Lehman’s Country Life

Since my last post featured one of my dad’s signature recipes, I thought I would share one of my mom’s this time. There’s almost nothing that sticks with you better for breakfast than a bowl of  granola. This is an easy recipe and makes a crunchy, hearty, not-too-sweet breakfast treat. It’s delicious with milk or yogurt, by itself or with other cereal.  I like to sprinkle it liberally on my bowl of Cheerios. Try it – I bet you’ll love it!
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I spoke with a customer recently about her wood heating stove and how she used it to cook on during the most recent ice storm and power outage in Kentucky where she lives.  (Funny, I mentioned my Aunt lives in Morgantown KY, and she said she lives not far from there.)  She owns a Resolute Acclaim from Vermont Castings.  She said, “It worked great for making biscuits.  I purchased 2 stove top thermometers from Lehman’s and put one on the top of the stove and the other on the Dutch Oven I was using to cook with.”

Here are a few tips she’d like to pass along:

1. The wood that you’re burning needs to be fully seasoned, no wet or moisture-laden wood.
2. The temp of the stove needs to be 500-550 degrees for baking biscuits.
3. Use a stove pipe thermometer on the top of the stove as well as on the top of your Dutch oven to ensure the temp is kept even.
4. For baking time refer to your favorite recipe.
5. Absolutely NO PEEKING into the Dutch oven while the biscuits are baking.

Her daughter thought these were the best biscuits she’s ever made.

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It was a couple of years ago that Euell Gibbons got me all fired up about making my own maple syrup. It was late winter then and I was not prepared for my venture into syrup making at that point. But the following year I was ready. And I was fortunate enough to get me some of that sweet, golden nectar.

Yes indeed, there was some work involved, but the results far outweigh the effort. I was in it not to sell bottles of syrup, but to just make enough for my family and even a few friends to try.

With just a few maple trees (we will discuss species later), you too can have your own sugary sweetness. It doesn’t take a lot of fancy equipment; in fact, about the most expensive thing you will need is time.
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He used to make it only when the snow was flying, usually on his days off from his job as a registered nurse.

My sister Becca and I knew Dad had baked bread as soon as we hit the door, just off the schoolbus. Our little house would be filled with a welcoming, unmistakable aroma, and big, crusty loaves of his signature whole-wheat bread (”Daddy Bread” to us) would be cooling on dishtowels on the counter.  We’d eat some hot right then (if he’d let us), and multiple pieces of “Daddy toast” were often breakfast each morning before school. It was best with just a bit of butter – no jelly to overtake the nice, yeasty flavor.
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Cold winds are blowing, temperatures are freezing and below, snow is falling, and the ice on the steps refuses to melt. Sounds like the basics of weather this time of year. These conditions make it hard to be outdoors, but it’s a wonderful time for some rib-sticking comfort foods.

While researching this article I started by looking at what my family has been having on the supper menu the last couple of weeks. Although we are located in North Carolina, the temperatures here have been unusually cold, with nights in the single digits and days barely getting out of the teens. Our family meal choices have reflected the foods I grew up with in the Northeast.
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Quite often over the years people have asked me , “What do you eat? Or does it get boring eating from the garden all the time ?” So I thought I would share some of our favorite recipes with you from time to time. Let me say right here not everything we eat comes from the farm. About 90% of what we eat we produce. Some things I do buy at the grocery store but you don’t need a farm or garden to use these recipes as the ingredients are available at the grocery store.

Let me begin with breakfast because for us it is essential  to give us energy to begin the day’s work. Almost every day begins with oatmeal with other things added that are both nutritious and tasty. We do eat other things too sometimes.
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Did you know that pumpkins are really a fruit? They are members of the Cucurbitaceae Family (how’d you like that for a last name?), the same family to which cucumbers, gourds and melons belong. Indigenous pumpkins have probably been growing in the United States for at least 5,000 years. Not the same pumpkins of course. Unless you count the one grown by Dave Stelts of Leetonia, Ohio that weighed in at 1,140 pounds.

So, the question of the day is, if you were Mr. Stelts, and you had over 1,000 pounds of pumpkin sitting on your front porch, what in the world would you do with it? We asked our employees, friends and family here at Lehman’s for some of their best pumpkin stories. We will include some recipes, but we are talking unusual pumpkins stories.

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Carissa and the Crust

One of the first things that I noticed when I moved to this little corner of Northeast Ohio is that Sunday is NOT a good day to get things done that require going to a store. Obviously there are exceptions like the larger chain stores, for the most part, things are closed and the streets rolled up on Sunday. Believe me, this is a small price to pay for the return you get from living in Wayne County Ohio. So Sunday is as it should be in our household, family day, we still get things done, clean up the house (full time job), and cooking.

We have become quite familiar with the concept of a crock pot in a world dominated by a lack of hours in the day. You cannot lose, dump everything into this magic appliance in the morning and several hours later – out comes a dish that even the most picky eater (my son) cannot stick a nose up at. So the morning starts out with breakfast. Then the crock pots are put together and begin their journey, tempting our senses all day.
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Theresa

Sue Steiner with mural

We’ve been busy lining up a whole assortment of educational and interesting arts and crafts demos by Ohio Arts and Crafts Guild members for folks visiting Kidron, Ohio. We are just now heading into the peak of fall foliage as the trees begin to hint at the beautiful display of colors we can expect in the next week or so. As you enjoy the scenery on the drive to the store you can stop in and visit with local artist Dennis Lipp as he paints rural landscapes and local farms as part of his demo.

Last Sat. Theresa of ‘Mind Our Beeswax’ brought along her beeswax and handpainted Christmas ornaments. In the photo you see some of the process Theresa uses to create beautiful, heirloom quality ornaments. We pictured some Lehman’s molds which can be used if you’d like to give this a try at home.
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We’ve passed the autumnal equinox and now the light in the evening is dimming at an ever-quicker pace. Even though there may be more golden days, these past couple of mornings there has been a light shimmering of frost and a crispness in the air that is just a tad on the sharp side.

Artisan Wood-Burning Cookstove

This is when the cast iron casseroles and earthenware bean pots come into their own season. With our log burner glowing my appetite is ready for putting some ‘flannel’ around my own ‘lites.’

In Italy they have reinvented the antidote to fast food with the Slow Food Movement. This season is perfect for doubling up on using your heat sources. So if you have a wood cookstove like an Aga or Stanley, then the low oven is perfect for casserole preparation. You can leave, go out to work and come home to the yummiest, most soul-satisfying dinner. (A slow cooker suffices, too, but it won’t heat your house as nicely.)

Bearing in mind that cattle add to our CO2 emissions, it’s worth considering reducing the amount of meat from cattle we eat. This does not mean that you need to go vegetarian! But to lower your carbon footprint you need to consider supporting your local beef, pork and lamb producers. You can have your meat and eat it too if you reduce food mileage. It’s also important to support local food production from an economic point of view. The more we support local producers and spend money in our local communities we expend less in terms of CO2 emissions from our journeys to market globally. So look for local labels or patronise farmer’s markets where you can be confident of your food’s providence.
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