I often tout the amazing ability of our grandparents and great grandparents to cure what ails you with simple backyard medicine.  The truth is there was also a HUGE market for salves, liniments and all matter of ointments and cures as well.  I recently sat with my mother who shared some memories of some of these such things, complete with the old bottles she has collected and saved in her stash of antique memories.

The Rawleigh company was founded in 1909 and by the time my grandmother and mother would have been familiar with the Rawleigh man, this company had become the forerunner for direct sales and door-to-door marketing.  What began as a dream in 1889 for an 18 year old boy from Wisconsin developed into a piece of nostalgic American History.  Rawleigh left his childhood home with only 4 medicines and a spirit of tenacity to sell to people, what he ended up with was a very large company full of direct sales "Rawleigh Men" and hundreds of products ranging from medicinal, to household and kitchen flavorings.  You can still find these items online, I have never personally tried them but I have to admit curiosity for a company who has lasted this long! (website here)

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Lydia E. Pinham tablets, a well known to ladies of days gone by.  According to Wikipedia: Lydia Estes Pinkham (February 9, 1819 – May 17, 1883) was an iconic concocter and shrewd marketer of a commercially successful herbal-alcoholic "women's tonic" meant to relieve menstrual and menopausal pains.  What really interested me about Ms. Pinkham's tonics and pills is that they are forerunners with many of the homeopathic pills and herbal supplements for women on the market today.  Just look at the ingredients of one of her most popular tonics for women: The original recipe for Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound is as follows:

Unicorn Root (Aletris farinosa L.) 8 oz.
Life Root (Senecio aureus L.) 6 oz.
Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa (L.) Nutt.) 6oz.
Pleurisy Root (Asclepias tuberosa L.) 6 oz.
Fenugreek Seed (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) 12 oz.
Alcohol (18%) to make 100 pints

Many of these herbs are recommended by midwives even today.  No for the Doan's tablets.  I find it so very interesting that many of the commercial substances we now use had their roots in homeopathy and natural medicine.  It appears that Doan's  pills (which you can still buy today) began no differently:

According to snippets of history published in company advertisements, in 1832 the formulation of Doan’s Pills “was the secret…of an old Quaker lady,” and “was kept a secret for years in a good old Quaker family.  The neighbors all knew about it and many a time had reason to be thankful for its existence.  Its fame spread and strangers who heard about it wrote for information concerning it, sometimes tried its virtues, and sometimes put a trial off for a more convenient season.”  “It was given to the public by James Doan, a druggist, and is now known and recommended the whole world over.” “James Doan was a great Doctor who lived in a town called Kingsville, in Canada, in North America. Sick people took journeys of many days to go to see him, and to get his medicine. He was a doctor who excelled in his neighborhood, because he prepard his medicine with his own hands, so he knew it was well prepared, and good.  He used to make it with shrubs, and roots, and herbs, which he gathered in the woods and veld near his home. He made many kinds of medicine; but the most excellent is that which is called Doan’s Backache Kidney Pills.”  -courtesy RayCityHistory

Doan's is now commercially produced (NSAID) made with the active ingredient Magnesium salicylate.  But it did have its beginnings elsewhere!

Phillips Milk of Magnesia- Charles Henry Phillips (1820 – 1882) was an English pharmacist who is universally known for his invention Phillips' Milk of Magnesia.  This one does not appear to have ever been plant based, but since it was developed so very long ago and is an integral part of many OTC care plans to this day, it is interesting.

Tholene salve marketed by the Rosebud Perfume Company-

The business began in a small drugstore located across the street from what is now known as the Rosebud Building in Woodsboro, Maryland. Friends and customers suggested that he (Dr. Smith) prepare for them a family salve that could be used for various minor skin irritations. With this as a challenge, Dr. Smith formulated a product known as Smith's "Balsam of Rosebuds" which was later renamed Smith's "Rosebud Salve." Realizing its local popularity, Dr. Smith decided to advertise his product in country tabloids, and within a few years he had organized one of the most unique mail order businesses in the United States. The mail order business offered four major brands for agents to sell door to door. They sold Rosebud Salve, Tholene Mentholated Salve, Rosebud Perfume, and Vivian Perfume. - Courtesy Rosebud Perfume Company

What is very interesting about this product is that is is still sold in upscale cosmetic and trendy clothing stores across the country having developed a bit of a cult following.  The ingredients are only listed as: Pure White Petrolatum (Surgical Grade), Cotton Seed Oil, Trade Secret Blend of Essential Oils, Botanicals.

Hill's Cascara Quinine: Interestingly enough quinine is the drug listed as treatment for malaria and according to Wikipedia: Quinine was first isolated in 1820 from the bark of the cinchona tree. Extracts from the bark have been used to treat malaria since at least 1632. It is on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a basic health system.  So what were these pills marketed as? According to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History it was:

 Recommended for the relief of the following discomforts usually associated with colds: nasal stuffiness and discharge, headache, muscular aches and pains, neuralgia and neuritic pains, constipation, and that hot, flushed feeling

Again based in plant medicine as Cascara is also a bark based plant medicine.

