Tuesday, March 3, 2026
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Blackberry Cobbler

By
Debbie Dance Uhrig
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These past few days I bit off more than I could chew, as the old saying goes. We replaced our dishwasher and microwave this past weekend. It’s been great getting them in, but plenty of messes too!! This led to cabinet cleaning in the kitchen, and a variety of unplanned ‘little’ projects’. I think I spent most of Sunday in the kitchen washing dishes and making different foods. Every time I looked at the clock it was an ‘oh dear’.

If I can find some fresh blackberries, (Many are picking really big ones this year.) I plan on making my mother’s recipe for Blackberry cobbler. You will notice it is certainly a twist of something unique in comparison to most blackberry cobblers.

Some of you are wondering how my new casserole dish turned out? Actually pretty good, but…I’m not sure I am done with it yet. I may do a bit more tweaking. I also tried a simple dip recipe I found in a local newspaper. I should have known better, I did no better, but I tried it anyway. It met up with the garbage disposal, it was so dog gone bad.

This week I was definitely on a fruit search. Seems like I couldn’t find enough fresh seasonal fruits. Bing cherries were the best purchase here in Branson West with Rainers from Washington State, at 2.48 per lb. I bought 2 big bags with the plans of freezing most of them. Currently I think I may need to go back and get more, we ate them all day Sunday. Honeydews were on sale, but they had absolutely no smell! Last week we did find a phenomenal cantaloupe and watermelon.

Remember; though it is work, the fresh fruits and produce are what are bodies need to improve our health. Canned goods are ok when necessary, but we improve our overall being with the fresh route. Just remember the old saying about when you go grocery shopping: ‘Shop the outer perimeter of the store.’
I feel very fortunate to have had fresh garden fruits and vegetables my entire childhood and into my adult years. I know it has made a difference. I agree it is ‘work’ when you come in with all the fresh produce. We just have to stop and wash and dry what we can and package for meals and snacks. This past week I purchased an evening meal at a fast food joint, on the way home from Springfield.
I was conservative and our meal was $25.00. This is just for 2 person. Grab the peanut butter and jelly, a bag of chips and fruit and head on home. Also set some time aside with the entire family to make meals for the freezer. One of my projects today was about 20-25 breakfast burritos, and a peach cobbler. Oh speaking of peaches, mine will be in Monday from Georgia, I am making vanilla peaches this year.

OK, my projects are awaiting me. I need to close down and head to my sewing machine. Simply yours, The Covered Dish.

Mom’s Blackberry Cobbler

2 cups flour
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold butter, chunked/sliced
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup milk or buttermilk
Extra flour for rolling the dough-
(The dough is very sticky.)

Berry Filling
3 tablespoons room temperature butter
1 cup small fresh or frozen & thawed blackberries
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Sauce
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries
2 cups cold water
1 tablespoon butter
Lemon zest from 1/2 of an average lemon, 1-2 tablespoons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a jelly roll pan with parchment paper.

For the body of the cobbler combine all the dry ingredients together. Cut cold butter in with mixer or pastry cutter. Stir in egg and milk to combine. Generously cover the parchment paper with extra flour. Place dough into a rectangular shape and roll out to approximately 9 x 13. Keep flour underneath dough so that it does not stick. (It’s a wet dough, it will stick.) With a spatula spread the 3 tablespoons of room temperature butter within 1/2 from the sides, all the way around. Sprinkle with the blackberries evenly. Additional berries will leak out excessively. If some of the berries are extra-large they may need to be cut in half. Distribute the 1/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon equally.

Start on one long side of the pastry rolling the dough just like you were making cinnamon rolls. Pinch the seam if you can. With your fingers pinch the ends closed and turn under. Place on the parchment covered jelly roll pan into the preheated oven. Bake until lightly browned at approximately 30 minutes. If the toothpick comes out clean the cobbler is done.*

While the cobbler is cooking secure a saucepan and prepare to make the berry sauce. Combine the 3/4 cup of sugar with the 3 tablespoons of cornstarch and stir together in the saucepan. Add the berries and stir to coat. Turn heat to medium and add the 2 cups of water. Cook until berries comes to a light boil and the sauce is thickened. Remove from heat and add the tablespoon of butter, stirring to blend. Lastly stir in the lemon zest. Allow to cool while cobbler finishes baking.

