Tag Archives: cabbage

Sewing, doctor’s appointments, and sweet and sour cabbage

Greetings from Michigan! Son Kevin just left for school. The sky is starting to lighten up. Thermometer is at the 59-degree mark.

Son Joseph left for work at 4:30 a.m. My husband Joe is fishing with a few other men from our church. I think fishing is one of his biggest stress relievers. It will be good to have fish in the freezer again.

Tuesday was a nice day for the wedding of nephew Marvin and Lori. Next week is Joe’s nephew Morris and Annie’s wedding in Kentucky. Annie is a daughter of my cousin Dave. Dave’s father Chris was my mother’s only brother, and our families were always together growing up. My sisters Verena and Susan are also invited, so plans are that they also go with our family.

Tuesday was also the funeral of son-in-law Mose’s 89-year-old grandmother Marie. Our sympathy to the family.

Our thoughts and prayers also go to the family in Vermontville, Michigan that lost their three children in an accident on the way home from school. I cannot imagine the sorrow this family is experiencing in losing a 13-year-old son and 10- and 8-year-old daughters. Their 6-year-old son was hurt and taken to the hospital. May God provide strength for this family to cope with the terrible loss. God makes no mistakes but it is our human nature to question why. God be with them!

Nephew Steven (son of sister Emma and Jacob), age 12, is having surgery today at C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor. It’s the same surgery son Kevin had, but Steven is getting both feet done at the same time. Daughter Loretta was 12 when she had the same surgery on both feet. Steven has limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2A also. We wish him a complete and speedy recovery! We have had three children have this kind of surgery done and it did help. Dr. Caird is also Steven’s surgeon, so he will have the best of care. When Steven was a baby, he had heart surgery at the same hospital, but Mott has a new hospital since then.

Son Benjamin, 20, is off work this week from the RV factory. They aren’t having production this week. Sure hope work picks up in the future.

Benjamin is doing a lot of jobs around home. He is getting our buggies repaired and has some of the wheels off and has taken them over to the buggy shop.

Son Kevin has an appointment at the doctor today and I’m not sure if a buggy will be ready to take us. Looks like our pony Stormy and the pony cruiser will have to do the job for Kevin and me. Our doctor’s office is on the outskirts of town so we won’t have more than five miles to travel.

I sewed a few shirts and a dress yesterday. Today I want to cut out and sew more shirts. The boys are low in good shirts and they never get new shirts for weddings so I thought I’ll sew for them this time.

Grapes are also ready at the U-pick but will be better picking next week, so I hope we can go pick some before we leave for Kentucky.

Benjamin picked our tomatoes and I sent them home with sister Emma and Jacob. Their tomatoes didn’t do so well. I am done with tomatoes this year except for fresh eating. I will be glad once the grape juice is done.

Last week I answered a question from a reader but the question was left out so it might have been confusing to you. The question was: what kind of gifts are given at weddings (to the bride and groom)? The answer was tools, Tupperware, towels, dishes, kitchen items, bedding or anything useful. I have also seen folding tables, chairs, grills, etc., given. There is much more, but most gifts are to help the couple start their own home and yes, sometimes they get multiples of something, but those can be given to someone else as a gift if not needed.

Space is running out so until next week—God bless!

 

Sweet and Sour Cabbage

 1 medium head cabbage

Syrup:
3 cups water
2–3 tablespoons vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
2 tablespoons bacon grease

 

Coarsely shred or chop cabbage.

Mix syrup ingredients in a cook pot and bring to a boil. Add chopped cabbage, turn heat down to simmer and cook 20–30 minutes or until tender. Variation: Try purple cabbage.

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her newest cookbook, The Essential Amish Cookbook, is available from the publisher, Herald Press, 800-245-7894. Readers can write to Eicher at PO Box 1689, South Holland, IL 60473 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply); or email LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org and your message will be passed on to her to read. She does not personally respond to emails.

Just like young women everywhere, newly married Elizabeth consults Mom

Applesauce1
Jars of freshly canned applesauce won’t last long in the Eicher pantry!

