Dear Mothers,

Yesterday as I got back from the store and I pulled into the driveway, I saw our neighbor pulling in. John is a young father of three children under 5 and a precious wife Molly. “I bet the children are all excited about Christmas,” I yelled to him across the driveway. “Are you all staying home for Christmas?” And John, tall and so handsome, told me that his family would go back to Texas. “Well, actually they will stay in Texas as I have been called back to Iraq. I was there once but I am being called back.” We talked a bit and I told him about Jimmy, our son. I wondered if Jimmy would be called back, even though he is 40 years old. John told me that he was 30. I told John, “I will pray for you. You can count on it, John. I will pray.”

I walked back into the house and I thought of the Depression era Mothers. How many times did these old time Moms hear a conversation like this I had just had during 1940 when World War II broke out? They were just coming through the Depression. What must they have thought? Losing their sons to war. Will our government have the draft again? Maybe so… kinda looks like they might. But ya know the old time Mothers seemed to know how to handle this. They had a confidence, it seems, that I only understand when I write. I mean these women seemed to hunker down and pulled deep from their resources as women. Not even especially women of God. They seemed to know how to catch ahold of their emotions and walked out a faith in themselves as mother, wife, and homemaker. Of course, they were brought up that way. I mean you had supper on the table in the evening, even if everyone had died except you and your dog.

There was a religious order in the family no matter what. I mean even if you didn’t know the Lord. But now days we are seemingly sky high and our feet don’t seem to hit the floor. Our Home order is off. It used to be when Mother was upset, she would iron or make bread. Or she would do the dishes, hoping there was dishes to do. When we would go to Dixie’s and she would give us coffee and pie, Jill and I would get up to leave and would want to wash the dishes before we left. I remember Dixie saying, “No, don’t do the dishes — it will give me something to do.”

When the old time Moms were upset, they scrubbed the floor… they tried to stay busy. They didn’t get busy to make the house look pretty. They got busy to stay sane. Jill has often told me that she decorates the house, etc. for therapy. She says that if she gets a space of time that she can be alone, she gets so excited to do her homemaking. And she decorates with anything. But it is her gift and once she gets started, she can’t quit. But I do believe this is how the old time Mothers made it through. And they did make it through or we wouldn’t be standing here today.

But when Mother knew hard times were coming, she counted her losses and her blessings. She somehow knew to be quiet and to make her home strong. She would make a pot of tea and sit down in her kitchen chair and quietly figure out what she should do. Most women didn’t go get a job. I mean if the husband was working, then she made do on his wages, one way or the other. And Mother, of course, put her own family first.

Even the women who didn’t know the Lord as Savior had the knowledge to put family first. The Mothers of faith had started our country. So many Mothers in my neighborhood at home had a godly pattern of life, even though they didn’t know the Lord. Because back in their family some place, a godly mother made the rules. The Mother is lawmaker of the family. Forsake not the law of thy Mother. This means a godly mother. We are to honor an ungodly mother but we are not called to obey her. But ya know now, thanks to feminism, we as mothers seem to be lost and forsaken. And right how we need so much to walk in order.

White Trash

And ya know it seems feminism hit right when it would do the most damage. It’s like fear and disorder took over in the home and now our country is in so much trouble. We are scattered with fear and confusion. Satan has caused anxiety and disorder in the home so that folks will be easier to capture when the ax falls. This is why the black slaves were so easy to handle as their families were so often upset and the father was taken or the mother of the family. They couldn’t get a handle on a strong home life. They were never allowed to own land or to develop any independent skills for daily survival. When they were set free after the Civil War, they didn’t know what they were free to do. Still the landowners made them rent land and the blacks gave them most of the profit they made off the cotton they sold. And so many of us are living like that now.

Folks in the old days would live in a shack or a chicken coop until things got easier. Mother cleaned it and made a decent place to live. Folks did what they could to survive and the heck with what others thought. See, now days the landlords are owning so many of you. You have to pay half of your paycheck for rent. You won’t rent a cheap apartment and clean it up and bide your time until things get better. It’s that you are paying for a lifestyle and not a life. You are being owned and you don’t know it. But materialism has caught you and won’t let you go. It’s like if the world says you are OK, then, “By Golly, you are OK!” The old time folks would have seen the handwriting on the wall and not paid the high rent but put their money into a place of their own.

But the American system is oppressing us to the bone. We are like bugs banging into lightbulbs that already have a 100 bugs dead in the lampshade. Hello? We have to back up and STOP letting Satan oppress us and go by his rules. We can’t do it, anyway. Some of us are between a rock and hard place. We keep running into the same old wall. And God knows we don’t have the strength to tear it down with our hands. We have to back up to God and fall into His arms. We need to sit down and count the cost.

We are wives and mothers, keepers at home. Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers made it through worse then this before. They went through the Depression; some lost their farms. They went through wars and sadness as we will have to face, too. But Mother didn’t give up and she carried on and we are her daughters and great-granddaughters. My home is over 100 years old. I bet some brave women lived here. I pray I am one of them.

All is Well

We do, in reality, face trouble on every side. Dear Wives and Mothers, I hear ya. And, yes, we depend upon God but also we must depend upon the wisdom of God.

Ruby is a voice from within. She is instinct. She is our strength as we walk as keepers at home. The Bible in Proverbs says that wisdom has a voice and we must hear her. She is the virtuous woman who looks well to the ways of her household. She is rare. You won’t find her in flocks of women. Her husband’s heart trusts in her. She does her husband good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeks work to do and she works with willing hands. She does not hear the voice of feminism but she hears the voice of wisdom. I heard her voice this morning calling me back to my home and my place as Keeper at Home.

All of Ruby’s children are taught of the Lord and great is their peace. Ruby is not afraid of the terror by night or the arrow that flyeth by day. Ruby knows the angels are there with her and under His wings she trusts. Every wise woman builds her home and the foolish tear it down with her hands. Contentment and harmony reign in Ruby’s home as she has put her trust in the Lord.

And the great cloud of witnesses cheer us on. Mothers of the past who see us from heaven cheer us on, knowing that we can make it. Just as they did, we can make it, too.

Love,
Connie

Dear Kitchen Saints,

This morning I am making bread. I had bought this apple cider at the store on sale? Well, it’s gone to hard cider? So it has some of its own natural yeast. This stuff gets my creative mind going. So for my liquid in the raisin bread I am using the cider. I just made up a loaf of bread, and it is rising. I imagine it will rise like crazy. That cider shudda been tied to a post with a strong cowboy rope. But that’s beside the point.

