Daddy Talks Turkey

I don’t know about your house, but with my family, as we sit around the Thanksgiving table, stories begin to flow.  My daddy always has a good supply of them.  As this holiday wraps up, I wanted to share some of his thoughts on turkey and Thanksgiving.

He doesn’t remember eating turkey very many times, while growing up on the mountain, and I wondered why There weren’t many wild turkeys around for many years – or maybe decades. Today, we have several of them around, probably due to the efforts of the Tennesse Wildlife Resource Agency.

Daddy does remember one turkey-hunting story.  Around 1930, Uncle Menzo Atkinson and Menzo’s sons, planned to meet some of their family and hunt on the north end of the county. Somehow, they missed the meet-up, but didn’t waste the opportunity to hung. They killed a wild turkey. As they wrapped-up their day, they happened upon the rest of their hunting party. That other group held up a mess of squirrel and Uncle Menzo silently reached into the wagon and came out with the turkey. They enjoyed telling the story as Aunt Medie skinned and cooked it.

Of course, you can have a feast without turkey. One year all of Daddys aunts and uncles gathered at Grandma Keys for a holiday meal and Berris Stepp, Hollis Henry and Vernon Roberts slipped of coon hunting. They were successful and came in with a big kill. Then they wondered what to do with it. Grandpa Berris quietly said, “Grandma will cook that if you ask her to.” Grandma Ida Key heard them and agreed to cook the coon if they would clean it good. The next day, the table was spread with plenty, including the coon. The Aunts were none too happy about that addition to their carefully  planned menu.

I would like to know who decided that the proper Thanksgiving meal was turkey. Aunt Cecil Hall was at Grandma’s talking about folks eating turkey and the girls all decided they ought to serve that as well. So they pooled their money, bought a turkey, and that was the first time Daddy remembered having turkey on Thanksgiving.

Whatever you ate, and I hope you had plenty, please count your blessings today. We have a fair share of trouble in this country, but we are also immensely blessed.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Huntin’ and Cookin’ Creases

Spring is such a wonderful time of the year.  As the trees set on new leaves, early flowers bloom and grasses break through the ground, there is promise in the air.  After long, cold winter days the sun stays up longer, warming the soil as we make the first preparations for planting.

Creasy Plant - It may not be the prettiest picture, but things have been pretty muddy this spring.

A couple of years ago, I shared with you an article here which Callie Melton had written about sallet huntin’.  This is not a skill I possess, but one that I greatly admire.  I have long wanted to know which wild plants are edible – how much could you survive on just the fruits of the land?  Today, we have access to fresh fruits and vegetables from around the world through the whole year.  That wasn’t true on the mountain a few years back and Mrs. Melton said everyone was ready for something fresh and green when the first plants broke through.

Well, the Sallet mixture she talked about contained lots of different greens and as I said, I’m not skilled at finding all of that.  But there was one plant she named that I am familiar with – Creases.  She called them “creasy” and that seems to be the generally accepted name.  

When I saw some of them out along the fence row last week, I snatched them up.  Now I may have mentioned before that I don’t care for greens, although I’m very careful not to say I won’t  eat them, I just thank the good Lord that I don’t have to eat them.  However, as I said last week, I’m prepared to eat whatever that same Lord provides – especially in these uncertain times.  So I tried my hand at cooking these creases.

Turns out they were really good.

I might’ve expected the same, strong taste of mustard or turnip greens.  But that’s not what I got.  Cooked with a piece of smoked ham, parboiled then cooked in fresh water, they were fresh-tasting but not strong.  I didn’t cook them till they were mushy but they were certainly soft.

Overall, this is a wild green that I can really recommend – hmm, Grandma and Mama would’ve told me that if I’d listened.