—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 13, 1973 26 f :S 5: The Homemaker Can Save Energy, Too Conservation - it’s not a new word but it certainly has become part of everyones vocabulary in the last few years. What the homemaker needs to know about conservation has been extended to include a new area - con servation of electric energy Maybe you homemakers are thinking “what can I do about it - I don’t use a lot of electricity like stores or industries 9 ” Well, your role can be one of importance. As a poet once put it, “little drops of water, little grains of sand make a mighty ocean and a pleasant land.” While your part may seem just a little drop of water, it is the little savings that add up Cooking is an everyday task and here we can save in many ways Cooking vegetables or meats m a covered pan prevents water loss and less water can be used so food can be cooked on lower heat and in less time Use the proper size pan for the quantity of food you are cooking, then select the right size Keep Your Poinsettios for By Sally Bair Feature Writer How are you going to keep that Christmas pomsettia as beautiful as the day it arrived from the florist 7 If you’re lucky, you may have received one of the new varieties which are exceptionally long lasting under home conditions They have short, stiff stems in contrast to the traditional long stemmed poinsettia, and colorful bracts (the showy red portion we call flowers) which are thick enough to withstand livingroom temperatures. This new type of poinsettia is low and compact and keeps its beauty longer. But any poinsetta can be kept beautiful a long time according to information supplied by Arnold G Lueck, associate county ex tension Agent. And with a little special care on your part it is also possible to carry over your plant and have lovely blooms for next Christmas Poinsettias are an exacting crop and require a lot of skill to produce The poinsettia you received as a gift had been well nutrured in the humid, steady, bright warmth of a greenhouse, so these conditions should be kept m mind as you care for your plant Be sure your poinsettia gets enough light and water - put it in your sunnist window and protect it from cold drafts Never let the soil dry out to the extent that the leaves wilt You may want to increase the humidity by oc casionally misting the plant with a spray bottle Temperatures below 60 degrees F and above 75 unit for that pan. If the pan covers the whole unit you get more efficiency because of better heat transfer. Plan meals ahead and then whenever possible cook the whole meal in the oven on one heat. It will take about the same amount of heat to cook both meat and vegetables in the oven as the meat alone Vegetables cook well in the oven in covered casseroles with a small amount of water. It takes a little longer to cook them in the oven than on the top of the range but not any longer than meat and you save the use of one or two surface units. Casserole meals are a good change and great for stretching the budget. They can be made with less expensive cuts of meat as well as poultry and fish. Don’t make just one at a time, make several and freeze the extra ones. Energy is conserved when you cook all of them simultaneously and they just need heating when you are ready to serve them. degrees F have adverse effects on the poinsettia. To carry over your plant for next Christmas, keep it actively growing until March, then gradually reduce the water supply and permit the plant to rest Store the plant in a cool well-ventilated place,light but not bright, until May, and skip the watering three weeks at a time. Do not, however, allow the plant to dry out completely in storage. In May, cut the plant back to three - five inches high, and start it back into growth by starting to water, and moving it back into a warm, sunny window. As soon as the temperature outdoors stays above 60 degrees F at night, move it outside into light shade, and water and feed it as you do your other house plants. Pinch back each shoot once during the summer to get a well-shaped plant. When cool nights begin in late August, bring your plant inside to a warm, sunny window. Day temperatures should be 70 to 75 degrees F and night tem peratures should be no higher than 60 to 62 degrees F. During this time, fertilize your plant every seven to ten days. Make a solution by dissolving one-half teaspoon of complete soluble fertilizer such Several cakes can be baked at one time also, freezing the extra ones. The frozen ones come in handy for later use especially for unexpected guests. Improved cooking habits aren’t the only way of saving energy. How are your laundry habits? Do you run the washer for just a few clothes? Wait till you have a washer load before you wash them. You save electricity in operation of washer and dryer this way and for heating of hot water also. Most dryers have easily accessible lint filters. Keep these filters clean to cut down on drying time. It is a good habit to clean the filter after each time it is used. Dishwashing is a necessary part of homemaking but we can conserve when doing this