Posted on 03/23/2008 11:36:40 PM PDT by nw_arizona_granny
Americans finding soaring food prices hard to stomach can battle back by growing their own food. [Click image for a larger version] Dean Fosdick Dean Fosdick
Home vegetable gardens appear to be booming as a result of the twin movements to eat local and pinch pennies.
At the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta this winter, D. Landreth Seed Co. of New Freedom, Pa., sold three to four times more seed packets than last year, says Barb Melera, president. "This is the first time I've ever heard people say, 'I can grow this more cheaply than I can buy it in the supermarket.' That's a 180-degree turn from the norm."
Roger Doiron, a gardener and fresh-food advocate from Scarborough, Maine, said he turned $85 worth of seeds into more than six months of vegetables for his family of five.
A year later, he says, the family still had "several quarts of tomato sauce, bags of mixed vegetables and ice-cube trays of pesto in the freezer; 20 heads of garlic, a five-gallon crock of sauerkraut, more homegrown hot-pepper sauce than one family could comfortably eat in a year and three sorts of squash, which we make into soups, stews and bread."
[snipped]
She compares the current period of market uncertainty with that of the early- to mid-20th century when the concept of victory gardens became popular.
"A lot of companies during the world wars and the Great Depression era encouraged vegetable gardening as a way of addressing layoffs, reduced wages and such," she says. "Some companies, like U.S. Steel, made gardens available at the workplace. Railroads provided easements they'd rent to employees and others for gardening."
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Hubby still has his box traps even though they are illegal now. (I memtioned in an earlier post that he throws NOTHING away). He also knows how to make snares for larger animals (coyotes can be a problem here) but those are not legal, In survival mode they could snare deer if one located a deer path.
Haven’t seen it mentioned here but just looked at the Backwoods Magazine site. They are advertising a 16 page special preparedness article in their next edition coming out mid-Apr.
[This has nutrition in it too....LOL]
Velveeta Peanut Butter Fudge
1/2 lb Velveeta cheese
3/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup peanut butter
2 lbs powdered sugar
Melt first 2 ingredients together in microwave.
Add vanilla, peanut
butter.
Then add sugar.
Knead like bread dough until you can no longer
see the sugar.
Roll candy with a glass.
Spread into greased pan.
Refrigerate until set. Cut and enjoy!
[This group has interesting old recipes, if you ignore the nut that has taken over several pages.....granny]
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.food.historic/topics
It is zero again this morning. Good thing the garden isn’t in, and if it were the rabbits would get it all anyway.
http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#1930s
Butterless, Eggless, Milkess cake
The original inspiration of Butterless, Eggless, Milkless cake dates back to the Medieval Ages. Spices and raisins were popular ingredients of that time. Great cakes and steamed puddings are hundreds of years old. These recipes were introduced to America by European settlers. Early American cookbooks are full of recipes for spice cakes (aka rich cakes and great cakes). Did you know up until the late 19th century fruit/spice cakes were served as wedding cakes?
Although thrifty pioneer cooks were well versed in “making do,” recipes for “Butterless, Eggless, Milkless” cakes begin to nudge their way into American cookbooks during the early years of the 20th century. Why? These ingredients were sometimes difficult to obtain from World War I through World War II, and cakes such as these were often served on family tables. Crisco, salad oil, lard, mayonnaise were the most common substitutions for the butter (fat). Baking powder/soda substituted for the eggs (to make the cake rise) and water (or canned soup) was used instead of milk (liquid). White sugar was also expensive and rationed during this period. Brown sugar, corn syrup, honey and molasses were often substituted. These cakes are found under a variety of names including “War Cake” and “Depression Cake.”
“Depression cake. In the March 1989 issue of Country Living, Food Editor Joanne Lamb Hayes assembled a fascinating colleciton of recipes to show “how families coped in the kitchen during the Great Depression and wartime.” This sugarless, eggless cake was developed during the First World War. “Sugar, the cheapest and most compact form of energy...was saved for our boys overseas, so creatie cooks learned to use molasses, honey, or corn syrup instead. For scarce wheat, they substituted barley, oats, for corn; for butter they used vegetable oil.” When the Great Depression arrived, just eleven years after the Great War, this frugal cake was renamed Depression cake.”
-—American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 441)
[NOTE: this book contains a recipe for Depression cake.]
