The Trees And Crafts Of Moosewood Apple Farm

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By Annie Young

As you pull into Moose Apple Farm, you’ll first see the trees. Rows and rows of deciduous trees stretching up and down the soft sloping hills nestled into the turn of the road. Next, you’ll be welcomed by a log home with a wraparound porch decorated with antiques and seasonal decor. You may even be greeted by a wooden figurine sign saying, “The witch is in.”

But when we entered we found no witch, just a peacefully busy mother and daughter decorating and checking inventory for the upcoming holiday season. The Rasnic Family is hard at work creating unique crafts and growing Christmas trees to provide customers with memories and mementos.

In 2008 Paris and Kathy Rasnic moved into their new home and began selling Christmas trees at Moose Apple Farm. They had planted their first trees in 2000. Today they have over 25,000 trees in seven species—Norway spruce, blue spruce, white spruce, white pine and scotch pine, Douglas fir and the concolor fir.

The concolor fir is a relatively new variety in our area. It has long, soft needles that won’t prick you when you are decorating, but with branches strong enough to hold heavy ornaments. The concolor also has excellent needle retention and has citrus scent—when I rubbed the needles it evoked oranges in my stocking on Christmas Eve morning. The Rasnics have had customers happily report that their trees have kept their needles for a month.

Visitors and customers come for the trees but enjoy the open hills, picnic pavilion, scenic vistas, and seasonal decorations that include an antique Amish sleigh. The Rasnics invite people to take pictures with the sleigh; they’ve even had customers bring professional photographers for their Christmas card photos. One Clarke County man proposed to his future wife at the farm in front of a Christmas tree covered with bulbs saying “Will you marry me?”

Back in the gift shop it feels like Santa’s workshop—if Santa made crafts instead of toys. The large Great Room has wreaths, stained glass ornaments, sun catchers, handmade wooden interior decor, local syrups, and all things “Moosey.” Wreaths made daily are sold with a wide variety of ribbons to fit any style. The Rasnics use their own freshly harvested pine. Customers can buy the greenery and white pine garlands for their homes.

Rasnic family members are not only farmers; they are craftsmen and artisans. The wooden decorations are all made by Paris and hand painted by Kathy, who often creates custom paintings for customers. One old-timey Santa painting has a Naughty-Nice list that includes family members’ names. There is an antique milk canister painted with a scene depicting a personalized train and the family’s alma maters.

Tamara, Paris and Kathy’s daughter, is an artist working in glass. She created ornaments, sun catchers, mosaics and night light covers with glass. Some are created using Tiffany style stained glass while others are created using a fusion process. The sunlight streaming through the windows illuminates the ornaments—the ornaments also can be customized. Tamara spends the year creating objects for the gift shop. She says when she first got her kiln she couldn’t sleep at night because she had so many new ideas of things to create.

Back outside again, you can choose your tree from the full array of rows. When you go to cut your tree, the farm provides tags and a map to mark the special spot where you found your Christmas tree. Tagging trees began the first weekend of October. Cutting trees begins the weekend before Thanksgiving and continues until Christmas eve for those last minute decorators. Customers can cut their own trees with saws provided for them by the farm. Assistance for hauling the trees from the field, shaking, baling, and loading is available.

Take some time this holiday season to come on down to Moosewood Farm. In fact, it might take some time to find a tree with 25,000 to choose from!

The farm and gift shop are open every weekend, 10am to 4pm. 2425 Wickliffe Road, Berryville; on the web at MooseAppleChristmasTreeFarm.com and by phone at 540-955-2450.

Donating Like A Rich Guy

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I have a friend who, despite being a thoroughly contemporary, urbane guy—he would say a hip dude—lives in the old fashioned world of a cash economy. Just like his parents did, he says.

Unlike most 40-somethings and younger, he carries no debt other than a mortgage. He does this in part because he enjoys his privacy, and in part because he doesn’t want to spend beyond his means.

But he also lives on cash because he likes to give away money.

He gives away a fair chunk of change each year-end. And by change I mean he turns in coins measured by the pound—maybe even by the metric ton—so he can give it away.

He doesn’t make a ton of money. But he gives away a lot of it.

How does he do it?

Each time he buys something, he puts the change in a jar when he gets home—or in the coffee can that lives in his car. And because every purchase he makes is a cash transaction, that’s a lot of coin.

