A Very Brief Look at the History of Flowers in Yesterday’s Post

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culinary herbs, edible flowers, medicinal herbs

Beans:  Scarlet Runner beans produce edible pods and blooms although they are so lovely in a garden setting many plant them purely for ornamentals.  A tower of Scarlet Runners in the garden adds height and color and they are gorgeous on an archway trellis.  Scarlet Runner beans should be picked while small and tender.  At least in most areas these beans are considered perennial.  They will die to the ground with frost but put up again from the roots in the spring.  Scarlet runners are native to Central America and introduced to the U.S. in the early 1700’s.

Bee Balm (Monarda):  Blossoms may be substituted  for oregano and the leaves and petals can be added to salads and fruit salads.  In old herbals this may be called horseming, Wild Oswego Tea, or Wild Bergamot.

Borage:  The leaves were cooked for greens and the fresh leaves were used in salads along with mint, sage, parsley, garlic, fennel and rosemary.  Borage flowers garnished custards, salads, soups, etc.  Its flavor is similar to cucumbers, and the flowers are a beautiful blue.  It is a welcome addition to the herb or the flower garden.

Carnations:  Carnations are edible as is dianthus.  Petals have been used in making Chartreuse (A French liqueur) since the 1600’s.

Chamomile:  Chamomile has tiny daisy-like flowers that would complement floral gardens and people once thought it possessed medicinal qualities.

Columbine:  A 15^th century manuscript listed columbine in its “herbs for potage”.  When combined with six other herbs and drunk with ale it was supposed to ward off the pestilence.

Day lilies:  Blooms may be eaten in a variety of ways and used as garnish.

Hens and chicks, aka houseleek, was used to counteract diarrhea, heal inflammation of the eyes, gout, hemorrhage, headache, and ulcers.  Planting them on thatched roofs was thought to prevent lightning strikes.  It was used to stop bleeding and treat burns and cuts.

Iris:  Iris were thought to stop coughs and convulsions, relieve bites of “venomous beasts”, treat sun burn and provoke sleep.  Roots were used in perfume, sachets, potpourris, etc. and the petals of purple iris combined with alum produced a pigment for Medieval artists.

Lavender:  Its lovely fragrance has been used for centuries to scent clothing and linens and it is also used as a culinary herb.

Lily of the Valley:  a half pound of the flowers soaked in a liter of wine then distilled was said to be, “more precious than gold”, in treating apoplexy and that mixture applied to the back of the neck was thought to give the person good common sense.  I will be placing a huge order for this fragrant lovely ASAP.

Mallow:  Mallows include hibiscus and Althea, and okra is also a member of this family of plants.  Hibiscus is edible and can be used to make a tea.  During the Middle Ages it was a common potherb with the added bonus of keeping witches away from one’s home.  The leaves were used for greens and the young green tops were added to salads.

Marigold:  Flower petals were used to add color to soups and drinks and medicinally to treat a number of complaints.  Marigolds are often used as a substitute for expensive saffron.

Nasturtiums:  Buds were pickled and used like capers, leaves are edible in salads, and the petals make a lovely garnish.  This flower is often misspelled in old herbals.

Peony:  During the Middle Ages the seeds were used as a spice to flavor food.  From “Piers Plowman” we find an alewife saying she has, “pepper and peony seed and a pound of garlic and a farthingale worth of fennel seed for fasting days”.  Medicinally, it was thought to relieve epilepsy, aid in delivering babies, etc.

Periwinkle, aka Vinca:  Vinca was called, “joy of the ground” because it was thought to ward off wicked spirits.  “Whoever carries this herb with him on the skin, the devil has no power over him”. – “Hortus Sanitatis”.  “No witchery may enter the house which has this herb hanging over the door and if any witchery be already therein it will be driven out soon”.  It was thought to stay the flux, ease toothache, and temper a fever.

Primrose:  Primrose was a Middle Ages potherb used in salads and when combined with rice flour, almonds, honey, saffron, and primrose flowers, almond milk and powdered ginger made a dish known as “primrose”.

Rose:  Petals scented water to wash the hands, dried petals were used to perfume clothing and linens, used in cooking, etc.  Rosewater was popular in cooking and in some cultures remains a favorite flavoring.

Rosemary:  I plan to transplant rosemary from a raised bed to my flower garden as soon as the weather cools.  Like thyme it produces pretty flowers and both the flowers and the leaves and stems carry a welcome fragrance.  It was used during the Middle Ages in food, to make a wash for the eyes, used in a wash for the hands at table, put in amongst clothing and linens to ward off moths, etc.

Sage / Salvia:  It was used in potages (soup), salads, for sauces and in meat pies.  It flavored chicken and other meats.  It was so commonly used as a medicinal herb that people said of it, “Why should a man die whilst sage grows in his garden”.

Thyme:  Thyme has lovely tiny purple flowers and a pot of thyme in a strategic place within a garden adds both visually and fragrantly to the display.  Thyme, being one of the most often used culinary herbs needs no account of its use.

Yarrow:  Was used at home and on the battlefield to stop bleeding, cure a headache, aleviate heartburn, etc.  Yarrow tea supposedly was a remedy for colds.

Yucca:  Petals are crunchy and mildly sweet.  They can be put into salads or used as a garnish.

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RADISHES: Spring versus Winter Varieties©

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black radish, daikon radish, heirloom radishes, radishes in Colonial America, spring radishes, watermelon radish, winter radishes

It is not hard to locate books from the 1500’s which note the ways of eating and growing radishes, particularly “The Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physic” (1653), Gervase Markham’s “A Way to Get Wealth” (1668), John Reid’s “The Scots Gard’ner in Two Parts” (1683), George Sandy’s “A Relation of a Journey Begun An:  Dom:  1610” in which he notes the builders of the pyramids eating radishes (1637), John Mason’s “A Briefe Discourse of the New-found-land” (1620), etc.

While not native to North America, radishes were prevalent in the gardens and diets of Colonial Americans as proven by such notable men as William Bradford and William Wood.  The latter resided in the Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1629 and 1633.  They were found in John Randolph’s “Treatise on Gardening” written about 1765 in Williamsburg.  “There are Radishes known in this country by the name of Scarlet or Salmon, London short topped, &c.”.

Not all radishes are alike, however.  If you want radishes throughout most of the year, especially if you live where temperatures soar in summer, shop for seeds meant to grow during different seasons of the year.  After researching this topic I realized why I remembered long white icicle radishes from my childhood – simply put, they grew during summer when spring radishes would not.

Seed varieties are not often designated as spring or winter in their descriptions and most people are unaware there is a difference.  Research is a slow and tedious endeavor so hopefully sharing mine will help others with choosing varieties better suited to their needs.

Vilmorin made the distinction in 1885 and documented some 43 varieties grown for roots, and the rat-tailed and Madras grown for the pods.

While not infallible, a general rule is spring radishes come in a variety of pretty colors ranging from red, pink, white or purple, and in different  shapes while winter varieties tend to be longer icicle or round shape and white, white and green, cream, or black in color.

Let’s talk about eating radishes.  The fleshy root is not the only edible part and those weren’t always confined to the salad bowl.  Breakfast radishes were so named due to the prevalence with which they were consumed for the morning meal.  “…the mother and son were together in the dining-room, where they were breakfasting with a cup of coffee, with bread and butter and radishes”.  – “An Old Maid”.  1898.

