The Iowa Nature Calendar

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Earth Almanac

Author : Ken Keffer
Publisher : Skipstone
ISBN 13 : 1680512838
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (85 download)

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Book Synopsis Earth Almanac by : Ken Keffer

Download or read book Earth Almanac written by Ken Keffer and published by Skipstone. This book was released on 2020-03-23 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outdoor Writers Association of America Excellence in Craft Award Winner Earth Almanac presents the greatest hits of North American nature! Structured around phenology, which is the study of seasonal patterns in nature, the day-by-day descriptions offer insight into activities and connections throughout the natural world. Beginning with the Winter Solstice in December, Earth Almanac highlights a wide range of natural history, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, insects, intertidal and marine life, trees, plants, fungi, weather phenomenon, geology, astronomy, notable environmental activists, and more, and reveals the ebb and flow of nature across the planet. Each season features more than 90 entries, and sidebars throughout provide calls to environmental action, citizen science opportunities, and details on special dates or holidays. The book can be enjoyed one day, month, or season at a time--dip in and out as you observe the world around you.

The Iowa Nature Calendar

Author : Jean Cutler Prior
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781587296178
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (961 download)

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Book Synopsis The Iowa Nature Calendar by : Jean Cutler Prior

Download or read book The Iowa Nature Calendar written by Jean Cutler Prior and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the joys of midwestern living is the variety brought by the changing seasons. This lyrical text looks at a year through a daily appreciation of the chirping, blooming, singing details of Iowa's natural world.

Nature's Calendar

Author : Ernest Ingersoll
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.A/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Nature's Calendar by : Ernest Ingersoll

Download or read book Nature's Calendar written by Ernest Ingersoll and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

A Year of Iowa Nature

Author : Carl Kurtz
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1609382528
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis A Year of Iowa Nature by : Carl Kurtz

Download or read book A Year of Iowa Nature written by Carl Kurtz and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every Sunday evening for almost ten years, Iowa photographer and naturalist Carl Kurtz has e-mailed a photo and an extended caption to hundreds of outdoor enthusiasts. Engaging and informative, the photos focus on the world around and away from his tallgrass prairie homeplace: snow buntings in a blizzard, maple leaves in fall, migrating snow geese and red-winged blackbirds and monarchs, prairie spiderworts in spring bloom, leopard frogs loafing on waterlily leaves, northern flickers feeding young, and all the inhabitants and moods of the passing seasons. Now, in A Year of Iowa Nature, he presents fifty-five of his favorite photos along with an evocative introduction that urges us to go forth and discover the beauty in our own backyards. Concentrating on Iowa’s tallgrass prairie, Kurtz also points his viewfinder toward the great variety of natural habitats in the eastern United States. Arranged chronologically throughout the year, the fifty-five color photos and their accompanying narratives rotate through the seasons like a nature film. The winter months showcase a frost-covered white-tailed deer, cedar waxwings feeding on winter apples, a muskrat on the surface of an icy pond, and dune-like snowdrifts. Kurtz’s palette warms up in springtime with stunning photos of Virginia bluebells, fox cubs, juvenile chipmunks, and ruddy ducks. Summer brings a host of butterflies, frogs, and goldfinches as well as blooming prairie plants. The colors become more subdued in fall with the change in light, revealing the rich hues of Indian grass and big bluestem and the subtle plumage of migrating warblers. Just as Kurtz’s Practical Guide to Prairie Reconstruction offers an indispensable manual for individuals and land managers working to create a diverse prairie community, so does A Year of Iowa Nature point the way toward a sincere, month-by-month appreciation of the natural world around us.

