Our horses had a nice treat when my husband Joe opened our gate to let them back into the pasture field. It looks like they are enjoying the green grass after a winter of eating hay. With warmer weather here we will also start the extra summer job of mowing grass now. Joe still needs to put fresh oil in the mowers and get them ready to go.
Saturday was a long, hard-working day for us. We left around 7:30 a.m. for my sister Emma and Jacob's house. Joe and Jacob began tearing down inside walls to rearrange their living quarters. They also are turning their attached garage into a bedroom. Right now everything is in a mess, but it will be nice for them once it is all done. Another bathroom is also being added. It seems you can never have too many bedrooms with a big family.
It was a lot of work to empty out the closets. They are storing a lot of things in their basement until this project is done. Emma and I and all the children helped in one way or another. There was a lot of dust to clean up with all the work being done.
Before we began we had breakfast -- fried eggs and potatoes, biscuits, gravy, cheese, milk, orange juice and coffee. Our lunch menu was grilled pork steak, asparagus-potato soup, rhubarb shortcake, a plain white cake and ice cream.
I bought a horseshoe-shaped cake pan at a garage sale this spring. The children were eager to see a how cake would look shaped like a horseshoe, so daughter Elizabeth made one and frosted it and edged it with chocolate chips to take over to Emma's. Needless to say, the children were all excited to see it and get to eat it. Quite a few of the children said they want a horseshoe cake for their birthday this year. So it looks like here at the Eichers we will be having a lot of horseshoe-shaped cakes over the months ahead!
Four-year-old Lovina is proud to be next in line to have a birthday. She says she will be a whole handful of fingers now. I enrolled her in school for this fall and what an eager little girl she was to be able to go to school with me.
Our youngest child, Kevin, will be so lost without any little ones here at home, although he can entertain himself playing in the sand or sitting on a swing singing his little variety of songs. Meanwhile, on the other end, Elizabeth, 14, will soon be done with her school years. She is glad to be done with school work and is looking forward to getting a few jobs. Elizabeth and Susan will also be detassling corn for a few months this summer.
Rhubarb is still in full swing. Last week I made three batches of rhubarb jam and the children are already enjoying it. Here is my recipe.
Rhubarb Preserves
5 c. finely diced rhubarb
4 c. white sugar
1 box (3 ozs.) strawberry gelatin
Combine rhubarb and sugar and let stand in a refrigerator overnight. The next morning boil for 5 minutes stirring constantly over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in gelatin until dissolved. Pour into jars and seal while hot or it can be frozen.
Lovina Eicher is Old Order Amish. She hand-writes this column from her home in southern Michigan. Anyone with cultural or cooking questions can send them to: Lovina Eicher, The Amish Cook, P.O. Box 2144, Middletown, OH 45042. Read all of her columns online at www.record-eagle.com/amishcook.
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