Pra-Baba's Woven Willow Basket

n.kryschuk

The ancient willow, it is said, grows with wet feet. To harvest the soft spring grown willow, you have to get your feet wet, and learn to bend. Then you weave.

Little Foxes Village, Лисичники is located in Beyond the Woods County, Заліщики, near the southern border of Halychyna Галичина where it meets Bukovina Буковина. The chutora (хутір farmstead) is a climb up a steep rocky hill, higher up the valley where Little Foxes begins. Steep, rolling hills climb up the river valley. The road? No more than the width of a car, it is lined with picket and willow fences - near enough to touch through a car window.

Old log homes built in the late 1800's still stand, repeatedly repaired and whitewashed over the years. Here and there the beautiful, old painted designs of rozpys розпис are hidden under the eaves and over windows.

On that beautiful May evening in 1887, Dmetro and Kateryna were so pleased to welcome their first born little girl, Anna. She would be the first of their five children who survived into adulthood. Times were hard, but Anna and Paraska, Maksym, Onufrey and John (who would be the 5th child) grew up loving the farm life.  

The villagers knew each other well, and worked together on the fields for the landlord. They worked for the 17th sheaf! That is, after stooking 17 sheaves of wheat for the landlord, he granted them permission to take one sheaf home for their growing family needs. Poverty was everywhere.

Sad news came from the neighboring village of Kashpertsi Кашперці. Yurij and his lovely wife had also had a little girl whom they called Anna. Tragically, his wife and next baby died during childbirth. Widowed and sorrowing, Yurij was blessed to have the neighborhood ladies care for his baby daughter Anna, but it was clear he needed a more permanent arrangement. Little Anna needed a mother, and poor Yurij needed a wife to take care of his child and make a home for his family.

Kateryna and Dmetro knew of Yurij's plight but they had problems of their own. Their children, Anna and younger siblings Paraska, Maksym and two year old Onufrij were soon going to be joined with another baby, and poverty was knocking at their door. Anna needed to be settled into her own home life very soon.

Barely 14, Anna married the widower Yurij. Wife and new mother to Yurij's daughter Anna, they made a family. By age 17, Yurij and Anna had a son, at 21 a daughter, and with three little children they realized the family plot wouldn't feed their growing family needs. Really, the term "farm" hardly encapsulates the size, they were small plots of land, not even acreages, about the width of a city lot and running perhaps a quarter mile in length!  Emigrating to the "free lands" of  Canada, they sold all their belonging in 1900 to pay for the steamship voyage from Hamburg to Halifax.

Not knowing what to anticipate ahead, Anna packed her hand-woven basket full of important necessities, eating utensils, seeds, a kerchief, sewing needs - all tools for the various roles she would play in the life ahead - doctor, veterinarian, tailor, carpenter, midwife and hunter. Oh, and dreams!

 
Time has not been very gentle with this basket. Anna was my pra-baba. The basket was woven in her little village before she left home. It served as her Paska Basket but at one point it was in danger of being discarded. Unable to burn the family heirloom, my dido's supple fingers strengthened the broken weave with willow. When that wouldn't serve, he lovingly wove wires through the broken places to preserve this beloved family treasure. 

On Easter Sunday the basket will cradle my family's hopes and dreams again, as it has for 113 years here on Canadian soil. Paska - the Resurrection, babka - the ancestors, kovbasa - the sacrifice of blood, cheese - the first fruits of the soil, eggs - the symbol of eternity, red beets horseradish khrin- both bitter and sweet, and the beautiful pysanky - the universe unfolding as it should. Happy Easter! Христос Воскрес!

A Kitten Story

A mother cat was dozing one spring morning.  Warmed by the sunshine, her fur softly ruffled in the breeze.  Her days-old baby kittens were playfully tumbling over one another.  Buzzing insects with little wings fluttered over their heads, taunting them towards the river bank.  The kittens pawed playfully, and rolled down the embankment.  Mother cat heard a soft meowing, and bounded to the bank of the river.  Her little ones were sopping wet in the cold rushing water.  A willow tree dipped her long slender branches into the water, and the kittens grabbed on eagerly to pull themselves out.  From that day forward, and every spring thereafter, the willow branches would sprout their little furry catkins at the places where the kittens had once clung for dear life.  

The Ukrainian tradition of pussy willows goes back to before Ukraine's Christian Baptism in 988.  The custom of pouring water is an ancient spring rite of cleansing, purification and fertility. After the hopeless cold of winter, the window of time where the dust of the past is washed away with living water calls for a renewal of promise. For Ukrainians it is a celebration of the first baptismal sprinkling of water! It is an end to the fast and a milestone in the human journey. Being switched with pussy willow branches is a gentle reminder of both the internal and external cleaning ahead. 