The Butterflies of Iowa

Author : Dennis W. Schlicht
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1587297612
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (872 download)

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Book Synopsis The Butterflies of Iowa by : Dennis W. Schlicht

Download or read book The Butterflies of Iowa written by Dennis W. Schlicht and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2007-05-01 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This beautiful and comprehensive guide, many years in the making, is a manual for identifying the butterflies of Iowa as well as 90 percent of the butterflies in the Plains states. It begins by providing information on the natural communities of Iowa, paying special attention to butterfly habitat and distribution. Next come chapters on the history of lepidopteran research in Iowa and on creating butterfly gardens, followed by an intriguing series of questions and issues relevant to the study of butterflies in the state. The second part contains accounts, organized by family, for the 118 species known to occur in Iowa. Each account includes the common and scientific names for each species, its Opler and Warren number, its status in Iowa, adult flight times and number of broods per season, distinguishing features, distribution and habitat, and natural history information such as behavior and food plant preferences. As a special feature of each account, the authors have included questions that illuminate the research and conservation challenges for each species. In the third section, the illustrations, grouped for easier comparison among species, include color photographs of all the adult forms that occur in Iowa. Male and female as well as top and bottom views are shown for most species. The distribution maps indicate in which of Iowa’s ninety-nine counties specimens have been collected; flight times for each species are shown by marking the date of collection for each verified specimen on a yearly calendar. The book ends with a checklist, collection information specific to the photographs, a glossary, references, and an index. The authors’ meticulous attention to detail, stimulating questions for students and researchers, concern for habitat preservation, and joyful appreciation of the natural world make it a valuable and inspiring volume.

Deep Nature

Author : John Pearson
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1587298813
Total Pages : 119 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (872 download)

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Book Synopsis Deep Nature by : John Pearson

Download or read book Deep Nature written by John Pearson and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2009-10 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Photographers Linda and Robert Scarth have an incredible eye for that magic moment when small becomes beautiful. Matched with patience and skill, their eye for magic produces dazzling images of Iowa nature up close. Revealing the miniature beauties hidden among the patches of prairie, woodland, and wetland that remain in Iowa’s sadly overdeveloped landscape, the seventy-five color photographs in Deep Nature give us a breathtaking cross section of the state’s smallest inhabitants. The Scarths’ close-up images of showy orchis and northern monkshood, great spangled fritillary and painted lady, red-breasted nuthatch and eastern wood-pewee, ornate box turtle and gray treefrog, big bluestem and cotton-grass, and many other natural wonders look more like paintings than photographs. Beginning with an iridescent fly hovering over a neon-purple fringed gentian and ending with their iconic image of coneflowers refracted in dewdrops, they have created a sparkling jewelbox of images that will make us look at the small world around us with renewed appreciation. Attending to the small things in the fabric of nature is the Scarths’ source of artistic inspiration. Taking Walt Whitman’s “every leaf is a miracle” as their beginning, they celebrate not only each leaf but each feather, insect, dewdrop, flower, lichen, and intricate organism in the evolving web of life.

The Iowa Lakeside Laboratory

Author : Michael J. Lannoo
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1609381394
Total Pages : 114 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis The Iowa Lakeside Laboratory by : Michael J. Lannoo

Download or read book The Iowa Lakeside Laboratory written by Michael J. Lannoo and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine a place dedicated to the long-term study of nature in nature, a permanent biological field station, a teaching and research laboratory that promotes complete immersion in the natural world. Lakeside Laboratory, founded on the shore of Lake Okoboji in northwestern Iowa in 1909, is just such a place. In this remarkable and insightful book, Michael Lannoo sets the story of Lakeside Lab within the larger story of the primacy of fieldwork, the emergence of conservation biology, and the ability of field stations to address such growing problems as pollution, disease, habitat loss, invasive species, and climate change. At the intersection of major ecosystems with distinct plant and animal communities and surrounded by what, ironically, may be the most intensely cultivated landscape on earth, Lakeside has a long history of rubber-boot biologists saturated in the spirit that grounds the new discipline of conservation biology, and Lannoo brings this history to life with his descriptions of the people and ideas that shaped it. Lakeside’s continuing commitment to bringing the laboratory to the field rather than bringing the field to the lab has supported a focus on mammalogy, ornithology, herpetology, ichthyology, invertebrate biology, parasitology, limnology, and algology, subjects rarely taught now on university campuses but crucial to the planet’s health. Today’s huge array of environmental problems can best be solved by people who have learned about nature within nature at a place with a long history of research and observation, people who thoroughly understand and appreciate nature’s cogs and wheels. Lakeside Lab and biological research stations like it have never been more relevant to science and to society at large than they are today. Michael Lannoo convinces us that while Lakeside’s past is commendable, its future, grounded in ecological principles, will help shape a more sustainable society.

