Well, yesterday's mention of the train whistle brought about a lot of memories from folks. I love reading everyone's memories. It always gets me to thinking. I ventured back in time again yesterday - thinking about mom and daddy. My fondest memories are in the kitchen and in the garden. Kitchen with mom and garden with dad. Being the youngest by 10 1/2 years, I was pretty much like an only child much of the week. So we spent a whole lot of time together and I learned a whole lot of things from them.
Mom cooked and baked and canned and froze. She made the best everything in my opinion. I make many of the same recipes and well - they just aren't the same. Glen used to even say that - "it's good, but it doesn't taste like your moms". LOL! I was good with that, because I agreed.
Mom decided she wanted a 'modern' kitchen when I was about 9. So, we got the wall oven and broiler a built-in stove a corner sink, new cabinets all around and an eat at bar. It was fancy for the times!!!! The 60's! The stove and oven was a fawn color - so it lasted the test of time. It was still a working kitchen when mom passed in 2001.
Years ago, Glen and I got to looking around to see if we could find a Chambers stove. IF you could find one, of course it was refurbished. The costs were in the thousands! We did find a rusty one in non-working order at a rehab shop here in town, and even that one was priced at over $1,000 dollars. Yep, it suddenly became chic again!
Boy the food that came out of that kitchen. The smells. The tastes. I miss that all so much.
Daddy was a gardener to beat all gardeners in my opinion. He did organic way before that was a 'big thing'. He believed in the natural ways. He started a gardening club in his later years and taught many people the ideals of natural gardening. He could grow HUGE and wonderful tasting anything. He grew what seemed like exotic items to me back in the day. There was salsify - which is also called the oyster plant (not a fan). He grew kohlrabi back then - I grew to like that. We had raspberries (6 - 90' rows), strawberries, cherries, peaches, apples and all kinds of veggies and melons. He grew luffas - which was neat back then. Daddy passed in 1984, and I still have many of his luffas. I had dozens of them and over the years have gifted them to family - and yes, I still use mine.
To this day I love walking barefoot in the dirt, because when I was little, I would walk behind daddy as he plowed the garden (I was always barefoot), and the feel of the soil was incredible to me.
For some reason this picture reminds me of daddy in the garden. He walks always singing and whistling while he worked, and he loved his garden. Other than meat and grains, we pretty much grew everything we ate. Before me, there were chickens and goats (my brother had to have goats' milk when little). Later on we got eggs from a neighbor.
Daddy was always in his bibbers and his cowboy hat while working. No shirt, just bibbers!
It was always an afternoon treat, to walk out with daddy and pick a tomato and sit under the shade tree and eat them - with salt! There was always a saltshaker at hand!!!
I lost most of my old pictures when my last computer died (the ones I had on computer). Just yesterday I came across the zip drive that has most of them on it. I will soon have all those oldies back at hand. I will share some garden/daddy pics at some point.
Oh what great memories. I know not everyone is as old as I am, so things will be different. Some of you remember these kinds of things. I also know not everyone had good memories growing up - that makes me so sad. I wish I could take you by the hand and walk with you back to my house growing up. You would have enjoyed it. Well, I guess I just kind of did - huh?
Have a wonderful and blessed day - and go out and make a memory with someone today. One they will talk about when they get old and gray!
SMILE
Fabulous post! Looking forward to seeing the pictures of your dad. I love hearing about good family life. My growing up years were stressful and if it weren't for my mother, they would have been intolerable.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I love talking about my growing up years. Maybe, this brings a little joy to you and those that didn't experience it.
