Dear Mother: April/May 2007

(Page 4 of 9)

April/May 2007, Issue 221
Letters from our readers 
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ROSE BARTISS
Vermontville, New York

RELATED CONTENT

For more about the potential of wind power, see “News from Mother,” (April/May 2007).—Mother

Whole Wheat and Nothing But

The December/January 2007 issue contained a bread recipe developed to include “as much whole wheat as possible” in the bread (“Country Lore”), but it called for more white flour than whole wheat. You can make excellent bread using just whole wheat. I’m always amazed that even cookbooks written with health in mind contain recipes for “whole-wheat” bread that include white flour.

I make soft, moist, delicious bread every week without commercial yeast. The only ingredients are whole-wheat flour, salt, starter and water. Any baker can make a starter from flour and water, and then keep it going. This is simple; even Joy of Cooking describes how to do it. Once you create your starter, you will never return to boring white bread or store-bought yeast.

PETER DU BRUL
Browns Mills, New Jersey

Seeking a Scythe

I grew up in Slovenia on a small farm in the hills, where we grew everything like a medieval family. There were fruit and nut trees everywhere, and we mowed the orchards with scythes. Our cows often were housed inside. You cannot let the cows out to graze when it is too wet or too cold, or when the fruit on the trees is too tempting, or at certain times during their milking/calving cycles. We would scythe grass and bring it in for them, fresh in the evening, with enough leftovers for the morning.

For years, I’ve been looking for a good scythe. While reading “Our 21st Century Homestead” (December/January 2007) I noticed that Harvey Ussery’s scythe looks pretty good in the picture. Did he make it himself? I think that even my dad would approve of it, and he has high standards for a scythe! I have heard him say disparaging things about other people’s scythes: awkward, wrong angle, wrong height, handle too short or too long, too heavy, and let’s not talk about the blades! Of course, every scyther has to know how to sharpen the blade with a stone every once in a while.

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