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Lettuce Eat Local: Easter is always eggstra special

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Guest Columnist
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Amanda Miller
Columnist
Lettuce Eat Local

 

The day after our church’s weekly kids’ program, my friend shared what her six-year-old gleaned from class: “Amanda said Jesus died and was in an egg and it cracked open and He came out a chick.” Apparently my lesson with our first-graders did not go quite as well as I would have anticipated. 

Fortunately, his parents have a good grip on theology and can amend his hilarious misunderstanding. I’m hoping that wasn’t everyone’s takeaway on the resurrection, but just in case, I’ll make sure and bring up the connections — and distinctions! — between Jesus and Easter eggs again this week. 

Eggs really are ubiquitous around this most important holiday, so much so that we of course call them Easter eggs. To adults, the reasons behind their presence may be long engrained or simply logically correlative, but I think we’re missing an opportunity for added joy if we forget to explain it to the kids (or maybe we need a reminder ourselves). Eggs have long been associated with new life and Spring, as well as rebirth, renewal, and resurrection for Christians. 

Although two-year-old Benson doesn’t yet grasp the theological symbolism of the chick leaving the eggshell empty reminding us of Christ leaving the tomb empty (this is where the first-graders got tripped up), he did get to marvel at the miracle of new life close up. Last month I filled up our little styrofoam incubator up with fresh eggs, and he got used to going downstairs with me every day to gently turn our brown and tan eggs. After three weeks of anticipation, suddenly we started seeing some action — which, although I tried to explain it to him, I think was a complete shock. We had eggs…and then we had CHICKS. If only I could give you a video of his high-pitched shrieks and “baby chicks!” squeals, as his whole body crunched up in sheer delight. It matched the chicks’ incredibly loud peeps quite well. He would almost go into a paroxysm of joy every time we visited them or found another one hatched. Maybe I should have that kind of reaction when I think of the new life given to us on Easter. 

Other eggy egg-tivities, like dyeing and hiding eggs, are likely linked to historical Christian-based traditions as well. Some say eggs were valued (our economy would agree) and therefore given as tithe to the church or gifts to each other, and began to be decorated in the process. Egg hunting could be nodding to the resurrection story when the women and disciples found the empty tomb…although it could just be because of the 17th century mythical egg-laying Easter Hare hopping around. Either way, it’s fun. 

Eggs have also sometimes been included in Lenten fasting, so Easter marked the celebratory beginning to eat them again — if I think too much, it feels a little weird to be eating the symbol of resurrection, but I guess that leaves the eggshell empty which is what we’re going for. I always associate deviled eggs with Easter, which again feels weird to eat something called that specifically on this day, but I know it means “spicy,” which is how I like them anyway, so okay. 

I made a batch of deviled eggs for family Easter dinner, and some of the eggs we dyed will likely end up that way as well; based on Benson’s initial reaction to egg hunting, I’m assuming he’ll be thoroughly occupied gleefully “hiding” and “finding” plastic Easter eggs. And I’m hoping I’ll remember to still be looking for and seeing reminders of resurrection and new life, all around in eggstra special places. 

 

You’ll Eat Olive These Deviled Eggs

Now I know that to some, it’s a heinous crime to make anything different than classic deviled eggs (which aren’t even a hint of spicy, people!). You’ll see in my photo that I know better than to “mess with” all of them, so the few peppered ones in the center were for me — as well as the extra ones left off the table for later. I’m guessing I have made at least 75 variations of deviled eggs (that’s a whole other story for another day), but this is how these came out today and I was very pleased. Bonus thought: two people brought deviled eggs to Easter sunrise service breakfast; my mind was blown and my life is changed for the better.

Prep tips: I’m sure you have a way for hard-boiling your eggs, so do that, but just don’t overcook them (that’s what makes that gray-green ring around the yolk). Make the filling a smidge “too” salty since it’ll be going in the unseasoned whites.

a dozen eggs, hard-boiled and peeled

¼ cup mayo

2 tablespoons cream cheese, soft

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

a splash of white vinegar

a pickle spear or two, minced (plus a splash of juice)

as many green olives as you want, minced

salt, pepper, red pepper

Carefully halve eggs lengthwise, popping out the yolks. Mash the yolks with a fork, then stir/smash in the remaining ingredients. Dollop a spoonful into the whites just before serving.  

Lovina Meets Old and New Readers at a Book Signing

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Guest Columnist
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It’s 5 a.m. here at the Eicher house. All is quiet. My husband Joe and son Joseph left for work already. Son Benjamin is working in Ohio. He’s been gone since Monday morning. The house seems empty without him around. 