chore. Run the dishwasher once a day instead of after each meal especially if the family is small. It takes the same amount of water and operating time no matter if it is full or not. If you Next Season With care, your poinsettias can be kept to "flower" for another season. as 15-15-15 in a quart of warm water. Poinsettias form flower buds under conditions of long nights. If your plant is to flower again by Christmas, it must be kept in an unlighted room at night. The same effect can be achieved by covering plants with a light-tight box between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. from October 1 through Thanksgiving. After this, flower buds will be well formed and your plant will not suffer adverse effects from light. This period of increased nights for your poinsettia is most im portant. If the buds are not for med under these conditions, your poinsettia may not bloom until February. Carrying over your poinsettia requires care on your part and, despite your efforts, you may not have the same quality plant as a greenhouse. However, the extra challenge should provide extra enjoyment when you are suc cessful. Begin now to plan the care of your poinsettia for added dividends in beauty next Christmas. don’t have a dishwasher, nix hot and cold water carefully so that you don’t waste hot water. Rinsing dishes in a pan rather than running water faucets saves hot water. Leaky faucets are real culprets on wasting hot water too. A good setting for the water heater thermostat in 140 degrees. This temperature will meet almost all needs for hot water. Lighting is an important requirement in daily living but it is probably one of the ways electricity is wasted by many people. To avoid waste, use high wattage bulbs in lamps used for reading or sewing, but less wattage m those which are for decorative use. Light colored lamp shades reflect more light than colored ones so to get the most from the bulbs, in reading lamps use light shades As clean lamp bulbs give off more light, make lamp bulbs part of your periodic cleaning Since most of us feel more comfortable coming into a house at night where there is some light, have an automatic timer turn lights on and off in stead of leaving them on all evening. When you are not going to be in a room all evening there f This week I husked some corn from a tiny patch we left standing in the corner of a field. All of our corn except this area was put into our big silo. For weeks I’d been urging others to husk it for our geese. But, I finally decided the way to get a job done was to do it myself. We ate a young goose for Thanksgiving over the protests of some of the children. They are so noisy that I can’t imagine having a big flock around the buddings. And now they will have com for a few more months. The meadow had been cleaned up after the flood but here among the corn were boards painted orange, some green, logs, rafters and even some shingles from our smokehouse. They had floated far from home the same as my begonia plants, which we found several days after the flood way down in the meadow. They were replanted and are now blooming profusely on my windowsills. Yesterday I saw a thrush hopping around on the ground , |do's \ Kl>» Vl** — XXX isn’t any need for the lights to be turned on. Without being uncomfortable, there are ways to conserve electricity with your heating. Keep thermostats set at a comfortable temperature, then leave them there. If the basement, attic or garage are not heated, be sure to keep con necting doors to them closed. Old Mr. Sun can contribute to your heating if drapes are left open on a sunny day, but it is wise to keep them closed on a cold, blustery day to make the room warmer. Remember, furniture blocking registers or heat returns prevent heated air from circulating causing uncomfortable drafts. Now that you know some ways to conserve electricity, what does it mean to the average homemaker? Believe it or not, money in your pocket; while you are using electricity wisely you are cutting down on your electric service bill. With Christmas bills starting to make their ap pearance, what more ap propriate time to start saving money at the same time as you are saving that precious com modity “energy.” \-XM Ida Rissfr under my kitchen window. I surely hope he survives the winter and escapes the claws of our many cats. When my father was a boy, he climbed a tree and got himself a pet crow. It learned to say three words and when excited it repeated all of them rapidly in a row. I’m told it fell in disrepute when it began to steal small articles. In those days, they had sawdust walks which were covered by boards in the winter. In the Spring many rings, thimbles and scissors were found underneath them. xxx Want to hear a funny story! Well, when I was serving dessert to company there was a horrible clatter in the kitchen. At the time I didn’t admit what had happened, but I’d put my big metal cakepan in the dryer—just not enough counter space—and the dryer was bumped and starting revolving. There were cake crumbs and icing all over the place.
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