DeleteThank you, Cheryl. Up before 4 this morning, I was waiting for your post today (hope that doesn't sound weird) because it's always such a positive way to start the day. I appreciate that more than you know. And I appreciate the walk with you back to your house growing up.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those with... well... issues during my early growing up years. In spite of an alcoholic, abusive natural father, though, I do have many GOOD memories. Most of them away from home. At my grandparents' house, for example. The summer my cousin and I helped the old farm couple harvest. Crabbing off the pier. Picking blackberries along the woods. Popping sweet cherry tomatoes into my mouth at the neighbor's house. Even (yes) my Catholic school days. One nun, Sister Elizabeth Anne, suspected trouble at home and took me under wing. She'd have me join her for lunch in the convent, had me help her water houseplants there, and showed me how to make cuttings that I then brought home to my bedroom. I still remember how the sun came through the lace curtains of the convent kitchen window and feeling like I was in a secret, holy place. Safe and secure. The farmer's house was a lot like that, too.
Several years ago, by happenstance, I was able to talk to Sister Elizabeth Anne on the phone. She was about to retire. After all those years and all the students she had, she still remembered me well. I was able to thank her. We never quite know the impact we have. Like you, Cheryl. I mean that. Sincerely. --Elise
I am glad you look forward to posts - that makes me feel good.
DeleteSorry home wasn't better, but it sounds like you had some great adults to show you the way. Sister sounds like a pretty neat lady. You probably provided her the 'child' aspect that we would never have as well. How neat that you got to talk to her and tell her. That is special. To remember, you must have been special in her life as well.
Elise, I know how those special people like Sister are. Father Laurence Connelly was extremely special to me,in his obit it tells how he touched so many children, and was the minister at David the Bubble Boy's funeral, he also was with the NASA space crew before a mission, just a real intuitive, tuned into the Holy Spirit precious man, from a wealthy family forsaking that for a life dedicated to God. He resembled Robert Kennedy back then. My husband when a young boy had a young woman, teacher very kind to him, also the Sister who was the principle at his Catholic school. My husband's family moved from a poor area to an affluent area, his parents had moved from atop their grocery store and found a great deal in this 'nice' area....But the rich children made fun of the way he talked and other things. So much I could write here on childhoods...
DeleteI love the way you describe those lace curtains and the safety you felt, what a wonderful Sister, it's so great that you were able to speak with her Elise!
I too awake between 4 and 5 many times..Jesus and Coffee. : ) Maybe I'll think of more later. You have left a most poignant comment Elise. God be with you, sad things from our past make us better people, able to reach out easily to others and emphathize.
(((((hugs))))) ~Amelia
Thank you, Amelia. I've said for years that the best fertilizer for roses is horse manure and if not for the threat to its life, a mollusk couldn't make a pearl. If God can make beautiful fragrant roses from something so stinky, and a glowing pearl from a life threatening irritant, imagine what He can do in our lives!
DeleteI love that you and your husband have good memories of your Catholic pasts. So many don't. It was an unexpected gift to talk to Sister Elizabeth Anne just as she was getting ready to retire. A gift for both of us, perhaps.
Raising my coffee mug towards the east and wishing you a good morning at 5:27 MT. --Elise
Good morning Elise! Cheers!
DeleteYes, beautifully put Elise. Many of us in different ways even are like tiffany glass lamps, broken but put together beautifully and shining that Light to others.
Have a sweet day Elise! ~Amelia
When I look back at my childhood memories of home, what strikes me most is how everything seemed to work without anyone being worried. The garden grew, food was prepared, laundry was done, the house was warm in winter... if there were fears and issues I certainly didn't know about them. Like you, Cheryl, I was very much the youngest - my brothers were teens when I was born. So perhaps the kinks had been worked out before I was in the picture?
ReplyDeleteI can't help but wonder how my kids remember their homelife... did it seem like everything magically worked? Were there struggles and fears that they were aware of? Perhaps the fact that there was no TV when I was growing up - shoot, I didn't even know anyone who had such a thing - and we were careful about radio listening (I remember The Lone Ranger!) so the news wasn't always filling our ears and minds with worries & fears. I tried to maintain that for my kids: we lived locally in the present, not internationally in the (catastrophic) future.