Also, this morning I had fixed Jim some sausage and pancakes. I fried the sausage in a big cast iron skillet. The skillet was still warm so I put the bread dough in the skillet to rise, and I put a lid on it. The skillet has the leftover sausage grease and tiny bits of fried meat in it. So I rubbed the bread dough in that and let it rise. Now, the old time mothers did stuff like that. They made bread and soup or whatever from what they had on hand. They didn’t have corn oil and just used bacon grease or lard for their baking if they didn’t have butter.

My sugar bowl was about empty of sugar so I just put my yeast in there to rise and to use the scrapings of the sugar stuck in the bowl to make the yeast rise. Yeast loves sugar.

During the Depression a lot of folks started using the canned milk. I think the government gave it away to poor folks. And after they used the milk in the can, they used the rinsing of the can for something else. They would fill the empty can with water and use this light milk for baking biscuits or to make gravy.

I love having canned milk on hand. I use it in my coffee mostly. When the children were home, I would take a pound of butter and add it to a can of evaporated milk and beat it with my mixer and this made 2 pounds of butter out of one pound of butter. I had an old fashioned crock I kept it in, and kept it in the fridge.

And sometimes, if the Mother at home on the farm ran out of sugar for her desserts, she would use a lot of fruit in her cakes to make things sweet. Or if she had homemade canned jelly and preserves in the root cellar, she would use that to make a dessert. Jam cake was probably invented by a mother who needed a dessert for her family. She made a lightly sweet butter sheet cake then baked it. After it was done, she would spread the top with her home canned peach jam and then roll it up. Then she would slice it. I think they were called Jelly Rolls.

When the children were young and the peanut butter was all gone, I would take the jar with the scrapings in it and add warm milk and honey. Then I would put the lid back on the jar and shake it up and called it peanut butter milk. The kids loved it. And I would do this with leftover jam in a jar with warm milk and honey. You need the milk to be warm to melt the peanut butter or jelly or whatever. But the old time Mothers never wasted even the scrapings from a jar. And she saved the jar.

When the old time Mothers made butter, they would have the light watery milk left over which is called buttermilk. But it wasn’t thick and rich and white like you buy in the store. It was watery. But mother saved this buttermilk for making biscuits and all sorts of breads and pancakes. Buttermilk will make biscuits rise slightly without using baking powder — well, depending too on how ripe it is.

All of my stuff ferments anyway. The kids, when they are here and I show them how to make bread, say, “Mom’s yeast rises like I have never seen before.” So then they will want to take some of my yeast home to see if they can get it to rise like mine does. They will say, “Well, Mom does this or that with her yeast I will do that, too.” But, actually, it’s just the house here, I think. I bake a lot and I think a lot of natural yeast is in the air here. Because everything bubbles here.

I think a house where folks are telling jokes and are happy that the yeast loves it, too. Also a hot blooded Mama helps.

I just read my writings to Jim this morning and he added some things. He is sitting here at the table beside me writing, too.

Jim was from a family of 13 children. He told me that his mother made bread about 3 times a week. And she made a dozen loaves of bread each baking. Then in between the days, when the bread was gone, she made biscuits and pancakes. On the weekends she made 2 or 3 cakes or 3 or 4 pies, or both.

Jim was the twelfth of thirteen so most of the children were born during the Depression era. Jim was born in 1940. So some of the older daughters came back home with their families and lived with Mother and Dad Hultquist. But that was fairly common in those days. So a lot of food had to be made each day. But can you imagine the work that went on in that kitchen? And a lot of folks were starving during that time. So there was much heartache going on to think about. But Mom Hultquist kept her family going. She never lost any of the children due to neglect of any kind. But, boy, was she a tough one.

I thought she was too tough, actually, when I was young. But now that I am almost the age she was when she died, I see it all different. I know now that she had to be tough and I respect her now. Often I tell my kids who tell me they will write a book, “Don’t write nothing about me until you have held a few babies in your arms.” And I wonder how I would be have raised 13 children through the Depression era.

I just asked Jim what he was writing so I could add it to this. He writes in his words:

“As a child, when I got up in the morning, my mother would be cooking and baking for the day. On the days she made bread I could smell it baking as I reached the porch of our house coming home from school. The other boys knew when she was baking bread and would tag along with me to home to get some bread. Mom would let us break a whole loaf open and butter it and eat it hot.

“Mom would plan the whole day around when Daddy got home from work. They were like two love birds when I was a child. But when he died, her world was over and she was never the same again. There were 6 girls and 7 boys, and the girls all had to help inside with the cooking and cleaning and sewing. And the boys did the outside work of bringing in wood for the stove and coal for the furnace. The boys did the family gardening and even helped the neighbors with gardening. And the pay was a bushel of onions or tomatoes to bring home to the family.”

Jim goes on to say that, once his dad died, his mother became very bitter. Often she had menfolk who wanted to court her but she told them that no one would take the place of her husband Bill. She was only in her early 40’s when she lost Bill but never married again. She just couldn’t get back up and go again. Jim felt so unloved and became bitter himself. But Jim says that he forgave her many years ago. And he knows now that she is complete again in heaven with her Bill beside her. They are love birds again and happy just like in the old days when he was a young boy.

Good Morning, Dear Domestic Mothers, Keepers at Home, and Tenders of the Fire,

This morning I am making a Winter Spice Bread. I just made up the recipe as I went along.

I put a cup of the Ladies Cordial in it. And I put in fresh ground nutmeg and cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom. Also I put in a tsp of black pepper. I made it pretty sweet using a cup of sugar for 2 cups of liquid. For the liquid I used a cup of water and a cup of the Cordial. For each cup of liquid in bread, you will end up with one loaf of bread. Also I put in some corn oil and 2 eggs. Eggs are cheap right now so I will be very generous with eggs in my baking and cooking.

Then, after ya get all of this stuff mixed up, you just add enough flour to mix it all up. You will end up using about 6 cups of flour. And you can add whatever kind of flour you like. I will add some cornmeal and some oatmeal to my bread when I mix it up again. I just put in about a fourth cup of oatmeal and corn meal. The cornmeal makes the bread look more yellow and the oatmeal gives it a bit of texture.

Now today I am just making this bread with a big blue crock bowl and a spoon. I didn’t want to take it out of the bowl and so I have kneaded it in the bowl. If my bread dough doesn’t want to do as I want it, then I will knead it on the tabletop. But if it is kneading up like I like it, then I will just knead it in the bowl. It’s simple to clean up as everything is in the bowl and no flour on the table. I read once of a man on a wagon train that made his biscuits right in the flour sack. Just added liquid and bakin’ powder and mixed it up in the sack.

