Country Echoes
MAE BABER, R.D.2, Brandon, Wisconsin
Stone-ground whole wheat flour plays quite a large part in our
family. Five pounds of it goes into every baking of bread our
family eats.
For several years I have baked dark bread for the family and
asked me, ‘Mom, do you have the recipe for your bread in some
safe place in case the house should burn down sometime, or
something?’ He went on to suggest the safety deposit box. In
case you think I am bragging, THIS is absolute truth. He even
avowed one day that he would never marry any girl who didn’t
bake bread, and I had to teach her. Hmmm! I wonder!
Perhaps THIS is what gave me the great interest in a stone burr
flour mill I saw last summer. It was one of the interesting
displays at the Fond du Lac Steam Show. Arthur J. Terens of
Manitowoc was the owner. This mill was 200 years old and was
brought from Germany by a Maiers family for use in a Kummer family.
It originally was run by horse power. ‘STONE-GROUND’ on my
whole wheat package has meant a great deal more to me since that
exhibit. To think of my flour being ground between two flat stones
intrigues me no end.
My husband and I also met two most interesting people there.
Ralph Coon of Junction City, Oregon was one of them. He was a
flying Steam Engine Man. His itinerary at the time sounded like
thisChicago, Toledo, Detroit, Buffalo, Niagara, Atlanta, Macon,
Miami, New Orleans, San Francisco, where he had a son, Sacremento,
where he had a daughter, and then on home. He was formerly a
farmer. He gave me the wanderlustand me with brown bread to
bake.
It was while we were looking at a home-made horse power gadget
that I spied a lady sitting in a car drawing a picture. Her models
were the two horses tied to a nearby truck. The horses had been
used on this aforementioned gadget. It seems they were hitched to
it and driven in a circle to create the needed power. This may well
have been what was used on the burr mill at one time .
But getting back to the lady she was Hildegarde Heusinger of
Milwaukee. She hadn’t been in our country too long but spoke
English well enough so that we conversed easily. She did excellent
work and was most charming. She had come here from Germany.
I wonder if you have ever seen a miniature merry-go-round? There
were two on the grounds that day, both steam propelled. One was
owned by C. R. Dickinson of Richfield. The little dolls which were
the passengers he had obtained from a lady in California. They were
imported from England. The wee horses had come from Austria and all
had their heads turned toward the revolving center. The figures
were exquisitely made and delightful. He planned it to represent
the era of the early nineteen hundreds. It took him three years to
complete this.
The other exhibit was made by several people and equally as
interesting. Virgil Gilbert, of Sullivan, made the merry-go-round
and ferris wheel, his son-in-law, Richard Garrity, the tiny engine
to run it. This outlay was complete with small tickets made by Tom
Garrity and there was even a miniature flag made by Martie Peterson
of Waukesha. A little, jogging colored man even got into the act.
Such imagination!
So it went from flour mills to artists, flying farmers to
merry-go-rounds. That was the Fond du Lac Steam Show of 1962. It
was the best one they have had, I’m sure.
Now that winter has visited us again and spring is just around
the corner there are other things of interest. I have absorbed
several good books, among them, Day by Day Andrew Murray, Signal
Flares Ben Browne, Jesus Says to You Daniel Poling, Beyond
Ourselves Catherine Marshall, and of course I am always reading
poetry whenever I can lay my hands on it. All this is in addition
to the Bread of Life, The Holy Bible.
It is said that when Sir Walter Scott was approaching the end of
his life he said, ‘Bring me the Book!’ The question came
back, ”What book?’ To which he replied, ‘There is
no other book, The Bible, of course!’ In the final analysis Sir
Walter was entirely right, wasn’t he? There is no other book we
need so much or that can do so much for us. How much better our
world would fare in 1963 if all men felt as Sir Walter.
In case you want to bake eleven or more loaves of bread in 1963
here is my recipe, my own creation, and Mmmn ‘GO-OD’ as
Andy Griffith says. Besides all of that it gives you lots of steam
and the recipe is large enough to invite all the threshing crew in
and fill ’em plumb full. I simply call it ‘Health
Bread.’
18 cups of liquid (I use mostly milk, some water.) 1 cup sugar
3- TBLS. salt 1/5 lb. of lard (approximately) 1/4 lb. bakers yeast
or 2-9cent Pkgs. 5 pounds of King Midas Stone Ground flour (Whole
Wheat) 1/3 can of Kretchmers Wheat Germ Enough white flour to form
a hard loaf. Knead well. Let rise in greased pan until doubled in
bulk. Knead down and let it rise again. Turn out on floured board
and shape into loaves. It is helpful to let the dough rest a few
minutes after working down. Let rise in tins and bake 20 minutes at
400 degrees F., then turn oven to about 325 and finish baking for
forty more minutes. Have loaves well greased.