—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 19,1975
42
Joan Rohrer
'.Jj
■■l
*^-*^*-‘-**'-‘-‘~*- ,^***^*< * | V*^‘**^***'‘‘ t ‘***W*‘'‘ ,T 'jl,Vt!, ?'!■*«*■*•V-ViViViVf
“ Mrs. Robert E. (Joan) Rohrer, Nottingham Rl, Chester
County, PA, a city girl who married a farmer ten years
ago, not only adjusted very well to country living but has
put her many talents and interests to use to make her
home attractive, her family well fed and cared for and
' helps her husband with farm work when needed.
Entertaining plays a large part in the lives of the Rohrer
family. They enjoy having friends come for dinner and
giving parties. As some examples, they have had ai
holiday drop-in party for 110 people, pig roasts, family
reunions, brunches and even mending parties.
The mending party is similar to a quilting, but instead of
working on a quilt, each guest brings a piece of
needlework or an article to mend while visiting. For one
New Year’s Eve party, Bob borrowed a ski movie from
the local lending library because most of the group
present was interested in skiing and this was great free
entertainment for them.
If Joan hosts a wedding shower, she takes different
kitchen gadgets and makes a mobile as a decoration to
hang over the refreshment table and gives the mobile to
the bride-to-be. For her sister’s wedding reception, Joan
made cookies to use as favors that took their cue from the
bridesmaids’ large hats. These cookies also make a nice
favor for a fashion show or tea. To make them Mrs.
Rohrer bpkes three inch size sugar cookies. She then
drops a marshmallow for each cookie into hot milk to
soften the outside. Next she rolls each in tinted flaked
coconut to cover the sides and one end. The other end
being sticky helps the surface to cling to the cookie. She
places coconut trimmed marshmallows, sticky side down,
in the center of the cookies, for crowns. Hatbands and
bows are confectioners sugar icing, tinted and pushed
through a pastry tube. She tucks a fresh mint sprig
feather in the hatbands before the icing sets.
Rohrers’ children, Robbie and Tiffany, also like to have
Country
Corner
Farmfest Celebrates Ag Bicentennial
While most of the events scheduled for the
Bicentennial are going to be staged in the nation’s
large cities such as Boston, Philadelphia and
Washington D. C., a salute to the agricultural
bicentennial has been slated for Minnesota
Nicknamed as the “breadbasket of the nation”
Minnesota will be hosting Farmfest 76, the largest
farm exhibition ever presented.
The festivities will be held September 13-19 m
Lake Crystal, Minnesota and will feature exhibits
on agriculture from the past, in the present and
horizons for the future
M
Farmfest was officially inaugurated on July 18th
with a flag raising ceremony complete with bands,
cannons and visiting dignitaries.
John Warner, head of the American Revolution
Bicentennial Administration, was on hand to
present the official bicentennial flag.
Throughout the coming weeks, more information
on Farmfest and the activities planned around it
will be coming to our office. We at Lancaster
Farming will try to keep our readers informed on
this ‘‘world fair of agriculture" as announcements
are made.
Why not plan now to take at least part of next
year’s vacation at Farmfest to view agriculture’s
past and hope for tomorrow.
This Farm Wife Has a Flair for
by
I Mrs.
| Charles
i McSparran
Farm Feature
Writer
with; Melissa Piper
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
their friends in for Easter Egg hunts and have a New
Year’s Eve party in the afternoon.
At Christmas time, the children and their friends
decorate the old-fashioned Christmas tree that must have
the traditional popcorn and cranberry garlands. When
children visit over the holiday season, Joan puts her old
Christmas ball ornaments to use. She writes the children’s
names with white glue on the balls and then sprinkles
glitter on them. The boys and girls really seem to like that
idea.
Joan tries to give craft items or hand-made articles as
gifts as much as possible. Last Christmas, she made
seven pine cone wreaths and eight baskets arranged with
pine cones. This year, she is doing a lot of Scherenschnitte
(paper cutting) and will give these pieces away for bir
thdays and other special occasions. In the works right now
is an old window with six panes that Joan will put a dif
ferent piece of Scherenschnitte in each pane, to use as a
wall hanging in a new addition that is being added to their
farmhouse.
Joan makes a lot of beautiful crewel pillows and wall
hangings and crochets pocketbooks and necklaces for
gifts. For some of the necklaces she uses a gold metallic
thread and links beads together with a chain stitch. They
are very attractive, light in weight to wear and resexnblfe
and gold link bought necklaces. She also made four bread
dough baskets and several napkin rings for gifts.
Mrs. Rohrer has a twelve taper candle mold and pours
her own beeswax twelve inch tapers which bum much
longer than regular candles. She attended craft shops and
learned to do decoupage, make Williamsburg dried flower
arrangements and put under glass in a picture frame,
comhusk dolls and pine cone wreaths and arrangements.