Mercuro Chrome

Few under age 30 have ever heard of this stuff. In 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared that Mercurochrome, generically known as merbromin, was "not generally recognized as safe and effective" as an over-the-counter antiseptic and forbade its sale across state lines. A few traditionalists complained: Whaddya mean, not generally recognized as safe? Moms have been daubing it on their kids' owies since the Harding administration! (the straight dope)

Luckily no one in my family ever died of mercury poisoning (at least to my knowledge) but that was the main concern that led the FDA to remove this from the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list and ban it in the late 1990's.  Many a grandmother swore by the stuff and used it liberally.

So there you have, a trip down memory lane for some, an education in historical medicines for others.  I find it all so very fascinating and I am always intrigued by how some of the big Pharma companies (Merck, Eli Lily, Pfizer, Glaxo Smith Kline) who have picked up drugs over the years were able to mimic and patent what nature provided for years for free.  By isolating active chemical compounds in plants and making synthetic versions of said compounds, patents can be made and drugs produced, I still wish for the most part (save when antibiotics are VERY necessary) that we were able to rely on the knowledge of those who knew all about the plants, barks, seeds and life around us in nature.

I live on a small farm but I am blessed to be within a 15 minute drive of all things modern.  I can hop in on of our vehicles (we have more than one as do most American families these days) and head to the grocery, gas station, drug store, mall, or any other modern convenience in a jiffy.  This wasn't the case back in my grandmother's day.  

As I have mentioned before my grandmother was born just after the start of the Great Depression and growing up during her formative years she lived on a farm.  She recently shared with me some of her memories of the grocery trucks that would cater to the farm ladies, most of whom did not drive, and her anticipation as a child of seeing the wonderful things on that truck that came down the dusty lane.

I don't know if this picture is an accurate representation, it is what I was able to find with a quick google search, both the inside and out of what a grocery truck looked like in the 1930's

Grandma shared with me that the grocery truck would come weekly and the sight of which was a welcome image for those farm wives whose husbands were out in the fields for long work hours. She also remembers that sometimes on Fridays a man would come by with fresh fish on ice in his truck, selling his wares, and often a Peach truck would come as well.  Grandma remembers that when the fish man came it was a treat to have fresh fish, there was no refrigeration so that meant a meal of fish was in short order.  

When the peach man came the children were not allowed but 1 fresh peach each as my great grandmother would can her precious bounty of juicy peaches for a treat in the winter. 

In the fall, grandma reports that a man would come, selling a load of coal. My great grandfather would buy his winter supply that way. The other heat was courtesy of all the wood my great grandfather would cut for the wood stoves.

Grandma doesn't remember every having boxed cereal in her younger years (something she does enjoy now).  She did tell me that her mother brought rolled oats that they sometimes had for breakfast.  Not the instant kind, the kind that you cooked and the kettle was hard to wash she remembers.

Grandma once mentioned to me the instant lemon pudding type of dessert she remembered getting as a treat from the grocery man, I searched high and low on the internet and when I showed her the pictures I found she said this was the one she remembered.
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I often wonder what my children and grandchildren will look back at and laugh about when they talk of my life as I age.  What things that I now take for granted will be so antiquated to them as to elicit a "can you believe it?"

Personally, I can see the value in a grocery truck, sometimes I wish I could just stay at my own piece of heaven and let the food stuffs come to me...

#1. Repurpose-
 Our grandparents or great grandparents didn't throw things out.  Your grocery sacks, milk jugs, and old clothes all have repurpose value.  If you are ever at a loss for what to do with something, ask someone over 65 or look to Pinterest.

#2. Pay with Cash-
​ Yup Dave Ramsey is all over this one and he is right on.  When you ditch the plastic and pay with cash it just feels different, it kinda hurts!  Grandma did this, credit as we now know it didn't even come in to play in the US until around 1950, I'd say we were better without them!

#3. Plant a Garden-
​ I have always touted this one.  Even if you are in the city with nothing but a postage stamp of grass, you can grow something.  Even just 1 tomato plant, or some herbs, something.  It saves money!

#4. Hang your clothes to dry-
​ When I studied this one out one summer I found that in 3 months (just during summer) I saved around $35 on my energy bill just from hanging clothes to dry...and you haven't lived until you have slept on line dried sheets!

#10. Learn about and use natural remedies- cheaper and healthier than most storebought OTC remedies.  There are so many from lavender essential oil for burns, peppermint tea for upset tummies, Plantain weed for stings... the list goes on and on. (check this out)

Our grandmothers knew a lot about how to raise families on a budget, if you are lucky enough to have a grandparent who lived through the great depression, their wisdom is INVALUABLE in this area.  Here's to living like our grandmas!

As I rifled through a largely unused drawer earlier this week, I came across my button jar.  Looking at the jewel toned baubles varying in color and shape I cannot help but be transported back to my own childhood as I would invariably sort through my mother and grandmother's button jars.

I began saving my own buttons when I set up house.  I never really knew why I was doing this, I had just always seen both my mother and grandmother do it, so I followed suit.  When I inadvertently came across this jar again recently, it was then that I remembered reading a story my grandmother had written.  A quick search through my books of wisdom and musings and I have to share what she wrote:

So, the tradition of saving the buttons is generations deep in my family, I still don't know what anyone did with all of those buttons, especially if one didn't have matches, but I am sure that they were put to good use when needed.  I will continue to dutifully collect buttons in my own jar, if nothing more than for nostalgia's sake.

UPDATE: My mom stopped by with her stash of buttons, I wanted to share the beautiful baubles and colors galore!

