Whiteley Creek Homestead

cast iron dutch oven

I have a new love. My Lodge Pro-Logic P10D3 pre-seasoned Cast Iron 4-quart Dutch Oven from Amazon. The capacity is perfect for Dick and I. For my eldest daughter, her husband, and four children, the Lodge Pro-Logic P12D3 Cast Iron 7-quart Dutch Oven is an appropriate size.

The first meal I chose to prepare in my Dutch oven was a whole chicken. (Pay no mind to my trussing. Go here for a proper how-to.) After we had consumed every bit of tenderness, I put the bones in my slow cooker to simmer low and slow for a long while to make bone broth.

My pot does not sit idle. For lunch today, we ate the last two bowls of ground bison veggie soup to warm us on a chilly winter's day.

 

dark chocolate buttercrunch

This recipe for Dark Chocolate Buttercrunch from King Arthur Flour tastes like a Heath Bar. It requires close monitoring of the candy's temperature using a thermometer, but otherwise it is so simple. I made some to tuck alongside the Star Provisions' Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies that I mailed to my youngest daughter. Packaged in a little red partitioned box, the dark chocolate looked so pretty alongside the white meringue cookies. I made a few minor changes, which I noted in the recipe below.

King Arthur Flour’s Dark Chocolate Buttercrunch

1 cup = 2 sticks butter* (I used ¾ cup = 1 ½ sticks.)

1 ½ cups sugar

3 tbsp water

1 tbsp light corn syrup

2 cups diced pecans or slivered almonds, toasted (I used 1 ½ cups pecans.)

1 lb semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped or 2 2/3 cups chocolate chips (I used 1-12 oz bag semisweet chocolate chips.)

*If using unsalted butter, add ½ tsp salt.

In a large, deep saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the sugar, water and corn syrup, and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil gently, over medium heat, until the mixture reaches hard-crack stage which is 300° on an instant-read or candy thermometer. The syrup will bubble without seeming to change much for awhile, but be patient; all of a sudden it will darken, and at that point you need to take its temperature and see if it’s ready. (If you don’t have a thermometer, test a dollop in ice water; it should immediately harden to a brittleness sufficient that you’ll be able to snap it in two, without any bending or softness.) This whole process should take about 10 to 12 minutes. Pay attention; too long on the heat, and the syrup will burn. While the sugar mixture is gently bubbling, spread half of the nuts, in a fairly closely packed, even single layer, on a lightly greased baking sheet. Top with half the chocolate. When the syrup is ready, pour it quickly and evenly over the nuts and chocolate. Immediately top with remaining chocolate, then the remaining nuts. (I used all of the nuts on the bottom layer.) Wait several minutes, then gently, using the back of a spatula, press down on the chocolate-nut layer to spread the chocolate around evenly. While the candy is still slightly warm, use a spatula to loosen it from the baking sheet. When cool, break into uneven chunks. Yield: about 24 big bite-sized pieces.

star provisions' chocolate chip meringue cookies

On November 29, 2013, our youngest daughter took Dick and I to lunch at Star Provisions at Westside Urban Market 1198 Howell Mill Road Atlanta. When we returned to Atlanta the following spring, I flipped through the pages of a newspaper left behind on a bench outside a coffee shop. Featured in the food section of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thursday, April 24, 2014 was a recipe from Star Provisions. I saved it. Fast forward eight months to December 2014. Christmas is a week away. I remembered the Star Provisions' recipe that I had saved from the newspaper... Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies. Reminiscent of fluffy mounds of snow, it would be a perfect winter cookie to send to my daughter in Atlanta... to remember the times we had spent together there. I got busy in my kitchen. She loved the cookie and the minimal ingredients and simple prep were a bonus.

The recipe makes 15 cookies using a two-tablespoon scoop. (I made 32 cookies using a one-tablespoon measuring spoon.) The recipe says to bake the cookies for 45 minutes at 200 degrees. I found that it took 1 hr 45 min for the egg whites inside the cookie to get done. Later, when I compared Star Provisions' directions to King Arthur Flour's Meringues, my baking time jived with KAF's recommendation. Here are KAF's baking instructions: "Place the meringues in the oven. After 30 minutes, reduce the oven heat to 225°F, and continue to bake for another 1 to 2 hours. For a meringue that's chewy on the inside after cooling (when you break it open, it will still be soft) bake for the shorter time (about 1 hour). When the cookie is finished its center will measure 165°F on an instant-read thermometer. For crunchy-all-the-way-through meringues, bake them for the longer time (about 2 hours). To test if they're done, pick one up; it should feel very light. Tap the bottom; it should feel hollow. Break one open; it should be dry. Taste the broken one while it's still warm; it should melt in your mouth. When the meringue is finished it should be almost white, with just a hint of color around the bottom. Turn off the oven, prop the door open and allow the meringues to cool on the pan in the oven for 30 minutes."

anthropologie

Imagining a little gnome waiting to greet me on the other side of the door, I reach for the handle on the oversized entrance door. Then I stop. The magical window display takes my breath away. Anthropologie is an adventure before even entering the shop.