At around Thanksgiving each year, he deposits it all into his checking account, goes home, and writes out checks to the charitable organizations he wants to support, holding back a little for a contribution to his church to supplement his regular offering.

He’s not involved in any group; he’s not a joiner. He just appreciates the work others do to solve problems, spay and neuter stray animals, teach people to read, maintain parks and trails, care for the dying—and whatever else he decides to support each year.

I’m not as good at saving money as my friend, but I like his attitude about making giving to good causes part of the household budget.

As the holiday season begins, so does the unofficial season for year-end giving.

There are wonderful worthwhile charities in Clarke County that do special work in our community. If you’re not someone who typically gives a little bit every year, maybe this can be the year that you find one that’s doing work you can get behind—whatever your interests in bettering the world around you.

It might be too late to amass a major sum by saving your coins, but every bit is an investment in community and your own ideals for the future.

Wishing you all the best at Thanksgiving.

Minimally Invasive Surgery in Small Animal Veterinary Medicine

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Minimally Invasive Surgery in Small Animal Veterinary Medicine

By Dr. Matthew Nicholson

Many of us are aware of the advances in human surgical techniques like laparoscopy for removal of the gall bladder or arthroscopy to remove or repair torn cartilage in the knee. These techniques have been developed and improved upon over the years. Benefits of these minimally invasive surgical techniques include smaller surgical scars, less discomfort when compared to traditional surgery, and quicker return to function. You may not be aware that these same techniques are available and commonly used in veterinary medicine for the same reasons.

Arthroscopy

Minimally invasive surgery of joints is achieved with the placement of an arthroscope, a thin flexible fiberoptic scope and instruments through small incisions while a balanced sterile fluid passes through the joint. The most common indications for arthroscopy in dogs are torn ligaments and cartilage in the knee, ligament and tendon injuries, and cartilage abnormalities in the shoulder, and the elbow. Other joints may include the ankle, hip, and wrist.

The most common injury requiring surgical intervention we see in practice is a torn cranial cruciate ligament in the dog’s knee. The cranial cruciate ligament in the dog is similar to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in people. Prior to surgical stabilization of the knee, we perform arthroscopy to evaluate all structures and address abnormalities requiring intervention. The most common concurrent injury we find during the arthroscopy is a torn cartilage (meniscus). Many people have had this same injury and can attest to the level of pain as a result of a torn meniscus. In most cases, successful repair of the cartilage is not feasible, therefore removal of the torn tissue is necessary. Failure to recognize this concurrent injury would result in ongoing discomfort for the pet. Arthroscopy provides superior visibility due to the magnification, allowing us to more easily spot and correct a torn meniscus.

Laparoscopy

Minimally invasive surgery of the abdominal cavity, or laparoscopy, is performed with the aid of a thin laparoscope with light, gas to distend the abdomen (often carbon dioxide), and instruments. The laparoscope and instruments are placed into the abdominal cavity through small incisions. In veterinary medicine, there are many procedures that can be performed with this technique. Common procedures include spay of female dog or cat (ovariohysterectomy—removal of the ovaries and uterus versus ovariectomy, or removal of just the ovaries), removal of retained testicles in the male dog, biopsy of organs, and removal of the gall bladder or kidney.

Preventive procedures are performed laparoscopically to help avoid a condition or disease. The most common preventive procedure performed, other than spaying and neutering, is gastropexy. Gastropexy is creating a surgical adhesion or attachment of a portion of the stomach to the abdominal wall to prevent the stomach from rotating. This condition, gastric volvulus or gastric dilation and volvulus (GDV), is common in deep-chested, large or giant breed dogs. GDV is an emergency, and a patient diagnosed with the condition requires immediate attention and surgery. A preventive laparoscopic gastropexy can be performed to eliminate this risk. The recovery following this procedure is rapid, due to small incisions and very little discomfort for the patient. Compared to the surgical procedure and attention needed for a patient diagnosed with GDV, the cost is significantly less as well. If you have questions regarding this procedure, or question if you should consider this for your pet, please consult your veterinarian.

We know there is a lot of information to digest and things to consider in the event that a pet requires surgical intervention for preventive care or for necessary medical treatment. We pet owners are increasingly, and rightly, seeking the same treatment options for our pets as we would for ourselves. Fortunately, veterinary medicine has advanced to a point where this is not an unreasonable or unrealistic expectation.