Cut the cobbler into slices and cover with a generous portion of berry sauce.
This recipe could be changed out to a variety of berries, including blueberry!
The sauce could be used for a multitude of desserts, even homemade pancake sauce!

*If time allows I like to freeze the dough 30-45 minutes before baking, like many cookie doughs. The entire cobbler body can also be frozen and wrapped for a later baking time. Expect to add around 15 additional minutes for this method.

Serves 8-10

You too can Become a Road-Kill Griller

By
Steve Gilliland
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Considering the financial struggles of many folks right now, and the political agendas of even more, I’ve planned in my mind what I’ll do if the day ever arrives when the only way for me to feed my family will be to harvest road-kill. I would become a “Road-Kill Griller” in the purest sense of the phrase, and I’m bettin’ there are bunches more of you out there that are afraid to come forward.
Grilling utensils of a Road-Kill chef would be very different that the usual grilling tools. Your spatula would become a flat ended shovel, preferably the short-handled kind with the “D” shaped handle, allowing you to put maximum power behind your spatula when scraping meals from the asphalt. The fork normally used to turn steaks on the grill would become a pitchfork or potato fork, anything capable of holding your find while removing gravel with the shovel/spatula. Timing for harvesting road- killed meals would be an important issue. The five second rule would become the five-day rule. You would want to either get to a kill while it’s fresh, or wait until it became jerky. Cooking road-kill would be a whole new learning experience in itself and should definitely be done outside; the hotter the fire the better to quickly burn off hair and sterilize your meal.
Concerning recipes, just plan to toss all your favorites and start anew. I’ll list a few examples: The rare find of a chicken that could once have become chicken tetrazzini, would now be chicken flattened by machinery. The closest you’d ever get to potatoes au ’gratin would be opossum smells rotten. The internet fairly teems with road-kill recipes free for the reading. A few of my favorite main dishes were skunk skillet stew, shake-n-bake snake, rack of raccoon, pavement possum and too-slow doe. Side dishes included square of hare, fork of stork and bowl of mole.
If you were to suddenly become unemployed, I’m quite sure a good living could be made by fixing up your old camping trailer and following the state fair or carnival circuit peddling road-kill on a stick. It wouldn’t matter what species it was; just cut it into chunks, skewer it with a stick, slather it in some sort of batter and fry it up in old french-fry grease. It you didn’t tell customers what it was, I’m sure they’d think it tasted just like chicken, and the unique name alone would probably flood you with business.
The driving habits of a true road-kill griller would be changed forever. While we’d once have avoided hitting critters on the roadway at all costs, especially deer, we now would strive to hit every critter possible, especially deer. No Hunting signs would become No Gleaning signs, and turf wars might break out as we all tried to protect our favorite back roads, swamps and river bridges where road-kill often abounds.
Yes, if the world someday crumples around our feet, I have no doubt good ol’ American ingenuity will abound and those of us here in the Midwest will still be able to feed our families and make a living as road-kill harvesters and grillers. Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.
Steve can be contacted by email at [email protected].

 

KU News: In new space race, KGS scientists propose geoarchaeology can aid in preserving space heritage