Back in great grandma's day there was no running to the grocery for some boneless skinless chicken breasts. if you lived in town you likely got your chicken from the local farmer, but if you lived out in the country you just made a trip to the barn.  When we moved to our small farm I knew that I wanted to start living as self-sufficiently as possible and I wanted to start raising our own meat.  We have been blessed to purchase a 1/2 a cow yearly from my parents and pork from some friends, but chicken was something we were still buying at the store.  However, I have watched too many documentaries about how our food is currently being produced in the U.S. (just check out Food Inc. on netflix to start) so I wanted to get away from that.

The first year we moved in we got 10 chickens to use for meat (different breed from our laying hens) but this year we just finished up with a batch of 25 chickens.  I was proud of myself that we took care of the chickens from day one until time to butcher, and we even did that ourselves. (don't worry no pictures or further details)  We have come a long way since the tales of chickens running around "with thier heads cut off" so to speak, but it was still a hard task.  

So my freezer was gloriously full of whole chickens but that leads to learning to cook differently or cut the chicken up and figure out how to make dinners out of all cuts of meat, not just the breasts.  NOTE: if you are purchasing a chicken at the store, this would still be  a skill that would serve you well as whole chickens can sell for .99 cents a pound whereas breast meat can run you upwards of $2.99 a pound...doesn't take long to add up the difference in price.

Here it is, how to cut up a fryer:

Here is one of our whole fryers that we vacuum packed (I won't be doing it that way again).  The most important thing is to have a VERY sharp knife.  We start by slicing the leg/thigh off from the whole chicken.  (In the future I may part up the chicken before freezing but we had worked so hard the day we butchered that I was not in the mood then...lol)

After slicing off the leg/thigh portion on both sides hubby ran the knife down the breast bone keeping as close to the bone as possible to cut the breast sections off.

He repeated on both sides to get the breast meat off the bones.

Here are the leg and thigh protions as well as the breasts and on the left is the back and cavity of the chicken (perfect for putting in a pot with water, salt and pepper and making a bone broth- read my earlier post for further directions on this).

Here is the breast meat all chopped and ready to go for the fajitas I am making for dinner, I tell you nothing beats the taste difference in fresh chicken!

Back by popular demand is the series that I have not posted for awhile, the way grandma used to.  Sometimes this is a section I share personal stories from my very own dear grandma, other times its the notion or idea of the way things were in times past always in an effort to connect is to the way things used to be.

"Henhouse Linen" is the name of the memory that my grandmother wrote in a book full of beautiful stories that she has shared with all of us, memories of how things were in her childhood growing up, and in her young married years as well.  These are grandma's words and memories.

Come with me as I take a peek into times past when money was tight and the depression was raging...

Henhouse Linen, that was just one name for the feed sack material.  Barnyard linen, as it was also called, wasn't just for dresses- they made good aprons, table cloths, curtains, quilts and children's play clothes.  

Back in the days when no amount of money was considered "chicken feed" folks made do with what they had.

Feed sacks were plentiful on most farms, and the fabric they were made of clothed countless families during the depression. 

Mother raised rabbits when I was young and the feed for the rabbits came in colored printed sacks.  After the contents were used the sacks would be put into a salt solution to set the colors, then washed and ironed to be kept for sewing projects.

Mother didn’t sew much.  In school I had a teacher, Miss Mary Ryan who taught me everything I know about sewing.  Our class was made up of farm girls.  Sewing opened up many new ideas for us.  Miss Ry7an had books of decorating ideas and she encouraged us to make good use of the feed sacks.  We were proud of the dresses that we could make form the material that was available to us
 
We would always tell my daddy to get at least three bags of feed in the same pattern design.  If we had a special project going, often my daddy would buy more feed at one time than he had intended to, just to get the bags alike.
 
The dress that I made for my sewing project was made from feed sacks and all of my mother’s aprons were made from the sacks as well. My daddy would proudly show me the newest feed sacks that he had purchased feed in knowing that I would have ideas as to what to make from the material. 
My mother had a special drawer in the dresser that she kept the sacks in. Anytime that I needed material for something, I always knew that I could check out what was in the drawer.  When I had children of my own most of their little dresses were made from that same feed sack material, the girls were able to have pretty little dresses with very little expense that way.

I read this memory of grandma's and I found myself wishing that the feed we buy for our livestock came in such feminine and pretty patterns rather than the plastic type ugly bags that we often toss to our burn pile.  

I also began searching around the web a bit and I came across a book on Amazon that looked quite interesting, there are just so many things we could learn about the way women did things when times were even more tough and women still liked to appear neat and tidy.

Here is a blog post from another blogger about her quest to reproduce the classic feed sack dress. The Feedsack Dress.

Do you know of any other good uses for feed sacks?  Comment below.

I was given a book this Christmas that is chock full of stories from the Great Depression.  One of the stories that stuck out for me as I was reading was one woman's recollections of her grandmother's flowers and saving flower seeds.  If you have been around this blog during planting season you know I have a bit of an obsession with saving my garden seeds, but the flower seeds were something that was more my grandmother's forte.  I can remember that ever since I began gardening, grandma would share little containers full of marigold seeds, she told me they were good for planting near garden plants, and I did.  However, I was not very good at diligently keeping those seeds, grandma just supplied them year to year.

