Applesauce Bonanza

Applesauce apples ripen around the 4th of July every year.

Many people think of harvesting apples in the fall. This is true of most varieties of apples, but not Lodi or Yellow Transparent. These sour types create the best texture and flavor for home-made applesauce. My wife grew up helping her grandmother and mother can and freeze orchard and garden produce.

 After I picked apples for three evenings, my wife washed and cut out cores, removing as little as possible in order to increase the output. I helped by ladling cooked apples into a colander. 

We poured the strained, cooked apples into our "victorian strainer" and filled our cake pans with raw applesauce. My main job is cranking the strainer and ladling the sauce into freezer boxes. Once it cools, add sugar to taste. No recipe-- just apples and sugar. We leave it rather sour and add cinnamon-sugar when we put it on our plate, or at the time of serving.

We put up 77 quarts into our freezer. I know-- this sounds like a ton! However, appletrees have "on and off years." Some growing seasons produce oodles of apples, but you never know what next year will be like. We had a late frost this year and it might have destroyed our crop. It turned out to be an apple bonanza! I prayed for these trees when I planted them in 2002 as a birthday gift for my wife. Prayers answered: they grew and produce well. The message in her card said, "There will be two beautiful bouquets of apple blossoms every spring that say: I love Shari." (and her applesauce) 

Our children grew up eating my wife's AMAZING applesauce and now my grandchildren are enjoying the same. In the photo below, you can see our Yellow Transparent appletrees just to the right of my balding head. My granddaughter is riding on Karma, our Amish raised horse.

Our whole family LOVES Shari's home-made applesauce with her home-made pizza!

There is an applesauce apple picking story in Under the Heavens

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Seeds of Hope

After weeks of hitching my horses whenever the weather and my schedule cooperated, we finally planted sweet corn with the hope of yielding a delicious crop.

I'm a letter carrier for the United States Postal Service. We have been busy right through the Pandemic. This meant working on our sweet

corn project in the evenings.

 Karma and Karla got a workout as we tried to break up our plowed ground. We should have plowed this area last fall. However, last fall was so wet. If you look closer at the photo below you can see the thick slabs of soil that dried out before I got a chance to disc them up. All said, I hitched these girls 6 times to prepare the soil, and the 7th time we planted sweet corn.

My brother-in-law planted corn with a modern-day John Deere planter (In the photo above) while I disc up my plowed ground with horses.

We added a harrow section behind the disc. The harrow combs the soil, smoothing everything into a better seedbed. (In the photo above) In the lower right corner of the picture, you can see the lines where the disc rolled over the clods. In the lower lefthand part of the picture, where the harrow refined our work.

We passed over the rough sections many times before the ground seemed ready.

Then Karma and Karla brought out our little two-row John Deere planter. All of my implements are the style used in the early 1900s. It amazes me that they are still functional even though they are around 100-years-old.

Working with horses and antique equipment gives me the sensation of time travel. I feel somehow connected to the past and those who used these very implements over all the years.

My old John Deere planter is designed to cut a track, drop kernels, and gently pack the soil closed. The wheels are flanged perfectly for closing the soil over the seed.

Now everything is planted, in hope of a good harvest. These pictures were taken several weeks ago and now our sweet corn is emerging. However, this growing season hasn't been ideal and the stalks are small. I'll share more later.

Click here to learn about my books: Books by Thomas Nye

Plowing through a Pandemic

 Life has to go on, Pandemic or not. Karma and Karla are ready and willing to help do their part. We pulled our plow out of the barn and brushed off cobwebs. This Emerson plow is over a hundred years old. No doubt, it broke up soil during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918. That's the year my wife's parents moved onto this farm.

 My horses and I are working to get this plot ready for sweet corn. I'll try and do more posts as we progress and let you see more of the process.

I've been following the pandemic through the news. Iowa Public Radio does a fine job of keeping us informed. Just recently, I discovered that one of my favorite radio personalities lives on my mail route. I knew the name but didn't make the connection until last week.

Another of my favorite news sources happens to be The Irish Times podcast. They do a daily Confronting Coronavirus podcast with great information. Not only do I LOVE listening to Irish voices but I find it useful to know what people outside of the U.S. are experiencing. 

Here are a few of my personal observations: We, here in Iowa, and everyone in the world are facing very similar struggles. We all have moments of fear. Only the Lord knows how this will all end. We also experience some beautiful lessons. Many of us have learned what benefits a slower lifestyle can provide. We've been made aware of the value of freedom, family, and friends. Some people are making the most of this timeout. Others are in survival mode. Most of us have a mixture of both good and bad. My Irish friends have been encouraging me to let both happen. Enjoy the good experiences and lessons without putting pressure on ourselves to be productive.

Many authors are finding it difficult to focus on writing, as I have. We find ourselves distracted. My Iowa Public Radio friends explained that the desire to watch too much news is a survival instinct. Our subconscious minds are searching for information that will take away the unknown element.

One of my daughters expressed that she had been feeling depressed lately. I encouraged her by saying, "The world is experiencing unprecedented suffering through illness, job loss, and isolation. We might not comprehend everything with our conscious mind; however, our souls feel the weight of it all."

 It got dark before we could finish on our first outing. We were able to finish the second time out. Karma grazes just outside of the fence, showing our completed plowing project. Meanwhile, we'll keep plowing through this pandemic.

Would you be interested in reading about life on an Amish farm?

Click on this link: Books by Thomas Nye

Amish and the Coronavirus

The Amish and the whole world stand by, watching to see how the Covid-19 pandemic will play out. This might be the first time in history when the entire globe is unified as we confront a common enemy.

