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Font: Palantino<br />
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Black<br />
Life Lessons<br />
cherries and walnuts.<br />
“That’s what we raised<br />
when I was growing up,” Joan<br />
said.<br />
If they must buy fruits or<br />
vegetables, they scour them<br />
with organic, perfume-free,<br />
dye-free soap.<br />
One garage stall houses<br />
shelves bursting with homemade<br />
canned vegetables and<br />
fruits. Clear jars show jelly<br />
made from zucchini, beets and<br />
grapes. There’s salsa, pickled<br />
everything, canned deer meat,<br />
cherries, grapes.<br />
The deep freeze holds<br />
frozen soups, vegetables and<br />
meats they can thaw whenever<br />
family and friends visit.<br />
Milling around<br />
Their electric tabletop mill<br />
moved with the Gerardys.<br />
They used to grind their own<br />
wheat for flour and corn for<br />
cornmeal. Their ancestors<br />
milled as well.<br />
They still grind their own<br />
cornmeal. Son Vince Gerardy<br />
grows organic corn for<br />
them, and they store it in their<br />
breezeway. Gene strips the<br />
dried yellow kernels from the<br />
cob and lets the wind blow<br />
away the husks.<br />
He pulls open the lid on<br />
the wooden mill and drops<br />
in a couple of handfuls of<br />
kernels. When he flips the<br />
power switch, the kernels<br />
fall between the side-by-side<br />
millstones that grind them to<br />
the desired texture – fine for<br />
Canned beets<br />
aren’t just tasty,<br />
but colorful, too.<br />
eastern iowa<br />
farmer photo /<br />
Brooke Taylor<br />
humans, cracked for birds.<br />
Within minutes, the silver<br />
bowl under the mill is filled<br />
with silky-smooth cornmeal<br />
ready for baking. Or, add<br />
some water then stir, and<br />
it tastes just like cream-ofwheat.<br />
Gene once tried growing<br />
triticale, a wheat-rye hybrid<br />
that is rich in protein. Its tall<br />
height, however, was not wind<br />
friendly, and it blew over before<br />
he could harvest it.<br />
He also cracks black walnuts<br />
harvested from the trees.<br />
The couple’s new and<br />
antique grinders and sausage<br />
stuffer await use in the garage.<br />
As her mother, grandmother<br />
and generations before her,<br />
Joan makes the couple’s soap,<br />
carefully mixing lye and either<br />
lard or tallow with no scent or<br />
coloring. Joan used her mother’s<br />
recipe until she moved to<br />
town.<br />
“We always used homemade<br />
soap for washing clothes<br />
and bedding,” she said, adding<br />
Delmar Grain Service Dealer<br />
for ADM Animal Nutrition!<br />
Keeney<br />
Welding<br />
Big and small<br />
we feed them all<br />
livestock producer • show exhibitor<br />
equine enthusiast • companion animal owner<br />
SINCE 1953<br />
Steel Fabrication<br />
Portable Service<br />
Steel Sales<br />
MIlES, Ia 563-682-7699<br />
You’ll<br />
find<br />
what you need<br />
at<br />
GREAT FEED!<br />
GREAT DEALS!<br />
Delmar Grain Service, Inc.<br />
502 1/2 Main Street, Delmar, <strong>Iowa</strong> • 563-674-4261<br />
www.admani.com ADM Alliance Nutrition, Inc., Quincy, IL<br />
18 <strong>Eastern</strong> <strong>Iowa</strong> <strong>Farmer</strong> | spring <strong>2017</strong>
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