Onbei
a farm
-And o
hazar
Joyce B'
So much to do. So little time.
In other words, stand back out
of the way if you see a farmer
coming. Otherwise, you might get
flattened.
I’ve always felt a love-hate
relationship for spring’s “wide
open throttle, fiill-speed ahead”
fieldwork season. *
How delightful it is to watch the
fields green-up overnight, as pas
ture grasses and small grains wake
from winter dormancy, pushing
tender shoots heavenward. Clus
ters of tiny, infant leaves unfurl
among the ragged, old stems of
alfalfa clumps. And scattered
chickweed stands that have hung
out in old com Helds through the
freezin’ season thicken up into
plow-choking carpets of thick.
Milk Peddlers
(Continued from Pago B 2)
bring SSO a bottle.” To seal the
bottle tops. Nelda lamped in a thin
cardboard disk that had printed on
it Peachey Raw Milk.
There is one story that Nelda
remembers clearly the time he
and Paul Civitts, another milk
hauler, were arrested.
“We were fined for selling milk
for 8 cents a quart This was a cent
or two below what we should have
been selling it for. We went into
Lewistown and had to get a
lawyer. He never said a word and
Call now
for spring
lime application
slick greenery.
At the same time, the sheer
physical demands of trying to fer
tilize and lime fields, till and work
ground, move seed, plant and start
die first harvest of forage while
keeping up with all die regular
daily milking, feeding and equip
ment maintenance • have farmers
trying to cram 25-hours-worth of
work into every 24-hour day.
On dairy and livestock farms,
enrichment of the soils with man
ure becomes the most pressing
chore, especially after this winter
of endless snow and weeks of ina
bility to haul anything, anywhere,
out onto fields.
“Is that where they’re supposed
to be?” was the puzzled question
asked recently by Angela, my tee-
charged us $25 each.”
I asked why he sold milk for
less.
“We thought it was enough. It
was too much for people to pay.”
Nelda said he wouldn’t be too
fond of going back to delivering
milk that way again, but he does
like to see pictures of the old days.
Nelda’s wife Miriam passed away
30 years ago. Nelda has two
daughters, Anna Margaret Yoder
and Sara Yoder, seven grandchil
dren, and eight great
grandchildren.
naged teammate for the evening
milking. One evening previous,
the calves had nuzzled at the hand
horn atop a thick accumulation of
winter bedding. Now. they stood a
couple of feet lower on the con
crete floor of the pen. looking
much shorter and smaller.
Thick bedding packs were actu
ally a bonus this year, generating
heat to keep the cattle housing
warmer, draining moisture off the
top of the straw for drier condi
tions and helping to insulate water
pipes and fountains. But you can
get too much of a good thing
and most every keeper of lives
tock we know lias an abundance of
rich manure to enhance this year’s
food and forage production.
So much to do. So little time.
Potato-growing Mends finally
could hustle to their higher, better
drained fields, already several
«MEstONe
V ' /
Are These Foods Safe
CREAMERY (Montgomery
Co.) Rate your food handling
savvy by choosing the examples
that could result in foods unsafe
for a person with a weakened
immune system to eat
• Teresa and her grandmother
ordered hamburgers at the local
fast food restaurant When they bit
into the hamburgers, they saw that
the meat was red inside.
• Juan, who is HIV positive,
wanted cooked shrimp to put in a
cold salad. At the deli, he saw
cooked and raw shrimp displayed
together on the same bed of ice.
Juan bought the cooked shrimp.
• Before Ina began to prepare
coleslaw at home, she took off her
ring and put it on the counter
while she washed her hands care
fully for 20 seconds using a scrub
brush. Then she put her ring back
on and went to work. She finished
chopping the vegetables for the
coleslaw and used her hands to
toss it.
• Fred’s grandfather had eaten
his eggs sunny side up with a run
ny yolk all his life and had never
gotten sick. He feels he has lived a
1,
Improve your soil by applying
Martin’s quality Hi-magnesium or
Hi-calcium agricultural limestone.