Sister Verena came here last night and stayed the night. They were calling for storms, and she felt it was better not to be alone. So far, we haven’t had anything, but it sounds like it will start this morning. Years ago during a storm, lightning struck sister Verena and Susan’s house and started a fire. They were in bed, and it’s a good thing they saw a glow from the fire and got help. They had to do a lot of repairs from water damage. They moved into our basement for around three months while their house was being redone. I think that is one reason storms bother her so much during the night. 

Son Joseph went to help rebuild a barn that was damaged by the tornado that hit Allen County last weekend. There were quite a few buildings that were hit. The crew Joseph works with donated a day to help. He said he thinks there were around 200 men and boys there helping. It is so nice to help each other in times of need like that. The men and boys were working on more than one pole barn that was damaged. Many hands make light work. Tornado destruction can be devasting! A lot of people had hail the night of that tornado. I know Tim and Elizabeth and Ervin and Susan had pretty good-sized hail, but we only had wind here. 

Daughter Verena and granddaughters Kaitlyn, Abigail, and Jennifer came here last Friday evening (the night of the tornado in Allen County). They all had gone upstairs to bed with Verena, but when it started storming, they wanted to come down again. We made beds for them on the sofa and recliners, and they slept on those. We were fortunate to only have had a storm and wind.

The next morning, daughters Verena and Lovina, the three girls, and I went to Shipshewana, Indiana, to the Plain and Simple Craft Show. We were glad to meet old and new readers. There was a great turnout for the book signing for my cookbooks, The Essential Amish Cookbook and Amish Family Recipes. Plain and Simple is an Amish craft and decor magazine that I write in every other month. The editors host a craft show every Spring with lots of vendors there. Sisters Verena and Emma, Crystal (Emma’s daughter-in-law) and son Isaiah, and Renee (daughters Verena and Susan and Ervin’s neighbor) all came to the craft show. They surprised us and didn’t let us know they were coming.

It was a cold day but interesting. I think the three little girls were tired by the time we were back home, but they said they had fun and had lots of stories to tell. 

Friday is Good Friday, and Easter is Sunday. We will have our family over on Good Friday. I usually have an egg hunt for all the little ones. They always enjoy that. Last year, we hid eggs for six grandchildren. This year it increased to 10 grandchildren. Kaitlyn, Isaiah, Curtis, and Denzel are added to our family. We will hide more eggs. It will be even more interesting with more children. It is nice to celebrate Easter with our family. Nothing can be a better holiday to spend with family than to celebrate the journey of the life of Jesus. Jesus who died on the cross so our sins can be forgiven. We wish you all a blessed Easter and God’s many blessings!

I will share a recipe for Berry Cream Cheese Muffins this week. A reader lost her recipe that I had in the column over three years ago so I’ll run it again.

Berry Cream Cheese Muffins

1 cup butter, softened

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour 

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, blueberries, or raspberries dusted with 2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pans with paper liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray. 

In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt, and gradually add to the butter mixture. Fold in berries and nuts. Spoon batter into muffin cups. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden and a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for three minutes before removing from the pans. Makes 18 muffins.

 

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her newest cookbook, Amish Family Recipes, is 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.

 

Lovina’s granddaughters went along with her to the book signing.

Contact: [email protected];  316-281-4413

‘Change isn’t always easy’ Central Prairie Co-op moves to seasonal service in two locations

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Guest Columnist
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Facing a decline in population, inflation and dwindling customers, the Geneseo branch of the Central Prairie Co-op will change from being open year-round to seasonal. On Tuesday morning, farmers and ranchers from around the community found out about the change at a standing-room-only, open meeting at the co-op, which is one of the few businesses left on Geneseo’s Main Street.

Geneseo, which boasts of slightly more than 230 residents, is in northern Rice County, about 15 miles from both Lyons and Bushton, where the company has other co-ops.

“It’s been an incredibly tough decision,” said Mike Corbus, the chief executive officer of Central Prairie Co-op, which is based out of Sterling, about 25 miles from Geneseo. “Change isn’t always easy. We’re not going to be here all the time for efficiency. Interest rates have gone through the roof. There are a lot of expenses.”

Central Prairie Co-op was formed in 2014 by the merger of the Farmers Cooperative Elevator Company of Nickerson and the Farmers Cooperative Union of Sterling. Although the co-op has stakeholders, it relies on its board of directors for guidance.

The company, which has decreased its footprint in the last several years, currently has 16 facilities that handle a variety of services from grain storage to gas stations to seed cleaning to merchandise sales.

Several of the 20 or so farmers who attended the meeting wanted to know why the company had not approached them before they made up their mind to change the Geneseo facility from full-time to seasonal.

“The full-service co-op has gone to a less-service co-op,” said David Kratzer, a fourth-generation farmer from Rice County. “Everybody here goes back generations. It’s a difficult situation.”

