FOR YOUR HEALTH: Time To Return To Regular Screening

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It is important for men to be vigilant about their routine health screenings.

(NAPSI)—The COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on lives in more ways than many realize. For example, it meant too many Americans neglected getting the regular health testing—particularly cancer screening—they should.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, an estimated 41% of U.S. adults reported forgoing medical care early in the pandemic. If you or someone you care about is among them, now may be a good time to schedule a doctor’s appointment. Members of the medical community fear that in a few years, all too many men will be diagnosed with later-stage, less-treatable prostate cancer.

As it is, the American Cancer Society, reports about one in eight American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Fortunately, it can be treated successfully, especially if caught early. If you’re 50 or older or have a family history of prostate cancer, speak to your doctor about screening.

Understanding Prostate Cancer

There are four stages of prostate cancer. Stage one is diagnosed very early and confined to the prostate. At this stage, the patient is unlikely to have any symptoms and may not need treatment beyond regular follow-up tests—and the five-year relative survival rate is almost 100 percent.

Some Answers

Testing: Prostate cancer can be diagnosed with a simple blood test, the PSA, which checks the level of prostate-specific antigen in your blood.

In the past, there was controversy about whether having a prostate cancer screening done was beneficial or if it produced more harmful effects due to complications from over-testing. PSA testing was the best thing available for a long time.

Now there are tools that provide much more information, giving predictability about the aggressiveness of the cancer and data to help urologists safely manage their patients’ disease. This lets urologists keep more patients on active surveillance regimens and put off more aggressive treatment. Using tests such as the Gleason grade score, overall patient health and risk factors—age, race, ethnicity, family history and exposure to Agent Orange—doctors can determine with confidence how aggressive the cancer is and which patients will do well on active surveillance. They’ll also know which therapy options will be the optimal for the patient.

Making it easier for doctors and their patients to do this testing is the full range of diagnostic equipment and supplies available through the trusted advisors at Henry Schein Medical, a provider of medical and surgical supplies to healthcare professionals.

Treatments: There are many ways to treat prostate cancer, including hormone therapy, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and cryoablation. The newest innovation is immunotherapy, which uses your own immune system to identify, target and destroy the cancer cells without harming the body’s own “good cells.” Your doctor can help you decide what’s best for you.

It’s important to remember you have the most options available when prostate cancer is diagnosed early and in the most treatable stage.

Paying: Many insurance policies will pay for diagnostic tests and in some places, such as New York State, there’s no co-pay or co-insurance cost sharing responsibility for diagnostic prostate cancer screenings (with such policies). This puts PSAs on the same level as mammograms, thanks to efforts of advocates and doctors such as those at Advanced Urology Centers of New York, one of the largest urology group practices in the country.

Learn More

For further facts, visit the American Cancer Society at www.cancer.org and Integrated Medical Foundation (IMF) at https://imfcares.org/. IMF provides free screenings, education and support services.

MAINE MEMORIES: School days of old

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The old Weeks Mills one-room schoolhouse, built in 1860.

by Evangeline T.

Welcome to Maine Memories, little snippets of life from our home state. For this installment, I’m looking back at my early school days. Times definitely have changed, since then!

I grew up in the small town of LaGrange, Maine. We had a general store, a post office, service station, and a railroad station.

My first train ride was on an old black steam engine from that station to Milo, Maine, a distance of approximately ten miles. I’ve never forgotten it!

LaGrange had four working schoolhouses, which I attended one by one, until I was in my third year of high school. That’s when I moved to another town.

School number one consisted of a large room, where sub-primary (or kindergarten) and first and second grades were taught, all by one teacher. We sat at low tables, with small brightly colored chairs of red, green, yellow, and orange. Once a week, we’d gather together, and a lady would come and tell us a story. After that, a man gave us all chocolate cupcakes, with delicious white cream filling.

School number two was a single room, housing grades three and four. We had our own desks, which made us feel grown up. There was one teacher for every subject and for both grades.

In the back of the room was an iron stove called a ram down. The stove used a big log for fuel. It was our only source of heat, so everyone wanted a desk close by. Sometimes, we’d be allowed to cook lunch on the ram down, using ingredients brought from home. A great stew was the result. What a treat!