If you find your own pet in a situation requiring surgery, know that many minimally invasive treatment options are out there and explore these less invasive treatment alternatives with your pet’s veterinary caregiver before moving forward with more invasive procedures.

Matthew Nicholson, DVM, DACVS is staff surgeon at Valley Surgical Center in Winchester. For information, visit www. VeterinarySurgicalCenters.com or call 540-450-0177.

Wild Chorus

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Wild Chorus

By Doug Pifer

While working in my studio late the other night I heard a coyote chorus ringing through the October darkness. It sounded like a crazy Halloween party.

A real coyote sounds nothing like coyote howls played in the movies. A shrill wail breaks into a rabble of barks and yips that gradually fade into silence. It usually lasts less than a minute or two, but this time it started up again at least two more times.

Since the late 90s, coyotes have become well established in the Shenandoah Valley. And although my neighbors and friends had seen and even shot an occasional coyote, it embarrassed me that for many years I never saw a live Eastern coyote. To console myself I bought the tanned pelt of a big male coyote in prime condition from a taxidermist, who said it was taken in Shenandoah County. Hanging on my studio door, it measures exactly five feet from nose to tail, a magnificent art inspiration.

Finally one July morning in 2008, I noticed our donkey Zack staring intently across the field. Donkeys never miss anything interesting in their world, so I looked where the long ears pointed and saw a big coyote chasing a spotted fawn that had evidently been disturbed by the recent hay mowing. Both animals vanished into the woods, but the coyote reappeared. For several seconds it stood on a knoll, looked around, and then trotted along our back fencerow. I called through the kitchen to my wife, who looked out in time to see the coyote loping along as casually as a dog. My streak of bad luck had run out.

We saw its wolf-like shape several more times that summer, usually at a distance, standing at the edge of the woods or trotting across the field. Like the foxes and deer it evidently accepted our presence and never seemed particularly afraid of us.

About three weeks later my wife and I happened to notice a big groundhog sitting up on its hind legs in the backfield, apparently watching us. A movement across the field caught our eyes—a coyote appeared over a rise, hurrying toward the groundhog in a crouching run. The groundhog kept watching us until the coyote was almost upon it, when it turned and ran towards the woods. When the coyote caught up with it, there was a brief scuffle. We watched, spellbound, as the coyote bit into the groundhog, shook it, and then carried it away into the woods.

We stood in momentary silence with mixed feelings—amazement at what we had seen, regret we hadn’t had a camera to catch it on film, and a bit of remorse that the groundhog might still be alive had it not been watching us so intently.

Coyotes can destroy poultry and livestock, particularly lambs, calves and kid goats. And they sometimes kill unattended small pets. Trapping, shooting, and poisoning have little effect because coyotes are naturally smart, elusive, and suspicious.

Still, I feel lucky every time I hear that wild chorus.

September 2013 edition

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September 2013

Ray Cather: Farmer, Ruritan, Neighbor

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Ray Cather: Farmer, Ruritan, Neighbor

By Annie Young

Perhaps , like me, you enjoy traveling the back roads of Clarke County. I drive along while my baby sleeps in the backseat and find places that are new to me but have a long history in the county. One hot day this summer I passed a sign, “Ray’s Garden,” next to a lush, well-tended garden and a huge banner hanging on the window “RAY IS 98!” My curiosity was piqued!

Ray Cather began farming over six decades ago on their family farm along Cather Road. He had learned the trade as a farm manager in Pennsylvania, but came back to the Shenandoah Valley to start his own operation with Black Angus cows. Although Mr. Cather did not grow up in Clarke County, he and his wife raised five children here. Three of his children remained here to raise their own families and continue to live on the farm.

Ray Cather’s legacy stretches even further into the community with his years of service with the Ruritans. The Ruritans are a national civic organization. The local chapter sponsors and plans the Clarke County Fair as well as college scholarships and other community service projects. Cather has a stellar record of 54 years of perfect attendance at the Ruritan meetings. He was awarded Member of the Year in 1996 and the Senior Service Award in 1990. Not one to rest on his laurels, or rest at all, he worked at the barbeque dinner during the Clarke County Fair, where every night Mr. Cather filled countless cups with ice during those muggy August nights.

