How To Render Lard

Over the years, we have learned that with every season comes the harvesting of home grown farm products.  Living near several large groups of Amish, one begins to really appreciate the 'old' way of living.  One thing we have learned is that it isn't really the 'old' way of living as much as it is a smart way of living.  Now mind you, I'm not ready to get rid of electricity or running water, but I enjoy knowing how to live without them if necessary.

Barn Home Project ~ Part 2

Barn Home Project ~ Part 1

Let's see, where did I leave off?  We picked a beautiful spot, cleared the trees, leveled the ground, anxiously awaited getting the well drilled, brought in too many loads of gravel to count, and got everything ready for the concrete.

The top picture is of the trees being cleared for the electricity to be put in.  Believe me when I say that we fretted something awful about this part.  This location is heavily wooded and they were telling us that they would cut a 40' swath of trees.  It may not look that bad in the picture, however, nothing could have prepared us for what looked like a

Barn Home Project ~ Part One

Barn Home Project ~ Part 2

To begin with, I apologize for being so absent on this blog.  I realize some of you are not on Facebook and do not get those updates.  Last fall we began a journey of building a new homestead.  We knew before we started that is was not for the faint of heart, but still, we had no idea how trying it would be.

Pumpkin Bread

For those of you who don't live around these parts, we have had an ice storm and snow the past few weeks.  The ice is pretty, but usually unwelcome because of the fear of a power outage.  The snow around here is pretty too, while it lasts, but usually it will melt off the next day.  That is not the case this time and it feels like we have been living in a snow globe for the past five days.  It is pretty, and we so seldom get any snow that I sure don't want to complain, but I haven't had the heart to romp around in it either.  

Needless to say, if you follow our Facebook Page, you can tell that I have had a little more time on my hands than usual!

Our Sure Fire Germination Process

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This was our front yard one week ago today.  Many of you may remember how antsy I got with our warm January weather, which led to this ...

As you can see, they are acting like perfect little greenhouses!  Since our weather has been up and down the charts though, the seeds have not germinated yet.  They will pretty soon I'm sure, and I believe they will be stronger plants too.  However ... I am needing to get some seeds started now so I turned to our sure fire method that I learned last year which is to use our egg incubator.  It is excellent for regulating the perfect germinating temperature for seeds.  It should've been done before now, but I've been so caught up in sewing, that I have put it off until now.  

Handmade Steel Amish Hairpins

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These are my latest and greatest find!  These are handmade, steel hairpins.  Talk about heavy duty!

The longer my hair grows, the harder it is find ways of putting it up.  I think I have purchased and tried every single hairpin under the sun, with no success, until now.

One day, at a friends house, she was putting up her daughter's hip length hair.  Since they are the only people with hair as long as mine that I know, I asked her how on earth she kept it up.  So.... she let me in on her little secret and I headed straight to the local Amish store to get them.  

Now I don't know if you have a local Amish store or not, but ours is a simple little room on an Amish farm ran by a local Amish family.  It isn't one of these high traffic, fancy, high-priced "Amish" stores where they sell a small bag of "bulk" food for $10 and a wooden bench for $300.  This is a store specifically for the Amish, but they will sell to a few locals also.

We enjoy going in there.  Good people and handy, handy stuff.

If you don't have somewhere to get such terrific and handy things, you might like to order a catalog that many of the Amish around here order from.  It's full of canning equipment, stainless steel kitchen supplies, non-electric appliances, tools, heaters... and the list goes on and on.

ShetlersWholesale Co.

PO Box 8

Geneva, IN  46740

You will need to send them a letter requesting a catalog.  Its been ages since I had to request such a thing through the mail, but they sent me one right away. 

For any of you that participate in historical re-enactments, these hairpins might work wonderfully for you too!

Amish Cinnamon Sauce

The other morning my dear family was cravings pancakes.  I've gotten on this anti-Bisquick kick, so I took out one of my Amish cookbooks, one like we just had a giveaway for, to see if there was a good sounding recipe for pancakes in it.  

