Wednesday, February 18, 2026
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Beef Preparation Begins 

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Guest Columnist
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Lovina’s Amish Kitchen
Lovina Eitcher,
Old Order Amish
Cook, Wife &
Mother of Eight

We sure have had mild weather the past few weeks. It brings on some spring fever! Now we have entered into March. It seems so hard to comprehend that the year is already in the third month of 2024.

Last week I spent a day at daughter Susan and Ervin’s. Susan and I painted the bathroom and entry area in their pole barn. That is where they will host church services. After we were done painting, I cleaned some of her canning jars and put them on the new shelves that Ervin built for them. They don’t have a basement in their house, so Ervin built the shelves in the pole barn entrance room—they keep enough heat in there during the cold months so the cans don’t freeze. It’s also where their battery packs for solar power are kept. 

Ervin’s dad is still in the hospital and can open his eyes and have some movement with his hands and feet if I understand it right. He has a long road ahead, so let’s keep him and the family in our prayers. 

Ervin and Susan’s four oldest children came here Saturday night and were here until Sunday night. Ervin and Susan spent all day Sunday at the hospital with his father and family. The children did very well for us. Daughter Verena and her special friend Daniel Ray went after the children Saturday night then took them home again Sunday evening. 

On Saturday we cut up a whole beef. Half was for our friends, and they wanted all kinds of different steaks cut out, so it took more time. Those helping us with the beef were daughter Lovina’s special friend Daniel, Daniel Ray, and Dustin and daughter Loretta. We still need to slice more steaks and grind our hamburger from our half of the beef. We only have a few pints of beef chunks left, so I am glad to have more to can. I’m also glad for the steaks and hamburger to put in the freezer. We have two freezers and one is empty, so it will be nice to have some more meat in there. 

Our plans for tomorrow are to help Susan again with her cleaning in preparation for church services. Sister Verena, sister Emma and her daughters and daughter-in-law, my daughters, and I are all planning to go. We should get a lot done for Susan. Baby Ervin is going to be four months old next week. He smiles and coos and is all happy until Susan wants to get work done; then he fusses. He doesn’t lack any attention with five older siblings. He is such a cuddly baby and has the brightest blue eyes. So precious!

Sunday was such a beautiful day and the temperature went up into the 70s. The children had fun playing outside with Verena and Daniel Ray. They gave them swing rides, etc. 

Our supper guests were Dustin and Loretta and sons, daughter Elizabeth, Tim, and four children, Daniel, Daniel Ray, and Joesph’s special friend Grace.

Daniel and daughter Lovina made a campfire stew in the kettle over the campfire. This was a great help to me to not have to make supper in the house. They used fresh beef chunks for the stew, which was very delicious. I will share the campfire stew recipe since it’s been around four years since I last did. It is also in my cookbook, The Essential Amish Cookbook. 

God’s blessings to all!

Campfire Stew

2 cups beef stew meat (may substitute a roast, cut into chunks)

4 cups red potatoes, unpeeled, cleaned, and diced

2 cups green beans, cut into small pieces

1 whole onion (used to flavor the soup; it is removed before eating)

4–5 beef bouillon cubes

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Salt and pepper, to taste

Put beef chunks in kettle (or large pot) with enough water to cover, bring to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes. Add potatoes, green beans, and onion, adding enough water so that vegetables are well covered. Add bouillon. Boil until vegetables and meat are tender. Season with garlic powder and salt and pepper. Remove onion if you wish.  

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her two cookbooks, The Essential Amish Cookbook and Amish Family Recipes, are available wherever books are sold. Readers can write to Eicher at Lovina’s Amish Kitchen, PO Box 234, Sturgis, MI 49091 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply); or email [email protected] and your message will be passed on to her to read. She does not personally respond to emails.

 

Ancient Kansas

By
Dylan Yoder
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When we think of ancient places we commonly think of Rome, Greece, and many other hotbeds of early European civilization. A place that probably doesn’t immediately come to mind is North America. This could be for many different reasons but the most probable one is that we commonly focus on a Euro-centric historical curriculum in school. I think one of the biggest crimes of our modern-day history curriculum is that we don’t celebrate the history of North America quite as much. Then again, Native history is significantly less documented than anything of European origin. However, that doesn’t make it any less important. For that reason, let’s take a look at a couple of pretty cool facts about our homeland that may not have been covered in History 101.

