■2-UmcMttr Farming, Saturday, April 4,1987
Uhtnon
A Profit
BY SALLY BAIR
Lancaster Co. Correspondent
KLEINFELTERSVILLE -
Rosene Bollinger likes to bake, and
she has put her talents to work by
providing the Schaefferstown Fire
Company and two area
restaurants with fresh, homemade
pies and cakes.
The wife of Lebanon County
dairyman Donald Bollinger,
Rosene helps to milk their herd of
Holsteins. She is also the mother of
two active children, Angie, 16, and
Steven, 12. Because of all the work
on the dairy and broiler farm,
Rosene is happy to have an outlet
which allows her to work from her
farm kitchen, and at a pace which
gives her time for gardening and
other work at home.
When asked what kind of pies she
specializes in, Rosene replies,
“Any kind.” She makes all kinds of
fruit pies, sponge and meringue,
and she also produces an ice cream
pie which is a specialty of The
Franklin House, a restaurant in
Schaefferstown. Cheesecakes and
chocolate cakes with peanut butter
icing are two other favorites she
produces. Big Jake’s also in
Schaefferstown, receives some of
her homemade goodies.
Rosene explained that she’s only
been baking for these three
establishments for the last three
years. A friend in Farm Women
cabbage plants in Amy Bollinger’s garden. She said she
bought a huge supply of the caps at a bargain price years ago
and continues to use them. Now that she is retired, she
enjoys growing "fun things" like herbs and flowers in addition
to the traditional irden vegetables.
Three is the maximum number of pies Rosene bakes at one time so she can carefully
control them and give them her full attention. A second oven in an adjoining room is
sometimes pressed into service.
County Cook Turn
With Baked Goods
baking for banquets for the fire
hall, and someone suggested to
Rosene that she try it.
When she called about the job, it
was offered to her. She says, “It is
a good place to bake, because I
know how many they need, and
they are eaten right away.”
Another good part of the fire hall
work is that they do not serve
banquets in June and July, which
leaves Rosene some free time for
caring for her garden and
preserving the food.
In addition to their banquets, she
also supplies pies to the fire hall for
the dinners they serve before bingo
on Friday nights.
She got the job at Jake’s much
the same way, with a senior citizen
wishing to slow down and not bake
for them anymore. “I heard about
it through the grapevine. It works
out because it is so close and handy
forme.”
With the fire hall and
restaurants, Rosene sometimes
bakes as often as four days a week,
but she tries to reserve Saturdays
for being with her own family.
Does she bake for her own
family? Rosene says, “They eat
the flops. A baker has to have
flops.” Actually, she admits,
“Donnie would be lost if I didn’t
have dessert. He’s a super one to
try something new - he’ll eat
anything.”
Rosene can select from an enormous supply of recipes contained in her extensive
cookbook collection.
uses any of her nearly 175 cook
books to look up a new recipe. She
smiles, “Cookbooks are my
weakness.” How does she decide
which one to begin looking in.
Simple, she says, “I go to my
favorite ones first.”
Rosene is too busy to copy over
her favorite recipes onto cards for
a file, but she has solved the
problem of where to find them by
attaching pieces of paper to the
page of a favorite recipe. That
way, she can quickly find the
appropriate book.
She points out, “I like church
cookbooks. I find them to be the
best, with down-to-earth recipes.”
Her husband is chairman of the
local Soil Conservation District,
and when they travel to the
national conventions, she always
tries to get a cookbook from the
state she is visiting.
All the work for her baking
business is done in her own kit
chen, but she does have a second
oven and a second refrigerator in
an adjoining room. Nevertheless,
she says, “I only bake three pies at
a time.” She is careful to set
timers and to keep a close watch on
what she is making to avoid costly
accidents.
Occasionally the numbers she
must bake will mean that she must
bake some in the evening on the
night before they are needed, but
for the most part her baking begins
in the morning after she has
finished milking chores. She also
will freeze unbaked pie shells
ahead to cut the preparation time
on the days she must fill orders.
One concession to the increasing
numbers of pies she makes is that
she no longer freezes her own pie
fillings. She recalls pitting cherries
and cooking her own fillings, but
found it didn’t pay for the extra
A chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting is a delight for
any family, and Rosene puts the finishing touches on one. She
says she takes all the calories out of her cooking for her family
which enjoys eating the fruits of her labors!
effort. She tries to purchase
supplies in bulk as much as
possible.
Surprisingly, Rosene says, “I
didn’t bake at home. My mother
always did the baking.” After her
marriage 20 years ago she said she
really enjoyed baking, but only
“once I learned to make pie
dough.” She experimented with
using an egg and with vinegar, but
has developed a simple, basic
recipe that she uses. In fact, she
now says, “I would rather make
pies than cakes.”
She uses lard to produce her
flaky crusts, but says she uses
shortening for pies for her family.
Her recipe is 5 “full” cups of
flour, 112I 1 2 cups lard, I*4 teaspoons
salt, and : '/4 to 1 cup water. Rosene
says, “There is a difference in the
HUmestpai
trfies
flour you use. You can feel when
it’s right. When working in the lard
you can feel if it’s going to be too
rich. I don’t measure exactly; I go
by the feel of it.”
Once the dough is ready, she
rolls it out on her formica table top,
which, she says, “works real
well.” She cautions, “Don’t work
more flour in than necessary, and
don’t work the dough more than
necessary because it will get
hard.” This recipe will make about
six 10-inch pie crusts.
She prefers making crumb
toppings, but also makes lattice
crusts with the help of a “gadget’’
which cuts the top in one piece.
Recently Rosene expanded her
kitchen to build in more counter
space, and her two requests were
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