Wildflowers and Other Plants of Iowa Wetlands, 2nd edition

Author : Sylvan T. Runkel
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1609383486
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Wildflowers and Other Plants of Iowa Wetlands, 2nd edition by : Sylvan T. Runkel

Download or read book Wildflowers and Other Plants of Iowa Wetlands, 2nd edition written by Sylvan T. Runkel and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2015-04-15 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1999, Wildflowers and Other Plants of Iowa Wetlands was the first book to focus on the beauty and diversity of the wetland plants that once covered 1.5 million acres of Iowa. Now this classic of midwestern natural history is back in print with a new format and all-new photographs, just as Iowa’s wetlands are getting the respect and attention they deserve. In clear and accessible prose, authors Sylvan Runkel and Dean Roosa provide common, scientific, and family names; the Latin or Greek meaning of the scientific names; habitat and blooming times; and a complete description. Plants are presented by habitat (terrestrial or aquatic), then refined by habit (e.g., emergent, floating, or submerged) or taxonomic group (e.g., ferns and allies or trees, shrubs, and vines). Particularly interesting is the information on the many ways in which Native Americans and early pioneers used these plants for everything from pain relief to tonics to soup and the ways that wildlife today use them for food and shelter. Each of the more than 150 species accounts is accompanied by a brilliant full-page color photograph by botanist Thomas Rosburg, who has also updated the nomenclature and descriptions for certain species. After decades of being considered an enemy of the settler, the farmer, and the citizen, Iowa’s wetlands have come into their own. We are finally caring for these important habitats. Runkel and Roosa’s updated field companion will be a valuable guide to today’s preservation and restoration initiatives.

All Is Leaf

Author : John T Price
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1609388364
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis All Is Leaf by : John T Price

Download or read book All Is Leaf written by John T Price and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2022-06-08 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing inspiration and urgency from the storied Goethe Oak tree at Buchenwald concentration camp—and from the leaf as symbol of all change, growth, and renewal—award-winning essayist John Price explores a multitude of dramatic transformations, in his life and in the fragile world beyond: “the how of the organism—that keeps your humanity alive.” He employs an array of forms and voices, whether penning a break-up letter to America or a literary rock-n-roll road song dedicated to prairie scientists, or giving pregame pep talks to his son’s losing football team. Here, too, are moving portrayals of his father’s last effort as a small-town lawyer to defend the rights of abused women, and his own efforts as a writing teacher to honor the personal stories of his students. From his Iowa backyard to the edge of the Arctic Circle, from the forgotten recesses of the body to the far reaches of the solar system, this book demonstrates the ways imagination and informed compassion can, as Price describes it, expand thousandfold the boundaries of what we might “have naïvely considered an individual self.”

Wildflowers of Iowa Woodlands

Author : Sylvan T. Runkel
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1587298848
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (872 download)

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Book Synopsis Wildflowers of Iowa Woodlands by : Sylvan T. Runkel

