the valley - november 2010

The ValleyA free newspaper dedicated to agriculture, self-reliance, and modern homesteading.

ComplimentaryVolume 1, No. 1 The Valley, November 2010

F R E

E

Serving Mifflin County and the surrounding area.

A. J. Peachey’s rise from the ashes imminent On a bright, but windy Saturday, exactly six months and a day from the devastating fire that destroyed their business, Lewis and Aaron Peachey along with their team, broke ground and completed another step in bringing back a very popular Mifflin County icon. A prayer of thanks to God and community was offered before the official speeches and Lewis and Aaron both expressed a gratitude for Gods guiding hand in the stores reconstruction. The A. J. Peachey’s management team is making enormous strides on their way to rising from the ashes and bringing back one of the valley’s favorite stores. A large crowd of well-wishers were present and many people involved with the rebuilding were on hand to explain the process of bringing back the A.J. Peachey store and making it bigger and better than it was before. The designer’s rendition of the proposed store was displayed, and it was easy to see that it will be a beautiful store that graces the property that nearly everyone in Big Valley, and far beyond, knew as a place to get great meat and sausage made on the premises. It was also a place to get dry goods, some that were hard to find elsewhere. It was a place to go out to eat—their home style cooking in the restaurant was a topic of conversation everywhere, especially with newcomers to the valley. You could also find country crafts and furniture made by area Amish craftsmen at A. J. Peachey. They carried old-fashioned wholesome breads, as well as many other delicious baked goods in their bakery. A lot of that has already been brought back via temporary buildings that sit on the grounds that once housed the store. In an

incredible feat of organization and focus, many of the shops were opened only two months after the fire. Thankfully, the ice cream shop was one of them, and was open in time to welcome summer to the valley. We were there the first night they re-opened, and as we enjoyed our cones, and sat at the tables provided for those wishing to sit outside, we noticed several familiar faces from times past. Had they been waiting as impatiently as we had and were they also thankful for having their favorite meeting place back again? The smiles and lively conversation gave us our answer. Everyone seated at the tables were enjoying something that only a few months before was feared gone forever. I remember selfishly thinking as news of the fire came to light, “no more hot dogs, no more ice cream, no more country buffet at the restaurant.” This of course was nothing compared to what the Peacheys themselves, and their loyal employees were feeling—the

sense of loss must have been nearly unbearable. Within days, a Facebook page had been set up by some of the employees, who were all dropping in to talk about the great times they had working at A. J. Peachey. They talked about helping each other through the hard times ahead, and wondered if it was all lost forever. Their fears were put to rest rather quickly when Lewis and Aaron announced that Peacheys would indeed rise from the ashes. They would rebuild, and it would be better than ever! You could sense the joy as people went to the site, or out to the grounds, and offered their encouragement and help in whatever it would take to bring the store back to the valley. What has transpired since that day is a testament to perseverance and hard work, as well as focus and a love for what they do.

The excitement on that windy Saturday was palpable; the stiff winds couldn’t stand up to the joy of a community thankful to the Peacheys for rebuilding. As evidence of the Peachey’s loyalty to the community, as if not already highlighted by the tall task of rebuilding, Lewis and Aaron announced that they will use all local contractors and local materials to rebuild the complex. That is true economic development, and highlights the bond between community and the business. Their annual Customer Appreciation Day, which took place this summer, was further evidence of that. Set up in the parking lot under canvas canopies, the great food was made all the tastier by mingling with wonderful neighbors and music from a live band. Families packed the grounds and everyone could be seen wearing a smile while

adults engaged in lively conversation and the kids were given rides in a line of colorful cars pulled behind a small tractor.

Peachey’s employees and friends were stationed everywhere on the grounds ensuring business ran smoothly and customers and friends were happy. Folks in the Mifflin County area, and Big Valley especially, are incredibly lucky to have a store such as this in their midst. Everyone in the area should take a ride down Route 655 in the near future and stop to see what A. J. Peacheys is up to. Sit down and have an ice cream, or enjoy a homestyle meal in the new, but temporary, restaurant, and give thanks that we call Big Valley home, and have a store like A. J. Peacheys. Be sure to read next month where we will start a multi-issue series on the Peachey story, from founding to present day. It is a read that will highlight their perseverance and accomplishment and show the true face of community.

Six golden shovels ready to turn the Earth in preparation for the bigger equipment to really get things moving.

The large crowd bows their head in prayer before the official ground-breaking.

Next issue: The Founding ofA.J. Peachey

The Valley, November 2010�

Call 667-1404 to place your order463 S. Main St., Milroy

If you like what you see within our pages, please support our advertisers, as without them, we couldn’t produce this

publication. Support your neighbor, buy local!

Are you interested in writing or sharing a story? Do you want to see your name in a byline? If you can write about Agriculture, Self-reliance or have a frugal living tip,

please submit your work to The Valley, PO Box 41, Yeagertown, PA

17099 for publication consideration.

The Valley, November 2010 �

In this IssueContributingWriters

Special Features

Miscellaneous

MailbagClassifiedsCommunity Calendar

The Mushroom Guys --Bob Sleigh with Trahn Thompson

Ask Julie Mac: --Julie MacConnell

Understanding the Constitution --Dave Molek

Homestead Chronicles --Dave & Ginger Striker

Woods, Water, andWildlife --Bob Sleigh

Out in the Bee Yard --Mike Thomas

Roads Less Traveled --Lynn Persing

Modern Energy & Heat --Curt Bierly

Frugal Living --Pat Crowder

Thots on... --Lydia

Cranberry Harvest

The Beauty of Heirlooms

A.J. Peachey: Rise from the Ashes

The MailbagEditors Note Welcome, dear readers, to our first issue of The Valley. I am taking advantage of this page, as we obviously wouldn’t have any letters to the editor in our first issue. I hope you good folks will remedy that situation in time for our second issue in the beginning of December. The Valley is a collaboration of like-minded people who want to share their vast knowledge in an effort to help those interested achieve the level of self-reliance they seek. We believe in good, old-fashioned, traditional values, community, and neighbors helping neighbors. We hope that even if you never intend to can vegetables from your own garden, produce your own power, or move back to the land and disconnect from the modern world, that you will find our pages entertaining and a worthwhile read. Our writers are passionate about their columns and that is why they were picked to write for The Valley. They know the subject matter inside out, and to be honest, have the propensity to pontificate for hours if you let them. One thing they all have in common is the ability to express themselves in common language so that everyone can understand what they are saying. We aim to give you tips and ideas on saving money in these hard economic times. For example, in our first issue we show you how to all but eliminate the expense of buying laundry detergent, which believe it or not, costs the average family almost $�00 a year. After reading Pat’s column in “Frugal Living” you can cross that expense off your yearly budget. Our food preservation expert, Julie Mac, will answer readers questions concerning canning, freezing, dehydrating, smoking and storing your bounty. She also visited the Cape Cod Annual Cranberry Festival in October and has a timely story right before our traditional feasts of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those Cape Codders really take their cranberries seriously, and because of that, we can all enjoy those tart, health-giving little berries at our own holiday table. It is a tradition as old as our country. Bob Sleigh has joined our staff to write the “Woods, Water and Wildlife” column, Bob is an accomplished, award winning Pennsylvania outdoor writer. His stories are both informative and entertaining. Bob Sleigh and Trahn Thompson are our mushroom enthusiasts. Trahn, when not in his garden or chained to his computer writing for the paper, may be spotted, fully decked-out in camo, in the forests of the east coast and beyond seeking elusive wild mushroom species. Or, you may see him or Bob mentoring a newcomer in the pursuit of wild fungus and a few other wild edibles as well. Dave Molek is known to many in Central Pennsylvania as a no-nonsense attorney from Yeagertown. Dave is writing a column called “Understanding the Constitution.” With the heart of a teacher, and the immense knowledge his profession has afforded him, he will help those wanting to learn about our country’s founding document in plain English and without apology. Lynn Persing will be writing our column called “Roads Less Traveled” where she will highlight family outdoor activities past and present, from camping and RVing to apple picking, strawberry picking, yard sale”ing” and cookouts. Lynn’s articles will recall a simpler time when families did more things together. Dave Striker is writing a reality TV made-for-newspaper story of his family’s own experience of fleeing the city to settle down in a self-sufficient homestead out in the country. His column, called “Adventures in Homesteading,” will highlight his family’s journey back to the land, covering all of the good, bad, and ugly, but ending with how their perseverance finally paid off. It is a story of true individual accomplishment on the part of each member of his family. We really thank Dave for opening up his life to our paper, and know that even those who would never contemplate such a bold move, will find his story compelling and uplifting.

Mike Thomas is President of the Pennsylvania Backyard Beekeepers Association and will write about all things bees--whether it be backyard beekeeping or the importance of honey bees as pollinators of our food supply.Curt Bierly of “The Bierly Stove Shop” in Milheim will cover “ Modern Energy and Alternative Heat.” Curt will talk about woodstoves, coal stoves, solar, wind and geothermal in his column each month. His company recently installed a Jotul woodstove at our residence and we are looking forward to the huge savings on heating oil this winter, not to mention that now we can be as warm as we want. Wood heat isn’t for everyone, but being from New Hampshire, that was our primary source of heat for most of my life, so to me, everything else seems like alternative fuel. Our “Thots On...” column by Lydia is a bible study for the lay Christian. We are also planning to add a “Holistic Remedies” column, and a “Vet’s Corner” in the second issue. I may even get an additional story or two in now and again if our regular writers leave me any space. In addition of these enlightening topics, we will also cover local human interest stories that highlight individual or business accomplishment, and give the readers a chance to see their name in a byline if they wish to submit stories for consideration. Just remember to keep the stories geared toward agriculture, farming, modern homesteading, frugal living, or self-reliance issues. As we grow, we will adapt and change to best serve those who read our paper, and we would be delighted for you to join us on this journey. If you have a business that wishes to advertise or become an outlet for our paper, please contact us using the contact info found in the index on this page. If you have a community announcement, please submit it for inclusion to [email protected]. Please see the classified section for submitting your items for sale. We hope you enjoy our pages, and remember, you can use the letters to the editor to give advice or to ask us to cover a particular topic. Submit letters to: The Valley Newspaper, PO Box 41, Yeagertown, PA 17099, or use the aforementioned email. I hope to see you in my travels around The Valley. —Wayne Stottlar

The ValleyPO Box 41 Yeagertown, PA 17099

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.thevalley-newspaper.com

Phone (717) �6�-1550

Contact Info

Not from this area? Are you moving and want to receive

The Valley in your new town? We will send a copy right to your mailbox wherever you

live in the United States. The yearly subscription rate is

$28.00 to cover postage. Send a good check or money order and start receiving The Valley

next month.

The Valley, November 20104

Community CalendarNon-profit community and civic oranizations are encouraged

to submit their announcements to “The Valley” at PO Box 41, Yeagertown, PA 17099. Editor reserves the right to reject

announcements on a case-by-case basis.

Houses of Worship, please contact The Valley offices to have your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

services listed in our December issue. Deadline is November 19th.

