A Traditional Farm Life
By Shasta Hamilton
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| Photo by William Snyder |
Greetings from Enterprise, dear friends! You might find this a little hard to
believe, but our boys can turn vegetables into draft horses!
That’s right. A summer of selling vegetables at local
farmer’s markets, coupled with lawn mowing and odd jobs around town, have
helped our boys secure the chance at buying a team of draft horses.
On Monday our boys, chauffeured by Gary Crump and
accompanied by their father, made the long trek to the Amish community near
Parsons, Kansas to buy a team of Hofflinger draft horses. They returned home with “Tom” and “Jerry,” 17
and 13 years of age, respectively.
At 14 hands high and about a thousand pounds each, these dark
sorrel draft horses with flaxen manes have captivated our hearts and fueled our
dreams for the future.
Yesterday the boys hitched them up to the people hauler for
their “maiden voyage.” They were headed
to the restaurant where Michael was, so their first trip off the farm was to be
done completely on their own.
It turned out they did just fine. While it didn’t exactly “go off without a
hitch,” I was very proud of them for working through the few minor setbacks
they had without any adult help. (They
must have been paying attention at the draft horse workshops they’ve attended
in recent months.)
Personally, I barely know a bit from a bridle, so it was
pretty amazing to watch these young men harness and hitch up their new
team. They left the yard with a
flourish, trace chains jangling and the steady clip-clop of horses’ hooves on
pavement ringing clearly through the still morning air.
I stood near the road, silently watching them climb the hill
and finally turn the corner, a few mother’s tears slipping from wet eyes . . .
My once little boys are quickly becoming men.
With manhood comes responsibility, and it is our prayer as
parents that our boys’ taking of responsibility will grow in correspondence
with their age. It has always been our philosophy to seek to raise them as
future men, even though we like to call them our “boys.”
We had a very pleasant surprise yesterday in the form of two
cases of overripe bananas from Zey’s Market in Abilene. They were quite literally delivered to our
doorstep. We were tickled they thought
of us.
Two cases of bananas mean A LOT of banana bread. They were delivered shortly before we opened
for the Wednesday evening meal, so we offered banana-bread-ready bananas to all
our customers free for the taking.
Thankfully, we were able to share the blessing and still put most of a
case into the deep freeze for future use.
The future ended up being today. We whipped up a batch of Banana Streusel
Muffins by simply putting our favorite banana bread recipe in muffin liners topped
with streusel and baking for a shorter period of time.
So when life gives you overripe bananas, go ahead and make
banana bread!
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| Photo by William Snyder |
Banana Streusel
Muffins
1/2 cup (1 stick)
butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
extract
4 very ripe bananas,
crushed
2 cups all-purpose
flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking
powder
1 teaspoon baking
soda
1/2 cup chopped
nuts, optional
Streusel
Topping
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons
all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground
cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter
1. Preheat oven to
350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and
sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a
time, mixing well. Stir in crushed
bananas and vanilla extract.
4. In a medium bowl,
combine flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add to banana mixture and stir only until
combined.
5. Fill greased or
paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full (1/3 cup batter per muffin).
6. For streusel,
combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl; cut in butter until
crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over muffins.
7. Bake 25 minutes or
until lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean with a few moist crumbs. Do
not overbake. Cool in pan 5 minutes;
remove to wire rack to cool completely.
Yield: 12 muffins.
Copyright © 2015 by Shasta Hamilton
Shasta is a fifth generation rural Kansan now residing in
Enterprise, Kansas. She and her husband
own and operate The Buggy Stop Home-Style Kitchen with their six home-schooled
children. You can reach The Buggy Stop
by calling (785) 200-6385 or visit them on the web at www.thebuggystoprestaurant.com.
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