Teachers back then were strict. If we whispered and giggled, she wrote our names on the slate blackboard. Later, at day’s end, those who’d disobeyed lined up in front of the room and held out their hand. Each received a slap from a razor strap. Ouch! A razor strap was about two inches wide and two feet long, made out of strong leather and used to sharpen straight razors. It hurt, and I can witness to that!

School number three was split into two rooms. The left housed grades five and six. The right accommodated grades seven and eight.

A basement coal furnace provided heat. My dad filled it every evening and again in the morning, all part of his duties as school bus driver.

Our school was right in town, across from the general store. If we’d been good and asked “may I,” not “can I,” teacher allowed us to buy candy or an ice cream cone during lunch hour. If we didn’t have money, we’d play games or swing.

As I said before, Dad drove the school bus, so I’d wait to be the last one out. “May I have a nickel?” I’d ask him. Keep in mind, mom had already said no at home! He’d reach into his pocket and say, ‘gee, I don’t seem to have a nickel, will a dime do?’ It was our little secret. A dime bought a lot of candy and an ice cream!

School number four (high school) was a converted church on a hill called Hinkley Hill, after a family who’d settled there years before.

All four years of high school attended. We’d start each day by congregating in the central area, about 30 of us. Our senior class consisted of two sisters, and no one else! After roll call, we’d go to different rooms, depending on what subjects were being taught that particular day.

This building was heated by a coal furnace, and the heat came through one very large register in the floor.

Maine winters are famous for being chilly, but we girls knew how to keep warm. Slacks weren’t allowed, and the style was skirts with lots of petticoats. At recess, we’d stand over that register and get our petticoats as hot as possible. When the bell rang, we wrapped them around ourselves and sat down. Worked like a charm!

Those times of one room school houses, coal furnaces, razor straps and hand-held brass bells are all in the past, now. Just scrapbook memories. Too bad.

Today, it’s smart phones, computers, and modern technology galore. Are these new methods better? Are our students smarter? I wonder!

REVIEW POTPOURRI – Author: H.L. Mencken; Film: Cop Land

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Peter Catesby Peter Cates

H.L. Mencken

H.L. Mencken

The delightful scoundrel H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) wrote the scholarly and hilarious Treatise on the Gods in 1930 and revised it in 1946. Like so much of Mencken’s writing, it is very biased, scores points both intentionally and unintentionally in spots, reveals blindness in other spots, and was never intended to be taken very seriously.

In his 1943 On Native Grounds, Alfred Kazin (1915-1998) spoke of Mencken’s popularity among the younger generation of the bootlegging 1920s:

“As it was, he not only rallied all the young writers together and imposed his skepticism upon the new generation, but also brought a new and uproarious gift for high comedy into a literature that had never been too quick to laugh….Mencken proved that one could be ‘a civilizing influence’ by writing like a clown.”

Mencken’s own passage on the conflict between love your neighbor as yourself and loving yourself shows his devious wit:

“So long as it was believed that the end of the world was at hand it all was well enough to be poor and humble, but when years of uncertainty began to stretch ahead every man of any prudence had to take thought for his own security and that of his family. Thus the Beatitudes were forgotten and the immemorial game of dog-eat-dog was resumed.”

Cop Land

One highly recommended film, the 1997 Cop Land, depicts a group of New York City’s men and women in blue, the community they live in across the George Washington Bridge, and the harrowingly moral ambiguity in their conduct both on and off the job.

It even takes on the dimensions of a Shakespearean tragedy in its gritty realism, hopeless cynicism and the struggles to do what’s right.

The cast included Robert de Niro, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Sylvester Stallone, Janeane Garofalo and Annabella Sciorra, along with others, in one outstanding ensemble performance.

Also highly recommended is Howard Shore’s very eloquent soundtrack.

Robert PT Coffin’s essay
Kennebec Crystals continued

Continuing with paragraphs from Robert PT Coffin’s essay Kennebec Crystals:

