SepteRemember: Mom #4
Mom had to work hard to feed all us growing kids (and Dad) while I'm sure she would've rather been doing things other than slaving away in the kitchen. Dad loves to garden and we would grow lots of corn, peas, beans and tomatoes, among other things.
A lot of my memories of Mom are preparing those veggies for canning and freezing. I never liked to be out in the hot sun with the bugs biting me so I was able to whine my way into helping to snap beans or husk corn and help Mom freeze them. We'd have an assembly line of water to blanch the corn still on the cob while the sink would be full of cold water with drainers ready for the cooled off cobs. When I was old enough I got to help with cutting the corn off the cobs. That can be tricky! Ah, the joys of homemade frozen corn. One of my mom's still oft-requested meals is her chicken corn soup made with that juicy, milky corn.
Mom also made homemade spaghetti/pizza sauce and ketchup to store in her walk-in pantry. We would often come home from school to the house smelling of long-cooking tomato sauce as an electric kettle of ketchup would be bubbling away on the counter.
The whole family would be involved in food collection. We'd load up the family van and take trips over to nearby orchards to pick cherries and peaches and pears. While Mom would can most of the peaches, she'd always save some out for peach cobbler. And the same was true for the cherries. Watch out for the pits!
Our area was famous for pickles. They even called the raw cucumbers growing out in the fields "pickles". Mom would make pickles at home of the dill variety but my favorite was her lime pickles. She'd go down to the pickle shed where they sorted them for size and quality and would bring home the big ones that were due to be discarded. We'd peel them and slice them lengthwise into long strips removing the seeds as well. They looked like little canoes. After the pickling and canning, they'd get almost translucent and so crispy. Yum, yum, yum.
What were your favorite homemade foods when you were little?
I'm sure glad those canning, freezing, and pickling days are over. I do still freeze corn because it's not that hard and because corn any other way doesn't taste right in the chicken soup.
ReplyDeleteJanet Stroup just asked where to buy a small amount of lime. It's hard to find in less than 50 lb. bags.
Mom
Mom, you are welcome to join in the canning, freezing, etc. over at the farm. I know that Joanna and her mom spent quite a bit of time canning tomatoes in various forms this year. We have some pickled okra in the refrigerator that I am scared of but will probably have to try soon. Joanna put some pictures on Picassa that includes a picture I took of an Okra bloom which is the only thing those plants are good for. I'll try to find the link and post it.
ReplyDeletehttp://picasaweb.google.com/jjlutefisk/August
ReplyDeleteThat link should have a warning for gore (chicken guts)!
ReplyDeleteIt's all part of the food chain....
ReplyDeleteMy favorite canned foods are home-canned peaches and bread and butter pickles. I'll let you know about the okra. We can open it next week!
Talk about gore...(pickled okra). Actually okra is pretty good if you cut it up really small and fry it in bacon grease.
ReplyDelete