Species

Density (lbs per cubic foot)

Weight per cord

BTUs per cord (millions)

Recoverable BTUs per cord (millions)

Units needed to produce 1 million BTUs

Firewood Value Chart

The Valley, November 2010 5

Woods, Water and Wildlifewith Bob Sleigh

Another summer has quietly morphed into fall as winter prepares to make its annual assault on the outdoor world. It is November, and throughout Penns Woods creatures large and small prepare in their own special way to cope with the coming frigid temperatures and lean times. Black bears, groundhogs and other hibernating animals build up layers of fat that keeps them alive during a long winter’s slumber. Predators such as foxes, bobcats and others simply survive the winter struggling to find the once-plentiful prey species they dined on all summer. Squirrels, field mice and many other rodents hoard food in large quantities to fend off winter’s hunger pangs. Among those small rodents is one animal that anyone who has spent more than five minutes in the woods knows well. Scientifically known as Tamias striatus, which loosely translates to the “striped treasurer,” the Eastern Chipmunk can be found in nearly every woodlot east of the Mississippi River. The chipmunk’s strategy to surviving the winter is somewhat of a cross between hoarding and hibernation. The extensive burrows created by chipmunks are not always easy to find. Unlike a groundhog’s burrow, which can be easily spotted due to the piles of fresh-dug dirt surrounding them, chipmunks keep their entrances well hidden. Burrows are continually expanded throughout an animal’s entire life and at times can exceed thirty feet in length. Their underground world always contains at least one chamber filled with dried nuts and seeds that they collected before the snows came. Throughout summer and fall, the small rodents work diligently gathering food to fill the caches. Scurrying across the ground, they pack their cheek pouches with whatever edible tidbits they can find. The amount of food one chipmunk can carry boggles the imagination. There are reports of these tiny rodents carrying 31 corn kernels, 13 prune pits, 70 sunflower seeds, and the record-breaking animal that had stuffed 32 beechnuts into its cheeks! They are so intent on gathering as much food as they can that they will pick up the last bit of food with their teeth whenever their pouches become full. Estimates indicate that one chipmunk could store a bushel each of chestnuts, hickory nuts and corn kernels in three days. In late fall, some unknown signal is given and the Eastern Chipmunks adjourn to their burrows for a long winter’s sleep. Scientists believe that hibernating animals have a substance in their blood called HIT, short for Hibernation Inducement Trigger. The combination of food scarcity, lowering temperatures and reducing daylight is believed to activate the HIT, therefore inducing hibernation. During hibernation, the hyperactive little rodents can go into a deep sleep where their heart rates drop from 350 to just 4 beats per minute, with a body temperature approaching 38 degrees. Lacking the thick layer of fat that allows a black bear to survive hibernation without eating, chipmunks must take in food regularly to sustain them through the winter. Periodically they will awaken to relieve bodily fluids and snack from the hidden cache of food collected throughout the summer. The process is far from just rolling out of bed.

Due to an extremely low body temperature, the chipmunks must shiver themselves awake to gradually bring the temperature to a near normal level. Unfortunately, the energy expended in awakening is great, thus the need for underground food caches. With an average weight of around 300 grams when their

hibernation begins, those that come out to greet the spring warmth will only average 160 grams. For the chipmunks, hibernation is a less-than-perfect solution to surviving the winter. It is estimated that twenty-five percent of them will not make it to spring. Many will succumb to the rigors of hibernation alone while others will help a fox or coyote survive the winter as a mid-winter protein boost. These predators can find the sleeping chippers by scent, even through the frozen ground, particularly the ones that failed to make their bedroom deep enough underground.

The name chipmunk is popularly believed to have derived from the native American word “chitmunk,” which describes the way the animal climbs down from trees head first. There is also the belief that the name came from the animals “chip, chip, chip” call that is commonly heard when they are active. Chipmunks in parks and residential areas that are fed often become tame and will readily approach humans, seemingly demanding to be fed. Of the 21 different kinds of chipmunks, all live in North America except one. The Siberian chipmunk is prevalent in Northern Europe, Asia and Japan and is somewhat smaller than the Eastern Chipmunk. Man’s interaction with chipmunks has dwindled over the years, although at one time they were hunted for their furs. The most interaction anyone has with them anymore is being chattered and chirped at as we walk through the woods and disturb their paranoid frenzy of cheek stuffing and food stashing as they prepare for another long sleep.

Eastern Chipmunk filling its pouches with tasty sunflower seeds in preparation for a long winter.

Preparing for winter

Share your copy of The Valley with a

friend!


Modern Energy and

Alternative Heatingwith Curt Bierly

Phone (717) 667-6556Toll Free (888) 567-6556

141 Three Cent LaneReedsville, PA 17084

More than just a feed store

I came to know Wayne and Lynn of The Valley when our HVAC Firm (Stanley C. Bierly, Millheim, PA) recently sold/installed a wood stove and stainless steel insulated chimney for them. Wayne asked me if I would be interested in writing a column for his newly established newspaper. He told me that the column would be all about “Modern Energy Heating/Cooling Systems and Alternative Heating Appliances” (my favorite subject). I was honored to be asked, and although I hadn’t written a column before, I decided to give it a try. First some background. My father started Stanley C. Bierly in 19�5. He was a Penn State graduate in Electrical Engineering and when he graduated the only jobs available for EE’s were in Europe—so, he started Stanley C. Bierly. He sold the first radios in our area, wired houses, sold and installed televisions and other major appliances (clothes washers, clothes dryers, dishwashers, etc), as they were developed and became available. He also installed heating equip-ment, which was primarily fueled with coal until heating oil was readily available and then electric heat was introduced. In 1975 (50 years later), I purchased the business from my father. Since that time, our focus has been on high-efficiency heating/cooling systems (geothermal/air-to-air heat pumps, condensing gas boil-ers/furnaces, solar thermo, mini split heat pumps, etc) and alter-native heating equipment (wood stoves, coal stoves, gas stoves, pellet stoves, stainless steel chimney systems, etc). Ok enough background—let’s take a look at what’s happening out there. Most urgent at this point of time, if you are considering upgrading your present heating/cooling equipment, or if you’re considering the purchase of alternative heating equipment, be sure to take advantage of the appropriate Federal, State and utility rebates available. The Federal rebate expires December �1, �010. You can learn details on the Federal, State or utility website or by talking with your accountant. As an example, let’s assume you intend to purchase a wood stove and chimney system for this heating season. This purchase only qualifies for a Federal rebate (but be sure the wood stove you choose qualifies for the federal rebate—not all of them do!). The Federal rebate is �0% of the total cost, up to $1500.00 and

is in effect until December �1, �010; it also can be used on other energy saving items like insulation and windows. It can only be used once, so for the sake of our discussion, let’s assume you have not used the rebate and you plan to use it for the purchase of a wood stove and chimney system. For easy figuring, let’s assume the wood stove and chimney system total installed cost is $5000.00. $5000.00 x .�0 = $1500.00; therefore, $1500.00 can be deducted from what you owe the Federal Government in taxes for 2010. Your net cost is $3500.00. This is a significant rebate!! Don’t let it slip away!! Again I encourage you to visit the following website to learn all the official details of the Federal Rebate Program. www.ener-gystar.gov Click on “Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency”, Click on “Biomass Stoves”Curt Bierly is president of the bierly group incorporated of which Stanley C. Bierly is a division. He graduated from Penn State with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and is a member of the Penn College HVAC Advisory Board. You can contact him at [email protected].

SZECHUAN, HUNAN, & CANTONESE STYLE CUISINE

中国楼Dine in or take out

(717) 242-2300

Open 7 daysa week!

Mon-Thurs: 10:30am-10pmFri & Sat: 10:30am-11pm

Sunday: 11am-9:30pm

19 East Market Street, Lewistown, PA 17044

Introduction and Energy Rebates

Burning wood is the new “green” way to heat your

home. Be sure to read next month, when we bring you up to speed on what’s new in wood stoves. You will be

amazed.

It’s not too late to

purchase a biomass heater for this year’s tax credit

rebate. You have until Dec. 31,

2010!


Adventures in HomesteadingOne family’s journey from the city and modern living, back to the land and self-reliance.

by Dave and Ginger Striker A continuing series.

Dave’s Family Homestead Begins Several years ago our family mirrored the average American family in most ways. We started off with a small, two-bedroom townhouse in a fairly large urban area in Flor-ida; we only had two children at that time. We participated in what we thought was the ideal way of life with private school, organized sports, credit cards, mortgages, car payments and living close to work and enter-tainment. I needed to be nearby my office downtown due to the nature of my work, and living in the urban-core also afforded us the luxury of not having to care for a yard. Most of the other responsibilities of home-ownership were handled by a neighborhood association. My wife has a background in animal care; however, ended up in marketing with her strong English education (guess who proofread this column). She, no doubt, brings the structure and organization to our rela-tionship. My background is quite a bit less structured. After high school, I immediately went into business for myself, in the then fledgling Internet industry, and have always had a bit of the seat-of-the-pants type of mentality with a ten-dency of being a perfectionist. We went from two chil-dren to four children in a short period of time, and although we remodeled our townhome to accommodate our growing family, we were quickly real-izing that urban life was not for us. Our children did not have the freedom to go outside and

play, leaving eve-ryone cooped up in the house bounc-ing off the walls. We had always dreamed of build-ing our own home, as we both had lots of opinions about our “perfect”

home. But, we needed a larger home immediately. Our best solution was to rent a “subur-ban home” while looking for a small lot to build our dream house; the McMansion as we now refer to it. So we packed up the four kids, and we moved to the “burbs.” As time went on, we found suburban life also seemed to be lacking, as did our idea of what we wanted in life. Our life at the time was becoming very mechanical and ordinary—we were conforming to this idea of what was perceived as the way we should be living our life and raising our children. This same vision is propagated through movies, t.v. shows and magazines. Meanwhile, people’s acceptance of this false illusion of wholesome-ness makes it more real than it actually is, but it’ no more ful-filling than mowing the lawn twice a week, out of the fear of receiving a fine from the clipboard-wielding homeown-er’s association Gestapo. The epiphany came for my wife and I one day when she asked my son where eggs came from, and promptly my son answered “the store.” After further ques-tioning and quizzing, we real-ized our kids in general didn’t really understand where their food came from. This changed pretty much everything for us in the way we looked at life and what we wanted from it. Thanks to a booming real estate market at the time, we found it impossible to find a lot within the city limits, in our price range that met our criteria. As my wife and I discussed more about where to look for this property, we were realizing that we really wanted

more land and privacy than we could get in the suburbs anyway. About that same time, we received a copy of “The Have More Plan.” “The Have More Plan” was produced by the U.S. Government in the 1950s to promote self-reliance (circa Victory Gardens – yeah, this is the same government! Wow have we changed!). While much of the information was dated, it was inspiring, and the philosophy of being able to produce nearly all of our own food was VERY appealing. We put away the McMansion plans, forever. The more we read, the more excited we became; however, the goal still seemed so out of reach for us. The idea of being able to find a little land and setting up a farm was overwhelming and intimidat-ing. Regardless, my wife and I continued to dream and read everything we could get our hands on about homesteading. We were deter-mined. Quite sud-denly, I lost sev-eral of my major contracts and was virtually unem-ployed. A lot of my customers had budget cuts, which left me first in line as a contractor to be let go. Our dream of a homestead seemed lost as we strug-gled financially. Fortunately, we both had family in town to help us through our struggles, to the point of mov-ing in with our parents when we had exhausted our savings and efforts of finding further work. Ironi-cally, though, our marriage and

our family were stronger than ever, and though we struggled, we kept dreaming about our homestead and began looking for land, but this time with a whole different set of expecta-tions. Even though we weren’t in any position to purchase land, we had faith that our luck was bound to change. To a degree, searching for land turned into a welcome escape from our struggles and seemed to lift our spirits every time we embarked with the kids to the rural outskirts of North Florida. Faithfully, every Saturday, we’d get up, pack our lunches, snacks and drinks and head to the country. How many families take a road trip together anymore, much less every weekend? We did this for nearly 18 months. Another one of the ben-efits of our financial struggles, I would say, was learning the important lesson that the

