I’ll say it again … dang! But it’s not what you think—the mild Southern form of a more colorful expletive … it’s a new snack called “dang.” And … they’re dang-nab-it delicious. They’re toasted coconut chips—gluten-free, dairy-free, and non-GMO—and can be eaten right from the bag for a yummy, healthy snack (sort of a chip and a candy all in one), or sprinkled on salads, yogurt, oatmeal, or ice cream.
Watch these people taste “dang” for the first time:
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Heather Neeper!!!
Heather Neeper (#4701) has received a certificate of achievement in Make it Easy for earning a Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert Level Grease Chicks Merit Badge!
“Since I don’t travel many places, I changed this badge up a little. Instead of focusing on the truck, I focused on the skid loader. It’s the most important piece of machinery on the dairy farm!
I had my husband show me where everything was and then I made sure to check all the fluids—oil, hydraulic, and coolant every week, along with checking the tire pressure. I did not keep track of the hour usage, since it varies greatly, depending on what we’re doing—like making hay, for instance.
Next stop: changing the oil. Surprisingly, it is much easier to change the oil in the skid loader than it is in my car! The oil plug is conveniently located on the skid loader rather than having to jack it up and climb under it like my car. And we save the oil for a friend that has an oil burner on his farm.
For the expert level of this badge I stuck with maintaining the skid loader. After learning to check the fluids and change the oil, I learned to change the filters—oil, fuel, and air—change tires, and grease all the bearings.
It’s very satisfying to know that I can properly care for the most valuable machine on the farm.”
Great job Heather! It’s always heartening to see a Sister taking the reins on the farm.
To celebrate the season of harvest, let’s get away to the magnificent moorlands of the Scottish Hebrides …
Photo by Tony Kinghorn via Wikimedia Commons
where the bracken is turning bronze
Photo by Christine Howson via Wikimedia Commons
and ripe, red rowan berries decorate the hedgerows.
Photo by Walter Baxter via Wikimedia Commons
It’s nearly time to collect the crops!
Once ashore, we’ll take a turn back in time to the harvests of old …
The Harvest Cradle by John Linnell, 1859, via Wikimedia Commons
Nineteenth century Scottish folklorist Alexander Carmichael painted a vivid picture of the traditional Hebridean harvest ceremony, which commenced yearly on Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael, on September 29:
“The day the people began to reap the corn was a day of commotion and ceremonial in the townland. The whole family repaired to the field dressed in their best attire to hail the God of the harvest. Laying his bonnet on the ground, the father of the family took up his sickle, and facing the sun, he cut a handful of corn. Putting the handful of corn three times sunwise round his head, the man raised the Iolach Buana, the reaping salutation. The whole family took up the strain and praised the God of the harvest, who gave them corn and bread, food and flocks, wool and clothing, health and strength, and peace and plenty.”
I can just imagine being a part of that celebratory scene, gussied up in linen and lace, and working well into the night by the light of a harvest moon …
The Harvest Moon by Samuel Palmer, c. 1833, via Wikimedia Commons
A farmgirl fantasy!
Gleaning by Arthur Hughes, 1832-1915, via Wikimedia Commons
The “gleaning” at the end of the corn harvest, depicted in the painting above, was as much cause for celebration as the first cutting, and it had its own special ritual. When all the fields were harvested, a young woman would cut the last sheaf, which was considered the last refuge for the harvest spirit. The sheaf was then braided and shaped into a Corn Maiden (also called a Kirn Baby or Corn Dolly). The doll would grace the table at the harvest feast, where she was toasted merrily, and would then be hung with honor in a farmhouse kitchen or local church.
Photo of a Kirn Baby or Corn Dolly by Miss Steel via Geograph.org.uk
One of the special culinary centerpieces of this feast was struan bread, or Michael’s Bannock, made by combining all types of grain from the farm with butter, eggs, and sheep’s milk. The loaf was marked with a cross and baked on a stone over a fire of oak, rowan, and bramble wood. You can recreate traditional Scottish struan using the lovely recipe at LeeandJay.wordpress.com.