Farming takes a special level of commitment, especially when working with animals. Black Angus have always been Cather’s breed of choice, and that is the breed the family farm still raises. Since 1964 Cather has also tended a garden plot next to their home. It is nestled against the pasture and carefully fenced. It is on that fence that his wooden carved sign proudly announces, “Ray’s Garden.”

Mr. Cather has spent almost 50 years hoeing, planting, weeding, and harvesting from this same vegetable plot. A spring and summer crop of vegetables are planted and harvested. Then about the time some people surrender to the weeds and heat, he plants his second crop of fall vegetables, including his famous turnips.

Cather has created a system of saving seeds, labeling his own white letter envelopes with the variety of seed, then saves all his seeds from squash, melon, peppers and tomatoes. He has no need for fancy names or remembering the variety because after so many years he has created his own heirloom varieties. “Red, large tomato” or “small, yellow cherry tomato” is all that is needed to label and remember the variety from season to season.

Saving tomato seeds can be tricky. The process involves fermenting, filtering, and drying the seeds. Then, using a small greenhouse that Cather calls his tent, he plants the seeds. The family helps move and rearrange the furniture so that the sunny windows and living room can be filled with seedlings. With so many plants coming up it is hard to find room for them all in the garden. So the flower beds and planters surrounding the house have happy plants tucked into them instead of flowers. Cather’s daughter Margaret Dillow helps can and distribute the tomatoes to friends and neighbors. She observes how her mother’s flower beds have evolved into tomato beds instead. Take it from me, results of all the hard work are delicious.

Ray Cather has been a longtime member of Crums United Methodist Church. He is well known and well loved in his church community. Each year, in yet another act of service, Cather donates vegetables to their annual bazaar, with profits going to the church. His bumper crops of turnips are most notable. (The bazaar is held the first weekend of November; if you want to try some of these heirloom vegetables that is the place to find them!)

Perhaps you’ve seen the sign and cultivated vegetable plot, or enjoyed a cold drink at the Ruritan chicken dinner, or attended service at Crums Church, or even tasted a Cather grown vegetable. In over 60 years since starting his farm in Clarke, Ray Cather has worked hard, given plenty, and touched the lives of many.

Fascinated By Fungi

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Fascinated By Fungi

Puffball mushroom, by Doug Pifer

Just after school starts in autumn, big round puffball mushrooms pop up overnight, looking as if somebody scattered freshly baked buns in the yard.

As a kid, I remember the field where the neighborhood played baseball was a prime spot for puffballs. We called them smoke bombs and checked them daily after school. If they were white or mushy inside we’d wait. When they were finally dry, we stomped on them. Clouds of spores exploded into the air like brown smoke.

Puffballs come in various sizes and shapes. Some resemble cupcakes, skulls, or pincushions. Some grow singly in woods or fields, others in clumps on dead wood. One of the prettiest is the earthstar, a quarter-sized fungus that often pops up in bark mulch around flowerbeds or under a rotting dead tree. Earthstars start out like small puffballs but their tough outer husk eventually splits several ways. The husk peels back and the fungus resembles a tiny gray sunburst. Like other puffballs, the inside sack releases a cloud of spores when it dries out.

Giant puffballs, Calvatia gigantica, range from softball- to cantaloupe-size. Many grow bigger. A friend recently brought me a giant puffball she picked that was the size of a basketball.

Giant puffballs are covered with an outer rind that is whitish to light golden brown. If you cut one open, there are no traces of stem or gills. The fresh inside is solid white with a firmness like Styrofoam. In a day or two it turns yellow and mushy, then becomes a sickly green slime. After the puffball dries, its insides are a purplish-brown honeycomb that, when broken open, releases powdery spores.

I don’t recommend eating anything that grows in the wild. The edible giant puffball is one of a quartet of mushrooms known as the foolproof four: giant puffball, common morel, shaggy mane, and sulfur shelf. However, nature is NOT foolproof. Each of these four mushrooms looks like others that, while not deadly, might make you wish you were dead after you ate them.

Before eating any wild mushroom, know three things: exactly what kind you have, what poisonous mushroom species it resembles, and how to tell the difference. In short, become a mushroom expert first, then a mushroom eater.

