Wonder how they did it all back then?
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April 25, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Hmm! I have spent my entire two days canning homemade Chili and Bean with Bacon Soup. Thank goodness Andy is around for tightening my lids for that is hard to do without his help! Started very early this morning and just finished about an hour ago. Getting 8 Quarts of Chili yesterday and 14 Pints of Bean with Bacon Soup today.
My Spring and Summer projects this year are to try and get 365 jars canned of different kinds of foods. Jellies, Jams, Pickles, Soups, Veggies. Whatever I can make that we like eating!
After working so hard today doing all this canning. I sit back and say to myself.. “How In The World Did They Do It In The 1800’s? Gosh! They had no electric washing machines, no electric stoves, somehow had time to crochet, knit and make quilts. Had time to sew their clothing which was far more beautiful back then than what they have today. Made their own breads, farmed manually! Raised the babies, nilked the cows, defeathered the chickens. You name it and I can’t figure out how in the world they did all these chores back then when I did what I did today and am all tuckered out just doing 14 jars today!
And back then they had to preserve their foods for the coming winter and prepared foods all summer long. Maybe they did things seasonal. Like sewed and crocheted in the winter while during the summer preserved foods.
I don’t know! Very curious though as to how they did it all back then. For trying to do it today is almost impossible!
They had to have had some kind of routine that made it easier to do back then. If any of you know that would be great hearing about! I guess each day was a work day back then. Sun up to sun down. With me! It’s now sun down! I’m beat! -
April 27, 2009 at 10:19 am
We have a local radio station that does a phone-in talk show 1/2 hour each day. A weekly topic is “ask grandma”. Grandma tells how they did all these things (she is in her 80’s) back then, other Grandmas phone in to tell their own stories, and still other listeners phone in to ask these Grandma’s for advise on just how to accomplish these chores. With the economic woes of today they are getting a lot of questions.
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April 27, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I found an antique book on Ebay last night called Science of Home and Community. I bought a bunch of antique books a while back ago and might try to start reading up on things. Would be interesting to know how they managed. Yep! This economy is the main reason I am canning again. Plus it saves on aluminumcans being trashed in our landfills. Trying to save on some Carbon footprints. So to speak! Me and my husband are slowly converting to green. The more the merrier! This year we plan on spending about $5000.00 on 3 of our rooms. Ripping down some drywall and spraying foam insulation in those 3 rooms. Then next year we are going to try and do 3 more rooms until our entire house is green.
Not cheap gping green too! The supplies are expensive as heck but well worth it in the future! -
April 29, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Hey Linda ~ if you want to go “really green”, for your insulation, use blue jean insulation. I have read in several places (one being Mother Earth News) that it’s excellent.
Also, when it comes to canning, we do many kinds of fruit. My husband’s sister and husband come for a visit and we set up an “out door kitchen”. The only thing we do inside is sterilzing the jars in the dishwasher. We do this twice near the end of the summer. Even tho it takes a full day, we have a blast! My husband’s 91 year old Mother helped one day and she loved being “useful” (her words 🙂 ) We do cherries and applesauce by our selves. We did over 400 pints of fruit as we “gift” our children/grandchildren for Christmas 😀 They are thrilled ’cause we do all of the work ~ ha! and it tastes great 🙂
Your local County Extension Office should have all the info you need. This will be my first year for vegies. I am going to do pickled yellow wax beans, pickled beets. My Grandmother did them every year and I hope that I can do justice to the memories!!
Good luck in your big adventure 😀
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April 30, 2009 at 7:18 am
Wow that is alot of fruit! But at least you have the help to do it with. Me being alone I just can’t do that much fruit. But this summer I am going to try my best to get a good stock pile of jellies and fruits.
Tomorrow I am going to can Amish Chicken Noodle Soup. That will be an all day cooking job but well worth it when it gets done. Hope to get at least 20 pints. My goal for May is to get 100 jars of food canned. So far I am at 51.
July and August will be my most busiest months. End of June I will be canning Blackberry Jellies. August is where I get stuck with Fig Preserves. And I hope my mom’s grape vine does okay this year. Would like to can some grape jelly.
In my garden I am growing fresh carrots, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers and garden peas. Brussel sprouts, Okra and Broccoli. I freeze my broccoli and brussel sprouts and okra. The other stuff I can. I also freeze my tomatoes too and use them for homemade soups.
I love fresh vegetables. We have a peach orchard close by and this year I am getting Andy to take me there so I can can a bunch of peaches. I want a bushel of them. He loves canned peaches. Up the road from me a man sell pears and I plan on buying pears from him and canning those.
I just love making fresh food for the winter. It takes better and is much healthier! Only thing that bothers me is watching my can and making sure they don’t spoil. I had one batch last year spoil and all that hard work was gone!
Have a great day! Ohh! We checked into the recycled jeans and plan on doing our ceiling with that in the future. But really want the soybased foam in our walls giving it a tight fit keeping cold air out. Going to do one room at a time. That stuff is not cheap though. Very expensive! Hugs
Linda H
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