First of all one of the more well-known facts, is that Kansas used to be a shallow sea where primeval waters flowed, shallow salt-water deposits are left over in our soil and left more than enough evidence to prove it, such as fossilized sea creatures of various shapes. After these seas left, rivers of freshwater formed what we agricultural folks know as the Ogallala Aquifer. The source of all groundwater for the Midwest. Unfortunately, overuse of the aquifer has led to an increasingly worrying loss of the groundwater resources we have available in recent years.

After this period, jumping forward to about 11,000 years ago to the last Ice Age when megafauna such as mammoths and giant sloths roamed the great plains and other locations. Many of you may know of these creatures but how about what they eat? Lucky for you, we have just a real-life example. The Osage Orange tree is a thorny tree of yellowish hardwood that was prized in the early settlement days for natural fences. The thing that many don’t know is that Osage Oranges, or “hedge apples” were a natural fruit delicacy to the megafauna of the plains during the ice age. The massive size of the fruit was easy for creatures such as giant sloths to eat and digest. Nowadays, no animal eats the fruit itself, however, some, such as deer, have a tradition of eating the seeds within it.

There is evidence to suggest that early peoples of the Native Americans lived during the same time as these megafauna too, early indigenous populations lived nomadically hunting mammoths, mastodons, and giant bison across the plains. Can you imagine hunting an animal so massive? There must have been something in the water all those years ago to give them the strength required to do such incredible things.

After this long length of time of Native Americans living in harmony with nature, Europeans came along, and many of you know the story from there. The incredibly detrimental and horrid forced migration of indigenous populations, and development of the land into what it is today. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for the lives we have in the modern day and age, but we can always take care of the land as well.

This was an incredibly brief description of the last hundreds of thousands of years of history for our great state, but it’s certainly something to start off on. I used information from the Kansas Historical Society webpage, if you are interested, you can certainly find more information on everything I mentioned and didn’t. After learning these things, I hope you can call yourself proud to be a Kansan for the rich history we have to offer. I know I certainly am.

Raisin Bran Muffins

By
Debbie Dance Uhrig
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Well; the bunnies are finally out and I can see where I’ve made headway over the weekend. This is good. A feeling of accomplishment is so wonderful! We had company over the weekend and it’s like they were never here. It was one of our son’s friends they were building the new Legend’s car in our 3rd garage and I only saw them at the dinner table!

I started the weekend with my feet on the floor and haven’t stopped all day. I made a huge pan of Bran muffins which everyone has enjoyed today. There’s still batter in the refrigerator for at least one or two more dozen. Thus; the reason why I love these recipes that yield huge amounts. Speaking of huge amounts, I’ve got another ‘large’ muffin recipe for you this week that makes 5-6 dozen itself.

It seemed like it was a weekend for ‘big’ cooking. I wrote a brand-new recipe over the weekend and I am pleased to say it came out quite well. Nope, I can’t share it yet. I promised I would debut a new dish at a women’s event I’m speaking at in April. For those of you in Northeast Missouri, I’m the speaker for a Women’s Luncheon in Lewistown, Missouri on the 20th of April. It will be at the Methodist Church Fellowship Building, across from the park. Watch for notices in the Press News Journal. If there is a website etc. I’ll try and put it in the column too.

This coming weekend Ervin and I embark on a road trip back to Lewistown to see my dad, then on North to Minnesota to spend time seeing the countryside with friends Willis & Irene. We are also planning on seeing our former neighbors as we cross into Wisconsin on our return. I am hoping to encounter some new food styles and Willis has promised a good pie shop! Rumor, our corgi, will co-pilot on the trip.

The Raisin Bran Muffins are so good. As I mentioned above, they are easy to make and…. they’re going to make you several dozen. The dough will usually stay in the refrigerator 4-6 weeks. I have not tried the recipe using the Raisin Bran with the clusters, I’m thinking it would work, but on the other hand, I wouldn’t dive in without doing some sort of test first. Here’s the recipe, Simply Yours, The Covered Dish.