What a wonderful thing, to find your old zip drive. That should indeed be a source for many wonderful blog posts. :) My daddy loved gardening also, but he hadn't much space. Mom had to have her little rose garden too!
MaryB
My eldest brother always said, I got away with so much more than they did - I told him, our parents learned what to resist and what to leave alone with the others!
DeleteWhat a neat way to describe it. You really kind of nailed it. Like you I had no idea of problems or struggles - just life!
I love the sentence "we lived locally in the present, not intentionally in the (catastrophic future). TRUTH. Need to do more of that today! If the worst happens next week - odds are we won't be around to see the aftermath anyway - so why worry??
Thanks!!!
Great post, again, Cheryl. I have many of my mom's recipes...and even following them , they do not taste to me like hers did. Either ingredients now have been modified, or my old (76) taste-buds are out of whack!
ReplyDeleteI, too, love the sounds of a train...there are none in SW Florida where I live. Where I grew up and even at college, trains were nearby and soothing to me.
Thanks. It could be we are missing the main key ingredient as well - MOM's love!!!!!!! I like to think that is it!!!
DeleteI guess taste buds change too - but I still think it has to do with mom making it.
We had a Chambers, too! Did yours have the well where you put the pot down in much like today's slow cooker? My Mom made baked beans in there and they were so good after all those hours of cooking.
ReplyDeleteYES - the deep well. Mom made soup beans in it. I am sure there was more, but that is my best memory. The best old stoves ever. Glen always joked if we ever found one, we would have to reinforce the floors to hold it!!!!
DeleteI'm pretty sure you are right about the floors! My Dad always called it 'the old Chambers'. We lived in his childhood home and it had always been there.
DeleteThat is wonderful that you found the zip drive with all the old photos. I have an external hard drive that I back up my laptop to regularly, but I also back up the photo folders on the same hard drive. Thankfully I did that as when my last computer died, the last back-up couldn't be opened because the system didn't recognize me as the administrator. I'm sure some tech whiz could open it - I'm not great with computers.
ReplyDeleteMy mom was the gardener and continued to garden up until she died. Like your mom, she canned, pickled and froze as much as she could. Even though she had some raspberries, we always picked at the neighbour's too). Another neighbour had crap apple trees that we picked. We also went picking blueberries, chokecherries, and had a plum tree in the yard. Mom didn't grow anything I'd call exotic, but we had potatoes, corn, carrots, peas, beans, cabbage, onions, and turnips. I recall the gunny sacks of potatoes in the cellar that lasted all winter long, even providing the seed potatoes for the next years crop. I remember going down to the cellar to grab something for mom, and the array of jars on the shelves were so pretty and I can still imagine the earthen smell from the potato sacks . I now know there was a lot of work that went into it, but as a kid I tended to take it all for granted.
Dad was a farmer, grain crops only, and spend his days in the fields or fixing machinery, maintaining the buildings and the like. Mom hated when he went to the garden to "weed". He couldn't seem to tell the difference between a weed and a vegetable. But he insisted on keeping the area between the rows need and tidy.
I am thrilled I found it - I am no computer whiz either - at all!
DeleteOh, I bet that cellar was something. I would have loved to have that smell. Mom put most goods on shelves under our stairs in the house. Isn't it funny how we just knew that all the food was there and would be good, never thinking about the work. Our poor moms!
I can almost hear your mom now - about your dad weeding!!!! Glen was bad about that. He would go mow mom's yard and we would show him flowers NOT to cut, yet somehow he still did.
Funny!
I say we were the original organic gardeners. Growing up, if we didn't grow it, pick it or kill it, we didn't eat. I often think of how hard my mom worked to preserve food for the family of 5. I canned a measly 6 qts of beans the other day. I think of the boilers full of beans & peas my mom used to put up. I've never mastered my mom's brown sugar icing, mine never turning out as smooth as hers. I loved that icing on chocolate cake. Your old stove reminds me of the AGA stove.