French Breakfast radishes make a striking presentation

The greens can be sautéed, cooked with other greens, young leaves can be substituted for lettuce on a sandwich, or leaves add great flavor to soups and stews.  The greens are delicious and why throw away something so tasty and chock full of goodness?

Don’t forget radish sprouts for your salad or sandwich and wash the garden thinnings for salads.  I harvest some of the greens from the radishes for cooking and they grow back more luxuriant than before, but take only part of the leaves from each plant.

The root can be pickled or roasted just like a potato.  It can be sliced or cut into matchsticks, depending on size, and dressed as a salad.

The flowers are edible and can really make a nice presentation in salads, sandwiches, dips, etc.  If you fail to harvest the flowers, don’t worry, they will form seed pods which are also edible.  The seed pods can be added to salads, cooked, or pickled.

Image from Baker Creek Seeds

There are varieties, such as Rat’s Tail and Madras Podding that are grown purely for the seed pods.  The latter is supposedly more heat tolerant although I haven’t grown it and can’t say.  “The newly-introduced radish, which has attracted the attention of horticulturists so much of late, is certainly a novelty, inasmuch as the edible portion of the plant is the seed-vessel, and not the root”.  – “Nature and Art”.  June 1, 1856.

Let’s not forget that horse-radish is, indeed, a form of radish as well and there are those who would scoff at the idea of roast beef without it.

There are mild and hot variances in spring and winter radishes and since the length of this article will not permit me to describe the flavor of each one individually I suggest readers peruse the seed catalogs of recommended vendors at the end of this piece.

Before we can eat, we must plant and radishes require a little more thought than I once realized.  Plant for the season and temperature and don’t just try to plant the same variety all year.

Radish culture a century ago was little different than today, plant summer crops in a shaded location [in temperature extremes this probably won’t help], frequent watering in dry weather to keep them from getting pithy, and small successive plantings are preferable to large beds.

Spring radishes grow and produce rapidly and last only a very short time.  They like cool weather and do not tolerate heat well, quickly become pithy when over-large, and do not keep well in storage.  Plant early when the ground can be worked in the spring.  Cherry Belle is a well-known spring radish.  Others include Cherry Bomb, Celesta, Rover, April Cross, Champion, Red King, Snow Belle, French Breakfast, Gala, White Hailstone, Purple Plum, Bora King, and Crimson Giant.

Summer radishes aren’t so much a type as they are an in-between mixture of spring and winter radishes.  They may tolerate more heat than spring radishes but won’t last through a long hot summer.

A few varieties are marketed as heat tolerant and suitable for multiple seasons although one would have to experiment to know how accurate the description is.

White Icicle is commonly known and produces in summer as will the Chinese Pink.  The Red Meat or “Watermelon” radish is recommended for summer to fall sowing only.  Alpine, a popular Korean variety, KN-Bravo, Nero Tondo, Roxanne, Shunkyo Semi-Long, Summer Cross (icicle), Crunchy Royale, etc. are sold for spring to summer planting.

Its easy to see why its called “Watermelon” radish

Winter radishes are planted in late summer through early fall and mature before winter freezes come.  In warm climates successive plantings will see you through the winter with fresh radishes.  These hold in the ground better than spring radishes and can be left to harvest as they are wanted.  When a freeze is forecast, pull them up, cut off the greens, and store the roots in the refrigerator or a cool basement.

Winter varieties include China Rose,  Long Black Spanish (an old European heirloom), Chinese White Winter, Miyashige, Violet de Gournay, Daikon (which vary in length and size), Round Black Spanish (a very ancient variety), White Cannon,  Red Meat, Green Meat, Hild’s Blauer, Mini Purple, Misato Rose, Munchener Bier (also good for seed pods), Saitaro, and Winter Light.

A winter variety I fully intend to try planting this fall is Schifferstadt Long Black, a standard of the Pennsylvania Dutch.  My husband’s family is PA Dutch so we grow some PA Dutch vegetables on our little homestead and make historic dishes from that area.  I suspect this variety is from William Woys Weaver’s Roughwood Seed Collection sold through Baker Creek Seeds.

John Randolph made the distinction of winter radishes in Colonial America.  “The black Radish will continue if sown in August, until killed by the frosts, and Radishes may be preserved in sand as carrots are in the spring”.

“Winter radishes may be simply pared, cut in quarters, and arranged neatly on a pretty shallow dish.  Red radishes of the spring should have the roots neatly trimmed, half the top cut and trimmed, leaving little holders at the top.  These may be arranged neatly in a glass dish and served with cracked ice.”  – “How to Cook Vegetables”.  1892.

I hope this helps in choosing varieties for your garden.  The research was part of my on-going search for plants best suited to my long very hot summers.  I leave you with wishes for a good harvest and Blissful Meals.© Copyright.

Suggested Sources:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Johnny’s Seeds, Kitazawa Seed Co., Fedco, Seed Savers Exchange, Sustainable Seed Co., Heritage Harvest Seed, Sandhill Preservation, and Rare Seeds.

See:

Wood, William.  “New England’s Prospect”.   Originally published 1634, reprint 1897.

Thistle Salad Days©

The title of this post came from “Blackwood’s Magazine” Feb. 1895.  “…the French public was browsing the thistles of the Vicomte d’Arlincourt, or of ‘Lord R’Hoone’ (otherwise Honoré de Balzac himself in his thistle-salad days)…”.  Yes, gentle reader, salads are made from peeled thistle stalks and they can be cooked as well.

This caught my eye as I’ve been slowly compiling an encyclopedia of the history of salads (cooked, raw, and everything in between) over the past few years and because there are thistles growing in our field.  To eradicate them, or to eat them, that is the question.

One needn’t worry about identifying a species of thistle before consuming it as all are said to be edible.  Although it may be too hot for them to flourish, I’ve purchased seed to add cardoon to my perennial garden and cardoon is simply a cultivated thistle grown for its celery-like stems rather than its flower head.  The plant is usually covered with hay to render the stems white and tender, and they are eaten just as wild thistles are in the references below.  Depending on what is available, either will work in the same manner and cardoon can be found in cans or jars in specialty food stores for those who prefer to skip the thorns and go straight to the dining room.

Historians date the cultivation of cardoon to the days of Pliny and some think modern artichokes then evolved from cardoon about the 15^th century.

One might assume the eating of thistle stalks was learned from Native Americans, but given the accounts of them being eaten in England, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and other countries from at least the Middle Ages, proves the thistle is one of those basic resources that evolved simultaneously throughout much of the world.  “Nothing to eat, starving and weak; we followed the example of the squaw, in eating the inner portion of large thistle-stalks”.  – “Travels in the Far Northwest, 1839-1846”.

English cooks and 19^th century cookbook writers point out that applying fresh lemon juice to the peeled stalks will prevent them from turning dark.  Acidulated water, the term often used, is water with lemon juice into which the pieces can be placed for this purpose.

