Country Cousin 6/1/22Issue Date: June 2, 2022Shirley Prudhomme Land of Milk and Honey!
Celebrate Wisconsin! Our corner of the world really comes into its own in June, and it truly is a land overflowing with milk and honey, even in these days of sky high prices.
There are ways to save on the grocery bill, and one of them is to catch your own food.
Free fishing weekend in Wisconsin is coming up this coming Saturday and Sunday, June 4 and 5. If you want to give fishing a try without springing for a license, get out and see what you catch. You might even be able to give it a try with borrowed gear. According to the Wisconsin DNR website, folks who live near Peshtigo, or who are visiting here, can borrow fly fishing equipment and get free educational fish packs for the youngsters by contacting Cory Wienandt at the DNR Service Center at 101 N. Ogden Road in Peshtigo. The Service Center is not always open, so call first at 715-582-5007.
AMPLE OPPORTUNITIES
There are ample opportunities in TIMESLand to enjoy the area's beautiful natural water park facilities.
Wisconsin is home to 49 state parks, 15 state forests, 44 state trails, 84,000 miles of rivers and streams, roughly 15,000 lakes and of course, frontage on the Lake Michigan and Green Bay shorelines.
Marinette County alone owns 233,000 acres of county forest and operates 22 county park properties, including 11 scenic "large parks" with 6 of them offering well-kept, beautifully wooded campgrounds, plus 4 small day use or wayside parks, six boat landings, and a youth camp. And as Nature's Water Park, nearly all the parks offer access to water, most for fishing or boating, and many for swimming as well. Just don't expect life guards. Many of the "beaches" come in unimproved natural condition, but plenty offer clean sandy bottoms and plenty of area on shore for sun bathing or constructing sand castles.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
June Dairy Month Breakfasts on the Farm are coming up. The Oconto County Breakfast on the Farm will be on Sunday, June 12, , 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Blaser Farms, Inc., 9267 Hwy. 22 East, Gillett. They'll be serving scrambled eggs with cheese and ham, pancakes, sausages, yogurt, apple sauce, cheese, milk, orange juice, ice cream, coffee, water, and lots of fun. The Marinette County Breakfast on the farm is Sunday, June 26, from 7:30 a.m. to noon, on the Finger Family Farm at 8831 Old 41 Road, Oconto.
FATHER"S DAY
On Sunday, June 19, we celebrate Father's Day. We often don't think of Dads as being particularly sentimental, but most of them are, even if they don't want their spouses and offspring to know it.
You have a week to surprise dad with a memory book. Assemble photos of fun things you've done together or as a family, scan magazines for illustrations of values or skills Dad has taught you, and put them in a scrapbook for him, along with your own personal comments. Guaranteed he'll like that better than any material possession you could give him, unless of course it would be a new motorcycle or a hybrid car - or maybe a horse and buggy - to offset today's disastrous fuel prices.
GROWIN' THINGS
POTTED HERBS
Herbs are much better when they're freshly picked. It's not too late to get some in, even from seed, but plants already started are more reliable.
There"s nothing much handier than having fresh basil and parsley in a kitchen garden. You can raise your own even if you have no garden. Just grow them in a large pot outdoors, or even in a sunny window.
Parsley likes things cool, so if it"s to be kept indoors it would probably prefer an air conditioned room.
Basil can tolerate more heat. Don't over water, but don't let it wilt either. If the soil feels dry and the plant looks wilted, then recovers when you water it, it will probably do better if you water a bit more often or more generously. When you do water, be sure to give it a large enough drink to moisten the whole root ball, then wait for the surface to dry out before watering again. Be sure the pot has adequate drainage.
And from sad personal experience, never, ever, let vinegar get close to the growing basil plant.
If it"s particularly hot and the pot is outdoors, especially if it's also windy, possibly the pot should be put in a spot with a bit of noonday shade, and it will probably need extra water. If you"re picking leaves to dry for future use, get them early in the day while the dew is still on. If they"re for immediate use, just pluck, rinse and use.
WHAT A RHUBARB!
Remember when we used that word to describe a fight or blowup, especially at a baseball game? Ever wonder why that was?
Recently came across an answer that makes sense. The word "rhubarb" takes its name from the Latin "rha barbarum," at least in part because it grew along the banks of the river Rha, the ancient name of the Volga. Back then, the region was considered foreign, or "barbarian" territory. Thus, rhubarb literally means "from the barbarian, Rha."
Dictionaries first define rhubarb as the lovable, edible plant that it is, but then the slang definition follows. In slang, "rhubarb" describes a heated argument or squabble supposedly began with early Shakespearean theater, but at least one dictionary links rhubarb to baseball, where "a rhubarb" meant sparks were flying between the umpire and the pitcher.
