Reading saved me as a child, giving me a way to see the world outside the walls of my childhood home, offering me respite and escape from an often intolerable and hostile atmosphere. The public library in my small town in eastern Washington state became my sanctuary. So it’s no surprise that I cherish books … More Another Stellar Book Set in a Library: Bella Osborne’s “The Library”
I’ve been working hard, writing hard on a new book, Meatballs & Lefse: Memories and Recipes from a Scandinavian-American Farming Life. It’s food- and family-oriented, with lots of Midwestern comfort-rich recipes, inherited from, and inspired by, my mother-in-law, Ethel Johnson Bertelsen, who lived all her life in Holmen, Wisconsin. The Preface delves a bit … More “Meatballs & Lefse”: A Tiny Preview of Upcoming Book
I’ve been thinking a lot about my mother-in-law Ethel these days, wondering what she would make of the COVID-19 virus, the isolation, the uncertainty. She grew up on a farm in western Wisconsin. And she survived the flu epidemic of 1918, although her father caught it and lost all his hair while still in his … More With Roots In Norway: Fish and Farming in Western Wisconsin, a COVID-19 Reflection
Many years ago, after my mother-in-law passed away from failed bypass surgery, hooked up to God knows how many tubes and wires in the ICU, I spent a lot of time thinking about her. And, of course, I still think of her often, regretting her absence in my life. The other day, while digging through … More Memories and Memory and Memoir
© 2013 C. Bertelsen. No copying of photographs without my permission.
Meat eating presents modern society with a bit of a dilemma. How to raise and slaughter large numbers of animals under humane conditions, while keeping the price down and within wallet reach of most consumers? That’s the major issue, tinged with other, often moralistic, questions. First, right up front, I am not a vegetarian, and … More The Meat of the Matter: A Question of Sacred Reverence
Oh!—fruit loved of boyhood!—the old days recalling, When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling! When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!** Every October, a nearby farm family celebrates the harvest by opening up their land to the surrounding community. Hundreds of cars … More ‘Tis now the very witching time of night*: Lessons from a Rotting Pumpkin
The Catholic Church influenced many things, even (especially?) agriculture, as this passage from History of the English Landed Interest: Its Customs, Laws, and Agriculture, by Russell Montague Garnier (1908) 2nd. ed, vol. 1, implies. The monastery libraries also held much treasure, opening up the monks to the wonders of old knowledge and enabling them to … More The Random Herbalist: The Church as Farmer
CYNTHIA D. BERTELSEN 
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