But, anyway, if you are having trouble getting your bread kneaded, try this. Just knead your bread until it is all together and not sticky. Then just forget it and put a towel over it. Let it sit for about a half hour. Then knead it again… it will be more cooperative. If your bread is made of mostly white flour, then the bread should feel like a baby’s behind when it is done being kneaded. It should feel soft and smooth.

Always test your yeast in a bowl to make sure it is good. Make sure your bowl of water is pretty warm. Put the yeast in and add some sugar. If the yeast isn’t bubbling up in about 10 minutes, then it isn’t any good. I always test my yeast as I don’t want to waste my flour and all, if the yeast ain’t gonna rise.

And also it is very easy to make crackers. If your bread doesn’t rise and you have tried everything, then just make your dough into crackers. All you do is take your bread dough and roll it out with your rollin’ pin. Then cut the dough in big squares. Lay them on your buttered cookie sheet. Prick holes in them so they will lay flat when they bake. I would bake these in about a 350° temp. I used to make these and add seasoning salt and garlic. They can be stored in a dry container and will stay good for at least a few weeks. All of the old time mothers used to make crackers. It was just part of being a housewife. They are just like a flat bread, I guess.

Also, ya know, dear Housewives, yeast is a living thing. Some days your bread won’t rise like it should or will be doughy in the middle. That’s not always your fault. Yeast is alive and will react to the weather or even to the spiritual temperature of the household. A lot of women love to knead bread when they are mad. They think it gets rid of their pressures. But I would never make bread unless I am right with my home and family. I think making the family loaf of bread takes a lot of lovin’ and Joy. I think yeast reacts to Joy.

And ya know? Bread dough sometimes just won’t knead up and get smooth like you hoped. So when this happens to ‘em, I make bread rolls. Just make the dough into round balls and let ‘em rise. Roll dough is usually a softer dough. So just make rolls instead of bread. Your bread dough should be a harder, stiffer dough.

Happy Baking.

Warm Happy Kitchens

Mothers who have busy, warm kitchens and happy hearts can make good bread. Your yeast is alive and loves to be warm and active. I think old houses seem to make good bread. I think it is because of all of the other yeasts in the house. Yeast is in the air and a housewife can learn to harness and use whatever yeast she needs. You can ferment fruit to make a wine yeast and then just keep using that to make wine. Or like a sour dough starter is harvesting yeast for bread and rolls. I know this house is loaded with yeast of all kinds. The old time mothers knew all of this and used what she had to make her food.

But I usually tell a young mom that if she can’t make a good family bread, it was because she didn’t love it enough. A happy kitchen with steaming soup simmering on the stove and the coffee pot perkin’ is a joyful place to make bread. Your bread won’t rise in a cold kitchen and if is too hot, it will die.

The old time mothers used to sing in their kitchens. An old friend of mine used to say that her Mom always sang a certain song when she made bread. When she got done with all of the verses, then she knew the bread had been kneaded enough. My friend thought as a child that the song was a part of the recipe. So when she grew up and was a young bride in her own kitchen, she thought she had to sing the same song, so she did.

In the old days, when the family needed to be cheered up, Mother seemed to be the inspiration to get them up and going. Mother would announce, “Well, you all are hungry I will fix supper.” Maybe the afternoon was quiet and not much goin’ on. But as Mother would get up to put her apron on, things would begin to move about again. She would scurry the children about to pick up their games and get ready for supper. She would tell the boys to bring in the wood for her cook stove and some for the fireplace. Mama would tell the girls to help peel potatoes. And pretty soon, the family would smell Mama’s biscuits and fried meat on the stove. Last of all, before the family sat down to supper, Mother would stir the gravy. As she stirred, she would tell the girls to set the table and slice the bread. Light the lamp on the table and call Papa in for supper. Mealtime was an event — a time to fellowship with the family.

After supper, Mother would set out a sponge, a starter for bread making for the next day. After the supper dishes were done and the girls dried them and put them away, the table was cleared and Mother got out her mending. Papa read the evening paper and the children played games and did homework. The winter kitchen was the warmest place in the house and the family stayed in there and kept warm.

I am up and about, getting ready for the day with Baby Rose. Yesterday we were to have her but David didn’t have to work, so I didn’t have her, after all.

Jim and I went to the garden shop and I found some feverfew. That is an herb and, if you have a headache, it is supposed to help you. You are supposed to chew the leaves. When I had it before, I chewed the leaves in with some spearmint gum. It is a perennial and looks like daises. I hope to get a good patch of it goin’ in my herb garden.

I also got some more lavender. It was almost 90 here in Iowa yesterday. I didn’t get anything done in the garden — it was just toooo hot. But it has to get real hot for tomatoes to grow. So the tomatoes were happy, but no one else was.

All yesterday morning, I was thinkin’ about the writing Kelly sent in about the old time mothers. Man, I forgot what it all said now. But I was thinking about the old time housewives. And yesterday, in the afternoon, I was doing some reading. I have this old pioneer book. It has poems and stories. One was written by a pioneer woman. And it was about how she needed so many things to run her homestead. But what she prayed for the most each day was courage.

Oh, God Bless America! Don’t we need courage as Mothers for this day and age? This society is so corrupt. It just makes ya wanna roll over and play dead, huh? But I think this is how it has been in many troubled times in the past, too. Of course, the Depression era was filled with hard times … I think like now somewhat. But, ya know, if we have homes and a roof over our heads, and kitchens to cook in, and beds for our children, then we should praise the Lord.

Ya know, in the old days the farm mothers got up around 4:00 in the morning to start their work. And, ya know, they didn’t even have fans for this hot weather. But they cooked and baked bread, cakes and pies nearly every day. They did their cooking in the cool of the day. Often, they had a makeshift shed out back that they made into a summer kitchen. This way, the wood stove didn’t heat up the main house. They had a big noon meal, usually, and got their cooking out of the way as the day got hotter. Then, for supper, they had the leftovers from the noon meal. Many of the men were farmers and home for lunch. But the old time mother did most of their summer work in the mornings.

Then, in the afternoon, they rested and the children napped. When I would go to my aunt’s farm to stay a few weeks in the summer, this is how the farm women did it. My Gram lived in a little house in the back yard of my aunt’s house. And Gram would help with the garden or the cooking, whatever. But the hot summer afternoons were quiet, as the Mothers rested.