ReplyDeleteThat is the truth. You had to make sure that food was there - it wasn't just a matter of going to the store and spending money. Some folks lived out - and that wasn't much of an option. We only bought what was necessary. Yes mam, they sure worked their tails off, so we could eat. Amazing to think about.
DeleteCheryl, I hear so many similar memories here in Kansas. They mostly sound nice lol. Not the part about plucking stinky chickens lol. As a city girl, I was around flower gardens. And lemon trees. The best memories were with my grands. Calm. Predictable. My grandma never canned that I remember. She made red enchilada sauce from dried red Chiles. She froze containers of that. Pinto beans were made in the pressure cooker twice a week and flour tortillas every morning before dawn. I would sit and watch her on a counter stool and marvel that she could flip them without burning her fingers. No tools.
ReplyDeleteMy grandpa was always wearing a pair of coveralls and working in the garage or yard. He grew the most beautiful flowers from roses to calla lilies. I'd often sit on his garage stool and watch him get all greasy with machine/car parts. I don't think there was anything that his generation couldn't fix lol.
Back to school time is my New Year. It's hard to pick an official date though. Kansas schools start pretty soon, in August. For us in Cali, this was the second full month of vacation and school didn't start until after Labor day. However, I guess that "when in Rome..." Will have me wrapping up my Summer Nancy Drews. I'll have to find out the exact school start in our town and use that to go back to normal.
I've sure enjoyed my ND mysteries!! Nice break from my normal material.
My por mom always talked about the times she had to kill and pluck a couple chickens cause dad was gone. They sold them to neighbors as well. I can't imagine her doing it- she was such a meek little lady - but she did. No thanks for me either.
DeleteYour grandma sounds like she made some wonderful homemade goodies. Was she Hispanic? I have a friend that is, and to watch her make tortillas is fascinating - like you said no tools!
They could fix anything - cause they had to!
school has started here. I always went back after Labor Day as well. Summer isn't over for me until the leaves start to change!
The chicken stories my quilting buddies used to tell me made me shudder. Nobody in my family cooked chicken so my only contact with it was at KFC about once a year or less. I had my first taste of home fried chicken on my 30th birthday!! My best friend made it. A bunch of us were going to a Disney songfest at the Hollywood Bowl. It's traditional to take your own picnic. I had no idea that chicken could taste that good!!!
DeleteYup, I'm Hispanic. I grew up on Santa Fe style cooking. Mostly pork. That's why I didn't try so many types of food until I was older. Pizza at 18. Lasagna and Kraft Mac and cheese at the dorm in college. I didn't have Chinese food until I was past 30!
I'm not an adventurous eater at all.
Wow, I cannot believe you had those different types of food so much later in life. Well, I believe you - it is just amazing. I grew up on homemade fried chicken and was a teenager before I got KFC. Pizza was early teens with a friends family - we didn't have it. Chinese I could still do without.
DeleteI love Santa Fe style cooking - one of my favorites. I never had it growing up - but it sure has become a favorite today.
Pretty cool story.
Today is my baby's 41st birthday and one of my absolutely favorite memories of her is when we'd visit my grandparents small farm. They'd sold off most of their acreage when I was young, but kept 10 or so acres and planted a large garden on one corner, just enough for their consumption and to provide for their family. My daughter was a city girl and just loved to go out into the garden with her great grandpa. He'd show her all about the plants and when they were producing she'd stand out there with him and pick green beans, limas, cherry tomatoes and pickle cucumbers and eat them right there in the field. Then she'd help him pick some to bring back to the house for us to take home for dinner. He'd hoist her up to pick fruit in the trees, and show her how to stand on a limb, hold on, and pick fruit to hand down to him, or to put in a basket he'd rigged up over a branch for her to fill. She'd even gotten to the point where she wanted bib overalls to wear to the farm, just like grandpa had. Oh those memories bring tears.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to your baby!!!! What wonderful memories for you and her. It sounds like the farm was a neat place to go. Grandpa sounds like a gem. What fun that had to be for her. The fact that she wanted her bibbers too - shows how much she loved grandpa! wow, to know one's great grandparent is astounding to me - I don't even remember but one of my grandparents. How cool.
