One of you has made another donation!! Just $30 more to go now!!! You are awesome! Thank you for all your support in helping us reach our goal of helping Heifer International in the Ukraine!!
-LP

Another donation! Now just $40 more to go by Thursday!!

I’m back with a tasty new recipe from the Ukraine.  But before I get
into the recipe, I want to share with you an inspiring story of
success that Heifer has had at the Liubin boarding school, which
houses over 100 orphans with learning disabilities near Lviv,
Ukraine.  In 2000 the school received 10 heifers and 5 cows.  To put
it in the words of the Heifer country director for the Ukraine, Nadia
Zholinska, “With the help from Heifer all of these children’s lives
have become easier, which was the goal all along.”  Not only are the
children responsible for the care of the animals, they learn how to
milk the cows, and use the manure as fertilizer to help increase crop
yields in the area.  Many of the children who were once sullen and
unenthusiastic have now regained a new sense of hope and
accomplishment.  With your continued help and support, Heifer will be
able to continue with these awesome projects.

Now for the recipe!  The ingredient that relates to the Heifer
project in the Ukraine for this recipe is milk.  I hope you enjoy
making and eating this Poppy Seed cake just as much as I have.
GRANDMA MARKIW’S POPPY SEED CAKE
Ingredients:
3/4 c. poppy seed (soak overnight)
3/4 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. butter
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 c. flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
4 egg whites

Pour boiling water over poppy seeds and drain over a fine sieve. Cover
with the milk and soak overnight.
Cream the butter; add sugar gradually and beat until light. Sitr in
the vanilla and poppy seeds. Beat well. Add the flour gradually to the
first mixture, stirring until well blended. Beat the egg whites until
stiff and fold into batter. Spoon into a buttered cake pan.
Bake in a moderate over at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until
done when tested. Remove from pan and place on a cake rack to cool.
Ice with a favorite chocolate icing.

Our donations are at $70!!!!!! But only one more week until the end of our project.. help us collect the remaining $50, which will bring us to our goal of raising $120– one pig!

A few members of our group made a presentation about our project during the Chinese Language Club’s meeting here at UAA. (They also brought some homemade Ukranian goodies to share!!) Below are some photos from the meeting!

We have a lot of information about Heifer itself, but not a whole lot about Ukraine. To understand why Ukraine needs Heifer’s help, we should understand a little bit about the country’s history. Ukraine is in eastern Europe, believe it or not. It borders Russia to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south.

Here is a map of Europe, to get an idea of where Ukraine is in relation to the world:

And here is a map of Ukraine itself:

Ukraine is of Slavic origin, and by the 19th century, the majority of Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire. Ukraine was also a part of the Soviet Union, but gained its independence in 1991 with the fall of the USSR.

When still part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine’s economy was the second largest within the union. But as with many former countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has had a hard time developing its economy. The former Soviet Union’s economy was managed by the government, which meant it decided how much of what Ukraine would produce, and make sure that in return Ukraine would get whatever it needed from other areas. After Ukraine gained independence, it made the switch to a market economy, where it needed to compete with the rest of the world

The economy suffered hardship for several years, facing incredible inflation. Many people resorted to growing their own food to get by. Fortunately, by the mid-1990s, Ukraine’s economy began to grow.

While the economy is on the mend, there are still large populations of impoverished people in Ukraine, and Heifer has dozens of programs in place to help. One project bought dairy cattle to an area that used to be an industrial center for the Soviet Union where the plants are now closed. Another project was created to start a horse farm to increase tourism to the area. Several projects have been started to help orphanages in Ukraine. There are several impoverished villages to which Heifer is supplying livestock to alleviate poverty.

Information about projects in Ukraine came from http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.2665753/
The map of Europe is from http://www.ideacenter.org/clubs/locations.php.
The map of Ukraine itself is from http://jenfx.blogspot.com/2006/10/map.html.
Most of the information is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine

-S.S.

We’re on a real streak here! Another donation!!

Just $70 more to go…

http://www.heifer.org/myregistry/heiferukraine

TWO more donations have been made through our Ukraine registry!!

That’s four donations total, which I believe are $10 each (I can’t see the individual purchases yet- so I’m very sorry to misquote if you are one of our anonymous donors, and it was more!)

That means that we have reached (at least) $40 of our $120 goal needed to purchase a pig to send to the Ukraine!!

THANK YOU!!!!! :):)

-LP

http://www.heifer.org/myregistry/heiferukraine

While perusing wordpress blogs, I came across a fellow supporter of Heifer International!

(Read the Writers’ Block HERE)

Heifer is registered with GoodSearch, who donates $0.01 for each search query on its site. It’s super easy to click THIS LINK to search online instead of using Google or Yahoo!

It seems small, but every penny counts!

-LP

Hooray! We’ve generated another $10 donation toward Heifer’s Ukraine project!

Visit our giving registry!!

 http://www.heifer.org/myregistry/heiferukraine

Hello. My name is Micah Williams, one of the students here at UAA
working on this blog about Heifer, specifically their work in the
Ukraine. When trying to find information to put on the blog, I was hit
by an idea. Why not find a recipe from the Ukraine so that people
could taste how Heifer is helping the people there? After a quick look
over some of the recent projects Heifer had going on in the Ukraine, I
saw that in the Galychyna region of Ukraine Heifer was teaching the
people beekeeping! To me: Bees = Honey = Desserts! As desserts are my
favorite food to bake, this was just wonderful.
I am now proud to post the recipe for Ukrainian Honey Cake. This is a
very tasty recipe and a bit like a coffee cake. It goes great with a
nice warm cup of coffee or herbal tea and can be eaten in the morning
for breakfast as it is not too sweet. I really hope you all enjoy this
recipe and I will try to find some more recipes to post soon and thank
you for coming to our blog.

Ukrainian Honey Cake
Makes 1 loaf-shaped cake
2 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, cooled to lukewarm
1. Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350
degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-inch bred pan, then dust it with flour.
2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and smooth. Add the honey
and melted butter and mix until blended and smooth.
3. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Add half the dry ingredients
to the egg mixture and stir in. Stir in the coffee, then stir in the
remaining dry ingredients.
4. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold them into the
batter, then gently stir several times. The batter will be quite wet.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes to an
hour, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Let
cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and place on a rack to cool
completely before slicing. Eat plain or buttered.

From the Wednesday Chef
http://wednesdaychef.typepad.com/the_wednesday_chef/2007/08/ukrainian-
honey.html