GROWING FOOD

Garden produce, August 2021

Here it is March, and time to think about our farm garden and what we might successfully grow this year. As produce – and groceries in general – become more expensive, Mike wondered aloud if we could grow more of our food. It’s a nice thought, but in recent years, I haven’t grown anything in my garden that relieved us of buying food.

“The spinach on your plate came from our garden,” I might announce, “and by the way, that’s all of it.” Or, perhaps I’ll have enough to put up a box or two that I save to share at a family gathering. I haven’t even grown decent zucchini!

With hot, dry summers, my thumb has turned brown, and while I accept some responsibility for that, regional gardens shriveled away in last summer's heat while gardeners looked on in dismay. It can be too hot for the vegetation, even if you water.

We just can’t give up the effort to grow our food, though. Our world is facing environmental challenges, and hopefully we can overcome somehow.

You may recall that we have three rustic raised beds on the farm, and one contains strawberries. They are all fenced against the marauding deer, and I shade them with dog food sacks pinned to the fencing as summer progresses.

So, we talked about it. What can we do? More raised beds? Tear out the strawberries and plant vegetables? Plow up a section of the yard for a new garden plot? “Really, Mike,” I said, “it’s a lot of work, and it might be for nothing.” Besides digging up the ground, a garden plot would have to be fenced, and that means even more work. Paying the price for produce looks better all the time, provided produce is available.

But – here I go again. I researched heat-loving, drought-tolerant vegetables. Beans, zucchini, all squash, melons, corn, okra, and eggplant were among the listed items. These require space to grow adequately, and absent from the list are the leafy greens that are most important to our diet.  

Another suggestion is to plant earlier so that you harvest before the really hot months. “Early Girl” or Roma tomatoes were on that list. I’ve actually considered planting earlier, but I usually don’t get to it until June, and I admit that’s just too late. This spring, we must make early planting a priority.

And I wonder if we can’t do more to take advantage of the country fruits. We have lots of plums, serviceberries, black hawthorn, and elderberries, and we’ve planted cherry, apple, and pear trees in the yard. It’s too soon to tell what the yield will be. We get what we get, and some years we don’t get any. KW 

INA'S WINTER VACATION (PART 2)

Well, Ina was away from the farm for a good three months. She didn’t return home until late May 1934. While she was away, 23-year-old daughter Shirley managed the house and the chickens, cooked for her dad, and when the time came, planted the garden. Aunt Bertha wrote that Shirley had not needed her help and did just fine. Shirley had been getting 60-70 eggs a day, Bertha said, and she had overheard (which means she had “rubbered” on the party line) when Shirley ordered groceries from the Orofino Mercantile in exchange for 30 dozen eggs.

Meanwhile, Shirley and Henry Shockley were “running around together,” Aunt Bertha wrote. Only time would tell if this would evolve into marriage, but of course, we know it did -- just not until 1937.

By late June, Ina was back in the swing of things. She wrote that she was canning and sewing. Canning? I wonder what she was canning in June. As for the sewing, she reveals that she altered her gray dress for her sister Mabel, but she decided that gray wasn’t such a good color for Mabel – is it a good color for anyone? – and made a new organdie collar for it.

So, Ina had packed a box to ship to the sisters in Drain. Besides the dress, she included Shirley’s old coat. Myrtle had a new coat and had given Shirley her old one, Ina said. It might have been a dubious gift because it sounds like the coat was worn out. “I think you can alter the coat into a three-quarter length and turn the collar,” Ina wrote, adding that it was such nice fabric. She also put in old shirts to be used for patches, and she says that shirttails make good sacks.

We've already seen through the "skimpy Christmases" that Ina digs deep into her storehouse in order to share. Well, that’s the way she managed – shuffling the old goods around. I don't know if the Drain family appreciated a box of old textiles. Perhaps if they couldn’t have new, they could at least have different by reusing, renewing, and sharing the old. It was a different time, you know. I admire their frugality, initiative, and thoughtfulness. The earth is better off if we live frugally.

And Ina came home with seeds for her garden. She says the Drain squashes are growing well but the beans shriveled and died. She adds that she’s still enjoying her Drain visit. “It was so beautiful,” she says. KW

INA’S WINTER VACATION – 1934 (PART 1)

A crocus blooms in Seattle

February – still winter and nothing much happening. Well, strictly speaking, that’s not true because things are happening in the ground. The crocuses and daffodils were blooming in Seattle last week, and surprisingly, primroses were also in bloom. Back home, I noticed one of my late-planted daffodils pushing through the soil, and to my great relief, I counted a dozen or so yesterday. It looks like I won’t have to call that large order of bulbs a loss after all. But – it IS still winter, and a regional cold snap is in progress. All danger of frost is not past.