Upon entering the store, there is a flow. A serene, calming, slow-the-pace rhythm. Really, it's what we do in our homes by arranging furniture and grouping meaningful items to create cozy niches that bring intimacy to a space. Anthropologie masterfully accomplishes this on a much larger scale, often in an old architecturally unique building. Creatively quirky artistic expression is all around, often using common materials in uncommon applications. Take note of the details. Each carefully selected product, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant, is given equal care and attention. I immediately fell in love with the hand-drawn, natural-colored packaging of these handmade goat milk caramels from Big Picture Farm in Vermont.

It was the packaging, the black and white reindeer mugs stacked alongside, and the rustic wood and metal farmers table they sat upon that drew me in... and my youngest daughter, who is an Anthropologie visual manager. As a young child, along with her two sisters, she created elaborate stores in the unfinished basement of our home. They played for hours creating merchandise, displays, and signs for their individual storefronts. Now, as an adult, the marketing strategies and accompanying retail-specific language is more advanced, but... the environment remains the same. She still plays. In her store.  

a little bit

"A little bit about me before you go... " This phrase has been floating around in my brain... song lyrics, I think. Each of us has a story... a song. Here's mine.

 

 

Hello. My name is Adrienne Cahoon (a.k.a. "queen of the meadow blooms"). I grew up in a family of fourteen on a 160-acre farm ten miles southeast of Brainerd. I attended first grade in a one-room schoolhouse 1-1/2 miles from my childhood home. The following year, schools were consolidated and we were bused into Brainerd. Throughout my childhood, I helped tend gardens and fields on the acreage that my father farmed in addition to his full-time job with the Minnesota State Highway Department. I had an apron-clad stay-at-home mom who baked made-from-scratch fresh from the oven bread and cookies for when I got off the school bus. It is from this background that I developed a love for all facets of homekeeping, gardening, land stewardship, and related environmental issues. During my eleven years as a full-time classroom teacher (six years in Minnesota and five years in Florida), I was selected 1996 Conservation Education Teacher of the Year for the state of Florida and recipient of Disney's 1996 Teacherrific $3000.00 Top Program Award for a school-wide waste management system utilizing composting. In 1993, I earned a Master of Science Degree in Curriculum and Instruction and completed my Master Gardener certification through the University of Minnesota in March 2000. In 1999, I opened Whiteley Creek Homestead Bed and Breakfast on the property where my husband, Dick, and I have lived since our marriage in 1974. We closed our business at the conclusion of the 2016 season to allow us the flexibility that retirement allows. I have three daughters. My eldest daughter lives in New York with her husband and five children. She is a full-time wife and mother with a background in graphic design as well as an author and illustrator of children's books. My middle daughter lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children where she is co-owner of a graphic design business. My youngest daughter lives and works in Atlanta as a visual manager for Anthropologie.

dirt roads

Growing up southeast of Brainerd on a farm surrounded by dirt roads all around, life took on a slower pace. Recently, paved roads have encroached within one mile on two sides of where the old homestead still remains, but the "washboard" gravel road thus far hasn't been covered over with asphalt in the name of progress. Agates are fewer in number than when I collected them forty plus years ago walking down the dusty road to the swimming beach 1 1/4 miles away, but the breeze rustling the trees with no noise of airplanes, cars, or trains is the same now as then. The half-mile long driveway that leads to my present home, where Dick and I have shared our life for thirty-five years, has become a bed and breakfast symbolic of the richly simple life I had as a child. Bob C., a longtime friend, shared this Dirt Roads message that encapsulates all the feelings that I have never sat down to express on paper. (My brother, Greg, has his arm around me in this 1955 photo. Dick likes think it is him instead.)

 

Dirt Roads by Paul Harvey

What's mainly wrong with society today is that too many dirt roads have been paved.

