Step aside Miss America,
Photo by Staff Sgt. Jessica Barnett, Kansas Adjutant General’s Department Public Affairs Office via Wikimedia Commons
you’ll need a bucket if you want to compete with Miss Uganda …
Photo, http://www.ugandaonline.net
a milk bucket, that is.
This year, hopefuls vying for the title of Miss Uganda had to show their talents in an unusual realm for a beauty pageant—a milking contest. And that’s not all; they also had to handle sheep and goats and answer pertinent questions about agriculture—no tapping cup tricks for these ladies … and no swimsuits.
“Why all this emphasis on farming?” you might ask. The current Ugandan president apparently thought it would be a good way to spotlight agriculture, the country’s economic backbone. “We are here to change the perception that agriculture cannot co-exist with beauty. The contestants have been taken through 25 modules of agriculture and have had their hands dirty at some points to get to know how things are done. The regional winners, together with the overall winner, will champion agricultural projects in the next one year,” said Brenda Nanyonjo, Miss Uganda spokeswoman.
You go, farmgirls!
Recently, a friend told me she found an orange growing here in the Palouse region of northern Idaho.
Oranges …
in northern Idaho??
These weren’t naval oranges …
not Valencias …
not blood oranges …
They were something called “Osage oranges,” and they’re like nothing I’ve ever seen in Idaho or elsewhere.
Photo by H. Zell via Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Gale French via Wikimedia Commons
Have you seen one or know of them? The Osage orange is not really an orange (it’s a member of the mulberry family), but it was named so because its bumpy surface resembles a green, unripe orange, and the Osage Indians were known to prize the tree for making their bows, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles to find the wood. In the early 1800s, a good Osage bow was worth a horse and a blanket. It’s also called a hedge apple, horse apple, or monkey ball.
The fruit isn’t poisonous to people or animals, but it isn’t usually eaten because of its extremely tough texture and bitter milky sap. But it’s thought to have been a food staple of the ancestors of the modern-day tree sloth— giant ground sloths that roamed North America before the first human settlements—who helped spread its seeds across the continent. Modern-day squirrels are also known to feast on the seeds.
Photo by Stefan Laube via Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Mahieddine23 via Wikimedia Commons
In the early settlement days, it was planted in great numbers both as a field hedge (living fence) and a windbreak, then later was used as a source of durable posts for fencing. Before the invention of barbed wire in the 1880s, a good, aggressively pruned Osage orange hedge could be “horse high, bull strong, and hog tight.”
According to the U.S. Forest Service, “The Osage orange produces no sawtimber, pulpwood, or utility poles, but it has been planted in greater numbers than almost any other tree species in North America. It made agricultural settlement of the prairies possible (though not profitable), led directly to the invention of barbed wire, and then provided most of the posts for the wire that fenced the West.”
Photo by H. Zell via Wikimedia Commons
What a talented crew we have in our graphic design department. I’ve been treating you to some of Carol’s upcycled creations, now, here’s Karina’s latest knitting project. Her first project was a scarf and now this. So sweet and cuddle-y! Any name ideas? Girl or boy?
Who says it? Can you name that character?
I’ve been hearing it from our bathroom while the girls brush their teeth, from the dining room while we eat dinner, hollered from the girls’ bedrooms, and muttered by the front entry while we pile our winter layers on. But who else says it?
Nanny Jane took us girls to the theater last weekend to see a live performance of Anne of Green Gables. We are so lucky to have a great little theater with great little productions in our small town.
It was definitely a cold and rainy November day. A perfect day spent with Anne Shirley and a bag of popcorn. The cast was wonderful and catered to a younger crowd, so the girls loved it.
The girls’ favorite line wasn’t one of Anne’s, but the rather nosy BFF to Marilla Cuthbert (Anne’s adopted Mum), Rachel Lynde.
“If you want my opinion … which I am sure you don’t!” is a perfectly fitting thing for two sisters to tell each other pretty much … constantly.
On October 30 we offered up a pair of red hand-warmers (see below) to our readers who told us how they prefer their bananas and we pulled Patty W. from our basket of names.
Patty W said on:
“I love sliced bananas on my peanut butter sandwiches.”
Congratulations Patty. Watch for an email from the farm!
And the original post was:
Meet our newest Project F.A.R.M (First-class American Rural Made) vendor and win the red hand-warmers
pictured below. 
The ca-ute hand-warmers and headband pictured above are the work of three sisters who call themselves “A Few Good Bananas.” The sisters make hats, headbands, hand-warmers, and gloves, with a combination of recycled and new materials and intricately handmade adornments. Their combination of boiled wool, cashmere, and other materials makes their products warm and lightweight. “We are passionate about our creations. We have taken extreme care to give every item its own unique personality, making sure that no two pieces are alike.”
From their website:
About Us
A Few Good Bananas is the creative child born to three sisters who value family, friendship, and community. Our family taught us very early on that it was more important to have active and creative minds than money. Our mom was one of the original up-cyclers. She found innovative ways to use thrift-shop finds or items that outlived their original purpose and passed that trait on to each of us. Our father used to say “never buy green bananas because life is short, and you never know if you will be around long enough for them to ripen.” After our dad passed away, our mom always put “a few good bananas” on her shopping list. Our friends, family, and customers tell us that when they shop, they think fondly of how A Few Good Bananas originated. We consider ourselves instrumental in the lack of good bananas at our local grocery store.”
We each bring our unique and whimsical senses to every design decision.
Enter our GIVEAWAY for the red hand-warmers pictured above. In the comments section below, share your favorite way to eat bananas, and we’ll pull one lucky winner’s name from my new A Few Good Bananas hat!
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.
