Big Boy Thomas

On November 4, Thomas turned FIVE!  To celebrate, we had our traditional birthday dinner at Mamaw's with friends Gable, June, Luca, Liam and their families.  Lance's parents even stopped by on their way to Florida from Ohio.  Unfortunately, Thomas's friend Anna was sick and couldn't attend.  For this year's feast, Thomas requested spaghetti and meatballs ("make sure it is LONG pasta, Mommy") and chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  He racked up on some cool gifts too: a jar of saffron, hand-knitted bean bags, a wooden knight and dragon, gold watches, and lots of keys, including one to the front door of the University of Cincinnati from Grandpa K.  Hopefully everytime that Thomas sees one of these gifts, he will remember that "big boys" are also helpful boys!

Gable, Thomas (with birthday crown), and Luca

Big blow!

You did it!

Big mouthful of cake

Opening packages

The dragon's cave

Watches!

Saffron and keys!

Fossils from Aunt Kim!

Fall Colors

This post is especially for Lance, who has requested to see the fall colors on the farm.  Unfortunately, this year's showing was kind of drab, maybe because of the early snowfall, which made many of the leaves just drop from the trees before showing their brilliance.  In my opinion, though, even a lackluster East TN autumn is far more beautiful than the desert sands of Afghanistan.  

Pocketful of Cricket

This year for the Storybook Character (Halloween) parade at Child Study Center, Thomas was Jay from the book "Pocketful of Cricket."  Jay is a little boy who lives on a farm and loves to put things in his pocket: hickory nuts, buckeyes, beans, fossils, arrowheads, feathers--and a cricket that becomes his special friend.  This character is particularly fitting for Thomas, as he is also prone to storing "valuables" in his pockets (that often times come out in the wash.)  He also enjoys sticking his hands down other people's pockets to see what treasures they may have hidden in their clothes.  

Below is also a picture of Thomas with his cousins from this year's Halloween party.  With Daddy gone, we made it a much smaller affair this year, but it was no less fun to celebrate the harvest and ghost and goblins with friends and family.  (Thomas, who was supposed to wear his "Pocketful of Cricket" costume for the party, decided at the last minute to don his red velvet cloak and be "The Bloody Hand."  I guess a cricket just isn't scary enough.)

Fall Folk Arts Festival

This year's Fall Folk Arts Festival at Exchange Place was, in my opinion, one of the best ever.  The crowd was not huge, but those who came were interested and engaged and asked good questions.  The Junior Apprentices made hoecakes, pounded heirloom corn, demonstrated gourd crafting, and chopped wood.  Here, you can see pictures of the youngest member of the "woodchopper's" guild.  Thomas particularly liked stacking wood and making a "bowl" for me with a little tomahawk.  

Things went well in the kitchen too.  The menu was inspired by African-American foodways, and much of the ingredients came from my own garden or the EP garden.  The sweet potato biscuits were made from "Pink Bermuda" slips that the apprentices helped me plant in the spring and which came from a single sweet potato that I dug at Old Salem last fall.  Everything seemed to come full circle.

Thomas helping Jake and Matt

This is a big one!

" The keys make me official"

Working on Mommy's "bowl"

Ingredients

Vegetables from the garden
(The jar contains burr gherkins, pickled according to an 18th century recipe)

Okra soup, greens cooked in pork stock, and fried trout

Sweet potato biscuits, fried apples, and "mule-powered" sorghum

Meet the Gnomes!

Thomas and I wanted to introduce you to the gnome family who has taken up residence in our house.  We have created a home and "nature table" for them, to which will we add as the seasons change.  Right now, we are helping the gnomes gather nuts, berries, and other supplies in preparation for winter.  They particularly like buck-eyes, of which they have a large pile for "good luck." Thomas also collected a large batch of horsetail (scouring rush) for them by Mamaw and Poppy's creek. The gnomes only move at night, and sometimes they leave us letters, songs, or poems, like this one:

OWL:

As the shades of evening fall,

Whoo whoo...whoo whoo

We hear her call.

Sweeping forth on silent wing,

her golden eyes are glistening.

Swooping low along the ground,

she doesn't make the slightest sound.

When her evening flight is done,

she rises toward the morning sun.

Back upon the tree so tall.

Whoo whoo...whoo whoo

We hear her call.