Raisin Bran Muffins

8 cups, (20 ounces) Raisin Bran Cereal

3 cups sugar

5 cups flour, no need to sift

2 teaspoons salt

5 teaspoons baking soda

4 eggs

1 cup butter or oil

1 quart of buttermilk

Options: Chopped Nuts, Coconut, crushed pineapple

Pour the buttermilk over the entire box of cereal while mixing everything else. Combine dry ingredients and then mix all the wet into the dry. This recipe will keep in the refrigerator 4-6 weeks, in a plastic sealed container. Makes approximately 5-6 dozen. Bake at 400 degrees until muffins spring back. Place in sprayed muffin tin using a 3-tablespoon scoop.

You know this recipe was written many years ago, I’m wondering what Honey Bunches of Oats would do with this muffin format?

Survival of the Fastest

By
Steve Gilliland
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One October a few years ago, I watched a large number of hawks following combines through a soybean field, snatching up rodents kicked out of hiding by the machines as they lumbered through the fields. The dictionary defines symbiotic (symbiosis) as “The living together of two kinds of organisms to their mutual advantage.” Maybe “symbiotic” is not quite the right word to describe the above scenario, but you have to admit there are times where animals and birds use human activities to their advantage.

For example, years ago I had some peacocks. Any of you who presently own or have ever owned peacocks will agree with me that they can be a real pain in the butt, but while I had those pesky fowl, I had gardens that were absolutely insect-free. They would follow me when I mowed the lawn, back a few feet and on the side of the mower where the grass was discharged, and would turn themselves inside out to be the first to snatch a bug shot out from the mower, especially those big green hoppers I called “katydids.” Symbiotic or not, they knew that when the lawn mower was pushed across the yard, snacks would come their way.

Awhile back, we stopped to see a friend at a business on a side street smack in the middle of downtown Hutchinson. As we pulled into the parking lot, the large dumpster for the business sat straight ahead of us inside a four-sided enclosure, and perched on the back corner of the enclosure was what appeared to be a hawk decoy, put there to ward off pigeons I presumed. As I stared at the decoy, it swiveled its head around and stared back at me; it was a mature red tailed hawk with a squirrel held firmly in its talons. I was slightly surprised to see a red-tailed hawk in downtown Hutchinson, and since there were no houses or trees for several blocks around, I was really puzzled as to where the hawk had managed to snag the squirrel.

Our friend there was not surprised to hear about the hawk and added some details that explained where the hawk had likely found the squirrel. The business is very near the railroad, and that time of the year, he said there always seemed to be dabs of grain strewn along the tracks, evidently from rail cars moving wheat, soybeans, corn and milo. Pigeons, squirrels and birds came from all over that part

of town to feast on the grain, making for a virtual smorgasbord for stealthy predators like the hawk. He told us he once observed a hawk catch a pigeon nearby as it snacked on the grain. Again, maybe this is not really a true symbiotic relationship, but the squirrels and pigeons knew the grain would be there, and the predators knew the pigeons and squirrels will be there too, all thanks to man.

Just like domestic livestock quickly becoming familiar when chores are done each day and they are fed, the above scenarios can also be repeated over and over again in the wild. Wildlife not only relies on nature for survival, it also learns when help is available, inadvertently or not, from man too.

Steve can be contacted by email at [email protected].

Animal welfare on steroids

By
Milo Yield
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Thayne Cozart
Milo Yield

Back when we lived in Iowa, our nearest neighbors owned an acreage that they dubbed Last Chance Ranch. And, it wuz an apt name because the owners took as their serious life mission to provide care to injured animals or animals suffering from mistreatment or malnourishment. I’ll note that both their home, and ours, were located at the far west end of a dead-end road.

Among the menagerie that the Last Chance Ranch took in included an assortment of three-legged dogs and cats, a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig that required a hind-quarters cart because its hind legs were paralyzed, a few decrepit, arthritic, crippled up old horses, a bovine or two on the downhill slide, a few flightless birds, and I’m sure a few nondescript critters that I can’t recall.