When I read this article from a woman who had these fond memories I began thinking.  My grandmother didn't just save marigold seeds, she has saved whole plants.  She has a fern that belonged to my great grandmother who has been gone to Heaven for more than 20 years now.  That plant is still alive and flourishing.  She had a Christmas cactus for years as well that was over 80 years going from starts to plants and back again.  

Although the marigolds were never my favorite (I just don't care for the smell, but I do plant them in the garden because garden pests don't seem to like them either).  One of the favorites that grandma has shared is the Touch Me Not flower.

The really need thing about these flowers is that when they go to seed and form that fuzzy pod you see above, if you touch the pod, it literally explodes with seeds that you can catch.  My kids love the seed collecting on this one!  I love the beautiful flowers that seem to be willing to set root and grow just about anywhere.

As I think and ponder on this one though, this is a link to my grandmother and will always be a reminder of her as I collect and save these seeds from year to year.  I am reminded of her doing just the same and it is pretty neat to know just how far back some of these traditions go.  I hope they carry on with my own children too.

Here is a picture of my flower seed stash for this year, I even have grandma's handwriting on the marigold seed lid.  The "money" plant in the foreground also carries with it special memories. (I believe it is so named because the little papery disks resemble coins)  My grandmother always had a dried arrangement of money seed stems on her front livingroom  table when I was growing up.  I was so happy to find her some starter seeds for the money plant a few years ago as she no longer had this plant growing.

Do you have any special memories of plants or flowers that have gone through generations in your family?  Please share in the comments below!

My mom recently shared a book with me, another anthology of Backwoods Home magazine, one she very much enjoys, as do I.  I was flipping through the pages when I came across an article about preparedness.  Now, I am not talking about the "Doomsday Preppers" kind of preparedness that is glorified and made fun of in some of the television programs on the network channels, but instead good old fashioned common sense being prepared.  Here was the headlining quote:

The article went on to talk about times of plagues, wars, depressions and the like and made some excellent points about how some survived, some even did a bit better than survive and others perished.  What struck me about the article was that throughout the mentions of self sufficiency and preparing for the unknown (even a very large winter snowstorm falls into this category) there wasn't much talk in the way of how to make some of the things you need.

I got to thinking about some of the skills I have shared on this blog, many of which come from the "do it yourself" wisdom of previous generations.  When I came to the section of the article that had some suggestions about items one might want to have on hands, I think I would do it a bit differently, and I hope my readers would have the same skills.  Here is the list of some suggestions:

Again, this comes from my fascination of getting to the absolute essence of how do do something but rather than try to store 25lbs of laundry soap, I think I would keep 2 boxes of Borax, 2 Boxes of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda and 6 Bars of Fels Naptha.  That would be enough to effectively make laundry soap for my family for at least 2 years and dare I say would likely take up a lot less space.

As for the 12 bars of hand soap, I am glad that I am learning the skill of making my own soap so that storage could easily be replenished, and if lye were not available, I even have books on the skills needed to fashion one's own lye for soap making.  Then you only need water and a fat of some kind (lard, coconut oil, cooking oils, etc).  Then it would be easy to also make pump hand soap as well.

The deodorant and toothpaste are also things that I have shared recipes for and could easily be made if one already had those ingredients on hand (as we do because we make a myriad of products with the same self care ingredients).

The sanitary napkins are something one could easily make as well and would not take up nearly as much space since they would be washable (tutorial here) if you are curious.

So all in all, though I don't disagree with some of the suggestions I would argue that if you know some of our grandparent's skills of making your own of something, you may do better than to try to stockpile too much.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Please share in the comments section below.

I recently had the opportunity to have a slumber party with my grandmother, we stayed up late, laughed and chatted.  I cherish these times I get to spend with her and they become sweeter, and more special, the older I get.  

I had a goal in mind to pick her brain about things she remembered from her youth, as you my readers know, I have a bit of a romanticized view of the way things used to be and I don't seem to tire of learning more and more about those times.  While I was there, we came across a recipe that belonged to my great grandmother.  My grandma shared remembering this recipe as being a delicious one that she and her siblings enjoyed (back before they had refrigeration even!)  I brought this home and gave it a try right away, it was a HUGE hit!  

I had to laugh out loud as one of my daughters said, "mom, I wasn't sure about these as sometimes older recipes were thought to be good only because there wasn't much extra so it was a treat, but these were REALLY good!"  I have to concur.  What makes it even sweeter is that I believe this is actually my great grandmother's handwriting on this slip of paper I photographed.  It seems like a connection to the past when I can whip up a favorite recipe from days gone by.
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Grandma said that there was not refrigeration so this would have likely been put in some cool place overnight, I wrapped up the log and placed it into the refrigerator, even slicing thinly though, I have to wonder how in the world grandma got 70 cookies from this recipe!  I think I may have gotten 36, and they didn't last long at all!

They were an absolute hit and will definitely be made again and again in this house!

Want to try? Printable recipe link HERE.

I have to share an amazing remedy that I just used. I was a friend's house the other day when my 3 y/o found a mess of wasps. The ear piercing scream was enough to make any mama's heart stop and he was stung at least 2x's. Immediately my friend grabbed some plantain leaves from her yard and began chewing to make a quick paste, I did the same and we slathered my son's stings with the paste (yes may sound icky but when your little one is in extreme pain you will do anything!) I also had some of my essential oils with me and I added a few drops of lavender too. Within 3 minutes he had calmed down and the angry red wasp stings were calming down. Later in the day there was no evidence of the stings and my son never complained again.