American dream wasn’t about a big house and two car payments. Rather, it’s about setting your own expecta-tions and goals, and then achieving

them to your satisfaction, not that of society and government. Slowly we began to realize we needed a lot less to be happy and the moment this realization struck, it was almost as if God had perfectly timed this lesson before He sent more work my way. Finally, the future was becoming more clear and we were being provided the means to accomplish it. At this point it was late winter and we had coincidentally found a poten-tial piece of land that met most of our qualifications. Having had our share of homeowner associations and bad neighbors, we wanted something rural with plenty of open land around us. We knew that we wanted to have gar-dens, orchards and livestock, so we knew we needed to have enough land for pastures and of course suitable forage. Unfortunately, our price range

continued on page 21


Roads Less Traveled...by Lynn Persing

Go RVing — Unplug and Unwind I’ll be the first to admit—and everyone who knows me will tell you—I don’t “rough it” very well. I like running water, soft beds, and electricity. Just tell me that I have to go a day without a shower and I’m already trying to weasel my way out of whatever it is that would put me in that uncomforta-ble situation. So, those who know me now may be surprised to learn that I spent a great deal of my childhood camping, most often in the woods. When I say a great deal of my childhood, I mean virtually every weekend in the spring, sum-mer, and fall. As a kid, I defi-nitely wouldn’t have chosen to go camping with all my weekends, but kids don’t get those kinds of choices. And now as an adult I still don’t choose to camp much at all, but I am grateful for the expe-riences I had camping as a child and young adult. I have such fond memories of our family camping trips; it was a wonderful family bonding opportunity—maybe that’s why so many families do it. Camping is only as expensive as you make it, and even though this story is about camping with an RV, you don’t need to have an RV to have great camping experi-ences. In fact, some might argue

that the best camping experiences are those without any modern conveniences, like an RV (but I’m not one of them). Oh, I’m fine with sleeping in a tent, and on the ground in a sleeping bag. I’m ok with bathroom duty in the middle of nature, but I’m not ok without some way to shower and wash my hair on day two. Ok, maybe I could make it through day two if I really had to, but day three would definitely be the deal breaker. When I was a small child, my parents decided that it would be fun to explore America, but they didn’t want to spend the money to stay in hotels--enter the RV. They, like most families, wanted

an inexpensive way to see new places and travel to visit distant relatives. So when I was three, they drove to the West Coast to visit my aunt and uncle pulling a fifteen foot travel trailer with 1964 Dodge station wagon—the car I learned to drive on and my father still owns today. My Dad would

prefer that I go on (and on) about that station wagon (and his 1964 Dodge Dart probably), but this is a story about RVing, and frankly, you’d have to contact my Dad for the classic car stories. On the other hand, if you want to buy one of those classic cars, you should contact my mother. Back to RVing. My mother tells me that their first travel trail-er, the one that they used to trek west, had no bathroom, but they thought they were living in the lap of luxury since they “camped” in the back of the station wagon dur-ing the pre-trailer days. Through the years that station wagon took us on many trips, and it towed

many different RVs. When we traveled, we rarely stopped at restaurants. Mom packed cold cuts and bread and usually we just ate lunch at a roadside rest stop on a pic-nic table. My affinity for din-ing out must have started early, because even then I wasn’t happy about this arrangement. Apparently on

one trip, I expressed, “I want to eat at a restroom—you know, the kind with tables!” My parents started out with small RVs, and I remember them as being pretty cozy. I slept on the top bunk and often had to sleep with my brother (yuck!). He always got the outside near the

“rail” and I got squeezed into the back. I hated that....I felt like I was going to suffocate back there! But what I re-member most is climbing the ladder to get into the bunk, crawling in, and bingo--it was COLD! Not just cool, mind you, but COLD! You see, when you spend all day outside on a nice fall day, you usually don’t run heat in the camper, and at night the temperature drops quite a bit. You are warm and toasty around the campfire, so you don’t give it a thought. But, even if you turn the heat on an hour or so before you

head into the camper for the night, it doesn’t reach under

the blankets and covers. So you pull back the sheets and stick your feet in and then spend the next ten minutes shuffling your legs back and forth violently to create enough friction so it’s warm enough to be comfortable. Believe it or not, this is a nice memory of RVing and something I miss. Cold beds, that’s the first, shall I say, “refreshing” memory. Let’s see what else I can come up with. RVing, or camping as we al-ways called it, is the best activity you can do if you want to spend time with your family. Most of the female members of my fam-ily were avid game players. We played several games a day--more if it was rain-ing. (That’s right, we even camped in the rain.) Most of the time we camped at my great grandmother’s home, which was about 45 minutes drive from our house in a little area called “Grass-mere.” It may sound familiar to you if you’ve heard of Eaglesmere, PA, because it’s not far from there. She lived in an old home without running water and heated the house with a kerosene heater in the living room and a wood cookstove in the kitchen. The only heat upstairs was from any heat that radi-ated from the two stove pipes that extended through the roof. There was a phone in the house, but it wasn’t used much. It was a party line and you had to listen to the sequence of the rings to deter-mine if it was a call meant for my great grandmother, Gramie, as she was affection-ately known to all of us. When you needed water, you stepped

out the back door of the house and there was a hand pump installed on top of a small wooden platform above a mountain spring. I re-member that the water was really cold and tasted so good! Gramie lived alone in the house, but she had a large piece of property and a big sprawling lawn surrounded by woods. The outhouse, a two-seat-er, was about �00 feet from the house. Gramie had visitors, all of us and other friends and relatives,

camping on her property most weekends in the spring, summer, and fall whether she liked it or not (and I think she did). We had big family meals at picnic tables on the lawn, and when it was cooler, meals were indoors at a big dining table. We spent some evenings sitting around in the living room

The first camper (a Davron) and the Dodge station wagon, parked on my great grandmother’s property.

My great grandmother’s home, where I spent lots of weekends in the 1960s and 1970s.

An anniversary party for my grandparents at “The Land.” This is how we celebrated big events in my family. continued on page 15

Ah, the Terry. This is the one I remember spending much of my childhood in.


Visit us for high quality, custom-butchered meats as well as all of your grocery and canning supplies.

4707 Old US Highway. 322RReedsville, PA(717) 667-3978

We can meet all of your power equipment needs. Buy local and get sales and service at Rons.Many brands such as: Toro Simplicity Echo Shindaiwa Workx and more.... Large selection of snowblowers for the upcoming winter.

University Park, Pa., Penn State Public Information — You might have already noticed -- Pennsylvania apples in stores and markets this fall are more vividly colored and tastier than usual. That’s just a sweet end to a very strange fruit-growing season, accord-ing to a Penn State tree-fruit specialist. It was an unusual, chal-lenging year for fruit growers, to say the least, noted Rob Crassweller, professor of hor-ticulture and extension pomol-ogist. “It started the first week of April when we had record hot weather, with days in the 80s,” he said. “As a result, all the fruits grown here -- even strawberries and blueberries -- went into bloom at least two weeks early.” Crassweller -- who studies more than 100 apple varieties at Penn State’s agricultural re-search center at Rock Springs, nine miles from the University Park campus -- said he’s never seen that happen before. “It was unheard of. We had cherry

trees, peach trees and apple trees all in bloom at the same time,” he recalled. “Instead of a gradual warm-up, it got hot abruptly, and what was strange about it was that it happened across the state. We normally have a 17-day difference in warming from the Maryland border to the New York border, but this year it got hot from south to north -- all at the same time.” That may not seem like a big deal, but growers strug-gled to deal with the situation. “It caught them flat-footed,” Crassweller said. “They had trouble finding folks to pick their fruit. The fruit got ripe two weeks early, and the mi-grant workers were still work-ing south of Pennsylvania. Our growers had to scramble to get their fruit picked. “Many customers came to fruit stands too late,” he added. “We had some frustrated con-sumers.” Then the hot, dry weather took hold in mid-summer. This was one of the hottest, driest

summers on record in Penn-sylvania, and it was a mixed blessing for the state’s fruit. For apples, especially, the parched conditions of August and September had an impact. “The harvest was early, and quantities are down slightly,” Crassweller said. “At Rock Springs, we were done picking Fuji apples Oct. 6 -- my records say that most years, that variety is harvested around Oct. ��.” But more noticeable to consumers will be the bright colors and intense taste of apples this fall. “The sugar content is higher and more concentrated in very hot, dry weather,” he said. Apple sweet-ness comes from soluble solids -- the drier the weather, the low-er the moisture in the fruit. “In damp weather, the fruit usu-ally tastes blah -- kind of like the

weather.” More-vivid-than-usual apple colors result from yet another weather condi-tion that has occurred this late-summer and fall, Crassweller explained. The wide fluctuation between day and night tempera-tures makes the fruit more color-ful. “Warm days and cool nights are best for formation of apple colors,” he said.

Sweeter, brighter apples signal end of strange growing season

Apples are sweeter and more colorful than usual this fall thanks to the weather. Apples are sweeter and more color-ful than usual this fall thanks to the weather.


Thots on...A Bible study for the lay ChristianBy Lydia In 2 Timothy 3.16, Paul tells us, “Every inspired scripture has its use for teaching the truth and refuting error, or for reformation of manners and discipline in right living…” [NEB] On the road to Emmaus, Jesus made the Scriptures come alive to his followers, so that they later said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” [Luke 24.32] It is my hope that the Thots on series will make your heart burn within you as God’s thoughts and purposes are revealed in a way that is easily understood by the seeking heart.*Unless otherwise noted, all Scriptures are from the New International Version.

Genesis 1.1-5 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. Even before the earth was formed, before the stars were created, when “the earth was formless and empty”, God created light and separated the light from the darkness. God did not create confusion. He did not create chaos. Instead, out of chaos, emptiness and formlessness, he created light and order. It is interesting to note that in God’s order, evening preceded morning. Even today,

the traditional Jewish Sabbath and holidays begin at sunset, in the evening, rather than in the morning, as do Gentile celebrations. After each step of creation, God stood back to survey his handiwork, and in each case, he pronounced it good. God created a perfect world, an orderly world, a world of beauty and goodness, a world without sin or strife or upheaval. Hurricanes and tornadoes were not part of God’s creation. Earthquakes were not part of God’s creation. God created order, not tumult. The world God created was a veritable garden which, until the great flood, was watered by “a mist [that] came up from the earth

and watered the whole surface of the ground.” [Genesis 2.6] So many of us watch the news, see the death and destruction caused by the latest natural disaster and ask, “Where is God? Why does he allow such things to happen?” We forget that

God created a perfect, orderly world, and that sin—and thus, disorder—was introduced into God’s perfect world by man in his attempt to become like God. And it seems we have learned precious little since Eden. We still covet God’s power. We delude ourselves into believing we can buy so-called “green” products, plant a few trees or erect a few windmills and save the world. How egotistical! I suppose one might overlook this incredible lack of reason on the part of the unsaved who have no knowledge of God, his power or his purposes, but the participation of Christians in such nonsense is inexplicable.Jesus pointed out that we cannot make a single hair on our head white or black [Matthew 5.36] — and he was not referring to Clairol! If we are powerless to affect such a small change, how can we possibly believe that we can change the climate of our planet? The God who created order out of chaos did not create a world

so fragile that humans could unthinkingly destroy it. When the time is right, God himself will destroy the world man has corrupted with sin and will replace it with a new heaven and new earth, one that is untainted by sin and rebellion. Until that day, this earth will continue to groan under the burden of man’s sin and we should not be surprised when we see that earthquakes and upheaval, which have been called the birth pangs of the new age [Matthew 24.8], continue to increase in frequency and intensity.

There’s little mention in the mainstream media these days, of traditional foods having healing properties. Sure, there’s a ton of hype touting unfermented soy products, vegetable oils and supplements as modern saviors, but in reality, these items have risk-to-benefit ratios like many drugs do. Few people are aware that clean, raw milk from grass-fed cows was actually used as a medicine in the early part of the last century. That’s right. Milk straight from the udder, a sort of “stem cell” of foods, was used as medicine to treat, and frequently cure some serious chronic diseases. From the time of Hippocrates to until just after World War II, this “white blood” nourished and healed uncounted millions. Clean raw milk from pastured cows is a complete and properly balanced food. You could live on it exclusively if you had to. Indeed, published accounts exist of people who have done just that. What’s in it that makes it so great? Let’s look at the ingredients to see what makes it such a powerful food.Proteins Our bodies use amino acids as building blocks for protein. Depend-ing on who you ask, we need �0-�� of them for this task. Eight of them are considered essential, in that we have to get them from our food. The remaining 12-14 we can make from the first eight via complex meta-bolic pathways in our cells. Raw cow’s milk has all 8 essential amino acids in varying amounts, depending on stage of lactation. About 80% of the proteins in milk are caseins- reasonably heat stable and, for most, easy to digest. The remaining �0% or so are classed as whey proteins, many of which have important physiological effects (bioactivity). Also easy to digest, but very heat-sensitive, these include key enzymes (specialized proteins) and enzyme inhibitors, immunoglobulins (antibodies), metal-binding proteins, vitamin binding proteins and several growth factors. Current research is now focusing on fragments of protein (peptide segments) hidden in casein molecules that exhibit anti-microbial activ-ity. Lactoferrin, an iron-binding protein, has numerous beneficial prop-erties including (as you might guess) improved absorption and assimi-lation of iron, anti-cancer properties and anti-microbial action against several species of bacteria responsible for dental cavities. Recent stud-ies also reveal that it has powerful antiviral properties as well.

