The winner of my “Lehman’s, Hanky Panky” giveaway is: Deon Matzen, who said:
“I cook on a wood-burning cookstove. Lehman’s has accessories I cannot find elsewhere. I would love to get a propane refrigerator, but alas, that is not in the stars. Since we chose a simpler life in our household, the products in their catalogue are perfect for us.”
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And the original post for the GIVEAWAY was (thank you to the 71 farmgirls who shared comments about their favorite non-electric tools!):
In the Oct/Nov issue of MaryJanesFarm, “Hanky Panky” (on newsstands Sept. 15), we led you here to my daily journal for a chance to win a $20 gift card from Lehman’s, an Ohio Amish-community store that specializes in old-fashioned hand tools. “We’re a family business, and we’re proud to offer the finest selection of non-electric technology you’ll ever see,” says Glenda Ervin, daughter of store founder Jay Lehman.
From old-fashioned enamelware …
to gorgeous cookstoves …
to maple-sugar supplies …
Lehman’s is your go-to source for old-fashioned gadgets, tools, and farm supplies.
Enter to win a $20 Lehman’s gift card
by telling us about your favorite non-electric tool in the comments below. We’ll toss your name into a hat and draw a lucky winner in mid-November, when the Oct/Nov issue expires on newsstands. Stay tuned for more magazine-related giveaways!
If you’re not yet a subscriber to MaryJanesFarm, subscribe here for only $19.95/year.
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Kathy Butler-Bebout!!!
Kathy Butler-Bebout (#6691) has received a certificate of achievement in Farm Kitchen for earning a Beginner & Intermediate Level Forage for Food Merit Badge!
“We had an exceptionally wet spring and early summer here, and have seen many more fungi and mushrooms than usual. My husband, the kids, and I spent an hour looking at the Missouri Dept. of Conservation edible mushroom page to confirm that the fungus growing on several dead logs across the creek were edible.
We had success! We correctly identified the fungus as oyster mushrooms.
My main areas for foraging are SurePop Farm, 240 acres, 12 miles S of Yellville, AR, on Water Creek in rugged Ozark Mountain terrain, a few miles N of the Buffalo River; and Sunrise Farm, 40 acres of bottom and upland pasture on Greasy Creek, 7 miles SW of Yellville. Sunrise Farm has been cultivated and foraged for generations. I searched there this spring for morel mushrooms in a small, undisturbed area in a sycamore grove on the bank of Greasy Creek. Morels, happily, are one of the easiest to identify because of their “spongy, Christmas tree” shape, and the area was relatively free from heavy undergrowth, so they were easier to spot under dead leaves and logs. SurePop is remote and barely cultivated. I targeted the elderberry thicket along the creek, the deep ravine full of dead logs from the ’09 ice storm, and the large flat area overgrown with kudzu on the S side of the farm.
I learned that, for me, the only way to forage for fungi in the off-season is to identify areas with conditions conducive to their growth. I checked these areas periodically through spring, summer, and early fall of 2015. I fell in love with fungi! When the weather turned moist and still, an incredible variety of mushrooms, shelf fungi, puffballs, and the like revealed themselves. I can identify elf’s ear (not edible), morel, oyster, delicious milky cap, lion’s mane, and puffballs.”
“What?!” you say.
It’s true.
McDonald’s is going organic!
The fast-food giant is jumping on a healthier bandwagon these days … replacing sodas on its Happy Meal menu boards with juice and milk; adding apple slices, Go-GURT and Cuties Clementines to its menu; printing fun nutrition facts on its Happy Meal boxes; testing healthy salads with ingredients like kale and quinoa; and unveiling plans to phase out antibiotics in its chicken products and source only cage-free eggs.
And this month, McDonald’s debuted its first hamburger made entirely with organic beef at over 1,500 locations in Germany. The “McB” burger makes a test run through October and November, sporting Lollo Bionda lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, red onion rings, Edam cheese and sauce in addition to the organic patty. Later in the month, the same locations will test a “Long McB” burger—organic beef, arugula, Maasdam cheese, red onion rings, tomatoes, and spicy sauce on a sunflower seed bun.
Long McB, McDonalds
McBetter!
The Boston Red Sox hit one out of the park.
But this home run wasn’t hit on the well-known diamond at the oldest baseball stadium in the country, Boston’s Fenway Park, which my daughter and her family just happened to visit last summer.
Think higher. The next time you watch a Red Sox pop fly soar high into the sky, take a gander at the stadium rooftop. That’s where Fenway Park’s new urban garden grows. Fenway Farms made its debut this summer, sporting 5,000 sq. ft. of garden rows that will produce more than 4,000 lbs of organic produce each year. The produce will be used at Fenway Park’s concession stands and restaurants during events, and also provide tools to educate local kids about healthy eating and environmental stewardship, giving the term “farm team” a whole new meaning.
photo, greencitygrowers.com
Talk about a grand slam!
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