RECIPES FOR BUTTERLESS, EGGLESS, MILKLESS CAKE
[1914]
“Butterless-Milkess-Eggless Cake.
2 cupfuls brown sugar
2/3 cupful Crisco
2 cupfuls water
2 cupfuls sultana raisins
2 cupfuls seeded raisins
1 teaspoonful salt
2 teaspoonfuls powdered cinnamon
1 teaspoonful powdered cloves
1/2 teaspoonful powdered mace
1/2 teaspoonful grated nutmeg
2 teaspoonfuls baking soda
4 cupfuls flour
1 teaspoonful baking powder
1 1/2 cupfuls chopped nut meats
3 tablespoonfuls warm water
Put Crisco into saucepan, add sugar, water raisins, salt, and spices, and boil three minutes. Cool, and when cold add flour, baking pweder, soda dissolved in warm water and nut meats. Mix and turn into Criscoed and floured cake tin and bake in slow oven one and a half hours. Sufficient for one medium-sized cake.”
-—A Calendar of Dinners with 615 Recipes, Marion Harris Neil [Procter & Gamble:Cincinnati] 1914 (p. 120)
[NOTE: Procter & Gamble manufactured Crisco shortening. This company cookbook shows the home cook how easy it is to incorporate Crisco into everyday recipes, including cakes.]
[1944]
“Butterless, Eggless, Milkless Cake (No Eggs):
1 c. Brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/4 c. Water
1/3 c. Vegetable shortening or lard
2/3 c. Raisins
1/2 teasp. Nutmeg
2 teasp. Cinnamon
1/2 teasp. Powdered cloves
1 teasp. Salt
1 teasp. Baking soda
2 teasp. Water
2 c. Sifted all-purpose flour
1 teasp. Baking powder
Boil brown sugar, 1 1/4 c. Water, shortening, raisins, and spices together for 3 min. Cool. Add salt and baking soda which has been dissolved in 2 teasp. Water. Gradually add the flour and baking powder which have been sifted together, beating smooth after each addition. Bake in a greased and floured 8”X8”X2” pan in a moderate oven of 325 degrees F. About 50 min., or until done. Needs no frosting.”
-—The Good Housekeeping Cook Book, New edition, completely revised 1944 [Farrar & Rinehart:New York] 1944 (p. 698)
I too come from a family of savers of things.
We will see more and more people wake up and want to know how to survive.
The poison dog food from China, started people asking “what are we eating?”
I expect to see a surge in the mom and pop organic gardens, I hope so, even I can’t go to them, some will.
This time, maybe it will help feed people, rather than just being for kooks, or folks like me that do not like chemicals on my food.
This should be a good year for selling at the farmers markets.
Move to Arizona!
We are a chilly 55 degrees, the sun is shining and the breeze gentle.
You will get your chance to garden, soon, winter must end.
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#wackycake
[Texas 1851]
“Pioneer Birthday Cake
This recipe was used to make a birthday cake for a small girl eighty-five years ago. There was no flour to be had, and corn was ground on a handmill. The meal was carefully emptied from one sack to another, and fine meal dust clinging to the sack was carefully shaken out on paper; the sack was again emptied and shaken, and the process was repeated labouriously time after time until two cupsful of meal dust was obtained.
The rest of the ingredients were as follows: 1/2 cup of wild honey, 1 wild turkey egg, 1 teaspoonful of homemade soda, 1 scant cupful of sour milk and a very small amount of butter, to all of which was added the meal dust.
The batter was poured into a skillet with a lid, and placed over the open fire in the yard, the skillet lid being heaped with coals.
To a little girl’s childish taste the cake was very fine, but looking back through the years, the nonoree said relfectively, “It was none too sweet.”
-—Cooking Recipes of the Pioneer, Bandera Library Association [Frontier Times:Bandera TX] 1936 (p. 23)
Last summer nothing grew. A total summer without summer. We didn’t bother with the cabbages since the moose get them anyway.
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#wackycake
Wacky cake & Dump cake
Wacky cake is an interesting study in culinary chemistry. What sets Wacky Cake apart from other chocolate cakes? Vinegar and method.
It is interesting to note that two popular 20th century American food history books (Jean Anderson’s American Century Cookbook and Sylvia Lovegren’s Fashionable Food) place this recipe in the 1970s. Culinary evidence confirms this recipe existed in the 1940s. Wacky cake is but one example of the tradition of “make do” cakes that were popular during times of short supply. Contrary to popular opinion, eggless, butterless cakes were not invented at that time, they were revived from WWI days (which were revived from pioneer days). Dump Cake is another descendant of Wacky Cake in method.
