Northfield – Page 5 – Valerie's Voice

Grape Nuts

I’m reading a historical fiction novel, The Magnificent lives of Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887-1973). She was an American businesswomen, socialite, and philanthropist. She was the only child of C. W. Post who invented Grape Nuts cereal (in 1897) and Postum, a supposedly healthy, decaffeinated hot-powdered drink, intended to replace coffee (in 1895). Postum Cereal Company (now Post Consumer Brands, shortened to Post) was the original name of her father’s company, located in Battle Creek, Michigan, where Marjorie grew up. After his death, Marjorie inherited the company at age 27. For much of her life, Marjorie was known as the wealthiest woman in the United States.

Fast forward 125 years and Post bought out Northfield’s beloved Malt-O-Meal cereal company. Although Grape Nuts is still made, it is not made in the Northfield plant. (But the hot Malt-O-Meal cereal still is.)

In later years, Marjorie bought smaller food companies and combined them into one business called General Foods. It’s an interesting read.

We have these two antiques: an Instant Postum tin (5″tall), and a Malt-O-Meal sample box (3″tall)

As I was reading, I remembered my mother use to make a quick bread using Grape Nuts. They are hard, nutty kernels, but tasty. I decided I wanted to make that bread again. I remembered I liked it, especially toasted. I could not find my mom’s hand-written recipe in my collection, so I looked online and found a different recipe for a quick bread made with Grape Nuts. I made one loaf. It turned out OK, but it was not as good as I remembered my mom’s to be.

A loaf of Grape Nuts bread using a recipe off the internet.

I reached out to my brother and he found my mom’s Grape Nuts bread recipe in their recipe box. So, I made her recipe and it was yummy. I’ve included the recipe below.

Two mini-loaves of Grape Nuts bread, using my mother’s recipe.

Now, I have to decide if I want to try Postum. 😉

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Ruby’s Grape Nuts Bread Recipe

1 Cup Grape Nuts
2 Cups Buttermilk
1 ½ Cup Sugar (originally 2 cups sugar...I reduced it)
2 eggs, beaten
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda in 2 tsp. warm water
4 Cups flour
1 tsp baking powder

Soak grape nuts in buttermilk for 15 minutes.
Add sugar, eggs, soda and salt.
Stir in flour and baking powder.
Put in greased loaf pans and let stand 10 minutes.
2 large pans or 4 mini loaf pans.
Bake 350* for 1 hour for larger loaves.
Bake 350* for 30-35 minutes for mini loaves
.

Sunset

We went out last night for the first time in a week. We’ve been sick at home. We were greeted with a spectacular sky and sunset.

Praise God for this amazing evening greeting.

The Upper Arb

On these glorious mornings, Gary and I are walking on trails we’ve recently re-discovered.

We park outside the Oaklawn Cemetery and pass through the gate to Carleton College’s Cowling Arboretum…the upper arb. (The lower arb has nice trails too…it goes along the Cannon River and through the woods. The entry point is at a different section of campus.)

From the entrance we use for the upper arb, you can choose to go to the right or left. The right leads down to the prairie, the left takes you through an heavily wooded area of oak trees, and all the trails connect.

Amber tips of prairie grass and yellow goldenrod. — The beautiful landscape with amber tips of prairie grass and golden rod…

A posted sign offers information on how the different sports have worked-out on the upper arb over the years.

An interesting and informative sign about the upper arb and sports activities.

Carleton’s cross-country teams (men’s began in 1938 – women’s in 1970), practice on the trails and hold track meets. In the early 1990’s, Runner’s Magazine voted the upper arb the best place in Minnesota to run.

Carleton College started grooming the trails for cross-country skiing in 1978, and continues to open the trails to all skiers. We have skied and snow-shoed in the upper-arb during winter.

Juniper trees were abundantly full of berries.

I enjoyed learning that in the 1930’s there was a Saddle Club, and horse and riders were permitted to jaunt on the trails. An equestrian center was also built on the upper arb, but was shut down in 1964. It would be fun to ride horseback on the trails, although it is no longer permitted.

This photo added for fun…this is Abigail, one of the animals I help care for once in a while (not at the arb).

We have done a bit of walking on the trails in the upper arb in previous years, but not during this time of year when the prairie is in bloom. It is so pretty!

It feels like we’ve discovered a whole new trail. We pass very few folks out on our morning hike. We have the trails mostly to ourselves.

The striated lines on this boulder stood out.

A beautifully, landscaped boulder rest area.

The sun shines on our path. The sky is blue. It is so peaceful.

A beautifully mowed path, with Carleton College’s water tower in the background.

We’re grateful Carleton Colleges maintains the trails, and opens them up to the public.

Northfield’s Popcorn Wagon

Northfield’s beloved popcorn wagon has been in Northfield since 1979. It sits on Bridge Square every summer and is run by 27 “kernels” (volunteers) who make popcorn and sell it. I recently attended a history talk about the popcorn wagon by Susan Hvistendahl, at FiftyNorth, Northfield’s Senior Center.