Two other players in raw milk’s antibiotic protein/enzyme arsenal are lysozyme and lactoperoxidase. Lysozyme can actually break apart cell walls of certain undesirable bacteria, while lactoperoxidase teams up with other substances to help knock out unwanted microbes too. The immunoglobulins, an extremely complex class of milk proteins also known as antibodies, provide resistance to many viruses, bacteria and bacterial toxins and may help reduce the severity of asthma symp-toms. Studies have shown significant loss of these important disease fighters when milk is heated to normal processing temperatures.Carbohydrates Lactose, or milk sugar, is the primary carbohydrate in cow’s milk. Made from one molecule each of the simple sugars glucose and galac-tose, it’s known as a disaccharide. People with lactose intolerance for one reason or another (age, genetics, etc.), no longer make the enzyme lactase and so can’t digest milk sugar. This leads to some unsavory symptoms, which, needless to say, the victims find rather unpleasant at best. Raw milk, with its lactose-digesting Lactobacilli bacteria intact, may allow people who traditionally have avoided milk to give it another try. The end-result of lactose digestion is a substance called lactic acid (responsible for the sour taste in fermented dairy products). Besides having known inhibitory effects on harmful species of bacteria, lactic acid boosts the absorption of calcium, phosphorus and iron, and has been shown to make milk proteins more digestible by knocking them out of solution as fine curd particles.Fats Approximately two thirds of the fat in milk is saturated. Good or bad for you? Saturated fats play a number of key roles in our bodies: from construction of cell membranes and key hormones to providing energy storage and padding for delicate organs, to serving as a vehicle for important fat-soluble vitamins (see below). All fats cause our stomach lining to secrete a hormone (cholecysto-kinin or CCK) which, aside from boosting production and secretion of digestive enzymes, let’s us know we’ve eaten enough. With that trigger removed, non-fat dairy products and other fat-free foods can potentially help contribute to over-eating. Consider that, for thousands of years before the introduction of the hydrogenation process (pumping hydrogen gas through oils to make them solids) and the use of canola oil (from genetically modified rape-seed), corn, cottonseed, safflower and soy oils, dietary fats were some-what more often saturated and frequently animal-based. (Prior to about 1850, animals in the U.S. were not so heavily fed corn or grain). Use of butter, lard, tallows, poultry fats, fish oils, tropical oils such as coconut and palm, and cold pressed olive oil were also higher than levels seen

today. Now consider that prior to 1900, very few people died from heart disease. The introduction of hydrogenated cottonseed oil in 1911 (as trans-fat laden Crisco) helped begin the move away from healthy animal fats, and toward the slow, downward trend in cardiovascular health from which millions continue to suffer today. CLA, short for conjugated linoleic acid and abundant in milk from grass-fed cows, is a heavily studied, polyunsaturated Omega-6 fatty acid with promising health benefits . It certainly does won-ders for rodents, judging by the hundreds of journal articles I’ve come across! There’s serious money behind CLA, so it’s a sure bet there’s something to it. Among CLA’s many poten-tial benefits: it raises metabolic rate, helps remove abdominal fat, boosts muscle growth, reduces re-sistance to insulin, strengthens the immune system and lowers food allergy reactions. As luck would have it, grass-fed raw milk has from �-5 times the amount found in the milk from feed lot cows. See my Fat Primer for a bet-ter understanding of saturated fats and fatty acids and their impact on our health.Vitamins Volumes have been written about the two groups of vitamins, water and fat soluble, and their contribution to health. Whole raw

Continued on page 17

The Health Benefits of Raw Milkby Randolph Jonsson

Re-printed with permission from www.raw-milk-facts.com

Submit Classifieds toThe ValleyPO Box 41

Yeagertown, PA 17099


Cranberries—A Cape Cod TraditionCAUTION: EVENT

AHEAD

As I turned onto John Parker Rd, the lighted caution sign stashed onto the side of the street was flashing rapidly to warn oncoming motorists. I smiled to myself as I drove down this old country road. Hmmmm….does this mean there is going to be a good turnout? The sun was shining brightly, but the fierce New England wind, compliments of a Nor’ Easter that had blown through the day before, was chilly to say the least. Would people brave the cold to experience the Cranberry Harvest Festival? As I rounded the next corner, my answer was AYUP! Cars lined both sides of the street as far as the eye could

see. People walked in the road, bundled with hats, scarves, and gloves. I saw children with painted faces, clutching their orange and cranberry colored balloons against the stiff breeze. Everyone had smiles on their faces. As I sat and waited for a safe moment to squeeze through the crowd, I watched a stray balloon drift up into the sky. Ooops, someone’s not happy, I thought to myself. The mother in me scanned the crowd expecting to see a howling child pointing up towards the lost treasure, but there were just too many people! “This is wonderful.” I said aloud, “I can’t believe this.” It wasn’t too many years ago that “The Cranberry War” pitted neighbor against neighbor. That angry past seemed to have evaporated. It was a very good thing. As I looked for a place to park, I passed by the main festival area. Two huge white tents had

been set up on the main dirt road that led down to the bogs. Food vendors were busy dishing up favorite treats. Local contractor Michael Duffany was attending the helium tank. He was giving out balloons as fast as the crowd of kids gathered around him could stretch out their hands. Still stuck in the traffic throng, I spotted someone dressed like a cranberry, waving madly at the crowd, and handing out brochures. My eyes squinted as I tried to figure out who among us was brave enough to wear that outfit. Under the cranberry cap hat was our local Chamber of Commerce President, Jay Zavala. I laughed out loud. Good for you Jay, I thought. I passed motor homes draped with the campaign signs of the candidates for November’s election. Interesting that the candidates were all here….more cars, more people. Good Lord, where am I going to park? I had to turn around in someone’s driveway to make another pass. This might be problematic. Finally I saw a space that someone had just left for me, and not too far from the event. Now I was really energized. Ignoring the scraping sounds on the side of my car as I wedged myself

halfway into the surrounding woods, I got out, camera in hand and practically skipped down the road. I couldn’t believe my own enthusiasm, because admittedly I was one of those people who sighed just a few years ago. “Oh, God, not the CRANBERRY thing again!” There were very few of us that felt differently at the time. Growing up, I had lived in a neighborhood that abutted a beautiful coastal inlet named Great Pond. We spent countless sunshine-filled days along its shore. Boating, fishing, and crabbing, were just some of the pleasures we were lucky enough to enjoy there. As the years passed, I married and moved to another part of town, but my parent’s remained in the house. My children would spend time with them in the coming years and would look forward to time spent, like I had, plodding through the water, looking for “critters.” Each year that passed, we began noticing huge changes. The blue crabs had all but disappeared. The bait fish were scarce, and there seemed to be this weird brown foam on the beach. At times, the water seemed green from so much algae. It was enough to make you stand there and wrinkle your

nose in disgust. What in the world was going on? How was this happening? Who was responsible? I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Living in a scientific community, the environmentalists began to study the degradation of the pond. It was clear that there was a huge problem with nitrogen. There was so much of it, that it was choking the life out of the ecosystem. It had to be stopped immediately. They began looking for answers, and it led right to the cranberry bogs on John Parker Rd. You see, these particular bogs are unique in their making as the Coonamessett River runs right through the center of them. This feature is known as a “Flow Through” bog. The Coonamessett River is also a part of the town’s source of fresh drinking water. This river is dammed along several key points in the cranberry bog system to allow the cranberry farmers to flood the bogs at harvest time, thus allowing the wet harvest. After the river runs through the lower bogs, it empties out into Great Pond. “AHA!,” they said. There is the source of the nitrogen in the pond. The river is picking up fertilizers from the bogs and dumping them into the bay. Well, it seemed logical. There was a high concentration of nitrogen at the emptying point of the river, which further backed up their point. This is what started the war. The Town insisted that cranberry growing on the town-owned bogs be continued at once. We are environmentally responsible. We care about our coastal ponds. We love the wildlife! To make matters worse, the endangered Atlantic Herring used the Coonamessett River as access to the upper pond to spawn every year. Well, that was a done deal. They took their evidence to Town Meeting that year and Town Council members voted to abandon farming in the 34-acre bog complex. No more cranberries. We would let nature take its course and reclaim the area. The neighbors along the bog howled in protest, the farmers packed up their equipment and

the historians hung their heads and cried. Cranberry farming in Falmouth had been around since 1816. Cape Codders were the first to bring the wild berries into cultivation in this country. Even though we had other bogs in town

still in cultivation, many felt that the craft had been lost forever. Wasn’t there any alternative? It wasn’t long after that, that if you drove down John Parker Rd., the “Save our Bogs” signs cropped up. The neighbors were so saddened by the turn of events that they organized. They teamed up with the others who wanted to see the bogs restored. They enjoyed living as next-door neighbors to the fields whose brilliant maroon foliage presented a spectacular backdrop to the fall foliage season. There is nothing more quintessential “Cape Cod” than the sight of a cranberry bog in all of its glory. Now, despite assurances, invasive plant species began to invade the bogs. Trees began to sprout and the lack of maintenance made the bogs look like a brown coastal marsh. It was darned ugly! I know it was an epiphany for me when I saw what was happening. The newly formed group returned to the next Town Meeting to air their grievances. Can’t we find someone who can grow cranberries organically? Can’t we compromise? They were largely ignored by Town Council—it was a done deal. We must do things for the good of ALL of our community, not just a row of neighbors who were unhappy that their vistas had been ruined. And so, that was that. Undaunted, they returned, yet again, to the next Town Meeting.

Chamber of Commerce President Jay Zavala showing his enthusiasm for the Cranberry Festival

Floating cranberries are corralled with a floating boom and then hearded to conveyor belts and then into waiting trucks.

Cranberry beater gently strips the cranberries from the flooded plants, the berries then float to the surface to be harvested.


by Julie MacConnell

The Valley, November 20101�

ASK Julie Mac’Our very own food preservation guruJulie MacConnellSubmit questions by visiting www.thevalleynewspaper.comor mail to: The Valley PO Box 41, Yeagertown, PA 17099

Those of us at the staff of “The Valley” are so excited to bring to you the flagship edition of our new newspaper. I’m bubbling with giddiness myself! Growing up surrounded by the cornfields and pig farms of Indiana, my mother and I used to can together, preserving the bounty from the plot of land that the Air Force gave to us to raise our own vegetables. My father spent �0 years in the service and we moved many times, but it was our time in the Midwest that cultivated my love of the concept of homesteading. After Dad retired, we moved to Cape Cod, Massachusetts where I have remained to this day. So what is a “Wash-a-Shore” New Englander doing writing for a Pennsylvania based agricultural newspaper? Well, funny you should ask…

Hey Julie, Could you just win the lottery or something? You need to be living on a farm somewhere—happy with your chickens and miniature goats! Could we ask for about 40 or so acres for you? I promise I would come visit on the weekends! All kidding aside, I was wondering about the oodles of green tomatoes I still have on the vine. First frost is coming and I don’t know what to do with them!—Laurie Clayton, East Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Dear Laurie, Do you know any good psychics? Seriously though! I need to figure out next week’s Megabucks numbers. We could work out a deal. Green tomatoes-that bane of the fall garden. There always seems to be too many. You pick them, stare at them sitting in the giant cardboard box you brought home and stare at them some more. You worked too hard all season long to let them go to waste. Well, from someone who has been in the same boat, let me offer a few suggestions. You could make green tomato salsa. There are some delicious recipes out there. It just requires cooking the salsa a little longer than normal to soften the tomatoes, but it’s wonderful! You’d use the same canning techniques you would for regular salsa. Please check on the most current USDA recommendations on canning tomato products. Today’s hybrid tomatoes may not have the same acid content as their heirloom cousins, so you may need to add some kind of acid like vinegar or lemon juice. Some sources are now suggesting that you might want to even pressure can your tomato products. The USDA has a food preservation website that will help guide you or you can call your local extension service for help. You could also make green tomato pickles, green tomato chutney, green tomato relish, green tomato soup, jam, marmalade, mincemeat, bread, don’t forget fried green tomatoes-well you can’t really even freeze those but they ARE yummy! (OK you probably COULD freeze them, but to me, they would get soggy and not worth the effort.) Am I wearing you out yet? Your green tomato adventure is only limited by your imagination. Good luck! For those of you who would like an outstanding green tomato mincemeat recipe, I offer the following. Your house will smell heavenly and the results are outstanding! I copied this recipe from my absolute favorite preserving cookbook by Linda J. Amendt. It’s called “Blue Ribbon Preserves.” Currants can be hard to

find sometimes so you could use various substitutes like dates, an additional lb. of raisins, dried cherries or cranberries.