NIX THE MILDEW EFFECT
Nasty odor and disease causing bacteria grow ferociously in the hot humid weather we"ll almost certainly get sometime this summer. (Yes, it IS summer! We"ve had a few hours of nice summer weather already, haven"t we?)
Anyway, dish towels and dish cloths should be washed in hot, soapy water. Just warm isn"t good enough. Add some chlorine-type bleach if the colors will handle it. But do be sure not to mix dishwashing soap with bleach, because it generally contains ammonia and the combination causes deadly fumes.
On the other hand, nothing beats bleach as a disinfectant and mold killer. Mix a tablespoon of regular household bleach with a gallon of hot water and use this to rinse dishes, counters, can opener, cutting boards and your refrigerator after washing them. Clean out a spray bottle so it contains no other substance except water and keep some of this solution handy for easy use. Even the interior of the microwave can benefit from a quick spritz and a wipe-out occasionally. Do label the bottle clearly, and put it where no little ones can get at it.
RHUBARB LEAVES
May have passed along this hint before, but will do it again because organic pest control is so much preferable to chemical treatments on the garden.
Rhubarb leaves are poisonous to people, and also to garden pests. They can be used to make an effective organic insecticide for any of the leaf eating insects
Basically you boil up a few pounds of rhubarb leaves in about four quarts of water for 20 to 30 minutes. It works better if you shred them up a bit first. Allow to cool, then strain the liquid into a suitable container. Dissolve some soap flakes in the strained liquid and spray onto affected leaves to discourage aphids and other garden pests.
Instead of soap flakes, dissolve leftover slivers of bath soap. You might want to keep this idea in mind for next year, and save the leftover bits so you have some available. They recommend four ounces to a gallon of rhubarb and water. Haven"¢t tried this, but am willing to bet this spray will also deter deer and other critters from dining on food intended for your table. Do know that bars of perfumed soap hung around a garden discourage deer. Be sure all the soap is dissolved so you don"¢t clog up the sprayer.
So, next time you pick some rhubarb stems to eat, you can put the leaves to good use rather than just composting them (which isn't in itself such a bad use, I guess).
The unused spray can be kept for a day or two, but be sure to keep your kids away because it's quite harmful to humans as well as to insects.
ON THE SOAP BOX
HOW MUCH DEBT?
President Joe Biden and his cronies in Congress just keep spending, and either borrowing or simply printing the money to pay for their spending sprees. Sadly, buying votes sometimes does work. Also sadly, it doesn't work forever. Even borrowed money runs out. Sooner or later, somebody is going to foreclose.
Meanwhile, this fierce inflation is destroying the value of the savings that some of use worked and sacrificed for.
Government needs to be more careful, and far less wasteful. My old boss used to admonish: "If you want a successful business, never throw away a paper clip."
We laughed at him, but he was right. He meant that we need to take care of the small things. They count.
Same thing holds true with government, where even the small things are done on a large scale.
Speaking of small things, though, there's nothing small about our national budget or the deficit. Don't really know what the deficit is now. It grows by the minute, as the spend-happy liberals keep throwing our hard earned money around as if it were their own.
(Oops. Wrong. If it was their own money, they wouldn't be so generous, but folks who dwell in the swamp get out of paying taxes, partly because much of the money that gets into their off shore accounts wasn't earned honestly in the first place.)
Know how much a trillion is?
Don"t believe anyone else really, really does either, so let"s talk about billions. To grasp a billion, consider:
A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
A billion minutes ago, Jesus was alive.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
A billion years ago there was no creature on earth that walked on two feet.
A billion is a really, really big number, but it takes a thousand billion to make $1 trillion! A trillion looks a lot more impressive if you write it out - $1,000,000,000,000.
If you were around when Jesus walked the earth and spent $1,000,000 per day every day since then until today, you would have only spent less than 3/4 of a trillion dollars.
The United States, once the richest country in the world, now owes trillions to China. What happens when China demands that we pay the piper?
In the real world of common folks, most debt of major proportions is backed by something, generally a mortgage. If payments default, the lender eventually owns the collateral. If you fail long enough to meet your mortgage payments, eventually the lender takes your house.
What have we mortgaged to finance our national debt? What have we pledged as collateral? Can China foreclose? Will the British once again own America after our government has finished spending us into the poor house? Will we have to sell the Grand Canyon to pay the interest?
BEAUTY TREATMENT
Are you wrinkled with burden? One local pastor a few years back invited everyone to come to the church for a faith-lift.
COOKIN" TIME
Isn't rhubarb wonderful? Aside from asparagus, it's the first treat of spring, and it can be used so many ways. Remember dipping stalks in cups of sugar and munching away? Why do we so seldom do that as adults?
