kitchens seem almost dull with all that black, stainless steel and dark brown.  My own kitchen today is filled with the colors and items from the 40's and 50's.  As a little girl back then, the kitchens of those times must have become etched in my brain, so when I had my own place, it was just a natural thing to do.
    Yes, caring for table linens is a lot of work at times.   You have to wash them carefully and IRON them, too!   But those old cotton fabrics wash so well, and stains are pretty easy to get out as compared to modern fabrics which seem to hold in grease 'forever'.   I don't mind the ironing.   I just think about the women who used to own that particular piece, and how many of them stood and ironed that very same cloth.   The Linen Sisterhood lives on!

A small selection of my vintage tablecloths from the 1940's and 1950's.  Look at all the bright colors!

When the tablecloths are not on the table, they are stored in this old cabinet (or on a shelf in my pantry)

Here are some of my colorful kitchen towels.

Some colorful embroidered pillowcases.  I did most of these.  The pink one my grandmother did back in the 50's.

Look at my grandmother's crochet work! 

Just a few of the many sets of table napkins I have.  Most folks are afraid to use them, but I encourage them to go ahead.  These cottons were meant to be washed and used!

Some of the smaller linen napkins become decorative pieces for my kitchen shelf.

Here's a photo of my kitchen taken just before we finished putting the drawer fronts on.  I have cabinet and drawer fronts now, but you get an idea of the colorful kitchen.  I change tablecloths about once a week - this way I can air the linens and use them and wash them - AND enjoy them!

You can't see the other side of the kitchen here, but I have a wall of Dutch figures on that part.

Our Latest Project

Before the snow flies, Harold is trying to finish building a High Tunnel greenhouse for us.   This is different from the usual greenhouse -  in a high tunnel the sides roll up for ventilation and it is not made of glass.  If we can get it finished before the snow flies, then next spring we can get an earlier start on gardening and go longer in the season.    We are building this high tunnel at the top end of one of our gardens.  The rest of the garden will be a regular garden like before, and the area behind the high tunnel will be a regular garden area also.   We wanted to do this earlier but needed to wait until after the sugar beet season and after Harold earned some cash for this.   Also Harold is just getting over a virus and cough, so things are progressing a little slowly right now.  You can buy kits to build these things, but we are doing it the cheap way by doing most of the work ourselves.   Instead of buying the metal hoops that are pre-formed, we are using cattle panels that we bend ourselves.  We have looked at these high tunnels made out of cattle panels on YouTube, so we know that others have done this successfully.   We will need to buy the special very thick plastic that goes over the top and sides and the fasteners, and also a doorway (we will just get a used storm door from somewhere for a doorway).  By the time we get done, we will have spent a fraction of what a kit will cost.  We are building one approximately 14 1/2 ft by 25 ft.  You can grow a lot of things in a space like that.  Here is a photo of someone else's high tunnel from a kit that will give you an idea of what I am talking about:

Our high tunnel will look similar to this one, but with just one small doorway.  Our sides will be able to roll up.  This one was built from a kit.  Ours will have wooden posts for support.

So far Harold has set the 4 corner posts, and bent one of the roof panels.

Lining up the posts on our high tunnel. 

Studying the next step. 

One of the bent panels for the roof.  We need to bend 5 more panels. 

Inside the high tunnel, you can either grow things directly in the soil, or use raised beds.  We will probably do a little of both.  We went to a high tunnel workshop in North Dakota earlier this year.  There are different growing techniques with high tunnels compared to regular flat gardening.   Several of the farmer's market vendors have high tunnels, so we have learned quite a bit about them from the other vendors.   We are excited about the prospect of growing things earlier and later (and better, too, because you don't have to put up with wind and hail and those hungry deer!).  Does this mean we will now be considered 'professional growers'?  I know that I can start a lot of plants in one of these high tunnel greenhouses.  This way I won't have to turn my living room into a greenhouse every March!  My living room is usually tied up with plants from early March to almost the end of the first week of June. 
     I will update you on the progress of this project as we go along on it.

Ten Years!

Today Harold and I are married 10 years.  A lot has happened in those years, but it seems like only yesterday.   We probably won't do much celebrating today because Harold has that virus going around that causes drippy nose and coughing (I just got over that about a week ago) and he is not feeling the best.  But I'll make some cinnamon rolls today and maybe we'll play another game of Scrabble.
     Harold and I met online back in early 2003 on Cupid Junction, one of those computer dating sites.  After a few months of writing back and forth to each other via emails, I finally was brave enough to give Harold my phone number.   He called me and we talked for hours.  Then we decided to meet.   The site recommended meeting in a public place for safety reasons, and we met at the West Forty restaurant in Park Rapids, MN, which was about 1/2 way between where I lived and where Harold lived.   Harold came out of his car carrying a big bouquet of yellow roses and a wearing a big smile.  After lunch at the restaurant, and spending the afternoon in town talking and shopping, we knew there was an immediate attraction.  We really liked each other right from the start.  After almost a year of dating we tied the knot at a church in Brainerd that I was a member of at that time.
     I moved up to where Harold lived, sold my house in Brainerd, and we built a new home in 2005 on Harold's land.  Except for Harold's diagnosis of multiple myeloma cancer in 2010, these have been wonderful, happy years.  Harold is currently in remission from his cancer, and we look forward to many more years together.
     Harold and I firmly believe that a great marriage is centered around having God in the relationship (worshiping together and praying together), good communication, having a lot in common, mutual respect and love, trust, a good sense of humor, patience, acceptance, and forgiveness.  We believe that all of these elements are in our marriage.  Thanks be to God for these past ten years!  He has truly blessed us.............