Dear Julie, Cranberry season and harvest is here. Do you have a good recipe for cranberry sauce? –Karen H.

Dear Karen, Homemade cranberry sauce is the best, isn’t it? Especially if it is made with freshly picked organic cranberries. The recipe to the right is very easy to make and the results are delicious!

Hello Julie, I just picked the last of my raspberries for the season and I have made a lot of jam and preserves already. What is the best way to preserve the rest of what I have? —Mary Ellen, Yeager-town, PA

Hello there Mary Ellen!I usually just freeze mine. After you wash and sort your berries make some freezer space for a large rimmed cookie sheet. Place the berries evenly spaced on the cookie sheet so that they don’t

Tomato Mincemeat RecipeINGREDIENTS 4 lbs. green tomatoes chopped 4 lbs. Mcintosh Apples, peeled, cored and chopped 1 lb. currants (I used chopped dates) 1 lb. raisins ½ Cup distilled white vinegar 4 lbs. (about 10 Cups) sugar � tsp. ground cloves � tsp. allspice � tsp. ground nutmeg ½ lb. (� sticks) unsalted butter, meltedMETHODIn a very large stockpot, combine the tomatoes, apples, currants (or its substitute), raisins and vinegar, mixing well after each addition. Stir in about half of the sugar.

In a large bowl, combine the remaining sugar with the cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg until well blended. Stir the sugar-spice mixture into the mincemeat. Mix in the melted butter.

Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved. Reduce the heat and boil gently until most of the liquid evaporates and the mincemeat reaches the desired consistency, �-4 hours. Watch to make sure it doesn’t scorch.

Ladle the mincemeat into hot jars, removing as many air bubbles as possible and leaving a ½” headspace. Wipe the jar rims and threads with a clean damp cloth. Cover with hot lids and apply screw rings. Process both pint and quart jars in a hot water bath for �0 minutes.

Makes about 4 qts. or 8 pint jars

touch. It doesn’t take long for them to firm up! Once they are frozen you can bag them up or put them in Tupperware. You can do this with any kind of

Cranberry Sauce Recipe

INGREDIENTS 1 cup (�00 g) sugar 1 cup (�50 mL) water 4 cups (1 1�-oz package) fresh or frozen cranberries Optional Pecans, orange zest, raisins, currants, blue berries, cinnamon, nut meg, allspice.

METHODWash and pick over cran-berries. In a saucepan bring to a boil water and sugar, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add cranberries, return to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 10 min-utes or until cranberries burst.

At this point you can add all number of optional ingredients. We typically mix in a half a cup of roughly chopped pecans with or without a few strips of orange zest. You can add a cup of raisins or currants. You can add up to a pint of fresh or frozen blueber-ries for added sweetness. Spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice can be added too.

Remove from heat. Cool completely at room tem-perature and then chill in refrigerator. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools.

Cranberry sauce base makes � 1/4 cups.

You can refrigerate the recipe to use just the day before your feast or you can freeze it. It tastes best when it’s fresh.


The Valley, November 2010 1�

University Park, Pa, Penn State Public Information -- Sometimes old ideas are the best ideas, and certainly home canning is one of those. But despite generations of practice, many don’t do it properly, warns a food-safety ex-pert in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. There is no better way to capture a garden’s bountiful harvest to use throughout the year than home canning, according to Martin Bucknavage, senior extension as-sociate in food science. And with the tough economy, home canning seems to be on the rise, with people “putting up” jars of vegeta-bles such as tomatoes, green beans, peppers and pickles. “But after talking with many home pre-servers over the past year -- both those new to canning as well as those who have been processing for a long time -- we have found that many are doing it incorrectly,” he said. “Some folks are not using approved proc-esses, while others are not using the proper equipment.” Bucknavage urged special caution when preserving nonacidic foods, also known as low-acid foods, because a pressure canner must be used. Foods such as meats, green beans and corn must be exposed to the high temperatures that are only possible under pressure. If insufficient temperatures are used in processing, it is possible for spores of Clostridium botulinum to survive and then grow in the products when cooled. “The causative agent of botulism, Clostridium spores are found throughout the environment -- including in garden soil -- and once in these canned foods, they produce an extremely potent toxin that often results in death,” he said. “There are always people who will claim that they don’t need a pressure canner because their mom or grandma never used one. But these people were lucky. “It is just not worth the risk of canning these low-acid foods without a pressure can-ner.” Another risky practice people still em-ploy is canning in their oven, Bucknavage noted. This method is dangerous because it is difficult to generate the proper tempera-tures needed, and the packaging can be dam-aged during the process. “Both issues can lead to premature spoilage, the growth of pathogenic microorganisms, or even broken glass jars that can cut you,” he said. Follow scientifically developed canning processes and formulations, Bucknavage advised. He recommended the following: “The Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving” (USDA, �008); “So Easy to Preserve” (University of Georgia, �006); “Complete Book of Home Preserving” (Ball,

�006); and the “Let’s Preserve” series avail-able through Penn State Cooperative Exten-sion. “All process times in those sources are scientifically validated to ensure safety,” he said. “These books are inexpensive and are a valuable resource for the home canner. If your canning book was your grandmother’s or your great grandmother’s, it is time for a new book. “Our understanding of the science of can-ning has improved, and the processes in these modern books reflect that understanding.” Some home canners insist it is possible to safely deviate from the given formulations, but Bucknavage advises against taking such license. “Even small changes in the recipe can change the heating characteristics of the product,” he explained. “The times and tem-peratures are dependent upon how easily heat can get to the ‘cold point’ of the container. If this heating dynamic is changed, the product may not receive enough heat.” Bucknavage suggested contacting your local Cooperative Extension office if you have questions about home canning. To download publications from the “Let’s Preserve” series online, or to find other home food-preservation information, go to the Penn State Food Preservation website at http://www.foodsafety.psu.edu/. Single copies of the “Let’s Preserve” series can be obtained free of charge by Penn-sylvania residents through county Penn State Cooperative Exten-sion offices, or by contacting the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Distribution Center at 814-865-671� or by e-mail at [email protected]. For cost information on out-of-state or bulk orders, contact the Publica-tions Distribution Center.

Home canning on the rise again, but do it safely, expert warns

Above: Canned goods stored in the basement. Cool constant temps are best for storage. Below: Canned peaches and canned peach ice cream topping.

The Valley is an affordable and effective way to

reach your customers. Check our web site for rates at www.

thevalleynewspa-per.com or call

(717) 363-1550 to have a

representative come to you.


Understandingthe

Constitutionby David Molek

We the People The first words of our 4,440 word Constitution are “We the People.” This Preamble starts the theme that the ultimate authority of a legitimate government depends on the consent of a free people. Our Declaration of Independence provides the philosophical basis for a government that exercises legitimate power by the consent of the governed. It defines a free people, whose rights and liberty are derived from our Creator. Our constitution sets out the structure of government and rules for its operation, consistent with the human liberty proclaimed in the Declaration. Read the Preamble. It shapes the purposes in the Constitution. Such items as “establish justice,” “provide for the common defense,” “promote the general welfare,” and “secure the Blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” do not, in themselves, have any substantive legal meaning. They do, however, have considerable potency by virtue of their specification of the purposes for which the Constitution exists. The Declaration refers to God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Preamble introduces a document whose stated purpose is to secure the rights of life and liberty. What about happiness? Originalism indicates that promoting the general welfare encompasses happiness. The Preamble as a whole, then, declares that the Constitution is designed to secure precisely the rights proclaimed in the Declaration. “We the People” immediately affirms that the Constitution is of the people, by the people and for the people of the United States. This interpretation effectively leads to an understanding of the Constitution as affecting the people, directly, and not through regulations imposed on the states. In beginning the Preamble with “We the People”, the Constitution is immediately emphasizing the significance of the people and is also ensuring an understanding that the people are the ones giving power to the government. It clearly emphasizes the importance of the people and their role in validating the government, as opposed to the government’s role in having power over the people. The words “We the People” at the beginning of the Preamble very much define the context in which the entire rest of the Constitution can and should be understood. The Preamble explains some of the motivations and intent of our Constitution, and it explains some of the basic tenets under which our Constitution operates. So while the Preamble may not have any inherent legal power, it is highly important for understanding the Constitution as a whole and how it comes into play in any given situation. The Constitution should be interpreted in light of the phrase “We the People” under the originalists’ views.

The Constitution is our most fundamental law. It is, in its own words, “the supreme Law of the Land.” Constitutionalism implies that those who make, interpret and enforce the law ought to be guided by the meaning of the U.S. Constitution as it was originally written. This view has been seriously eroded over the last century with the rise of the theory of the Constitution as a “living document,” with no fixed meaning, subject to changing interpretations according to the spirit of the times. Originalism accords with the constitutional purpose of limiting government, limiting the judiciary, and advocating the Rule of Law. Justice Clarence Thomas said, “There are really only two ways to interpret the Constitution — try to discern as best we can what the framers intended or make it up.” Originalism has the advantage of being legitimate and impartial. “We the People” need to remind our government in whom power truly lies.

“Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.”—Benjamin Franklin

Do you have a desire to write?

Want to see your name in a byline?

Reader submissions are encouraged for consideration for publication. Sub-

mit your story or article to:The ValleyPO Box41

Yeagertown, PA 17099

Details for our winter snowman and

Christmas lights contest will be in the December Issue of

The Valley.


of berry. They make great additions to smoothies. You can also use them in place of an ice cube in iced tea or party drinks.

Dear Julie Mac- I am currently canning various fruits in sugar syrups. Is there anyway I can use honey or corn syrup instead of the sugar? –Becka in MA

Hi Becka! When making syrups, both corn syrup or honey can be used to substitute PART of the sugar equation. Just be aware that they can have a large impact on the taste of your final product. Corn syrup has vanilla extract in it and honeys can vary in flavor, from mild to very strong, so when you are using either take that in consideration. If you want to use honey, try using a mild variety that will complement the fruit that you are canning. Remember that you don’t necessarily have to use syrups when canning your fruit. You can use sweetened or unsweetened fruit juice, or really just plain old water. Just remember that canning fruit without the benefit of sugar makes the fruit a little softer in texture and the color might fade over time.

Here is the method that you can use for substituting honey in syrups.Type of syrup Sugar Honey Water Yield (Approx.) Light 2/3 Cup 2/3 Cup 1 Qt. 5 CupsMedium 1 Cup 1 Cup 1 Qt. 5 ½ Cups

Substituting Corn Syrup for Sugar in SyrupsType of syrup Sugar Corn syrup Water Yield (Approx.)Light 1 Cup 2/3 Cup 1 Qt. 5 CupsMedium 1 ½ Cups 1 Cup 1 Qt. 5 ½ Cups

Hope this helps you! Happy canning!

Ask Julie Mac’ continued

Roads Less Traveled continuedand around the kitchen table talk-ing and laughing, and others were spent around a campfire doing the same. There weren’t any comput-ers, iPods, or cell phones, and although there was a television, it only received a few channels and it was rarely on. As I reflect on all the gadgets and technology I use every day, I can’t help but think about how nice we all had it back then when life seemed so much simpler. Of course, for a kid, it definitely was simpler, but I know that my parents also really enjoyed the time away from the worries of home and work. I don’t know that because I’ve asked them, I know that because they are STILL camping—a lot. I have so many experiences from those camping weekends. When we camped, it was almost always with my aunt and uncle and their daughter (my cousin), Kelly, who was the same age as me. Everyone knew we would be camping every weekend, and so all the extended relatives would show up and join the fun. Some would camp, others would stay in Gramie’s house, or just come up for the day. And, many times they’d go home at night and turn around and make the 40 minute drive back to Gramie’s the next day for Sunday dinner. While our parents did the parent thing (talk), the kids (usually me, my brother, Kelly, and another cousin, Susie) ran off to explore and play in the woods. We didn’t have a

cell phone to be reached to find out where we were, and we were rarely checked on (at least to our knowledge). We built tee-pees and log cabins in the woods, and climbed huge rock cliffs (one we named the elephant because it was a huge boulder, bigger than an elephant, that you could climb out and sit on and overlook everything below.) Gramie’s property was so much fun because there were many of those huge rock cliffs that we could play on. Funny, how no one seemed to worry that we would fall off or get bitten by a snake. There was also a beaver pond, but it took about �5 minutes to get there. I found it strange that there were so many rock walls built all over the place in the middle of the woods. I later was enlightened that these were built to keep livestock contained. I couldn’t imagine livestock in the the thick of the woods, but I guess the woods wouldn’t have been there then. When we weren’t camp-ing at Gramie’s, we traveled to a few other nearby campgrounds. One of my favorites had a soft serve ice cream stand nearby and a swimming pool. We spent as much time as we could in that pool and walking across the road to the ice cream stand was a spe-cial treat! That campground also had a small pond and loud bull-frogs. Even if you played hard all day, it was difficult to fall asleep to the sound of those bullfrogs.