However, from that assemblage of mournful critters there eventually emerged a story — humorous to me, at least. Here’s what happened:

On many nice evenings the lady at the Last Chance Ranch took the opportunity to exercise her collection of three-legged dogs. It wuz safe because we had very little traffic on our road. Her normal route took her by the end of my driveway and within eye-sight of my garden and chicken-flock pen.

Well, one fine evening, the friendly lady spied me working in my garden and veered down my driveway to see me. Of course, her 3-legged dog pack hobbled down with her, including an eager-beaver tri-pod Beagle.

As I left my garden to converse with her, I noticed that a baby chick from the brood of one of my setting hens had made its way through the fence and couldn’t seem to find its way back inside the pen. Unfortunately for the week-old chick, the rambunctious Beagle hound spied the chick at the same time — and pounced on it, and crunched it to an instantaneous bloody death.

The lady owner yelled in panic at her Beagle and the startled hound dropped the mutilated chick’s carcass at my feet. I picked it up, sighed, and said something like, “Well, that’s what you get when you venture out of your pen.” And, I threw the dead chick far away down in the ravine east of the driveway.

The poor well-intentioned lady was absolutely aghast. She apologized. She sobbed and broke into tears. I told her to forget the whole episode. Stuff happens when you mix chickens and dogs. She sniffled up and offered to pay me. Of course, I declined and said that someday I might accidentally run over one of her dogs and I didn’t want to feel obligated to pay for it.

So, she gathered up her hobbling pack and headed home. However, in about 15 minutes, she returned — with a $20 bill in her hand — and insisted I take the Andrew Jackson as payment for the dead chick.

That sort of triggered my ire a bit and I replied, “Ma’am,” I said. “If you’ll pay me $20 for a dead week-old chick, go home and get ol’ Tri-Pod and come back. At that price, I’ll let the chicks out one at a time for him to kill.”

She went home with the $20 in her pocket. However, our neighborly relationship was cool to aloof from there on.
***
Last week I wrote about some melancholy remembrances of my fun-loving, musical, maternal grandmother Ann. I included some of the lyrics I remembered from the silly, nonsensical songs she sang to me and all her grandkids.

Well, this week I’ll conclude those fond memories by including a couple more sets of Grandma’s silly lyrics. Here’s a set about an animal fair:

“I went to the animal fair.
All the birds and the beasts were there.
The big baboon by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair.

The monkey, he got drunk.
And fell in the elephant’s trunk
The elephant sneezed and fell to his knees.
And, what e’re became of the monk?”
***
And, here are the lyrics to a silly sing-a-long song that Grandma pounded out on the honky-tonk, ragtime piano. The song is not a creation of hers, but an actual commercial song that I assume was popular sometime in grandma’s childhood. I remember most of the words, but I checked on the internet and there were a few stanzas that I only partially remembered. At, any rate, here are the lyrics to the song, “Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder:”

“Won’t you bring back, won’t you bring back, Mrs. Murphy’s chowder?
It was tuneful, every spoonful made you yodel louder.
After dinner Uncle Ben used to fill his fountain pen
From a bowl of Mrs. Murphy’s chowder.

“There was ice cream, cold cream, benzine, gasoline
Soup beans, string beans, floating all around,
Sponge cake, beef steak, mistake, stomach ache
Cream puffs, ear muffs, many to be found.
Silk hats, door mats, bed slats, Democrats
Cow bells, door bells, beckon you to dine.
Meat balls, fish balls, moth balls, cannon balls
Come on in, the chowder’s fine!

Won’t you bring back, won’t you bring back, Mrs. Murphy’s chowder
It was tuneful, every spoonful made you yodel louder
If they had it where you are, you might find a motor car
In a bowl of Mrs. Murphy’s chowder.”
***
Enuf drivel for one week. The words of wisdom for the end of February in a leap year come from Dinesh Kumar Biran: “February the month of love?!! No wonder it’s the shortest one in the calendar.”
Have a good ‘un.

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