By
Guest Columnist
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0

From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

Headlines

Contact: Julie Tollefson, Kansas Geological Survey, 785-864-2114, [email protected]
In new space race, KGS scientists propose geoarchaeology can aid in preserving space heritage
LAWRENCE — As a new space race heats up, two researchers from the Kansas Geological Survey and their colleagues have proposed a new scientific subfield: planetary geoarchaeology, the study of how cultural and natural processes on Earth’s moon, on Mars and across the solar system may be altering, preserving or destroying the material record of space exploration.
“Until recently, we might consider the material left behind during the space race of the mid-20th century as relatively safe,” said Justin Holcomb, postdoctoral researcher at the Kansas Geological Survey, based at the University of Kansas, and lead author on a new paper introducing the concept of planetary geoarchaeology in the journal Geoarchaeology. “However, the material record that currently exists on the moon is rapidly becoming at risk of being destroyed if proper attention isn’t paid during the new space era.”
Since the advent of space exploration, humans have launched more than 6,700 satellites and spacecraft from countries around the globe, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. The United States alone accounts for more than 4,500 civil, commercial, governmental and military satellites.
“We’re trying to draw attention to the preservation, study and documentation of space heritage because I do think there’s a risk to this heritage on the moon,” Holcomb said. “The United States is trying to get boots on the moon again, and China is as well. We’ve already had at least four countries accidentally crash into the moon recently. There are a lot of accidental crashes and not a lot of protections right now.”
Holcomb began considering the idea of planetary geoarchaeology during the COVID-19 lockdown. Applying geoarchaeological tools and methods to the movement of people into space and the solar system is a natural extension of the study of human migration on Earth, the focus of the ODYSSEY Archaeological Research Program housed at KGS and directed by Holcomb’s co-author, Rolfe Mandel, KGS senior scientist and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Anthropology.
“Human migration out of Africa may have occurred as early as 150,000 years ago, and space travel represents the latest stage of that journey,” Mandel said. “Although the ODYSSEY program is focused on documenting the earliest evidence of people in the Americas, the next frontier for similar research will be in space.”
How planetary geoarchaeologists will determine whether an item is worth preserving is an open question.
“We feel that all material currently existing on extraterrestrial surfaces is space heritage and worthy of protection,” Holcomb said. “However, some sites, such as the very first footprints on the moon at Tranquility Base or the first lander on Mars, Viking 1, represent the material footprint of a long history of migration.”
Beyond those “firsts,” sifting through the hundreds of thousands of bits of material currently in orbit or strewn across the surfaces of the moon and Mars — what many call “trash” but Holcomb and his colleagues regard as heritage — will require case-by-case decision making.
“We have to make those decisions all the time with archaeological sites today,” Holcomb said. “The moon has such a limited record now that it’s totally possible to protect all of it. Certainly, we need to protect space heritage related to the Apollo missions, but other countries, too, deserve to have their records protected.”
With resources for protecting space heritage limited, Holcomb and his colleagues advocate for developing systems to track materials left in space.
“We should begin tracking our material record as it continues to expand, both to preserve the earliest record but also to keep a check on our impact on extraterrestrial environments,” he said. “It’s our job as anthropologists and archaeologists to bring issues of heritage to the forefront.”
Beyond the moon, Holcomb wants to see planetary geoarchaeology extend to issues related to exploration and migration to Mars. He points to NASA’s Spirit Rover as an example. The rover became stuck in Martian sand in 2008 and now risks being completely covered by encroaching sand dunes.
“As planetary geoarchaeologists, we can predict when the rover will be buried, talk about what will happen when it’s buried and make sure it’s well documented before it’s lost,” he said. “Planetary scientists are rightfully interested in successful missions, but they seldom think about the material left behind. That’s the way we can work with them.”
Holcomb believes geoarchaeologists should be included in future NASA missions to ensure the protection and safety of space heritage. Meanwhile, geoarchaeologists on Earth can lay the foundation for that work, including advocating for laws to protect and preserve space heritage, studying the effects extraterrestrial ecosystems have on items space missions leave behind and conducting international discussions regarding space heritage preservation and protection issues.
As for being part of a space mission himself?
“I’ll leave that to other geoarchaeologists,” Holcomb said. “There’s plenty to do down here, but I do hope to see an archaeologist in space before it’s all over.”

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KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
[email protected]
http://www.news.ku.edu

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs

Council Grove Youth Rodeo To Be August 5

By
Frank Buchman
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A youth rodeo is planned Saturday evening, Aug. 5, at 6 o’clock, in the Morris County Rodeo Arena east of Council Grove.
Sponsored by the Morris County Youth Rodeo Association, divisions are planned for juniors, eight and under; intermediate, nine to 13; and seniors, 14 to 19, said Lisa Wainwright, entry coordinator.
Events include steer riding, goat tail untying, goat tying, breakaway roping, barrel racing, pole bending, chute dogging, calf roping, and team roping.
A $3 entry fee per contestant in each event is to be charged. With no payback, working prizes will be awarded the top four placing participants in each competition.
All-around cowgirl and cowboy are to receive special awards in all divisions.
A $5 admission donation will be accepted at the gate for entrance by all contestants, parents, and spectators.
Entries with payment and release form are required in advance to Lisa Wainwright, 1379 Old Highway 4, Council Grove, Kansas, 66846.
Information is available at [email protected].

CUTLINE
Cowboys and cowgirls from throughout the Midwest are expected for the youth rodeo sponsored by the Morris County Youth Rodeo Association Saturday evening, Aug. 5, at Council Grove.

 

Day 14, Kansas Wheat Harvest Report

By
Guest Columnist
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0
Kansas Wheat

Editor’s Note: The next harvest report is scheduled to be published on July 24, 2023.

