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Forgotten Household Crafts

January 27th, 2009
Old Fashioned Kitchen

Old Fashioned Kitchen

It has been said that through the careful observation of history, will we find the answers needed for tomorrow’s future. As I take small steps to reduce our carbon footprints on this Earth, I am often drawn to the legends of my Great Grandparents who farmed the land and knew how to successfully live a sustainable life.

Two generations ago, my Great Grandmother Julia immigrated to the United States  from Poland. When she arrived on Ellis Island, she did not have a designer purse hanging from her slender wrists; instead, she carried a small pillowcase full of her belongings. When I consider that she came to this country completely alone, I deeply admire her courage and fierce determination to succeed. Great Grandmother Julia chose to start her new life in Riverhead, New York. It was a small Polish community and she was not here very long before she fell in love with my Great Grandfather Julius.  Together they started a family, and etched out a life farming a potato farm that is now the home to some of the best vineyards on Long Island.

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Plucking Chickens and Living The Natural Life

April 17th, 2007

Living The Natural Life

“Safekeeping the Earth’s goods, preserving them for the future is an act of faith. Living the natural life is man’s pledge to be faithful to the Earth.” ~Grace Firth

One of the pleasures of living in a small town is that there is almost always an old sleepy public library not too far away and it is often within it that you will encounter the richest treasures. Nestled deep in the shelves you will find, old books that are no longer in print, the pages long ago yellowed, some of them dog eared and often marked with the thoughts or ideas of a previous reader. Entranced by their romanticism, I often fill my basket with several, to later bring home and marvel over in more detail later on.

Last week, while browsing the shelves in search of some Read more…

Book Reviews