Hutterite Heirloom Seeds - A Harvest of Memories

As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest,

 cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night." Genesis 8:22

Nephew, Terrance helping with harvest

On a Hutterite colony, typically one couple is in charge of the vegetable garden. They’re the ones who decide what will be planted, when the garden needs weeding or produce is ready to be picked. For these tasks, the women’s work group and sometimes the men and older children will help as well. When it’s a smaller task, like digging a few boxes of carrots for the kitchen, the gardener couple will do it with a few Dienen, young women.

I have many happy memories of helping Josh Vetter and Kate Basel, my aunt and uncle, when they were the gardeners at our colony. One memorable autumn task for me is Fasielen dreschn, harvesting dry beans. We had combines, of course, but unlike today’s gardeners, Josh Vetter preferred the old way. 

“Girls, you can start pulling out the bean plants,” Kate Basel announced when we arrived at the garden. “Posst ober auf! Se sein zimblich truckn. Be careful they’re very dry.” The sun-dried, brittle beans sang their crackly harvest song as we worked. 

Using pitchforks, we placed the plants on one half of a huge tarp, then pulled the other half on top of the plants, completely covering them. With his little garden tractor, Josh Vetter drove back and forth on the tarp a few times. This broke the pods, so the beans fell out. After that, the tarp was lifted, the plants thrown out and the beans, plus a lot of plant bits and dirt poured into a huge container. “Who needs a combine, when we can thresh like this.” Josh Vetter quipped from his perch on his Farmall A. “Geat’s nit guet?” I agreed with my uncle, it was fun, because it was like stepping back into pioneer days.

Finally, it was time for the wind winnowing process, to separate the beans from the dirt. Kate Basel filled a dipper, held it high over a tub and slowly emptied it. The beans fell into the tub, while the chaff was blown away by the breeze. If there wasn’t any wind that day, a large fan worked just as well. 

Much as I enjoyed this process every September, the beans were of no significance to me. I didn’t enjoy eating them and certainly wasn’t aware that there was anything special about the variety we grew back then. I probably didn’t even know that there were numerous varieties. These beans were pale green with a distinct black rim around the eye. The ones we grow now are white and smaller in size. For the most part, we cook the beans and serve them with sausages. Left overs become pork and beans to be served with the fries at supper, or soup the next day.

These bean-memories were reawakened recently when I read an article by Sandra Fisher, titled Living Heirlooms, in the Fayetteville Observer, an online Iowa newspaper that landed in my inbox via my Google Alerts Hutterites setting. The blurb that caught my attention read, “Seeds which have been preserved keep people in touch with their ancestry and help retain history. Imagine a variety of fruit or vegetable that was so important to a family’s history or homeland that they would bring it with them when they immigrated to America. Such is the case with Greek melons, which were introduced in the early 20th century when Greek immigrants settled in Utah, and Hutterite Soup Beans, which came to North America in the 1870s by virtue of Hutterite Christians fleeing persecution in Europe.”

Bean Soup

 Intrigued, I sent a message to the author. She didn’t know much more than she had in her article, but suggested I contact the Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa. Upon researching via Google, I found a website that boasted: “Hutterite Soup Beans make a soup unlike any other bean.” Other websites described the soup from these beans as “rich, delicious and creamy”, and also have their origin in the bean’s description. 

Some, however, express doubt that the bean was brought to America by Hutterites in the 1870’s, since there is evidence of these beans being in North America before that. William Woys Weaver, an internationally known food historian, believes the bean is a Russian variety, known as China Yellow, and that, “The Hutterites could indeed, have brought the bean with them to Canada and the Dakotas”. The original strain was called Lemon Yellow, which “may indicate some crossing with a white variety, sometime in the past, perhaps to improve its quality as a soup bean.” 