She used the decoupage on boxes and pictures. She makes
fresh greens arrangements. Quilling is another craft she
learned to do. She makes snowflakes for windows,
Christmas trees and package decorations. Her next craft
may be to make an apple head doll.
Homestead
Joan has had a vegetable garden for two years and cans
and freezes a lot of things. She also puts a lot of pork and
beef in the freezer. She started an herb garden which
includes basil, marjoram, dill, orange mint tea and
parsley. She plans to use the basil to season tomatoes. She
also has flower beds planted with coleuses, begonias and a
few colorful ones to dry such as strawflowers. She is air
drying these to use for her arrangements.
Rohrers, while making their farm home a very happy
place to live, are at the same time conducting a very large
and successful farming operation. Joan assists Bob with
the bookwork, driving the tractors if she is needed to work
the ground, helps get equipment started and she and their
son round up their hogs if they get out. She also operates
the com dryer in the fall. These are necessary when they
have such a large operation and do not have hired help.
Bob’s father helps during planting and harvesting of
crops.
Rohrers live on a 100 acre farm on Fremont Road in
West Nottingham Township, known as the Rob Roy Farm.
They rent additional acreage in Chester and Lancaster
Counties for a total of 750 acres. They raise 500 acres of
com, 140 acres of small grains (oats and barley) and 112
acres of soybeans. They keep 500 feeder hogs at a time.
They buy these shoats at 40 pounds each and market 800 to
1000 hogs a year. They sell some each week. They have
hogs butchered for their own oprk but butcher a few at 100
to 200 pounds for pig roasts. For the pig roasts they burn
wood for eight hours then have a man come in to roast the
pig. He also uses 100 pounds of charcoal to roast it and it
takes about eight hours to roast it. Rohrers roast a few
smaller pigs and stuff them with sauerkraut for the
Rohrer reunions and their hunting club outings. Bob, with
the help of automatic feeders and fountains, handles the
hogs with a minimal amount of time and labor required.
He spends just an hour or so in the mornings and evenings
tending to them.
Bob also raises four or five steers for their own beef and
for a few friends. He has five trucks and several tractors,
a combine and other equipment. He does some combining
for neighbors. He owns three grain trucks and trucks
grain to Indiana Grain in Baltimore and to John Hoober,
Gordonville. He sells some of his own grain in addition to
what he uses. He operates a lime truck out of Martin’s
Quarry, Limeville, in winter.
Bob and Joan bought this farm from his parents, Mr.
and Mrs. Ellis M. Rohrer, who now live at Atglen. His
parents originally owned and operated a dairy farm at
Paradise where Bob grew up. They lived on this farm on
Fremont Road from 1952 to 1965. Ellis farmed the land,
had sheep, chickens and ducks, boarded horses and drove
a truck.
Joan, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Stuart,
Lancaster, was graduated from McCaskey High School
and Millersville State College and did graduate work from
Temple University on the Franklin and Marshall College
campus, Lancaster. She taught one year at the George
Washington School in Lancaster and two years at
Quarryville Elementary School. She has been doing some
Notes
Entertaining
Joan is sticking a few red velvet bows in the
antique basket pine cone arrangement to give it
color and a holiday touch. She made the
scherenschnitte (paper cutting) valentine picture
with a red background for her husband, also the
one with a pale blue background in the foreground.
substitute teaching and private tutoring since.
Bob was graduated from Oxford Area High School
where he was president of the Student Council. He took the
Ag course and was in FFA. He was a military policeman
in the U. S. Army two years and was stationed in Georgia
and at Aberdeen, MD.
Rohrers have three children. Robert Jr. (Robbie) is six
years old and will be in first grade at Oxford Area
Elementary School in Oxford this fall. Tiffany is five and
will attend Kindergarten class in Oxford this fall. Ryan is
a very active ten month old boy who keeps his mother
very busy.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Rohrer are active in the community.
Bob was Township Supervisor in West Nottingham
Township for four years. He served on the Advisory
Committee for Oxford Area Schools for one 9 month school
term. He has been a member of the Lancaster County and
the Penna. Farmers Association for eight years. He
belongs to Chesco, a group of farmers who have in
corporated to buy supplies in quantities. He has been a
member of the Paradise Sportsman Club for many years.
He is a member of the Paradise Hunting Club that owns a '
140 acre farm in Tioga County. They raise some com there
for deer and turkeys. Their large farmhouse can sleep 25.
Rohrers go there one week in the summer and a lot in
winter for winter sports such as skiing and snowmobiling
and of course Bob goes there for the hunting season.
Besides these sports he enjoys trap shooting on range at
(Continued on Page 44]
Mrs. Rohrer prizes the antique jelly cupboard
which belonged to her husband’s grandparents. On
it are a dried arrangement picture, bread dough
napkin rings and a molded beeswax candle she
made. She also made the crewel picture she is
holding.