I think it is important to work hard but to rest, too … we need time as mothers to be refreshed. To talk to God and to regroup as the children nap. Then, after naps, it is time to prepare the house for the evening meal. The rest of the day is sorta to prepare to wind down for the evening. It’s a time for work but a time to get ready for the evening. So you fix supper and then later, it’s time to make sure the children have their baths and get their rooms ready for them to go to bed. Get the dishes done and the supper food put in the icebox. It’s time to read a story to the children and a time for prayers.

After the children are in bed, you, Mother, may want to have another time to read the word and pray. But Mother goes to bed pretty early herself, as she has another big day to tend to the next morning.

I remember when I was raised in the 50s. My brother and I thought my mother never slept. If we were to go in her bedroom at night, she would be laying there with eyes shut. And she would hear us and say, “Don’t step on my glasses.” Mom always kept her glasses right on the floor next to her bed, so she could find them in an instant if us kids needed something in the night.

When my mom and dad and we children would go to my uncle’s farm in the summer, we thought my aunt Jean never slept. All of the cousins at night slept on the living room floor on quilts. Late in the night, I would wake up and see a light in aunt Jean’s kitchen. I would hear my aunt Jean making cold sandwiches for the next day.

The old time Mothers never seemed to sleep. They were up in the night and always up early the next morning. Of course, they rested in the afternoon and this was their salvation. These Mothers were like firemen — they were always ready to care for the children, even in the middle of the night.

I never wore “see through” stuff to bed, as I had to be up in a flash many nights. Of course, June Cleaver on “Leave it to Beaver” would put her robe on quickly in the night if she had to get up. But I was never that organized. I am still that way — going out to give my flowers a drink in the mornings with whatever on I wore to bed last night. I throw left over tea or coffee on my flowers out front and I have to be free to do that at anytime. So I have to have something on that isn’t see through. Dan calls ‘em muumuus. But, heck, my dog used to get loose in the night and I had to chase her all over. Can’t ya just see me, runnin’ under the street light in a sexy negligee?

COURAGE

But, Oh Lord God, please give me courage … as the old time mothers prayed for many things, what they prayed for most was courage.

Yesterday I had some how sprained my ankle. I told the Lord, “Lord, I feel like an old barn. If I don’t move around too much, I will probably last another 20 years. But if too many big winds come up, I probably will fall apart a little bit at a time.” Well, I am there now. I feel like I am fallin’ apart a day at a time. My tooth was healed and I am ok with that. But now it is my foot. Gosh, if I could only walk!!! Well, it isn’t that bad and I am believin’ the Lord.

But yesterday, as I laid on my bed in the quiet afternoon, I prayed for courage to go on. Most of my prayer was, “Yes, Lord, I will do Your will … whatever it takes, I will do it, Lord. Yes, Lord, I will go on. Yes, Lord, I hear Your voice … I will not give up. I will go on, Lord, I will not quit.” I prayed for at least an hour. And most of my prayer was “Yes, Lord, yes, I hear You. I will go on. I am not giving up. I will not disappoint You. I will go on.”

I feel in my body that I somehow began to shut down with grief when my last Baby married and left home. And now it is as though I have been awakened from a long sleep. And now the Lord is speaking to my dry bones, “Awaken, it’s time to get up. There is work to do. Your night is over … it is time to work.”

And I am sayin’ to the Lord, “Lord, do you know how old I am?” And, of course, the Lord never calls the woman by her age. He calls her by her willingness to do His will. And, boy, yesterday I thought about Sarah in the Bible. Wow! Now there was a woman!!! Ya know, I think of Jim’s seeds and how they are still strong. I think of how most men never lose their ability to father children … it is the woman’s strength that leaves her body and she is not strong enough to conceive a seed. But I thought of the scriptures yesterday, about Sarah, who by faith received strength to conceive a seed, even in her old age. Wow, and this woman had been barren all of her life. But she was still beautiful and gave her husband pleasure, even in her old age. Man alive, what a woman of courage. And I want to be like her … even if I feel like an old barn.

I am depending on the balm of Gilead to salve my sore body and make a Sarah out of me. By golly, I want to be a rose in the desert to bloom in dry land. And with God, all things are possible and I plan on provin’ this, one way or the other. And if I die tryin’ … what a way to go. To die believin’ the Lord is the best way to go to heaven.

Oh, that spirit of virtue is what we women need to be mothers of courage. Virtue is a power and a strength that comes as we flex our spiritual muscles. We cannot be strong in ourselves.

And what keeps us from goin’ on in God? It is fear. We have to cast down the fear and pick up the faith and let God be God and every man a liar. He has called me to be a Sarah and I am goin’ to be a Sarah if it kills me. I am not afraid.

We as Mothers must take on COURAGE. We must have spines of steel and fire in our bones. Oh, a Holy supernatural fire that burns HOT. We must be brave and strong. And our strength must come from the HOLY SPIRIT. And we must cry out to God, “Yes, Lord … Yes, Lord, whatever You call me to do, I will do it, Lord. I will not fall back into unbelief and weakness.”

Ya know, we as mothers fight spiritual battles on every front. Some of you live with men who are seemingly just murdering your spirits. You are called as wives to live out a life that is hard by any standard. But go on in God … don’t give up.

Our country will never turn around without women who will not give up. So many half women who were Jezebels have ruined our country. But we, as the godly women of the day, are called to beat these women out with our obedience to God. We stand for God, the greater power. And through our obedience to Him, we will show the world a way out of their sins.

Well I am not up early. It’s 6:00 am. But thought I could write about pickles while I visit with Papa. You would be proud of me. I have a pickle recipe in front of me. But I have made enough bread and butter pickles in my day to not need a recipe anymore.

Ok, you need about 5 pounds of cucumbers and a few onions and green peppers. Just take a big pan and put cold water in it and slice the cukes up in it with the onions and peppers. You don’t have to peel the cukes. Just wash them good and slice the cukes with the peeling on them.

Put the cukes and onions and peppers in the pan and add salt to the water, a half cup of regular salt, or table salt. Stir the salt about so it is mixed up good. And make sure your pan is big enough so the water covers the cukes, etc. You can lay a dinner plate over the cukes to keep the veggies under water. They need to sit overnight.

Then the next day, just drain the cukes and put back in the drainer. While they are resting in your drainer, make up the syrup for the pickles. In a big pan on the stove, pour in 5 cups of sugar and 5 cups of vinegar. I use white or apple cider … it don’t matter. Ok, then add the spices. The spices are a tablespoon of celery seed, 2 tablespoons of mustard seed, half teaspoon of turmeric … 1 teaspoon of ginger. Stir all of this up good … then add your cukes. Bring all of this to a simmer and let it simmer a few minutes. Don’t boil.