First let me say that there was, it was called Johnny Cakes and included a bit of cornmeal in it.  Second, to my delight, there was a delicious sounding recipe for Cinnamon Sauce.  My family really likes Cinnamon, so I read it over and thought I'd try it to have as an option to our Maple Syrup.  

It is DELICIOUS!!  

Not only that, but you could use it on more than just pancakes.  It could be used on ice cream, french toast, over sweet bread, the sky's the limit because it can be made just a bit thicker to be used as a frosting on cakes too.  Ok, here's the recipe:

Amish Cinnamon Sauce

1 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

3 Tablespoons flour (scant)

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

2 c. boiling water

4 Tablespoons butter

1 tsp. cinnamon

Blend first 3 ingredients in a saucepan.  Stir boiling water in gradually to keep smooth.  Cook until clear for 4 to 5 minutes.  Remove from heat; stir in brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon.  Serve!  YUM!

That's it, that's all there is to it!  This recipe makes about 2/3's of a Mason quart jar full.

The Amish Cookbook Giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed.  

Congratulations to the winner, A Nest in the Rocks, 

chosen from Random.org.

Thank you for all of your entries!  I had the most enjoyable time visiting everyone's websites!  Now that I realize how much interest there is in Amish items, I promise there will be several more giveaways related to our Amish community.  Be sure to check back often!

Oh, I almost forgot....to purchase your own Kitchen Keepsakes Volume II Amish Cookbook, simply send $9.95 per copy, plus $2.00 postage to:

Mrs. Monroe (Ida) Hershberger

1289 SE 1300

Windsor, MO  65330

Homeschooling and Homesteading

Homeschooling and homesteading just flow naturally together.  How better for children to learn hands on life lessons with the day to day activities at home on the land.  One thing I deeply appreciate about doing both is how well we know and truly appreciate the uniqueness of our daughter.  She has a great love for God and all of His creation.  She has a determined spirit in learning everything she can possibly

Harvest Time in the Ozark Mountains

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As each season comes upon us, we celebrate and treasure what each one holds.  Autumn is no different and I have felt for many years that Autumn is my most favorite season of all.  We cherish the crisp mornings, the warm afternoons, the turning of the leaves and the harvest!  I wouldn't be being completely honest with you though if I didn't mention how exhausted we are by the time winter rolls around and we are just as grateful for the rest that winter provides with snuggling up in front of the fire with a mug of something warm and steamy to drink.  But for now.....there is work to do!

It seems I haven't gotten anything done on this blog except for posting a few recipes here and there and for that, I apologize.  There has been plenty of activity here on the homestead and I have taken many pictures, however, there never seems to be enough time to get everything posted.  I've been stashing posts away to complete through the winter and update everyone on our progress, but I thought I would give you a few ideas of what has been going on around here just this past week....

Of course homesteading isn't complete without canning.... and thankfully a lot of that got done this week.

We can never have enough green beans canned.  A friend of mine with five children cans 140 quarts of green beans every year.  When I first heard that, my jaw dropped,

Homemade Bread

The past several days here have been bitterly cold, snow on the ground and frost on every tree.  It makes for beautiful mornings and great days for baking, sewing, plotting out our spring gardens........countless things!  Yesterday we made our usual bread for the week and I finally had the time to take pictures of the process to share it with you.  This recipe is an old Amish recipe that I got directly from an Amish bishop here in our neck of the woods.  For some reason, his still tastes better than mine, but its still the best bread I've ever made.  He hand grinds his wheat, which I am not able to do until we get our mill.....if you're reading this honey....by spring would be nice!  Other than that, I make it the same way he does.

Gather your ingredients...

As you can see, I have been using my bread maker for mixing the dough.  I used to mix it by hand, but my hands don't take kindly to mixing bread dough with a skinny handled wooden spoon.  (Another thing for the wish list....a BIG handled wooden spoon.)  Since this entire recipe will not fit into the bread maker, I do it in halves for the mixing part.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups white flour
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 handful of salt (my handful isn't as big as his so I use about 4 tsp and its good)
• 2 packages of yeast (or 2 Teaspoons but note the picture with the size of the teaspoon)
• 3/4 cup lard (we use pig lard but you can also use oil or shortening)
• 1 quart of warm water
• 3 cups whole wheat

You will add more flour as you go until it isn't sticky, about 3 more cups or so, you have to just figure as you go.