I had a long visit with my good friend (who happens to be Amish ) on Friday. We began talking about our favorite topic, horses. However, all conversations at this moment lead to Coronavirus.
My Amish friend gave me reason to pause and rethink a few things.

I thought: I will be a valuable source of information for him. After all, I'm privileged to have access to all forms of enlightenment through my phone, radio, TV, and computer.

As I began sharing what "I knew" he started to chuckle. I thought: oh no- my poor friend is doubting what I know to be fact.

As we talked, I tried to convince him of "my truth." I slowly realized that he didn't see me as a source of information at all. Not because he didn't trust me but because I got my information from through media he didn't trust.

Isn't this is a huge problem for us all? Our political leaders, and the president himself, have convinced Americans that we can't trust our news sources.

My Amish friend and I began to discuss "social distancing." It quickly became clear to me that we who are not Amish have already become "socially distant." We are very comfortable sitting in front of our TV to fulfill our need for human interaction. If that isn't enough- we text, zoom, skype, facetime, marco-polo, or whatever.

Amish people, by and large, do all of their communicating face-to-face.

This is not to mention, Amish live with extended family. Restrictions about not meeting in groups of ten or more would rule out most Amish families having supper together.

I am very concerned about my Amish friend and for all Amish everywhere. They might live on farms that are spread out over the countryside, but they are extremely socially interconnected. Amish have a strong tradition of keeping their elderly in their homes.

Modern Americans (westerners) have become obsessed with germs. Amish people have not. If you have spent any amount of time with Amish families, you know that they pass around cups to share a drink of water without a thought.

My conversation with my Amish friend ended with him giving me advice. 

"We all need to pray. Only God can deliver us."

As you do your praying... please pray for our Amish friends.

Amish Winter Wonderland

 An Amish buggy sloshes through the falling snow. I love seeing horse hoofprints between buggy tracks.

These pictures were taken over the past few years. I live near Kalona, Iowa and Amish farm country.

 Winter skies have a unique "blueness" that accents snowy scenes perfectly.

White Amish barns and houses are beautiful with a blanket of snow.

 Though everything looks cold... there is nothing quite as inviting as stepping into a straw-filled stall near a team of workhorses. Draft horses weigh about a ton each and you can only imagine how much body heat they emanate. 

 It is quite common for Amish to heat their homes with wood. Nothing can be as cozy as the crackling of firewood, and that sweet scent of smoke...add that aroma to freshly baked bread and/or cinnamon rolls...perfection!

 Hanging wash on a clothesline during the winter months would be the downside of Amish life.

 Keeping livestock fed and watered during winter months can be a full-time job.

 Fences and leafless trees line snow-covered farm fields.

 Horses wait for their humans to begin morning chores. They often whinny when they see someone step out of the house and head toward the barn.

 Days are short this time of year. Every drop of sunlight is appreciated.

 Gardens lay dormant, the ground is frozen solid.

 Silos are full of chopped cornstalks that were cut while still a little green. 

 Amish teens love to play ice-hockey. Amish children break out their sleds at the first snowfall and don't seem to notice the cold.

 Amish horses keep clip-clopping year-round. It's fun to see puffs of breath billowing out as horses trot down the road.

Amish Farm Fall Tour

Who doesn't enjoy Fall? 

Let's take a tour through Amish farm country as the season and leaves turn.

Horses under brightly colored trees.

 Sunlight breaking through the leaves in heavenly rays.

You can almost smell the apples!

Above: a horse rests while at a hitching rack. 

Above: A young Amish woman heads into Kalona, Iowa. She gave me a friendly wave just before I snapped this pic. It's common for Amish in Iowa to wave to all who are friendly enough to greet them.

Above: Crisp fall air, drying clothes on a line. Amish families often use a pulley system to hang clothes on a line. If you look closely, you can see the pulley on a pole near the windmill. This way the person hanging out the wash can stand in one spot and move the line forward as they hang the laundry.

Above: an Amish woman rides her bike along a crackling crisp field of corn.

The leaves began to fall away as we get closer to Thanksgiving.

Horses stand in what little shade is left. A few weeks from now they'll be standing under the sunshine trying to soak it in.

Children from a plain Mennonite group play on a playground. Light jackets are all they need.

Interested in reading about Thanksgiving on an Amish farm. My story, The Thanksgiving Frolic is the third novella in "Love's Thankful Heart"

Click on this link:
LOVE'S THANKFUL HEART

Author Thomas Nye on RFD TV

RFD TV will take you inside the barn with Thomas Nye and His Amish Horses.

Joe Mischka of Rural Heritage (Magazine and TV Series) interviews author Thomas Nye about his experience of buying a team of horses from an Amish friend. And how that adventure led him to write The Amish Horses Series.

They begin their conversation at the kitchen table and move outdoors to harness and hitch his team of Percheron draft horses.

Set your DVR and/or mark the date on your calendar.

A 30-minute program on Saturday, Nov. 9th will air nationwide at 2:30 Central Time as Rural Heritage presents Amish Horses in Print.

Rural Heritage airs each Tuesday at 3:30 pm and the show repeats Saturday at 2:30 pm Central Time on channel 239 on Mediacom Cable, Channel 345 on Direct TV, Channel 231 on DISH Network.

This show is a repeat that originally aired in October of 2018

Click here for show schedule: Rural Heritage on RFD TV

Click here to find RFD TV in your area

Click here to see the Thomas Nye author page on Amazon: Author Thomas Nye



The program is also available on Youtube. Click on the link to watch.Amish Horses in Print on Youtube.