A Quick Discourse on Elderberries©

Elderberries have been planted around farms and harvested for home use and for taking to market since the 18^th century and probably much earlier.  They are found wild throughout much of the country and have been used for generations to make various things, wine and cordial perhaps being the most common.  Having planted elderberries recently and expecting a harvest in a couple of years I took a quick look at other ways to use them.  Elderberry bushes reproduce easily so I hope as time goes by I get larger and larger harvests.

For those who want an alcoholic beverage but are hesitant to try their hand at wine making, I suggest starting with a cordial which is a very simple process.

While some 19^th century cookbook authors were prejudiced against elderberries in favor of more refined fruits, others like Thomas De Voe preached their benefits.  “These small, black berries are pleasant-tasted when ripe, and are brought to our markets to be used for various purposes.  They make the Elder-paste, for the sick, which is considered excellent, Elderberry wine, a wholesome and agreeable beverage, sometimes used for making pies, etc., and when gathered while in flower make the Elder Flower Tea, etc.  The bark makes an excellent ointment; in fact, the whole plant is much used in medicine.  The berries are in season in the months of August and September.”  1867.

“The elderberry is one of the least known and appreciated of the berry family.  In fact it is usually neglected for many less palatable and far less dietetic fruits…

Elderberries when properly prepared are very palatable and delicious, either in pies, jelly, as a spiced conserve or a household wine…If housewives will try any one of the following tried and tested recipes I think they will begin to appreciate this friend of the hedges…”.  “Table Talk.”  1903.

A quick way to pick the small berries from the stem clusters is to place a half inch wire mesh over a large pan or bucket and gently pass the clusters back and forth along the wire.  The berries will fall through the mesh into the container.

ELDERBERRY PIE.

Line a pie dish with paste, upon which sprinkle a scant tablespoonful of flour; to this add a half cupful of sugar and a half teaspoonful each of cloves and cinnamon, rubbing all together evenly.  Upon this pour the berries, a pint more or less according to the size of your pie dish; pour over another half cupful of sugar, dot generously with butter, adding last one large tablespoonful of good vinegar.  Apply top crust quickly and bake.  “Table Talk”.  Vol. 18.  1903.

ELDERBERRY JELLY.

Take equal parts of elderberries and wild grapes, and cook to extract juice, strain, and sugar in proportion of one pound to each pint of liquid, and cook as other jelly…

Elderberries are also combined with gooseberries, crab-apples, and green grapes, equal parts of either, making a piquant table sauce, while pies made from them might please the individual who does not care for the flavor of the single fruit.

For winter use elderberries may be preserved in either of the above combinations and treated as other fruit, or canned plain without sugar for use in pies only.  When making pies from the plain canned fruit, it is wise to cook the berries with the same proportion of sugar, flour, etc., as given for fresh berries, filling the pie paste when cold.  This insures a jelly-like consistency of the finished product without those unpalatable doughy lumps too often seen…”  – “Table Talk”.  Vol. 18.  1903.

ELDERBERRY SHORTCAKE.

Make the cake or biscuit dough rich and flaky, proportioning it with cream, egg and soda the same as for a strawberry shortcake…When baked, divide the upper from the lower crust and place upon each a layer of ripe stewed elderberries.  It is known that elderberries have a somewhat rank taste when eaten from the bush.  Pick them, look them over and wash them; next, put them in a granite or porcelain stew dish, add a very little hot water and cook them a few minutes or until stewed.  Have as little juice as possible.  Add a half teacupful of thick sweet cream to enough of the stewed berries for two layers.  When the berries and cream are placed upon the cake, sprinkle over each layer plenty of granulated sugar, and the shortcake is then ready to be eaten.  Do not add the cream to the berries until it is about time to have the cake brought to the table.  Cream and sugar added to the berries destroy the disagreeable elderberry flavor and makes them rich and palatable.  – “Table Talk”.  1903.

ELDERBERRY CONSERVE.

9 lb. elderberries, 3 lb. sugar, 1 pt. vinegar; cook until thick and seal.  – “The Warren Cook Book”.  1920.

ELDERBERRY PIE.

Dilute Elderberry Conserve with water; add corn starch to thicken and put dots of butter on top (a little vinegar may be added if desired”.  Very delicious.  “The Warren Cook Book”.

DRIED ELDER FRUIT.

This fruit is very easily dried by spreading in pans under the stove or in the oven, and will make as good pies as though fresh, if they are soaked a few minutes in hot water before using.  Some of our neighbors dry them by the bushel, for winter use”.  – “The Ohio Cultivator”.  Vol. 9.  1853.

