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26— Lancaster Farming. Saturday, July 6, 1974
Esther Becker . . .
Farmer’s Wife with Cooking as a Hobby
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McSparran
Farm Feature
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It’s up at five every morning -for Mrs. John Robert
(Esther) Becker; Gap R.l to feed 126 Holstein bull calves
While her husband mixes the calf starter and weighs it for
each individual calf. They buy all 126 calves when they are a
day or two old and keep them about fourteen weeks. They buy
the calves three times a year. /
These calves are kept in individual crate-type com
partments that are about a foot above a concrete floor. Mrs.
Becker says “We wash down with hoses thoroughly once a
week and hurriedly every day. We sterilize the pens when we
change calves.”
Thestable is equipped with air ducts which convey fresh
air mixed with heated air in the winter and cool air produced
withyentillating fans in summer. GaS heaters heat the air in
winter. Pneumonia is their greatest problem as far as illness
among the calves is concerned.
This is the fifth year Beckers have been raising the calves.
They feed Proviso! calf starter. They have a fifty gallon feed
mixer. The calf starter is weighed and the proper amount of
water added. It is agitated until completely mixed then the
mixer is rolled into the stable. Each calf's feed is then
weighed. Twenty-four buckets are used to feed the calves. As
soon as they are emptied 24 more can be fed. No other kind of
feed is ever fed to the calves.
The calves are sold to two packing houses in New Jersey,
either Victory Beef or Insel and Insel of Newark. A trucker
hauls them to market. Beckers butcher a few calves for their
own use.
Beckers raise Angus cattle. At the present time they have
S 3 cows, a bull and 65 to 70 calves. They keep the bull calves
to raise for steers which they finish as baby beeves and raise
the heifers to keep as cows.
They also have twelve Dorset sheep. They have them
sheared and sell the wool.
Beckers live on what is known as “Waterloo Farm”, a
couple miles east of White Horse on route 340. The farm is
owned by Simon Zook of Honey Brook. Bob works for him on
salary, although he operates the calf project on halves. There
are 195 acres in the farm, 126 of which are under cultivation
and the rest is woodland and meadow. This year they are
raising 83 acres of corn which is used or sold as shelled com,
35 acres of soybeans which are sold as shelled dry beans and
8 acres of alfalfa which they feed to the cows.
Bob does quite a bit of custom work. He has a two row
busker and a four row busker and sheller. They have another
Mrs. Becker made this pink crepe with print trim
dress for her daughter. She also embroidered the
pictures on the wall and made the cushion tops.
Mrs. Esther Becker. GapllDl* hjis baking at Salisbury Elementary
over 50 cookbooks. She does the School cafeteria.
com shelter, a big bin and dry their own com at their farm.
Besides his ownhe husks and shells at 16 or 16 farms. Last
year he did about 300 acres. He also combines about 100 acres
of soybeans, counting his own.
Bob grew up on a 130 acre dairy farm near Smithville. He
and Esther have lived on this farm over nine years. When
they were find married they lived at Northern Tier
Children’s Home in Potter County for two years. While there
he was leader for a 4-H dairy heifers club and Esther was
leader for a 4-H sewing and cooking club. After that they
spent one year at another children’s home at Bradford in
McKean County, then farmed for Henry Hackman near
Manheixn four years.
Esther has worked at the Salisbury Elementary Caferteria
for two years. She does all the baking. She works 4 hours or
more a day there and they feed as many as 400 children a
day.
Beckers have three children: Debbie,, 13, will be in the
ninth grade at Lancaster Mennonite High School this fall. She
takes guitar lessons and is learning to sew. She had sewing
last year in Home Economics class at school. She is a big help
to her mother.
David, 12, will be in seventh grade at Pequea Valley In
termediate School. He helps a lot on the farm.
Michael is nine years old and will be in fifth grade at
Salisbury Elementary School this fall. He likes school,
especially Math and reads a great deal. He also helps on the
farm. The children help feed calves in the evening in place of
their mother.
Beckers have two boys from Philadelphia whose mother is
ill staying at their home this summer, Hal and Glenn
Flesher. It is a nice experience for these city boys to spend
the summer on the farm. They enjoy jumping in the old
swimming hole with the Becker boys and helping with farm
chores.
Beckers have two vegetable gardens. After Bob plows
them Esther takes over and enlists the children as helpers to
grow all the fine vegetables that she freezes. She-also cans
lots of tomatoes, pickles, chow chow, apple sauce and
peaches and makes preserves. She freezes sour cherries for
pies and some apple sauce.
Esther, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Hess, near
Baumgardner south of Willow Street, grew up on their farm
where she helped gather and grade eggs and pick tomatoes.
They now raise chickens and pigs.
Beckers belong to Old Road Mennonite Church on route 340
near their home. After teaching the youth Sunday School
class forfour or five years they are now Youth Advisors for
all youth activities for their church. They work with young
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people 14 years older. One of their responsibilities is
providing transportation for them. One Sunday a month they .
have Bible quizzing for two teams from October to May. They e
recently quizzed the book of acts. They have practice
sessions once a week. Their young peoplethen take part in
the Mennonite Youth Fellowship of the Lancaster Con
ference. Sometimes this involves traveling quite a distance.
Hie top 8 quizzers in the conference receive scholarships,
mostly in Mennonite colleges.
Their youth group has a Bible study meeting every other
Monday night; They recently went to Camp Hebron Youth
Camp for a three day weekend retreat. Last October they did'
volunteer work such as cleaning, sorting canned goods and
carpentering for a weekend at Northern Tier Children’s
Home in Potter County. They are now furnishing religious'
books for the Lancaster County Prison. To raise money to
buy the books they catch caged chickens and receive two
cents a bird. - ,
Esther taught seventh grade at their church Bible School
the last two weeks in the evenings.
Beckers belong to Salisbury Parent Teachers Committee.
They usually have a spelling bee once a year and hold a
chicken barbeque once a year.
Bob belongs to the White Horse Fire Company and the
White Horse Ambulance Association. He is qualified as a
driver for both and has gone as an attendant.
The family goes camping in Perry County each summer
and stay in a cabin. Bob loves to go deer hunting and goes to
Potter County each fall where he stays in a private home. He
also enjoys hunting small game. A hobby of his is collecting
bottles. He has a very large collection and sometimes shows
some at shows. He has received five blue and one yellow
rossette for them.
Esther loves to do flower gardening as well as working in
their vegetable garden. She grows mostly annuals. She says
“I enjoy refinishing furniture when I have time." She has
refinished .several family heirlooms and is quite proud of
them. She does all kinds of embroidery. She did some crewel
pictures and pillows as well as patchwork and appliqued
cushion tops. Another of her hobbies is reading.
She says “Cooking is my chief hobby.” She collects cook
books and has over 50 of them. However, she does like most
good cooks, prepares' a lot of her special dishes without a
recipe but ends up with a real tasty dish all enjoy. This
summer will find the Beckers having a lot of picnics for
family members and the church young people.
Esther uses a few of the soybeans they raise to make baked
beans. They can be soaked over night then cooked and baked.
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