Country Chatter

What do you do on a snow day? What traditions have you embraced through the years that have become family traditions and wonderful memories?

I love watching it snow; the peaceful, quiet beauty of a stilled world. By the time it is done falling, I am done and want it to go away. For those on the farm, it makes so much extra work as there are animals to care for and trudging through snow makes the work ten times harder. Snow means cold weather, frozen nose, toes and fingers, breaking the ice on water troughs, roads to scrape so that equipment can move around, vehicles to deice, sidewalks to scrap and the list goes on and on.

This past weekend snow was threatening to come with a vengance. Not only the threat of unknown amounts of snow ranging from 3 inches to 18 inches but also sleet, freezing rain and ice with brutally cold temperatures and warnings of power failure. All week it is not to go above freezing and the night time dip is in the single digits.

We did everything we could do to be ready. The two generators were hooked up and ready to do their job. All the animals were nestled in extra bedding and their feed was staged nearby. Heat lamps were put in the pump houses and insulation tucked into drafty corners. Gas cans were filled for the generators, tractors and vehicles fueled up. Bracing was added to support the greenhouse roof and most of the vehicles were parked under roof. I joined the other crazy shoppers at Food Lion stocking our pantry-just in case. In the feed store I made sure I had orders placed and as much as possible inventory stocked beforehand. This weeks deliveries were run at the end of last week. Even though we have a generator to run the house, I drew a gallon of water to set on the counter, just in case and turned the computers off to guard against power surges. Saturday evening as we waited for the dreaded anticipated snow to start someone said, “We are as ready as we can be. I can’t think of anything else we need to do.” To end the day we watched a movie “The Lunatic Farmer”. This was a movie about Joel Sabatin, a Virginia farmer in Augusta County who used unconventinal old time farming methods to rejunvnate a worn out farm into a very productive organic homestead. It was very interesting. You can google Polyface Farms, Joel Sabatin or The Lunatic Farmer and find all kinds of fascinating info. He has quite a story to tell.

The magical snow show time was 6 p.m. Saturday evening. A few stray flurries were spotted but it was a good hour before it actually started. I got up several times during the night to look out and make sure our world still existed.

By Monday morning, the ‘storm of a lifetime” was over. The ground was blanketed with four inches of snow, a layer of pelleted sleet and then a layer of freezing rain forming a crust you could barely stomp through. We were so blessed as the freezing rain did not stick to the trees and the wind was not blowing.

Sunday and Monday I became my mother. When it snowed, she always had to put on a pot of white navy bean and country ham soup and made doughnuts. She always said it was the perfect time to make anything made with yeast because it is a low pressure system and the atmosphere pushing down on the dough is lighter.

I choose to make a big crockpot of beef stew, with a batch of cornbread. I just kept baking; party mix, chocolate chip cookies, a tray of peanut butter brownies, doughnuts and a batch of cinnamon/pecan friendship bread for the store. My house smelled so good you wanted to eat the smell!!! In between I ran the vaccum sweeper and worked on a puzzle.

It has been a long time since I made doughnuts. Jill said if I made them, she would help me as it is a two person job. We had fun working together and there is nothing like savorying a freshly made, soft, warm, glazed doughnut that just melts in your mouth. I said, “Mother would be proud!” Did you know that because the doughnuts have a hole in the center the calories all fall out when you deep fat fry them? And even though you fry the holes-the best part of the doughnut- holes can not possibly have calories!!!!

As I reflected on some of my memories of making doughnuts though the years, I remembered years ago when I was young, mother helped Gladys Harman, a good family friend, make doughnuts. She came home with the “best” doughnut recipe we had ever eaten. It became our family favorite. After I was married, sometimes I could convince Gene to help me. He would fry and I would dip but most often I would call a friend to come help me. Mary Flippo was my most frequent doughnut sister. She lived nearby and Watt would bring her over in his four-wheel drive truck when it snowed and it was our moment, our day in our world! It was fun and oh the memories we made along with good eating.

Note: Becky Fox saw my facebook page and she reminded me that she helped one time. I would be curious who else helped me through the years.

Others who helped:

• Daughter Jill Hostetter-many times through the years.
• Granddaughters Emily Hertzler and Lauren Hertzler Davenport

Links to my recipes I have mentioned. I will be adding these link later today so if you are interested, check back later.

• Doughnuts (This is a post with the recipe that I did in 2019)
• Hearty Beef Stew
• Cornbread
• Peanut Butter Finger Bars
• Party Mix