Call your local Martin Limestone
dealer or call Blue Ball, Pa.
(800) 233-0205
(717) 354-1370
Martin
LIMESTONE
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 18, 1994*83
weeks behind schedule for tucking
in the first seed spuds. Cool
weather lovers, potatoes perform
best when planted early. But then,
nothing has been done early thus
farm this season.
One critical agriculture imput
may be almost skipped entirely
this growing season. Lime, that
natural, organic, powdery white
stuff that sweetens acid-prone
soils, boosts the performance of
fertilizers and enhances the
growth and yields of numerous
crops, is likely to be left along the
wayside in the seasonal time
crunch.
Lime spreading generally
begins in the fall and continues
right through the winter, whenev
er fields are dry enough to handle
long time and deserves to have his
eggs cooked the way he wants
them.
• Bill made a big pot of chili
con came for his noon lunch.
After lunch, he turned off the
stove and let the chili cool in the
pot. Before he went out at 4 p.m.
he put the chili pot in the
refrigerator.
• Seo-Hyun wiped her hands on
a dishtowel after handling raw
chicken and before preparing
salads.
• Jose was cooking a ground
beef and green bean casserole. He
put a thermometer into the middle
of the casserole so that it did not
touch the bottom of the dish. The
temperature was 165 degrees F.
Among the seven scenarios,
Jose’s meal was the only one safe
to eat. Surprised? Here’s what
wrong with each of the above.
Teresa might be okay with the
rare hamburger but her grand
mother is at high risk. It’s even
worse to eat a rare hamburger than
to consume a rare steak there’s
more processing so more chance
of contamination.
equipment without burying it up
to the axles in mud. With a wet
fall 80-days of continual snow
pack and ongoing April showers
(April snow someplaces), liming
this year was plain wishful
thinking.
Now, liming is just one more
trip across the field that farmers
don’t have time to make.
Meanwhile, we diehard garden
ers are raking away old leaves and
mulch, checking for asparagus
and rhubarb shoots, probing for
signs of winter survival on shrubs
and roses, moving perennials and
just generally reveling the earth’s
rebirth.
So much to do. So little time.
But, gosh, it sure feels great to
get the hands dirty in the ground
again.
To Eat?
Juan should have refused to buy
shrimp at the deli, the raw shrimp
could easily have contaminated
the cooked shrimp while in the
ice.
Most of you probably discov
ered Ina’s mistake she put her
ring back on which wasn’t washed
before starting to work.
Fred’s grandfather is now more
susceptible to food borne illnesses
because of his age and needs to be
sure his eggs are fully cooked.
Bill has lots of people sharing
his mistakes. First, he allowed the
chili to stand at a dangerous temp
erature for too long a time. Penn
State’s recommendation. Hot food
needs to be refrigerated within 2
hours. The best growing tempera
ture for bacteria are 40*-140* F
(room temperature). Secondly,
when Bill did put the chili in the
refrigerator, he did it incorrectly.
Seo-Hyun’s problem is an
example of cross contamination.
She didn’t wash her hands before
continuing with the salad. The raw
chicken she handled earlier can
easily contaminate the salad. If
you have a food safety question
please call Penn State Cooperative
Extension (610) 489-4315 and ask
for Annette Goodling. If you work
with church groups or fire compa
nies and would like to address
food safety issues, Penn State
Cooperative Extension has work
shops available for your group.
FRANK A.
FILLIPPO. INC.
- WANTED -
DISABLED & CRIPPLED
COWS, BULLS & STEERS
Call: Frank Fillippo -
Residence - 215-666-0725
Steven Fillippo 215-666-7976
KEN CLUGSTON
(717) 665-6775
CRAFT-BELT
CONSTRUCTION INC.
FARM-HOME BUILDING
1242 Breneman Road
MANHEIM, PA 17545
PH: (717) 665-4372
BUILDING & REMODELING FOR—
DAIRY RESIDENTIAL
SWINE POLE BUILDINGS
BEEF STORAGE