On Being a
Farm Wife
(and other hazards
Joyce Bupp
Pardon the juice dropping off
my elbow.
It’s just that we’re celebrating
August. Which is officially at
our house, anyway, a 31-day
marathon of eating our way
through Messy Munchin’ Month.
Messy Munchin’ Month lets us
revel in mouth-watering, direct
from-the-patch foods, which the
shipped stuff can’t even come
close to approximating in taste.
And, as usual, the bout of ex
treme heat has pushed our
stretched-out plantings of all
these goodies into ripening within
a short time frame.
We start with the ultimate in
finger-linkin’, juice drippin’, but
ter-lathered, steamy-hot sweet
corn. If your mouth isn’t water
ing by now...back up and read
that again. Sweet corn, at its ab
solute best, should go from the
patch to the table in about a half
hour. If you happen to have a
patch right behind your house, as
we are blessed with particular
crop-rotation season, that’s do
able. As an alternative, cultivate
The Unii
noncorrosive Delrin valve
is self cleaning & simple to operate l
• 12” in diameter & 8” deep.
• 3 gallon capacity- 6 times that
of other bowls!
• Fast recovery- 3 gallons per
minute at 40 psi.
• PVC construction- guaranteed
unbreakable, inhibits bacterial
growth.
•With nonrestrictive splash guard.
• Cleaner- water fill located at
bottom.
• Bottom drain- for easy cleaning.
• Adjustable water level.
A Added Value With Our 2 Coat Process!
1. Five step metal preparation, including Iron phosphate conversion coating,
to enhance adhesion & prevent undercoat corrosion
2. Zinc rich epoxy powder undercoat
3. TGIC polyester powder top coat, baked at 400* to fuse costs, terming a
. . cross link molecular bond
~ Pinft B. Zimmerman, Inc.
, .. ? 295 Vtolicorner Rd. • Lititz, PA 17543 • 717^738-7365
w 1 mile West of Ephrata
-■ * "*■
?»«*< /■
Call or write tor additional information
£ the name of your nearest dealer
your nearest fresh produce grow
er and get com just pulled from
the stalk.
After one of those recent swel
tering evenings of milking, when
the fans blew 95-degree air over
us and the steamy, sticky cows,
which had hunted any damp spot
in search of relief (and dragged
their tails across our faces to
prove it), a couple of ears of com
proved perfect to appease late
day hunger pangs. Microwaved
in their husk for a couple of min
utes and twirled over a stick of
butter, they are the ultimate fast
food.
Sure, they are messy. An
nounce that you are celebrating
Messy Munchin’ Mouth.
By their side, slice or chunk up
a couple of bright-red, fully-rip
ened, fresh-from-the-stalk toma
toes. Sprinkle on a dab of salt
and pepper, maybe a bit of Ital
ian seasoning. Low calorie, high
nutrition, great-tasting, minimal
effort health food. (Minimal ef
fort if you don’t count the dig
ging, planting, weeding, mulch-
WB9SPZ Zimmerman Water Bowl
ited Water Supply
Cows!
Heavy duty steel clamp A mounting
bracket totally supports bowl.
Start Planning For Safe School Lunches
Are you dreading the thought
of packing school lunches again
this fall? Here are some hints to
make them more appealing.
Packed lunches should have
three ingredients: nutrition, taste
and safety.
When considering nutrition:
Include at least one fruit
and vegetable. For vegetables, try
ing.) If you don’t have even a
single stalk of your own, repeat
the directions given above for
getting corn.
Now, on to dessert.
We’ll start with peaches. Red
blushed skins, fragrant aroma,
just gently “giving” to a slight
finger pressure. Sliced, diced,
tucked into a pie shell, smothered
with a cobbler-top, or with fresh
vanilla ice cream for a peach sun
dae. Or, as another fast, finger
food, fuzz rinsed off and
munched into like an apple. The
epitome of messy munchiiT.
Watch out for that juice drop
ping off your elbow.
For variety, we alternate with
cantaloupe, all these little netted
orbs coming ready at the same
time in the garden regardless of
how carefully I space out the
plantings. So we have cantaloupe
with breakfast, cantaloupe for
post-milking snack, cantaloupe
at lunch, and if there’s any
handy, as a bedtime snack.