There's not any problem in America today… crime, drugs, education, divorce, delinquency… that wouldn't be remedied, if we just had more dirt roads, because dirt roads give character.

People that live at the end of dirt roads learn early on that life is a bumpy ride… that it can jar you right down to your teeth sometimes, but it's worth it, if at the end is home... a loving spouse, happy kids and a dog.

We wouldn't have near the trouble with our educational system if our kids got their exercise walking a dirt road with other kids, from whom they learn how to get along.

There was less crime in our streets before they were paved. Criminals didn't walk two dusty miles to rob or rape, if they knew they'd be welcomed by five barking dogs and a double barrel shotgun… and there were no drive by shootings.

Our values were better when our roads were worse. People did not worship their cars more than their kids and motorists were more courteous; they didn't tailgate by riding the bumper or else the guy in front would choke you with dust and bust your windshield with rocks. Dirt roads taught patience.

Dirt roads were environmentally-friendly… You didn't hop in your car for a quart of milk. You walked to the barn for your milk.

For your mail, you walked to the mailbox.

What if it rained and the dirt road got washed out? That was the best part… then you stayed home and had some family time, roasted marshmallows, popped popcorn, pony rode on Daddy's shoulders, and learned how to make prettier quilts than anybody.

At the end of dirt roads, you soon learned that bad words tasted like soap.

Most paved roads lead to trouble. Dirt roads more likely lead to a fishing creek or a swimming hole.

At the end of a dirt road, the only time we even locked our car was in August because, if we didn't, some neighbor would fill it with too much zucchini.

At the end of a dirt road, there was always extra springtime income from when city dudes would get stuck. You'd have to hitch up a team and pull them out. Usually you got a dollar...always you got a new friend...at the end of a dirt road.

battle of gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1-3, 1863 in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was a turning point in the American Civil War (April 12, 1861-April 9, 1865). The Union Army led by Maj. Gen. George Meade defeated Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army, but not without cost. Both armies experienced heavy losses. I remember learning of this battle in Mr. Engebretson's 10th grade American History class. Dick's and my visit to Gettysburg so many many years later, to retrace the steps of the soldiers who bravely fought this battle, was a field trip forty-six years overdue. Our visit began at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center where we viewed the film, "A New Birth of Freedom," which provided an overview of the American Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg.

We, then, moved on to a huge round room with concave walls covered with a 360 panoramic painting called a cyclorama depicting Pickett's Charge, which was Gen. Robert E. Lee's infantry's failed assault against the Union Army that marked the turning point of the Battle of Gettysburg thus ending the Confederate Army's attempt to invade the North. Wagon wheels, cannons, canteens, clothing, broken fences, and other three-dimensional relics of battle litter the foreground to create a diorama which adds depth to the realistic, detailed scene. As we stood in the center of the room, a narrator recounted the battle's major events while spotlights highlighted locations in the painting. The black and white photo is the French artist, Paul Philippoteaux, who, along with a team of assistants, sketched the topography and key areas in the battlefield and interviewed veterans of the battle before beginning the oil painting which took over a year and one-half to complete. 

Informational markers along a 24-mile route identify key chronological events during the 3-day Battle of Gettysburg. One location known as Devil's Den (left photo) is a hill strewn with huge boulders that shielded Confederate sharpshooters from Union soldiers occupying Little Round Top which can be seen off in the distance above the rock barricade. (Right Photo) Adjacent to the battlefield is the 189-acre Eisenhower Farm. The farm was purchased in 1950 by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. After completing two terms as president (1953-1961), he retired to the farm with First Lady Mamie Eisenhower living there until his death in 1969. Mamie continued to live at the farm until her death in 1979. The farm became a national historical site after the Eisenhower's gifted the farm to the federal government in 1967. It was opened for public tours in 1980. Tickets can be purchased at the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor Center where a shuttle is taken to the farm. After completing the three hour driving tour of the battlefield, there was not enough time remaining to tour the farm. We will return.     

The Henry Ford (1863-1947) Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan followed by Thomas Edison's (1847-1931) factories, lab, and home in West Orange, New Jersey then the American Civil War's (1861-1865) Battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania were three destinations that fit together so perfectly in one trip.

1955 homestead

I received a photo calendar from my sister Marlene for Christmas. One of my favorite childhood photos is of my brother Greg and I sitting by our hand pump that supplied all of the water for our daily needs including drinking, cooking, and washing clothes and for water for our milk cows. This photo taken in 1955 is a favorite, as well.

