Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 134, Number 33, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 13 August 2015 — Page 4

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• Advance News • Thursday, August 13, 2015

Let me introduce myself

Some of you may have seen my face around town already, but it is time to formally introduce myself. I'm Heather Bradley and the new Editor for the Advance News here in the Wa-nee community. I am honored to be a part of the team and look forward to getting to know everyone in the community. I currently commute from Fort Wayne, but I grew up in Plymouth, so I am more than familiar with the area. I have my own memories of visiting Amish Acres with my mother and grandmother, as a child. I moved to Plymouth when 1 was 8, after moving around the east coast. I lived in Plymouth for 13 years and graduated from high school there. I went on to pursue an Associate's Degree in Criminal Justice, but quickly decided that was not the field for me. In 2012, I was presented with an opportunity to become involved in the optical field and 1 took it. 1 absolutely love it, but still felt like something was missing. So when I was given the chance to follow this career path, I certainly could not pass it up. It felt like everything I had been seeking for my children and 1. I am excited to learn new skills and meet new people, but the best part for me will behaving the opportunity to boost an entire community filled with wholesome values. I have three children that are my world. My oldest daughter Abbie is 12 and will be in 7th grade this year. She loves to draw and is a huge fan of the arts, she loves to read and learn about animals. My son Preston is 11 and is a computer genius. He shows me things I didn’t even know how to do on a computer. He likes video games and has a natural affinity for sports. My youngest daughter Alivia is 7 and she’s my dreamer. She loves kittens, the color pink and cuddling with her mommy. I am definitely very blessed. I enjoy spending time with my kids and family as much as I can. We go to water parks, the zoo or the movies. I am also an avid reader and love to have my mind captured by a good beak. 1 have to listen to music every day and share a love of the arts; whether it is paintings, sculptures, drawings, or photography. I love to write and keep a journal of thoughts, poems or phrases I think of. 1 enjoy taking my own photography as well and am always looking for that perfect shot. I’m also very fond of nature and try to preserve and enjoy it as much as I possibly can. It has been such a pleasure to gaze upon some of the beauty stopped in time upon my visits to this community. 1 want to know what you, the readers, want to see about in your paper. I am open to any and all suggestions and will be keeping normal business hours Tuesdays at the Chamber of Commerce and Thursdays (time yet to announce) and will be in town until 5 p.m. most evenings and can be reached at j www.advance@bnin. net or 574-209-0704. I look forward to hearing from you and sharing all I can from this wholesome community.

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Heather Bradley

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Opinion

Walking on Water

One reason I never get bored these past thirty-six years as a pastor is that no two days are alike. I don't get bored. A pastor needs a variety of skills preaching, comforting, visiting, caring, healing the sick, raising the dead. Loaves and Fishes 101 (making the food stretch at a carry-in). Those kind of things. But at least we're not expected to walk on water. I have enough difficulties without adding six impossible things before breakfast. Then came our awfully different summer. How different? While some parts of our country are parched, our farmers complain about getting too much rain. This time of year I'm used to driving around com walls, long rows of com stalks blocking the view at the cross roads so you drive a few inches past the stop signs. Now the com wall suddenly crumbles here, there, everywhere that the rain has collected in deep inland seas. In those spots there's just some desultory stubble where the stalks have grown a foot or more at most. Our own backyard here on County Road Seven is like the Great Grimpen Mire, the treacherous moor eerily featured in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic "The Hound of the Baskervilles/' That marshy terrain was dotted with

Fresh sweet com

A couple of week ago I wrote about selection and preserving sweet com; now I am writing about all the additional ways to enjoy it other than cooked fresh on the cob. The growing season for fresh Indiana sweet com is here so now is the time to really enjoy it. Sweet com is one of the most popular vegetables. Besides its sweet flavor, it is full of many vitamins and minerals, but do know that it is a starchy vegetable. Sweet com is a great source of vitamins 81, B$ and C, as well as phosphorus, manganese, folate and fiber. Folate is effective in lowering the homocysteine levels in the body, which is an amino acid that can damage blood vessels. Preparing sweet com on the cob can be done in several different ways depending on how fast you want to eat. The three basic methods of cooking com on the cob are microwave, boiling and grilling. The first steps are to remove the com husks and silks. Pull back the husks until the ear of com is completely exposed and using your fingers or a vegetable brush, remove the silks. Now the com is ready to prepare. Boiling method: Discard com husks

Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs

It's been just 5 years since the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) was discovered in Elkhart County. Since then, it has been building up in numbers, invading people's homes, and on a few occasions; causing minor crop damage. We can expect to see increasing crop damage as the BMSB gets better established in our area. Locally, we have already documented feeding on soybeans, green beans, apples, tomatoes and several different types of com. Most of this damage has been seen in the northwestern comer of Elkhart County where the bug was first discovered. It also seems to be more noticeable near wooded areas where they feed before moving into ripening crops. BMSB has a piercing-sucking mouthpiece, very similar to a mosquito. When it feeds, BMSB inserts this mouth part into the plant and sucks juice out. In soybeans and green