“Dump cake. A cake made by “dumping” the ingredients directly into the baking pan, mixing them, and baking the batter.”
-—Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 117)
The earliest reference we find to Dump cake is from a Duncan Hines company cooking brochure published in 1980 (sorry, we don’t own a copy).
“Wacky Cake or Crazy Cake. In a way, this is a variation on Chocolate Pudding Cake...But it takes the “quick-and-easy” one step further: The cake is mixed in the baking pan. That’s part of the wackiness. Another is that the batter contains vinegar and water, but no eggs. Like Chocolate Pudding Cake, this one is shortened with oil instead of butter or margarine.”
-—The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 467)
RECIPES
[1943]
“Hole-In-The-Middle Cake 1 1/2 c flour
1 c sugar
2 T cocoa
1 t soda
1/2 c melted butter
1 c sour milk or cream
1 egg
1 t vanilla
Sift dry ingredients and make a deep hole in the middle. Add sour milk, egg, butter, and vanilla, and mix well. Bake in 350 dgtree oven 40 min.
Icing
1 c white sugar
1 c brown sugar
lump of butter
milk to moisten
Boil until it reaches the soft ball stage. Remove from fire and beat throroughly. Helen Olheim.”
-—The Connecticut Cookbook, Woman’s Club of Westport [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1944 (p. 210)
[1949]
“Wacky cake. A favorite recipe of Mrs. Donald Adam, Detroit, Michigan.
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons shortening
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cold water.
Sift flour, Measure. Add sugar, cocoa, soda and salt. Sift into greased and waxed paper lined 9X9X2 inch pan. Make 3 grooves in dry ingredients. Put shortening in 1 groove, vinegar in the second, and vanilla in the third. Pour over cold water. Beat until almost smooth. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F.) for 30 minutes. Makes 12 servings.”
-—New York Times, November 17, 1949 (p. 23)
[NOTE: This recipe was included in a display ad for The Time Reader’s Book of Recipes, Time magazine, (E.P. Dutton:New York)]
[1978]
Wacky Cake or Crazy Cake
Cake
1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cold water
Frosting
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 cup sifted confectioners’ (10X) sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teasoon vanilla extract.
1. Cake: preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Sift four, sugar, cocoa, soda, and salt together into ungreased 8X8X2-inch baking pan.
3. Make three wells in mixture with spoon: one large, one medium, and one small. Into large well pour oil; into medium well, vinegar; into small well, vanilla. Pour water over all and stir with fork until smooth; do not beat.
4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until springy to touch
5. Frosting: Melt butter in saucepan, add 10X sugar, cocoa, salt and vanilla and beat until smooth. If too stiff to spread, thin with few drops hot water.
6. As soon as cake tests done, transfer to wire rack and spread at once with frosting. Cool cake before cutting.
-—Woman’s Day Old-Fashioned Desserts [1978], as reprinted in The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 467)
Maybe a greenhouse is next for you.
Make it solar and any sun will help heat the house.
Here, if we are lucky, we have a week of spring and then summer.
Same thing happens in the fall, a few days and winter.
Last summer was so bad even the greenhouses failed. We got one month of decent sun and temperature at the very end and the neighbor’s tomatoes actually began to turn red, sort of.
Yes...
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodbeverages.html#cowboycoffee
ABOUT COFFEE SUBSTITUTES
When *real* coffee was unavailable, a variety of natural substitutes were employed. The final brew varied from somewhat acceptable to downright poor.
“Coffee Substitutes: As substitutes for coffee, some use dry brown bread crusts, and roast them; other soak rye grain in rum, and roast it; other roast peas in the same way as coffee. None of these are very good; and peas so used are considered unhealthy. Where there is a large family of apprentices and workmen, the coffee is very dear, it may be worth while to use the substitutes, or to mix them half and with coffee; but, after all, the best economy is to go without.
French coffee is so celebrated, that it may be worth while to tell how it is made; though no prudent housekeeper will make it, unless she has boarders, who are willing to pay for expensive cooking. The coffee should be roasted more than is common with us; it should not hang drying over the fire, but should be roasted quic; it should be ground soon after roasting, and used as soon as it is ground. Those who pride themselves on first-rate coffee, burn it and grind it every morning. The powder should be placed in the coffee-pot in the proportions of an ounce to less than a pint of water. The water should be poured upon the coffee boiling hot. The coffee should be kept at the boiling point; but should not boil. Coffee made in this way must be made in a biggin. It sould not be clear in a common coffee-pot.