Download or read book Wildflowers of Iowa Woodlands written by Sylvan T. Runkel and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2009-11-01 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic of midwestern natural history is back in print with a new format and new photographs. Originally published in 1979, Wildflowers of Iowa Woodlands introduced many naturalists to the beauty and diversity of the native plants of the wooded communities that once covered more than 6 million acres of the state. Now redesigned with updated names and all-new images, this reliable field companion will introduce woodland wildflowers to a new generation of outdoor enthusiasts in the Upper Midwest. The species accounts are accompanied by brilliant full-page color photographs by Larry Stone, Thomas Rosburg, and Carl Kurtz. In clear, straightforward, and accessible prose, authors Sylvan Runkel and Alvin Bull provide common, scientific, and family names; the Latin or Greek meaning of the scientific names; habitat and blooming times; and a complete description of plant, flower, and fruit. Particularly interesting is the information on the many ways in which Native Americans and early pioneers used these plants for everything from pain relief to insecticides to tonics. Iowa’s original savannas, woodlands, and forests were cleared with amazing thoroughness, yet enough beauty and diversity remain to give joy to hikers, birders, and mushroomers. Wildflowers of Iowa Woodlands will inspire both amateurs and professionals with the desire to learn more about the wonders of today’s woodlands.

Ecological Restoration in the Midwest

Author : Christian Lenhart
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1609385748
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Ecological Restoration in the Midwest by : Christian Lenhart

Download or read book Ecological Restoration in the Midwest written by Christian Lenhart and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2018-06-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people do not realize it, but the Midwest has been at the forefront of ecological restoration longer than perhaps any other region in the United States, dating back to the 1930s. Because of its industrial history, agricultural productivity, and natural features such as the Great Lakes, the Midwest has always faced a unique set of ecological challenges. Focusing on six cutting-edge case studies that highlight thirty restoration efforts and research sites throughout the region— Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio— editors Christian Lenhart and Peter “Rocky” Smiley Jr. bring together a group of scholars and practitioners to show how midwestern restoration efforts have developed, as well as where they are headed. Whether cleaning up contamination from auto plants in Ohio, or restoring native prairie grasses along the Iowa highway, the contributors uncover a vast network of interested citizens and volunteer groups committed to preserving the region’s environment. This study, intended for researchers, students, and practitioners, also provides an updated synthesis of restoration theory and practice, and pinpoints emerging issues of importance in the Midwest, such as climate change and the increase in invasive species it will bring to the region. Though focusing exclusively on the Midwest, the contributors demonstrate how these case studies apply to restoration efforts across the globe. Contributors: Luther Aadland, David P. Benson, Andrew F. Casper, Hua Chen, Joe DiMisa, Steve Glass, Heath M. Hagy, John A. Harrington, Neil Haugerud, Constance Hausman, Michael J. Lemke, Christian Lenhart, Jen Lyndall, Dan Shaw, John A. Shuey, Peter C. Smiley Jr., Daryl Smith

Stories From Under The Sky

Author : John Madson
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1609380304
Total Pages : 211 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Stories From Under The Sky by : John Madson

Download or read book Stories From Under The Sky written by John Madson and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 1998-02-01 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Stories from under the Sky, John Madson salutes the outdoor life. These thirty-six essays display his healthy respect for the forces of nature, without diminishing his wry awareness of the foibles of beast, bird, fish, and human. In sections on mammals, the river, and birds, Madson acquaints readers with some real characters—not all of them four-footed! Some are old favorites: the raccoon, the otter, the fawn, and the badger. Others are less familiar—the demonic shrew, the indomitable dogfish, and the exotic blue heron. Even the “unloved” come in for their share of attention: toads, waterbugs, wasps, and turkey buzzards. Madson has a yarn to spin about each one. Where else would you find an essay on “Snake Liars”? Whatever the topic, Madson’s love of nature shines through, be it coon hunting or an explanation of the incredible bird machine. His obvious affection is tempered with the recognition that not everything “natural” is a pretty sight. All of which leaves readers with a better understanding of life under the sky.