Photo by Heather “Moria” via Wikimedia Commons
With our bellies full of bannock, we could settle here a while, don’t you think? Autumn is, after all, “a good time for staying.” Linger a bit upon this 11th century poem written by an unknown Celtic author, and you’ll see what I mean …
A good season for staying is autumn;
there is work then for everyone before the very short days.
Dappled fawns from among the hinds, the red clumps of the bracken shelter them;
stags run from the knolls at the belling of the deer-herd.
Sweet acorns in the wide woods, corn-stalks around cornfields over the expanse of brown earth.
There are thorn-bushes and prickly brambles by the midst of the ruined court;
the hard ground is covered with heavy fruit.
Hazel-nuts of good crop fall from the huge old trees on dykes.
Photo by Ian Capper via Wikimedia Commons
Ah, well, the time has come—I must get back out outside, amongst my own fair fields. I’d love to hear how the harvest is coming along in your neck of the woods. Any thoughts of a hosting a harvest celebration?
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is …Mary Jo Boyd!!!
Mary Jo Boyd (Quiltsister413, #5559) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning an Expert Level Knitting Merit Badge!
“While in Lincoln, NE for a business conference, my friend and I stopped in to the local yarn store and found an adorable shawl pattern that we both had to make. We purchased two skeins of Crazy yarn and got to work right away in our hotel room. It took me about a month, but I finished it.
I think it went well. The pattern was by far the most challenging one I have tried, but I enjoyed knitting a little each night and watching it grow. I got to use circular needles for the first time and found I really loved them. The edge called for an I-cord bind off which was completely new to me. Youtube videos are so helpful in these situations! I found several videos to help me through and it turned out very nice.
I taught four ladies how to knit at our last Faithful Farm Girl meeting. Each of the ladies brought size 7 knitting needles and some practice yarn and I taught them how to tie a slip knot, do a long tail cast on, how to knit and how to purl. I also provided them with two patterns for knitting dishcloths and they are off and running…or is that knitting.
The fifth person I taught to knit is actually my friend and knitting teacher. I actually got to teach her two techniques I had learned that she didn’t know. How cool is that! I taught her the long tail cast on method and also a new way to add a new color or skein in the middle of your project. She now uses both new techniques and loves them!”
Have you been a victim of this startling salutation—even though you’re a gal?! (No GUY in sight.) The first time it happened to me, I chuckled, thinking, “Oh my, this new generation is so … so … casual! Whatever happened to “Hello, ma’am,” or “Ms. Butters, may I …?”
But, according to Dictionary.com—an invaluable resource in my business, and one that has occasional fun tidbits about word usage—the term “dudes” has been around since 1883. In that year, the New-York Mirror described dudes as “tight-trousered, brief-coated, eye-glassed, fancy-vested, sharp-toed shod” gents in the Big Apple. And “duding up” meant to dress up in your fanciest finery.
A few decades later, in the 1920s, the term “dude ranch” came into our lexicon, meaning a vacation ranch catering to “dudes” (translate: “city slickers”). You know, a vacation where you could wear your fanciest cowgirl-like garb and go out West where handsome cowboys actually worked from atop real horses.
Lynne Roberts & Roy Rogers in Billy the Kid Returns via Wikimedia Commons
Fast-forward to the ever-so-casual 2000s, where “dude” now has an official entry in the dictionary, simply described as “a general term of address used to a man, woman, or group.” And lest you think “dude” was previously a gender-specific term only for “dudes,” as we baby-boomers sometimes called members of the male gender, the term has apparently always had a female counterpart. Dudette, Valley girls? Nope, that would be “dudine,” as appeared in Stories of a Country Doctor, by Willis Percival King in 1891: “She was between 60 and 70 years of age at this time and was as pronounced a specimen of the type dudine as I ever saw.”
Okay dude … let’s get on our fancy duds, pony up, and get to one of those ranches where handsome cowboys ride the range. You in? Hey, speaking of dudines, today my daughter, Megan, turns 35. Meggie dude, you are THE dudette, duder motor skooter!!!!! I love you madly. Seriously. Madly. In. Love w/YOU.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