A bit of fish-skin as big as a ninepiece, thrown into coffee while it is boiling, tends to make it clear. If you use it just as it comes from the salt-fish, it will be apt to give an unpleasant taste to the coffee: it should be washed clean as a bit of cloth, and hung up till perfectly dry. The whites of eggs, and even egg shells are good to settle coffee. Rind of salt pork is excellent. Some people think coffee is richer and clearer for having a bit of sweet butter, or a whole egg, dropped in and stirred, just before it is done roasting, and ground up, shell and all, with the coffee. But these things are not economical, except on a farm, where butter and eggs are plenty.
A half a gill of cold water, poured in after yo take your coffee-pot off the fire, will usually settle the coffee. If you have not cream for coffee, it is a very great improvement to boil your milk, and use it while hot.-—Amercian Frugal Housewife, 1830.”
-—Early American Beverages (p. 88-89)
Take of these roasted acorns ground like other coffee) half an ounce every other morning and evening, alone mixed with a dram of other coffee, and sweetened with sugar, or with or without milk. This receipt is recommended by a famous German physician, as a much esteemed, wholesome nourishing, strengthening nutriment for mankind; which, by its medicinal qualities, had been found to cure slimy obstructions in the viscera, and to remove nervous complaints when other medicines have failed.
Remark: Since they duty was taken off, West India coffees is so cheap that substitutes are not worth making. On the continent the roasted roots of the wild chicory, a common weed, have been used with advantaged. -—Family Receipt Book, 1819.”
-—Early American Beverages (p. 100)
You need to find the mother lode, mine enough gold to pay for the electric and install Gro lights in your greenhouse.
Once again, if one has enough money, they can eat.
Not a bit funny, but so true.
I would go for hydroponics and forget about the sun and climate and all that. The land is useless as it sits, although it can produce if everything goes right, which is not often since the global warming peak passed a decade ago and the Ice Age is upon us. The native land is also becoming non-productive and even the bears are coming into town, which is not what they used to do.
A search for corn meal, pulled these old cookbooks and recipes:
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/coldfusion/search.cfm?action=search
The search went too quick and is interesting, think it searched for ‘cor’
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/coldfusion/search.cfm?action=search
How to cure meat:
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/display.cfm?TitleNo=55&PageNum=362
“The Market Assistant “ about foods:
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/display.cfm?TitleNo=8&PageNum=336
I almost did not see the “next”, it is in the top right of the page, these are old cookbooks................
Search:
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/coldfusion/search.cfm
The Book of Household Management
Comprising Information for the
Mistress, Housekeeper, Cook, Kitchen-maid, Butler, Footman, Coachman, Valet, Upper and under house-maids, Lady’s-maid, Maid-of-all-work, Laundry-maid, Nurse and nurse-maid, Monthly, wet, and sick nurses, etc. etc.
also, sanitary, medical, & legal memoranda;
with a history of the origin, properties, and uses of all things connected with home life and comfort.
by
Mrs. Isabella Beeton
Nothing lovelier can be found
In Woman, than to study household good.—MILTON.
eBooks@Adelaide
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/beeton/isabella/household//
CHAPTER I.
THE MISTRESS.
“Strength, and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household; and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.”—Proverbs, xxxi. 25–28.
1. AS WITH THE COMMANDER OF AN ARMY, or the leader of any enterprise, so is it with the mistress of a house. Her spirit will be seen through the whole establishment; and just in proportion as she performs her duties intelligently and thoroughly, so will her domestics follow in her path. Of all those acquirements, which more particularly belong to the feminine character, there are none which take a higher rank, in our estimation, than such as enter into a knowledge of household duties; for on these are perpetually dependent the happiness, comfort, and well-being of a family. In this opinion we are borne out by the author of “The Vicar of Wakefield,” who says: “The modest virgin, the prudent wife, and the careful matron, are much more serviceable in life than petticoated philosophers, blustering heroines, or virago queens. She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than ladies described in romances, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver, or their eyes.”
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/beeton/isabella/household//chapter1.html
Index:
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/beeton/isabella/household//index.html
go for hydroponics<<<
That will work, but will you not also need extra light?