You just have to find things to do in the winter, and for some people, it’s a good time to travel. In February 1934, my great-aunt Bertha wrote to her sisters in Drain, OR, as follows: “Ina [my grandmother] weighs 145 and feels pretty good. Vance wants her to come to Raymond for a visit. He was cutting wood lately and I suppose holding it with one hand and the ax glanced with the usual result. It severed some of the cords (tendons) on the back of left hand; they took him to the doctor and after stitching it up he could use his fingers. He is starting to teach jazz – imagine it.”

Vance at piano, 1934

I had forgotten that my dad’s thumb was misshapen, but I remember his telling me that the doctor was able to re-attach the tendons. Otherwise, he would have lost the use of those fingers and his livelihood as a pianist, though he might have continued to teach, I suppose.

Perhaps this accident was one reason that Grandma Ina decided to visit Vance that winter of 1934. I know she was worried about him. She left her farm home in the hills of remote central Idaho and traveled to the west coast. She would make this trip count by also visiting daughter Myrtle in Portland, her sisters Ida and Mabel in Drain (OR), and other relatives.

The farm was (is) a difficult place in winter

Ina opted for a one-way train ticket because a round-trip ticket would obligate her to return within ten days. Her ticket to Chehalis (WA) via Portland cost $9.51 – a lofty sum in those days. Chehalis was evidently the closest train stop to Raymond in southwest Washington where Vance was a piano teacher. My map shows that Raymond is 35 miles and an hour’s drive from Chehalis.

Indications are that Ina stopped in Portland to visit daughter Myrtle before going on to Raymond. She stayed with Vance several weeks before going back to Portland and then on to Drain to visit her sisters. On the first of April, Aunt Bertha, who lived on the adjacent farm, wrote to their sister Ida: “Keep Ina as long as you can as it’s doing her so much good.” Ina was battling high blood pressure and perhaps even depression. KW

[The bottom photo was taken at the farm in the spring of 1941. Left to right: Aunt Ida Patchen (Ina's sister), Ida's daughter Edna, Vance, Ina, Pearl, and Julian (Jack).]

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN, JIGGETTY-JIG

Mike and Kathy with Silas Fox

It had been a very good visit, Mike and I agreed as we left Seattle for home, our route taking us from the state’s westernmost area, urban and trafficked, back to the rural southeasternmost side. The route narrows from freeways and divided highways to backroads and lesser-traveled roadways. What a contrast!

Mike and Silas

We had just spent four days helping to care for 4-month-old grandson Silas while his parents (daughter Hallie and Nick) were working. Hallie returned to work Jan. 31, and Nick is winding down his employment responsibilities so that he can be Silas’ daytime caregiver, but while they were both working, Hallie asked for back-up. Besides, it was time for Mike to meet Silas and for me to see him again.

You never know with babies. I was prepared that Silas might take one look at us and burst into tears, but he gave us big grins the moment he saw us and never resisted. I fed, changed, and played with him, but his mom works remotely, so she was on hand with instructions and support.

Kathy and Silas sitting on the puff quilt

Last week I finished the small puff quilt that I made for Silas using reproduction “playtime” prints. I began with a pattern, but I soon discovered that online tutorials for puff quilts abound, and I sorta wished that I had studied those before I got started. I tied each square to cotton backing, but when I was finished, I  thought the backing was too puckered. Back to the tutorials I went for another, hopefully better, idea, finding a quilting guru who suggested a soft cuddly fabric (Minky) sewn directly to the quilt top, which also eliminates troublesome binding. Off to JoAnn’s I went where I found a bright yellow Minky. Of course, I had work to do in carefully untying my first effort and then retying to the Minky backing, but I was pleased with the end result. And – I had the privilege of delivering it in person, along with the two cloth books. (Another “finish” off my list.)

I came home with fun memories of playing with a bright and (usually) happy baby, but once again, leave-taking was hard. I felt like a little bit of my heart was staying behind. But we were all in agreement that it was time to get back to our normal routines. KW

BECKY’S BOOK

And last but not least, you kept all those old Christmas things . . . I want to see them. Ida Dickson Patchen to her sister Ina, 1922

My niece Becky responded to my memory of the “Busy Book” my mother (her grandmother) made. [See previous post.] “Grandma made one for me, and I still have it.” she commented, and it made my day! I only remember Mother making one “Busy Book,” but there might have been others. If there was only one, it was “Becky’s Busy Book.” (It has a certain ring to it, don't you think?)

Then Becky sent the two photos you see here. “I still have mine – a little worse for wear,” she texted. “I had forgotten about it until I saw your post. I had also made one for a babysitting bag in 4-H. I still have the bag with all the things I made. Crazy the things we hang on to.” So true!

