tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post2822782156583976937..comments2024-03-28T15:00:12.581-04:00Comments on Letters from a Hill Farm: Stillmeadow - OctoberNanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15547916206007733970noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-90249506237505131222018-11-06T20:25:34.471-05:002018-11-06T20:25:34.471-05:00We DID plant two Hazelnut trees the spring after H...We DID plant two Hazelnut trees the spring after Hazel was born! They are supposed to bear nuts by next year when she starts Kindergarten! We'll see. One is half the size of the other, and I can't imagine either of them really offering nuts, but I'm hoping. Raking is a nice way to gather them. Hope I get to do so. Nanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15547916206007733970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-56864330490014307772018-11-06T16:29:28.633-05:002018-11-06T16:29:28.633-05:00One of the main crops here in this part of Oregon ...One of the main crops here in this part of Oregon is Hazelnuts (formerly known as filberts)... and now I think of it, you really should try to grow one with that name ;>).... anyway, they are harvested by raking them up after they fall to the ground. Thank you as always for the lovely posts about Stillmeadow. Sallie (FullTime-Life)https://www.blogger.com/profile/15442598857394838271noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-57542176785291276032018-11-04T11:10:33.559-05:002018-11-04T11:10:33.559-05:00Her voice is truly timeless, and reassuring.Her voice is truly timeless, and reassuring.Nanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15547916206007733970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-26867159633810304062018-11-04T07:06:34.931-05:002018-11-04T07:06:34.931-05:00Nan! She was a wonderful writer, wasn't she? A...Nan! She was a wonderful writer, wasn't she? As always, I think someone should make a movie about her. We need to hear a voice like hers, especially now. xxKay G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07228498846814735537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-53448631546184664372018-11-02T12:14:57.451-04:002018-11-02T12:14:57.451-04:00That sounds just lovely. I'd love to have seen...That sounds just lovely. I'd love to have seen it. Thank you for telling me. I'll bet they had a garden in that "handkerchief".Nanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15547916206007733970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-89530305789299850262018-11-01T23:02:23.564-04:002018-11-01T23:02:23.564-04:00I do need to read Gladys Taber. In our first hous...I do need to read Gladys Taber. In our first house a row home in town which we bought off and old Italian couple, it had a summer kitchen in the basement at the back, where you walked out on to the tiny hankerchief size back garden, there was one window. In here was a gas stove and a sink, which they used for canning. the kitchen sat above this, with a balcony looking over the back garden. Many Italian homes, in town, although row homes used to have a summer kitchen in the basement. Really just a stove and a sink.Lilbitbrithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09477302589982766792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-13421410702164466282018-11-01T13:49:04.955-04:002018-11-01T13:49:04.955-04:00That makes me so happy!! That is really one of my ...That makes me so happy!! That is really one of my favorites. I think I will do a monthly reading of it in a year or two. I already have a plan for the coming year. I so enjoy reading that way.Nanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15547916206007733970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-30478289412647450162018-11-01T12:24:47.380-04:002018-11-01T12:24:47.380-04:00Because of you I also read a year of Gladys in Sti...Because of you I also read a year of Gladys in Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge a month at a time and loved it all over again.Jillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11791018174075586241noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-31735928246425440932018-10-30T11:26:26.644-04:002018-10-30T11:26:26.644-04:00Thanks so much! It has been great fun. A kind of a...Thanks so much! It has been great fun. A kind of anchor to the month.Nanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15547916206007733970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-8061901762954553002018-10-30T11:25:58.246-04:002018-10-30T11:25:58.246-04:00Thank you! Hope it rains soon, but maybe by now it...Thank you! Hope it rains soon, but maybe by now it will be snow instead?Nanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15547916206007733970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-55881774113067853552018-10-30T04:09:43.484-04:002018-10-30T04:09:43.484-04:00How wonderful - thank you for sharing this month a...How wonderful - thank you for sharing this month and all the other months; a lovely project to do round the year. LyzzyBeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16398604923871095647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-51373591792891353882018-10-30T01:40:58.570-04:002018-10-30T01:40:58.570-04:00You know I love all your Gladys Taber posts, and t...You know I love all your Gladys Taber posts, and this one was particularly good to read. Thank you!<br />Butternuts are nuts, after all? I always thought they were a kind of pumpkin.<br />It has been (and still is) way too dry here this year, which means less mushrooms, less nuts and a little less of almost everything this year.Librarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05704656564078750607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-33504868348524111932018-10-29T21:40:00.962-04:002018-10-29T21:40:00.962-04:00That's wonderful!! I'm sorry he can't ...That's wonderful!! I'm sorry he can't eat walnuts, but what about you? Brownies?! If not, your squirrels must be very happy!Nanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15547916206007733970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-89747611995358122052018-10-29T21:37:20.437-04:002018-10-29T21:37:20.437-04:00I am going to go in as soon as I get up from here ...I am going to go in as soon as I get up from here and get out my copy of the Book of Stillmeadow. I know I won't string it out an entire year as you did because I always want to keep reading. I have most of here books so can just move on to the next one I guess.