A Traditional Farm Life
By Shasta Hamilton
Greetings from Enterprise, dear friends! Here’s a news flash for you: Hollyhock Growing in sidewalk, Downtown Enterprise.
Maybe this is not exactly a front page headline, but it sure does fascinate me. Hollyhocks are traditional cottage-garden flowers that can grow 6 to 8 feet tall. They are one of the few flowers I am familiar with, as my mother and I brought hollyhock seed back with us from a trip to the former Mennonite vlllages in the Ukraine nearly twenty years ago. She planted them in her “heritage garden” in back of her house and since then they have gone to seed every year and popped up anywhere and everywhere.
So you can imagine my surprise last fall when I saw a young hollyhock popping up where a brick was dislodged in the cobblestone sidewalk in front of The Buggy Stop. Now that spring growth as begun, my little hollyhock friend is back again.
It now has three leaves, each growing larger everyday. So far it has not been stepped on by an unobservant pedestrian, but I wonder how long such good fortune can last. I’ve considered pulling all the weeds in the cracks around it, but might that perhaps draw unwanted attention to my little friend?
Aside from my sentimental attachment to hollyhocks in general, I’ve decided that I’m interested in the welfare of this particular hollyhock for one simple reason: It’s an underdog.
Everybody likes to cheer for the underdog, right? From basketball to the presidential election, it’s human nature to cheer on the team that doesn’t seem to have a chance.
The chances probably aren’t very good that my hollyhock friend will attain six-foot stature as a fixture of downtown Enterprise this summer, but I’ll be cheering for it from the sidelines—or sidewalk--as the case may be.
At home, I’ve been off the bench and placed center court lately with my trusty sewing machine, mending our 6-year-old’s overalls. Those brand-spanking-new dark blue denim beauties from last December have hardly faded, and yet every single pair is now sporting holes in the knees—and often in the “seat.”
This year’s size sevens are finally big enough I don’t have to rip out the side seam in order to sew on a knee patch, but it’s still a pain in the, well, “seat” to get the job done. Regardless, I’m glad to have an active little guy who works and plays so hard outside.
Our underdog theme this week even extends into the kitchen. I was paging through Marlene Anne Bumgarner’s The Book of Whole Grains over the weekend and was struck by her recipe for oatmeal. Cooked oatmeal for breakfast is a perennial porridge underdog here at the Hamilton’s, so Bumgarner’s glowing lead-in to her recipe immediately grabbed my attention:
“My husband [Henrik] wouldn’t eat oatmeal when we first met, and made nasty remarks about the consistency of every batch I made. Then a friend passed on her secret recipe, and oatmeal has been a favorite breakfast at our home ever since. The secret is out now, and for all of you who hate gummy porridge I predict many enjoyable bowls of this oatmeal.”
Predictably, I couldn’t wait to try out this “secret recipe” on my oatmeal hating brood. After all, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, right?
Alas, oatmeal is still an underdog at our house, but my dear husband (an oatmeal hater since his grandmother made him eat it plain without sugar as a child) conceded it was “better than usual.”
It certainly was not gummy at all, but both times we made this recipe there was liquid in the pan that was not fully absorbed. It also took about 10 minutes off heat, tightly covered, for the old-fashioned oats to fully soften. (Next time I try it I’ll probably reduce the water slightly.)
Are you game? Who knows--maybe Henrik’s Oatmeal will be a “slam dunk” on your home court!
Henrik’s Oatmeal
Bring to a boil:
1-1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raisins
Add to this:
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1. Stir once to moisten oats, cover tightly, and remove pan from heat. Allow to sit for 3-5 minutes. Serve with milk and honey. Yield: 2 servings.
Recipe taken from The Book of Whole Grains by Marlene Anne Bumgarner, page 58.
Shasta notes: 1/3 cup brown sugar can be added to the water before boiling in lieu of honey. Bring water to a full rolling boil; even so, 10 minutes were needed off heat for oats to fully absorb water. Cinnamon could also be added to taste.
Copyright © 2016 by Shasta Hamilton
Shasta is a fifth generation rural Kansan now residing in Enterprise, Kansas. She and her husband own and operate The Buggy Stop Home-Style Kitchen with their six home-schooled children. You can reach The Buggy Stop by calling (785) 200-6385 or visit them on the web at www.thebuggystoprestaurant.com .
No comments:
Post a Comment