Fungi are fascinating. Once placed in the plant kingdom, fungi now belong to a kingdom of their own because they share more of certain characteristics with animals. The mushroom you see above ground is just the fruiting part. A fungus is actually a network of white threads just under the surface of the soil. These threads connect with each other and with other plants—even the biggest trees.

Scientists have long known that fungi get their nutrients from other plants. Only recently they discovered that this interconnecting network, called the mycelium, allows fungi to exchange nutrients with green plants. In fact, all plants depend upon fungi to get many nutrients vital to their survival. Certain species of mushroom contain nutrients vital to the human immune system.

A pair of young American researchers recently discovered that under laboratory conditions, mycelium from certain mushrooms perpetuates itself and grows into a hard polymer that rivals plastics. This completely organic substance is now being molded into packing material and household objects. My wife just bought a kitchen utensil made of it. It looks and feels like hard plastic, but is completely recyclable.

Mushrooms may save the world!

School Board, House Candidates Meet October 7

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School Board, House Candidates Meet October 7

The Virginia-focused political website Bearing Drift recently posted an interesting projection on this year’s elections in the Commonwealth: a voter turnout rate below 40 percent, perhaps as low as 37 percent. This would be a tad below 2009, and a continuation of the downward plunge in voter participation in Virginia  gubernatorial elections—which haven’t seen 50 percent turnout in more than two decades.

More shocking still are voting records for the 2011 Commonwealth election in which there was no governor’s race—below 30 percent. It means more Virginians use Facebook than vote for the officials who represent them in Richmond or on the school board.

Political analysts cite lower voter enthusiasm for the trend—and point out that in Presidential elections Virginia’s energized electorate has shown up at rates topping 70 percent in four of the last five races. A more often cited reason for staying home on Election Day is not knowing enough about the candidates or the issues.

Okay . . .

For at least two races of local interest, there will be multiple opportunities to learn about the candidates and their ideas. The Clarke County Education Association and E3 Clarke, a community-based forum focused on publication education, will host a candidates’ forum October 7 at 6:30pm in the Clarke County High School Auditorium.

The candidates for the 33rd district House of Delegates and Clarke County School Board have been invited.

In the Delegate race, Berryville resident Mary Costello Daniel faces off against David LaRock of Loudoun County, who unseated Delegate Joe May in the Republican primary.

The school board election for the Berryville District has George Archibald of West Main Street going up against Roberta Lasiter of Lindsay Court—a fascinating race because neither candidate is American born. Whatever your politics, you have to appreciate that both value community democracy enough to get involved in their adopted country—see earlier passage about couch potatoes sitting out elections.

There will likely be other opportunities to hear from the candidates, but the high school auditorium probably has the greatest seating capacity. It should be a source of community pride to fill the place.

The Observer will feature a Q&A in the October edition.

One Day As A Lion

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One Day As A Lion

How cooking can change your outlook on life and health

by Mark Andrews I learned to cook standing on a table chair backed against Rae’s stove. And I learned to believe that food is love. Most Sundays of my childhood were spent in Grandma Rae’s kitchen. An Italian immigrant, she came to America as a teenager with her mother Nonna and her two older brothers Nicolo and Dominic. They brought with them a rich heritage of family and food experienced within a loosely-controlled chaos that only Sicilians deem civilized. Rae would bounce in and out of her chair at the kitchen table between hands of canasta with her mother to tend whatever she had cooking on the stove. They’d smoke cigarettes and banter about American television or the divine virtuoso of Luciano Pavarotti. And, of course the food.

Plates of breaded cutlets fried in olive oil stacked between thick slices of provolone. Steaming artichokes in lemon juice and capers. Cannoli filled with sweetened ricotta dusted with powdered sugar and cocoa. Spumoni chilling in the icebox. Scoops of gelato swimming in the froth of piping hot espresso. The tastes and smells have never left me. “E’meglio vivere un giorno da leone,” she’d said, the staccato cadence of her native tongue soothing the stovetop burn I’d just received from an errant brush against her cast iron skillet. “Che cento da pecora.” Rae gently held my face in her hands to translate the Italian proverb: “Better to live one day as a lion, than one hundred as a sheep.”

And so it was, my first lesson on living courageously in the kitchen, one I took with me wherever life happened.

