The Little Red Hen

Tumbledown is hungry.

Abby McGanney Nolan's review of illustrator Jerry Pinckney's The Little Red Hen reminded Tumbledown this week of all the good things there are to eat down on the farm. The heat of summer is a fading memory; the sweat of scything and bundling sheaves is giving way to long sleeves;

and the aching muscles that once threshed winnowed now rest mostly when they are not shivering.

(See Gene Logsdon's Small Scale Grain Raising for a detailed description of this method of harvesting home-grown garden wheat.)

But there is now wheat to grind and bake for Thanksgiving. There are whole-wheat pancakes to make and smother with butter, and raspberry jam to spread. And Tumbledown has to wonder whether the youngsters will help with the feast, other than with the eating.

But what shall we make? There are so many possibilities. And some are not even that much work. What about No-Knead Bread? Or Kolaches? Or thumbprint cookies?

mmmm! Now there's a lesson that cannot be taught more directly than on the old-time diversified farm. "If a man will not work, neither shall he eat!" (2 Thessalonians 3:10)

Tumbledown Farm