The popcorn wagon was built in 1918 at C. Cretors & Company in Wood Dale, IL. C. Cretors & Co. is a five-generation family-run business that is still in business today. They have a museum in Wood Dale, IL, which would be fun to see. The popcorn wagons were first introduced at Chicago’s World’s fair in 1893, along with many famous inventions that year: the Ferris Wheel, and Cracker Jack’s, even Hershey Chocolate had its beginnings at that fair.

Northfield’s popcorn wagon is a Model C and there are fewer than 22 remaining. The Model C’s were “designed for success”, and advertised to be “an ornament to any town”. Indeed, Northfield’s popcorn wagon is a town icon.

Northfield’s Tosty Rosty, needs some repair work.

Initially there was a doll figure called Tosty Rosty, that manually turned the tumbler inside the wagon, making the popcorn pop, of course. Northfield’s Tosty Rosty has stopped working, but there are hopes it will be revived.

In May 1979 Vera Johansen bought the wagon and started the business of making popcorn. Apparently she became known as the unofficial hostess of Northfield. It is told that at one time ducks came up from the river to eat dropped popcorn. I wonder if that still happens? Another time, a fan was purchased to blow the aroma of freshly popped popcorn out into the air, drawing people to come purchase the delicious treat.

In 1988 Vera Johansen sold the popcorn wagon to the Sherwin family. It became available again in 1994, and Northfield collected contributions for its senior citizens to buy the wagon. It was brought up to code and returned to Bridge Square in May 1995, when the Senior Center volunteers took over the care of the wagon. Believe it or not, this little popcorn wagon is a money maker for our FiftyNorth Senior Center.

Recently a new door, new window frames and window panes, and interior shelving have been restored to the wagon. Currently there is a fundraiser to raise enough money to finish renovating the outside by stripping, sandblasting and repainting it, and adding new wheels. (Originally it was horse-drawn.) The goal is $50,000. They have raised $5,000, and a family foundation recently gave a generous gift of $25,000.

Everyone’s enjoying the song “Buttered Popcorn”.

At the end of Susan’s talk, a singing duo and a guitarist sang a lively rendition called “Buttered Popcorn.” It was a delightful evening at FiftyNorth.

Tour de SAVE

On Saturday Gary and I rode a 25-mile bike loop for Tour de SAVE. SAVE is an acronym for Suicide Awareness Voices of Education. The ride was a fundraiser for this organization.

SAVE: Suicide Awareness Voices of Education

After you registered, you could fill out a pennant to wear, naming a person or persons you were riding in memory of. Both Gary and I have personal connections to people who have taken their own lives, but there were a lot of folks riding for the sake of bringing awareness to suicide.

Gary has ridden this event in previous years. This is a jersey from a different year.

SAVE hosts several types of events, including 5K walk/runs, throughout Minnesota and the US. Click here for a link to their website.

Information signs were posted at the registration area.

We had a beautiful morning to ride. The hot and humid weather moved out and cool, dry air moved in. The rural route took us on backroads, past fields and farms. The blue sky boasted white wispy clouds.

Fields of corn and soy beans, and beautiful blue skies and clouds.

After the ride we met friends for lunch, and then walked to Bridge Square in Northfield to listen to some good band music, put on by the Vintage Band Festival, an annual outdoor music event in Northfield.

Minnesota Pipes and Drums, a musical ensemble consisting of bagpipers and drummers, marching up to the bandshell for their allotted time to play for the crowd.

And, of course, we had a dish of ice cream to wrap up a delightful, summer day.

A great place for ice cream in Northfield.

We were grateful for these wonderful organized events; yet we continue to mourn the loss of loved ones lost to suicide.

The last leg of the 25-mile ride was on the Dundas Trail.

A Hedgehog and A Firefly

A flicker of light~
Twinkling and twirling around...
Fireflies at night.

While in Minnesota, our Ukrainian friends saw fireflies for the first time. They were excited. We were with them one evening, and the fireflies were dancing all around us. We all enjoyed seeing the fireflies, as well as our friend’s excitement.

A hedgehog I saw in the wild in Ukraine, 2008.

I told them the one and only time I saw a hedgehog was in Ukraine, and it was exciting to see it. We walked to a village after class one day, to an interpreter’s home, and we saw a cute, little hedgehog tucked away on the side of the path.

God is creative!

“God made the animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the crates that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:24

Log Jam

On a warm, summer’s evening in Northfield, Bridge Square and the Riverwalk draw a lot of people. It is a nice place to stroll along the Cannon River, to look at the water falling over the dam, to see people fishing off the bridge, or just sitting and visiting or eating ice cream.

The other night we took our ice cream treat down to Bridge Square and looked out on the river. To our surprise there was a log jam.

A couple big tree trunks were stuck in the dam and hundreds of branches and sticks have accumulated at the blockage. We’ve never seen it backed up so much.

There are always many folks fishing along Bridge Square.

It was a sight to see. Hopefully it will be cleaned up soon.

A Conflict of Interest

Squirrels are cute little critters, with comical antics and amazing flexibility. They are fun to watch.

Two cute squirrels playing in our birch tree.