“That year the Hudson did not freeze over ‘til March. The betting of the Maine farmers had been three to one against its doing so. They won their bets. The rival river, the only rival the clear blue Kennebec had among the rivers of earth, had lean-kine stalls along its banks that year of our Lord. The Lord had been good. The Kennebec ice farmers heaped great towers of the harvest outside their houses and covered them with spruce boughs and sawdust, for extra measure. The Knickerbocker Ice Company lost nothing. For they owned most of the icehouses along both the Hudson and the Kennebec. All ice was ice to them. The Kennebec crop was better than the Hudson, in fact, for the water in the Maine river was clearer and purer. Kennebec ice stood at the head of all ice. It was the Hudson ice cutters who lost. But if Peter was robbed, Paul was paid. The Kennebec farmers went back to their hens and heifers with wallets stuffing out their trousers and their sons’ trousers, after the $4-a-week lodging and eating bills had been paid. The grocers canceled whole tomes of ledgers. The schoolteachers kept their patience right up to ‘Horatius at the Bridge’ in the Friday afternoon’s speaking. New barrels of pork and flour came home to the high farms on the whistling runners of the horse sleds. And barrels of halibuts’ heads and broken-bread. Active Frost stopped moving his checkers when his foreman turned to take a shot at the spittoon. And Timothy Toothaker asked the question when he brought his Susannah the first bunch of mayflowers. They were married and setting up housekeeping on new pine floors and in the new spooled maple bed before the catkins were gone from the popples.”

To be continued next week.

SOLON & BEYOND: It doesn’t pay to get a swelled head

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Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percyby Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percy
grams29@tds.net
Solon, Maine 04979

It doesn’t work to get a swelled head, take it from one who knows! I just called Roland thinking I could ask him if he would use last week’s column that didn’t get printed, in this weeks paper? His answer was, “I never got it.” And this is why, I had stopped calling every week to make sure it had gone and he had received it! My head had gotten swelled thinking I was getting better with my using the computer. And so, I first want to thank Roland for not firing me, and my apologies to those of you who may like to read my mostly “Old” news, and would you please pray that my ability to use that wicked machine will finely improve.

Today, I’m going to use some quotes from a book that I have. This one is from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: “I may be old but I haven’t stopped growing yet.” Another one that might apply to those of you who are growing old: “O Lord, may this be true of me. As I age, may I also grow wiser in Your knowledge and wisdom, and live fully in Your Spirit. Amen.”

I’m going to take this advice from the book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. And it starts this way: “Let Others Be ‘Right’ Most of the Time. One of the most important questions you can ever ask yourself is, ‘Do I want to be ‘right,’ – or do I want to be happy?’ Many times, the two are mutually exclusive! Being right, defending our positions, takes an enormous amount of mental energy and often alienates us from the people in our lives. Needing to be right – or needing someone else to be wrong – encourages others to become defensive, and puts pressure on us to keep defending. Yet, many of us (me too, at times) spend a great deal of time and energy attempting to prove (or point out) that we are right – and/or others are wrong. Many people, consciously or unconsciously, believe that it’s somehow their job to show others how their positions, statements, and points of view are incorrect, and that in doing so, the person they are correcting is going to somehow appreciate it, or at least learn something.” Wrong!

Think about it. Have you ever been corrected by someone and said to the person who was trying to be right, “Thank you so much for showing me that I’m wrong and you’re right. Now I see it Boy, you’re great’! Or has anyone you know ever thanked you (or even agreed with you) when you corrected them, or made yourself “right” at their expense? Of course not.

The truth is, all of us hate to be corrected. We all want our positions to be respected and understood by others. Being listened to and heard is one of the greatest desires of the human heart. And those who learn to listen are the most loved and respected.

SCORES & OUTDOORS: What will winter bring to us?

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Basketball size bee hive, left, and its location in the tree. (photos by Roland D. Hallee)

Roland D. Halleeby Roland D. Hallee

OK, it’s mid-September and time for me to go out on a limb, stick my neck out, walk the tightrope – take your pick of the risk I’m about to take.

It’s my annual attempt at reading Mother Nature’s warnings, and predict the upcoming winter. I know…I know, it’s only September, but that season will be here before we know it.

I have been watching signs over the past couple of weeks, and I have to admit, I’m getting mixed messages.

My first observation are onions. If the skin is thin, we can expect a mild winter. The onions I have been peeling lately have had thin skins, thus that would indicate a mild winter. Another sign of a mild winter has been squirrels. They don’t seem to be in a hurry to gather nuts for the winter, another sign of a mild winter.

However, another farmer’s folklore signal is the squirrel’s tail. A bushy tail indicates a tough winter, and a skinny tail means a mild season. I have seen both. One day I noticed a squirrel with a really bushy tail, and later in the day, saw one with a less bushy one.