Fill your washed and cleaned jars with the hot mixture. Then just seal them with a canning lid and ring … and you are done. Now, if the jar don’t seal, you need to use those pickles first. Just put them in the fridge and use them for the family.

Ok so I lied. I have a recipe here that is for 2 pounds of cukes and so I am trying to figure all this out to go like my recipe. Well, dang, I don’t use a recipe and have lost the original years ago. But you all won’t try this unless I say I am quoting from a recipe. But this is how I do it. I always use the 5 cups of vinegar for the 5 cups of sugar. Then my spices go like this. A teaspoon of turmeric about? … and I always use turmeric … ya need that for sure. And I always put in mustard seed, about 2 tablespoons. But the rest is inspiration. If I have some fresh garlic, I would hide some in there. I may add some black pepper. In one jar, I may add a hot pepper … or a head of dill. I put in whatever flips my trigger.

And I pickle whatever looks lonely on my table. I have used this recipe to pickle little green tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, celery. I have pickled a lot of zucchini if my cucumbers didn’t do well. I just cut the zucchini up to look like pickles and the family didn’t know the difference. I have pickled watermelon rind just once and that was another recipe. It was pretty good, really.

I have made apple pie with zucchini when I ran out of apples. You can cut it up to look like apple slices and, if ya put enough brown sugar on it and apple pie spices, no one will catch ya. I have even made apple butter with zucchini. I have made jam with zucchini.

Jillr used to make pineapple slices with zucchini. She would take a big oversized zucchini, clean out the seeds, then slice it, and it looked like slices of pineapple. She had a sugar syrup she would make using a can of pineapple juice. Then she would put this in quart jars. Jill would get a bone from the store and cook it for a few days with onions, etc. and can up the broth.

The old time mothers during the Depression would send their child to the store and ask the butcher for a bone for the dog, but they had no dog. Then Mother would make a broth and feed her family soup for supper. Hey, ya do what ya gotta do to make it, huh? The butcher knew all those folks comin’ in askin’ for dog bones didn’t plan to give it to the dog. But he knew the family was hungry and had nothing to eat, and he respected their family pride. Mother did whatever it took to keep the family warm and fed and happy.

And ya know, if ya make jam or jelly and it don’t turn out, or set up, then pack it in your cupboard and use it for pancake syrup. Or you can use it in bread for a cup of the liquid. Or in muffins or whatever.

The old time mothers didn’t use recipes. They used what they had in the cupboard and nothing was wasted.

I use a pressure canner to can beans. Yet the old time mothers didn’t use anything but the water bath method to can their beans. For my tomatoes, I use what we have always called the “open kettle method.” I just have 2 pots on the stove. One is the tomatoes boiling and the other is the jars and canning lids and rings boiling. And then you work quickly to fill the jars while everything is boiling. Then you cap the jars and you are done. You have to work real fast and make sure the children aren’t around at the time … or they could get burned from splashing hot water. I am thankful to say I have never burned any of my children during canning time. But my kitchen is so small that there is no room in there for more than one person, anyway.

I have the Little Rose today, later this morning.

Jim used to help his mother can when he was a boy. She canned outside and it was Jim’s job to dig two fire pits and put bricks around them for the big washtubs to rest on. One washtub held the jars and the other one held the food to be canned. Mom Hultquist made all sorts of things in her washtubs. She made ketchup, pickles, and canned many vegetables for the winter. She made root beer for the neighbor children in her big washtubs. She canned her corn on the cob in big jars. She made many different kinds of pickles.

All the old timers made a barrel of sauerkraut for the winter to keep in the root cellar. But you can make sauerkraut in a few canning quart jars. Its easy — it just has to ferment. I am good at fermenting. (No snickering from the balcony, thank you so very much.)

In the fall, I make blender ketchup. Jim loves it and even puts it on his fried potatoes … it is so delicious!! I make it in the fall after all the other good tomatoes have been canned. My sister-in-law Kris used to let me come and glean the rest of her tomatoes she didn’t want in her garden after she had canned. And in the fall, I would take the less than perfect tomatoes and clean them up and make tomato sauce and ketchup. Kris had the big farm garden and often planted extra for me, plus I had my own town garden.

The old time Mothers would make piccalilli in the fall. Just before a frost, they would pick the last of the vegetables in their gardens. They may have a handful of beans, and some small green tomatoes, and some onions and dill. A few small peppers and a few cucumbers. Some little heads of cauliflowers, cabbage, or broccoli that grew back after the big heads were cut. But whatever it was, they picked it, as they wouldn’t waste anything. They would take these odds and ends into their kitchens and put it all through their steel grinders mixed with vinegar, sugar, fresh herbs and spices. And they made a pickle relish and canned it for their winter family tables.

Most old time families had pickles on the table for most every meal and snack. Also homemade breads and berry jams and home churned butter. And this was not so long ago. And we can do all of this now, if we need to, or if we just put our minds to it.

Mom Hultquist had to have all her canning done by Saturday, as she needed the washtubs for the Saturday night baths. Then Monday, she had to have them for wash day. She had 13 children and never lost one through any kind of neglect. That says a lot for her. Never had a miscarriage and raised her children right through the Depression era. What a woman.

Some of the farm mothers during the Depression era were able to feed their families well. They had nothing but food. They had their own chickens and saved their vegetable seeds from year to year and planted huge gardens. They started pots and containers of every kind with seedlings in the winter for spring gardens. The city mothers didnt fare nearly as well. I have seen cartoons in old books of fat naked farmers. Well, naked for then — they had their pants on. But the point the cartoonist was trying to make was that the farmers and their families had plenty of food but nothing else.

Husband and his sons would hunt and fish and bring home the meat for supper. Mama would sell eggs to pay for material and sewing items. The cream from milking “Bossy” wasn’t used for the family meals, as it was sold in town, or exchanged at the grocery store for coffee and some tobacco for Papa … or just cash to buy postage stamps or a gallon of gas for the car. And, ya know one thing, those women didn’t go out to work?

And Mama made sure, above all, that she had coffee for her husband and tobacco for his pipe or for hand rolled cigarettes. I mean, Mama kept her husband happy. And the women that didn’t keep their husbands happy back then paid in the long run. I have read so many stories about men who couldn’t feed their families and they would kill themselves. A man that couldn’t feed his family was not even a man, back then, and he figured he may as well kill himself and be one less mouth to feed. Or many men went out on the road to find work and never returned.

