SEGMENT: FOOD & MEALS, FARMHOUSE, & FARM WORK
Anna M. Williams>UIS Collection T-Z>UIS Collection T-Z, Segment 3
| <-Previous Segment | Next Segment-> |
- FARM WORK
- Shucked own corn in winter. Used mittens to protect hands. It was hard work.
- FARMHOUSE
- Her bed curtained off. Built one room on partitioned to two bedrooms. Then had parent's room, kitchen and front room. Called Bontjes home place. Father sold it after mother's death at 57 of pneumonia. He died at 67 of phlebitis. Home heat was coal (12 cents/bushel) and wood.
- FOOD & MEALS
- Mother made butter in squares or rounds, sold cottage cheese or clabbered milk. Parents sold shoulder and bacon of hog meat at 5 cents/pound. Kept hams. Used money for groceries in town. Sugar-cured meat in smokehouse with hickory chips and sawdust for three weeks; Put melted paraffin wax on meat; stored in smokehouse in brown paper sack. Cats tried to get into smokehouse. Skunks and raccoons into the chicken house. Made molasses outside in heat over fire. Detailed description of whole process, from stripping leaves from plant, cut off tops and discard, cut and load up stalks into wagon to mill, where they are rolled - juice ran out. Then cook in copper kettle for six hours stirring constantly to thicken without burning.
