Cooking was very simple on the farm. We had cornbread and milk at night for supper. Daddy took our corn to get it ground into cornmeal. Mother also used the cornmeal to make mush for breakfast in hard times. I really didn’t like it that much, but when you are hungry it tastes very good!
COOKING ON THE FARM
Cooking was very simple on the farm. We had cornbread and milk at night for supper. Daddy took our corn to get it ground into cornmeal. Mother also used the cornmeal to make mush for breakfast in hard times. I really didn’t like it that much, but when you are hungry it tastes very good!
During the summers, we had lots of fresh vegetables. We had fresh green beans, with bits of bacon, boiled until tender. We kids had to snap the beans first. We always had lots of white summer squash. Mother made make fried okra, dredged in cornmeal.
She made okra gumbo, using fresh tomatoes and onions. But when she would boil the okra, which is the way Daddy liked it, we kids would have to choke it down. We hated that stuff. We ate spinach, carrots, fresh sweet peas, black-eyed peas and pinto beans. They made us eat turnips and turnip greens, collard greens and something called Swiss chard. I hated to eat that stuff. When I grew up I loved it. Mother canned all those vegetables so that in the winter we would have vegetables. She canned tomatoes, and even made homemade catsup. We grew our own potatoes too, and after harvesting them we kept them in a cool dark place.
One of the favorite things we had to eat was macaroni and tomato sauce. That was it, plain and simple - boiled in water, until tender, with only salt and pepper, adding tomatoes or tomato sauce…usually home made. I still like it and so do some of my kids and grandchildren. When I want some kind of comfort food, that’s what I fix.
Homemade noodles were one of my favorites. And I really mean homemade egg noodles! Mother didn’t make them often, as it took awhile, but when she did, I was in heaven.
But then there was corn, which all the kids liked, either corn on the cob, or scraped from the cob and cooked with butter and a little cream or milk. I think all kids like corn.
Mother made the best tomato preserves, and we would go through quart jars of that wonderful stuff, spreading it on fresh hot biscuits and fresh churned butter. I still love tomato preserves and Margaret and I try to make some every summer. My son Trent learned to make also. He once won a blue ribbon at a county fair with his tomato preserves. Did you know tomato preserves is a delicacy! Try to find some on the grocery store. She made great peach preserves from the peaches off our tree. Another delicacy was Agarita berry jelly. Those were picked wild from the pasture.
When the first norther blew in and it got cold, Daddy always killed a hog. That was an exciting time. Now we would have fresh pork chops, and roasts and sausage!!
they would put the sausage links and the hams in the smoke house and start smoking them, and they would do that for days and weeks. So we had bacon and sausage and hams for a long time.
For breakfast-besides the cornmeal mush, we ate oatmeal. Mother bought the largest box for us, and she would cook a large pan of oatmeal and we devoured it with fresh milk and sugar. Winter was the best time, because sometimes we would have bacon and biscuits to go with it.
When Daddy joined the Meat Club in the 40’s we started eating more meat. Every Saturday one of the farmers in the community would butcher a calf and take it to the central location up at Dewees. We would have beef until it ran out by the end of the week. Every week you got different cuts of meat.
But, then there was the bread. We had to bake bread every other day. We had to make several loaves of bread and two large pans of rolls. We girls had to make the bread. Margaret and I took turns. But what we really liked was “store bought white bread” or “light bread”. But we had to eat that home baked bread! The only time we got to eat “light bread” was when we bought it during peanut harvesting time, to make “lunch” for the peanut thrashing crew!
Even during the depression of the 1930’s and when there was no money, there was always food on the farm. Daddy would go hunting and shoot rabbits and we never went hungry. I think those who lived in a town or city had it worse. Especially if they could not have a garden or chickens.
So many parallels--and some differences--to my experience, although it was much worse during the depression. We only experienced the rationing during World War II.
I remember cornbread, cornmeal mush, and fried corn meal pancakes in my youth, but not often. I recall one time telling my father about how great my girlfriend's cornbread was and he said, "I hope I never have to eat cornbread ever again."
In Wisconsin, the summers were filled with a lot of fresh vegetables from the garden, berries, and from trees like apples, peaches and cherries my mother would go pick in Door County. The dairy state, so we had lots of milk, cheese, and sausages. I loved spinach and most vegetables except rutabaga. We cannedst a lot of tomatoes and one of my favorite dishes that I had again the other night was macaroni, tomatoes, and hamburger. We also sometimes would have macaroni and cheese, or for variety, macaroni, tomato and cheese. Simple, easy to make and great food.
I didn't like oatmeal that much, preferring cream of wheat, grape nuts, and just crackers, coffee, and condensed milk--sugar shock. But I like oatmeal now and had some this morning with raisins. I'm certainly glad we didn't grow okra, because I don't like that slimy stuff.
I now eat exotic food from all over the world readily available in the supermarket. But I often think about what if our food supply got cut off and what we would do to survive. Fortunately, my partner suffered through years of food shortage in Vietnam and even the wilderness growing sweet potatoes and chicken, getting fat when others were starving.
A passionate and poignant memoir written by a woman whose life has been guided by the words: "I am here to learn how to love well." The book is a deep examination of relationships, family, motivation, and honoring of the Self.
TRUE STORY. Bella survived an abusive powerbroker father with organized crime ties, a drug-addicted mother and a physically/sexually abusive brother. Shocking & inspirational. When she couldn't cry, she tattooed a crying angel to cry for her.
This is not a drill. The attack on Pearl. They were the ghost planes of the night, deadly, illusive, sharp-clawed Black Cats. The Memoirs of ARM H.P. Lawrence, a Pearl Harbor survivor, Black Cat, and decorated war veteran.