Rhubarb adds incomparable flavor to pies and tarts. When combined with strawberries, raspberries, apples, and other fruits, the flavor only gets better. It makes a terrific sauce for chicken, venison, halibut and salmon. Adding diced rhubarb to muffins and biscuit recipes makes them sing with flavor without making the batter runny. Rhubarb, like apples, holds moisture well in recipes. So why is wonderful rhubarb so seldom available in frozen food sections of supermarkets, and why is it so relatively unknown and unloved in the warmer parts of our country? Have our southern cousins simply never gotten acquainted with this mouth-tingling fruit/vegetable?
RHUBARB PUDDING
1 cup flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter or shortening
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups water, boiling
1 cup sugar
3 cups rhubarb, diced
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Apply a nice coating of butter to a 9"x9" baking dish, preferably glass. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter until well blended. In a large bowl, combine the egg, milk and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish. Bring the water to a boil and add the sugar. Stir well to dissolve the sugar and add the rhubarb. Allow this topping to rest for 2 minutes and then pour it over the cake batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes until cake is set. (For flavor variation, try stirring a package of gelatin dessert mix into the hot water with the sugar.) Serve warm or cold. Like most things, this is also good with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream.
SPRING CASSEROLE
This delicate dish boasts the bright colors of spring and a bright flavor to match. Notice that although this is a pasta dish, it does NOT call for cheese of any sort. Delicious made with either scallops or skinless, boneless chicken breasts.
1 pound fresh asparagus
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and either crushed or minced
2 green onions, sliced
1 cup cream or half and half
1 pound scallops or skinless, boneless chicken beast cut into
scallop-size pieces
1 teaspoon lemon pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 pound angel hair pasta or spaghetti if you prefer
Clean the asparagus, trimming away the tough ends. Cut it into 1/8" slices on the diagonal. Set aside. Slice the onions. Rinse the scallops or rinse and cut up the chicken breast. Prepare the garlic. Put on a pan of water to boil for the pasta. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan or wok over high heat. Add the garlic, give it a stir, then if you"re using the chicken, add that. As soon as the chicken is nearly done, add the asparagus all at once and stir until it becomes just a bit tender, perhaps two minutes. If you"re using the scallops, add the asparagus first and after two minutes add the green onions and cream and bring to a boil. Add the scallops and turn off the heat. The pasta should be cooked and drained by now. Strain the cream mixture into another pan and put the chicken or scallops, onions and asparagus on top of the hot pasta. Return the cream to the heat and cook down about one third, or until it thickens. Add the lemon juice, lemon pepper and salt to taste. Pour over the pasta. Toss or not as you prefer. Serve at once.
BEAUTIFUL ASPARAGUS SALAD
Wonderful to pack for a picnic. Impressive on a party buffet table. Easy to maker multiple batches if there will be a crowd.
2 pounds large asparagus spears, trimmed and cleaned
1/3 cup olive oil
3 teaspoon wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
6 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
6 tablespoons bacon bits or crumbled fried bacon
Steam asparagus until tender-crisp and drain. Make a dressing with oil, vinegar, garlic powder, parsley flakes, salt and pepper. While asparagus is hot, layer half the spears in a deep dish. Sprinkle half the chopped eggs and bacon bits over the asparagus and drizzle on half of the dressing. Make a second layer just like the first. Serve at room temperature or chill.
CHERRY RHUBARB PRESERVES
6 cups diced rhubarb
4 cups white sugar
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling
1 (6 ounce) package cherry flavored gelatin
Place rhubarb in a large bowl. Pour sugar over top and stir to coat. Cover bowl and refrigerate overnight. Place rhubarb mixture in a pot and cook over medium heat until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in pie filling and gelatin, and bring mixture to a boil. Pour into a shallow pan and allow to cool a bit in the refrigerator. When jelly is cool but before it thickens pack into jars or plastic containers. Can be refrigerated or frozen. Absolutely wonderful on French Toast.
THE COUNTRY COUSIN
Thought for the Week: Congratulations to this year's graduates! Wishing you the luck and pluck to decide wisely what you want to do with your life, and then go for it, but be careful not to hurt anyone along the way. Human respect and Human regard are perhaps the largest considerations in life, other than respect for the Lord - which in turn leads us to respect the rights of other humans. That said, be prepared to work for whatever it is that you want to achieve, and proceed with the assumption that you will succeed. Think as Ayn Rand did when she advised, "The question isn't who is going to let me; it is who's going to stop me?"
(This column is written by Shirley Prudhomme of Crivitz. Views expressed are her own and are in no way intended to be an official statement of the opinions of Peshtigo Times editors and publishers. She may be contacted by phone at 715-927-5034 or by e-mail at shirleyprudhommechickadee@yahoo.com.)
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