Hutterite Soup Beans

I asked other Hutterites whether they ever heard of the heirloom beans. Few knew anything about them or had only a vague memory. However, one gardener couple has been growing them for a number of years, after buying a package from the Seed Savers Exchange. They were told that the beans cannot be bought in bulk. Therefore, they save some of their beans every year for seed – for their own use and to share with others. They kindly offered me some. I plan to offer them to our vegetable gardeners, in the hopes that we’ll start growing Hutterite Soup Beans once again. Only this time, I know the story behind them. 

As we celebrate Thanksgiving, I’m in awe that a late-nineteenth century Hutterite gardener had the faith and foresight – before crossing the Atlantic on the S. S. Hammonia – to tuck a bag of dry beans into his trunk. 

Over a hundred and forty years later, they are featured on national seed catalogue pages as heirloom seeds – registered Hutterite Soup Beans!

My Sheep Know My Voice

Earlier this week I was traveling in the Brandon, Manitoba area - a gorgeous drive this time of year, with the last traces of autumn colours decorating the rolling hills!

As we (my brother and I) got to the top of one of those hills, we were taken by surprise and had to stop abruptly. Right in front of us were Hutterite boys happily herding their sheep.  This is a sight I don't see every day, so I savoured the moment, as we slowly followed behind them, till they allowed us to pass, after a few minutes. We stopped to talk with the shepherds and they told us that the sheep had been out in 'greener pastures' for the summer and they were bringing them home for the winter.

I found it amusing that the guy on the four-wheeler in the front had a pail of grain and was scattering it on the road, in the hopes the sheep would follow him. In the few minutes I had to take in this scene, most of the sheep didn't seem to notice, or care about this follow-me-trick-and-treat. The two boys behind were busy trying to keep the sheep on the road, as they were more interested in the last blades of green grass of the season in the ditch. I wondered what happened to the age old 'my sheep know my voice' technique. Do these Hutterite shepherds even know that sheep follow the voice of their shepherd? Or perhaps the shepherd hadn't been talking... or singing to his sheep. In any case, their sheep herding technique worked, too. About fifteen minutes later, while visiting at their colony, I saw the sheep scampering to their shed in the valley.


I was reminded of this song, "My Sheep Know My Voice'.

Harvest Joy

It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativity

and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding 

of his capacities and talents.

- Eric Hoffer, American moral and social philosopher

I do believe we have the cutest harvest crew!

With harvest in full swing on our colony, I've had the joy of watching this crew of little farmers 'bringing in the sheaves', right in front of our house. Listening to them I get the impression this is not play, but every bit as important as the men working in the field. And of course it is. They love 'working' together, sometimes for most of the day and they feel each plays an important role during their harvest season. One day I asked why they weren't threshing. One of the boys replied, "Some of the boys are missing, so we can't." They also know on most mornings, they can't start till the dew is gone, "doesn't work to thresh when it's wet." my nephew, (in the orange and black shirt) informed me.

Another fact they're happy to point out is that their piece of equipment or vehicle is "just like my uncle's', or some other guy on the colony. I'm pretty sure they're even wondering why the meals are not brought to them the way it's done for the men in the field.

If this is not one of the best playgrounds in the world, then I don't know what is; wide open spaces to play and explore, your friends are always close by and there are a variety of things to do year round.

With all this farm fun, most of our students are actually excited about the start of the new school year. I just hope they get all their crops off till then.

Harvest Time

Life has been pretty busy, since I've returned from my Europe trip, what with school starting just a few days after I came home. Thus, my blog has unfortunately had to go without new posts. And some of you contacted me and kindly reminded me of that fact. Thanks! It's nice to be missed (: Anyway, I'm hoping to change that soon, now that we've (my 5 new Kindergartners and me, especially... but the other students and teachers, as well, of course:) have nicely settled into our school routine.

Potato Harvest

Especially for my newer blog followers, I'm going to add some links of previous posts, so you can get a glimpse of what Harvest Time on a Hutterite colony looks like:

Bringing in the Sheaves

Bee-Hive Busyness

Love Wheels?