How about berries and nuts. Let’s examine that. I have wild berries growing in my backyard, black raspberries and choke cherries. My crop of black raspberries this year was minimal, and I have way fewer choke cherries than usual. Both signs of a mild winter.

Now, there are other signs for which to look. Are cornhusks thicker than normal? If so, a rough winter. I have not noticed much of a difference this year. Flowers blooming in late autumn are another sign of a tough winter. I don’t know if this qualifies, but when my rhubarb patch was pretty much finished in late July, I cleared the area, getting it ready for winter. While I was checking on my squash garden this past weekend, I noticed a new crop of rhubarb coming in. I have never seen that before. Also, the abundance of acorns at camp seems to be way down this year. Not as many as we’ve seen in recent years.

Let’s talk bees. Actually yellow jackets.

The old folklore states that bee hives constructed high indicates heavy snow fall. Closer to the ground means mild winter, snow-wise.

This past weekend, while camping with my family in Solon, we noticed plenty of yellow jackets around. On Sunday morning, we finally located the hive. It hung from a tree along the Kennebec River, it was the size of a basketball, and must have been a good 30 feet above ground, hanging over the river. Not a good sign, unless, of course, you’re a skier or a snowmobile enthusiast.

Another is leaves on a tree. If the leaves fall early, it signals a mild winter, but if they fall late, winter will be severe. Upon our return to camp from the camping trip, my wife and I noticed a large number of leaves on the ground. It seems, at least to me, that it’s a little early for that.

Finally, the wooly bear caterpillar. This one I can’t help you with. It is mid-September and I have yet to see one. I will keep a vigil on this, and perhaps report to you later. Remember, the wider the rust colored band on the caterpillar, the milder the winter.

According to the Old Farmers Almanac, weather folklore warnings of a harsh winter are based on La Nina. La Nina conditions for North America tend to be dry in summer and cold in winter, so if birds leave early, the leaves fall quickly, onions and apple skins are tough, and caterpillars are short, it may be due to the La Nina drought. A miserable winter will follow.

So, let’s review. I have presented 12 conditions on which to base my prediction. The score is: Mild winter 7, tough winter 3, and two undecided. It looks like a relatively mild winter. However, all the “weather experts” seem to say a rough winter. Maybe I’m just trying to justify a mild winter in my mind.

So, here is my recommendation. You’d better polish the shovels, and tune up the snowblowers, because to be a true Mainer is to be ready for anything. And we’ve all heard the old saying, “If you don’t like the weather in Maine, wait a minute.”

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

How many years did it take for Bill Belichick to win a Super Bowl as head coach with the New England Patriots?

Answer can be found here.

Give Us Your Best Shot! for Thursday, September 16, 2021

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To submit a photo for this section, please visit our contact page or email us at townline@townline.org!

OH, YEAH!? Emily Poulin, of South China, snapped this gold finch and tufted titmouse during a feeding confrontation.

DAWN’S EARLY LIGHT: Pat Clark, of Palermo, captured this sunrise.

THE GUARDIAN: Joan Chaffee, of Clinton, photographed this bald eagle as it stands as a sentry.

FOR YOUR HEALTH: Finding Health Insurance Coverage Pre-Retirement

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If you’re thinking of retiring early, it’s a healthy idea to plan for health care coverage beforehand.

(NAPSI)—More Americans may be looking to retire before age 65, according to several studies. However, they need to understand their financial needs, both long term and before age 65. This includes enrolling in health insurance to cover the gap before they are Medicare-eligible at age 65.

“Choosing the right health coverage may seem difficult as many people have never shopped for their own health insurance or worry that they cannot afford it,” said Mark Smith, president of HealthMarkets Insurance Agency, one of the largest independent health insurance agencies in the United States. “There is a wide range of coverage options available to meet your unique care needs and financial situation pre-retirement.”

And the time to decide what may work best for you is before you retire. So “Step One,” know your options.

Health Care Coverage Guidance and Enrollment Support

People can find support through healthcare marketplaces, insurance carriers, insurance brokers and other licensed insurance agents to help determine what plans are best for them.

For example, GetCovered, powered by HealthMarkets, is a free service that provides guidance for people who need health coverage. Working with licensed insurance agents, people can learn what they are eligible for, including government options such as Medicare/Medicaid, or find commercial health plans that best meet their individual needs. Agents can also help them enroll in many of these plans.