<br /><br />As for nuts, we used to go hunt for walnut trees along the road. Now we have one in our yard and I dread the years it produces well, which seems to be most years! Hubby says they don't "agree" with him any more so I don't bother harvesting them for use in baking. I just rake them up in piles and leave them for the squirrels. Then in the spring pick up any they rejected. Joyce Fhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17293337508638751474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-71157330936045987592018-10-29T14:52:13.599-04:002018-10-29T14:52:13.599-04:00I just loved reading this - thanks so much for you...I just loved reading this - thanks so much for your story! I do remember sheds - my next door neighbor had one, and along with storage uses, the garbage was kept there, and I still remember the smell. It wasn't a terrible, garbage-y smell but it was unlike anything else I had ever smelled. I didn't know anyone in town who had a shed like that except her. I had what was called a "back porch" but it was really an enclosed, finished room with furniture, windows, etc. We did take our boots off there; what my father called overshoes. It was a room "for company to see". Many years before we bought this place, there were those connecting sheds and barns, but they were all knocked down by the time we bought. We had to build a brand new barn. I love your idea of them being "super-duper mud rooms". That is it exactly. I love that you knew about butternuts. I had heard the name, and in fact, the actress Bette Davis had a house a couple towns over called "Butternut". I remember liking the name. Again, thanks again for your long comment. So very interesting. Nanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15547916206007733970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-14345279205028341412018-10-29T14:36:52.999-04:002018-10-29T14:36:52.999-04:00Yes, when I was growing up in Vermont in the 1960s...Yes, when I was growing up in Vermont in the 1960s, there were still summer kitchens, sometimes called sheds, off the kitchen and often leading direct to the barn. This was common in village houses as well as farm houses. It might help if people think of them as super-duper mud rooms as they served many of the same purposes. An interim room between the outdoors and indoors. You could go to the barn without going outside. I remember being ordered to strip off my muddy, snowy, or otherwise unacceptable clothing there before venturing across clean kitchen floors. Snow pants and boots lived there. You could dump a bushel of potatoes or other vegetables there overnight if you didn't have time to wash them right away. You might have an old coal, kerosene, or wood stove there and you might have a big sink. You'd probably have shelves to keep gardening supplies and tools, and your big canning pots. Not a room for company to see, unless it was your neighbors, in which case they'd probably know their way around it as well as their own.<br />And we used to pick butternuts and give them to our teachers at Christmas. I think this was something that was in transition - commonly done years ago, but in the 1960s, becoming rare enough to be a treat for our "old Yankee" teachers to appreciate. I have not heard them mentioned for many years and don't really remember what they looked or tasted like.Lynn Marienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-82469510239002242362018-10-29T10:07:13.976-04:002018-10-29T10:07:13.976-04:00I wonder if you have any pictures. I suspect women...I wonder if you have any pictures. I suspect women didn't used to take pictures of their everyday activities, which are the things which interest me the most! Did anyone ever sleep on the porch? I've heard of sleeping porches in the summer. Yes, "putting up" or "putting by" - I love those words. I feel like in the 1960s and 70s kids like me were going back to that. Now it seems like fashion and internet have replaced them. Hope they come back again. Nanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15547916206007733970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-39585434916101011032018-10-29T09:39:09.193-04:002018-10-29T09:39:09.193-04:00Always enjoy these posts that you write and glimps...Always enjoy these posts that you write and glimpses you show of this author's world. My grandmother had a back porch area that was enclosed and it seems a lot like the summer kitchens you talked about here. It's where her wringer washer was parked and where the steps to cellar were. She didn't have a clothes dryer, but used a line in the yard or, in the winter, lines across that back porch. She also did part of her canning operation out there. Both my grandmothers and my mother 'put up' (as they called it) vegetables and fruit. They canned it and later on my mother and her mother froze things. Don't think my paternal grandmother ever went that route. Nice memories, Nan!Kayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13495669354860191042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-91624726815958661572018-10-29T09:36:36.544-04:002018-10-29T09:36:36.544-04:00Thank you for telling me about the walnuts! I don&...Thank you for telling me about the walnuts! I don't know how she could get mad at you about that!! I remember wearing gloves and hats to church, too. Mostly when I was quite young. Nanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15547916206007733970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6049626897935912366.post-1754012081901512152018-10-29T07:40:52.034-04:002018-10-29T07:40:52.034-04:00I have thoroughly enjoyed all you have shared of G...I have thoroughly enjoyed all you have shared of Gladys. She is someone I want to get to know even better. <br />I don't collect nuts but when I was a child it was a late summer/fall chore for my family. My Mother loved to cook holiday cookies, cakes etc with black walnuts in them. I didn't ever develop the taste for these astringent tasting nuts but I loved going with my Dad to collect them and then it was a big deal to get the husks off and such a task to crack open those tough nuts. My Mom got mad every year when my hands would become stained. I guess it was a good thing we wore gloves to church then. ha..Lisa at Greenbowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07743973292900758183noreply@blogger.com