“Both the milk thistle and the blessed thistle were used by our ancestors, the former as a vegetable and the latter as a tonic, and Evelyn, in his ‘Acetaria’ [1699], says that to a salad of thistle leaves ‘the late Morocco Ambassador and his retinue were very partial.’  The leaves of the milk thistle shorn of their prickles were not only an ordinary ingredient in a salad, but they were also boiled’, and Tryon says of them, ‘they are very wholesome and exceed all other greens in taste’.  They were added to pottages, baked in pies, like artichoke bottoms, and fried.  Culpepper advises one to ‘cut off the prickles, unless you have a mind to choke yourself’, but in olden days both the scales and the roots were eaten.  The young stalks, peeled, were eaten both fresh and boiled.”  Rohde, Eleanor.  “A Garden of Herbs”.  1922.

In 1828, John Loudon included thistle-stalks in a list of culinary vegetables from the open garden.  Were these the common thistle, or were they the more refined garden cardoon?  “An Encyclopaedia of Gardening”.

John Young was definitely eating wild thistles when he wrote in his memoirs in 1847, “For several months we had no bread, Beef, milk, pig-weeds, segoes [sego lilies], and thistles formed our diet.  I was the herd boy, and while out watching the stock, I used to eat thistle stalks until my stomach would be as full as a cow’s”.  – Young, John R.  “Memoirs of John R. Young, Utah Pioneer”.  1847.

“Good Housekeeping”, Oct. 1891, contained an article called Cajun Housekeeping”, in which the author said, “Tender thistle stalks she cooks as one would asparagus, and they are just as good-then no adverse fate ever cuts short the thistle crop”.  I suppose if my asparagus bed fails to thrive, I may depend upon its wild substitute to supply us with this favorite.

MILK THISTLE STALKS.  The young stalks about May being peeled and soaked in water to extract the bitterness, boiled or raw are a very wholesome sallet eaten with oyl, salt and pepper.  Boil them in water with a little salt till they are very soft and so let them dry to drain.  They are eaten with fresh butter melted not too thin and this a delicate and wholesome dish.  Other stalks of the same kind may be so treated as the Bur being tender and disarmed of its prickles.  – Evelyn, John.  “Acetaria”.  1699.

CARDOON SALAD.  1885.  Jules Harder removed the leaves from the stalks, cooked them, and then peeled them.  “Then cut them in scallops an inch long and drain them on a napkin.  Put them in a salad bowl and season them with salt and pepper.  Then chop two cloves of garlic very fine and put them in a frying pan with a little sweet oil.  Fry them [garlic] lightly (not letting them get brown), and add immediately some bell peppers chopped fine, and some vinegar.  Then let them boil up for two minutes and pour the dressing over the Cardoons, mixing them well together, and then serve.”  – “The Physiology of Taste”.

CARDOON SALAD.  Jeanette Norton.  “Mrs. Norton’s Cookbook”.  1917.

The salad made of cardoons is rather unusual.  These French thistles should be drained from the can and allowed to marinate for half hour in French dressing to which a little onion juice has been added.  Drain, add good mayonnaise, and lay on white lettuce leaves garnished with the sweet pickled cucumber rings that come in bottles for the purpose.  Toasted whole wheat crackers with melted cheese on them go nicely with this salad.  This will serve four people.

A Quick Discourse on Elderberries©

Elderberries have been planted around farms and harvested for home use and for taking to market since the 18^th century and probably much earlier.  They are found wild throughout much of the country and have been used for generations to make various things, wine and cordial perhaps being the most common.  Having planted elderberries recently and expecting a harvest in a couple of years I took a quick look at other ways to use them.  Elderberry bushes reproduce easily so I hope as time goes by I get larger and larger harvests.

For those who want an alcoholic beverage but are hesitant to try their hand at wine making, I suggest starting with a cordial which is a very simple process.

While some 19^th century cookbook authors were prejudiced against elderberries in favor of more refined fruits, others like Thomas De Voe preached their benefits.  “These small, black berries are pleasant-tasted when ripe, and are brought to our markets to be used for various purposes.  They make the Elder-paste, for the sick, which is considered excellent, Elderberry wine, a wholesome and agreeable beverage, sometimes used for making pies, etc., and when gathered while in flower make the Elder Flower Tea, etc.  The bark makes an excellent ointment; in fact, the whole plant is much used in medicine.  The berries are in season in the months of August and September.”  1867.

“The elderberry is one of the least known and appreciated of the berry family.  In fact it is usually neglected for many less palatable and far less dietetic fruits…

Elderberries when properly prepared are very palatable and delicious, either in pies, jelly, as a spiced conserve or a household wine…If housewives will try any one of the following tried and tested recipes I think they will begin to appreciate this friend of the hedges…”.  “Table Talk.”  1903.

A quick way to pick the small berries from the stem clusters is to place a half inch wire mesh over a large pan or bucket and gently pass the clusters back and forth along the wire.  The berries will fall through the mesh into the container.

ELDERBERRY PIE.

Line a pie dish with paste, upon which sprinkle a scant tablespoonful of flour; to this add a half cupful of sugar and a half teaspoonful each of cloves and cinnamon, rubbing all together evenly.  Upon this pour the berries, a pint more or less according to the size of your pie dish; pour over another half cupful of sugar, dot generously with butter, adding last one large tablespoonful of good vinegar.  Apply top crust quickly and bake.  “Table Talk”.  Vol. 18.  1903.

ELDERBERRY JELLY.

Take equal parts of elderberries and wild grapes, and cook to extract juice, strain, and sugar in proportion of one pound to each pint of liquid, and cook as other jelly…

Elderberries are also combined with gooseberries, crab-apples, and green grapes, equal parts of either, making a piquant table sauce, while pies made from them might please the individual who does not care for the flavor of the single fruit.

For winter use elderberries may be preserved in either of the above combinations and treated as other fruit, or canned plain without sugar for use in pies only.  When making pies from the plain canned fruit, it is wise to cook the berries with the same proportion of sugar, flour, etc., as given for fresh berries, filling the pie paste when cold.  This insures a jelly-like consistency of the finished product without those unpalatable doughy lumps too often seen…”  – “Table Talk”.  Vol. 18.  1903.

ELDERBERRY SHORTCAKE.

Make the cake or biscuit dough rich and flaky, proportioning it with cream, egg and soda the same as for a strawberry shortcake…When baked, divide the upper from the lower crust and place upon each a layer of ripe stewed elderberries.  It is known that elderberries have a somewhat rank taste when eaten from the bush.  Pick them, look them over and wash them; next, put them in a granite or porcelain stew dish, add a very little hot water and cook them a few minutes or until stewed.  Have as little juice as possible.  Add a half teacupful of thick sweet cream to enough of the stewed berries for two layers.  When the berries and cream are placed upon the cake, sprinkle over each layer plenty of granulated sugar, and the shortcake is then ready to be eaten.  Do not add the cream to the berries until it is about time to have the cake brought to the table.  Cream and sugar added to the berries destroy the disagreeable elderberry flavor and makes them rich and palatable.  – “Table Talk”.  1903.

ELDERBERRY CONSERVE.

9 lb. elderberries, 3 lb. sugar, 1 pt. vinegar; cook until thick and seal.  – “The Warren Cook Book”.  1920.

ELDERBERRY PIE.

Dilute Elderberry Conserve with water; add corn starch to thicken and put dots of butter on top (a little vinegar may be added if desired”.  Very delicious.  “The Warren Cook Book”.

DRIED ELDER FRUIT.

This fruit is very easily dried by spreading in pans under the stove or in the oven, and will make as good pies as though fresh, if they are soaked a few minutes in hot water before using.  Some of our neighbors dry them by the bushel, for winter use”.  – “The Ohio Cultivator”.  Vol. 9.  1853.