Seriously, this stuff is AWESOME! If you don't spray chemicals on your yard for weed control you likely have this stuff right under your nose. It acts as a drawing agent and draws the poison out of the skin/sting.

I believe that over time we have lost so many of the tried and true remedies that worked for our grandparents and great grandparents and I fear that one day, without this knowledge we may find ourselves in a world where there is little to no knowledge left about what can be treated with just plants and substances that God gave us in nature.

It is times like these that I want to continue to pump my grandmother for information as it is the older generations who gift this knowledge to us.

So today, here is your challenge...go out and see if you can spot some of this Plantain, you never know when it might be useful to you!

I was reading a hobby farm magazine the other day and reading about how to make your orchard and nut trees thrive.   It was enlightening, and then I thought how few people intentionally plant and grow nut trees in the northern states and how this was actually a very viable farm option along with an orchard.  I believe that the reason that more people do not utilize nut trees is because of the intense amount of labor involved in getting the nutmeat out of the shell.  For instance, have you ever gotten to the nutmeat of a walnut?  It is quite a time consuming chore.

 First you have to start with the walnut where it falls from the tree encased in a fleshy green shell.  The shell then has to kind of rot off or be broken off (many old timers would run the green version over with a tractor to break apart the outside casing).  Then you are left with what actually looks like the outside of a walnut, but the chore is not over.  This hard walnut shell has to be cracked open, no easy chore, I mean that very seriously.  At our house we do this with a sledge hammer or a serious vice.  After husking and cracking the walnut open you will usually have brown stain on your hands (I believe this is actually what was used in the old days for furniture stain) You then have the joy of picking those little pieces of nut flesh out of the hard shell.  This takes hours.   My children spent a few hours a week for weeks to procure a quart sized jar full of black walnuts for Christmas gifts last year.  It is definitely a winter indoor chore!

I looked to grandma’s book of memories to see what she had to say, here is an excerpt:

I only remember having a couple of black walnut trees in our woods.  We kept watch because the squirrels would beat us to the walnuts if they were not picked up soon after dropping.  In the fall it was a familiar sight to see the farm boys come to school with dark brown stains on their hands.  It was the boys job to take the green and blackened husks off the fallen walnuts.  This was usually done by using a hammer or wooden mallet.  The outside coating stained whatever it touched.  After the husks were removed the walnuts were laid to try and later stored in a shed to finish.

We had a piece of railroad iron that we laid the walnut on to crack.  My dad would take a dish pan to the wood shed and come back with a pan full of cracked walnuts; it was then our job to pick the nuts out of the shells.  If you cracked it just right you could remove a whole section in just one piece.

I don’t remember ever eating just the nuts; we always saved them to be put in cookies, cake, or my mother’s special fudge. Black walnuts have a much stronger flavor than an English walnut; today they are very expensive to buy.
 
I also remember that when I was in high school the boys would make belts for the girls out of walnuts.  The dried walnuts were sawed into thin slices.  Using leather string the circles were then fastened together forming a belt.


I had no idea you could make a belt out of walnut shells!  I google searched for images and this is what I came up with:

pretty ingenious, huh?  Betcha won't look at a walnut the same way again!

My grandmother played a very large part in my young life and she always had soo much patience, more than I ever have had.  When I was young she always made it a point to be sure that I was included in kitchen time, if she was baking, I was baking with her, if she was making breakfast I was right beside.  I remember her often letting me make my own "pies" out of crust scraps which we sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on.  In addition my grandmother ran a pre-school and every fall she baked mini pumpkin pies with each and every child who was in her pre-school, if I remember correctly that was like 100 mini pies...can you imagine?  I remember attending preschool whenever I would visit grandma.  I was probably the only child who was able to attend preschool for 3 or 4 years straight!  I got to go into the preschool in the summer time and play with all of the toys (like a kids playground!)  There was a special rocking boat, trays of puzzles, a cabinet where the "choo-choo" train was kept and a cabinet in the back room where the snacks were.  There was a play kitchen area and an upstairs "library" room.  The play kitchen area was by far my favorite.  When the time came that grandma closed the doors to the preschool she kept many of the items from the preschool and shared them with her daughters.  I was the first grandchild to have children of my own so I have been able to let my children play with the same play kitchen that I had as a child.  

This set bring so many memories back and today my 2 year old decided he was going to make an apple pie.  First he took my saucepot and put 3 whole apples in it to cook on top of his "stove."  After a little while he decided to put a pie pan in the oven (with the whole apples in it) to bake a pie.  The funny thing is that at this exact time I was in the kitchen baking a real apple pie for dinner.  I love that he is learning like this.  It may not be pumpkin pie but it sure does bring back good memories!

My grandmother's story is as follows:

   Women of the older generation always wore an apron while working around the house. The main use of grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath.  The same house dress was usually worn all week long and the apron would be changed as it became soiled.  It was easier to wash an apron than a dress.
The apron had so many uses, it was for removing hot pans from the oven, cleaning a perspiring brow, carrying all sorts of vegetables in from the garden.  The apron was used to bring in apples and pears that had fallen from the trees and wood chips and kindling fire wood were brought in with that same apron.

