Puttin' By

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about winter foods.  On New Year’s we ate hog jowl and black-eyed peas.  Then a bunch of readers mentioned you always eat cabbage too, so last week we talked about that delicious vegetable.  Well those articles got me to thinking about all the work mountain folks usually do in the summertime to prepare for the cold winter months when nothing much is growing.  Really, I have realized anew that “an idle soul shall suffer hunger” (Proverbs 19:15b).

As I write this article, I have a meatloaf ready to go in the oven for tonight’s supper, the potatoes are peeled and I’ll open a Mason jar of green beans to round out a fine wintertime meal.  Of course, all of that is food you might’ve found on my grandmother’s table – as far back as her earliest years of marriage.  We’ve discussed before that she taught me to cook and I find more and more that I cook just like her!  But yesterday we had breaded chicken nuggets – a decidedly modern and convenient food – and earlier in the week there was a pasta dish on my table.  Of course pasta isn’t a traditional Appalachian food as we’re partial to dumplings. 

As I researched and wrote the Cabbage article last week, I couldn’t help but think about what meals would’ve looked like on the mountain a hundred years ago.  In one way, winter was good because meat could be kept and cured.  However, the veggies were always the problem.  I’m going to make a list below of the foods Appalachians-of-old would’ve been eating this time of year.   I mentioned several of the vegetable choices in the last couple of weeks and I’m looking forward to y’uns leaving a comment to tell me what I’ve missed.

Meat:  Any Game
              Smoked Beef
              Cured Pork
Chicken

Break:  Cornbread

Vegetables:  Potatoes
              Cabbage
              Green Beans
              Carrots
              Dried Beans (I’m including Black-Eyed Peas in this category_
              Sweet Potatoes
              Pumpkins
               Turnips
              Onions
             

As I made this list (with my Mama’s help) I first thought that it’s a pretty limited list.  Then, as I looked it over again, I had to admit it covers probably three-fourths of the food I eat, even today.   The big difference is the planning and preparation – every food on that list requires hours of back breaking work.  Whether stalking prey or fattening a hog, putting meat on the table takes some considerable effort.  Corn is particularly labor-intensive as it has to be planted, hoed, picked, shelled and then ground for bread.  The vegetables seem a little easier, but you’ve gotta’ start planning for winter in about March or April.

Does this give you a renewed appreciation for your ancestors?  It sure does me!

Bile Them Cabbage Down

Fried, stewed or pickled cabbage is a mainstay of the mountain diet.  After I shared my daddy’s New Year’s Day meal last week, I was surprised how many of you commented that you always kick off the year eating cabbage.  But I shouldn’t have been surprised.

For the same reasons black eyed peas and salt-cured pork were eaten regularly in the winter months, cabbage would be too.  Late cabbage can be folded in a hole (whilst still planted on the other end) can be enjoyed pretty much the whole winter.  Just as I mentioned last week, without the luxury of imported foods – even imported from warmer, deep-south states - Appalachians spent the winter months eating those foods they could preserve one way or another.  Then just as soon as you’re safe from a hard freeze, little cabbage plants can be planted – they’re often one of the first things planted in the garden.  So if you’ve eaten up all the cabbage you wintered, hang on, there’ll be more in a couple of months.

Cabbage is a very old food and is eaten around the world.  In fact, one of my personal favorites are egg rolls – this wasn’t a food traditionally found on Appalachian tables, owing to the Chinese immigration patterns not reaching the Eastern US until after World War II, and most likely not until the 1960’s. Yet their ancient food combines pork and cabbage in a bread-like wrapper and deep fried.  What could be more southern?  I had a chance to talk with a couple of Chinese ladies and asked if cabbage is really something they eat a lot of.  They explained that in the northern provinces where the temperatures get very cold, cabbage is a mainstay.  They even knew about burying the heads, just the way we do on the mountain.

Of course Sauerkraut (we universally just call it Kraut on the mountain) is the pickled version of the vegetable and while the word is German, the food is more likely Chinese.  Of course, the Germans do love it and in fact it’s a traditional New Year’s food for them as well for the same superstitious hope of good fortune. 

Today’s kale-eating, smoothy-drinking society probably sneers at hog jowl and black eyed peas – and if they ever smelled cabbage stewing they’d no doubt call the health department.  However, you can’t argue with the wisdom in eating this vegetable which is packed with vitamins and is high in fiber, antioxidants and polyphenols.  (Just by way of confession, I can hardly spell those words and had to look up polyphenols to make sure it was something I could mention in a family-friendly blog.  It seems safe enough to say, but experts seem to still be guessing what these micronutrients do except they’re pretty sure it’s all good.)

Of course, our affinity for frying foods extends to all vegetables and a whole lot of fruits.  Many readers who reported eating cabbage on New Year’s Day were frying it.  Now, I do wish you would tell me why it’s Fried Cabbage but Kil’t Lettuce when the process is about the same – chop vegetable, pour in hot bacon grease? 

Hog Jowl & Black Eyed Peas

Happy New Year Ya’ll!