ELDERBERRY DUMPLINGS.

Make the crust as usual and put in the berries as you would other fruit [like apple dumpling].  Boil them fast till the crust is done, then take them up and eat with a dip of white sugar and sour cream, and you will confess they are delicious.  [Fruit dumplings can be baked as well].

Elderberries were made into a sauce similar to cranberry sauce.  The Iowa State Horticultural Society recommended combining elderberries and rhubarb for a sauce [1910].  An article in “Everyday Housekeeping” said, “twenty years ago many families, by no means poor, during every year consumed gallons of this unsavory sauce, made by boiling elderberries in sorghum molasses.  Jelly, too, made from elderberries and flavored with lemon, was accounted a delicacy.”  1900.

EDLERBERRY SOY.  [Anchovies are used to flavor various sauces and once cooked and strained, there are no fishy pieces remaining in the product.  The flavor blends with the other ingredients, and if made well, leaves no fishy taste.   Modern tastes usually dictate using far less than older recipes call for.  I suggest 1 small can, chopped, for this or the next recipe.]

One quart of elderberries; one quart of vinegar; a quarter of a pound of anchovies; a blade of mace; a little ginger, salt, and whole peppers.  Pour a quart of boiling vinegar over a quart of elderberries, picked from the stalks and set it in a cool oven all night; then strain the liquor from the berries, and boil it up with the mace, ginger, salt, whole peppers, and the anchovies, until they are dissolved.  When cold, put it into bottles after it has been strained, and cork it down.  Some prefer the spice put into the bottles; but either way it is a good and not expensive soy.  This was appreciated as a sauce for fish.  – “Warne’s Model Cookery”.  1879.

ELDERBERRY CATSUP.  [Note this recipe is similar to the one called soy.]

1 quart of elderberries; 1 quart of vinegar; 6 anchovies, soaked and pulled to pieces; half a teaspoonful mace; a pinch of ginger; 2 tablespoonfuls white sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoonful whole peppers.  Scald the vinegar and pour over the berries, which must be picked from the stalks and put into a large stone jar.  Cover with…glass, and set in the hot sun two days.  Strain off the liquor, and boil up with the other ingredients, stirring often, one hour, keeping covered unless while stirring.  Let it cool; strain and bottle.  This is used for flavoring brown gravies, soups, and ragouts, and stirred into browned butter, makes a good piquant sauce for broiled or baked fish.

FRUIT SAUCE.

Melt a small lump of butter, stir in half as much flour, or a quarter as much of corn-starch, arrowroot, or soaked tapioca, a pinch of salt, if the butter is not salted, a glass of acid wine or lemon juice, or a tablespoonful of vinegar; sugar to taste; any fruit juice you have, as raspberry, strawberry, blackberry, elderberry, or jam will do; thin to the right consistence; bring it to the boil and serve.  Raspberry, and other fruit vinegars make excellent sauces”.  [There is no right and wrong with this recipe – it is thickened as much or as little as the cook desires, and made as sweet or not as is wanted].  “How to Cook”.  1872.

ELDERBERRY PUDDING.

1 cup sugar, 1 cup sweet milk, 2 teaspoons baking powder, butter size of an egg, enough flour to make stiffer than cake dough.  Put in baking dish, then mix the following:  1 ½ cups elderberries (any fruit may be used) 1 cup sugar, 2 cups boiling water, small piece of butter.  Pour this over batter in pudding dish and place in oven.  Bake ¾ hour.  [This could be called cobbler].

ELDER-FLOWER PANCAKES AND JUNKET.  “Fruit Recipes”.

The finest flowers of the elder blossoms, stripped, may be whipped lightly into pancakes or muffins just before baking, a half-cupful to each “batch” of ordinary quantity.  This gives both lightness and flavor.  A plain junket should have added one-fourth part flowers to quantity of cream or milk used.  [Ripe berries may be added to muffins or cakes as one would raisins.]

ELDERBERRY SYRUP TO FLAVOR DRINKS.

Use strained elderberry juice and sugar in a ratio of 1 to 1 (half and half).  Flavor as desired with lemon juice, or cinnamon stick.  Bring to a boil and then simmer five minutes.  This may be canned for keeping, or small quantities may be kept in the refrigerator.  To serve, mix syrup to taste in cold club soda or lemon-lime soda and serve over ice.

Note:  While the images may look like poke, elderberry grows on a bush much different in appearance.  Know what you’re picking before consuming any wild plant.  I leave you with my favorite parting, Blissful Meals Yall©.  Enjoy your wild and garden bounty.  – Vickie Brady, The Historic Foodie.

GROWING and Using YOUR OWN BAY LEAVES©

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bay leaf

One of the first things I planted when we purchased our little farm was a bay tree.  It was a tiny little thing, but given time and love I don’t see having to purchase bay leaves again and fresh ones are always more flavorful than the dried ones.  Either way, always discard the bay leaf before serving the dish.

An added bonus with growing your own is having enough to use in potpourri or sachets.  Since I am more involved in cooking than in scenting and my tree isn’t large enough to pluck enough leaves for making sachets yet, let’s take a quick look at the use culinary uses of bay leaves in times past.

Clermont gave a list of sweet herbs for cooking in 1812 which will serve today’s cook equally as well. “What go under the denomination of sweet herbs in cookery, are parsley, chibbol [chives], garlick, rocambole [an allium similar to hardneck garlic], shallots, winter savory, fennel, thyme, laurel, or bay-leaf, and sweet basil. Under the name Ravigotte, or relishing herbs are, tarragon, chervil, burnet, garden cresses, civet, and green mustard; there are other sweet herbs, which are not called ravigotte, although they are often used together, as mint, borage, water-cress, rosemary, marigold, marjoram, &c.”

The ways in which the leaves were used was consistent through 18^th and early 19^th century cookbooks.  John Perkins instructed in 1808 using bay leaves in pickling and making mushroom ketchup, and cooking a pig, pigeons, fish, beef, eels, poultry, and mutton.

In 1837, Beauvilliers’ “A Complete System of French Domestic Cookery” used the term “bay leaf” 52 times, using it for cooking mushrooms, pickled veal, put into bouquet garni (little bundles of parsley, green onions or scallions, thyme, basil, and bay leaf used for seasoning), soup, sauces including bechemel, brines for marinating and pickling, fish, meat, and various other made dishes.

One of the less common uses was in custard found in Lady Charlotte Campbell Bury’s cookery book (1844).  “One quart of cream, twelve eggs, the whites of four, the rind of one lemon, boiled in the cream, with a small quantity of nutmeg and a bay-leaf, bitter and sweet almonds one ounce each, a little ratafia and orange-flower water; sweeten to your taste.  The cream must be quite cold before the eggs are added.  When mixed, it must just be made to boil, and then fill your cups.”  Ratafia in this instance most likely refers to a liqueur flavored with almonds or kernels from peaches, apricots, or cherries.  It also can mean an almond flavored cookie or macaroon.

John Nott.  “The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary”.  1737.  Hare Pye.  Break the bones of the Hare, lard it well, and season it with salt, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and a bay leaf; lay slices of bacon at the bottom of your pye, put in the hare and lay slices of bacon over it, and lid it up; when it is bak’d pour in melted Butter, and stop the hole of the pye, and set it to cool.