ELDERBERRY DUMPLINGS.

Make the crust as usual and put in the berries as you would other fruit [like apple dumpling].  Boil them fast till the crust is done, then take them up and eat with a dip of white sugar and sour cream, and you will confess they are delicious.  [Fruit dumplings can be baked as well].

Elderberries were made into a sauce similar to cranberry sauce.  The Iowa State Horticultural Society recommended combining elderberries and rhubarb for a sauce [1910].  An article in “Everyday Housekeeping” said, “twenty years ago many families, by no means poor, during every year consumed gallons of this unsavory sauce, made by boiling elderberries in sorghum molasses.  Jelly, too, made from elderberries and flavored with lemon, was accounted a delicacy.”  1900.

EDLERBERRY SOY.  [Anchovies are used to flavor various sauces and once cooked and strained, there are no fishy pieces remaining in the product.  The flavor blends with the other ingredients, and if made well, leaves no fishy taste.   Modern tastes usually dictate using far less than older recipes call for.  I suggest 1 small can, chopped, for this or the next recipe.]

One quart of elderberries; one quart of vinegar; a quarter of a pound of anchovies; a blade of mace; a little ginger, salt, and whole peppers.  Pour a quart of boiling vinegar over a quart of elderberries, picked from the stalks and set it in a cool oven all night; then strain the liquor from the berries, and boil it up with the mace, ginger, salt, whole peppers, and the anchovies, until they are dissolved.  When cold, put it into bottles after it has been strained, and cork it down.  Some prefer the spice put into the bottles; but either way it is a good and not expensive soy.  This was appreciated as a sauce for fish.  – “Warne’s Model Cookery”.  1879.

ELDERBERRY CATSUP.  [Note this recipe is similar to the one called soy.]

1 quart of elderberries; 1 quart of vinegar; 6 anchovies, soaked and pulled to pieces; half a teaspoonful mace; a pinch of ginger; 2 tablespoonfuls white sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoonful whole peppers.  Scald the vinegar and pour over the berries, which must be picked from the stalks and put into a large stone jar.  Cover with…glass, and set in the hot sun two days.  Strain off the liquor, and boil up with the other ingredients, stirring often, one hour, keeping covered unless while stirring.  Let it cool; strain and bottle.  This is used for flavoring brown gravies, soups, and ragouts, and stirred into browned butter, makes a good piquant sauce for broiled or baked fish.

FRUIT SAUCE.

Melt a small lump of butter, stir in half as much flour, or a quarter as much of corn-starch, arrowroot, or soaked tapioca, a pinch of salt, if the butter is not salted, a glass of acid wine or lemon juice, or a tablespoonful of vinegar; sugar to taste; any fruit juice you have, as raspberry, strawberry, blackberry, elderberry, or jam will do; thin to the right consistence; bring it to the boil and serve.  Raspberry, and other fruit vinegars make excellent sauces”.  [There is no right and wrong with this recipe – it is thickened as much or as little as the cook desires, and made as sweet or not as is wanted].  “How to Cook”.  1872.

ELDERBERRY PUDDING.

1 cup sugar, 1 cup sweet milk, 2 teaspoons baking powder, butter size of an egg, enough flour to make stiffer than cake dough.  Put in baking dish, then mix the following:  1 ½ cups elderberries (any fruit may be used) 1 cup sugar, 2 cups boiling water, small piece of butter.  Pour this over batter in pudding dish and place in oven.  Bake ¾ hour.  [This could be called cobbler].

ELDER-FLOWER PANCAKES AND JUNKET.  “Fruit Recipes”.

The finest flowers of the elder blossoms, stripped, may be whipped lightly into pancakes or muffins just before baking, a half-cupful to each “batch” of ordinary quantity.  This gives both lightness and flavor.  A plain junket should have added one-fourth part flowers to quantity of cream or milk used.  [Ripe berries may be added to muffins or cakes as one would raisins.]

ELDERBERRY SYRUP TO FLAVOR DRINKS.

Use strained elderberry juice and sugar in a ratio of 1 to 1 (half and half).  Flavor as desired with lemon juice, or cinnamon stick.  Bring to a boil and then simmer five minutes.  This may be canned for keeping, or small quantities may be kept in the refrigerator.  To serve, mix syrup to taste in cold club soda or lemon-lime soda and serve over ice.

