>>Forgot to ask about your root cellar.<<
Well, I use the concrete base to the old silo (where I used to raise fish) It has 12” concrete walls and is about 4 feet deep. I made 2 lids made of 4X8 sheets of plywood with 2” of styrofoam insulation board in between. It has a sand floor, and I built a shelf about half way up. I put baskets with the produce packed with straw. Works great. If I had to go from scratch, I would probably have questioned the cost/benefit of it... Just used what I already had...
>>>We have an old L.L. Bean small smoker that works well enough for us.<<<
There used to be an old smokehouse here many years ago out back. I can barely remember it, but I remember that it was pretty large about 8X10 feet - and we used to smoke 3-4 hogs at a time - Don’t remember what ever happened to it though. I do remember the smoked bacon, hams, shoulders though...
>>>They also had an ice house, with hugh chunks of ice packed tightly in sawdust.<<<
Believe it or not, it used to get cold enough here for ice houses too - we had one back by the pond (about 80 acre mill pond) they used to start at the shore and hand saw the ice, floating the blocks back to shore and then they used wheelbarrows to move it about 50’ to the ice house which was in ground. Man, I haven’t seen ice tongs in many a year... It is amazing how long it lasts when packed in the sawdust, even this far south.
Now, we seldom see more than a couple of inches of ice.
I used to love it when we used that ice and chipped it up with an ice pick - for homemade ice cream. I preferred chipping the ice to cranking... Strawberry, and Peach were two favorites in the summer. The whole family would get together back by the pond under the oak trees where we had picnic tables - Sunday afternoons maybe twice a month during the summers. Everyone made their own specialty and picnics were a snap... And lots of good eating... Aunt Nellie’s lemon butter, Grandma’s rolls, Mom fried chicken, Aunt Pat made potato salad - pretty soon all was ready - made for lots stronger families and all.
That is also the way we did most of our canning... We would do 2,500-3000 ears of corn on a Saturday with everybody pitching in... Peas, Limas were all done from the viners which have been common around here for years. First there were the stationary viners then the mobile ones that pick and shell right in the field. We also did peaches and strawberries like that and after a day of preserving, we seemed to top it off with some homemade ice cream and one of Grandma’s Coconut cake and Mom’s Devils Food cakes...(my favorite)
Speaking of canning, do you or anyone else know of a source for #2 or #2 1/2 tin cans in cases..... I can only find them in full pallet bulk or in trailer loads.
I have the can sealer and dies that I used to crank when we were canning in them but now can’t find the cans.
Ah!! Those big family picnics. Gram made the strawberry shortcake with whipped cream, mother made the ice cream and roasted two chickens, we had a neighbor who was a lobsterman and he furnished two bushel of lobsters (shorts, of course-nobody cared back then) and clam chowder from fresh dug clams along with all the other goodies, potato salad, etc, what a feast. As a matter of fact, hubby and I still dig and freeze clams. It’s funny, after age 70 the license is free and you are allowed to take a helper. We have had several offers of help, but find they just walk all over covering up the holes and the few they dig usually end up having broken shells. After offering once, they decide that it’s too hard work and never go again. Been clamming all my life and still enjoy it.