Gardening – Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm

Summer is for Picnics, Games, Gardening & Cookies

Deb D (Aunt Eunice) — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 01:21:00 +0000

Hello Folks,

Aunt Eunice here. Well, our Frolic weekends were blessed with beautiful weather and we want to thank the community for coming out to support our farm museum. It was quite busy and there was plenty for guests to see and do. Now it’s time to look ahead.

The Great Outdoors

Spring season for school tours ends this week so that means summer can’t be far behind. While the summer season on a farm is plenty busy, folks in the past knew it was important to have some lazy days mixed in. There is some saying about “all work and no play makes Aunt Eunice a dull gal”! I prefer to be sharp as a tack. There are a number of old fashioned activities that are still relevant in this day and age. Picnics are fun and get you out of doors. People today spend far too much time indoors, unless you’re a street sweeper. A fine traditional job that keeps you fit. Your mailman in town gets outdoors quite a bit as well. Pack up a basket with some cold fried chicken (skinless and grilled for you who are health minded), some nice potato salad, fresh fruit and lemonade. Throw in some tin plates and cups along with cutlery and a pretty tablecloth and you are ready to go. Find a spot near a cool stream and take your fishing poles. Maybe you will catch a nice trout for supper. If nothing else, teach your children the basics of fishing. It’s a good lesson in patience.

Game On!

Old fashioned games can be a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I hear there are newfangled yard games today called Corn Toss, Can Jam, and Washers. I recommend horseshoes for the menfolk and croquet for the ladies and children. A scavenger hunt is a good way to involve everyone if you play with teams. A prize for the winners of a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies keeps things competitive.

Who Invented the Chocolate Chip Cookie?

Here’s some information from kitchenproject.com on the origins of chocolate chip cookies, which happens to be one of my favorite cookies. Like many great discoveries (and this is one of the greatest) it occurred by mistake.

Ruth Wakefield invented chocolate chip cookies in 1930 at the Toll House Inn she and her husband Keneth ran near Whitman, Massachusetts. Like a bed and breakfast, she made food for her guests. One evening in 1937, she got the idea to make a chocolate butter cookie so she broke up one of the bars of semi-sweet chocolate that Andrew Nestle gave her. She thought that it would mix together with the dough & make all chocolate cookies . Needless to say, it didn’t. However the cookies came out decent so she served them. They of course were so good they had to be done again. She published the recipes in several newspapers and the recipe became very popular.

This gem of Ruth’s she named the Chocolate Crunch Cookie. She made a deal with Nestle allowing them to display the recipe on their chocolate bar only if they supplied her with free chocolate for her cookies at the Inn. Nestle tried to make it easy for people to make these cookies. They even included a small chopper in the package. Finally, in 1939, the Chocolate Morsels that we know today as chocolate chips were introduced.

The Chocolate Chip cookie is the most popular kind of cookie in America. Seven billion chocolate chip cookies are eaten annually. (I swear, Aunt Eunice only eats about a million!) The Toll House produces thirty-three thousand cookies each day. Some Vendors only sell chocolate chip cookies. Half of the cookies baked in American homes are chocolate chip.

Let the Living be Easy

Let’s make a pact to find time to relax, play and have fun this summer. Let Living Easy be our motto for a few months. Mow the lawn, wash the clothes and dishes, but try to simplify life from June through August. We all need time to regenerate and get back to nature. On that note, come visit Quiet Valley on our opening day of summer tours, Saturday June 15th. In addition to the historic tour, you can enjoy the Summer Garden Party at no additional cost. Learn about growing herbs and vegetables and different ways to use them, try some tasty samples, make some garden inspired artwork and just breathe in the fresh air. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

That’s all for now, folks. I hope to see you soon at the farm. Take care and take it easy.

Aunt Eunice

May is Planting Season, Learn to Garden at Quiet Valley!

Deb D (Aunt Eunice) — Wed, 08 May 2019 22:49:00 +0000

Hello Folks,

Aunt Eunice here. Well, we are getting busier than a beehive here on the farm. School classes are buzzing along with the students enjoying everything from learning about spinning, to school in the 1890s, to how to throw a corn dart! Great fun and a great educational opportunity.

