Welcome to another week!
Summer is off to a beautiful start in the Atlantic community. Snowball bushes, daylilies and chicory are in full bloom. I think the mild winter helped flowers bloom early. Corn is doing great, too. My Grandma Millie used to say corn should be knee high by the Fourth of July. It’s already taller than my knees. We should have a good crop this year. This is a blessing. After all the rain last June and drought in July and August, farmers had a poor harvest. This year’s corn and soybeans look much better.
I hope you had a nice Independence Day weekend. I’m so glad I live in the United States, where I’m still free to practice my faith in Christ. I learned last week that a new bill forbids Russians from telling non-Christians anywhere outside church about God, the Bible, or faith. They could be fined up to $800, and all Russians are mandated by this law to report anyone they hear talking about Jesus to authorities. Please join me in praying for Russian Christians and missionaries.
I had the chance to attend the 24th Annual Atlantic Benefit Auction on June 25. It was packed. They had perfect weather this year -- sunny and in the 80s. I heard they barbequed 2,900 pounds of chicken. Can you imagine? The smell of barbequed chicken and donuts would be enough to draw me to the auction. I couldn’t resist buying half a dozen glazed donuts for my family. They sold for a dollar a piece, and it was money well spent. Krispy Kreme’s got nothing on these Amish bakers.
I could’ve gorged myself on homemade ice cream, pizza, hamburgers, popcorn and cold root beer. Fortunately I saw lots of neighbors and family, so I couldn’t overeat without being noticed.
What tickles me about this auction is the blend of old-fashioned and modern things. I saw hickory rockers as well as polywood furniture, including Adirondack chairs, for sale. My favorite juxtaposition of the old and new was the Amish auctioneers in Old Order style clothes bid calling into microphones.
Plans for the Crawford County Fair pie project are underway at Fallowfield United Methodist Church. I imagine we’ll be picking blueberries within the next two weeks. We intend on picking 125 pounds this year.
It’s funny seeing our blueberry pickers all decked out in their blueberry picking outfits. They attach five gallon ice cream buckets to belts around their waists. Then they cup their hands under the berries and slide them off the stems into their buckets. It’s faster than plucking the berries off the stems, and doesn’t bruise the berries.
It usually takes around four hours to pick all the berries, and then we take them back to the church for sorting. Lots of blueberries look blue on the bushes, but once you get them under fluorescent lights, you see they’re mostly green. They’re not ripe enough, so they have to go.
Did you know you shouldn’t rinse blueberries before freezing them? Just sort and bag them, then pop them into the freezer. Don’t worry -- we rinse our blueberries before making them into pies. It cleans and helps thaw them right before we mix in the sugar, flour, and salt that make blueberry pie so delectable. Now I’m hungry for pie.
Have a wonderful week. Blessings!