Obviously, I didn't remember for whom my mother made the busy book, and I expected that it had been tossed years ago. But the above quote from a letter written by my Great Aunt Ida affirms that something in us likes to see the old things. Maybe it's because without tangible proof, memories seem to fade into dreamland. It’s special to me that Becky still has her “Busy Book.” Sometimes these humble things mean more than all the china in the cupboard. KW

COZY READS

When I was seven, my mother made a “busy book” for her first grandchild, L.J., who was a toddler. She traced the page designs from a pattern and then applied them to muslin. She used fabric paints to color the designs, but the project also involved some appliques. I remember a shoe with a real lace, a button and buttonhole, a zipper and a snap. There must have been a few more tasks to practice, but I don’t remember. (It was too soon for Velcro.) When I came home from school on pre-Christmas afternoons, Mother would be sitting at the kitchen table working on that book. Of course, as with anything she made, it was perfect when she was finished.

Silas rolling over

Obviously, my child-mind was impressed. I gained a longstanding fondness for cloth books, and while it’s not the same as a busy book from scratch, I’ve been making cloth books from fabric panels for Grandson Silas. Seems like something I can do to encourage his early education. A child should be read to, even if he seems too young – even if his current interest is in perfecting his rollover technique.

I made the first book in December -- “The Night Before Christmas,” of course – from a Mary Englebreit fabric panel. I used heavyweight Pellon (stabilizer) to stiffen the pages, and I sent it off to Silas as Christmas approached so that he would receive important early training in Santa Claus lore.

Making that book was such fun that I had to make more. I just finished “Pat-a-Cake,” “a huggable and loveable book by Sandra Magsamen for Studio e.” With this project, I realized that batting between the pages instead of Pellon would indeed make the book “huggable and lovable” – like a quilt. I had some leftover scraps of batting which were perfect. I love this book, weird art and all.

Moving onto the third book, “Mother Goose Rhymes, Vol. II,” another Mary Englebreit fabric panel, I was going to use Pellon again, but somehow the pages weren’t quite straight with the world and I didn’t like the way it wasn’t coming together. Again, batting came to the rescue. Somehow the imperfections of fabric and stitching become less problematic in the puffiness of a quiltlike project.

I would love to keep making these cozy books, but it really isn’t practical. Hopefully, Silas and his folks will enjoy them for a year or two, but eventually a real book will work better. He will outgrow his fabric books, even as L.J. did. And even though I made them with love for Silas, I’m not affixing his name to them. Perhaps they’ll become hand-me-downs and bless another little one who snuggles into mom’s (or dad's) lap for a cozy read.

So, there it is! Two finishes off my list this week. (Of course, I’ve thought of half a dozen more I should add.) KW 

A RANT ON MASKS

Here we are at Groundhog’s Day. Pfffft! – and January was gone just like that! [snaps fingers] I think it’s a given that we will have more winter.

Early in the pandemic, sewists everywhere were encouraged to make masks due to a shortage of the N95 respirators used by medical care providers. I was skeptical that those homemade cloth masks were worth the effort. The facts were that only the N95s (and the like) were close to effective, but because those weren’t available, we thought that any mask was better than no mask. Sewists quickly made masks and delivered boxes of them to hospitals, but I figured most of those would eventually be tossed. I was optimistic that materials and recommendations for construction would soon improve.

When it became obvious that we would need face coverings, I made a few cloth masks for our personal use, and then we ordered a few that we liked better. I intended to make more, and I have a project bag which contains a mask template, a fabric panel to make ten masks (now priced to clear everywhere), metal nose pieces, and elastic, not to mention lovely machine embroidery designs specifically for masks. However, making masks is at the bottom of my “UFO” project list because I’m still uncertain of their effectiveness.

On a recent newscast , a pandemic expert said that cloth masks are known to be ineffective. Only the N95 respirators are effective, he said. And even though I knew this, I ranted to Mike that this expert had no right to say that publicly when for two years most of us have worn cloth masks out of necessity, believing that they were good enough when combined with social distancing.

The next day, the White House announced that they would release 400 million N95s to the public. Researching, I found that the N95 is available at retail outlets. It’s considered a single use mask, but if you have to, you can use it up to five times, they say, and okay – you can carefully wash it, but only if you have to. And – they are expensive. (I recommend you do your own research. Things tend to change.)

Furthermore, I was angry because we haven’t really been fooled about masks. We read the stats on effectiveness and did the best we could, but early on, couldn’t we have come up with viable, affordable solutions – better masks, better fabric, filters for the cloth masks, etc.?

Well, this is a useless rant. Most rants are. Where I live, people are lax about the mask mandate anyway. For that matter, we see sports fans packing themselves into stadiums, which, masked or not, seems like a recipe for disaster. Lest you think the Covid virus is not a thing now, one of our sons, vaccinated and boosted, tested positive just last week. KW