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County Road Seven \By Frank Ramirez

quicksand-like bogs where animals are aSt and die. Late at night one heard owling of an enormous unearthly hound. Don't think I'm exaggerating. I'd be eaten alive by the mosquitoes, even if there were no otherworldly creatures! As it is, there's no use wearing shoes when I walk out to check the garden, which thanks to my wife is safe and dry. She insisted we built a raised garden this year, protected by a wall of bricks. Now cherry tomatoes and chili peppers, while cucumbers are sucking up the water and expanding like green balloons on the vine. The only problem is I practically have to walk on water to get to the garden. I've given up on wearing shoes. Why soak shoes and socks for no reason? Instead I roll up my pants legs and walk barefoot on the water to get to the plants. I should make one thing clear. I'm no longer the kid who went barefoot three months of the year, from the moment school let out until the time

Food and Nutrition By Mary Ann Uenhart Cross

and silk. Fill a large pot with water, making sure the water comes at least one-inch over top of the com. Cover and bring to a boil, cooking for three to five minutes. For those of you who have found that com disturbs your digestive system, .try adding a half to one teaspoon of ginger to the cooking water and this just might help. Microwave method: This is a great way if you are only preparing for a few people. Wrap each prepared ear in a damp paper towel. Place ears on a microwave safe plate or directly on the glass plate in the microwave. Lay each ear flat in a single row. Heat on high for two to six minutes. Cooking time will depend on the microwave temperature and how many ears you are microwaving at once. Check the com after two minutes, if you can pierce the com with a fork and liquid squirts out, it is done.

Extension Ups By Jeffßurbrink

beans, bean is pierced right through the pod, causing the bean to shrivel up. The pod will e ventually develop a brown spot where the feeding occurs. When feeding on com, the mouthpart is inserted through the husk into a kernel. The damaged kernel will have a visible hole, and there is no visible signt, of the feeding through the husk. In apple and tomato, the mouthpart is inserted into the skin of the fruit. The damage results in discoloration at the point of feeding. There is frequently a darkened spot at the point of entry, and the surface might be uneven. The

insect seems to have a strong instinct for ripening fruit. I would advise growers to exam-

we returned after Labor Day. In those days I have tough hide and tough heels on my feet. Now I'm a sure-enough city-bom tenderfoot. Like the princess whose skin was so tender she could feel a pea hidden under a stack of forty mattresses, my feet feel every tiny pebble and stone, and even sharp blades of grass leave their mark Ooh. Ouch I gingerly walk on the water to get out to the garden, and then I ooh and ouch my way back to the house. The only thing that makes it worth it are those fresh vegetables. Red cherry tomatoes. Fiery hot green chilies. Crisp cucumbers. And now our first enormous yellow tomato. It was like a religious experience. My wife Jennie brought it in from outdoors. Tenderly we sliced it into thin circles. Okay, forget my complaints about the rain. I'm sorry about what happened to the com and the soybeans, but we are so happy that the tomatoes have decided to ripen under the hot, humid sun. Because eating the first tomato is like a prayer. Frank Ramirez is the Senior Pastor of the Union Center Church of the Brethren.

Grilled method: Peel back the husks, careful not to pull them off, clean off silks, soak the com in water for one hour, then place on the grill for 15 to 20 minutes, turning frequently every 5 minutes. If you are fortunate you have cooked ears of com left after everyone has enjoyed all they want or need. I, for one, just enjoy a side dish of the sweet com cut from the cob with grilled salmon, pork, beef or poultry. There are some wonderful easy djshgs that you can prepare. I first thinkof breakfast and adding the com that you have cut from the cob into pancakes or waffles, this is so good especially when com meal is the base of the waffles or pancakes. Another favorite of mine is potato cakes with the sweet com, which I think is better than a fritter as you don't have to the mess from all the grease. Salads and salsas are other recipes that you can prepare. The fresh com, tomato, onion and black beans are a wonderful combination. Also making com relish provides a real treat in the winter. Regardless of how you enjoy it now is the time to enjoy fresh locally grown sweet com!

ine fields, especially near woodlands, to observe if the BMSB is building up in numbers. There are several species of brown stink bug in our area, so be sure to identify those with alternating black and white bands on the legs and antennae as the BMSB. If by chance a buildup of the BMSB is occurring, the most effective insecticides are the pyrethroids such as bifenthrin, cyhalothrin, cyfluthrin and cypermethrin. Most fruit crop growers prefer to avoid using these insecticides because they kill natural enemies that keep pests such as mites and aphids under control. If the brown marmorated stink bug becomes a serious pest problem, relying on the pyrethroid insecticides for control will lead to additional pest problems, requiring more pesticide applications, mat is because the insecticides will kill some natural enemies but not pest mites, which then will multiply rapidly. For more information, I suggest http://www.stopbmsb.org/or http://pest.ceris.purdue.edu/pest. php?code=IQAQQKA

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