A Sugar Creek Chronicle

Author : Cornelia F. Mutel
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1609383958
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis A Sugar Creek Chronicle by : Cornelia F. Mutel

Download or read book A Sugar Creek Chronicle written by Cornelia F. Mutel and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2016-03-15 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2010, while editing a report on the effects of climate change in Iowa, ecologist Cornelia Mutel came to grips with the magnitude and urgency of the problem. She already knew the basics: greenhouse gas emissions and global average temperatures are rising on a trajectory that could, within decades, propel us beyond far-reaching, irreversible atmospheric changes; the results could devastate the environment that enables humans to thrive. The more details she learned, the more she felt compelled to address this emerging crisis. The result is this book, an artful weaving together of the science behind rising temperatures, tumultuous weather events, and a lifetime devoted to the natural world. Climate change isn’t just about melting Arctic ice and starving polar bears. It’s weakening the web of life in our own backyards. Moving between two timelines, Mutel pairs chapters about a single year in her Iowa woodland with chapters about her life as a fledgling and then professional student of nature. Stories of her childhood ramblings in Wisconsin and the solace she found in the Colorado mountains during early adulthood are merged with accounts of global environmental dilemmas that have redefined nature during her lifespan. Interwoven chapters bring us into her woodland home to watch nature’s cycles of life during a single year, 2012, when weather records were broken time and time again. Throughout, in a straightforward manner for a concerned general audience, Mutel integrates information about the science of climate change and its dramatic alteration of the planet in ways that clarify its broad reach, profound impact, and seemingly relentless pace. It is not too late, she informs us: we can still prevent the most catastrophic changes. We can preserve a world full of biodiversity, one that supports human lives as well as those of our myriad companions on this planet. In the end, Mutel offers advice about steps we can all take to curb our own carbon emissions and strategies we can suggest to our policy-makers.

The Annual American Catalog, 1900-1909

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 614 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (334 download)

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Book Synopsis The Annual American Catalog, 1900-1909 by :

Download or read book The Annual American Catalog, 1900-1909 written by and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Always Put in a Recipe and Other Tips for Living from Iowa's Best-Known Homemaker

Author : Evelyn Birkby
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1609381327
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Always Put in a Recipe and Other Tips for Living from Iowa's Best-Known Homemaker by : Evelyn Birkby

Download or read book Always Put in a Recipe and Other Tips for Living from Iowa's Best-Known Homemaker written by Evelyn Birkby and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2012-09-15 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1949, Iowa farm wife Evelyn Birkby began to write a weekly column entitled “Up a Country Lane” for the Shenandoah Evening Sentinel, now called the Valley News. Sixty-three years, one Royal typewriter, and five computers later, she is still creating a weekly record of the lives and interests of her family, friends, and neighbors. Her perceptive, closely observed columns provide a multigenerational biography of rural and small-town life in the Midwest over decades of change. Now she has sifted through thousands of columns to give us her favorites, guaranteed to delight her many longtime and newfound fans. Evelyn begins with her very first column, whose focus on the Christmas box prepared by a companionable group of farm wives, the constant hard work of farming, and an encounter with an elderly stranger over a yard of red gingham sets the tone for future columns. Optimistic even in the wake of sorrow, generous-spirited but not smug, humorous but not folksy, wise but not preachy, Evelyn welcomes the adventures and connections that each new day brings, and she masterfully shares them with her readers. Tales of separating cream on the back porch at Cottonwood Farm, raising a teddy bear of a puppy in addition to a menagerie of other animals, surviving an endless procession of Cub and Boy Scouts, appreciating a little boy’s need to take his toy tractor to church, blowing out eggs to make an Easter egg tree, shopping for bargains on the day before Christmas, camping in a converted Model T “house car,” and adjusting to the fact of one’s tenth decade of existence all merge to form a world composed of kindness and wisdom with just enough humor to keep it grounded. Recipes for such fare as Evelyn’s signature Hay Hand Rolls prove that the young woman who was daunted by her editor’s advice to “put in a recipe every week” became a talented cook. Each of the more than eighty columns in this warmhearted collection celebrates not a bygone era tinged with sentimentality but a continuing tradition of neighborliness, Midwest-nice and Midwest-sensible.