And one more farm related post:

Back in the Day

I loved my 'travel theme' background, because of my wonderful Europe trip!!... but, I'm going to change to fall colours now...

Enjoy the colourful days of autumn...

 all to soon, especially for those of us living on the Canadian prairies,

things can turn white fairly early.

Back in the Day: King of the Field - Aultman Taylor 30-60

With all the huge, high-powered, computerized tractors on our colony today, hardly anybody
remembers that there used to be another amazing machine here, proudly puffing along many years ago. Like me, most don’t even know what it looked like, unless they’ve seen pictures. Only the grandpas, who worked with it in their younger days share mostly fond memories.

The Aultman Taylor 30-60 was the King of tractors back in the day. During harvest it was out in the field all day long, purring along happily, driving the threshing machine while six, two-man teams took turns pitching sheaves for all they were worth. “Dependable! I should say!” one of those former sheaf pitchers chuckled. “We were secretly hoping it would break down, so we could catch a break. No such luck.”

When I contacted the Manitoba Agricultural Museum in Austin for information on this tractor, I was put in contact with Mr. Alex Campbell. “The Aultman Taylor 30-60 was a well-built, very powerful and reliable tractor for that time and could drive very large threshing machines - 50 inch cylinder width or more. To operate such a large threshing machine economically, meant a large number of sheaf wagons, men and horses were required to feed the threshing machine.” Mr. Campbell informed me in an email.

Courtesy of MB Agricultural Museum

 No surprise then, that this was the preferred tractor for Hutterites. The acquisition of the Aultman Taylor proved to be a sound investment for Elm River Colony, as it served them well from 1934 to 1948. Over the years, many different tractors have come and gone, most forgotten as quickly as the newest wonder rolled in. Only the remains of one found a final resting place at a museum.

This piece of Elm River history sits at the Manitoba Agricultural Museum. In the early 1960’s the museum learned about this antique, which had run out of steam and had been parked for more than a decade. By that time, many of its parts had been removed, some most likely sold for a few dollars, which sadly, included all the brass, radiator and fan. Nevertheless, the museum was happy when Elm River Colony donated their rather sorry looking 30-60. The museum was hoping to acquire parts for it, however that still hasn’t happened and with each year the chances get slimmer.

Thus, this skeleton of a tractor sits forlornly on the museum grounds, while other antiques entertain big audiences at the Thresherman’s Reunion every summer. The odd visitor stops by occasionally, lingers at its side for a while and reminisces about this beloved 30-60. However, nobody yearns to return to those ‘good old days’, what with a long line of high-tech machines, each reigning as King of the Field – for at least a few years.

Comparing the staying power of today’s state-of-art tractors, with that of the trusty Aultman Taylor 30-60, it seems that they just don’t make ‘em like they used to. Or else, back then they didn’t have the means, nor saw any need to replace their machinery as regularly as they’re traded off nowadays.

 

Bringing in the Sheaves

 

Harvest is undoubtedly one of the busiest times on a colony. At my colony, we raise wheat, oats, barley, canola, beans and potatoes. At the peak of this season you can find one crew combining and another baling or swathing, with the field boss overseeing all of it. we have three combines, which means a tractor and grain wagon brings the grain from the combines to one of two waiting semi trucks. These haul the grain to large bins on the colony. This year we've been blessed with exceptional crops and we now have only potatoes left to harvest!

While the men are busy on the fields, there's a flurry of activities at the communal kitchen. Here all meals are prepared for the entire community. During harvest time there's extra work, as the men in the field each get their meals brought to them, so as not to waste precious harvest time with the entire crew stopping their work to come home for lunch and supper. Some colonies have enough man power and are able to work in shifts. But since our colony has a kitchen cabinet factory this is not the case.

Once this phase of harvest is complete, (Some years it isn't, which makes things extra busy.) there are potatoes to dig at our colony. These are raised for McCain and providing we have cool dry conditions, potatoes usually takes about three weeks to harvest. (For a more detailed post of this process, click here.)