Note:  Today most people prefer to cook the meat and debone it before baking it in the pie.  Larding refers to inserting small slivers of fat into the meat to keep it from drying out as it cooks.

Clermont utilized fish in making soup and sauces. 1844. “Take what kind of fish you think proper…cut in slices, and put them into your stew-pan, with a little butter, sliced onions…parsley, thyme, bay-leaf, basil, a clove of garlick [sic], carrots, and parsneps [sic]; soak it until it forms a slight glaze on the bottom; add to it the former broth and boil on a slow fire for about an hour; sift [strain] it clear.  It will serve for soups and sauces”.

I especially love cooking instructions when they come from sources other than cookbooks.  This is just such a one.  Pickling the fish in spices and vinegar preserved it without refrigeration.   “When more fish is caught than can be made use of, or kept without being ‘spiled’ [spoiled], cut it into slices about an inch thick.  (Every mess should lay in supplies of whole pepper, dried bay’s leaf, and all-spice, or pimento…)!  Wipe the fish dry, and lay it in a large jar [or crock], as follows:  after having pounded all-spice, black pepper, and salt, and mixed it well together, and rubbed the fish well with the mixture, lay the slices in regular tiers; and between every tier a bay-leaf, and so on, ‘chock up’ to the top, pressing the whole pretty well, or ‘handsomely,’ and then pour the vinegar down by the side, not the middle of the jar, until the jar is quite full.  Cover it over with brown paper, if to be had, if not, a bit of old canvass; tie it close, hand it over to the cook for a quiet corner in the oven, and when done, lay it by to cool;–and there’s a supply that will keep till all’s blue again.”  – “Jack Tench:  or, The Midshipman Turned Idler”.  1841.

Beuf [beef] a la Vinegrette.  Charlotte Mason.  “The Lady’s Assistant”.  1777.

Cut a slice of beef from the round three inches thick, with very little fat; stew it in water and a glass of white wine, seasoned with salt, pepper, cloves, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a bay-leaf; let it boil till the liquor is almost consumed, and when it is cold serve it up; what liquor remains, strain it off and mix it with a little vinegar.

Those who may want to add bay to their herb garden should be able to find seedlings at a nursery or they can be started from cuttings.  They are also called sweet bay and bay laurel.  They are evergreen and flower in the spring.  They may be grown in full sun or partial shade and one might let the weather govern the location for planting.  Partial shade might be better where the norm is extremely hot summers.  The size of the mature tree can be controlled by planting it in a container or through pruning.  It is hardy to 23 degrees, but can withstand a little colder if planted in a sheltered location.

As always, I wish you Blissful Meals, especially as we approach Christmas with all its splendor.  God Bless and merry Christmas one and all.  ©The Historic Foodie

[Spelling is unchanged from the original sources.]

Marrow Fat

Marrow from bones has been consumed since antiquity and has enjoyed somewhat of a resurgence in recent years, the difference from olden times being that the butcher now usually slices the bones in half ridding us of the task of cracking them open.

Eating marrow rose to such heights in the 17^th and 18^th centuries that silver marrow spoons or scoops were sold with which to eat it.

In addition to eating the cooked marrow on toast, the bones and marrow were utilized in soup stock to add consistence though they really add little to nothing to the flavor.  Numerous 19^th century cookery books point out that the bones can be prepared and after the marrow has been removed and consumed at the table, the bones are still fit to put into the soup pot afterward.

“The[buffalo] marrow-bones are also highly esteemed, especially when roasted, and are often used as a substitute for butter, as the marrow-bones of all animals are filled with a short, buttery fat.”  – De Voe.

An article from the 1990’s claimed frontiersmen referred to prepared marrow as prairie butter.  That author gave no source or documentation for the name prairie butter used in that context, yet other modern writers picked up the name and subsequently used the term in their own writing, still without any documentation.   A more accurate term is marrow-fat.

This writer made a diligent search and could find no period source with which to document the name prairie butter although numerous sources do mention eating the marrow and instructing how to prepare it.  There is no doubt it was commonly eaten but the name prairie butter is questionable.  This author does encourage anyone who can document the term to do so.

In 1880, William Shepherd’s method of making “prairie butter” was to add flour and water to grease remaining in the pan after meat was fried and basically making gravy.   There was no marrow in his dish.  Other accounts of prairie butter had nothing at all to do with marrow and were simply butter from milk that had been churned on the prairie.

Marrow was commonly taken from beef, sheep, and oxen, but Lewis and Clark noted supping and breakfasting on elk marrow bones at least twice and outdoorsmen wrote that they ate marrow bones from buffalo.  Richard Dodge claimed, however, that the marrow in the forelegs of buffalo was so pithy that when greenhorns roasted the bones they cracked them open to find nothing inside.

Indians knew how to roast the bones from the buffalo’s hind legs to get at the tasty marrow inside.  “The bones of the hind legs are thrown upon the glowing coals, or hidden under the hot embers, then cracked between two stones, and the rich, delicious marrow sucked in quantities sufficient to ruin a white stomach forever.”

“Marrow-fat is collected by the Indians from the buffalo bones which they break to pieces, yielding a prodigious quantity of marrow, which is boiled out and put into buffalo bladders which have been distended; and after it cools, becomes quite hard like tallow, and has the appearance and very nearly the flavor, of the richest yellow butter.  At a feast, chunks of this marrow-fat are cut off and placed in a tray or bowl, with the pemmican, and eaten together; which we civilized folks in these regions consider a very good substitute for (and indeed we generally so denominate it) ‘bread and butter’.  In this dish laid a spoon made of the buffalo’s horn, which was black as jet, and beautifully polished…”.  – Catlin.

Marrow could be heated, clarified, and stored away in small jars or crocks for future use in cooking.  It was used as a substitute for butter during the months when fresh butter was difficult to obtain.  Toasts were fried in marrow until golden brown or dipped in the marrow and baked in a quick oven.

MARROW BONES.  Mrs. Rundell’s Practical Cookery Book.  1898.  London.  If the Marrow Bones are very long they must be sawn in half.  Cover the end of each bone with a stiff paste of flour and water, using plenty of flour.  This paste is to prevent the Marrow from escaping from the bone whilst being cooked.  Tie a cloth over each bone, and put the bones in a roomy saucepan filled with boiling salted water.  Let the Marrow Bones boil for three hours.  Take them out of the saucepan, remove the cloth, and all the paste, and pin a clean napkin round each bone or half bone.  Send the Marrow Bones up on a hot dish, and send up dry toast in a toast rack.  See that a proper Marrow Spoon is provided to help the Marrow.  The Marrow Bones should be served upright.

MARROW-BONES.  Mrs. Beeton’s Dictionary of Every-day Cookery.  A note at the end of instructions for boiling the bones reads, “Marrow-bones may be baked after preparing them as in the preceding recipe; they should be laid in a deep dish, and baked for 2 hours.”

MARROW DUMPLINGS TO SERVE WITH ROAST MEAT, IN SOUP, WITH SALAD, &C.  Same.