Many farmers in the group were frustrated, feeling that the company was not taking their base into consideration.

“It’s basically a cooperative that is supposed to be owned by the producers. In this case, the managers are telling the producers what to do,” said Jim Gray, a rancher in Rice County. “It’s extremely hurtful.

One farmer in the group said the company was not thinking about the individual people they were affecting, “You’re not taking into account that this business doesn’t affect just the farming and ranching community but the entire community.”

Shane Eck, the chief operating officer of the co-op told the group that times have changed, and they can no longer continue to operate the way they used to. The original Geneseo facility was built around 1887, one year after the town was founded. Back then, the town had around 400 residents, hitting its peak in 1950 with a population of roughly 660.

When these facilities were built, there were a lot of farms, a lot smaller, and they didn’t have the means to travel to get other services,” Eck said.

Both Eck and Corbus reminded the crowd that many farmers are going to the internet or other larger locations to buy what they need.

“(We) have other competitors that are cheaper, more efficient,” Corbus said. “As a co op, we’ve lost that business.”

Eck said that if the co-op does not make the ‘right’ decisions, they will no longer survive as a business.

“If it’s not profitable, it’s not a service that can be done,” he said. “It (Geneseo) will be open for harvest and seed. We are not closing.”

The company is also seasonalizing its Lorraine branch in Ellsworth County. Frederick, Whiteside and Alden are already on a seasonal schedule. Lorraine has a population of about 130; Frederick has less than 10; and Alden is at about 120 residents. The co-op will continue to offer year-round services in its other locations, including Partridge, Lyons, Sterling, Hutchinson and Little River.

As reported in The Hutchinson News

Kansas Horse Council Honors Veterinary For Service To Horse Industry

By
Frank Buchman
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Dr. Justin Janssen was presented the 2022 Bud Newell Award by the Kansas Horse Council (KHC) during the EquiFest of Kansas in Salina.
Honoring KHC founder Bud Newell, the award recognizes an individual who “has gone above and beyond for the equine industry of Kansas.” KHC Board President Kallie Emig made the presentation.
Dr. Janssen grew up in central Kansas and graduated from Kansas State University with his Bachelors in 1970 and finished his doctorate of veterinary medicine in 1972.
He opened Janssen Veterinary Clinic in Sheridan, Indiana, in 1977 with his wife Mary Janssen. He sold his clinic and moved his family back to Kansas in 2007. Throughout his career, Dr. Janssen has remained involved in several national and regional equine organizations.
He’s been chairman of the Hoosier Horse Fair, the Indiana High School Rodeo Association, and the Indiana Veterinary Medical Association. Dr. Janssen been an active member and contributing leader of the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the American Quarter Horse Association to just name a few.
“I could list a great number of other organizations and committees in which Dr. Janssen has dedicated his time and years of wisdom to, but we are here today to recognize his efforts within our very own Kansas equine industry,” Emig said.
First and foremost, Dr. Janssen served six years on the Board of Directors for the Kansas Horse Council including two years as president.
“He served as chairman for EquiFest of Kansas for five years and under his direction guided the KHC to bring the entire planning and execution of the event in house, as well as, guided the move of EquiFest to Salina.
“The impact and the changes Dr. Janssen made to the KHC are still present as we continue to pursue the direction and goals he selflessly guided us towards for several years, including the Legendary Horseman,” Emig said.
In addition to his time with the KHC and EquiFest, Dr. Janssen has served on the Livestock and Meat Industry Council, or the LMIC, for the last 13 years and is currently serving as the Vice President.
The LMIC is a Kansas organization working primarily with Kansas State University in which they are dedicated to promoting the development and growth of all segments of the livestock industry.
Through the LMIC, Dr. Janssen is heavily involved with the production of hosting the Stockmen’s Dinner the night before Cattlemen’s Day as well the Family and Friends Reunion in the fall, both events promoting involvement with the Animal Science Department at K-State.
Most recently, Dr. Janssen has spearheaded the campaign to build a new multipurpose Equine Facility at K-State. Not only has he been a key part in formatting the building plans, Dr. Janssen has spent time enlisting significant donations for this project, as well as, presenting the campaign on behalf of the LMIC at the Annual Governor’s Ag Summit meeting hosted by the Kansas Department of Agriculture in 2022.
Among his heavy involvement with the KHC and the LMIC, Dr. Janssen also helped establish the Kansas Equine Practitioners Group, to share in continuing education within equine veterinary medicine.
In addition, he is a veterinary mentor for the Future Equine Veterinarians at Kansas State. “You may be thinking that Dr. Janssen must spend most of his time volunteering on these committees and working towards the betterment of the equine industry of Kansas…. and he does,” Emig said.
“But I will now convince you that in fact serving the equine industry of Kansas seems to be the only thing Dr. Janssen does.”
In his spare time, he would tell you that he works on his hobbies, but even his hobbies are targeted at serving, volunteering, and donating to the equine industry.
Dr. Janssen has designed and continues to fabricate multiple portable equine stocks for veterinary medicine practice and sells them to veterinarians locally and across the United States.
The KSU Veterinary Health Center Equine Field Service Team has benefited from Dr. Janssen’s portable stocks for several years as they’re individually made by Dr. Janssen in his shop right outside his home.
In addition, he uses his skills in metal work and woodwork by donating items every year to the Kansas Horse Council Foundation such as hat racks, jewelry racks, bridle hangers, and saddle stands.
He also has built the rocking horses, teeter totters, and other toys used in the Kiddie Korral and generously donates the use of them each year for EquiFest.
“I could keep going about all the great things Dr. Janssen does, but I believe it is already undisputed the amount of time, effort and ultimately the effect Dr. Janssen has had on the equine industry of Kansas and that it is quite substantial,” Emig said.
“Thank you, Dr., Janssen for your commitment to the betterment of the Kansas equine industry with the Kansas Horse Council, as recipient of the 2022 Bud Newell Outstanding Service Award.”