One hill of what was supposed
to be honeydew turned out to be
a cantaloupe cousin of some sort,
Now you can give your cows the water they need to
produce more milk. With the Zimmerman Water
Bowl, you can do it at no extra cost!
The bowls are designed to comply with known
federal and local requirements when installed
properly.*
Cows are not designed to push a paddle when they
need a drink. This unique watering system provides
a continuous supply of fresh water in the way
nature intended cows to drink. With a large capacity,
fast recovery and a guarantee against breakage,
the Zimmerman Water Bowl will revolutionize the
way you water your herd.
'All bottom fill bowls require that approved back flow prevention
devices be installed in potable water supply lines.
Install in new or remodeled facilities or in
most existing barns on manger or stall
side!
Hours Mon -Fn 7-5
Sat 7-11
carrot or celery sticks, cherry or
grape tomatoes, or bell pepper
strips.
Include fruits and vegetables
your children enjoy. Fresh pro
duce is always a good choice, but
also consider small pop-top cans
of pineapple, peaches and other
fruits.
ripening with a yellowish-smooth
skin over the sweetened, green
fleshed melon imaginable. Their
yield, though skimpy, was posi
tively luscious.
Hope I can figure out what
they were so I could plant more
next year.
Not to forget the watermelons,
both the small, round deep
green-skinned, Sugar Baby vari
ety and, my favorite gourmet
“yellow fellows.” We gobble wa
termelon from the time it be
comes seasonally-priced at the
supermarket right on through the
summer. Our homegrowns, re
frigerator-sized, baby reds and
yellows always ripen just in time
to add their juicy sweetness to the
bountiful buffets of Messy Mun
chin’ Month.
Often the messiest part of Au
gust, though, is the kitchen, over
run with kettles, pots, canning
equipment, freezer containers,
food mill, as we hustle to squirrel
away some of this tasty stuff.
After about third trip to pitch
hulls, skins, peels, cobs and seeds
out into the field for recycling on
a recent day, “messy munchin’
took on a whole new meaning.
The baskets, buckets and boxes
of garden and market fresh
things do keep the kitchen busier
during this time of the year, espe
cially noticeable on some of these
August “dog days” when we’d
rather not do the kitchen thing at
»aU. But then we realize how
-Quickly summer is slipping by
and that schools are about to gear
up and decide that the biggest
downside of August is not that
it’s messy.
It’s just too short.
Lancaster Farming
Check out our Website!
WWW. I
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 18, 2001-B3
Avoid juice drinks or punch
with a lot of added sugar. Look
for “100 percent fruit juice” on
labels.
Avoid prepackaged cheese
and-crackers or similar treats
they are generally high in fat and
calories. Check the label. Small
packs of chips are often better
choices, if your child can afford
the calories.
Kids also insist that lunches be
tasty:
Vary sandwich breads. Whole
grain bread, kaiser rolls, ham
burger buns or bagels are good al
ternatives to plain white bread, if
your child enjoys that variety.
Wrap tomatoes and lettuce
for a sandwich separately so the
bread doesn’t get soggy.
Include a favorite pasta
salad or hot soup in an insulated
wide-mouth container.
For safety’s sake, make sure
perishable items stay cold until
the time your child eats lunch. If
lunch is packed at 7:30 a.m. and
lunchtime is at noon, the lunch
could sit at room temperature far
longer than the two hours food
safety specialists recommend. To
reduce risk:
Use an insulated lunch box
or bag and include a frozen gel
pack to keep the contents cool.
Pack a frozen juice box with
the lunch. It will thaw by the
time lunch rolls around and will
keep other items cool.
Lunch-meat sandwiches can
be frozen overnight and should
thaw by lunchtime. Freezing tuna
salad or other similar spreads
isn’t a good idea, though, because
mayonnaise doesn’t freeze well.
Also, rinse fruits and vege
tables before packing the lunch
so they don’t cross-contaminate
other items. And, don’t re-use
paper bags. Food particles and
any germs with them can’t be
wiped out. See other safe-lunch
tips in “Quick Tips To Packing A
Safe Lunch” at http://
www.fightbac.org/
school—press.cfm.
mcasterfarmin