Summer is just around the corner...

    With summer just around the corner I've been on full garden planning mode, mapping out in my head where everything will go. And when I think of gardening, I can't help thinking about my great grandma and our yearly summer trip to Cylinder, IA, my dad's home town. When Daddy was young he would spend most of his summers with "Great B". She's the one who taught him about gardening.
    Cylinder is way northwest and has a population of a whopping 90 people. Whittemore, a neighboring town(where my great-grandma lived, she's almost 98 and in a nursing home now), has about 200 people. Algona, the nearest "big" town, has a coffee shop and pet store that belong on Michigan Ave., a few small stores, Hy-Vee and K-Mart ... and that's it! Even the big town only has about 5,000 people. 
    On really hot days if the wind blows one way you can smell cows and if it blows the other way you can smell pigs. The pigs also outnumber the people about 250:1. No lie!
    Despite the smell and the fact that there isn't a Starbucks or a Target for at least 100 miles, and WiFi is about as easy to find as a needle in a haystack, it really is a beautiful place! It's very flat and there are corn and bean fields as far as the eye can see. On a really clear day you can see seven different towns' grain elevators(each town has its own grain elevator).
    Some of my fondest memories from when I was younger are visiting my great-grandma. She always had at least two pies, a crumb cake, cookies, and a roast in the oven waiting for us when we got there. For supper we would have the roast with mashed potatoes, and strawberries, asparagus, and green beans, all from her huge garden. Then dessert! I don't think I have ever met anyone who could, and still can, cook like her! No-bake cherry pie and sour cream raisin pie with home-made lard pie crusts, and the BEST crumb cake EVER! I have tried several times, but I don't think my crumb cake will ever taste as good hers(even after having her one-on-one instruction). I think it's her hands (she always did the crumb part by hand), her pan, and her 40+ year old hand mixer. Or maybe it's just all the love she put into it, I don't know. While we ate she would tell us stories about this and that from her younger days, the same stories she still tells every year. It's almost become a tradition. I'm Looking forward to the 4th of July and seeing her again, when we can bring her back to "the farm" and cook with her again - at 98! Besides cooking, we'll get to happily listen to all of her tales yet again.
    Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Here is the recipe for Great B's fabulous crumb cake. Great B is adamant that if you change the ingredients or instructions at all, you won't get the same results!

Great B's Crumb Cake
1 2/3 c AP(all-purpose) flour
1/2 c white sugar 
1/2 c brown sugar
6 1/2 Tbsp butter, slightly softened and cut into cubes 
You MUST use butter.


Use your hands or a pastry blender to mix the flour, butter and sugar until you have fine crumbs resembling wet sand. 
Reserve 1/2 c.


To remaining crumb mixture add:
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2/3 c buttermilk 
1 egg


When you have everything in the bowl, with a hand mixer beat it until it is light and fluffy and has lightened in color quite a bit. Pour into a greased 8x8" pan. Sprinkle topping evenly over the surface. Bake at 325 degrees for about 40-45 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cover it with tin foil while it cools to keep it moist. 
I does taste the best when it has had some time to cool.


If you make it, I would love to hear how it turns out!

Here are some pictures from last year's trip

Great B and her "Keithie" cooking  together. 
She is the only person allowed to call him by that name! 

At 97 she can still cook as well as ever!

The master at work :)  

 The finished product. YUM!