The mother’s job at home was precious and she was needed to sing to the family and to dry their tears. She was the star of the home and the strong shoulder to cry on. She was a woman of faith and courage. And if she wasn’t, she just flat lost her family.

And, ya know, during the Dirty Thirties in Kansas, they had no rain for three years. And so they had no gardens and mother kept her family alive on dried beans. Mainly, she kept them alive with her faith. Also, there were several plagues of grasshoppers during that time, too. The grasshoppers came and ate everything off the top of the ground … even ate the eyes out of several horses. They would eat the wooden handles off the garden tools.

The land in Kansas was so overworked by the settlers and they had so few trees, when the wind came, it would blow the dry top soil right off. So the Dust Storms were terrible in that three years of no rain. The Mothers’ homes were just full of dry dirt. They would have to shovel the dirt out of their homes in the country. In order to start supper, they had to first clean the dishes full of dirt.

Mother was the anchor of the home as she kept the faith and encourged the family to keep on goin’. And now, dear mothers, in our age, you all have a job to do to keep your families happy and well fed and full of courage. We need to keep the hope up in our families. We need to have homes that are festive and alive with joy. We, too, fight a war, as the times about us are hard.

Ya know, we need to take lessons from the Mothers of old. We need to cook and bake every day, too. Mothers used to make pies and cakes once a week … also, a few batches of bread, deprending on family size. We seem to be losing our families, and factories are feeding our loved ones. We need to fill up our cookie jars with homemade cookies and bring the joy and gladness back into our homes.

I have had so many interruptions on this writing today. I have been workin’ on it since early this morning. I am just going to have to quit it and write again about it later.

A few days ago, Jim told me that he would like some sour dough pancakes. I really didn’t think he knew about sour dough. I thought maybe he was talkin’ about a mix he had seen. I said to him, “Well, Honey, you have had the real sour dough pancakes?” And he said that all the housewives in his neighborhood had a sour dough pot, and they made all kinds of baking with it. Jim said back when he was a boy, if a woman didn’t have a sour dough pot in her kitchen, then she wasn’t worth much.

Jim came from a family of 13 children and he was the 12th. And just up the street was a family who had 16 …no twins. And another family who had 14 right close to his house. And these were old time families who had lived through the Depression and were still goin’ strong. Jim, of course, was a younger child, having been born in 1940.

Back in the old days during pioneer days, a new bride was given a sour dough starter to take to her cabin. Probably her Mama gave her part of hers. I read about one bride who used a cup of her starter and forgot to feed it again with more flour, and she had to walk a few miles in the winter to get some more starter from a neighbor. And the Gold Miners used to take their sour dough starters everywhere they went. I mean, you couldn’t buy yeast, baking powder or soda at the store, and the sour dough was all you had to make breads and pancakes rise.

In the winter, the Mother had to keep her fire going in the fire place. If her fire went out, she would have to borrow some from the neighbors, so she had to stay home and keep the home fires burning. She needed to watch the fire and make sure it stayed contained and didn’t burn the house down. She needed her fire to keep the cabin warm and for candles to see with.

Mother worked and depended on herself for food and light for her family. She had to be wise and prudent with what she had. She learned to live from the inside out instead of from the grocery store or Wal-Mart, etc. She had sheep and she spun wool and made the material to sew with. And she had a flock of chickens and geese, and she used the feathers to make pillows and matresses for the beds.

And, ya know, here we are … good grief! Feminism and its ways have thrown us out of the kitchen. But, still, we can cook and bake and sew and live by the inspirations that God puts in our hearts. Let’s quit listening to the world and let God inspire us in our homes.

I don’t cook sometimes. I get discouraged and I don’t want to do my housework. But I have a special gift, as far as cooking. So if I need to clean the house, I will start out with putting a pot of soup on the stove, and this gets my Happy Home Yeast to bubbling. It lifts me up and gives me joy. And pretty soon, I am cleanin’ the living room and washing the dishes in the sink. Maybe your gift is sewing, and as you think of a project, you think, “Wow, I am going to take the whole afternoon to sew.” And then you think, “I had better get some soup on for supper, and I will get the beds made and clean the bathroom so I can sew all afternoon.”

I think the Lord gives all of us gifts in our homemaking. You know, an old woman said to me once, when I was a young bride, “Sister made the pies and I made the bread in our family home. I would try to make the pies, but I wasn’t good at it. And Sister wasn’t good at makin’ bread, either.” But I could see early on as a homemaker that each family member was given a gift to help the others out. So, if you had a house full of sisters, you could see many different gifts in homemaking, and the home was run smoothly.

Our daughter Christian was always an excellent organizer, and she kept me organized. She was so gifted as a helper to me when I had so many children. She could find anything, and I was always losing things. But I had to cook and we all knew that, so I was mainly in the kitchen. I made stuff out of absolutly nothing at times.

I wanted to start writing a bit about the nuts and bolts of homemaking. Some of you pretty much have things worked out, so don’t pay any attention to me if I cross your schedule.

For one thing, the years of 2000, or even the 90s or the 80s, really don’t give us any picture of the Mother at home. So I feel we must go back to a time when the Mother was exalted in the home as a Keeper at Home. Some of you like the 50s Mother. I remember the 70s mom with the long patchwork quilted skirts and full aprons. She wore the bandana around her head and was a health nut. She made everything from scratch. I revert back to the 70s Mother, and also to the Depression era mother. But I really think you gotta have a picture of the housewife you want to be.

Some of you that have no picture of a godly mother need to somehow find this mom and plant her in the visions of your heart. I would even recommend that you all get the Little House on the Praire books and read them yourself and to your children. Ma Ingalls had alot of wisdom and you can pick this up from Laura’s writings. And if you can get some of the little House movies from the library, that would help you to be able to see a mother in the home. Also, the Walton movies … those are so good. Both of these were shows on tv that had their popularity in the 70s.

We do have to go back to a time when the family was important. The Bible says to go back to the ancient paths to learn what they have to teach us. I mean, we just don’t have any example of her in this age. One of my favorite home videos to watch is “Sarah Plain and Tall.” And then there are two other movies after this, “Skylark” and “Winters End.” They are Hallmark movies. I also love the shows that are a take off from the book Ann of Green Gables. They are called “Tales of Avonlee.” And then, of course, the Christy movies are good to show you morals. I used to get all of the Shirley Temple movies for our Mary to teach her manners. But, anyway, some of you who have never seen a stay at home mother need to find one to look at. And if it is only through the movies, so be it. Whoever wrote the script knew a stay at home mother and is showing you one.

