MY FAVORITE RECIPES - Meet Joanne Gfeller, Cashup Flat

Jana Mathia | Jul 15, 20100

Joanne Curtis Gfeller doesn’t think her story is much different from that of many people in Whitman County. Born and raised here, she married a local farm boy and raised a family. Throughout her life her family has played a key role and they still do. Joanne has also spent time cultivating a green thumb and turned her little corner of the Palouse into a botanical beauty.

Her great-great-grandfather homesteaded west of Cashup Flats in 1877. Genealogy research done by one of Joanne’s sons has found an extensive history of his journey from New Jersey to Missouri and across the Plains as a wagon master. They have been able to determine the location of the homestead, now just a site where a few artifacts turn up under farming equipment.

Joanne’s great-grandfather on her mother’s side also came to the Palouse about the same time.

David Gfeller’s family came to the area in 1939 and bought the property originally homesteaded by Joanne’s great-great-grandfather. David and Joanne married in November of 1957. With Joanne’s grandson about to join the family farming business, seven generations have worked the same ground.

Joanne grew up near St. John and graduated school from there. David attended Steptoe Schools. They met at a dance at the Wheatland Grange Hall after David came back from duty in Korea.

They raised five children and are now enjoying 12 grandchildren. All but one resides in the area.

One thing that has seen Joanne through her whole life has been gardening. She remembers when she was about five years old of going to visit her grandmothers with her mother and there was always a trip through the garden or orchard or flowerbed. The women would talk about the plants, what grew well, what was a disappointment and so on. Joanne remarked that back then what you grew in the garden was a matter of life or death for your family. When harvest came, everything was used. If a tree bore fruit, everything was picked. She recalled going into her grandmother’s kitchen after harvest and seeing the gleaming jars of homegrown, canned food. Her mother especially had a green thumb.

“Everything you could grow, she tried to grow it,” Joanne said. One year her mother canned 83 jars of pickles. Joanne noted that at one point her mom wanted black-cap jelly which is made from a special type of raspberry. Her mom had to buy the plants, nurture them for three years to get a crop and then was finally able to make her jelly.

“So gardening is in my blood,” Joanne said. When she was five or six she remembers begging her mother to let her ask her grandmother for a pansy to plant at home. Her mother told her she could plant it in a bare spot of ground near the back porch. Later, Joanne overheard her mom tell her aunt that she had been given that ground because she couldn’t get anything else to grow there.

After Joanne married, their first home had a raspberry patch, orchard and garden spot, so she dove right in. Years later, after the kids were gone they moved from the ranch west of Cashup Flats to their current home they built on the north end of the flat. It had just two big fir trees, so she went to work.

“The flowers and all of that is my doing,” she said of her garden.

With only two people at home and all the modern conveniences, Joanne doesn’t need a vegetable garden, so her garden is a variety of flowers and trees that spread all around the property. With no distinct boundary at first, Joanne’s garden kept expanding to the edge of the fields. Now her variety of roses and blooms of pastels and purples wave in the breeze with paths weaving through. Old farm equipment cropping up in various spots as a tribute to the past add charm.

As if her own garden wasn’t enough, Joanne is a member of a the garden club in St. John and helps with the community garden.

While the plants have their dormant season, Joanne does not. During the winter she reads gardening books. She is also on the board for the Friends of Hospice, an organization that raises funds to train volunteers and chaplains who in turn help the families of people in hospice care.

“They do such good things for people,” Joanne said. Volunteers offer respite for caregivers or do other various tasks to help families with a member in hospice care. Friends of Hospice also hires a massage therapist for those families. Last year the group started a bereavement group.

In December the Friends host the Tree of Lights memorial service.

The only thing that can compete for Joanne’s time over her garden is her family.

“I’m thoroughly enjoying my family,” she said. With grandchildren ranging from 28 to 10, Joanne is overwhelmed with how well everyone is.

“I just couldn’t be more blessed,” she said.

Recipes:

Oatmeal muffins

Soak together 1 hour

1 c. oatmeal

1 c. buttermilk

Mix thoroughly

1/3 c. butter

1/3 c. brown sugar

1 egg

Sift together

1 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. soda

1 tsp. salt

Add to butter mixture alternately with oats and buttermilk. Place in greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 12.

Corn and noodle casserole

Butter a 2 qt. casserole dish and add:

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/4 c. chopped onion

1 1/2 c. grated or small cubed Velveeta cheese

12 oz. of noodles, cooked in salted water and drained

1 can Green Giant niblets corn

Mix together

Add half and half or whole milk just to top of noodles but not covering them.

Top with buttered bread crumbs. (To make bread crumbs make a bread and butter sandwich with 2 slices white bread generously buttered, tear into chunks and drop a few at a time into blender, repeat approx. 3 times).

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until bubbly and starting to brown on top.

Dill pickles - one jar method

From the kitchen of Geraldine Feenan Curtis

Wash 4-6 cucumbers and cut off the ends. Pack into a clean 1 qt. jar with 2 heads of dill and 2 cloves of garlic (if you like)

Add: 1/2 c vinegar and water to fill jar. Pour off into a sauce pan and add 2 T. salt. Heat to boil.

Put 1/2 tsp. alum in the jar with the cucumbers and pour in the boiling liquid. Seal with a hot lid.

Pineapple cheese cake supreme

Graham crust:

3 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/2 butter or margarine melted

1/4 c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix and set aside 1/2 c. for top. Press into a 9 x 13 dish.

Chill 1 tall can evaporated milk, the mixer bowl and beaters. Meanwhile mix 1-3 oz. pkg. lemon Jello and 1 c. boiling water. Let cool.

Mix 1-8 oz. pkg cream cheese, 1/2 c. sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla. Add 1 c. drained crushed pineapple.

When Jello mixture has begun to jell and milk and bowl are completely chilled, whip the milk until like whipped cream. Fold Jello into cream cheese-pineapple mixture. Add this to whipped milk, gently folding together. Pour into a prepared 9 x 13 dish and sprinkle top with 1/2 c. crumbs. Cover with Saran wrap and chill overnight.