You say the ice age is here, [laughter on my part], Gore says we are going to burn up..........
LOL, not attempting to start a weather hot or cold fight.
We have had a fairly warm winter.
Only a few days of bitter cold, instead of weeks and weeks.
I am aware of your thought that I don’t know bitter cold, but in this old mobile, I use wood heat and cannot do so with the oxygen generator going, so go with no heat, as the small electric heater is a danger with old wiring.
So goes life, livable in 4 to 6 layers of clothes.
http://www.projects.yrdsb.edu.on.ca/pioneer/pioneer_home.htm
What did the pioneers eat?
There were no grocery stores or supermarkets for the pioneers. They had to provide food for themselves. They hunted and trapped animals, caught fish in the rivers and lakes, and gathered herbs, roots and berries from the forest. The rest of the food came from their fields, gardens and farmyards. They grew fruits, vegetables, and grains and raised pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, and goats.
Year round
-salt pork
-potatoes
-corn and oat meal
-bread
-milk, cheese, and butter
Spring & Summer
-fresh greens such as dandelion leaves
-eggs
-maple syrup
-honey
-fish and eels
-fresh vegetables (grown in home gardens)
-squirrel
Fall & Winter
-venison
-pigeons
-wild geese, partridge, chicken and turkeys
-hares
-preserved meat from livestock ( salt pork, sausages, smoked ham)
-dried apples
-root vegetables (carrots, onions, potatoes - stored in root cellar)
Source; Markham Museum and Historic Village
Back to the Village
[ Pioneer Home ] [ School ] [ Saw Mill ] [ Grist Mill ] [ Blacksmith Shop ] [ General Store ] [ Doctor’s Office ] [ Church ]
Lemon Curd
Ingredients
3 eggs
2 tbsp grated lemon rind
6 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
3/8 lb butter
Preparation
Beat eggs in top part of a double boiler. Add remaining ingredients. Stir over hot water until thick. Chill.
http://www.shsu.edu/~smm_www/FunStuff/cooking/lemon_curd.shtml
Sam Houston’s recipes:
http://www.shsu.edu/~smm_www/FunStuff/cooking/
FOOD
A lot of time was spent by the pioneer in the getting, growing, and preparing foods. Once the pioneer farmer worked out the supply problems, the family ate well. With the cedar sticks and oak logs burning many good smells came from the fireplace; the boiling of hominy, the steaming of sassafras tea, the baking of cornbread, and the frying of meat.
The hearth of an early home
Each farm had a garden. First, the land was cleared. Then the crops were planted. No matter what was grown, it had a fence around it to keep out the livestock.
Common garden crops included corn, potatoes, beans, onions, squash, pumpkins, and turnips. Fruit trees took time to grow, so it took a few years to have their own apples, but other wild berries and fruits were picked. In the forest, there was meat from deer, bear, turkey, squirrel and wild pigeons. The pioneer farmer also raised chickens, hogs, sheep and cattle.
A Dutch Oven Things used to cook food in were dutch ovens, brass kettles, large and small iron pots and skillets. Jars, crocks and mugs were also needed. Early potters found clay to make dishes. The firing of the pottery was done in a huge oven of brick with a slow fire of poplar wood. This firing took twenty-four to thirty-six hours. The pioneer often ate on a trencher. This was a wooden plate made from a board. Some plates were made from a metal called pewter. Spoons and forks were made of wood1 horn or pewter.A Trencher
Baskets were made for carrying, measuring and storing food. Splits of white oak, hickory1 ash or buckeye made good baskets. Honeysuckle vine, willow cane, and cornhusks were also used. Baskets would last many years. Other containers such as pails and buckets were made of wood. All day-to-day cooking was done in the fireplace. These fireplaces were usually big enough that you could walk into them. The making of apple butter and soap making were done outdoors.
A Wooden Pail Corn was a common food of the pioneer family. It had to be shelled before it could be ground into meal. Shelling of corn was a chore for small children. It: was often done in front of the fireplace on winter nights. Corncobs were saved to help start a fire and to smoke some meats.
The most common bread was made from corn meal, salt, and water. This was known as corn pone or hoecake. Cornbread was made from corn meal, eggs and buttermilk. It was cooked in a dutch oven covered with coals.
