Lehman’s Country Life

Fall provides an abundance of natural materials for decorating and crafting. If we search our gardens, farm stands and even along the roadside, we can collect items just waiting to be transformed into an autumn creation. From gourds and straw bales to pumpkins and corn shocks, it’s wonderful to use decorations that can be eaten or tossed in the compost pile rather than the trash can at the end of the season.

From our popcorn patch, we tie together bundles of three colorful ears for decorating and later dismantle the trio to shell for winter popcorn. Our compost pile was generous in growing an assortment of gourds and even a huge pumpkin this year. The pumpkin stood guard at our steps for a week before becoming a pumpkin cake for a November birthday boy. Our family raises a small patch of sorghum cane and we save the beautiful burgundy seed heads to create fall swags embellished with wheat, sea oats, rose hips, teasel and other dried finds. Once Thanksgiving arrives, we hang the swags in a tree to feed the birds so they can enjoy their own feast.
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United Feature Syndicate

MARYJANE’S EVERYDAY ORGANIC

Along with all of the wonders of the upcoming winter season comes the inevitable flu. Despite our best attempts to stay busy baking and planning celebrations, pesky cold and flu viruses often creep into our lives and put a damper on our plans. It usually starts with the sniffles, which shouldn’t be enough to waylay any party plans, but headaches, coughs and fevers can knock us down for the count. With characteristic can-do spirit, an old-fashioned farmgirl will likely face the flu with homemade chicken soup, hot tea and plenty of rest. She’ll try fresh air. She may even improvise her own neti pot using a repurposed dish-soap bottle — anything to avoid a trip to the doctor and the requisite dose of prescription pills.
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The farm I live on, World Hunger Relief, Inc. in Waco, Texas, uses composting toilets rather than flushing toilets.  I had heard about them before I came and thought it was just a quirky thing that they did, having a toilet that didn’t require plumbing, but I quickly realized upon my arrival that every toilet in common use on the property uses sawdust instead of water.

I remember my first tour of the place—I arrived at night and was given a quick tour of the dorm by Melody.  We walked into the bathroom, with two sinks and a small shower and a teal-colored door in the back.  Melody worked up a bit of theatrics for us:  “And this,” she said as she opened the door, revealing a teal staircase with teal walls leading up to a bench with a toilet lid on it, “is the throne.”
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We come across cotton everyday in our homes, at the stores and even at work. Our lives are intertwined with this fiber and most of us never think twice about it. What most people don’t know is that there are many different kinds of cotton. Cotton is grown all over the world and is a part of everyday life.

Scientists exploring in Mexico first found bits of cotton bolls and cotton cloth, in Mexican caves, that were aged at least 7,000 years old. The cotton itself was found to be much like the cotton that is grown in America today. Cotton was being grown, spun, and woven into cloth in Pakistan in 3,000 years BC. Around this time natives of the Nile valley in Egypt were making and wearing cotton clothing. In about 800 AD, Arab merchants brought cotton cloth to Europe. Columbus found cotton growing in the Bahamas Islands when he traveled to the Americas.
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I love watermelon pickles.  My biggest goal of the summer is to collect the best watermelon rinds that I can and make them into yummy, luscious sweet pickles to soothe my soul in the wintertime.

However, it seems to me that the watermelons these days are bred to have skinny rinds and there is NO rind left of any decent sort to make into pickles.  A shame!  A travesty!  How can we have those delicious pickles if there are no rinds to use?  I managed to get a total of three (count them, THREE) pints of pickles last year and they were a sorry sight to see, skinny little pickles, ashamed to show their heads against the fat ones in the past.
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SNOW! It’s SNOWING outside our windows here at Lehman’s (in northeast Ohio). Ok, ok, we realize many of you have already SEEN the white stuff this fall, but we were caught offguard this morning. Brrr…it’s chilly out, too. Time to fire up the wood stoves!

The scene outside our office window this morning - can you see the flakes?

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The crisp fall weather is an ideal time to start planning the addition of a fruit garden.  You do not need a large plot of land – a sunny area 100×100 feet is more than room enough.
Fruit trees can provide both flower power and fresh fruit.  Berry plants and brambles produce sweet, juicy and delicious fruit from spring to early fall.

The hardest part can be to understand where to start.
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If you are a gardener and a cook, homegrown garlic is a must-do on your fall garden list. Nothing beats the taste of lovingly grown garlic and being a crop that grows well in many regions, there is no need to purchase imported garlic in the store (check labels!). Growing your own also opens up a whole new world of variety possibilities.

Pictured is the basket of labeled garlic I use for my Thursday demos at Lehman’s store and it’s interesting to hear folks who thought that “garlic was garlic” be amazed at the options. I am planting fifteen garlic varieties this fall, and one year a friend of ours (who is also a Lehman’s employee) planted fifty different kinds! Some are sturdy hard neck varieties like German Extra Hardy, the soft necks like Lorz Italian are great for braiding,  others like Georgian Fire have a more pungent flavor, while some are great for roasting like Chesnok Red. Our family favorite is Music, which is a Porcelain hard neck variety with large cloves and an excellent medium garlic flavor.
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Monday, Oct. 26, 2009

United Feature Syndicate
MARYJANE’S EVERYDAY ORGANIC

There is nothing more comforting on a cold winter’s day than the lush, radiant heat of a woodstove. Its warmth soaks into your skin, and its flame enlivens a room with a presence all its own. I’ve always loved the way fire dances and illuminates, warming hearth and soul. And I continue to invite the spirit of flame into my home, even after suffering the very real nightmare of a fire that consumed my house 13 years ago. In a mid-winter cold snap, 10 below zero, a faulty new chimney spread fire up through my rafters. To this day, when I think about how close I came to losing my children, I find myself short of breath.
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Article by Tim Matson, author of The Book of Non-Electric Lighting,

Earth Ponds A to Z and the Earth Ponds Sourcebook

Here it comes: heavy fall rain, the lights are flickering, and there’s a tree on the power line a mile up the road  the utility company hasn’t fixed in over a month. Put ‘em together and what have you got? Firelight time. Check the lamp fuel supply, trim the wicks, clean the chimneys, restock the candles.

But aside from the practical value of having a reliable stash of emergency lamps and candles at hand, I like firelight whether the power works or not. Evenings, it’s a pleasant way to dial down the go-go pace of the workday and relax. Turning out the electric lights and lighting a few candles is like meditation. Or maybe it’s nostalgia. Walking into a room lit by lanterns or candles is a way to step into the past, perhaps a distant century you can use your imagination to conjur up, or a past you may have lived, in a cabin or a house off the grid.
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