Pioneer Living - Home Crafts (1970)

[Music] during the summer month the settlers of the early 1800s lived comfortably from the foods the forest yielded and the products of their Farms the Pioneers found quantities of game raccoon porcupine black squirrels wild turkeys Ducks wild pigeons and rabbits as well as berries and nuts however as Autumn approached each family was concerned with harvesting preserving and storing enough food to last through the winter months until the growing season began again meat for the winter consisted mainly of pork which had to be soaked in a solution of salt and water it was then hung in The Smokehouse to cure a slow burning fire of corn cobs Beach or Maple was started the salt and the smoke from the fire preserved the meat the door of the SmokeHouse was tightly closed and the meat smoked for about 10 days sausage meat was ground and mixed with herbs and sausage is made in the sausage press the meat was put into the Press and then forced through it into a casing sausages helped to add variety to the monotonous diet of the [Music] pioneer apples were an important part of the diet for they were used in many recipes an apple pairer or peeler was used to remove the peel in preparation for drying often they were cut in slices and hung up to dry when thoroughly dried they were packed in Crocs until needed one of the better known Specialties that was prepared for the winter months was Sauer crru a traditional favorite of the Pennsylvania German families the best of the cabbages from the garden Harvest were sliced then put into the sauerkraut Barrel salt was added as a preservative and the Cabbage was pounded finally the sauerkraut was packed in Crocs with a lid held tightly down by a stone or heavy object the sauerkraut was stored for 3 or 4 weeks to season served with sausage ham or bacon this dish was a Mainstay of the Pennsylvania German diet spices were very expensive making it necessary to grow a quantity of herbs to use for seasoning they were tied in bunches and stored in a warm dry Place once or twice each week it was necessary to churn butter a kettle of boiling water was poured into the churn to scald it and warm it thoroughly first the water was poured out so that the cream could be put in ready to be [Music] turned the cream from each day's milking was placed in a separate Croc and each day the housewife checked the contents of the cream Croc she wanted to churn when the cream was on the turn just as it was turning sour the wooden Dasher was placed into the churn and was worked up and down steadily until the cream began to feel heavy sometimes this was accomplished very quickly while at other times it might take an hour or more the length of time required to churn the butter depended on many things such as weather temperature and age of the cream after turning was completed the butter was separated from the buttermilk buttermilk was carefully stored in a cool place to be used for baking the mass of butter was lifted out of the churn into a large wooden butter [Music] bowl the butter was washed several times with cool water to remove all traces of the buttermilk each time clear water was worked into the butter with a wooden paddle finally salt was added to preserve the butter the amount of salt depended on the Family's taste so this could vary greatly a wooden mold was used to make a print of butter for use at Meal Time when removed from the mold the print of butter had a design sometimes a flower an animal or a geometric design extra butter was taken to the General Store to be sold or traded for other items apart from a little wild honey the only sugar available to the family was raw sugar which looked like a combination of brown sugar and molasses if the farmer had tapped his maple trees they could also have had maple [Music] sugar the early settlers learned the art of making maple syrup from the Indians much depended on the season some years the making of maple syrup could commence as early as February while other years it would not begin until April a small hole was made in each tree with an augur and a round wooden spout Hollow in the center was inserted to a depth of about 1 in sap from the tree dripped down the spout into a small wooden bucket as the sap buckets filled they were emptied into larger containers and taken to the boiling Kettle the sap was poured into the boiling Kettle and allowed to boil down until it became maple syrup if the syrup was to be boiled down to Sugar the simmering continued for several more hours if the syrup hardened when dropped in the snow then it was finished and could be removed from the fire the syrup was then poured into molds and iron pans to harden into maple sugar bread was one of the Main Stays of the diet and the housewife baked at least once or twice each week to satisfy the needs of her family the yeast used to make the bread rise was made from potatoes or hops after the dough was made it was put to rise in the dough box beside the fireplace overnight in the morning a fire was lit in the bake oven and allowed to heat for at least 2 hours while the oven was heating the dough was taken from the dough box kneaded down and formed into loaves the loaves were then covered and left to rise [Music] again meanwhile the coals and Ashes were removed from the bake oven and the loaves were placed inside along with potatoes or other vegetables if the baking coin cded with meal [Music] preparations the wooden door was fitted into place to retain as much heat as possible reflector ovens made of tin could be used for roasting the dripping from the meat was caught in the pan below and used for basting each member of the the family contributed to the preparation of food for the family tables and each acknowledged the Bounty and goodness that surrounded them in this new [Music] land