Women had good aprons and everyday aprons.  The good aprons were were worn on Sunday while preparing dinner for company.  When the aprons  became faded and thread bare, they were worn for dirty work, like pulling weeds from the flower beds or cleaning out the hen house.

Great grandma always wore and apron, she would put it over her house dress each morning and she always had safety pins fastened to it.  She said it saved hunting when someone in the family needed a safety pin.  Great grandmother always had a pocket in her apron and if one of the children needed something saved they would put it in her pocket knowing it would be safe.

The generation of women wearing aprons is mostly gone now.  With today’s laundry rooms, aprons are no longer as needed.  Aprons had their day and served many purposes, now they are mostly just a memory to the present generation.


I always remember my grandma and my great grandma wearing aprons.  Since moving to our farm I now realize just how helpful they are for all the reasons mentioned above.  I usually have a tissue and a few legos as well in my pockets.  Nowadays there are not as many families serving Sunday dinner, though I am thankful that at our church having company over for dinner is still practiced and I can wear a cute apron.  My grandmother's aprons will always hold warm memories for me.


In honor of my grandmother I mentioned earlier this week that I am giving away an apron that I made from re-cycled denim.  I randomly selected from those who participated in the giveaway by signing up to receive email blog updates.  I use my version of this apron for outdoor work as it is very sturdy and somehow makes me feel a bit more girly when working on the farm.

My winner was chosen at random and has been sent an email with details.  Check back for more giveaways!!!

I got an email from my grandmother the other day that really sparked my interest.  In it she said the following:

"I was thinking the other day how many things we made for ourselves instead of buying.  Apple cider was kept in a crock jug until it became vinegar.  I don't know how long that took.  I just remember we always had a vinegar jug sitting just inside the door leading to the cellar. In later years, Mom bought vinegar when she was canning pickles. It took twelve days to do the pickles.  You went to the grape vine and cut off leaves and layered them in a three gallon crock, followed directions of changing the water and etc.  Those pickles were so good.  Mom always served them when we had company."

I believe the crock jug must have looked something like this one.  I have been searching for one of these and for a layering crock with a lid for some time at garage sales but they are very pricey so I have yet to purchase one.

 

I called grandma and I started asking all kinds of questions about how long the cider had to sit, and if the cider was specially made in any way.  What she said was that she remembers picking apples from the orchard, and the ones with surface blemishes or spots that could not be kept with the others (as they would turn the good eating apples bad quickly) were taken down the road to a man who had a cider press.  Now, from what I can tell of our conversation, the cider was different from what you buy in the store today, it was more like raw pressed apple juice.  The kind you would get if you used apples and a juicer as it is a cloudy variety that you do not pastuerize.  Grandma said it wasn't cooked and no spices were added so that is why I believe this to be true.  Grandma was unsure of how long the apple cider juice needed to sit but a quick google search revealed that the cider juice has to go through the process of turning into alcohol then on to vinegar which can be 30 days to 3 months.  Grandma also mentioned the "mother" that forms on the top of the juice during this process, google had lots to say about keeping this organism of bacteria alive and transferring it to your next batch of cider vinegar to help speed up the process.

Ever the do-it-yourselfer I am intrigued. In lieu of a crock like above, I am going to use a 1/2 gallon mason jar to start and just keep it in a closet as you are supposed to keep it away from light.  Since this is the time of year I am buying up bushels of apples to can and dry I will be giving this a go.  I will post more when I know if I was successful!

  My grandmother always used to make gifts for her girls and for others.  Grandma is excellent at sewing and though she does not sew as much these days, she has quite a legacy.  Grandma sewed Barbie clothes as gifts and let me just say that her talents were not to be rivaled. I saw a set of Barbie clothes that my grandmother had sewn years ago and it was beautiful, skirt, jacket, blouse, and all the trimmings...even Mattel could not have done it as well.  Grandma has made many other things as well, there was the year she made small family cookbooks for all of us with all of her favorite recipes.  She has always enjoyed making gifts for others though that may have started out of necessity and lack of funds years ago, she still enjoys handmade gifts to this day because of the love and thought that goes into each gift.  I think grandma believes (and I have come to as well) that when someone gives you a handmade gift, it usually requires much more effort than a store bought one.

   I have made many things over the years for my girls as well.  When they were younger and into dolls I sewed matching dresses for them and thier dolls as the price tag for the store bought American Girl versions were a little out of reach.  I will often include a handmade gift in birthday and holiday giving as my family knows that I was thinking exclusively of them and gave my time to create or work on something that I thought they would enjoy.

   This tradition has also passed to my children who love to make things for one and other.  My eldest daughter made me a beautiful scarf last year for Christmas and my younger daughter and eldest son love to make me jewelry.  Today is one of my daughter's birthdays and her older sister decided to make her a gift, a bendy doll that she is very skilled at making.  She worked very diligently at this gift and spent a lot of time working on the detail.  I think grandma would be proud!  This is a picture of the Little Red Riding Hood Doll.  Happy Birthday Little Sister! 

  The first year we moved to our farm I felt very blessed to have found a large patch of wild blackberries growing on our property.  This was extra wonderful because in the whirlwind of moving and learning we were then expecting baby #5, I planted my garden in a very soggy location. Last year's garden failed miserably so the only food I was able to put up that year was berries and some beans and tomatoes that good friends had shared with me.