CUTLINE
Dr. Justin Janssen was presented the 2022 Bud Newell Outstanding Service by Kallie Emig, president of the Kansas Horse Council, during the EquiFest of Kansas in Salina.

Riding Lessons

By
Lee Pitts
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lee pitts

The first thing in life I remember wanting to be was a jockey and the second thing was a professional basketball player. Alas, I was too big for one and too small for the other. So I figured that being a cowboy would be a better fit.

I hate to admit this but I’ve never had riding lessons in my life. I’ve never crossed an angry river on a horse, never rode a bronc in a rodeo and was never a member of the National Cutting Horse Association. I learned to ride sitting astride a saddle in my Grandpa’s “bunkhouse” which wasn’t really a bunkhouse at all but a shed filled with old bits, spurs, saddle blankets and two saddles sitting on stands. My favorite thing to do as a child was to go to Grandpa’s house where I’d head straight to his bunkhouse, mount up and play cowboy. My grandpa coached me, “Keep your heels, down, don’t jerk back on the reins and NEVER, under any circumstances grab the horn.” Or as he called called it, “reaching for the apple or squeezing the biscuit.”

My second favorite thing to do was ride the mechanical horse in front of the grocery store and I’m proud to say that neither the saddle stand or the mechanized equine ever bucked me off despite some really hairy predicaments. When I went to the county fair I always rode the horse on the carousel, not the ostrich, tiger, elephant or swan so at that point in my career I felt like I could ride anything that wore hair, wool or feathers.

Oh, I’d been on real horses before and have photographic evidence that I rode before I could walk, but I was always in the arms of Grandpa at a rodeo. It wasn’t until I was a sophomore in high school that I got on real horses and was a real cowboy. My best friend in high school lived on his grandfather’s ranch and every chance I got I went there to haul hay in exchange for riding horses. From the beginning I was assigned Buck, a horse that never did. Buck was the horse they always assigned to dudes, small children, infirm old timers and me. I loved that old horse. On a gentle horse like Buck everybody is an accomplished equestrian but simply polishing my pants on saddle leather didn’t make me any more of a cowboy than wearing spurs did. It wasn’t until I got my first job out of college as a cowboy that I had to ride rank horses. I wouldn’t say that any of the cribbers ever bucked me off but there were a few times I had to make an unscheduled dismount to tighten my cinch.

I wouldn’t necessarily call it “getting bucked off” either when one of those renegades with lethal tendencies took off at a lightning pace that would have won the All American in Ruidoso had he been there instead of a forest full of trees with low hanging branches, everyone of which tried to knock me out of the saddle. The whole time it was happening I kept hearing the words of my Grandpa, “Don’t jerk back on the the reins and NEVER grab the horn.” I wouldn’t say I was bucked off, it was more like I was scraped off.

If I ever had to ride one of those owlheads in the presence of my contemporaries I always hoped a rattler would bite my mount so he’d die and I’d have a good excuse for walking back to headquarters.

Years later when I had my own cow herd I always rode my horse Gentleman who must have been a son of Buck because he too never did. But one day Gentleman was busy trying to breed my neighbor’s Paint mare so he lent me one of his outlaws. Everything was fine until I tried to make him cross over a rock strewn stream. When he balked I may have tapped him a little with my spurs and the next thing you know I was knocking a hole in my chest with my chin. One minute I was soaring with eagles and the next thing I swimming with fishes.

It was then I formulated Lee’s theory on how to never get bucked off… never climb aboard in the first place.

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