Dear Readers:

Hi! I’m Lovina’s oldest daughter Elizabeth. I’m not as good as Mom at writing this column but decided to give it a try again. It’s been several years ago that I last wrote it for Mom.

As you all know I am now married to Timothy Bontrager. Home is seven miles from my family. I enjoy my new life as Timothy’s wife. It was a big change and I miss not being with my family every day.

I still work at the RV factory. This week it’s shut down so I’m enjoying my time off. Yesterday, I spent the day with Mom and my sisters Susan, 19, Verena, 17, and Loretta, 15. Tim harnessed up our mare, Shiann, and hitched her to the buggy for me before he left for work. I left soon after he did and arrived at Mom and Dad’s right at daylight. Shiann’s a very safe and gentle horse—my favorite! We had an enjoyable day.

I arrived home just as Tim came up from hunting. He was excited as he had just shot his fourth deer—this time a big seven-point buck. We took our horse Prince out back and had him drag the buck up. Tim shot all four deer with his bow this season, supplying us with plenty of meat.

Monday I canned 34 pints of venison chunks. It was the first time I used the pressure cookers. We received two pressure cookers as wedding gifts from Uncle Jacob and Aunt Emma and Tim’s brother Joseph, Jr. and Rachel. I had to disturb Mom with a couple phone calls and a hand full of questions each time. With Mom’s help I got all the chunks canned.

Today is a rainy, chilly, fall day. The trees in our yard are looking very bare without their leaves. I suppose winter isn’t too far away. I’m planning on mending clothes today. Timothy has quite a few work pants that have holes or missing buttons.

We have 31 acres, some wooded and some tillable. There’s a creek that runs along the north side of our property. At times when everything is quiet, I can hear the water ripple from the house. Tim hasn’t got the entire fence up yet, but has enough up for our four horses. We also have seven ducks but they aren’t as tame as my siblings’ (Lovina, 11, and Kevin, 10), two ducks, Donald and Daisy.

Tomorrow Mom and my sisters are going to spend the day here helping me give my house a thorough cleaning. I never gave the windows, walls, etc. a good scrubbing yet. I’ll be glad for the help. Our two house dogs Izzy and Crystal will be excited for the company. They don’t get the attention that they did when I lived at home.

The other day I got curious as to how much our dogs weigh now so I decided to weigh them on the bathroom scales. Crystal sat on it, weighing 9.8 pounds. Then it was Izzy’s turn so I placed her on the scales and after a couple of seconds the screen flashed “ERROR!” I ended up using the kitchen scales which showed that Izzy weighed 3.8 pounds. She was probably too small for the bathroom scales to read her weight. We got a good chuckle out of the whole episode.

Thanks to all you readers that took the time to send Timothy and me a wedding card, gift, or money. That was very kind and generous of all of you! We appreciated it very much! Thanks again!

Special thanks goes to Ruth, a good friend of my Mom’s for all the things she did for us over the time of our wedding. Also thanks to Rachel for bringing my pen pal Marcella to the wedding from Minnesota so that we could meet! The last, but most important thanks go to my wonderful parents and siblings for going through all they did to make our wedding day possible. Without them I wouldn’t be who I am today.

Tim and I plan to try making summer sausage and jerky with the venison meat from this last deer. Hopefully it will turn out okay.

Best wishes and God’s blessings to all as you travel into the unknown future!

* * *

Note from Lovina: I am thankful to daughter Elizabeth for stepping up to write the column this week. I am sure you will be glad to hear from her again! A reader shared this recipe with me and says it’s a winner everywhere she takes it.

BBQ Kraut

1 pound hamburger browned with onion, salt, and pepper to taste
32 ounces sauerkraut, drained
2 cups tomato juice
1 cup brown sugar

Brown hamburger and seasonings, drain grease. Combine remaining ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes. One cup diced tomatoes can be substituted for one cup of the juice.

 

Lovina Eicher is an Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife and mother of eight. Formerly writing as The Amish Cook, Eicher inherited that column from her mother, Elizabeth Coblentz, who wrote from 1991 to 2002. Readers can contact Eicher at PO Box 1689, South Holland, IL 60473 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply) or at LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org.