We also stayed at a campground that was in the same town where we lived, and that one had a great playground. We spent hours and hours, riding our bikes around the campground roads, jumping off swings and sliding down an unu-sual slide with lots of humps. I’ve stayed in so many campgrounds, that the joke in my house when we travel and pass a campground goes something like, “Did you ever stay at that campground?” I just say “yes” because it’s likely I did! After Gramie passed away, my parents and my aunt and uncle purchased a piece of wooded property in the country, which we dubbed, quite originally, “The Land.” They added a big pavilion which they built themselves, an outhouse, and a horseshoe-shaped gravel road. Later, they moved a small (one room plus a small non-working bathroom) cabin onto the property. The cabin had been built by my mother’s grandfather. There was a small potbelly stove in the cabin and it was mainly used as a refuge to get warm in the winter when the men in my family went to the property to hunt. While the lot was being cleared and the pavilion and outhouse was being built, we spent lots of time at that property. The lot was cleared by hand, the road added, and all the gravel was hand-spread. It was a big under-taking and we spent many eve-

nings, not just weekends, at the property. Dinner over the camp-fire was not a special treat in my family—it was routine. I’ve had the joy of so many things cooked over the campfire...chicken, pork chops, steak, ham, and of course, hot dogs and hamburgers. Noth-ing tastes as good as meat cooked over an open fire. I rarely get it now—it’s just not the same on the gas grill! Ah, the campfire. Now that’s a memory that is just so good, that I wish I could bottle it up! You know what I’m talking about. A cool evening, a a nice toasty fire, and everyone sitting around it in their camp chairs in a big circle, telling stories, jokes, or reflecting on good and bad times. There’s something about a campfire on a cool night that just mellows you right out. You can have the worst day, but just sitting there watch-ing the embers and it all just melts away. We used to try to pick out “pictures” in the red hot embers.

Have a Frugal Living tip or a

favorite family recipe that you would like to

share?We would love to print them in your

paper.

Send your tips and recipes to:The ValleyPO Box 41

Yeagertown, PA 17099or email to,

[email protected]

My Dad’s favorite trick was to show everyone that you could boil water in a paper cup sitting in the fire before the cup would burn. Try it sometime, it’s pretty amaz-ing! I need to wrap this story up somewhere, or there won’t be any room left in this paper for all the other good stories. So, just hang on to that campfire thought for a few weeks, and I’ll be back in December with more interesting

In the next issue, we tell you how to

pick and care for the perfect Christmas Tree!


Frugal Livingwith Pat CrowderHow to save BIG $$$ on your laundry. I recently had someone give me a tip on making laundry soap. It was a matter-of-fact, no-big-deal tip from a fellow homesteader—until I was in the store shopping for the second week in a row, and we needed laundry soap. I grabbed the usual fifty ounce Tide liquid from the shelf without any consideration—my mother used it, so naturally, I have been using it as well. Just a habit I guess; programmed in after four decades of seeing the orange container next to the washer. We do a fair amount of wash it seems, and like clockwork, we go through two bottles a month. That is twenty-four bottles a year at $7.48 ea! Take the pencil from behind your ear and get to figgerin... Forgot how? It’s simple; we will help. You are paying $180.00 per year to do laundry, and that is without all the extra pre-wash, pre-stain, bolster-this and condition-that. This is just soap. You still have to figure in water and electric, but that is an entirely different story. So, big deal you say? What if I told you that in fifteen minutes, and with $5.00 worth of ingredients you could make

a years worth of laundry soap? It’s true, your savings are $175.00! So, just on this one tiny factor of your life you have

made a significant savings that can be used to pay down debt, or put into savings. This is just one of many ways that you can enjoy that simpler life while enjoying the benefits of old time wisdom, and saving money at the same time. You will also save on all the treatment sprays you now buy to get out what the laundry soap fails to, as this old-time soap doesn’t mess around. It

was used to keep farm workers looking their best and it is still used by Amish and Mennonites today. The best part of the whole deal is that the home made soap outperforms everything at the store, and the recipe was used for years in households

before rising costs forced both parents out of the house to bring home a paycheck. Part of those rising costs were things like BUYING LAUNDRY SOAP AT THE STORE! Like everything else that has come along to make our life easier, these little labor saving efforts come at a cost, and when you begin to see how much we are spending on these conveniences, it is no wonder we need two paychecks to keep the homestead afloat. To make this laundry soap, you will need to locate:1) 76 oz. box of 20 Mule Team Borax

1) 55 oz. box of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda2) 5.5oz. bars of Fels Naptha Soap.1) 5 Gallon plastic bucket with coverYou will need 1 bar of Fels for each five gallon batch of soap, The quantity in the boxes of Borax and Washing Soda will make five or more batches, so you will just need to buy extra bars of Fels, and at .89 at our local Weis Market, it won’t break the bank to have a few on hand. The Borax is $3.36 at Wal-Mart and the Washing Soda is $2.16 there as well. Grab a five-gallon bucket and you are ready to start saving big money.

Making the Soap1 Batch makes 5 gallonsIngredients:1 cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda½ cup 20 Mule Team Borax1 bar Fels Naptha Soap

Into a large sauce pan, grate the bar of Fels Naptha, then add 4 quarts of hot water and stir over low to medium heat. Simmer until all soap is dissolved. Into a clean 5 gallon plastic bucket, add borax and washing soda. To this, add dissolved soap and stir well. A paddle or a broom stick works fine. Fill the bucket to within a couple inches of the top, and stir until well blended. Then cover and let sit overnight. It will gel a bit while it sits overnight, and it will need to be stirred again in the morning to break up the gel, I use a 5 gallon paint mixer on a drill, but it can be done with the paddle or stick just as well. You then can fill saved empty detergent bottles, or do as we did and opt for a plastic container with a spigot to fill a half cup per load. Could saving $175.00 be any easier? There are many added advantages with this soap, besides just saving a bunch of money. Folks with allergies to certain perfumes and other ingredients in brand-name soap seem to have no problem with this home made detergent. You may even notice that your clothes feel more comfortable. Give it a try, start saving money today.

Pat lives in a very rural, northeastern part of Colorado—1 and 1/2 hours from the nearest Wal-mart so self reliance is a necessity.

RECIPESfrom The Valley

Pat’s Klondike Stew1 can whole kernel corn,

drained� cans scotch broth or veg. beef

soup1/� C. water1 lb. venison, elk, lamb, cari-

bou hamburger, browned and drained*

1 onion, finely chopped4-5 potatoes, diced* you can use beef hamburger

if that’s all you have.

Combine all ingredients and cook until the potatoes are done.

It’s really good with homemade buttermilk biscuits!

A regular metal grater is fine to use to grate the soap. We use one that stays with the soap making equipment, although this is not necessary, the one you use for food will work too.

The three basic ingredients that can be found on the shelves of most grocery stores in the laundry aisle.

The Best Zucchini Bread3 cups flour1 1/� tsp cinnamon1 tsp baking soda1 tsp salt1/4 tsp baking powder� eggs beaten� cups sugar1 cup vegetable oil1 tbls vanilla� cups un-pared grated zucchini1/� cup raisins1/� cup chopped walnuts

Mix first five ingredients in a bowl.

Mix next � ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour this into first bowl, adding the vanilla. Then mix in zucchini, raisins and nuts.

Pour mixture into two greased loaf pans.

Bake at �50 for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean.

This was a Holiday tradition at our house for breakfast. Served warm with real butter and a good cup of coffee. What a way to start a day! YUM!

Mixed laundry detergent is kept in a 5 gallon bucket to refill saved empty store bought containers.


Take Care of Farm & Home at PaulB

ServicesKey Cutting, Tool Repair,

Battery Charging, Agricultural Tire Repair

milk has them all, and they’re completely available for your body to use. Whether regulating your metabolism or helping the biochemical reactions that free energy from the food you eat, they’re all present and ready to go

to work for you. Just to repeat, nothing needs to be added to raw milk, espe-cially that from grass-fed cows, to make it whole or better. No vita-mins. No minerals. No enriching. It’s a complete food.Minerals Our bodies, each with a biochemistry as unique as our fingerprints, are incred-ibly complex, so discussions of

minerals, or any nutrients for that matter, must deal with ranges rather than specific amounts. Raw milk contains a broad selection of completely available minerals ranging from the familiar calcium and phosphorus on down to trace

elements, the function of some, as yet, still rather unclear. A sampling of the health benefits of calcium, an important element abundant in raw milk includes: reduction in cancers, particularly of the colon: higher bone mineral density in people of every age, lower risk of oste-oporosis and fractures in older adults; lowered risk of kidney stones; formation of strong teeth

and reduction of dental cavities, to name a few. An interesting feature of min-erals as nutrients is the delicate balance they require with other minerals to function properly. For instance, calcium needs a proper ratio of two other macronutrients, phosphorus and magnesium, to be properly utilized by our bodies. Guess what? Nature codes for the entire array of minerals in raw milk (from cows on prop-erly maintained pasture) to be in proper balance to one another thus optimizing their benefit to us.Enzymes The 60 plus (known) fully intact and functional enzymes in raw milk have an amazing array of tasks to perform, each one of them essential in facilitating one key reaction or another. Some of them are native to milk, and oth-ers come from beneficial bacteria growing in the milk. Just keeping track of them would require a post-doctoral degree! To me, the most significant health benefit derived from food enzymes is the burden they take off our body. When we eat a food that contains enzymes devoted to its own digestion, it’s that much less work for our pancreas. Given the choice, I’ll bet that busy organ would rather occupy itself with making metabolic enzymes and insulin, letting food digest itself.

The amylase, bacterially-pro-duced lactase, lipases and phos-phatases in raw milk, break down starch, lactose (milk sugar), fat (triglycerides) and phosphate com-pounds respec-tively, making milk more digest-ible and freeing up key minerals. Other enzymes, like catalase, lysozyme and lactoperoxidase help to protect milk from un-wanted bacterial infection, making it safer for us to drink.Cholesterol Milk contains about �mg of cho-lesterol per gram - a decent amount. Our bodies make most of what we need, that amount fluctuating by what we get from our food. Eat more, make less.

Either way, we need it. Why not let raw milk be one source? Cholesterol is a protective/repair substance. A waxy plant steroid (often lumped in with the fats), our body uses it as a form of water-proofing, and as a build-ing block for a number of key hormones. It’s natural, normal and es-sential to find it in our brain, liver, nerves, blood, bile, indeed, every cell membrane. The best analogy I’ve heard regarding cholesterol’s supposed causative effects on the clogging of our arteries is that blaming it is like blaming crime on the police because they’re always at the scene. Seriously consider educat-ing yourself fully on this critical food issue. It could, quite literally, save your life. See my Cholesterol Primer to learn the truth.Lactobacillus casei Benefi-cial Bacteria Through the process of fermentation, several strains of bacteria naturally present or added later (Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc and Pediococcus, to name a few) can transform milk into an even more digestible food. With high levels of lactic acid, numerous enzymes and in-creased vitamin content, ‘soured’ or fermented dairy products like yogurt and kefir (made with bac-teria and yeast, actually) provide a plethora of health benefits for the savvy people who eat them. Being

acid lovers, these helpful little critters make it safely through the stomach’s acid environment to reach the intestines where they really begin to work their magic Down there in the pitch black, some of them make en-zymes that help break proteins apart- a real benefit for people with weakened digestion whether it be from age, pharmaceutical side-effects or illness. Other strains get to work on fats by making lipases that chop triglycerides into useable chunks. Still others take on the milk sugar, lactose, and, using fancy sounding enzymes like beta-galactosidase,

glycolase and lactic dehydroge-nase (take notes, there’ll be a quiz later!), make lactic acid out of it. As I mentioned way up yon-der in the Carbohydrate section, having lactic acid working for you in your nether regions can be a good thing. Remember? It boosts absorption of calcium, iron and phosphorus, breaks up casein into smaller chunks and helps elimi-nate bad bugs. (I told you there’d be a quiz!) Raw milk is a living food with remarkable self-protective properties, but here’s the kick: most foods tend to go south as they age, raw milk just keeps get-ting better. Not to keep harping on this, but what the heck: through helpful bacterial fermentation, you can expect an increase in enzymes, vitamins, mineral availability and overall digestibility. Not bad for old age!A Word About Diet In General Use common sense and stick with whole, unprocessed foods, free from genetic tweak-ing (there’s still just too much conflicting information out there on that topic), and you’ll likely be ahead of the game. Cook your foods minimally, and you’ll be even better off. Learn about sprouting and fer-mentation. Question everything before letting it past your lips. Explore what worked for

countless generations before ours, and put it to work for yourself to-day. You can achieve great health by diet alone. I’ve done it, and so can you!