And, you know, we need to have fun with running our homes and use our imaginations when the times get boring. Many times, when I am just plain befuddled as to where to start in my day, I will say to myself, “Wisdom is coming to my house today at 3:00 for tea. I have to get ready for her.”

And I just clean the house for this wonderful woman of wisdom to come to my house for a visit. I call her Ruby, and I want Ruby to think I have a house of wisdom. So I run about and clean and get ready for Ruby to come to my house.

I will think to myself, “Well, I better get supper done for Papa before Ruby comes, as we may while the afternoon away with conversations of wisdom and teachings. I want to have everything done so I can just sit at Ruby’s feet and hear her words. She is my older Titus Mother.” And, as long as we are childlike and have an imagination, we can be happy in our homes. As we see Ruby coming, we will see wisdom coming to our homes, too. This is an act of faith that we are learning wisdom.

I think one of the best homemaking tips I would give you is to to get your cooking done in the mornings. Start the family meal soon after breakfast. Then just refrigerate it, or whatever. But, usually, your main event of the day is the family meal, and if you can wrap the rest of the housework around the famiy meal, this helps you to be organized. If your big meal is in the afternoon, then this is even more reason to begin it right after breakfast.

And also, put your husband first and before the children. I always cooked what Jim wanted and my children learned to eat it.

And ya know, dear Kitchen Saints? No one ever did anything in this world who didn’t have an imagination. All of the great inventors, artists , musicians , writers and scientists all used their imaginations to bring things forth in the physical. Your laboratory is your kitchen, and you are a painter and artist, too. You are creating homes that are works of art for the world to see and bounce off from. You are sculpting a masterpiece.

Your job is really harder than the wives in the 50s or even the 70s. Because you have to pop right out of the ground. Straight up you come, with no one and nothing to bounce off from. You are to be your own creation.

Ya know, I love the hillbilly housewife recipes. She has a writing about apron evangelism. I loved what she said about aprons.

But dear Mothers, just shut the world out and get some “Little House on the Praire” movies and books and ask the Lord to teach you through these. Also, if your library has the real old cookbooks, get a big stack of them and study them. Go back to an era when family meant something and re-route your thinking.

Now, Barbara Swell’s books are so inspiring. Surround yourself with godly women, even if it only through books.

Put pictures on the wall of mothers in long calico dresses holding babies and enjoying her many children. We women of the 2000s need all the pictures and help we can get. The Bible says to keep the word before your eyes. This is one way to keep the word concerning Keepers at Home before your eyes, with pictures of Godly mothers on the wall.

Keep notebooks of your household schedules. And only go out once a week for errands. The rest of your week should be knee deep in children hanging at your apron and recipes swirling in your heads.

Be happy and sing as you do your chores. Ya know, the old time mothers had a song they sang as they mixed and kneaded their bread. One lady told me that her Mama was like this when she was a little girl, and my friend said she thought, when she became a young bride, that you couldn’t make bread unless you sang this song her Mama sang. The song was part of the recipe for bread.

Here are a few more tips:

• Get up early in the morning and get dressed, and clean up the living room first. This way, if ya get unexpected company at the door, you are ready to answer it. When our husbands go out the door to work, we have to be ready to be responsible adults to tend to the problems of the day.
• Before you start homeschool, have the house in order. Top clean, so that the children can feel they are organized. And usually, if ya don’t get school done in the mronings, ya don’t get it done. So try to start around 8 or 9:00, then break for lunch, then finish up after lunch.
• Rest in the afternoon. Read the Bible and write down recipes or craft ideas. After you rest, do your main cleaning projects in the afternoon. Then stop and put supper on … if you started it after breakfast, it won’t be such an interruption to get it together and hot for when Daddy’s car rolls into the driveway.
• Maybe the children had out toys and games to play in the afternoon. Make sure the toys are picked up before Daddy comes home for supper. Teach the children that Dad is tired and wants to rest and have things orderly … don’t let the children have friends in when Dad just gets home.
• The supper hour should be a sacred family time to be quiet and enjoy each other. Dad should be able to sit down and not be interrupted, so he can collect his thoughts after work. You, Mother, have had your afternoon to rest and pray, and Dad hasn’t. So let him eat in peace. If the phone rings, you go get it. If the baby spills her milk, you clean it up. You should be ready to guard your husband’s quiet time. He has given you the priveledge to stay home with the children, so you should respect him.

RELATED LINKS:

Hillbilly Housewife – There aren’t any exotic meals here, only family-friendly recipes that use basic ingredients. The recipes are all tested in a real kitchen with hungry children, stalking cats, begging puppies and a playful husband underfoot.
Apron Evangelism – philosophies on the pleasure & power of aprons

Native Ground Music: Kitchen & Home – Step into Barbara Swell’s kitchen as she dishes up delicacies from times past. Her best-selling cookbooks are packed with historic old-time recipes and cooking methods, kitchen proverbs, folk remedies, romantic advice, autograph rhymes, food insults, table manners, vintage photos, and more than a cupfull of homegrown humor.

The old time Mothers were like scientists. They learned from their own mothers how to set up a kitchen and how each brew, like their pots of vinegars or cheese, would attract certain yeasts out of the air.

My own home, for some reason, is just full of certain yeasts in the air. I could make a glass of water turn into wine … just kidding. (I wonder if it’s because Jesus lives here.)

We all know that yogurt starter is a different yeast than bread yeast, or that cottage cheese needs a dfferent starter than a bread yeast. You can use bread yeast to start your wine or vinegar.

These old time mothers made their own starters because they didn’t go to the store, except maybe twice a year. Their own kitchens were like little factories and these women had knowledge and wisdom. To them, it was a common knowledge to know how to make a sour dough starter for their breads and how to keep them going for many years. They guarded their own starters and passed them on to their daughters.

Sour dough starters are just water and flour and maybe a bit of salt, and some sugar, and maye a pinch of store bought yeast. As you set this on your kitchen counter and it gets warm, the pinch of yeast begins to grow. And if you protect your starter, then you will never have to buy store bought yeast again.

But the old time mothers knew how to attract the yeast out of the air, and how to attract the right kind for what she wanted it for. Their families’ lives and wellness laid in the hands of Mother and how skilled she was in the kitchen.