Now the smaller spoon pictured here is a regular table spoon, the larger spoon is the one we use for measuring the yeast.  You don't need a large serving spoon, just something in between a serving spoon and a regular spoon.  

I put the ingredients into the bread maker in the order of the liquids first and then the dry ingredients, yeast last on top.  Make an indention in the top of the flour, big enough to contain your yeast.  I don't know if this is necessary, it's just a habit I have.

If you decide to use a bread maker for half of this recipe at a time like I do, just set your bread maker on the dough cycle, otherwise mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl, continuing to add flour until the dough isn't sticky and then knead it.  

I usually leave the lid to the bread maker open during this first mixing part to add flour about a half a cup at a time.  These next few pictures are a bit fuzzy due to the mixing of the machine, please excuse that.  you can see in the first picture that it is still runny so I'm adding more flour.

Here you can see the dough beginning to form and pull away from the bowl, I'm still adding a half cup of flour at a time.  It mixes in pretty quickly.

Here the dough has formed a firm ball and has pulled away from the edges.  It is still a bit too sticky, but I go ahead and turn it into a bowl.

This dough is still too sticky, I can really tell now that it's in the bowl.

This time I add just one more half cup of flour, knead it slightly and the dough transforms into...

 I let the dough rise for about an hour or so in front of the fireplace with a dish towel over it.  It should almost double in size.  At that time, I'll punch it down and then let it rise again for another hour or so.

Now the dough gets turned out onto the counter and divided, placed into greased bread pans and let rise one more time.  Only let it rise till it is barely over the bread pans, otherwise you might get too much air in your bread.  I know some people poke holes in the tops of the dough to release the air before this rising step, I don't bother with that.

 Bake at 350 degrees for about half an hour or so.

This batch isn't the prettiest batch I've ever made, but it is soft, hearty and delicious with soft crusts even without buttering the tops!  It's delicious smothered in homemade butter straight from the cow!

ENJOY !!!

I've tried to explain my process in detail, but when you do something so often, you tend to forget little things others may need to know.  If I have done that, please let me know and I'll gladly fill in anything I've left out :o)

Bread Making with Amish Friends

Recently my daughter and I were invited to an Amish friends home in order to get a copy of their wonderful bread recipe.  Boy were we in for a few lessons!  Nothing more humbling as an "Englischer" than to learn how to do things from someone who is completely self sufficient!  When I was asked what I cook with, I replied "an electric stove".  Response?  "Tsk tsk tsk".  :o) 

When we first arrived, we sat down while she wrote out the recipe. The plainness of the home was overwhelmingly peaceful and extremely clean with fresh white paint.  She asked me how I got my yeast, in packets or in a bag.  Since I usually get it in a jar and she had never seen

Autumn Harvest in Amish Country

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Nothing says Autumn more than an Amish wagon loaded down with the fall bounty of pumpkins, squash and gourds, a crisp wind and the crisp autumn leaves falling .  The harvest has been tremendous and the local Amish wagons are a testimony to that.  We are truly blessed to live in an area where we can learn so much from our wonderful neighbors.  They know the true meaning of heirloom seeds and how to grow just about anything.

Baking Day

It is so nice to come to the end of a long day of baking, however, I tried several new recipes today and they are all scrumptious!  It's too bad that we were only able to taste the small crumbs that aren't going to the Amish auction tomorrow.  We tried a wonderful new recipe for Cinnamon Swirl Bread that was extremely easy.  Toss all the

Heirloom Tomatoes

Candy Stripe Heirloom Tomato

Since discovering heirloom vegetables, I have learned so much about obtaining, growing and saving these precious seeds.  One learns about the history of each heirloom and where they have come from, and that many of them have been passed down for centuries.  They have been handed down, through generations of farmers and gardeners, from one