Note:  While the images may look like poke, elderberry grows on a bush much different in appearance.  Know what you’re picking before consuming any wild plant.  I leave you with my favorite parting, Blissful Meals Yall©.  Enjoy your wild and garden bounty.  – Vickie Brady, The Historic Foodie.

Will 2017 Bring Disaster for the World’s Food Production?

For those concerned about the long-term effects of genetically modified (GMO) seeds, 2017 is going to bring changes in agriculture that will not be well received.  We’ve seen companies purchase rights to seed, alter it in some imperceptible way, and then file a patent on the seed so that they have control of the price and market.  There are three deals in the works that will give three giant agrochemical companies control of over half the seed produced world-wide and tighten the noose around smaller companies that are passionate about protecting non-hybrid seed.  For the non-gardeners, seed can be saved from non-hybrid plants and will produce true to form the following year.  Hybrid plants will not which means dependency on purchasing seed that might otherwise be perpetuated at home.

German owned Bayer bid $66 billion to purchase Monsanto according to Reuters.  Bayer isn’t just a producer of aspirin.  They are a mega producer of crop chemicals and with their purchase of Monsanto will control a huge portion of seed sales worldwide.

ChemChina is trying to purchase Syngenta Seeds.  It has sought European Union approval to purchase the Swiss company and says it will consolidate it with state-owned Chinese companies.  Interestingly, China has not approved using GMO corn, and has refused shipments of U.S. grown corn that contained GMO traits.  Syngenta has defended its right to add a protein to kill corn-eating bugs like earworms and cutworms.  The corn is known as Agrisure Viptera.  Syngenta was facing an increasing number of lawsuits from farmers whose profits are down by an estimated one billion dollars because of China’s refusal to purchase corn with GMO traits.

China detected the Viptera corn in several U.S. shipments in November 2013 and the following February started refusing shipments.  By October that year they had refused some 130 million bushels.  For more details on the acquisition please see Bloomberg Markets.

If ChemChina purchases Syngenta what course of action do they plan regarding the production of GMO seed?  Since China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt (some 1.24 trillion dollars) do they have plans to raise the price on seed to recoup some of that debt?  He who controls the seed controls the world’s food production.

DuPont and Dow, two of the largest U.S. seed companies have announced a planned merger which will spawn a 130 billion dollar company.  Does anyone think a smaller company trying to preserve non-hybrid seed stands a prayer of competing with such a monster?  Farmers and gardeners can expect higher prices for seeds and any chemicals they require and the merger will likely spell doom for those fighting the GMO seed battle.  Everyone can expect to pay more at the grocery store as increased prices for seed, fertilizer, insecticides, etc. rise.

The Dow/DuPont merger is currently under investigation by Europe’s top antitrust watchdog.  Perhaps they realize the devastating results creating such a monopoly could have world-wide.  If you want a voice in the issue, sign the petition at www.foodandwaterwatch.org.

To comprehend the importance of these mergers, ChemChina’s purchase of Syngenta was the largest business deal worldwide for 2016 until it was eclipsed by the purchase of Monsanto by Bayer.  The mergers are not aimed at helping the farmer put food on your table, nor the home gardener in filling freezer and pantry.

Please consider purchasing seed from a reliable heirloom seed producer such as:  Baker Creek, Sow True Seed, Seed Saver’s Exchange, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, High Mowing Seeds, Annie’s Heirloom Seeds, Fedco Seeds, Renee’s Garden Seed, Nantahala Seeds, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Territorial Seed Co., Seeds of Change, etc.

Source:  CNN Money.

Thinking With Cows: A Shared Post

Tags

beef cattle, Temple Grandin

I sometimes get discouraged with the problematic issues of our time, but now and then I am pleasantly surprised when someone presents a positive image to the world and behavior we would all do well to emulate.  My young friend, Logan Strock, is just such a person.  He and another young gentleman, Daniel Jones, are farmers at heart – they’ve grown up involved in farming and animal husbandry, and if this country’s economic status will allow them the opportunity to make a decent living, will contribute a great deal toward teaching and feeding this country.

The morals and ethics of these young men reflect a Christian upbringing and a willingness to learn from others to improve their own farming set-ups.  They know more than I’ll ever know, and are always willing to advise me as I attempt to return to farm life after many years away from it.  With God’s guidance, I am living my dream – a new life with someone who shares my passions and who is enthusiastic about making our few acres meet our needs.  Over the years I’ve forgotten a lot of what I knew about gardening and raising animals, but Daniel and Logan are always willing to advise me or feed critters for us when we’re away.