Contact: Marsha Boswell, [email protected]

For audio file, please visit kswheat.com.

This is day 14 of the Kansas Wheat Harvest Reports, brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, Kansas Grain and Feed Association and the Kansas Cooperative Council.

Up and down the Colorado border, wheat producers are working to finish up harvest. The northwestern corner of the state was among the few that received moisture last fall, snow this winter and rain this spring, leading to better yields than many other areas of the state. In contrast, the southwest corner of the state is faring poorer with high rates of abandonment and declining conditions for wheat left standing in the field. Universally, moisture in the air continues to delay cutting, extending harvest well beyond a normal pace.

Jason Ochs of Hamilton County had to abandon about 60 percent of his wheat this year due to the drought. On the remaining acres, he is averaging yields of about 20 bushels per acre. He did have one field that was adjusted at 0.3 bushels per acre, but it started raining in April before he got it destroyed, so he will harvest it, saying that it might make 15 bushels per acre. Test weights are averaging 58 to 59 pounds per bushel.

Ochs grows both hard red winter (HRW) and hard white (HW) wheat. Both classes are shattering due to wind and hail. One of his fields had 50 percent loss after four separate hail events and has been hailed on twice since then.

He said the majority of the area had a hard time getting fall crops in due to excessive rains in May and June, so wheat acres should be up this fall. His mantra is, “You have to take advantage of the opportunity when there is moisture” — even if it messes up the crop rotation a bit.

“Residue is big-time cash as far as I’m concerned,” Ochs said.

Harvest began on July 3 and 4, but rains came in, keeping them out of the fields for several more days. Ochs noted that it is difficult to find help because of the late harvest, and he currently has one combine sitting because he has no one to run it. Weed pressure, moisture and humidity — not common issues during harvest in this part of the state — mean the machines that are running have to go slow.

“I have two days of harvest left,” he said, “but it will take five or six.”

Ochs noted that Kansas Wheat Alliance’s hard white wheat variety Joe has been a good performer this year, yielding in the mid-30s, and that PlainsGold’s HRW wheat variety Canvas has also done well, weathering the drought.

Harvest is further behind in the northwest part of the state at 60 to 70 percent complete, well behind the normal timeline for the area, according to Stan Remington, CEO/president of Frontier Ag Inc. With the weather forecast showing temperatures in the mid-90s and no chances of rain — yet — harvest could finish up by the end of next week.

Along Highway 36, the wheat harvest has been the best in the territory, Remington said. The area had some moisture last fall that got the wheat up, snow throughout the winter and rains this spring. Moisture was timely, but not early enough for disease to set in, allowing wheat to grow into more of its yield potential. As a result, yields started out at 70 to 80 bushels per acre with protein ranging from 10 to 11 percent where yields are high and adjusting up to 12 percent further east where conditions were drier. Test weights started excellent at 61 to 62 pounds per bushel, with daily averages now at 58 bushels per acre. Weeds are starting to be more of an issue for producers.

Weather has been a constant battle since the day harvest started. In addition to rain delays, producers can only cut from mid-afternoon to dark, thanks to fog in the mornings and humidity that comes with the rising and setting of the sun. Two different sizeable hail events along the Cheyenne/Sherman County line eliminated some acres, along with significant damage to the corn and other fall crops. Still, Remington said producers will take the moisture because fall crops that weren’t hit by hail are looking fantastic.

Overall, Frontier Ag Inc. expects to end up with 60 percent of the historical average for bushels across their draw area, which extends from the Colorado line up to the Nebraska border, across Highway 36, dropping down to Highway 24 to Hill City then down to Ransom and back across the I-70 corridor from WaKeeney to Goodland.

“With the year, and as we look back at the first day of May, we feel pretty fortunate,” Remington said.

He noted grain shipments from northwest Kansas depend on how the final crop unfolds, but he is excited for when the Amber Wave wheat gluten plant comes online in Phillipsburg for additional marketing opportunities for area producers.

The Kansas Wheat crew is keeping their eyes to the sky this weekend but will be back next week to share more updates on the Kansas wheat harvest with the next report scheduled for July 24.

The 2023 Harvest Report is brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, Kansas Grain and Feed Association and the Kansas Cooperative Council. To follow along with harvest updates on Twitter, use #wheatharvest23. Tag us at @kansaswheat on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to share your harvest story and photos.

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Written by Julia Debes for Kansas Wheat

 

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