Here are the top 5 stories that farmers read this week:
1. Seagoing cowboys: Ohioan returns to Poland 69 years after historic voyage
In 1946, when Ralph Witmer was 19, he joined three of his cousins on a ship headed to Danzig (now Gdansk), Poland, to take care of 700 horses that were to be given to war-devastated farmers after World War II.
Once the ship arrived and the horses were unloaded, Witmer’s job was complete Sixty-nine years later, the ‘seagoing cowboy’ had the opportunity to return to see Poland rebuilt.
2. OSHA levies more fines against Case Farms
Case Farms was cited with an additional $462,000 in penalties because of issues with the company’s ammonia refrigeration systems at two of its Ohio facilities. So far this year, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined Case Farms $2 million.
Two of the company’s Ohio plants — one in Canton and the other in Winesburg — have been cited for repeated and serious violations.
3. Tips for purchasing quality firewood
Are you purchasing firewood to heat your home this winter? Make sure you know the ins and outs of how firewood is supposed to be sold. You get what you pay for, so find out in advance what you should expect from sellers and the product.
4. Ohio’s oil and natural gas wells reach new highs in third quarter
According to numbers released by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Dec. 3, production in Ohio’s horizontal wells produced 5,696,780 barrels of oil plus 245,747,686 million cubic feet of natural gas.
Since the third quarter of 2014, production has increased by 100 percent.
5. Holiday traditions, and eating out of the middle
If you want to know what being the youngest in a family of six kids is like, ask Melissa Herrera. She’s our Around the Table Dinner Guest this week (you can subscribe to Around the Table here) and tells about her way to get the best slice of cake.
The most important part of her column? Scroll to the bottom for her One Egg Cake with Chocolate Sauce recipe, adapted from a Betty Crocker cookbook some odd 60 years ago.