Did y’uns eat hog jowl and black eyed peas on New Year’s Day?  Now this is one of those meals that I’m careful not to say I won’t eat, but I’m praising the Lord that I don’t have to.  This along with collards, turnip or mustard greens.

But enough about my taste in foods. 

Hog jowl and black eyed peas are the traditional meal for New Year’s Day because it’s supposed to bring good luck in the new year.  It seems the folks of old felt lucky to have this meal on new year’s day and hoped for similar luck throughout the year.

Hog killin’ time on the mountain starts just after the first frost so meat killed in the last month or two and salted down would be just about right for frying at the first of January.  And of course black eyed peas were harvested late in the summer and dried so if you could store them in a good dry place they would be good throughout the winter.

By January, the taste of fresh vegetables is dimming and sallet greens won’t be up for two or three more months.  Families who didn’t have the luxury of refrigeration or nearby supermarkets were making do with cornbread and fried side meat.  Leather britches (dried green beans) and potatoes were on the table almost every day. Of course there would still be plenty of dried apples in the attic (don’t want them in the root cellar for risk of dampness) that could be cooked down and fried into pies or spread over a stack cake. 

The flavors on our tables have radically changed in the last fifty years and some of the foods we have long been known for are almost foreign to our younger pallets.  Even if I don’t particularly enjoy hog jowl and black eyed peas there is a comfort in this age old tradition.

Learnin’ the Old Recipes

Christmastime brings back memories and our familiar foods evoke memories any time of the year.  As I teach my little Ruthie to cook I am often reminded of my Grandma teaching me.  (And I confess the times I tell her to get out from under foot, I’m convicted of what a menace I must have been to Grandma!)

My Grandma taught me two recipes that I’ve used more times than I can count because they are adaptable to so many foods we eat all the time.  Of course biscuits was one recipe she taught me.  We’ve talked about biscuits before and we’ll revisit them many times I’m sure.  The other essential recipe was pudding / pie.  It’s almost the same recipe we use for chocolate gravy, and omitting the cocoa it becomes simple vanilla pudding that can be used for banana pudding or coconut cream pie. 

As we made a chocolate pie for Christmas dinner I tried to explain how to ensure a silky-smooth texture and I could almost hear Grandma saying, “It wants to be lumpy, so you want to heat some of the milk up then add the rest real slow.”  I told Ruthie to have the stove eye on 2 or 3 until the butter melted then it occurred to me that Grandma would’ve learned this on a wood cookstove.

With a blazing fire cooking a ham, the pie filling would have to start out on one side of the stove and slowly migrate toward the side with the firebox, and therefore the hottest temperature.  The temperature of the fire would vary based on the kind of wood burning, moisture in the wood and air and generally how well the fire is burning that day.  Whew, this is a lot to take into consideration for a simple pie!  And can you imagine creating a delicate cake with these variations? 

It all makes me think that my Great Grandma really was a more skilled cook than I am!  Yet that chocolate pie Ruthie and I made for Christmas dinner is almost completely gone.

I’d love to hear your memories of learning to cook from your mother or grandmother. You can always click the “Comments” below and share!

What’s Next after Gracie's Babies

Almost 6 years ago I posted a fictional, short story on this blog entitled “Patches are Honorable as long as they’re Clean” and you readers asked for more of that story.  It became chapter 1 of Replacing Ann.  When I released that novella, I prefaced it asking if you’re reviews would show me whether you wanted more books.  I continue to feel honored beyond words when you write requests for more books.  I have lots more stories in my head and I hope to continue sharing them with you.

Every time I finish a book, I am immediately looking ahead to the next one. 

Margaret’s Faith followed rebellious Margaret Elmore Berai from Cumberland County, Tennessee to Chicago, Illinois and back again.  When she came home, she had two young daughters, Gracie and Lottie.

Gracie’s Babies delves into the life and service of the oldest daughter, Gracie.  So I suppose the next book should examine Lottie.

The lives that inspired the first two books were certainly worth studying.  Lottie’s life is no different.  This woman is remembered as living near sainthood, however, we realize there are struggles in all of our lives – both internal and external and Lottie was no different. 

The times when these women lived provided plenty of external struggle as they faced financial hardships, medical problems and all the normal difficulties of raising a large family.  If you’ve read the epilogue of Margaret’s Faith, you already know that Lottie raised a several children.  Many of them would grow up obedient and eager to serve the Lord.  Even those children presented problems for their parents.  And what about the ones that rebelled? 

In the best of circumstances (and perhaps especially in the best of circumstances), we all have times when we fight against God’s leading in our lives.  We often feel constrained by His commandments, pushing to have our own way.  Bible stories often allow us to see the results of that rebellion and that is the beauty of writing a novel inspired by historical characters.  Sometimes I can see all these years later how early decisions affected lives and descendants.  Other times I can imagine the effect and write it into the fictional story.

My vision for the next novel looks at Lottie and her own service as a godly mother and neighbor.  I’m eager to get started on it and as you finish up reading Gracie’s Babies, I hope you will begin looking forward the part three of this trilogy.

If you’ve finished reading Gracie’s Babies, please be sure to leave a review on Amazon.com, Goodreads, or any other reading forum you enjoy.