Harold and I 10 years ago on our wedding day, October 16, 2004

Hauling Sugar Beets

Yesterday the sugar beet harvest started.  It will run (weather permitting) until all the beets are harvested.  For many years now Harold has driven a beet truck in the field, and then to the beet piler with a load of sugar beets.   It is grueling work - he works from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day with no breaks except the wait at the piler (if there is one).  He eats sandwiches on the run, and has even gotten pretty good at eating apple pie with one hand and steering the truck with one finger of the other hand!  Even though the work is hard and the hours are long, Harold enjoys this, and every year he is ready to go again - that is, IF he can always have his red Mack truck!  He works for a great farm family that treats the employees right, pays them well, and provides plenty of food and snacks.

The only bad thing about sugar beets is that our anniversary falls right in the middle of the beet harvest!  October 16.  We will be married 10 years this year.  I usually bake up some cinnamon rolls, and ride along with Harold for a good portion of the day, and that is how we have spent our anniversaries for the past 10 years!   Romantic, huh?  Riding a bumpy, dirty old truck eating cinnamon rolls and peering through a muddy windshield........

For those of you who have never seen a sugar beet, it looks sort of like a big turnip, and is sweet.  The American Crystal Sugar Co around here uses these beets to make bags of sugar.   It is quite a process!   Here are some photos from several years ago, as I don't have any from last year, and as sick as I am feeling with the flu lately, I may not even get to spend that "romantic ride on the beet truck" this year!   But it'll give you an idea about sugar beets.

This Harold's trusty old red truck. Harold's brother in law was riding along this day.  The truck is loaded with about 80,000 pounds of beets. Harold rides this truck right in the field, and the beets are lifted out of the ground with a special piece of machinery and piled into the truck via conveyor.   That truck ride in the field can be a bumpy, muddy ride, for sure!  Yee Haw!! They even drive in the rain, as long as the pulling trucks can still pull everyone out of the mud!

Harold has to back up the truck into the beet conveyor, which then shoots the beets into a big pile. This picture gives you no idea of how huge this piece of machinery is.    There are many beet pilers in the area and every one of them is full to capacity by the season's end. 

A big pile of beets started.  They pile the beets on cement, hundreds of feet wide, and about a 1/2 mile long.  It almost looks like piles of coal.   Sometimes there are several of these long piles of beets at the piler station.  These piles freeze down, and the Crystal Sugar Co uses them all winter long.  By March, the piles are usually gone. 

The sugar beet harvest is a whole other world that most folks don't see.  If I do get to ride with Harold this year, maybe I can take some better photos.

Two Signs That Fall Is Here

There isn't much Fall season left in Minnesota, so we need to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible - before that 30 below zero stuff starts!  The leaves were so pretty last week, but now they are almost gone.   The high winds of the last couple days pretty much stripped off all the leaves.  There are two signs that Fall is here:  big woodpiles and pumpkin/winter squash harvest! 

Harold has about 6 or 7 cords of wood cut so far.  Almost enough for the winter, as we usually go through about 10 cords.  You can see in the background that most of the trees are bare already. 

This year's harvest of pumpkins and squash.  One of the new kittens is checking out this wagon load!  I always grow Winter Luxury pumpkins.  They aren't pretty looking, but they make very tasty pies, and are an heirloom seed that can be saved.   The solid deep orange flesh is great for cooking, not like the  stringy, watery carving pumpkins. 

