I thought that what my father told me about food preservation might be of interest to some of you. It is not about the specifics of preservation but it is about what was preserved for a family of 12 including grandparents and 14 on Sundays (the preacher and his wife ate dinner every Sunday with my grandparents). My grandfather had a building the size of a one car garage. It was divided into two equal size rooms. One room had a potbelly stove in the center and deep shelves on the outside walls. The shelves were hinged to the walls and supported with chains. They were used for drying fruits and vegetables. When the harvest was complete and the weather cooled, it was time for butchering. My grandfather would take the flue off of the stove and fold the shelves against the walls. First came the hogs, my grandmother would cold pack some of the meat and store it in the pantry. The rest of the hog would be smoked. The bacon, hams and link sausages were hung on hooks in the ceiling. Some of the sausages were made into patties and partially cooked. Then a layer was put in a five gallon crock and covered with lard then another layer of sausages and lard until the crock was filled. These sausages were stored in the springhouse. Then came the beef and some was cold packed and some was dried. On the onset of winter the other room would be filled with hams, bacon, sausages, dried beef and feed sacks filled with dried apples, peaches, pears and plumbs and I can not remember what vegetables were dried, all hanging from the ceiling . There would be several “hogs head barrels” (60 gallon wooden barrel) along the outside walls. One would be filled with pickles another with sauer kraut and one with apple cider vinegar. I can not remember what if anything else that was stored there. But I can remember that building still being used when I was a kid and the aroma when you entered it. The pantry was off the kitchen and almost the size of the outside building. It was lined on three walls with shelves from floor to ceiling. The shelves would be filled with cold packed meats, canned vegetables, canned fruits and sacks of wheat flower, buckwheat flower, sugar and salt. I don’t know what herbs and spiced they used. There was a spring fed stone trough directly below the kitchen which fed a hand pump at the kitchen sink. Butter and milk was stored in that trough. The spring in the house also fed a stone trough outside in a stone springhouse which was primarily used for a root cellar. The springhouse was about 8’ X 12’ and the only part above ground was the roof. You could stand up without hitting your head. Both sides were filled with all sorts of root crops some winter apples and some winter pears and onions. The trough held the five gallon crock of sausages and lard and another five gallon crock of just lard. That sounds like an awfully lot of food but I know what teenage boys can eat and I know how I ate when I was helping my other grandfather farm. The farm raised food was always supplemented with squirrel, rabbit, groundhog, turkey and deer.
Thanks for sharing these great memories! Back in those days, there wasn't a store on every corner and so when things were bountiful, you had to preserve them for use thru the rest of the year. I think more and more people are staring to go back to these older ways. I try to grow a lot in my garden that will last the year, but I always said I could never eat an animal I knew personally People tend to waste so much less when they have to work hard to grow and preserve it.
Thanks Netty, I still own my Grandfather's farm that has been in the family since before 1830. It is a forest now but I still like to go to the old homestead and sit and daydream about what once was.
What a wonderful story. I love to hear all that stuff. My grandma had a spring in her seller that my uncle walled in with flagstone. Then there was a large square area half the size of a fridge in the stream which was also walled off with little shelves in it. Water flowed in and out of it making it as the almost freezing all Summer and Winter long. They never has a refrigerator. Can you imagine?? She also called all her meats and veggies. She was German so we got potato pancakes often. MMMM. Well, That's where I got my interests in preserving. I just like to do it the modern way for I don't want to do harm to my family.