1 oz. of beef marrow, 1 oz. of butter, 2 eggs, 2 penny rolls, 1 teaspoonful of minced onion, 1 teaspoonful of minced parsley, salt and grated nutmeg to taste.  Beat the marrow and butter together to a cream; well whisk the eggs, and add these to the other ingredients.  When they are well stirred, put in the rolls, which should previously be well soaked in boiling milk, strained, and beaten up with a fork.  Add the remaining ingredients, omitting the minced onion where the flavor is very much disliked, and form the mixture into small round dumplings.  Drop these into boiling broth, and let them simmer for about 20 minutes or ½ hour.  They may be served in soup, with roast meat, or with salad, as in Germany, where they are more frequently sent to table than in this country.  They are very good.

DEVILLED MARROW-BONES.  “The International Cook B ook”.  Filippini, Alexander.  1914. Procure six fresh beef marrow-bones of about three and a half inches long, arrange upright on a block and split in two with a cleaver (or have your butcher split them for you), leaving all the marrow on half of each bone only.  Lay the six with marrow in a tin, marrow side up, divide a teaspoon salt evenly and carefully spread a devilled butter…over marrow, dredge two tablespoons of fresh bread crumbs evenly over the six bones and set in oven for twenty-two minutes.  Remove, dress on a dish with a napkin and serve with twelve very thin slices freshly prepared toast separately.

DEVILLED BUTTER. (For the previous receipt).  Same source.  Half an ounce good butter, two saltspoons ground English mustard, one teaspoon good white wine vinegar, one teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, one saltspoon salt, half a saltspoon cayenne pepper and one egg yolk.  Place all these articles in a bowl, thoroughly mix well together with a spoon and use as required.

CLARIFIED MARROW FOR KEEPING.  “Modern Cookery, for Private Families”.  Acton, Eliza.  1868.  Take the marrow from the bones while it is as fresh as possible; cut it small, put it into a very clean jar, and melt it with a gentle heat, either in a pan of water placed over the fire, or at the mouth of a cool oven; strain it through a muslin, let it settle for a minute or two, and pour it, clear of sediment, into small jars.  Tie skins, or double folds of thick paper, over them as soon as the marrow is cold and store it in a cool place.  It will remain good for months.”

MARROW PASTIES [pies].  “The Household Encyclopedia”.  1859.  Shred some apples with some marrow, add a little sugar to them, make them up in puff paste, and fry the pasties in clarified butter.  When fried strew some sugar over them and serve.”

SAVOURY BALLS [to serve with soup].  Smith, Eliza.  “The Complete Housewife”.  Take the flesh of fowl, beef suet and marrow, the same quantity; six or eight oysters, lean bacon, sweet-herbs and savoury spices; pound it, and make it into little balls.

WHITE POT.  “Domestic Economy”.  1827.  Slice some nice bread, lay it in the bottom of a dish, and cover it over with marrow; season a quart of cream or new milk with nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, and sugar; boil and strain it; beat six yolks, and put them to the cream, and pour it over the bread.  Bake in a moderate oven, and sift sugar over it, or rasped almonds, citron, orange-peel and sugar.

“Journals of Lewis and Clark”.

“Colburn’s New Monthly Magazine”.  March 1843.

Dodge, Richard.  “Our Wild Indians”.  1882.

De Voe, Thomas Farrington.  “The Market Assistant”.  1867.

Catlin, George.  “Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians”.  1841 and 1857.

ELDERBERRIES: Multipurpose fruit©

Tags

elderberries

In 1656 William Coles documented the belief that gathering the leaves of elder on the last day of April and attaching them to one’s doors and windows would, “disappoint the charmes of Witches”.  Elder bushes were an integral part of gardens through the 18^th century, and why not?  How could one overlook the tasty flowers and berries prepared in a myriad of ways with the added benefit of warding off witches?

Elder plays a part in the early folklore of several countries.  Russians used to believe the spirit of the elder had great compassion for human beings and drove away evil spirits from them.  The Danes refused to make furniture from elder wood believing that doing so brought ill luck.  “If a cradle is made of the wood, the Elder Mother will come and pull the child out of it”.

Bushes can be dug from the wild, propagated by rooting in water or planting in soil, or bought from a nursery.  If rooting 6 inch cuttings in water plant them in small pots once roots are established.  Place the pots in a shaded location and keep watered until the following spring then plant in the home landscape.  If starting in soil, place the pot with the cutting inside a plastic bag so that a humid environment is simulated until the cuttings are rooted (keep out of direct sunlight), and proceed as above.  While the bushes are self-pollinating, planting more than one variety is said to produce bigger berries.

Elderberries are small and it would be very time consuming to pick them individually, therefore, when harvesting the recommended method was (and is) to cut the heads and let them drop into a basket.  One can then pick off the berries, or wash the heads and drop them into boiling liquid removing and discarding the remaining stems.  A quicker way to remove the berries from the stems is to cover a bowl or bucket with half inch wire mesh and just pass the berry bunches back and forth across it.  The berries will fall through the holes into the container.

All parts of the bushes have been used for one thing or another.  “The pith of the tree has wonderful powers, for, if cut in round, flat shapes, and dipped in oil, lighted, and then put to float in a glass of water, its light on Christmas Eve will reveal to the owner all the witches and sorcerers in the neighbourhood.  While this sounds ridiculous today, the Salem witch trials are proof that such things were once deadly serious.

Buds were pickled with pepper, mace, and lemon peel, elder tops (young shoots) were pickled, flowers were used to flavor vinegar or make drinks, the flowers were dipped in batter and fried to make fritters, sprays of flowers were put into sugar to impart a pleasant flavor, the berries were used to make wine, juice, pies, jam and jelly, tea can be made from the leaves, and the berries were used to make ink and to dye various items including champagne and leather.

Why aren’t we familiar with using these berries today?  Because, like many other plants, the lowly wild berry came to be considered inferior when tame berries were cultivated to produce larger and juicier fruit with less labor.  “It is strange that when there is a scarcity of fruit, as there was last year, people will lament the lack of fruit, when behold the fence corners are filled with these valuable bushes, bending down and overloaded with ripe delicious fruit that all goes to waste.  You need never be at a loss for fruit to make pies, for it grows spontaneously…Remember other fruit is liable to fail while this is a never-failing fruit”.  – “The Ohio Cultivator”.  1853.

Below are some historic elderberry recipes which may tempt you, but you may also want to try adding the berries to muffin, fritter, or pancake batter, mixing elderberry syrup with iced soda water for a refreshing drink, using the juice to make frozen popsicles or ice cream, etc.

ELDERBERRY ICE CREAM [modern].  This is similar to black raspberry ice cream that is popular in Pennsylvania.

2 cups elderberries (no stems); 1 cup water; sugar as desired; 2 cups heavy cream or half and half; 1 ½ cups milk; 5 egg yolks.  The syrup can be made ahead of time and refrigerated.

Combine the berries and water, bring to a boil and simmer until the berries begin bursting.  Add sugar half cup at a time until as sweet as you like.  Let the mixture cool slightly, then run it through a food mill or sieve.  Discard the solids.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

To make the ice cream:  Put the cream and milk into a heavy pan and slowly heat it, stirring so that it doesn’t scorch.  Add the elderberry syrup a half cup at a time until the flavor is as deep as you wish.  Bring the mixture to steaming but not simmering or boiling.

Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl.  Add a few spoonfuls of the cream mixture, whisking all the time, to the egg yolks.  Continue until the egg yolks are brought up to temperature without cooking and whisk all together.  Chill the mixture.  When cold put into an ice cream maker and proceed as for any basic ice cream.  The ice cream can be served as is, or made into popsicles.