The young ladies aren’t to be outdone either.  I’m excited when I see one of them has won a ribbon at a show for their cows or goats.  These are the sort of girls who have the skills to be help-mates to husbands and inspiring mothers for their children some day.  We are truly blessed to live in in the midst of such an inspirational bunch of young people.

Today I am passing along an article that I had absolutely nothing to do with writing.  I have inserted a photo of Dr. Grandin.  Logan is the author and did an amazing job.  I hope my readers find this as interesting as I did. Feel free to comment and encourage him as he prepares to head off to college.  This young man will go far in life.

Thinking With Cows

By:  Logan Strock

She has been called stupid and brilliant; foolish and groundbreaking; crazy and revolutionary. This woman has aided in the transformation of the modern beef industry, from one that focused less on animal comfort and more on productivity to a market that balances efficiency, production, and animal comfort. Whether you know it or not, chances are, you have used numerous of Dr. Temple Grandin’s results in your own operation, from the way you drive cattle, to understanding cattle behavior and even through the designs of your cattle handling facilities.  

In my family’s beef operation, I have seen the numerous benefits of Dr. Grandin’s studies in her research behind the cattle squeeze chute. When the cattle enter the chute, they immediately calm and are much easier to handle. When a cow is calmed, the risk of injury is drastically decreased, in turn, increasing efficiency in the modern beef operation.

Dr. Grandin’s studies have proved not only to be easier and more relaxing to the cattle, but more economical to the beef cattle producer of today.

According to Colorado State University, “Her curved chute systems are used worldwide and her writings on the flight zone and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many producers to reduce stress during handling.” Dr. Grandin, a lifelong patient and advocate of Asperger’s Syndrome , studied and found that incorporating slow, graceful curves into her designs would help calm the cattle and make them easier to handle in the chute, again directly decreasing the risk of injury. In many cow/calf operations, if a brood cow is lost during the working process, not only has the producer lost the investment that was in the cow, but raising a calf that can be sold at market now relies upon the producer instead. A curving gait is natural to cattle, as exhibited by the fashion in which they travel distances across the pasture. The next time you are checking your cattle, notice the pattern of the trails left across the pasture. As a rule, they are curving and very organic in nature. Dr. Grandin noticed this trend and designed her facilities to mimic this natural motion.

The Center Track restrainer is a conveyer belt-like piece of equipment that gently holds the animal under the belly. This Center Track Restrainer holds the cattle steady as they move towards slaughter. National Geographic describes this device like this “It works and looks like a bowling ball return system. Cattle straddle a track that lifts them up by the belly and propels them forward.” This device also helps to keep the cattle calm, maximizing effectiveness when the animal is stunned to be harvested. Rushing cattle through a chute can often cause them to harm themselves and others around them by spinning around in the chute and falling down and potentially breaking an extremity or even their neck. This device also helps to eliminate the fear of a botched harvest. If the animal that is to be harvested can be stunned effectively the first time, not only is the animal in less pain, but the harvest can move faster, increasing efficiency. Dr. Grandin studied the Center Track Restrainer extensively and learned of its benefit not only to the cattle, but to modern beef operations across the world.

Through her disability, Dr. Grandin is able to think and reason on the level of the animals, enabling to understand and develop systems that are best suited to their needs. In much of her research, Dr. Grandin behaved like the animal she was studying, in their respective handling facilities. The triggers that Dr. Grandin noticed such as moving objects and bright lights, also trigger fear in the animals being harvested. Eliminating this fear leads to a much faster, safer and productive harvest.

Dr. Grandin has revolutionized the beef industry through her studies of animal behavior, allowing the producer to become even more efficient in producing healthy, nutritious beef for Americans to consume.

When is a Bean not a Bean?

Tags

cucuzzi, edible gourd, New Guinea bean, yard-long bean

My uncle was a good country gentleman, a veteran of WWII, and what one might call a gentle giant in that he was generally quiet but when he did speak it was worth listening to.  He was the glue that held our family together as my grandfather died young and my uncle assumed the duties of patriarch.  His occupation was simply “farmer”.  He raised cattle, kept chickens, turkeys, guineas, pigs, and grew fields of corn and common, as well as some uncommon, vegetables in his kitchen garden.  Some of what he routinely grew when I was growing up faded into oblivion with his passing so when I rediscover one of his classics it is a little like regaining a piece of my childhood.

