Most of you know I love barns. Maybe it is because I spent so many happy hours in the barn when I was a child. It was one of my favorite places to play...going to the barn to milk the cow, feed the pigs, and feed the cows in general was never a chore for me. And even though that has been over 30 years ago, the smell of cow or horse barn is a pleasant smell to me that takes me instantly back to my childhood.
We were dirt poor in so many ways. We raised almost all the food we ate...we raised and butchered four hogs every year, we almost always had a cow or two that we milked, and raised all our vegetables. And we picked wild blackberries, as well as there was a couple old apple trees that my mom gathered apples from to make jelly with. To this day my favorite job on earth is to pick blackberries. Why I don't know...as a kid I always ended up with bunches of chiggers...if you have never had them you haven't missed anything other than misery!
My mom filled every jar she had and also had a deep freezer that was always stuffed to the brim with food we raised. And there would be guys bring truckloads of peaches up from Georgia and drive along the roads and stop and ask if you wanted to buy peaches...my mom always bought a couple bushels and we would freeze and can them. It is so refreshing to come in from hoeing the garden and to have peaches that are just beginning to thaw--that are still in that crystallized state. I am getting hungry just thinking about them.
We had cornbread almost every day of our life, and my mom made biscuits every morning too...there were a few times when she got bronchitis that she didn't get up and make biscuits but I bet that was not five times a year. And her biscuits were unlike anybody's I have ever seen. But oh, so yummy good! When grand kids were home, I have seen them have her make them a pan of biscuits after breakfast and they would eat every one of them.
She didn't measure anything, just mixed them up by feel. And she didn't roll them out and cut with a cookie cutter, she just pinched off a little bit of the dough, and worked it between her hands, and placed in the pan. And every one was the same size! I do not know how to explain what they were like...but I would give anything to have a pan of them right now!
Another thing I never hear of any where up here is shucked beans...or do not even hear them called dried beans. We always took green beans and snapped the ends off them, and if need be we took the 'strings' off--I wonder if anyone that is reading this knows what I mean? Anyway, then we would have just use regular string/or crocheting thread and a big needle and would run the beans on the strings and hang them to dry. And everyone called them shucked beans down there...they had a sort of strong flavor, but I really liked them. I think I have a picture somewhere of some...I will hunt for it after while and scan it in...
Enough reminiscing for now...
************
This is a repeat post. From December, 2007, thought I did substitute a photo. I hope you don't mind and maybe even find a little enjoyment in reading it.
Lovely memories! I enjoyed your reminisces.
ReplyDeleteThat is a postcard perfect picture. Back in the day ya never wanted for anything. No matter how little you had, you always seemed to have it all. Great memories.
ReplyDeleteOh what a fun post! I liked your walk down Memory Lane!!
ReplyDeletei could have wrriten this, my life was exactly like this. 3 differences. we did not have a freezer until i was 16, no animals, and no shucked beans. but we did can every thing and i would love those icy peaches right now. i used to pour carnation milk on mine. and i wish i had a pan of those biscuits and home made apple jelly
ReplyDeleteI also remember my grandmother's wonderful cloverleaf rolls and would give anything to taste them again, I can still smell them. And boy oh boy I would sure love to try one of your mom's fabulous biscuits! When I buy fresh green beans, I used to snap off the ends, now I just line up bunches and cut off the ends, much quicker that way.
ReplyDeleteSuch lovely memories, I enjoyed reading about them, thank you. Also loved the barn photo.
ReplyDeleteWell I wasn't around when you posted this before, and I thoroughly enjoyed every word! I felt like I was there watching your momma cooking! You were poor? No, darling, you were very rich indeed. To have a mom that spent so much time preparing food for you...and it was so good you crave it to this day! I would say you had everything you needed! :)
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading this post about your memories.
ReplyDeleteWe never called it shucking, but did the same thing with fresh beans from the garden.
I enjoyed your conversation into the past. Mainly because many of the things you mentioned with also in my early life. Neat post!
ReplyDeleteMany of your memories are mine also. I loved playing in the barn and I've told my hubby that I love the smell of old barns. He just gives me the look, but you know what I mean, don't you? I also remember all the canning, the biscuits, all the cooking/baking my mother did without using a recipe. We also raised our own meat, had chickens and milked a cow. Yes, we even had a blackberry patch! Oh, the memories....thanks, Rose!
ReplyDeleteI love that your mom made cornbread and biscuits daily.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if my kids will be telling others someday about how they never would eat store bought bread, only their mama's?
Loved this post. Glad you repeated it.
My first time reading this post so it is new to me....I grew up on biscuits every morning and corn bread , fried potatoes with a pot of beans always simmering on the stove.My kids did not have this luxury because I did not learn to cook till i get married and hew was a northern meat and potato guy.I enjoy reading about your past....
ReplyDeleteIt's a great story, Rose. You have a way with words that makes one picture what you are saying. Your Mother was a wonder. I do remember stringing beans. Have a big bowl and sit on the porch or the kitchen table. Couldn't eat them otherwise--tough ol strings. I do not like beans to this day but I do love wild blackberries. We have an abundance out this way.
ReplyDeleteI love your memories. MB
I love your memories, Rose. I'm currently reading a book called "Wish you Well by David Baldacci" that's about city kids in 1940 who go to live with their great-grandma in the mountains of Virginia. 1940 is a bit further back than you and I remember ;)) but life there sounds a bit like your childhood. Have you read it?
ReplyDeleteThat is not being poor, Rose. That is the richest, healthiest kind of life. I feel so sorry for people nowadays who have never tasted fresh farm produce. I, too, love barns. All I have to do is smell the pine shavings that my horse was bedded in, and my memories go flying. And yes, I remember sitting with a big bowl in my lap, stringing those beans. Good stuff!
ReplyDelete