This was a photo taken last year (I was expecting!) when our berries were quite abundant!  Being such a good year last year I made pies, jam, cobblers and froze quart after quart of berries.  This year, there are some but just enough to enjoy fresh eating and maybe a jar or two of treasured jam.
  
My grandma tells stories of berry picking as a child and how they would bundle up (no, not because you pick berries in the cold) in the wicked summer heat to avoid those vicious thorns.   Here is an excerpt from one of grandma's stories:

   We always looked forward to berry picking time.  The raspberries ripen first.  There were never as many raspberries as there were blackberries.  These berries grew wild in our woods.  Mother made jam from the berries.  We liked jelly better but mother said it took more berries for the jelly then the jam.  When we were younger, mother always went berry picking with us.  We would dress in long pants, long sleeved shirts and then put a piar of long socks on our arms to protect ourselves from the berry bushes.  We cut out places for our fingers i the bottom of the socks.  Mother would go ahead into the thick bushes and make a path.  She would pick the berries that were high and we picked the lower berries.  If it was a good year for berries, we sometimes had extra to sell.


I was thinking about this story just the other day when I had my 8 year old and 10 year old out picking berries with me.  We took the 4-wheeler and I went ahead in the high grass and bushes to cut a path behind for the kids to follow.  We were all dressed in our carhartt bib overalls, boots and long sleeves (what a sight!)   If you like blackberries and have never picked wild ones, you should, just to better appreciate the effort that goes in to just 1 quart of berries!  I love some of these connections I share with my grandmother, and my mother who also tells stories of berry picking when she was young.  Though in my youth I was raised in the city and did not become a farm girl until just a year ago...(read story here), I think it has always been in my blood.

I was looking through my grandmother's book of memories and stories searching for inspiration for today's installment of "The way grandma used to..." (this is a regular friday posting here) and I came across this photo.  I cannot give photo credit as I am not sure where grandma clipped this photo from, but if you look at the caption you will see that this is a picture of a little girl getting a perm (because what little girl doesn't look cute in curls, right?)  Gives us a new appreciation for curling irons huh?  Can you imagine???

My grandmother often tells stories of how things used to be.  I love the stories.  I feel very blessed that my grandmother also likes to write and she has written down many stories and memories from her growing up so that her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will have a glimpse into what her life was like when she is no longer around to tell the stories.  I am always fascinated by some of the things I learn when reading her stories, one in particular is her account of first aid in the 1900’s.

   Grandma writes the following:

   Epsom salts was an item found in every medicine cabinet, if you had a sticker from a rose bush in your finger, soaking it in a warm cup of Epsom Salts would draw it out.  It was used internally as well, and a good dose of Epsom salts sent you to the outhouse fast.

  Arm & Hammer baking soda was good for itching problems.  A paste was made out of baking soda and water to rub on itching places (when children got chiggers from berry picking).  It was also used for an upset stomach, a spoonful of baking soda in a glass of warm water usually would settle the stomach.

  Salt was another item for first aid.  If you had a sore throat, you gargled with hot salt water.  When you had a loose tooth pulled, you washed out your mouth with salt water.  When you had a sinus infection, you sniffed salt water up your nose and if you ran out of toothpaste, you used salt to brush your teeth.

  Plants from the yard were also used for medicinal purposes.  In the summer there were times when you ran to the outhouse often and there was a fern type weed with little white flowers that had yellow centers.  We would pick four of those little flowers, take off the petals and eat the yellow centers.  Never more than four centers but by the next day we were fine.

 We also used several leaves from a broad leaf plant that grew at the edge of the hay fields to treat poisn ivy.  We would wash the leaves, place them in a small pan, cover with milk and cook until it formed a paste and then apply to the poison ivy.

  Time changes things, no longer does the cupboard hang on the kitchen wall with its shelves lined with bottles of oils, and tins of salve.  No longer do you see a quarantine sign on your front door.  But I wonder if Vicks, Epsom salts, and some of the other things we used were just as good as what we use today.


  As I read grandma's accounts I find myself laughing a little inside.  Because, I prefer some of the old methods myself.  I also have a  cupboard hanging on the kitchen wall and in it I have salves and tinctures we often use.

  I use essential oils for a lot of ailments.  Lavender for itching (bee stings, chiggers, poison Ivy) Clove oil for babies teething.  Peppermint for an upset stomach.  Salt water for a sore throat.  My kids know where I keep the honey, and that, with hot tea, is one of my first go-to's when sore throat sickness comes on.  I often use cider vinegar for heart burn and other natural remedies as well.

 I believe the broadleaf plant that grandma was talking about was probably this one:

If I am correct, it is called broadleaf plantain, and there is an interesting article here about its medicinal uses.  You have probably seen this edible plant in your yard or in a park and not even realized it's value!

So, I would have to agree with grandma that probably the remedies from old did work just about as well as some of the ones we use today...they just didn't have a list of side effects and disclaimers that ran on for page after page!