DeleteMom and Daddy always had a big garden, at least until us kids were all grown and moved out. Mom canned tomatoes, green beans, pickles and beet pickles. She froze the corn and peas. I had allergies really bad, so they didn't let me in the garden to work, but I shelled peas, snapped peas, bagged corn (and ate a lot in the process), and cut corn off the cob when I got older. I can't remember where we got our meat, but eggs came from a local farm. I was always happy to ride along to pick up eggs and visit with Mary and watch the machine in her basement that separated the eggs by size. My mom had a gas stove and switched to electric later. My grandma had a wood cookstove, and I can't fathom cooking on one. She sure made a lot of good food. I do remember taking a long-handled fork, putting on a piece of bread, removing one of the covers, and toasting the bread directly over the wood. The toast was then slathered with homemade butter and Grandma's apple butter. Yum! I make a pretty good apple butter, but, no, not quite like Grandma's. Mom was an excellent cook, too, and my siblings and I agree that we can't make anything that tastes as good as Mom's!
ReplyDeleteOh, sitting on the porch and snapping beans - fun times. Sounds like your parents had to do what mine did - provide!
DeleteThose old wood stoves were sure cool. I can't imagine cooking on one either - but they did make good food! My ex's grandparents had one in the kitchen and she made everything on/in that stove. Best biscuits! There were so many ingenious ways to do things back in the day.
Gosh, my mouth is watering now talking about the butter and apple butter. Mmmmm.
It was the mom touch - I do believe. We can do good - but not mom good!!!!! LOL
What a sweet post today, Cheryl. Enjoyed sharing all the trips down memory lane. I suppose I became the mother/ grandmother that you all remember because I was from the hippie generation and was always earth conscious. I always want my kids and grandkids to have happy experiences and home made food when they visit. My granddaughter came a long way to visit last week and we gathered the ingredients in the garden to make pesto. She brought canola oil and Kraft parmesan cheese from the U.S. for me. So cheap there! I had dried herbs and pickles to send along with her. My mother had dreams of farming but poor health limited her ability. She was a good seamstress and sewed my dresses one year. Too many children; too short a life.
ReplyDeleteWhen I moved to the country in 1989 we bought a new woodstove. It heats our home, boils our water, cooks our food. There is a lot of work involved in putting up firewood for the winter though. It burns 24 hours a day from fall to spring, except for the one day a month when we clean the pipes and stove of soot.
We can make our lives what we want them to be. Cook, sew, grow, preserve. Waste nothing and appreciate everything.
Rita not being nosey but where do you live? Just curious.
DeleteNothing wrong with being from the hippie generation. I am of that age!
How cool for your children and grands that you make all the goodies fresh. You still use a wood stove - that is impressive. Such a natural life, I love that. Do you cook with it in the summer as well, or do you have another source? I am full of questions!!!!!!
I think your life sounds wonderful - harder work than most - but wonderful.
Yes mam, we can make it anything we want.
Thanks for sharing.
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DeleteThanks for answering. wow - how neat. Sounds like a lot of work, but also a very cool adventure. Glad to hear there is electricity though. I remember when mom & dad heated the house with a big old heat stove that was in the dining room. We had a toilet and sink - but no bathtub at that time. The big old wash tub would set next to the stove in winter so I could take a bath, and next to the backdoor in the summer.
DeleteNo wonder mom had a bad back.
Water from the lake - wow. Shopping once a month. You have this all figured out. Just a cool adventure for sure.