 
It has the look of homesteaders as in Laura Ingalls Wilder's day. The old door opening into the kitchen with the tablecloth so welcomingly draped over the table, the bib overalls (handed down from one to the next), the dirt-packed yard with patches of weeds... My mother's apron is missing. She always wore a bib apron. The baby in my mother's arms is my sister Rita. My father is holding me. My brother Greg and a sister Mary Ann are missing from the photo and there were three more not yet born (Ron, Rick, and Marlene) when this photo was taken making a total of 12 kids in all. The others in the photo L to R back row in front of my dad and mom are Ken and Bill with David, Darrel, and Cliff L to R front row.  

christmas past

It's Christmas Eve. Each year my thoughts drift back so very many years ago to my childhood in the 1950s and our tinsel-laden tree. 

The snowflake and icicle are two ornaments (the only ones) that I have from that original tree. 

mina miller edison and eliza miller clifton

I'd like to introduce you to Dick's grandmother, Olive Clifton Dullum, who is Dick's mother's mother. I will also unravel her relationship to Thomas Edison's second wife, Mina Miller. In 1914, Olive opened a boarding house eleven miles northeast of Brainerd in the little community of Woodrow, which was named after President Woodrow Wilson. It was near an underground mine first called the Wilcox Mine, then the name was changed to Omaha Mine when a new mining company took over. With capacity to sleep forty-two miners at $1.00 a day, the two-story 24x60-foot hotel building built by Dick's grandfather, John Dullum, had a general store and post office in the front part of the building. (The photo below is the back side of the building facing the barn.) Before moving to Woodrow, the Dullums lived in Wright, Minnesota where Olive was a teacher and John owned sawmills. It's likely that John built the hotel from lumber sawed at his mill. Although the lodging portion of her business would fill one's day, Olive and a hired girl also prepared meals and packed dinner pails for the miners who worked round-the-clock shifts.

In her weekly Farmer's Wife column in the Brainerd Dispatch that she wrote for twenty-five years, Olive stated, "When the mine closed down in 1919 (after the mining company went bankrupt), I had a big empty building, but you can't live on that. Well, we looked around for some land to plant. We had no horses or machinery. The neighbors loaned us their team and we opened up small patches and planted common vegetables. After a time, we could afford a $49 cow and I made butter to sell. We tried chickens and they helped some. There were a few jobs at what you'd now consider very poor pay, but we didn't join the W.P.A gang or go on any relief. In general, when you go broke, use your head. Don't go begging, go to work." I had the privilege of knowing this fiercely independent woman who continued to live in her boarding house after her husband John's death in 1963 until her death in 1973.

Olive, proud of the fact that she was related to Thomas Edison's second wife, Mina Miller, spoke of a family reunion in Wisconsin when she met Thomas Edison as a young girl. So, I set out to discover the relationship. I began by reading a brief biography by John D. Venable titled Mina Miller Edison Daughter, Wife and Mother of Inventors that I had purchased when we recently visited Thomas Edison's home in West Orange, New Jersey. Then, using ancestry.com, I researched the lineage of Mina Miller Edison and Eliza Miller Clifton, who was Olive Dullum's mother.  For three days, from morning to night, I pored over old census records, marriage and death certificates, passport applications, grave records, and family trees created by others doing similar searches. I made copies and took pages of notes. I learned names and lineage. I learned education and job history. I learned where lives took root and the location where the two families intersected (Ohio). But, I was still struggling to connect the two women generationally. Then, a breakthrough. In a box of old family photos, I found this handwritten family tree.

There, near the bottom, in Olive Clifton Dullum's handwriting... "My mother's Uncle Miller in Ohio invented the First Reaper." I know from my online research that she is referring to Lewis Miller 1829-1899, who had eleven children... one named Mina Miller. The crucial words are "my mother's uncle." So, this means that Olive's mother, Eliza Miller Clifton 1837-1923 (Dick's great grandmother), is a first cousin to Mina Miller Edison 1865-1947. Proceeding through the generations, this means that Dick's grandmother Olive Clifton Dullum is a second cousin to Mina Miller Edison and... insert drum roll... Dick is a third cousin to Thomas Edison's second wife Mina Miller. 

(Left Photo) First cousins Mina Miller Edison in her West Orange, New Jersey Glenmont Estate second-floor office in 1929 that she shared with Thomas Edison and (Right Photo) Eliza Miller Clifton at her home in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota that she shared with her husband Edward Clifton.