In their first letter to us, they explained how they used to live in the woods behind our house (and were visited frequently by our cat, Ollie), but since Thomas's daddy is away, they thought we might like their company in our own home.  Interestingly enough, they have one son like our family. They also requested that Thomas provide them with names.  He has chosen "Tim" for the father gnome, "Rose" for the mother gnome, and "Thomas" for their son.

Insect Friends

For the last few weeks, we have been enjoying exploring insects (both "friendly" and "mean").  It all started by getting stung by saddleback caterpillars in the corn patch.  These little buggers are quite attractive, but their bristles are poisonous and pack quite a punch if you touch them.  Mamaw, Thomas, and I have all been stung at some point.  This must be a "good" year for saddlebacks.  The adventure continued with a Praying Mantis that took up residence on the kitchen ceiling.  Thomas named him "Jimmy," and for several days, we enjoyed looking for him each morning.  We haven't seen him in a while, so he may be off to greener pastures with more bugs to eat by now.  The most exciting chapter in our insect tale involves "Houdini," a monarch caterpillar that we found on a milkweed plant.  We brought him inside and made him a comfy home in a big glass jar.  Thomas named him "Houdini" after a monarch caterpillar in one of his current favorite books.  For several days, Houdini feasted on the milkweed leaves, and then one day, he escaped!  Thomas was at Child Study Center, and I searched all over for Houdini, thinking that perhaps Jimmy had eaten him! Finally, I found him floating in a glass of water.  I put him on a paper towel to dry, but he was limp and bloated, and I thought for sure he would die.  But what do I know about caterpillar lifeguarding...within 30 minutes, he was back on his feet looking for his milkweed.   I put him back in his "house," and by the next morning, he had shed his skin and turned into a beautiful lime green chrysalis.  Unfortunately, he chose a very unphotogenic spot to pupate, so I haven't been able to take any pictures.  We'll keep you updated on his progress.  Will he stay with us all winter?

Saddleback caterpillar

Looking at Jimmy on the kitchen ceiling

Jimmy

Paste Paper and Parsley Dumplings

My most recent trip to Old Salem involved learning how to make paste paper and cooking a traditional German meal on the hearth.  Using colored paste (made of corn or rice starch and water) to decorate paper was a popular craft of the Moravians, who used the paper mainly as book covers.  Wooden block stamps or combing tools can be used to make sophisticated designs, but in its most primitive form, making paste paper is really like finger painting.  I also enjoyed getting to cook for the first time on the Miksch house hearth, which is TINY compared to the expansive plantation kitchen hearth at Exchange Place.  Our menu included cumin beef, parsley dumplings, savoy cabbage cooked in cream, and raw cabbage dressed with vinaigrette--all recipes from 17th and 18th century German cookbooks.  The results were beautiful and delicious.  (Thomas especially enjoyed the leftovers the following day.)

Materials for paste paper making

Finished products

Finished products

Finished products

Ingredients for cumin beef, including "tree" onions from the
Miksch garden and a leek from my own garden

Cindy stirring the cumin beef in the spider

Grating stale bread for the dumplings

"Raw" dumplings waiting to be boiled

Gesegnete Mahlzeit!

Country Ham

I recently ordered a salt-cured country ham to use in the kitchen at Exchange Place.  When Papaw came over the other day, we let him help cut up it up, and as he did so, he reminisced about pig raising and ham eating when he was a boy.  He remembered one sow that he had that would sit in his lap.  He couldn't remember whether or not she escaped the knife of his father ("Pap"), who was an expert ham curer.  Pap's hams were so good that young Papaw would sneak into the smokehouse and steal hunks to eat raw.  Eventually, Pap had to put a lock on the door, at which time Papaw just found a loose board to push aside and climb through. Luckily, there was no theft involved on this day, as Papaw and Thomas got the green light to nibble away at the salty meat.  

All of Thomas's great-grandfathers (including Pap) were superb country ham curers who raised and butchered their own pigs and had their own "secret" rubs of salt, sugar, and spices to season and preserve the meat.  I am hopeful that one day Thomas will learn the skill.

Muddy Waters

Thomas enjoyed the late summer "flood" we had at the farm a couple of weeks ago.  Here are some pictures of him before he took all of his clothes off!