You are just a young spring chicken. I'm 75 and what I recall best was the freedom we kids had to run around the neighborhood and the fields and never had to worry our parents. They figured we'd be all right and we'd come home before dark and just walk in, no locks on anything.
ReplyDeleteNot far behind you. I will be 69 this fall. I remember those things too. Just as long as you were home before dark. No one locked their doors back then. It sure seemed like a much simpler time - well it was. I guess there were still crazies out there - but we sure didn't know it. Mom & dad listened to the radio for any news. I think the only time I remember seeing "news" on TV was when JFK was killed. We rarely watched that old b&w tube.
DeleteWe did not have a large garden, but we did have one. I was thinking the other day about being little in Jackson, MS. I remember a particular time when Mama told us to get our shoes on because we were going into town. I begged and begged not to put on my shoes. I promised not to get out. She was so annoyed. I understood why when I told my children to put their shoes on. I loved going barefoot outdoors and indoors. Still do. Oh, I think I am older than you.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful post Cheryl, so many great memories to recall. Thanks for reigniting them. Louise
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this post and the comments.
ReplyDelete~margaret
That is a cute story. I still love going without shoes - very seldom wear them.
DeleteThanks Margaret and Louise!!!!
Cheryl, We had the same *exact* Chambers oven and stove!!!!!!! We received it when my mom moved closer in to our area and we used it in the burbs, our last home there. I used it on the inside back porch-sun room and set pretties and plants on it. We finally sold it on ebay to a lady I think in Arkansas? I sure hated to do that, oh how I hated that but I had no room for it here...I do think the lady who bought it appreciated it very much. I remember having to light the burners and oven before using it to cook or bake when I was young. You mention fawn color? My grandma had a brown refrigerator and oven, I have fond memories of that color.
ReplyDeleteI need to try those corn cakes, oh those sound so good!
I too walked barefoot many days, loved it back then, sometimes my feet would be caked with dirt on the bottoms, haha!
My Italian grandpa had a wonderful garden, he loved it and said it was his church.
Well, today I made memories, at least with Grace our youngest daughter. Our poor little Missy, our blind white poodle we rescued from the road last winter, suddenly yesterday at 5pm started yelping and barking and spinning in circles. Called the youngish vet, he said to give her Benadryl and I had Gaberpentin on hand...so he said give her that too. He says bring her in the morning. All night Missy cried off and on. Broke our hearts, I got up with her for a while around 3am. This morning hubs and I bring her. Then they tell us the vet has various surgeries and to leave her. Ok...But we don't live down the street exactly, hubs had to go into oldtown for work. Vet calls me later on the phone and said they ran blood panel on her, (I did not ask for blood panel) btw, it's not needed to see an ear infection. He had already said she had infections in both ears and he politely told me on the phone to not wait so long next time. : O I didn't wait long, it just happened the night before! I was stunned. I had called him immediately the evening before. Poor Missy, Grace and I picked her up at time they requested and still didn't see the whites of the vets eyes. So, I paid for a very expensive blood panel that was not needed etc. (I'll spare any more minutia) I felt so letdown, when I tried to tell the vet tech about Coffee, she said, "Oh I'm so sorry" and then turned the dial quickly to tell me about the pills for Missy. When we got back in the car, Grace who is having similar problems with the orthodontist (same kind of thing) just looked at me and said...What is going on with all of these people? Hubs agrees, these new and some old professionals are not in tune with real people or feelings at all. Hubs is so different than that, he's a George Bailey type when it comes to business.
I had a nice day with Grace but a bit disgusted and feeling let down. Our vet bill today was sky high and I never saw the vet, Missy did but not I. I guess I had thought so much of this vet and am very surprised and disappointed. It makes me want to go back to the further away strip center vet clinic with the duct taped armchair in oldtown now that the negligent young vet there left, they have a new group of vets there, and very low in cost but the wait used to be horrific.
I know you understand Cheryl on these things.