Halushky - the Gluten Free Varennyk (Pyrogy)



n.kryschuk



Craving pyrohy (varenyky) is an issue for people with gluten intolerance issues. But there is a way around it - truly there is. Here is a recipe to try, delicious and easy. Tastes almost like the real thing!! Enjoy!

 

Potato Halushky
1 cup mashed potatoes
½ cup flour (try non gluten flour with 1/8 tsp of xanthum gum)
1 egg beaten
½ teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Shape mixture with fingers into finger lengths. If you get creative, try varenyk shaped, little half moons or tiny triangles.  They will be sticky, but resist the temptation to add more flour. (makes about 10 fingers)

Drop them into rapidly boiling water. Cook for 5 minutes.

Remove with colander. Place on a serving dish with melted butter (margarine). (fried onions optional)

This quick and simple meal is for those who like pyrohi (vareniky) but are concerned about the amount of flour needed for the dough. With only ½ cup flour to one cup of potato, this is a good alternative. It’s probably not wise to make a big recipe.

Osvita Ukrainian Summer School 2013

Incredible opportunities abound for learning and travel this summer - for students and grownups!  Once again, Osvita's exciting Ukrainian Summer Immersion Program is offering high school Ukrainian language credit, and a trip to Ukraine for a fascinating, first hand experience in the culture, traditions, and to visit historic sites.  A totally fabulous experience awaits - make sure to contact the numbers listed below.   

Ukrainian Easter Bread - Babka Recipe

Babka by Roma Nowakowski

One of the traditional Ukrainian Easter Breads is the Babka.  It is a classic, sweet, yeasted bread rich in eggs, and milk.  Sometimes the babka, already yellow from the many yolks in the recipe, is given a rich suntinted color with saffron, orange zest, or even pumpkin puree.  Sometimes raisins are added to the dough which is then baked in cylindrical tins, soup cans, or coffee tins, which represents the dome of heaven, much like the domed cupola of an Orthodox Christian church.  

I have been thinking that the Ukrainian Easter babka bread is also probably linked to the intentionally mounded heaps of earth used in ancient burial places across Ukraine that in former times were marked with stone stelae babas.  Cutting slices of the mounded, cylindrical bread (slicing from the bottom)  will reveal a round shaped, sun-yellow tinted bread, a reminder of the ancestors who await the rising sun.   Interesting! 

 

This is a great recipe, well recommended and well tested.  The method will deliver a finer textured Babka..
 

Prepare soup tins, coffee tins (4-500 g tins), or tall cylindrical baking tins.  Generously buttering the tins or shortening with a dusting of bread crumbs will help the baked goods release.  Alternately, use parchment paper or wax paper.

 

Prepare ingredients: 

1 cup milk

1/3 cup flour

2 tsp. sugar,

3 packages yeast

12 egg yolks

2 whole eggs

1 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cups icing sugar

1 cup butter, melted

Grated rind and juice of 1 orange

5 1/2 to 6 cups flour.

1 cup raisins (optional)

Bring milk to a boil and remove from stove top.  Add hot milk gradually to the 1/3 cup flour beating thoroughly until smooth.  Press the mixture through a seive to remove any lumps remaining.   Cool to lukewarm. Dissolve the sugar in lukewarm water, sprinkle the yeast over it, and let stand until yeast is softened.   Combine yeast mixture with flour, milk mixutre and beat well.  Cover and let this rise in a warm place until light and bubbly.  This is the sponge.   Beat the egg yoks and whole eggs, add salt, and sugar gradually until light.  Then stir in the butter, orange juice and grated rind.  Combine this mixture with the sponge and mix well.   Add the flour to this mixture, cup by cup to make a very soft dough, kneading it into a soft, almost sticky, supple dough for 10 minutes.  The dough will remain very soft, smooth and elastic. If raisins are to be added, this is the moment to incorporate them, after the dough is kneaded.. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk.  Punch down the dough and let it rise again.  Knead again and let it rise yet again.   Fill the baking tins only 1/3 full.  Cover and let the dough rise in a warm location until the dough rises to the lip of the tin.   Brush the loaves with beaten egg diluted in 2 tablesppons of water.  Bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees F. for 10 minutes.  Lower temperature to 325 degrees F for 30 minutes.  Then lower the temperature yet again to 275 degrees, continuing the bake for 15-20 minutes.  The baking time is dependent on the size of loaf.  Covering loaves that darken too quickly is a good idea, sheltering them with aluminum foil is easy.   Remove the baked goods from the oven and let the babka rest for 5-10 minutes before removing them extremely gently, tipping them gently onto a soft, cloth covered pillow.  Do not cool the loaves on a hard surface as they will become misshapen, fall or settle.  Change their resting position frequently as they rest and cool. Babka is always sliced in rounds across the loaf starting from the bottom. 

Traditional babka has a plain, domed top, and is sweeter than the braided Ukrainian Easter Paska Bread.  Enjoy!