Randolph Jonsson is a webmaster/nutrition consultant from Marin County California. Check out his webpage at www.raw-milk-facts.com for the footnoted article.

Benefits of Raw Milk continued

What is a Belted Galloway?Find out next month.


The Mushroom GuysTasty fungal morsels and other wild edibles.

by Bob Sleigh with Trahn Thompson

Mushrooms...really? “Mushrooms are a bi-polar food … you either love them or you hate them.” according to my chiropractor. That statement, made in reply to my questioning whether or not she liked mush-rooms, had me laughing so hard I nearly fell off the examination table. The question is one I utter quite frequently in my search for new members of our local mushroom club chapter; her answer, though, was quite unexpected. My reply, once I regained my composure, was “You just haven’t tried the right mushroom yet.” For anyone whose culinary experiences have only been the little white button mushrooms in grocery stores, the thought of trying any of the hundreds of different wild and cultivated edible mushrooms is out of the question. If your memory of eating mushrooms involves a slimy, wet and way overcooked mass of something, coated with a flavorless pseudo breading of some kind, you’ve already been at the bottom of the mycophagists world. There is nowhere to go but up now. OK, I know, you stumbled over that big word didn’t you? Sorry, but get used to it; there are more than a few big words involved with learning about mushrooms. Mycology is the study of mushrooms, mycologist is someone who studies mushrooms and mycophagists are people who eat mushrooms. See, not so tough. Mushrooms, or fungi as the scientific community knows them, come not only in all shapes and sizes but in a boggling ar-ray of flavors and textures also. Think of the produce aisle at your grocer. There are all manners of colors, shapes, sizes, tastes and textures. The world of fungi is no different. Well I guess there is one extremely important difference when dealing with mushrooms. Eat the wrong one and you can become severely ill or even die. Therein lies the basis for my “Mushroom Rules to Live By.” First and foremost, if in doubt, throw it out. Unless you are absolutely positive that the mushroom you have picked or been given is edible, DO NOT EAT IT. This leads to number two; only eat widely-known, easily-identified mushrooms that are regularly consumed by humans. If you only try the top ten edible wild mushrooms, you will have more than enough to sate your fungal appetite. Along that line, be aware that you should never eat a wild mushroom raw. More than a few wild mushrooms are poisonous when raw, but are perfectly fine after cooking. One of the most sought after and eaten mushrooms in the world is poisonous until cooked. Morels are spring mushrooms that contain a chemical very similar to rocket fuel, yep, the same stuff NASA uses to put the shuttle into orbit. Fortunately the sub-stance is neutralized by the cooking process. Another reason for not eating mushrooms raw involves their growing environment. I have spent a lifetime outdoors and still have never seen a restroom in the woods. Animals go where they feel like and you better hope it wasn’t on that nice fresh mushroom you just popped into your mouth. Let alone the insect eggs and tiny larvae that may also be inhabit-ing your snack. OK, now your wondering why in the world anyone would want to eat a wild mushroom, aren’t you? It’s not nearly as bad as the previous paragraph makes it sound.

Knowledge about your quarry, coupled with proper handling, storage and preparation techniques will make your fungal harvest as safe as the fruit you bought yes-terday. You know, the apples and nectarines that were picked two weeks ago in some third world country, handled by who knows how many hands throughout transport, and finally openly displayed where hundreds of people can handle them. I think you get my point. Normally, the only hands that have ever touched your mushroom bounty are yours. OK enough about that. Another important aspect of mushrooming is the fact that some of them can draw up chemicals from whatever they are growing on. Do not consume mushrooms growing in contami-nated areas or where chemicals are used. Before you pick those beautiful field mushrooms growing in your neighbor’s yard, think about the monthly yard service that sprays their grass. My last rule is a simple one. We don’t eat rotten meat, so we shouldn’t eat rotten fungi. Pick only fresh, high-quality mush-rooms. Avoid soft, discolored, and/or moldy specimens. It pains me when someone tries a mushroom for the first time and ab-solutely hates it, only to find out that they ate an old or spoiled specimen. Well, I guess if you’re still reading this I haven’t totally freaked you out.....Yet. Stick around for the coming months and I’ll see if I can correct that situation. The mycological field is in constant flux as we learn of new species and find new categories for well-known and named spe-cies. The advent of DNA testing is currently turning the fungal world upside down. Have you tried other hobbies and gotten bored? Do you love being in the outdoors and learning about Mother Nature’s won-ders? Do you like free food? Have I got a hobby for you. Excuse me now, my Grifola frondosa and venison supper is ready. Yumm Next month I’ll explain what Grifola frondosa is and why we use Latin names to describe mushrooms.

Some common, edible Pennsylvania mushrooms

We will cover these and others in future issues.

The famous Morel. Hunted and coveted by many in this area.

Hen-of-the-woods, Ramshead or Sheepshead.

Another highly sought after Pennsylvania mushroom, the Chanterelle.

The elusive Black Trumpet, hard to find, because it is hard to see, but so worth it.

The Orange cap Leccinum, rather ugly to look at, but very tasty.

The Lions Mane, not always plentiful, but an exciting find.


I have found it necessary this season to flashback often to the dismal tomato harvest of �009 and remember how that felt. An awful lot of preparation and work, and a glorious start, only to have the weather turn cold and wet the very next day after moving plants from the chilled cellar out to the garden. The plants sat for days, seemingly frozen with fright, (and perhaps a little frost) unable to do anything! Then it warmed a few degrees and I thought I saw a little growth and a few new leaves trying to unfurl, but the process was agonizingly slow. It continued to rain, the nights stayed cool, and the plants struggled, but although mother nature dealt them

a bad hand, the tiny plants

finally started putting on some blossoms. The upside in 2009, as I would find out in 2010, was that I didn’t have to supply moisture—the skies were constantly cloudy, rainy, and cool. Starting near the end of June, my miserably small number of tomatoes started turning red. By July 15th, I was able to pick my first tomatoes from the garden—it was a glorious moment. It was also short lived, for on July 16, I realized that all of my plants had blight…Nooooooo! I got out there immediately and started cutting out lower branches and trying to thin out the bottoms closest to the soil, where blight spores lay in wait to attack your plants and your hard work. There are a lot of things you can do to help prevent blight, and lessen it’s destructive power, but none of it worked in �009. That year was a perfect storm for causing blight to infect tomato and other plants in the garden. I need to keep remembering �009, because as I fast forward to �010, now my back is sore from hauling water and my water bill has doubled because of all of the water use. And the worst part—I am drowning in to-matoes! Literally, I am beginning to hate tomatoes. Oh sure, it was great at first. Armed with a lot of research on plant types and disease resistance, I decided to go with Open Pollinated Heirloom Type tomatoes this year to give me some added protection from the dreaded blight. I chose “Prudens Purple” for my slicing type tomatoes, and then chose “Amish Paste” for my sauce tomatoes. I also have to plant one cherry tomato for the dog, otherwise he gets upset, and he will pick his own if you grow it close to the fence. He has trouble distinguishing color though, but that is another story. So early this February I started my seeds in flats of starting media and placed them on the heat mats in our extra bedroom with the clear dome over top to hold in the moisture. I had a terrific germination rate and as soon as they had their first set of true leaves, I carefully replanted each one in its own 4” plastic pot, filled

with potting soil. They were then moved from the heat mats to the light rack to continue growing until they were about �-4” tall. With the adjustable lights, I was able to keep the tubes within an inch of the tops of the plants constantly, which caused them to be somewhat stubby and condensed, which is what I wanted. When they reached 4”, I moved them from the warm bedroom to the basement, still under lights, but at a tem-perature of 50-55 degrees. This is supposed to stunt their growth a bit, and also produce earlier and more plentiful flowers…a big heck yes, on both items. Still though, they were all of �4” tall by the time I dared to put them out the first week of May. So, in an effort to help the develop a stronger root system, I took off all the leaves and branch-

es from the bottom up about 1�” on the plant, and then buried that stalk in the ground. So, after planting, the garden looked like it had 1�” plants in it. Planting like this ensures lots of roots will form along the stalk you buried, anchoring your plant sturdy, and providing many more avenues for the plant to draw food and water for itself. Of course if you have a decent memory, you might remember Mothers Day �010 when temps were due to plunge into the high �0s that night. Lynn and I were out in the garden at 10:�0 at night rigging tarps

and sheets to cover our fourteen Amish Paste, and six Prudens Purple plants, as well as our peppers. It stayed near or below freezing for three straight nights, but the tarps did their job—we only lost one pepper plant in the whole deal. A few days later the temps rose and the strong sun never let up from that moment on. We had tomatoes coming out the top of our six foot high home made cages, (another part of our success, but also another story for another issue.) by June 15th. We had ripe tomatoes on July �rd and we were so excited as tomato sandwiches became a daily ritual, as well as fresh salads with dinner. The first bulk picking produced about 1�0 lbs of juicy goodness. They were processed through the strainer and then cooked down for tomato sauce. We love spaghetti here—well the pasta queen does at least. I don’t mind it, but unlike her, spaghetti is not my first choice when being asked about dinner, and it is not ok to have it every other night either. But we made four types of tomato sauce this year. Last year, we got a total of twelve pints made from our miserable crop, but this year in �010, we have over sixty quarts canned, of four different types and one is flavored with morel mushrooms from our spring foraging—the taste is fantastic! But in addition, we have also made stewed tomatoes, whole tomatoes in water, tomato juice cocktail, ketchup, BBQ sauce, dehydrated toma-toes…AND THEY ARE STILL COMING!!!!

We had over one thousand pounds of tomatoes harvested by the end of August and the vines are still covered with tomatoes in various stages of ripening and blossoms as well…..SOMEONE MAKE IT STOP! I hate tomatoes, the neighbors must feel the same way, when they see me coming with a basket now, they draw the shades and don’t answer the door.So did the switch to heirlooms contribute to my success? I would have to say yes, even though I doubt we would have been hit with blight this

A typical plump and juicy Prudens Purple tomato looks to be ready to explode.

The Beauty of Heirloomsby Wayne Stottlar

Oxheart shaped Amish Paste tomato has few seeds, is coreless, and perfect for making sauce.

September 19, and they are still coming on strong. Amish Paste are one of the most productive paste type tomatoes.


The Valley, November 2010�0

Fresh Meats, Full Line of Groceries, and Produce

Open 7 Days! 7am - 9pm4 South Deleware Ave. s Juniata TerraceLewistown, PA 17044 (717) 248-4793

Wilson’sMeats & Groceries

Don’t take a chance onLyme disease this hunting season. Protectyourself with Sawyerproducts.

36 years same location s 2nd generation proprietor Exclusive distributor of Matthews Archery equipment

7 1 7 - 2 4 2 - 0 0 6 1842 West Fourth Street, Lewistown, PA 17044

The Valley, November 2010 �1

ClassifiedsSubmit items for sale, rentals, services, yard sales, and help wanted ads to our website at www.thevalleynewspaper.com or send to The Valley, PO Box 41, Yeagertown, PA 17099.