Life moves pretty fast. In today’s world of five dollar pizzas, dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets from the freezer, and pop tarts that appear to have been decorated with a paintball gun, it seems ever so more important that we man our posts over the stove. There’s an endless stream of information available to us on the sobering statistics and soaring healthcare costs for a nation of children whose majority are now either overweight or obese. Simply put, processed foods are the culprit; convenience in a ‘hurry up’ society the catalyst. And, lost in the shuffle of microwaves and fast food carryout is the opportunity to demonstrate how much we care about those that we are feeding.

Cooking is a skill. But not nearly as complicated as some would have you believe. It just takes practice and, at times, some measure of courage. All will not go according to plan. There will certainly be the occasional burned and bandaged fingers. Even smoke alarms blaring like sirens in the night. But, onward I say. The best way to learn is to do. In that spirit, here are a few of my favorite summertime Italian dishes to help get you started. Each of them is easy to prepare with moderate preparation and some basic ingredients.

Caprese Salad

Ingredients: Vine-ripened tomatoes, fresh basil, avocado, fresh mozzarella (in water), lemon, olive oil, and balsamic glaze. How to prepare: Slice the tomatoes in half; remove the core, then cut into wedges and arrange on serving plate. Cut your avocado in half; remove the core. Slice through the skin on each half using a sharp paring knife; peel away the skin and discard. Cut the avocado into strips lengthwise and add to the tomatoes on your serving plate. Remove your mozzarella from the water and slice into disks. Then cut each disk in half; arrange on serving plate with the other ingredients. Now, you’re ready to add seasoning. Pluck your basil leaves from their stems and chop them on a cutting board (not too fine). Sprinkle the leaves over your tomatoes, avocado, and mozzarella. Cut your lemon in half and squeeze the juice over everything being careful not to include the seeds. Season with sea salt and pepper. Finally, it’s time to dress the salad. Drizzle olive oil over the salad in long diagonal lines moving from one side of the plate to the other forming a zig zag. Then do the same in the opposite direction with your balsamic glaze. Chill in the fridge or serve immediately.

Roasted Summer Vegetables

Ingredients: Zuchini, yellow squash, mushrooms, sweet onion, eggplant, sweet bell pepper, fresh rosemary, thyme, olive oil. How to prepare: Cut all your vegetables into 1/2” slices; arrange in a baking dish. Chop your rosemary and thyme, then season your vegetables with the herbs, sea salt, and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and toss. Bake uncovered at 450 degrees 20–25 minutes. Serve immediately or cover with foil to keep warm. This is also a dish that works wonderfully on the grill, using skewers or wrapped in foil pockets.

Grilled Sockeye Salmon Filet

Ingredients: Sockeye filet (skin on), thyme, olive oil, lemon, dill weed. How to prepare: Rub your filet with olive oil; season with chopped thyme, dill, sea salt, pepper. Squeeze lemon juice over the filet. Either bake in the oven at 450 degrees for 10–12 minutes or grill over hot flames. The fish is done when firm to the touch. To serve, just run a spatula between the skin (which should now be crispy) and the meat to separate. Cut into portions and serve immediately. While at first the dishes might seem like work, they really are very easy to make. Like any skill, it takes practice.

Finding new dishes

Recipes and tutorials are only as far away as our smart phones or tablets. One of my favorites is www.cooksillustrated.com. There you can find recipes and tutorials and online cooking classes for the truly ambitious. Entire cable networks are dedicated to the craft—the Barefoot Contessa and Giada’s Food Network show are two great resources. But you can have more fun finding one to attend in person. One of the best places to learn to cook is at a local growers market like the Clarke County Farmers Market, with their abundance of locally grown fruits, berries, herbs and vegetables, too. Farmers love to talk about their favorite ways to prepare the food they sell, and its great fun to build a dish or meal from the offerings of several of them. You can walk the market and invent your own dish. With a bit of planning, we can all carve out enough time to share a meal with those we love. Recruit your loved ones to help select the menu. Invite your friends to dinner and make the preparation a social event. Grow your own tomatoes from a hanging basket or plant a vegetable garden. Assign prep duties to your children and help them practice their own skills in the kitchen while sharing the responsibility of feeding their tribe. And in the process, you just might create a set of wonderful memories and a sense of community that will outlast the shelf life of even the most processed of foods. So, it is: Eat Well. Be Fed.