Loved reading about your growing up, so very nice. : )
Hugs to you and I need a hug this evening too! lol ~Amelia
I think you would like the corn cakes!
Deletewhat a day for you and your baby. I don't understand people any more. There is just no 'bed side' service and people are so cold and indifferent. It angers me. There is no excuse for that kind of service. I guess people today think they can act any way they wish and still continue to get people's money.
Shameful. I hope your baby is doing better and you as well.
I do believe I would go back to the other place as well.
Hope your day got better.
Thank you so very much Cheryl, I'm so thankful you are normal on these things and understand these shameful situations! ...It's just unbelievable, we've always paid our bill on spot with no issue, here I am with a little dog we rescued, we let them do the spay. I just don't get the lack of appreciation for loyal customers. If you could see my bill you would come unglued. I'm feeling worse about it today then I did yesterday so that validates my concerns even more.
DeleteThank you so much for your common sense understanding on these things. Yes, unless it's an emergency I think we are ready to go back to oldtown 40 minutes away and wait for 30 minutes to see a vet especially since they have a new stock of vets over there since our beloved vet retired a couple of years ago. (So sad we don't have him!) Dr. Hester where are you???
Thanks for everything Cheryl, so nice to have a precious listening ear. I wonder if others here have also experienced these behaviors as of late with so called 'professionals'.
Big hugs coming your way, ~Amelia
Memories are so very precious, and you have so many to hold close to your heart.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I do. I am blessed for sure. I just love sharing them with others.
DeleteMy Dad was also a very keen gardener who used to whistle while he worked. We had a large garden with a greenhouse and two apple trees. My Nan lived with us and she used to make marmalade, blackberry and apple jelly and apple chutney which used to last a whole year. Mum used to preserve green beans between layers of 'loaf' salt. She made wonderful cakes, pies and puddings. Because we were always roaming round the lanes and fields, riding our bikes or walking we were naturally thin children who used to go out and play, not spend time playing computer games or texting friends like kids today.
ReplyDeleteYou brought back happy memories with your post today, thanks x
I am glad it brought back memories for you. My goodness, yes - playing outdoors and using our imaginations - that is what we all did! No couch potatoes here!
DeleteIt sounds like you were surrounded with lovely people and yummy and creative goodies. Interested in preserving green beans between layers of loaf salt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! never heard of that!
Such a beautiful post! I enjoyed every minute of it and could relate to some of it. I don't remember what kind of stove we had when I was little because we lived in a small apartment and I my mother worked full time outside the house. When I was 10 was about the first time I have memories of our kitchen and cooking with my mom. We didn't have a vegetable garden, but we lived in NJ in farm country and had lots of local farm produce from May through October. I remember the peaches, the blueberries, the peppers, zucchini, the corn, and the apples - all fresh and often with worms in the 1960's - which was probably a good thing because they too were grown without chemicals. When we moved to our house, my dad loved to garden and grew beautiful flowers: 20 rose bushes, lots of pansies, and beautiful hydrangeas. It is fun to look back on good times. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!
DeleteOh the dangers of grabbing something and taking a bite - the worm! I can remember doing that with apples - bleh!!!
But yes - no chemicals. We were raised on natural stuff. No chemicals or hormones back then - how nice. People today have no clue.
I bet those flower gardens were gorgeous!
Thanks
Oh Cheryl, I love these kind of posts. You brought back so many good memories as I read your words. We need to keep sharing those "old ways" so we can remember the people in our lives who worked so hard. They were great examples to us.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I often wonder if it bores people - but I guess many like to think back and remember. It sure beats a lot of the stuff going on in todays society.
DeleteI love that that picture reminds you of your father. That's cool. I love cooking the way my grandma did. Learned so much from both of them and also my mom. What I love the most is when I leave my kitchen, come back and it smells like Mamam's (grandma's), kitchen.
ReplyDeleteNow that means you have accomplished what you set out to do. Cook like Mamam!
Delete