Classifieds are 15 words for $3 and .10 cents each additional word. All classified ads must be paid in full prior to insertion. Good check or money order made out to “The Valley” or

cash is accepted. Deadline for the December issue is November 19th. Editor reserves the right to reject any ad.

year, as the weather didn’t favor it. But I can also say that I have not ever had a harvest this big, and from only �0 plants. I guess this story is just a testament to how much I think of these two heirloom toma-toes. Prudens Purple is a potato leaf type tomato, the leaves appear a lot broader than your typical tomato. It bears mid season, about 75 days after germination. It is an indeterminate type vine, meaning it will continue to produce until frost does it in, usually sometime in Oc-tober. The tomato is not purple at all, but rather a pinkish, slightly flattened, large one pound fruit, with very few seeds, and a very meaty interior. Prudens is often compared to Brandy-wine, which is an old Amish heirloom type from Chester County PA, that was developed in 1885. Prudens grow best in areas with hot days and cool nights, and are considered a top 20 variety for the market. In some taste tests Prudens has beaten Brandywine for flavor, and Prudens has almost a cult following in the garden world. Amish Paste is the largest of the paste type tomatoes, and is extremely productive, setting large volumes of fruit in just 81 days. They are also indeterminate vines and will continue until frost. The fruits are deep red and shaped like an oxheart. They have few seeds and are very meaty and coreless, which is perfect for making a great sauce. Amish Paste is an heirloom variety developed in Wisconsin and a staple in a lot of homestead gardens. The return on the space is well in your favor.Heirlooms are making a comeback, and part of that reason is that these open pollinated varieties will grow true from seed, that is, if you collect seeds from your best fruits, you will enjoy plants just like them next season. Heirlooms have been handed down from family to family for generations, and are good seeds to have saved if for some reason you have to start producing food on your own land. As of right now, with several hundred pounds of tomatoes still to come, I still don’t want to start thinking about growing them again next season, but I am sure sometime in January I will be able to still taste the summer every time I open a jar of our home made sauce.

Heirlooms continued

Cranberries continuedThis time they were armed with scientists of their own who contended that a majority of the nitrogen loading in Great Pond was coming from the failed septic systems of the homes that lined the Bay. By this time, the Town seemed to be getting annoyed with those pesky neighbors and their group. Couldn’t they just go away? A decision was a decision, right? Letters began to pour into the paper, and a very public argument ensued. As an attempt at compromise, the Town promised that they would look into the organic cranberry-farming angle. They would put out a Request For Proposal (RFP) with the particulars and see what would happen. No one responded. By this time, the bogs had degraded to a point that any farmer who came in would have to restore the bogs. That, coupled with the added cost of organic farming, meant it wasn’t financially feasible for anyone to do it. It seemed as though the war was ending with a whimper.

It was at this time that a critically important piece of legislation was passed. As the real estate boom seemed to be in full swing, family farms in our town were getting bought up by developers and turned into housing developments. A group of dedicated individuals created an article for Town Meeting called “The Right to Farm.” It was a wonderful piece of work that said in part: “This General By-law encourages the pursuit of agriculture, promotes agriculture-based economic opportunities, and protects farmlands within the Town of Falmouth by allowing agricultural uses and related activities to function with minimal conflict with abutters and Town agencies. This By-law shall apply to all jurisdictional areas within the Town….and…

Section 3 Right To Farm DeclarationThe Right to Farm is hereby recognized to exist within the

Town of Falmouth. The above-described agricultural activities may occur on holidays, weekdays, and weekends by night or day and shall include the attendant incidental noise, odors, dust, and fumes associated with normally accepted agricultural practices. It is hereby determined that whatever impact may be caused to others through the normal practice of agriculture is more than offset by the benefits of farming to the neighborhood, community, and society in general. The benefits and protections of this By-law are intended to apply exclusively to those commercial agricultural and farming operations and activities conducted in accordance with generally accepted agricultural practices. Moreover, nothing in this Right To Farm By-law shall be deemed as acquiring any interest in land, or as imposing any land use regulation, which is properly the subject of state statute, regulation, or local zoning law.”

Well, people were so impressed that the very idea of preserving our farming heritage took hold. Farmers were now the good guys. A huge swing of attitude overcame the area, and a real push came to pass to find an organic cranberry farmer for the John Parker Bogs. It took another round of RFP’s, but someone was finally found who immediately went to work to “right the wrongs” and restore our beautiful bogs. Well, needless to say, “Alls well that ends well.” I think this to myself as I run up the bank towards Jay (remember, our Chamber of Commerce President dressed as a cranberry), who is still endlessly waving at the approaching motorists. “Hey!” he yells when he sees me. “Isn’t this great?” I giggle with delight. “People are coming from all over New England,” he assured me and he began to list all of the states that people had told him that they

had driven from. “And, they said they have come JUST to see our cranberries!” Well imagine that. Welcome back my little berry friends, I thought to myself. As I hurried off towards the lower bogs to grab some photos, I thought about how appropriate the flashing caution sign was up the road. CAUTION: EVENT AHEAD. You might just fall in love.

Know someone that you care

about?Give them a

copy of The Valley

didn’t allow us to look at anything established, but more so, raw land. Naturally, the benefit of raw land is that we could do pretty much anything we wanted; however, there would be significant work involved to build the needed infrastruc-ture. We still had a lingering dream about building a home too, but this time a more modest and simple home. (Think cheap!) After much research and deliberation, we decided to put in an offer on the land that was a good bit less than the asking price, as this was all we could afford. As it turned out, we took a small family vacation to the Georgia mountains the day we submitted the offer, so we were biting our nails all the way there. Within literally minutes of arriving at our destination, our real estate agent called with the good news – YES! The seller took the first offer and we closed shortly there after. Wow, we were really beginning to move forward on this homesteading dream of ours and now the real work began. Of course, God does have his sense of humor, because just before closing on the property, we found out number five was on the way. Naturally, the pregnancy added a whole other set of logistical challenges to our fledgling adventure, but of course, as with the rest of our chil-dren, this was a blessing. Now that I have laid the foundation for some of our more recent changes and decisions, I look forward to sharing our stories and projects from our “Adven-tures in Homesteading” in future columns. We hope to inspire you the same way the stories we read of others’ journeys inspired us. Warm Regards,Dave, Ginger and Family

Adventures in Homesteading continued

The Valley, November 2010��

Out in the bee yard by Mike Thomas

Are we “Lopsided”? When the opportunity was presented to write an article for this pub-lication, I jumped at the chance. Talking honey bees is every beekeep-er’s passion. Whether it’s queen rearing, processing honey, or talking about the latest gadgets, it’s all interesting to another beekeeper. Then it dawned on me that many who read this may not be beekeepers at all. So I stepped back, looked around, and thought long and hard. What could every person learn from not just a beekeeper, but the honey bee itself. We all know what an apple is. And although we may not all know how to grow apples on the same level as a seasoned orchardist, we all know what an apple looks like. We probably have seen red ones, yellow ones, even rotten ones that we remember throwing at our siblings when we were young. And I bet most have seen one of those lopsided apples from time to time. Ever wonder why an apple grows lopsided? Big on one side, and much smaller on the other. Perhaps not enough water? Or maybe the sun makes it grow bigger on the warm side? Or possible it just did not ma-ture long enough? But the truth is, the apple was not pollinated properly. To have perfect round apples, you must have a pollinator like a honey bee or other insect, make contact with the whole flower. But it seems that we see many lopsided apples these days. Same can be seen with lopsided watermelons, curled cucumbers, and so on. There just seems to be far less honey bees and native pollinators as there were years ago. Many folks feel that the whole world is “lopsided” to some extent. And maybe we can look at the honey bee for some insight. Some call the honey bee the “canaries of the world“, since it seems many things affect the honey bees. Most have heard about the decline of the honey bees. But that same decline has happened to the bat populations, but-terflies, frogs, and many other beneficial insects. It seems the “lopsided” apple is just the end result of many things being out of whack. Not being from a traditional farm family, I was very ignorant of many issues affecting farms, honey bees, and the environment as a whole. And while some could suggest that all we need to do to cor-rect that lopsided apple is bring in more bees, it may be more effective to ask why we have a shortage of bees to begin with. Yes, beekeeping traditionally has been done by a rather small number of older men. When I attended my first bee meeting years ago, I was the youngest member attending by 30 years. But today we have many more young people getting into bees. And that is a wonderful thing. But we seem-ingly have twice as many problems. New classes of pesticides used in farming, honey bees being shipped with weak genetics from overseas, to homeowners obsessed with perfect lawns, all make the balance on the environment “lopsided.” And the bees are that “canary in the mine.” I look forward to writing more on honey bees in the future. They are fascinating to keep, provide many benefits to farms and the food crop, and help the environment in so many ways. But they need our assistance. They need our understanding and support. And if we work together, they can exist with successful farming operations and residen-tial homeowners in every corner of the world. And perhaps one lopsided apple at a time, we can balance nature and the environment as we move forward. Mike Thomas is owner of Bjorn Apiaries. His operation is a treat-ment free operation catering to those working towards natural and low impact beekeeping. Mike is also president of the Pennsylvania Backyard Beekeepers Association (PBBA). The PBBA is committed to improving the environment based on sound and practical working relations with farming and agriculture based organizations. For more information, visit: www.pennapic.org

Family owned and operated ~ 61 years

(717) 248-0023Burnham Hardware & Gifts s 204 1st Ave, Burnham, PA 17009

The Valley, November 2010 ��

The Valley, November 2010�4

Where to findThe Valley

A listing of area outlets where you can pick up your copy of The Valley.

Please support our advertisers and outlets.

They are what makes our community special.

ReedsvilleBilletts MarketMain Street

Countryside LaundromatMain St

East Gate Feed and Grain141 Three Cent Ln

Big Valley Beverage7776 SR 655

Minit Mart4801 Old US Hwy ��

Dutch Country InnRoute 655

Ron’s Fruit Market4707 US Hwy ��

Reedsville Seafood CompanyMain St

Michelle’s Main St

Metzlers Outdoor Products�6 Timber Ln

DW OutdoorsMain St

Brindel’s Hardware1� South Main St

YeagertownSticky Bun Cafe�10 S Main St

Hammermill Bar and GrillN Derry Ave

Stroup’s Garage�16 North Main St

Dave Molek Law Offices��0 Ewardtown Rd

BurnhamCalkins Subaru1�951 Ferguson Valley Rd

Buckhorn Taxidermy�16 N Logan Blvd

Creekside Hearth and Patio��0 W Freedom Ave

Giant Food Store��5 West Freedom Ave

Weis Markets��4 Logan Blvd

Sherwin-Williams Co��4 N. Logan Blvd

Dunkin DonutsLogan Blvd

Quality Inn/Tony’s Restaurant1�015 Ferguson Valley Rd

Bing’s Diner101 S. Walnut St

Vince’s Pizza and Family Restaurant�11 Logan Blvd

Lewistown Hunting and Fishing

MilroyB&R Farm Equipment60 Commerce Dr

Bowersox Pizza46� South Main St

Milroy Market111 South Main St

Tom’s Travel Center�0 Commerce Dr.

Best Western Nittany Inn5 Commerce Dr

The Olde Hatchery1115 Salem Rd

Does your store or business want to become a

distribution point for The Valley?

Contact 717-�6�-1550 or email

[email protected]

Lewistown Belleville

MillheimStanley C. Bierly Stove ShopMain St

Exterior Doors & Windows5840 SR 655

Belleville Agway4408 E. Main St

Minit Mart4495 E. Main St

PaulB Hardware & Farm 4591 E. Main St

Fisher & Thompson4599 E. Main St

Dan Pierce Outdoor Shop84� W. 4th St

Wilson’s Meats & Groceries4 Delaware Ave

West End Service Store4�7 W. 4th St

China House Restaurant19 E. Market St

Andrea’s Pizzeria and Restaurant�17 S. Wayne St

Waterfront Restaurant6�9� Belle Ave

Joe’s OIP48 Super Center Plaza

Grace Hill Laundry6�0 Valley St

Allensville Planing MillKish Pike

Frey Motors409 Valley Rd

Stone Arch Real Estate100 Stine Dr

Pop’s DeliLogan Blvd

Healthy Food Store1�5 Nolan Dr

Lewistown Lanes1101 W. 4th St

Countryside CreameryElectric Ave

BeavertownB&R Farm Equipment15171 Route 5��

Beaver SpringsVince’s Pizza PlaceRoute 5��

Valero Mini Mart & GasRoute 5��

McClure

the valley - november 2010

Documents