In the summer, I have made a grape wine that only consists of grapes and sugar and water. I leave the grapes whole and the skins have a yeast on them that ferments the wine. I have nothing in there except water and grapes and sugar … no starters. This is why you need fresh fruits to make wines or vinegars. So often at the store, they spray the fruit with harmful sprays that will kill the natural yeasts in your fruits. But, see, I could take two cups of my wine I have brewin’ now and make two loaves of bread and not have to use any bread yeast. Like you have heard of beer bread? Well it would be like that.

You have to know how to control the yeast, too. When my wine is done bubbling, I will put a tight lid on it so it won’t gather any more yeast from the air and get so strong, it will knock a buffalo down at a dead run. But I will cap this and put it in a cool place on my screened in porch. The cool air will retard the spread of the yeast and keep the wine sweet and light. One time, my wine got too strong, so I used it to clean out my coffee pot. I guess it turned to vinegar. But if you want to keep wine from doing this, you have to stop the yeast action. Yeast loves warm places (not hot), and the cold stops it from growing.

Ya know, to make cottage cheese, you can just let your raw milk sit in a warm place and the yeast from the air will curdle it. Or you can add vinegar to help it along to the curdling stage.

Annie, bless her little stinkin’ heart, laughs at me for the way I make one meal as a starter for the next one and on and on and on. But this is how the old-time mothers did it. They would make potato soup from the leftover mashed potatoes from one meal. And then, when the soup was down to about two cups, she grabbed it from the table to start her potato bread for the next day. She knew she would use the potatoes for three things, so when she peeled them, she would peel enough for the mashed potatoes, the potato soup for the next day, and then for the bread starter.

She would start her bread the night before and let the yeast grow in a warm place beside the stove. Now, this wouldn’t be a sour dough starter. She would add a pinch of yeast to her two cups of leftover potato soup, and it would ferment overnight, and she would begin baking early the next morning. Of course, she saved her potato water to make bread, too. Potatoes have a lot of something that yeast loves. Potato bread isn’t made just for the taste of the potatoes, but for how it makes the yeast grow and the texture of it.

Yeast loves sugar, and if you have any yeast that you think is old but you ain’t quite sure, just set your yeast in some warm water and put some sugar in it. If it doesn’t bubble, then your yeast is old and won’t be good for making bread. I test my yeast each time I bake to make sure it is fresh.

Back in the old days, when I was raising my chidren, I would get so nervous and cry to the Lord. I had so much anxiety about not being able to feed my children good meals. I wasn’t about to scream “Uncle” and go get a job. But, oh boy, I would get so scared, and yet I didn’t want to let on to my family that we had so little groceries, at times. The Lord always gave me something to feed the family. But it was close, believe me! Papa was just saved and doing his best to work and support us, the best he could. I wasn’t about to whine to him that we didn’t have enough money for groceries. This was my place of duty and I had determined that, with the Lord’s help, I would not fail in this area.

So, finally, I would get mad at God and say, “Lord? Now you gave me these children and they need to be fed. I don’t have hardly nothin’ to feed them, and this is your problem and not mine.”

And the Lord would tell me, “Connie, you have a lot more than the women during the Depression had, and they fed their families.” And the Lord would encourage me to read about the women during the Depression and learn how they made a kitchen that was worth something. So I got to lookin’ in my kitchen and decided where the warmest place was to let my bread rise and to make my sour dough, or yogurt … whatever I needed. I used the yogurt in place of sour cream and made creamed cheese with the yogurt, too. I put a little shelf over my hot air register and this was my place, like the old time mothers had on the back of their stoves.

I took courage from the books I read of the old time mothers. And I thought, “If they could do it, I could, too.”

And, ya know, I learned how to make wine quite by accident. I decided to make root beer, as we couldn’t afford this except once in a while. Well, after I made it with the yeast and sugar and extract, Papa says, “My mother used to let this all set for a few weeks.” Well, my recipe was for Sunday School Rootbeer, and you were supposed to drink it right away, and you weren’t supposed to let it set and ferment. I was shocked when I found out I was giving my Christian friends real beer. They were shocked, too. I told everyone that it was Sunday School Rootbeer and I was sure it wasn’t fermented.

Finally, an old moonshiner told me, “Connie, it fermented. Anytime you let yeast and sugar alone for a few weeks, it will ferment and turn into alcohol.”

Oh, the Christian men laughed and teased Jim and elbowed him in the ribs and started laughing again and again. The wives looked at me like, “Only Connie would be makin’ her own brew at home, all alone by herself and by accident.” Oh, their husbands laughed until the tears just squirted from their eyes. Then the stories began with the men about thier lives before they got saved and how they used to drink, and then Papa would tell about the potato mash and apple jack they made in prison.

And, to my surprise, the world of fementation opened up to me. I brought my very Baptist friend some rhubarb wine for her husband. He laughed and said, “This stuff ain’t for kids.” One day, he brought me over a big tub of grapes and told me not tell him what I planned to do with it. He said, for all he knew, I was gonna make jelly. I mean, I have kept folks laughin’ with this stuff for miles around. It was really funny because everyone knew that Jim and I didn’t drink.

HERBS

Around that time, too, I started growing my own herbs. I had grown this valerian? But I wasn’t sure if it was valerian or feverfew. Well, it didn’t matter at first because I was just experimenting with this stuff, and if ya let it grow tall enough, you figure out the difference. It looks the same in the beginning, but the feverfew has flowers like daisies on it once it matures.

Well, when it was just beginning to grow, a friend wanted to trade me some herbs. I said I wasn’t sure if I had valerian or feverfew. So I made some tea with the valerian to see if it calmed me down, as then I would know it was, indeed, valerian. (Folks take valerian to calm their nerves.) So I drank some and I didn’t get calmed down, but I liked the taste and drank it all afternoon. I thought it was feverfew. Well, it was valerian and I was calmed down, alright — it finally hit me like a Mack truck. My eyes would close while I was just walking around. I thought, “Oh, dear Lord God, what am I gonna do?”

When Jim got home from work, I tried to hide this from him. I was sitting talking to him and my eyes would just close on their own. Jim kept looking at me and I kept trying to hide my face. Finally, Jim says, “What on earth is the matter with you?” I finally told him what I had done. Supper wasn’t fixed or anything, and I had to go to bed and sleep it off. Well, who could fix supper with their eyes closed? I mean, it was hard enough fixin’ it with my eyes open, with no groceries.

I am sorry … I am trying to be serious, but it just ain’t workin’ out. I better stop before I go any further with this.

Later, Papa did go out and dig up the valerian and told me not to be growin’ things like this.