The “mostly” warmer weather that finally arrived has Farmer Milton jumping into gardening mode. Any gardener feels their excitement level rise in May. This is when the prime planting season really gets rolling. The farm’s kitchen garden is rather large and takes a lot of tending, but the reward for hard work comes later when you harvest your produce. We have already enjoyed a large amount of asparagus. Things like peas, beets, carrots, spinach, broccoli, onions and lettuce were planted. Soon cabbages and potatoes will be planted in the field. As a younger gal I helped with the undesirable task of picking potato bugs off the plants.

Later at the end of May when the temperature rises, the frost sensitive vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, beans of many types, cucumbers, summer squash and more will join the rest. Plants like horseradish and Jerusalem artichoke may not be in everyone’s garden, but they are right at home in our Pennsylvania German one.

Jeanne, our resident herb expert, has tackled the herbal section of the garden and it is looking great. She still needs to put in lavender and rosemary when it’s warmer and has requested lots and lots of marigolds. Marigolds are not only pretty, but help keep certain insects away.

According to EHow, French and African marigolds are often cited as the most powerful Tagetes species for repelling insects. Both contain chemical compounds called thiopenes in their seeds, roots and other plant parts that are offensive to nematodes, aphids, cabbage maggots, white flies and other pests. French marigolds (T. patula) and African marigolds (T. erecta) are also pretty additions to the garden. The flower heads of the French varieties come in single or multiple whorls and in solid or variegated shades of yellow, orange and burgundy. African (sometimes referred to as “American”) species are taller than French marigolds and have larger pom pom-shaped flowers in solid, sunny colors. More Info on Marigold Insect Repellent

Most of us here at Quiet Valley are avid gardeners and enjoy using food and herbs we grow ourselves. If you would like some nice, healthy, locally grown vegetable plants for your garden, come out to the farm for our Farm Animal Frolic on May 18, 19, 25 or 26. Gary Oiler, a QV founder, retired farm manager and horticulturist, raises plants that will be offered for sale. Come the first weekend for the best selection.

If you would like to learn about gardening come out to Quiet Valley’s Summer Garden Party on Saturday June 15th. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have much room. Raising vegetable plants and herbs in containers is very rewarding.

I hope all of you will find some way to partake in the joy of gardening. Growing something for yourself feeds the soul as well as the body. I suggest you start with a pot of rosemary, a pot of lemon thyme and some basil. All fragrant and delicious when used in recipes. Here is a recipe to try. QV Lemon Thyme shortbread

That’s all for now. Thanks for checking in, folks. Aunt Eunice

Spring is In the Air: Cleanup & Cultivating the Garden

Deb D (Aunt Eunice) — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 06:30:00 +0000

Aunt Eunice is here to say, we’ll be having a Maple Sugaring Day! That sounds like the beginning of a poem. Saturday March 16 if all goes well and the weather forecast holds true we will be gathering at the sugar shack. Buttermilk pancakes, potatoes roasted in the coals and eggs boiled in the maple sap. Sounds yummy and I should know. I’ve eaten my fair share of those pancakes with that delectable maple syrup on them. I hope to see a good number of folks come out. It usually runs between the hours of 9:00am and 2:00pm.

After Maple Sugaring next on the agenda is Spring Clean Up Day down on the farm on April 6th, weather allowing. Dare I say the weather is warming up?! I think Winter is losing its grip and Spring is just about ready to pop out at us. The tops of bloodroot, daffodils and crocuses are starting to poke up through last year’s leaves and mulch. Shortly we will prepare the kitchen garden for the many things we plant in it, like peas, spinach, lettuce, radishes and carrots. It’s so good to be outdoors digging in the earth and enjoying the fresh air. These nice crisp, cool mornings wake you up so you’re able to appreciate the warmer temperatures of the afternoons as well as the lovely sunshine. I’ve almost forgotten what it feels like to have warm sunlight falling across your shoulders as you cultivate the garden and how nice it is to lift your face to the sun and savor that gentle heat. I hope all of you have been able to spend some time this week in the sun. Of course now-a-days they would say, don’t forget the sunscreen, but in the old days of Quiet Valley a nice rye straw hat on your head and a kerchief around your neck would do the same thing for you.

What a wonderful time of year with such a great feeling of anticipation. My advice is to get out and enjoy a few minutes of sun on these nice days and don’t forget the sunscreen, or rye straw hat!

Thanks for checking in and hope to see you soon.

Aunt Eunice