SEGMENT: FARMHOUSE, FOOD STORAGE, & FOOD & MEALS

Marie Burch>UIS Collection B's>UIS Collection B's, Segment 5

SEGMENT: FARMHOUSE, FOOD STORAGE, & FOOD & MEALS,

duration 10:33
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FARMHOUSE
Describes first home; eight rooms, no plumbing or electricity. 1926 put in bath upstairs and kitchen sink. Fuels. Basement furnace, coal with hot air. A Quick Meal Range with six holes on top and a water reservoir. Used wood, corn cobs, or coal for fuel. Coal mine in Divernon. One dollar a ton. Mother could tell temperature of oven with her hand.
GARDEN
Raised potatoes, onions, radishes, lettuce, green beans, lima beans. Described pole beans growing on teepees of saplings, making a tent for children to play in.
FOOD STORAGE
No refrigeration, so had a back cellar with stairs, shelves. Stored vegetables, potatoes, apples, pumpkins, squashes, turnips in big bins. Meat could only be store if smoked. Had a wooden smokehouse on the back of the house. Did not have an icehouse. Had to butcher and share a beef among relatives because it would not store.
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
Mentions she has wedding pictures of her parents. Mother made her own dress. Was not sure if her parents had a shivaree, but her uncle did at his second wedding. Whole town celebrated; even threw chickens in the window.
GROCERIES
Farmers bought flour, sugar, coffee at stores. They also had a Mr. Weber, a merchant who came door-to-door selling and trading groceries. Mentions etiquette taught by parents.
FOOD & MEALS
Mother and she would visit friends in the buggy, eat dinner, return home (summer). Mother canned some tomatoes, peaches, and made apple and grape butter, but was not a prolific canner. Marie got to drive the buggy to the mill with a bushel each of corn and wheat. Miller ground it up and they used it to make cooked cereal. Mother also made hominy.