ELDERBERRY PIE.  “Table Talk”.  Aug. 1903.

Line a pie dish with paste, upon which sprinkle a scant tablespoonful of flour; to this add a half cupful of sugar and a half teaspoonful each of cloves and cinnamon, rubbing all together evenly.  Upon this pour the berries, a pint more or less according to the size of your pie dish; pour over another half cupful of sugar, dot generously with butter, adding last one large tablespoonful of good vinegar.  Apply top crust quickly and bake.

ELDERBERRY PIE.  “Good Housekeeping”.  1891.

For a large pie, allow three cupfuls of berries, two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice or vinegar, two tablespoonfuls of flour, three-fourths cupfuls of sugar, and spices to taste.  Bake in one crust with a latticework top.

ELDERBERRY SHRUB.  Pour one pint of weak vinegar over one quart of elderberries; let them stand for twenty-four hours.  Strain, and pour the juice over a second quart of berries.  Let them stand for twenty-four hours, strain again, add one cupful of sugar to each cupful of juice, boil it up, and can or bottle if wanted for future use.  [To use, combine with ice water and drink].

ELDERBERRY CATCHUP. 

Elderberry catchup is excellent with game or cold meats.  Boil one quart of the berries with two cupfuls of vinegar and one tablespoonful of pickling spices tied in a muslin bag, for twenty minutes.  Put through a press or sieve that will retain the seeds, add two cupfuls of brown sugar, and simmer for ten minutes before sealing.

ELDERBERRIES DRIED.  Berry, Mrs.  “Fruit Recipes”.

Sun-dry the berries as for strawberries.  In some parts of Europe peasants use these in soups through the winter.

ELDERBERRY DUMPLINGS.  “The Ohio Cultivator”.

Make the crust as usual and put in the berries as you would other fruit.  Boil them fast till the crust is done, then take them up and eat with a dip of white sugar and sour cream, and you will confess they are delicious.

ELDERBERRY SYRUP.  “The Every-Day Cook-Book”.  1889.

Take elderberries perfectly ripe, wash and strain them, put a pint of molasses to a pint of the juice, boil it twenty minutes, stirring constantly, when cold add to each quart a pint of French brandy; bottle and cork it tight.  It is an excellent remedy for a cough.

ELDER TOPS, TO PICKLE.  “Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery”.

About six inches of the tops of young elder sprouts, if cut at the right time—in the middle of April—will make a good pickle.  The sprouts should be first blanched in boiling water, then pickled in vinegar, adding salt and white pepper.  [Month when these shoots are at their prime will vary with locale].

Blissful Meals yall, cultivated or foraged, there are good things growing out there.  –  Thehistoricfoodie aka Vickie Brady.  Copyright©

See:  Rohde, Eleanour, “A Garden of Herbs”, 1922.  Berry, Mrs.  “Fruit Recipes”.  1903.

Queen Victoria’s Poultry Yard©

Tags

chickens, heritage chickens

“Her Majesty’s poultry-yard, at Windsor, is situated in a small pleasure-garden just opposite Frogmore, and being rather for the amusement of rearing fancy fowls and pigeons in the manner of an aviary, than for breeding them for the table, is only, at present, upon a moderate scale.  The hen-house is erected at the back of a high wall, and…is merely a simple, though fancifully-decorated cottage, displaying considerable taste in the architect.  Over the roof is a well-stocked hexagonal erection for pigeons of various race, which are so familiar as to perch upon the person of her Majesty, who feeds them from her hand; in the centre of the building is a small room of entrance, on each side of which are the several compartments for the poultry, with a yard divided into separate courts by wire fences, and no birds can have more snug retreats for depositing and sitting upon their eggs—the nests being tastefully formed of moss, giving them the appearance of bowers; the whole warmed by a heated flue running underneath, and communicating with each cote by gratings.

Here may be seen a curious collection of white Java Bantams, odd little birds, covered with a sort of hairy feather, but laying, it is said, the richest kind of egg; which, however, are not a little difficult to be got, for it seems that no sooner is one layed, [sic]than the whole tribe, even the hen herself, begin pecking at it until eaten up:  yet in this, we imagine, there must be some mistake, or it would be impossible to rear a brood from the parent hen.  There are also some of Sir John Sebright’s celebrated bantams, with their golden speckled feathers, and other small breeds of a rare description.  By way of contrast, there is an enormously large breed of Cochin China fowls, the cock, although very young, weighing upwards of ten pounds, and the hens very prolific of eggs of superior flavor; which, although white when layed, [sic] soon become afterwards speckled.

There are likewise various other sorts of fancy breeds—both fowls and pigeons, of a curious description—all under the care of a man especially qualified for such a charge, as perhaps there are few better acquainted with the habits of the feathered tribes.  He has evidently passed much of his time in the recesses of the woods and forests, trapping birds for sale, and examining their modes of life…

The shrubberies in the garden afford shade enough from the sun, but the fowls should also have shelter from the rain, by a verandah extending along the front from each side of the porch…

We understand it to be the intention of her Majesty to establish a large poultry-yard, for the supply of the royal table, in the breeding and fattening of all sorts of fowls—in the care of which her Majesty takes especial interest; nor can there be a doubt that the introduction of foreign breeds will thus—under the example of her gracious patronage—in the course of time, cause much improvement in the stock of our native species…”

The author went on to extol the virtues of exercise citing the royal couple as an example.  “Those residents of Windsor who are in the habit of taking an early morning walk, to enjoy ‘the cool, the fragrant, and the silent hour,’ in the splendid demesne, proudly crowned by its ancient castle, must have often seen two persons in plain attire, tripping lightly across that pleasant meadow called ‘Datchet Mead,’ in order to visit a farm at the extremity of the Home-park.  These persons are Her Majesty and Prince Albert, pursuing their way to the dairy and poultry-yard, and in their progress sporting with their infants…It is impossible to witness the unaffected enjoyment of the royal couple in this domestic excursion, unalloyed as it is by any restraint of official etiquette…”

Photo taken early 20th century

Murray, John.  “Farming for Ladies”.  1844.  London.

America’s Greatest Problem: We’ve been off the farm too long

Tags

American farmers, farming, self-sufficiency

This article is from Appalachian Magazine.  It carries a powerful message, one that every American should heed.

By AppalachianMagazine –

July 5, 2016

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This is an opinion article from Appalachian Magazine, written by Jeremy Farley:

This week, our nation celebrated its 240th birthday and though my heart fills with patriotic fervor each time I catch a glimpse of those red stripes flapping in the wind, I can’t help but have those feelings checked by the harsh understanding that America 2016 is a nation in dire trouble.

Far from being the land of the free and the home of the brave, we are now a nation of spineless weaklings ready to be offended at the drop of the hat and often it is the very ones who dropped the hat who are the most offended.

I do not pretend to be an expert on sociology or American history – everything I know I had to learn from my life’s experiences, mostly as a child on a +200-acre beef farm in nowhere Virginia.  The older I get, the more I have come to realize, however, that it was here that I received the type of education no Ivy League institution can come close to offering.  My only regret is that 200 million other American children never had the same opportunities I enjoyed – opportunities to bottle feed a baby calf, drive a truck through an empty field at the age of 5 (alone), spend summers sitting alongside my father inside the cab of a John Deere tractor, begin Christmas morning the same way I began everything other cold and windy winter morning – opening the gates for dad as he unrolled hay for hundreds of hungry animals.

