2020 was a year of potatoes here on the Farm.  With the Covid-19 pandemic threatening the food supplies this spring, we decided to garden more seriously this year and freeze and can more of our own produce.  

   And so I took over one whole garden plot for potatoes.  Many years ago I bought some Yukon Gold (I think) potato pieces from the store to start growing them.  Probably close to 15 years ago.  And I save some each year to replant.  

  Last year I saved all of the small ones out separately to see if I could use them for seed this spring.  Unlike most folks who save seed from the best of the plants, mine were any small potatoes. 

  And so I had about 50 still OK this spring.  I planted about 30 hills and most of them grew.   From planting to digging I documented this and stuck the videos on my youtube channel.  

  This week I harvested them, digging up probably 200 lbs of potatoes, enough to far more than supply the winter's need. 

  The story of 2020 potatoes was on my Facebook page too.  

  

  This link is a search of my youtube channel for potato videos.  More than I remember!

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=RiverRoadRambler+potatoes

 

Picked the popcorn yesterday and have it out to dry now.  I had planned to do this much later, but a deer got in that garden and went down the whole row biting the end of each ear off and knocking over many of the stalks.  I had let the electric fence get grounded by grass overnight and the deer took advantage of it.  

 I think there will be enough for winter as Scott and Margo are not popcorn eaters unless it is at a movie at $5 a bucket.  At home where it is free, they don't seem to care for it. But I like it!

   

Dad was the popcorn fan when we were kids, coming in about 9 pm after the evening milking and taking out a cob or two of popcorn, dried upstairs in an onion bag, shelling it, blowing off the chaff, then taking the steel skillet and covering the bottom with kernels.    He shook it, sliding it back and forth on the electric stove burner with no oil in it, just rolling the kernels back and forth.  The kernels swelled up, started browning, and then a few popped onto the stove before he put on the lid, turned the burner down, and shook it until every kernel popped and the skillet was filled with fresh, crispy, Japanese Hull-less white fluffs.  

 

Then he dumped it into the deep aluminum kettle that was used for the drop-burner on the stove and if we boys were awake, popped a second batch before melting a generous slice of butter off the whole pound block, melting it in the still-hot skillet and then pouring it over the popcorn, adding salt and stirring it all up.  

  

He put his own helping right in the buttery skillet and ate it while reading the local newspaper or the Reader's Digest.  You could see his fingerprints in what he read.  

   

Of course, we always grew our own popcorn.  It had to dry until nearly Christmas before the new year batch was ready and so some years we went without for a few months, making the first batch of the new crop exciting!

   

When it was dry, we shelled it, the pointed hard kernels rubbing our hands raw.  The shelled popcorn was full of chaff, and so we took it outside to let the wind winnow it. And at just the right moisture content so every kernel popped, we sealed it in fruit jars for the coming year.  We boys shelled grandpa and grandma's popcorn for them too.  I still remember the raw hands afterward -- as both families had many ears and long rows in the garden or on the field edge rows.  Grandma made popcorn balls for Halloween and Christmas and used popcorn and thread to make Christmas tree strings. 

   

For Halloween, we stopped at our much older neighbors, Bert and Hattie Brenizer, and they never had candy on hand for us, but said --" wait a little and we will pop some corn for you."  Bert had the old kitchen wood stove cherry red using some coal with his wood as he told us that his grandpa had a coal mine out east once upon a time and he liked that for heat.  He popped it in a popcorn shaker, a rectangular metal pan with a screen top and when done, put it in a grocery brown bag, poured in melted lard and sugar and shook it up.   

"When we were kids," he told us, "all butter was sold to the store to make money, so we used lard and added sugar to make it better."  It was good, the brown paper bag stained with lard and our hands and soon our pants greased up too.

  

We usually got a few stories along with the popcorn and as we only had a few stops in walking distance of our house, it was special to stay and listen to Hattie tell us about walking to school on the barrens holding on to the big dog so the wolves wouldn't come close.

How Do You Make 1700 Apple Pies?

 How do you make 1700 Apple Pies?

The answer, according to the Cushing Lutheran Apple Pie Crew, is to make 170 pies on 10 different days in August and September.  After 25 years of making pies by the bushels, they have it down to a science as well as an art.  

The pies will be on sale, September 26th 9--5 at the Cushing Brenholt Park, a stop on the 15th Annual River Road - Hwy 87 Ramble. It is also their traditional Fall Bazaar sale with crafts, baked goods, lunch and garage sale items.  The sale is spread out widely in the park shelters with mask wearing recommended.  The park is where the church has been holding Sunday services this summer, a lovely place to worship God in His grand outdoors. 

Driving by the church last week, we saw the parking lot filled with cars on a Monday morning and in Cushing, we satisfy our curiosity by barging right in and finding out what is going on with our neighbors and making the folks feel guilty for not inviting us too. 

Walking into the church basement, the first impression was of a party -- folks laughing, visiting and enjoying themselves immensely.   The fragrance was of fresh apples.   Everyone was busy, wearing masks or staying apart with Covid-19 awareness and in a vast assembly line turning out delicious apple pies. 

One way to judge if a church is healthy is to look at what goes on in the church basement.  If it is a busy and joyous place, likely the church is thriving.  One barely noticed the basement itself with the usual big open area, supporting posts and end kitchen as it was fully occu-pied with bustling folks. 