One such plant is cucuzzi, aka, edible gourd, Italian edible gourd, etc, but which my uncle called Yard-long bean.  The latter is what I knew it as, so, when I researched it and realized that his bean and the cucuzzi gourd are in fact one and the same I wondered how he came to know it as a bean.  An article from “Popular Science”, May 1920, reveals the plant was known by many as such, sometimes called New Guinea bean.  The article was entitled, “When a Bean Is Not a Bean It’s a Gourd”.  It has sometimes been called snake gourd although the two are actually two different plants.

“This gourd springs up as by magic when the seeds are planted after the danger of frost has passed.  Like the ordinary pole-bean, it will grow whether cared for or not.”  The plant is an aggressive spreader so give it plenty of room then let it do for itself.  Unless sprawling over other vegetables is considered desirable they are best trellised.

A humorous discussion on how an edible gourd came to be called a New Guinea Butter Bean” was found in “Bean-bag” [June 1920].  “All jests aside, the elongated gourd with the funny name is conceded to be a quite acceptable vegetable.  It can be prepared in a score or more ways and finds favor with many appetites…The gourds are at their best when about twelve inches long and covered with a white fuzzy growth”.

The plant’s merits are many.  Cattle, goats, and pigs eat them, poultry eat the seed, seed are easily perpetuated by letting one or two of the gourds grow to full size and harvesting the seed for the next year’s crop, and any that are inadvertently overlooked and get too large to cook can be dried and used for containers or crafts.  In the 60’s and 70’s my mom and aunts made floral arrangements, dippers, and bird houses out of the large dried gourds.

I’ve made out an order for seed from the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and by this time next year I’ll be cooking a treat from my childhood and have my very own Mason jar full of dried seed stored away just like Uncle Wallace.

A 1909 book [“The English Vegetable Garden,  1909] spoke of its merits as a vegetable and recommended it for soups and stews.  It can be cooked in any way one would summer squash.  We most often sliced and fried the young tender gourds after a dusting of cornmeal.  After all, we are from the South and you know what they say about us and our frying pans.  Blissful Meals, yall, may your growing season see plentiful rain and sun and may your skillet never be empty.  -Thehistoricfoodie, aka, Vickie Brady.

Queen Victoria’s Poultry Yard©

Tags

chickens, heritage chickens

“Her Majesty’s poultry-yard, at Windsor, is situated in a small pleasure-garden just opposite Frogmore, and being rather for the amusement of rearing fancy fowls and pigeons in the manner of an aviary, than for breeding them for the table, is only, at present, upon a moderate scale.  The hen-house is erected at the back of a high wall, and…is merely a simple, though fancifully-decorated cottage, displaying considerable taste in the architect.  Over the roof is a well-stocked hexagonal erection for pigeons of various race, which are so familiar as to perch upon the person of her Majesty, who feeds them from her hand; in the centre of the building is a small room of entrance, on each side of which are the several compartments for the poultry, with a yard divided into separate courts by wire fences, and no birds can have more snug retreats for depositing and sitting upon their eggs—the nests being tastefully formed of moss, giving them the appearance of bowers; the whole warmed by a heated flue running underneath, and communicating with each cote by gratings.

Here may be seen a curious collection of white Java Bantams, odd little birds, covered with a sort of hairy feather, but laying, it is said, the richest kind of egg; which, however, are not a little difficult to be got, for it seems that no sooner is one layed, [sic]than the whole tribe, even the hen herself, begin pecking at it until eaten up:  yet in this, we imagine, there must be some mistake, or it would be impossible to rear a brood from the parent hen.  There are also some of Sir John Sebright’s celebrated bantams, with their golden speckled feathers, and other small breeds of a rare description.  By way of contrast, there is an enormously large breed of Cochin China fowls, the cock, although very young, weighing upwards of ten pounds, and the hens very prolific of eggs of superior flavor; which, although white when layed, [sic] soon become afterwards speckled.

There are likewise various other sorts of fancy breeds—both fowls and pigeons, of a curious description—all under the care of a man especially qualified for such a charge, as perhaps there are few better acquainted with the habits of the feathered tribes.  He has evidently passed much of his time in the recesses of the woods and forests, trapping birds for sale, and examining their modes of life…

The shrubberies in the garden afford shade enough from the sun, but the fowls should also have shelter from the rain, by a verandah extending along the front from each side of the porch…

We understand it to be the intention of her Majesty to establish a large poultry-yard, for the supply of the royal table, in the breeding and fattening of all sorts of fowls—in the care of which her Majesty takes especial interest; nor can there be a doubt that the introduction of foreign breeds will thus—under the example of her gracious patronage—in the course of time, cause much improvement in the stock of our native species…”