     "Going Green," it's a concept that we hear about daily, but it's not a new one. The difference is that in our current times it is trendy, but back in grandma and great grandma's day it was out of neccesity.
     My grandmother was born in 1930, the start of the Great Depression.  The Great Depression lasted from 1929-1939 and was a time when everyone had to "Reduce, Re-Use & Recycle."  Not a new concept, just for different reasons.  I am so very blessed that my grandmother is still alive and I can ask her things about her childhood, she is also an amazing historian and has documented much of our family history as well as stories from her own growing up.  I have always seen grandma being a diligent steward of all that is given her.  She doesn't waste anything.  She has always been frugal, but not in a tight sense, as she is one of the most generous women you will meet.  I have been blessed to learn so many frugal tricks from her that have helped my family out.
   For instance, an article of clothing like a man's old shirt has so many uses beyond being worn.  When grandma's father (a farmer) had clothes that were worn out they were just re-purposed.  After clothing can no longer be mended (a novel concept as by today's standards we just dispose of things) it is given a new life.  (Check out Etsy and you will see site after site of re-purposed items)  An old shirt becomes a handy rag for washing down windows, a strip of that shirt can be used to tie up tomato plants in the garden, and the buttons would be removed and saved for some other sewing project.  Grandma always had a button jar (an old mason jar full of various buttons) that I thought was fascinating.  The funny thing is that without even realizing it I started a small one with the random buttons that come attached in a small little baggie to clothing when you buy a new dress shirt.  I don't know why, but I just felt like the buttons belonged in a little jar.  They are kinda pretty.
   I also learned that a meal can be re-purposed many times over.  These days we are quick to dispose of leftovers but we throw out and waste so much.  For instance, when you serve a baked chicken (I know most people just buy chicken breasts but I swear there really is more to a chicken than breast meat) you pick off the remainder of the meat after the meal and it can be a small beginning to a single serve chicken salad, or save it for a chicken soup made from bone broth you make with the leftover chicken bones (soo good for you, and better than store bought chicken broth with way too many additives).  
   Kitchen items can be re-used too.  You know that ziplock bag that you just but a couple of cookies in but then they were eaten too fast?  It can actually be washed and rinsed out and re-used. The glass jars that your grocery store food comes in?  They make great containers for all sorts of things, (nails in the garage, cotton swabs in the bathroom, etc).  I use lemon essential oil in my water and needed a glass water bottle for it, but the store prices to buy a glass water bottle were ridiculous ($20-$30) so I just purchased a $1.50 fancy lemonade beverage in a glass bottle with a metal lid and then when I was through, I ran it through the dishwasher, and violia!  I now have a glass water bottle.
      
   

When our grandparents and great grandparents were going through the Great Depression, they saved everything, you never knew if you were going to get more of anything.  Though I am not suggesting taking this to the extreme, as we don't want to move in the direction of  hoarding, a little dose of re-purposing items can be a HUGE money saver.  Take a moment and go ask grandma, or if you are lucky enough to have great grandma still around, ask her.  What did they re-purpose?  Leave notes for me in the comment section as I would love to read about it!

P.S. if you don't know how to make your own chicken broth, I will post on that this weekend, HUGE money saver and that is how chicken broth was made when you heard the old adage about chicken soup being a great remedy for being sick!

I remember hearing a story told many times of my great grandma Hazel and all the gardening she did for her family.  Hazel and my great grandfather lived on a farm and harvested most of what their family would be eating for the year.  The tale I remember intriging me so was that of the race between Hazel and her sisters to see who could be the first one to put of 1000 cans (mason jars) of food for the winter.  1000 CANS!!!  As a child that always seemed like an innumerable amount, and even in my adult years it seemed ridiculous that anyone could ever put up that much food.

But....then I did the math. 

 I am the CEO of a household with 5 children and 2 adults.  This was not so large of a family for the years when Hazel was canning, though by modern standards I am seen as a bit odd for my family size.  So the seven of us probably go through 2 quarts of green beans a week (twice a week x 52 weeks =104 a year).  We like spaghetti sauce for pizza and pasta dishes so I would say at least 2 times a week we use a jar of some type of pasta sauce (another 104 a year).  We love applesauce which when I leave it unsweetened also serves as a great baby food.  Probably 2 jars a week as 1 quart jar is just enough for a meal...thats roughly 104 more jars. I usually freeze corn when I can get it farm fresh and that is another staple veggie that I would put to the tune of 104 jars in a year.  We also go through a jar of pickles monthly, another 12 jars.  Tomatoes for Chili and other dishes...weekly at least 52 more jars.  So far I am up to 480 cans...whew!  

When I stop to consider that Hazel was likely also canning meats and many other veggies as one didn't just run to the grocery on a whim, that 1000 cans does not seem so far fetched any longer.

It makes me kinda curious how much I can put up this year.

I have always hot water canned (for those of you who have no idea what I am referring to you can put mason jars with acidic food like tomatoes and pickles in a large pot of boiling water to seal for storing).  However, for less acidic foods like green beans or foods that may have oil in them (meats, sauces with oil base) you need a pressure canner.  I have never used a pressure canner as I always freeze my veggies that would require such.  But, in the past I have lost a freezer full of food so I am more inclined to work towards canning the items I used to freeze, now that I have an even larger garden to harvest.

I was just blessed to aquire a pressure canner so I will keep you posted.  I so far have 10 quarts of green beans harvested and frozen (see my post about this process in the Organic Gardening side bar).  That is 1% of grandma Hazel's stored bounty!