Making 170 pies in a day starts with the apple picking crew, a half dozen folks, headed out to find apple trees enough to pick apples to fill  each pie with 5 ½ cups of peeled, diced apples.  Eight medium sized apples will do, but in 2020, the apple crop is smaller sized and so closer to 10 apples are needed per pie.  That means 1700 apples need to be picked on 10 different days.  And as the Lutherans are generous folks, their pies are piled high like Mount Ararat using at least twice the apples of a store bought pie.  

Where do the apples come from?  Folks all around Cushing who have an apple tree or two in their yard donate their extras. Of course the apples have to be worm free and at the right stage to be pie-able.  So the search for good apples is ongoing and intense. The apple crew meets at the church at 8 am, heads out with ladders, apple pickers, and enthusiasm, swarms into the orchard and soon has bushels of apples loaded.  They are ready for the next day when fresh apples become pies. 

At 7:30 am, on apple pie day, two dozen volunteers are at the Cushing Lutheran basement setting up the Stations of the Pie.  Four men man the machines that peel, core and slice an apple in 10 -20 seconds each. Half a dozen folks sit at tables with paring knives cutting them into small pieces and immediately soaking them in salt water so they don’t turn brown.  Quality control is done all along the way so any flaw in the apple is tossed in with the peelings and headed either the compost pile or maybe a hog pen or chicken yard. 

After a good soak the apples are collected in huge trays and moved to the pie filling station. 

In parallel with the apple disassembly line, we have the pie crust crew.  That starts with the unthawing and unpackaging of frozen purchased dough that is kneaded into two generous clumps of exactly the size needed for a 9 inch pie shell. 

The dough clumps are brought to the pressing station where a brand new 2020 machine takes the place of previous 24 years of pie making by hand rolling the dough.  The pie is put in an aluminum pie shell, covered with a thin wax paper sheet, placed in the press and the dough ball flattened to exactly fit the pie tin in a smooth single motion.  The press can mold them into the pie tin or flatten them for the top crust. Fast, efficient and no danger of rolling pins used in disagreements over doctrine. 

The crust filled tin is then filled as high it can be heaped with 5.5 cups of nearly white apples.  The pre-mixed sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and secret Lutheran very mild spices are added to the top of the heap and the top crust carefully draped over, like the snow on Mount Sinai where Moses came down with the original recipe carved in stone. 

To crimp the edges and make a fancy pattern on them also takes a machine.  The pie goes in a wooden ring and another wooden ring gets pressed down and seals the edges and imprints a twining pattern.  A little excess dough squeezes out and is trimmed with the trimmings going back into a future crust.  We suggested a Bible verse pressed into the design, or maybe an advertisement for Lutheran Brotherhood Insurance.  

Next the pies are sealed in a zip lock bag with the ingredients list and the cooking instructions before heading to the church garage where 10 large freezers stand.  The pies are carefully separated into layers so they don’t touch each other and frozen for 48 hours before the Lutherans will sell them to you or me.  No pies are sold fresh, as freezing is part of the process to get the right texture. 

Why do they make them?   Since the serpent tempted Eve with an apple, men and women have had to work hard for their living.  And that includes maintaining their churches, and through the churches their goals as Lutherans.  So not only has the income from pies paid for repairs to the church and improvements, but to the mission of the church itself to help do God’s work in the world.  “We believe that we are freed in Christ to serve and love our neighbors” is stated on the ELCA church website.    Can you think of a sweeter way to love your neighbor than with a homemade apple pie?

The crew this year ranged from several folks in their 80s to youngsters in their 60s.  And they all got along, no people were injured, everyone knew their job and everyone one was accepted, from the slow but perfectionist apple slicing of the former banker to the whiz bang speed of the retired farmer across the table.  Each according to his or her abilities working together for the common good.  

Want an apple pie?  $8 each pre-order through the church for pickup.  Or better yet, buy one at the 15th Annual River Road Ramble in Cushing, September 26th.    The Ramble is bigger and better than ever as not only is it Covid-19 socially distanced, being spread out from Grantsburg to St Croix Falls, but a chance to get out and see fall color, buy some garden and orchard produce, find some local crafts, or antiques, and look for bargains at a garage sale.  The map and events will be online soon on the River Road Ramble Facebook page and at our website.  https://tinyurl.com/2020RRR.  Want to be a Ramble stop?  Call 715 488 2416 or email selhscushing@gmail.com  by September 10th.  Sponsored by Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society

For a video of the pie making in action, check out the Youtube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgmAq5uq2q8   

Photos and captions

We won’t identify the folks in the photos as Lutherans are self-effacing folks who would feel terrible if they were singled out for recognition above others.  

A pie of many colors suitable for Joseph himself. 

 

  Domed pies filled to overflowing with apples won’t stack so they have to be frozen in layers separated by frames to prevent crushing. 

How do you store 1700 pies?  A dozen freezers that run for a few months each year as well as selling them to early customers right now. If an emergency storm shuts off the electricity all of Cushing will eat pies for breakfast, dinner and supper until they are gone.  

Peeling, slicing, and coring in a 15 seconds. 

Two rings are used to press the crusts together and leave a pattern in the crimp. 

No stinting on apples here!

Pie Crusts get flattened with a new pie press that makes top and pie-pan in a single step

 

The pies get a final trim, are packaged and frozen.