Like farmers all over the globe, putting in long hours comes with the territory. Many times, our hours are not dictated by a clock, but by the tasks at hand. For the most part though, working together towards a common goal, be it harvesting, preparing meals or any other chore, enhances the joy of our 'all things common' journey. 'We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves...'

"I brought you into a bountiful country,

To eat its fruit and its goodness."

Jeremiah 2:7

Life-Lessons from Grandpa

            In his younger years, my Grandpa Maendel raised chickens. People still remember his work ethic and his matter-of- fact approach to farming and life in general. Once we had people who had grown up in our colony, come for a visit. As we walked around, listening to them reminisce, one man enthusiastically recalled, “I remember your grandpa in his old straw hat walking home from the barn, always dusty. I thought he must be the most hard-working man on the colony.”

As children we sometimes went to help him sweep the barn or bed down the chickens. Other times it would mean unloading the new baby chicks that had just arrived from Millers Hatchery. While Grandpa and the truck driver unloaded all the boxes, my cousins and I picked up and carefully tipped the boxes to empty the chicks, “Right under the brooders.” - heating devices hanging from the cealing. It didn’t matter that in mere seconds the chicks were all over their new pen. According to Grandpa’s tried and true methods, that’s how you do, end of story. A few times we suggested unloading the boxes first, so the chicks wouldn’t be underfoot; to no avail. His no nonsense, I’m-in-charge-here attitude always prevailed. We soon learned there was no point in trying to do it otherwise, much less argue your case. Still, we knew he meant well and always appreciated our help.

Bee-Hive Busyness

(Recently someone asked me whether we use shovels to dig potatoes. This post is my response - as you'll see, our 'shovels' require more gun grease and button pushing than elbow grease and manuel labour.)

“Trucks are waiting! Everybody welcome. Thank you!” The crisp message rings from the public address system, inviting colony members to a shift of picking weeds and lumps of dirt out of newly-harvested potatoes, traveling by conveyor into the shed.

            “This is a recorded announcement!” One young woman deadpans. Grabbing gloves and a jacket she heads for the potato shed.

Every autumn brings the exciting racket of tractors, trucks and potato diggers rattling and rumbling their way to the potato fields. Here three generations gather to work on one project. Even the children help to harvest the brown-skinned, white-fleshed Russet Burbank potatoes, commonly used for French fries.

In the field, two John Deere tractors prepare to start, one pulls a four-row digger and the other a three-row digger. These massive machines driven by Jake Hofer, the potato manager and his helper, Marvin Waldner, drive slowly up and down the field. Each digger conveys the potatoes to a truck moving alongside, while the plants are returned to the field.

A fleet of two Sterling and three Ford trucks transport the potatoes to the concrete shed where they are unloaded into a huge even-flow bin. Its capacity approximately two tandem trucks of potatoes, this bin ensures an even flow of potatoes unto the grading table.  In dry conditions, such as this year, a clodhopper is used to eliminate dirt-clumps.  In years when it’s been too wet, this machine cannot be used as the wet earth would clog the machine.

Love Wheels?

Personally, I can't get terribly excited about wheels, but apparently for some that's the case. Mostly, (and correct me if I'm wrong) it's guys whose eyes light up when a set of wheels, especially big, loud and supposedly powerful ones come into their line of sight... On that note, today's post caters to those of you who frequent this blog, but thus far haven't seen anything to get you wheely, wheely excited: Enjoy!  




  



In case you missed it; different headers.



and vintage wheels

In slower days, when Elm River was first established, farming was all about horse power...well, it still is, but I'm talking about horses that munched oats as opposed to gusseling diesel. We've come a long way, considering the fact that this year we air seeded one canola field. That would be seeding with an airplane, because it was too wet to get in with tractors. It must have worked; it's looking real good!

I'm wondering if this post will generate enough Ooh-la-laas! to garner more comments than previous posts. One can always hope!