Buttern Churn Pumpkins were one of the most useful of the vegetables. They could be kept fresh by putting them in a dry, cool place. Pumpkin was mixed with corn meal to make pumpkin bread. It could be baked whole or mashed up. Pumpkins were also fed to the animals.
Butter was made in churns. After the butter formed in the churn, it was lifted out into a wooden bowl and washed several times. A little salt was added. It was then put into pretty molds.
There was not much sugar in the pioneer’s kitchen. Honey, maple syrup and sorghum molasses were used to sweeten foods. Bees were kept in hollow pieces of the tree trunks. The bees made the honey. Maple sugar could be made by boiling down maple tree sap. Molasses was made by boiling down the liquid from mashed sorghum cane. Fresh meat was cooked by broiling, frying, boiling, and roasting. Meat was preserved by being salted, smoked or pickled. Pork or ham was the most common meat of the mountain people.
Iron Skillet Vegetables and fruits were cooked fresh or preserved by drying or pickling. Jelly could be made from wild grapes and blackberries. The entire family helped with the making of apple butter. Long hours were spent cutting up the apples. Before sunup of the big day a fire was started under a large copper kettle. The apples were added and the cooking began. All day the apples cooked over a slow fire. The apples always had to be stirred, so as not to burn them. By the end of the day, the apple butter would be done and put away in jars for the winter.
Root Cellar Drinks of the pioneers were sassafras tea, buttermilk, apple cider, fruit wines and spirits. The family liked hickory nuts and walnuts. Children gathered nuts each fall.
During the summer, the diet of the pioneer family was good. Common farm tools used to plant, grow, and pick crops were the harrow, plow, hand cradle, flail, hoe, rake and pitch fork. The diet was not as good in the winter months because foods were hard to keep. The root cellar was used to keep vegetables (potatoes, cabbage, turnips) and fruits (apples, pears, quince). Smoked meats might have hung from its ceiling. A plow, flail, and a hand cradle. The root cellar was often dug into a hillside. This helped make the room both cool and dark. Foods needing to be kept cool and dry were kept in the loft of the log house or hung from the ceiling beams. Corn, dried beans, pumpkins and apples were examples of these foods.
The springhouse was the walk-in refrigerator of the pioneer time. It was built over a mountain spring. In the summer, it became a storehouse for good things like fresh milk, butter, eggs, buttermilk, sweet cream and cheese. These foods were kept in bowls and placed In the cool spring water.
A Springhouse
Introduction || Shelter || Food || Clothing
Special Thanks and Overview by Dr. Hartley
©1990-2001 Richard S. Hartley, All Rights Reserved.
http://www.museumsofwv.org/kids/pioneers_food.html
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodpioneer.html#pioneercookbooks
[They took trading stock with them, or were heavy drinkers....granny]
” ‘A party recently left Joe’s store at Mormon Bar for the Valley, and a friend of the Star furnishes the following statistiics— showing the amount of “the necessaries of life” which is required for an eight day’s trip in the mountains:
8 lbs potatoes.
1 bottle whiskey.
1 bottle pepper sauce.
1 bottle whiskey.
1 box tea.
9 lbs onions.
2 bottles whiskey.
1 ham.
11 lbs crackers.
1 bottle whiskey.
1/2 doz. sardines.
2 bottles brandy, (4th proof.)
6 lbs sugar.
1 bottle brandy, (4th proof.)
1 bottle pepper.
5 gallons whiskey.
4 bottles whiskey. (old Bourbon)
1 small keg whiskey.
1 bottle of cocktails , (designed for a “starter.”)
From Hutchings’ California Magazine, 1860’”
-—ibid (p. 59)
Trail provisions & Oregon prices, c. 1852
Wow, granny, you must be tough as nails! Having to go without heat in the winter is no picnic. I’m still complaining about a transformer blowing early in the morning and the heat being out all day, several years ago! lol. That was when I learned what a “three-dog night,” well, make that “three-dog day” meant. Three dogs was what I had, and they all ended up in the bed and under the covers with me, trying to keep warm. I thought I would have frozen without them. Well, it WAS very cold that day! That’s also when I learned to always have an alternate source of heat if you live in an all-electric house.
And you go through all you do without complaining. We could all learn some good lessons from you.
I’m having a hard time keeping up with all the good articles you are posting. I have to check nearly all of them out, so don’t have time to post much myself right now. I especially like the old recipes (not to mention the new ones). I have been steadily printing things out from this thread. I’m so glad you started this.
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