Questions to Ask

To find the right coverage, it’s important to know what’s available, what to ask, and what information you need to enroll. To narrow your options, know:

•When your current coverage ends.

• If you have coverage under an employer group health plan, does your company offer COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act).—Under COBRA, people maintain their current plan benefits. They pay the total cost of the insurance including their premiums plus the dollars formerly contributed by their employers. Worth noting: People who voluntarily leave their places of employment are not eligible for COBRA premium assistance – such assistance ends at the end of September 2021.

• What benefits do you need or want.

• Will you be seeking part-time employment—or do you have a part-time job lined up. If yes, are health benefits offered to part-time workers?

• What can you afford. Think about what portion of your monthly budget can be used for health coverage or other insurance. You may be eligible for additional options based on your specific financial situation.

Health Coverage Options

If coverage under COBRA or Medicare are not options—and you are not planning on working even part time, here are others to consider:

• Medicaid—Eligibility is based on income, disability, and other circumstances.

• Individual exchange/marketplace plans—These ACA plans are available through federal or state enrollment sites. Based on your income, you may be eligible for plan subsidies making one of these plans more affordable. Unemployment would be a “qualifying life event” to enroll in an ACA plan outside of the annual Open Enrollment Period.

• Short-term plans—Short-term limited insurance plans provide coverage to bridge the gap between longer-term insurance coverage. These plans have a fixed duration of a few months to several years and do not have the same coverage requirements as ACA plans.

“Health coverage decisions can be made simpler—and there are resources to help,” Smith said. “Regardless if you choose to do your own research and enrollment or engage outside services, determining what you need and can afford will help you find good health coverage that ensures you have access to care.”

Learn More

To get started with healthcare coverage and for further facts, call (877) 270-0029 or visit www.getcovered.com.

MAINE MEMORIES: Cock a Doodle Do!

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by Evangeline T.

Hello and welcome to Maine Memories, little snippets of life from our home state.

For this installment, I’m remembering when I raised chickens.

At about age 12, each girl in a club I belonged to had to do a summer project.

Being raised on a farm, I opted to raise bantam chickens. Bantams aren’t as big as regular chickens and are sometimes referred to as miniatures. I had two females and one rooster.

Now Bantams, at least mine, could fly, not too far, 200 feet or so and not high up in the air, maybe 20 feet. My point is, a fenced in yard wasn’t much help, as each day they flew over the fence and out.

Dad fixed that problem. He trimmed some feathers on one wing of each bird. Trimming didn’t hurt them in any way, but they’d become off-balanced when flying. It worked on the females, but let me tell you, that frisky little rooster continued with his messy daily flights, off balance or not!

Our driveway was a circle, which had a section of lawn and a pine tree in it. That rooster loved to fly and perch himself in the pine tree every morning. If you have ever visited or lived on a farm that had a rooster, you’ve probably heard an early morning sunrise “cock a doodle do”! My bantam rooster had a problem; his voice wouldn’t produce a nice morning “cock a doodle do”. It came out sounding more like rough a rough, ending sharply. Each morning at sun rise, he’d sit in that pine and try again and again, but the sound was always the same.

You have to give him credit, though. He never gave up, and his rough a rough lives on in my memory.

There’s a lesson here we can all take to heart: keep on trying. You just might get it right! Cock-a-doodle-do!

REVIEW POTPOURRI – Novelist: Mary McCarthy; Conductor: Karl Bohm

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Mary McCarthy

Peter Catesby Peter Cates

Mary McCarthy

Novelist Mary McCarthy (1912-1989) summered in Castine for years and received honorary degrees from Colby College, in Waterville, and Bowdoin College, in Brunswick. She possessed a feisty, at times savagely critical brilliance as seen in her novels and essays.

I have read two of the novels, 1954’s A Charmed Life and 1963’s The Group, which became a bestseller and was turned into a Hollywood film.

A Charmed Life is a thinly disguised fictional depiction of her brief marriage to the renowned and fascinatingly brilliant essayist and critic Edmund Wilson (1896-1972) and not very flattering.

For reasons of space, I will mention one detail. He used to lock her in their bedroom for two-and-a-half hours to force her to write.

She also flirted, as did many other intellectuals, with communism during the 1930s depression but broke off with those who supported Joseph Stalin.

