Final Entry Closes Ida's Notebook

Lou Ann Good
Food and Family Features Editor

LEOLA, Pa. — For 38 years, Lancaster Farming readers have followed the day  to day happenings of Ida Risser as she transitioned from dairy farm wife and mother of six to a grandmother of 15 and, a retiree who at 88 years wants to slow down a bit.

In her early columns, her peers could relate to her as she juggled the many tasks of dairy farming, gardening, housekeeping, cooking, food preservation, child rearing and more. In recent years, her columns offered a glimpse into the lives of a former generation — a lifestyle that is fast fading  away.

Ida's weekly columns were like a page out of her diary. She wrote about growing and preserving papaws, quince, poke and other fruits and vegetables that few in this generation have heard about. She talked about her husband, Allan, who at 90 years of age needs for medical reasons to resort to using a cane, but hasn't let that stop him from picking up black walnuts to fill numerous wheelbarrow loads, and who still drives a car and mows the couple's hilly lawn. He rototills the large garden that his wife maintains. Because her husband can't bend, Ida takes care of all the hand weeding and harvesting of the vegetables. Her husband gathers most of the many different varieties of fruit from trees planted on their property for his wife to preserve.

This year alone, Ida preserved 285 quarts of 27 different items. Her columns can educate even a food aficionado. For example, in one column, she recounted harvesting poke weed, considered a noxious plant by many.

According to Ida, if the stalks are harvested in the spring and cooked, it tastes like asparagus. In fact, she has fooled people by serving poke and having them convinced it was asparagus.

In addition to preserving old-fashioned fruits such as quince and papaws, Ida cans and freezes more traditional fruits such as apricots, multiple varieties of cherries, red and black raspberries, apples for sauce and much more. She also grows a variety of heirloom peas and beans that she dries and stores in glass jars until ready to use in cooking.

Two types of seeds that have been handed down through generations in the Risser family have been preserved and are available through Landis Valley Museum's Heirloom Project. Readers who are interested in attaining the heirloom seeds can ask for Risser's Early Sugar Peas and Risser's Sickle Peas by contacting the museum at 2451 Kissel Hill Road, Lancaster or calling (717) 569-0401.

Ida got her start in writing a column by default when she wrote a letter to Lancaster Farming and requested that the editor publish a column written by a woman writing about day-to-day things on a farm. Eventually the editor convinced her to write the column weekly. When Ida began writing, her children ranged in ages from 7 to 22, and many of the columns recorded involvement in 4-H, sports and farm-related activities. Her columns also revealed a wealth of knowledge about local history, antiques and community happenings. Through Lancaster Farming exposure, other papers requested she write columns for publications and authors of local history sought her help.

At one time, Ida was involved on many committees and boards affiliated with agriculture, especially the Farm and Home Foundation. Gradually she phased out these commitments.

Over the years, many Lancaster Farming readers considered themselves close friends of Ida, although most have never met her. Some readers write letters to her and some even drop by to visit her offering solutions for any problems Ida might mention in her column, such as in a recent week, when she mentioned problems with voles. A reader dropped off some plants and seeds for her to plant that she said will keep voles from eating sweet potatoes before they are harvested.

About 18 years ago, the Rissers retired from dairy farming and build a log house on the farm, which is being farmed by the couple's youngest son, Philip, his wife Lisa and their three children who are the 11th generation on Ida's side of the family to live on the farm.

Ida has braided more than 20 rugs, nurtures hundreds of houseplants and digs up garden plants to winterize.

Ida has kept a diary since she was 17 years old. Although excerpts from her entries will no longer appear in Lancaster Farming, she will continue her personal diary. She learned that habit from her mother and finds reading her mother's diaries recounts ordinary chores that are seldom done today such as dressing geese, guineas, ducks, wild game and even snapping turtles. Ida was one of seven girls in the family; consequently, "We girls had to be the boys and work in the fields and help put away 15 acres of tobacco," she said.

Although those duties have disappeared from her life, the work ethic remains intact. In her spare time, Ida reads a few magazines, mostly farm-related. She said that she would enjoy reading books, but doesn't have time.
"I feel guilty if I sit around reading," she said.

She suspects that she might occasionally miss writing her column, but believes it's time to slow down.

"I'll continue doing every thing I've been doing, only a little less and a little slower,"  she said.