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!

Daddy Has Gone for a Soldier

In August, we said "good-bye" to Daddy and sent him on his way to Afghanistan where he will be working as a radiologist at the NATO base in Kandahar until April 2015.  Here are some pictures of the farewell at the airport, including a pose with the friendly black bear statue.  Though Thomas still doesn't have a good grasp of time, he knows that his Daddy will miss Halloween, his 5th birthday in November, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mommy and Daddy's birthdays in February and March, and the first day of spring. "That's a long time," Mommy.  My friend at Old Salem reminded me that this is a very historical situation: husband leaves wife on farm to go off to war.  I guess this is just more practice for me as a "living historian."