In the 1960s, she travelled to North Vietnam and wrote two books in which she claimed that the Viet Cong were not brutal at all in their treatment of civilians, a point of view that has been rightfully refuted and rebuked.

She appeared on the Dick Cavett Show in 1979 and caused controversy and a lawsuit brought against her by playwright Lillian Hellmann (1905-1984); McCarthy charged Hellmann’s Memoirs with being nothing but lies, “even her a’s, an’s and the’s were lies.” Her allegations about Hellmann engendered much investigation by journalists, proved McCarthy to be telling the truth and led to a decline in Hellmann’s reputation.

One of McCarthy’s three younger brothers was the actor Kevin McCarthy (1914-2010) who achieved fame as the star of the 1956 movie classic The Invasion of the Body Snatchers and who gave a consummate performance as a serial killer in a 1968 guest appearance on Jack Lord’s Hawaii Five-O.

Karl Bohm

Karl Bohm (1894-1981) left many fine recordings as a conductor. One particular LP (Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft 139159, early 1960s) contains the Mozart Sym phonies 26, 31 (known as the Paris Sym­phony) and 34. Bohm’s conducting of the Berlin Philharmonic yielded performances of bracing rhythmic energy, the most savvy phrasing, exquisitely underscored detail and graceful elegance.

Bohm did conduct in Germany during the Hitler years and supported several of his policies. Somehow, he did get de-nazified after World War II by the Allies and, very strangely, became bosom buddies with composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990).

Robert PT Coffin Kennebec Crystals
continued

Continuing with paragraphs from Robert PT Coffin’s essay Kennebec Crystals:

“And the steel-bright days went by. No thaws came by to erase the grooves in the checkerboards. The icehouses were filled to their eaves and the last tier roofed in the aisles between the cakes. Roughage was heaped over all. The doors were closed and sealed.”

To be continued.

GARDEN WORKS: Are you buried in veggies? Part 1

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Emily Catesby Emily Cates

How to enjoy an abundant harvest without wasting it

Does this sound familiar? The intentions were innocent, artfully combined, and dutifully cared for: A few rows of fine, well-prepared garden soil, a few wheel barrelfuls of rich compost, a few packets of seeds, and the gentle stream of water from the watering can; The delicate seedlings, under the watchful eye and loving shadow of the gardener, became strong and thrived. Suddenly, it happened! The veggies decided to proliferate. The zucchini are ballooning into baseball bats, the beans barreling headlong into full production, and the plums are breaking branches. Tomato plants are tumbling onto the ground from the weight of their full fruitage. The climbing squash and cucumber vines, in attempts to grow heavenward, are engulfing every plant and tree in their paths. As the gardener strolls into the garden to check on everything and discovers the profusion, shrieks of nervous delight are heard throughout the land!

In cases like this, timing is everything. The peak of perfection of perishable produce is the point at which procrastination will result in poor results. Wait another day, and the garden treasures will be apt to become garden trash. In other words, start cooking! Not a chef? Not a problem. Preserving the harvest need not be complicated, and, in the company of dear friends and family, it can be a highly anticipated event worth looking forward to. The following are a few suggestions that, hopefully, will help dig you out of that looming mountain of delicious produce begging to be used up in a dignified manner of culinary adventure. This time let’s take a quick look at fruit sauces.

What a delightful dilemma to be overrun with fruit! Fruit sauces and butters can be made with just one ingredient or a mixture of what’s on hand. (My favorite sauce is made from Purple Heart plums. If you know of another plum that even compares, please let me know!) Blackberries, elderberries, blueberries, grapes, and other berries that ripen the same time as apples, pears, peaches, and plums are oftentimes a winning combo.

Try using a sauce maker if there’s a lot of fruit, as it saves time and makes a smoother product. I like these contraptions because they make the job much easier, as there is no need to core, peel, or seed the fruit. To begin, wash away any dirt and cut out any bad spots. Then place the prepared fruit in a cooking pot and add some water if necessary. To preserve the character and nutrition of the sauce, I prefer not to overcook a pan of fruit- just enough to soften it for the sauce maker. Then pour the fruit into the sauce maker and crank the handle. The resulting sauce can be stored for short lengths of time in the fridge- or canned or frozen in jars for the long term. For a special treat, bake the sauce down into fruit butter or dry it into fruit leathers. The aroma in the kitchen will transport anyone within a nose’s distance to a land of scented bliss.