Autumn 2008
Cover |
Contents Page 1 |
Contents Page 2 |
Other Issues: | Autumn 2007 | Winter 2008 | Spring 2008 | Summer 2008 | Winter 2009 | Spring 2009 | Summer 2009 | Autumn 2009 | Winter 2010 |
Articles from this issue:
Breaking Bread at Berryville's Holy Cross Abbey www.monasteryfruitcake.org
I
t's 3 A.M.on a typical Tuesday morning during baking season, and Ernie Polanskas, a layman and the bakery manager of the Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia, is getting set for the day’s work.He is readying the batter for about 650 fruitcakes—no easy task, because the batter contains 1,180 pounds of candied fruit and nuts, 72 pounds of eggs, 150 pounds of flour, 30 pounds of butter, and 102 pounds of sugar, plus other ingredients.After mixing, the batter is divvied up into nine 60-quart mixing bowls, and is well stirred before the brothers clock in at 8:30 a.m.to start the process of pouring the batter into the prepared tube pans and baking the cakes. Read more...
|
In our transient society, few people stay put in one place. The “Century Farm” designation honors those few and their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and…
N
o one ever said being a farmer was easy, especially in Virginia.The hours are long, the profit narrow, and the safety net thin.And in fast-growing Piedmont, many family farms have fallen to suburban development.But little more than 10 years ago, the General Assembly decided to recognize the rare breed of farming families who have somehow survived for more than a century.“They’ve got so many forces battering them that they’re almost forced to retire,” says Marion Horsley, a spokesperson with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.“And yet they’re still there.” And so the “Century Farm” program was born: an honorary designation administered by the VDACS. Read more... |