In the year 1790, 90% of the American population were farmers.  By 1850, this percentage had dropped to 64%, and then down to only 21% by the year 1930.  Today, only 2% of the American population serves as farmers.

And though American agriculture is more productive than ever, I’m afraid that as a nation we are beginning to witness the consequences of having raised multiple generations who have never looped a metal chain through a gate or chased lightning bugs through a field of freshly mowed hay.

As a nation, we have allowed Disney to convince our children that all animals are cute and cuddly, then wonder why dozens of people get killed each year attempting to take selfies with grizzly bears, cougars and copperheads.

As a nation, we have replaced the garden hoe and watering bucket with an Xbox and cell phone, then wonder why our “children” refuse to move out at the age of 30.

As a nation, the vast majority of our families have never even came across an injured bird, let alone taken the time to nurse one back to health, then we wonder why a generation has been brought up to have no respect for nature or its Creator.

While our forebears were busy praying for rain, we have come to regard the water that falls from the sky as being a cursed object — unaware that it is the rain that keeps us fed each day… All sunshine and no rain makes a barren desert, but hardly anyone realizes this in 2016 America; which is why so many never find peace during their darkest days.

There was a time when Americans consumed bacon, sausage, biscuits, gravy, fried eggs and a big glass of milk each morning — and yet they rarely got fat.  Why? Because after eating such a hardy breakfast, they went out in the fields and spent the next thirteen hours fixing fences, hanging gates, delivering calves, killing, yes, killing predators, and harvesting food.

Farm work is dirty, tiring, sometimes cruel and always difficult; which is exactly why the percentage of Americans who engage in this work has declined with every generation.

Yet, it was this type of upbringing that allowed a nation to produce men and women who pulled together to fend off the forces of Hell in the Second World War, explore the heavens, eradicate disease and tap the ocean depths.

Sadly, those farm children are dying off the scene each day. They have been replaced by “men” who have never gotten dirt under their fingernails and purchase overpriced coffee as a status symbol.

I’m not so foolish to believe that all of our ills could be solved by a trip back to the farm, but I am confident that if a few more people had the type of upbringing I enjoyed, the world would have a lot more common sense!

“Men In Denim Built Our Country…Men In Suits Destroyed It.”

What to do With Loads of Summer Squash©

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summer squash

I have been blessed with an abundance of yellow squash this year and yet I hold my breath for fear insects will destroy my vines and my crop along with it.  I have sprayed the base of the plants to control squash bugs and once they were killed I began destroying any eggs I found to prevent a second hatch.

I am harvesting from one row of summer squash, but I have two more rows that should be producing by the time this row has played out.   I haven’t harvested any of the Pennsylvania Crookneck squash yet.  I’ve put several quarts in the freezer from which I will make squash casseroles, soup, and fritters, and since I want to get the most out of the fresh ones while they last, I took a quick peek at squash recipes from days gone by.

Having grown up in the South the first thing I think of is slices breaded in cornmeal and fried nice and golden brown, but for a change I discovered we really like them breaded in Jiffy cornbread mix.  An old method that is still excellent is to dust the slices with salt and pepper, dip them into beaten egg, and then into bread crumbs before frying.  Panko bread crumbs are a welcome change and the slices can be baked in a hot oven until the squash is tender and the crumbs brown for those who want to avoid the oil in frying.  There’s always squash sautéed in butter, with or without onions.

SUMMER SQUASH CUSTARD. 

2 lbs. summer squash

½ lb. well-flavored cheese

Pepper, ½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

¾ cupful of milk

Corn flakes or cracker crumbs

1 tablespoonful of butter

Boil the squash until tender, drain, put into a deep baking dish.  Add the cheese, reserving a little to go on top.  Add salt and pepper, the eggs which were beaten just enough to combine the white and yolk, and the milk.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.  Cover with crushed corn flakes or crackers and dot with butter.  Bake at 325 for 30 minutes or until the top is brown and the mixture firm.

[WINTER] SQUASH SOUFFLE.

2 cupfuls of hot, steamed squash

¼ cupful of butter

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 teaspoonful of salt

1/8 teaspoonful of pepper

1 ½ cupfuls of half milk and cream

2 beaten egg yolks

2 egg whites, beaten stiff

Force squash through a sieve, add the brown sugar, butter, salt, pepper, milk, cream, and egg yolks beaten.  Fold in the beaten egg whites and place in a buttered baking dish.  Bake at 350 until firm and lightly browned.

SQUASH CAKES.

Mix fine flour with half its bulk of stewed squash or pumpkin, and add milk enough to make a thick batter, about a cup of milk to each cup of squash.  Cook on a griddle.

[Winter] SQUASH PIES.

Pare, boil, and sift a good dry squash.  To one quart of the squash pour on two of boiling milk, and then stir in two cups of sugar, two spoonfuls of salt, one of cinnamon, one grated nutmeg [1/2 to 1 teaspoon], and five well-beaten eggs.  Line deep plates with plain paste, fill with the mixture, and bake one hour in a moderate [350] oven.  The pies look nice to boil a stick of cinnamon in the milk instead of using ground.

For those who find winter squash hard to cut and peel, this may be the recipe for you.

WINTER SQUASH.  The small Hubbard squash is best for baking.  Saw the squash in halves; scrape out the soft part and the seeds.  Put the halves in the oven, and bake about three-quarters of an hour, or until tender.  Serve in the shell.  Help out by spoonfuls.

WINTER SQUASH WITH ROAST MEAT.  Pare, and cut in long slices, about 1 ½ or 2 inches thick.  Cook in a dripping-pan with a roast.  Baste when the meat is basted.  It is nice baked in a pan by itself with meat drippings.

SQUASH CROQUETTES.  Mix a pt [pint] of mashed squash with ½ a cup of bread crumbs, a tablespoon of butter, salt and pepper to season.  Heat thoroughly, shape into croquettes, dip in egg and crumbs and fry in deep fat.

STUFFED SUMMER SQUASH.  Hollow out center of squash.  Fill with dressing made of bread crumbs, celery, boiled ham, onion, summer squash cut from centers.  Season with butter, celery, salt, cayenne, etc.

SQUASH SOUP.  To one quart of thoroughly cooked pumpkin or squash allow two quarts of milk, plenty of butter, pepper, and salt.  Serve with toasted bread.  [This soup can be improved upon by topping each bowl with a dollop of sour cream, grated cheese, and/or a bit of crumbled cooked bacon].

Blissful Meals, yall.  Enjoy those bumper crops while you can for soon we’ll be emptying those Mason jars and dipping into our freezer stash.  – Thehistoricfoodie©, aka, Vickie Brady.

Bibliography:

Callahan, Genevieve Anne.  “Sunset All-western Cook Book”.  1933.  “What to Eat, and How to Cook It”.  1874.  Parloa, Maria.  “Appledore Cook Book”.  1880.  Rorer, Sarah Tyson.  “Mrs. Rorer’s Philadelphia Cook Book”.  1886.  Owens, Frances.  “Mrs. Owens’ Cook Book.  1903.  “The Cook County Cook Book”.  1912.  “Twentieth Century Cook Book”.  1914.  “Vaughn’s Vegetable Cook Book”.  1898.