Gardening the Amana Way

Author : Lawrence L. Rettig
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1609382196
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Gardening the Amana Way by : Lawrence L. Rettig

Download or read book Gardening the Amana Way written by Lawrence L. Rettig and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gardening in Iowa’s Amana Colonies is the culmination of techniques that stretch back several centuries to central Europe, when adherents to a new faith called the Community of True Inspiration formed their own self-reliant communities. As a child of parents who were part of the communal life of the Amana Society, Larry Rettig pays homage to the Amana gardening tradition and extends it into the twenty-first century. Each of the seven villages in Amana relied on the food prepared in its communal kitchens, and each kitchen depended on its communal garden for most of the dishes served (the kitchens in Rettig’s hometown produced more than four hundred gallons of sauerkraut in 1900). Rettig begins by describing the evolution of communal gardening in old Amana, focusing especially on planting, harvesting, and storing vegetables from asparagus to egg lettuce to turnips. With the passing of the old order in 1932, the number of the society’s large vegetable gardens and orchards dwindled, but Larry Rettig and his wife, Wilma, still grow some of the colonies’ heirloom varieties in their fourth-generation South Amana vegetable garden. In 1980 they founded a seed bank to preserve them for future generations. Rettig’s chapters on modern vegetable and flower gardening in today’s Amana Colonies showcase his Cottage-in-the-Meadow Gardens, now listed with the Smithsonian in its Archives of American Gardens. Old intermingles with new across his gardens: heirloom lettuce keeps company with the latest cucumber variety, a hundred-year-old rose arches over the newest daylilies and heucheras, and ancient grapevines intertwine with newly planted wisteria, all adding up to a rich array of colorful plantings. Rettig extends his gardening advice into the kitchen and workroom. He shares family recipes for any number of traditional dishes, including radish salad, dumpling soup, Amana pickled ham, apple bread, eleven-minute meat loaf, and strawberry rhubarb pie. Moving into the workroom, he shows us how to make hammered botanical prints, Della Robbia centerpieces, holiday wreaths, a gnome home, and a waterless fountain. Touring his gardens, with their historic and unusual plants, will make gardeners everywhere want to reproduce the groupings and varieties that surround Larry and Wilma Rettig’s 1900 red brick house.

The Farm at Holstein Dip

Author : Carroll Engelhardt
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1609381351
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis The Farm at Holstein Dip by : Carroll Engelhardt

Download or read book The Farm at Holstein Dip written by Carroll Engelhardt and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2012-08-15 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carroll Engelhardt’s parents grew up in homes without electricity on farms without tractors and began farming in the same way. As a farm boy in northeastern Iowa, he thought that history happened only to important people in earlier times and more exotic places. After decades of teaching, he at last perceived that history happens to us all, and he began writing this book. Set within the thoughtfully presented contexts of the technological revolution in American agriculture, the Second World War, the Cold War, and the emerging culture of affluence, The Farm at Holstein Dip is both a loving coming-of-age memoir and an educational glimpse into rural and small-town life of the 1940s and 1950s. Engelhardt writes about growing up in a spacious farmhouse where life was centered in the kitchen and frugality dictated that every purchase be weighed carefully. His chores grew up with him: he fed chickens and gathered eggs at age six, rode a horse on the hayfork at nine or ten, milked cows by hand at eleven, and hired out to other farmers to load bales in the field and work in the haymow at fifteen. The simple pleasures and predictable routines of a Saturday night at the movies in nearby Elkader, Pioneer Days on the 4th of July, Confirmation Sunday, class picnics, and baseball and basketball games play out against a background of rural decline, alternating economic uncertainty and prosperity, and Cold War anxiety—next to polio, he most feared Communist subversion and atomic blasts. The values and contradictions imparted by this evolving mix of international, national, and local cultures shaped his coming of age. Engelhardt brings us into the world of his fourth-generation farm family, who lived by the family- and faith-based work ethic and concern for respectability they had inherited from their German and Norwegian ancestors. His writing has a particularly Iowa flavor, a style that needs no definition to those who live in the state. Readers will discover the appeal of his wry, humorous, and kind observations and appreciate his well-informed perspective on these transformative American decades.