The author went on to extol the virtues of exercise citing the royal couple as an example.  “Those residents of Windsor who are in the habit of taking an early morning walk, to enjoy ‘the cool, the fragrant, and the silent hour,’ in the splendid demesne, proudly crowned by its ancient castle, must have often seen two persons in plain attire, tripping lightly across that pleasant meadow called ‘Datchet Mead,’ in order to visit a farm at the extremity of the Home-park.  These persons are Her Majesty and Prince Albert, pursuing their way to the dairy and poultry-yard, and in their progress sporting with their infants…It is impossible to witness the unaffected enjoyment of the royal couple in this domestic excursion, unalloyed as it is by any restraint of official etiquette…”

Photo taken early 20th century

Murray, John.  “Farming for Ladies”.  1844.  London.

America’s Greatest Problem: We’ve been off the farm too long

Tags

American farmers, farming, self-sufficiency

This article is from Appalachian Magazine.  It carries a powerful message, one that every American should heed.

By AppalachianMagazine –

July 5, 2016

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This is an opinion article from Appalachian Magazine, written by Jeremy Farley:

This week, our nation celebrated its 240th birthday and though my heart fills with patriotic fervor each time I catch a glimpse of those red stripes flapping in the wind, I can’t help but have those feelings checked by the harsh understanding that America 2016 is a nation in dire trouble.

Far from being the land of the free and the home of the brave, we are now a nation of spineless weaklings ready to be offended at the drop of the hat and often it is the very ones who dropped the hat who are the most offended.

I do not pretend to be an expert on sociology or American history – everything I know I had to learn from my life’s experiences, mostly as a child on a +200-acre beef farm in nowhere Virginia.  The older I get, the more I have come to realize, however, that it was here that I received the type of education no Ivy League institution can come close to offering.  My only regret is that 200 million other American children never had the same opportunities I enjoyed – opportunities to bottle feed a baby calf, drive a truck through an empty field at the age of 5 (alone), spend summers sitting alongside my father inside the cab of a John Deere tractor, begin Christmas morning the same way I began everything other cold and windy winter morning – opening the gates for dad as he unrolled hay for hundreds of hungry animals.

In the year 1790, 90% of the American population were farmers.  By 1850, this percentage had dropped to 64%, and then down to only 21% by the year 1930.  Today, only 2% of the American population serves as farmers.

And though American agriculture is more productive than ever, I’m afraid that as a nation we are beginning to witness the consequences of having raised multiple generations who have never looped a metal chain through a gate or chased lightning bugs through a field of freshly mowed hay.

As a nation, we have allowed Disney to convince our children that all animals are cute and cuddly, then wonder why dozens of people get killed each year attempting to take selfies with grizzly bears, cougars and copperheads.

As a nation, we have replaced the garden hoe and watering bucket with an Xbox and cell phone, then wonder why our “children” refuse to move out at the age of 30.

As a nation, the vast majority of our families have never even came across an injured bird, let alone taken the time to nurse one back to health, then we wonder why a generation has been brought up to have no respect for nature or its Creator.

While our forebears were busy praying for rain, we have come to regard the water that falls from the sky as being a cursed object — unaware that it is the rain that keeps us fed each day… All sunshine and no rain makes a barren desert, but hardly anyone realizes this in 2016 America; which is why so many never find peace during their darkest days.

There was a time when Americans consumed bacon, sausage, biscuits, gravy, fried eggs and a big glass of milk each morning — and yet they rarely got fat.  Why? Because after eating such a hardy breakfast, they went out in the fields and spent the next thirteen hours fixing fences, hanging gates, delivering calves, killing, yes, killing predators, and harvesting food.

Farm work is dirty, tiring, sometimes cruel and always difficult; which is exactly why the percentage of Americans who engage in this work has declined with every generation.

Yet, it was this type of upbringing that allowed a nation to produce men and women who pulled together to fend off the forces of Hell in the Second World War, explore the heavens, eradicate disease and tap the ocean depths.

Sadly, those farm children are dying off the scene each day. They have been replaced by “men” who have never gotten dirt under their fingernails and purchase overpriced coffee as a status symbol.

I’m not so foolish to believe that all of our ills could be solved by a trip back to the farm, but I am confident that if a few more people had the type of upbringing I enjoyed, the world would have a lot more common sense!

“Men In Denim Built Our Country…Men In Suits Destroyed It.”