But they can also be destructive in gardens, and they can scare away the birds from the feeders. We have many squirrels in our yard, so we started trapping them a few years ago. We use a live-trap and once caught we deliver them to, what we’ve dubbed the “Squirrel Resort”, a land flowing with trees and water. We escorted many squirrels there. It has all the comforts of a happy place for the critters, out in the country.

Releasing a squirrel from the live-trap.

Our neighbors across the street however, feel differently. She feeds the squirrels. In fact, she has trained a young squirrel to jump up on her lap and eat from her hand! She demonstrated the act one morning. I was amused. She offered to send me a picture to use for my blog.

He is cute.

A young squirrel eating from our neighbor’s knee.

I didn’t tell her we’ll be setting up a trap in our back yard…

Hopefully this young one will stay in my neighbor’s yard where the food is…

A Bouquet of Lilacs, a Hard Way

I love the smell of lilacs…and the pretty delicate, purple flower blossoms are beautiful. They are a wonderful sign of spring. It’s always nice to bring a bouquet into the house.

This photo of our lilac bush was taken in 2020. It produced a lot of blooms that year.

The lilac bush we have in our backyard is an old-fashioned garden variety. The mother plant was planted in the yard of the house I grew up in, in NE Minneapolis when I was a little girl. In 1980, we moved to Burnsville and I dug up part of that bush from McKinley Street and transplanted it to our yard in Burnsville. Then, in 1994, when we moved to Northfield, I took along part of the lilac bush and planted it in the backyard of our new home.

Gary working on the lilac bush in our back yard.

The bush is old.

The past few years it has produced fewer and fewer flowers, and this year not many at all. We learned it is not blooming because it has a lot of old and dead wood, since it hasn’t been pruned. The only pruning it has received the last 29 years is when I cut off branches to bring in a sweet-smelling bouquets into the house.

Apparently, we should have been pruning the bush every year. Whoops.

So we decided to prune it way back this year. When we cut off the top branches, I cut off the smaller branches with blossoms.

A small bouquet of lilacs from the very top branches of our lilac bush.

That was a hard way to get a small bouquet!

We cut out a lot of dead wood and larger, old branches and trimmed back some of the new growth. We pruned a lot off.

It will take a couple of truck loads to get all the wood and branches from the lilac bush to the city compost site.

It was a good job that needed to be done. It looks pretty good…and hopefully the next year or two it will produce a lot more flowers once again.

Fairy Garden Stories

Many walkers and joggers use the sidewalk along the east side of our corner lot. We planted trees along the walk as a screen for our windows, but I do like to see the variety of folks who use the sidewalk. It leads to a paved trail that takes one around three ponds, and it is a delightful walk.

A couple of weeks ago when we were working out in the yard a gentleman, who was walking on the sidewalk, stopped to ask us about our house color (my all-time favorite green house). As we were visiting he said his grandson loves my fairy garden. He said his grandson will make sure everything is in place and clears out any dead leaves etc. when he walks by it. That made me smile, and inspired me to recreate the garden as soon as possible. I had just cleared the area of my fairy garden to clean things up and re-do it. It is along the sidewalk.

I took everything out of the first fairy garden…weeded and patted down the dirt, getting ready for a re-create.

I washed up the glass stones for the pathway and realigned them. I situated the porcelain table and chairs and fairies in place, including my troll from Norway. There were a few new items to add to the scene this year.

A string of lights from the thrift store.

When I opened a package that I bought at a thrift store last fall I was surprised. I thought it was street lamp poles, instead it was a string of lights, and that made me happy. I laughed. They do not light up but that’s ok, I like them. I placed the lights in the garden, and added a new-to-me wishing well (another purchase from a thrift store). I put a turquoise stone in the wishing well, to represent water.

The Norsk troll, and the wishing well, plus my original fairy and bench…a little larger than the other items.

Now I enjoy my fun little fairy garden that will soon be hidden under a rose bush when it fills out. Right now, it is open for all to see. I’m trusting my little friend will enjoy it. My granddaughter did last summer.

A few years ago, a friend’s granddaughter took walks with her mom and passed a fairy garden, with a door. One day the little girl opened the door and to her surprise found a note in it. She was delighted and read the note from the fairy. Occasionally the fairy would leave her notes all summer, and the little girl enjoyed looking for a note every time. I’m wondering how to incorporate that idea into my garden…hard, since I do not have a door…

A door-shaped rock I placed at the bottom of a tree in our backyard. I want to paint a window and door knob on it sometime. But of course, it does not open. 😉

Another fairy garden story: A couple recently moved into a new house in the country and put out a gnome-size door next to a tree in their back forest, visible from their kitchen window. When I saw it, I commented on how much I like fairy/gnome gardens. They said they were going to add a gnome.

A few weeks later the guy came up to me in church and said he thought of me while snowshoeing one afternoon. It had gotten dark early and he was snowshoeing on their new acerage and kind-of got turned around. Eventually he saw a light through the trees and thought it was his wife with a flashlight, out looking for him. It was not. It was a solar light on the gnome door that was leaning against the tree close to their house. It guided him home!

Ahh…fairy stories abound.