Crab apple Applesauce

For many years I have made applesauce with larger pie-type apples and it is always good.   But this year apples were in very short supply due to bad weather this spring.   A good friend from my church told me that there were some apples on his tree and that they were 'good for jelly and apple butter'.   But, he said, they are crab apples.  Tiny little things.  About an inch to 2 inches max.  He said his mother and sister always made good jelly from them.   So I went and picked  3 big pails full of them.   I did make an excellent jelly from them, but I had way more than I needed for jelly (what was I thinking picking 3 big pails full?) 
     So I decided to try making applesauce from them.   They were tart, but a little on the mealy side, and I know from experience that mealy apples make really good sauce.  I even looked up on Google to see if anyone else makes crab apple sauce.  They do.  And so I did also.   Yes, it was very time consuming putzy work, but...........
    Wow!  It is the best ever!   I like it so much better than regular apples for sauce!  It has some body to it, a really fruity taste, a lovely pink color, and has a great sweet/tart flavor that makes the applesauce a real gourmet treat.  I had to use some sugar to sweeten the sauce (about an 1/8 to 1/4 cup per pint), but that's not bad.   I am so glad I decided to try crab apple sauce.   Sometimes the Lord puts wonderful surprises in small, seemingly insignificant, things.   What a great blessing to have such a tasty applesauce for my winter pantry from those tiny apples that most folks just let drop on the ground.   The way I see it, God provided those apples for us, and it's up to us to figure out a way to use them.   So if you like to make applesauce, don't pass up those little crab apple varieties - you might be just as pleasantly surprised as I was!  And you know what?  I'm going to see if there's more apples on that tree - I'll make another batch of that sauce because I know when it's 30 below zero this winter and I'm buried in snow, a jar of that summery goodness is going to taste really good!

A sink full of those tiny crab apples ready to be washed.

All those little bitzy things had to be quartered and stems and blossom ends removed, and seeds, too. (At least I didn't have to peel them!)

The lovely, tasty finished product!

From those 3 pails of apples, I ended up with 13 small jars of jelly, and 11 pints of sauce.

A Little Dose of "Cute" and Plenty of Work

Today Harold and I spent the better part of the day outside working on the now-dead garden - after two nights of frost the garden is done.  We also got a start on getting things cleaned up.  AND I  spent some time playing with the new kittens from this summer!   I haven't posted any 'cute' photos for a while, so humor me a little and let me show you some of our new kittens here on the farm:

Here's a few of the Mamas and their little ones.

A couple more cuties, about 6 weeks old.

Older kitten, Cassie, playing peek-a-boo.  She was born around early June.

FlufferDuff and her little one who looks just like her!

A new tomcat kitten.  He is only 7 inches long but looks bigger in this photo.  He has big feet and a big head, so he will be a big tomcat someday!

Of course there are more kittens, but they wouldn't pose for me.

Harold took the Lo-Boy tractor and used the brush mower attachment to cut some brush, and also one of the gardens, which was done.

Cutting through a patch of thistle, cleaning up the yard. 

He also mowed through one of the gardens that was finished.  Later, he will put the tilling attachment on the tractor, and dig up the garden area for winter. 

We also took down fencing, harvested veggies and herbs that survived the last two nights of freezing, and I collected more petunia seeds from my late season petunias that were purple and blue in color.  I harvested a big pile of parsley (second cutting) and plenty of oregano.   I discovered that oregano can take a little frost.  In fact I think it has a better aroma after frost.  I like to sprinkle dry oregano on pizza on top of the sauce before I put the toppings on.  It gives the pizza a real "Italian zing", I think!  When I was growing up in South Bend, there was a wonderful pizzeria called Starlight Pizza on the west end.   They also used to put quite a bit of dry oregano on their pizza sauce, and it was the best pizza ever.  I miss that place!

A big batch of oregano that I will dry tomorrow with the microwave method.

I also harvested the rest of my dry beans.  This year I planted Kenearly Yellow (a type of Maine bean good for baked beans), Yin-Yang beans, Swedish Brown beans, and Hidalgo beans (a type of brown and white speckled Mexican bean).  I grow many kinds of dry beans and usually grow several varieties each year.  They all have different tastes and different uses - some are good to eat as is, some are for soups, some for burritos, and some are good for pasta and salads.

This coming week, I will dig up my carrots and  rutabagas and put them in the freezer, dig up the onions on a sunny day and let them dry in the sun for a couple days for winter storage, and harvest about 3 or 4 winter cabbages to make sauerkraut.  Then I will make my jellies.  I've been saving juices from grapes, plums, chokecherries, and highbush cranberries for jelly making.  There's nothing better than home canned jelly!  Much better than the store variety!  Now the apples are ready, so I'll be making plenty of apple jelly.
The frost may have finished the garden, but there's still plenty of work to be done!

Busy Gal

I think I'll be very busy for a few days!  Because the weather guys are predicting frost for the next couple nights, we had no choice but to harvest veggies that might freeze.  Today I'll be putting about 100 ears of corn in the freezer, and canning some tomatoes.  Tomorrow is market day, and Friday I'll be making pepper relish (my favorite thing to stir into a bowl of cooked beans, like pintos or navy beans), and Saturday I'll be making a couple batches of spaghetti sauce to can up.   These veggies are besides the stuff we will sell at market!  Do you think there's enough produce to work with?  Ha!  We are truly blessed.  We certainly won't go hungry this winter!

Two and a half 5 gallon buckets of peppers, more than 3 flats of tomatoes and 80 ears of corn.