Old Farm Country Cookbook
Recipes, Menus, and Memories
Some mornings I wake up thinking, “I don’t know how to make sauerkraut.”
Seriously.
My grandmother made it and so did her sisters and sisters-in-law. It was a staple. They canned it, which meant they put it into mason jars, heated it until the rubber rings affixed the lid to the jar (thwok!), and tightened a ring over it. That fermented cabbage was a staple part of meals from late fall to early spring when fresh vegetables weren’t available.
One didn’t go to the grocery store to buy vegetables from Mexico or Chile when they weren’t in season. That wasn’t a part of life. You made do. My grandmother grew vegetables in her garden or bought specific items from the grocery store and canned them. I remember the basement having two six-foot shelving units with eight shelves each, stacked four jars deep, filled to bursting with colorful food.
My grandmother canned beef and pork and chicken. She was born in 1896 and grew up as one of 11 children. Storing food was critical.
By the time I came along in the late ‘50s, she had a freezer, but that held frozen fish my grandfather caught all summer long, blueberries and strawberries and raspberries they picked in the wild.
Apricots and peaches and pears, when they were plentiful at the grocery store, were canned for “sauce.” I put that in quotes because I’ve learned not everyone had “sauce.” It was a staple dessert for us, fruit canned in its own juice and a little sweetener. When you fed your guests at ten pm before they set out on the journey home, sauce was often on the table.
I was delighted to find a process for making sauerkraut in the Old Farm Country Cookbook by Jerry Apps and his daughter, Susan Apps-Bodilly (Wisconsin Historical Society Press). It’s just how I remember my family putting up Red Wing crocks of cabbage to ferment until it was mighty tasty. This book is chock-full of recipes and reminiscences and tips for the best ways to make your own food.
With food being so dicey to buy in the grocery store (my email is filled with recalls), prices inching ever higher, and packaging getting smaller, growing your own is once again sounding very attractive.
I think cookbooks, especially those with commentary, are as fascinating to read as any novel or history book. This one certainly is. Here’s a sample.
About once a week, Ross Caves, Wild Rose’s local trucker, hauled a load of livestock by the farmers in our community to the stockyards in Milwaukee. In his red cattle truck, he transported hogs, veal calves, worn-out dairy cows — whatever livestock a farmer wanted to sell. But he did much more.
Once a year he scrubbed out his truck, removing every last vestige of animal waste, straw, and dirt. Then he put up a poster at the Wild Rose Mercantile announcing that he would be making his annual trip to Door County for a day of cherry picking. He included a phone number to call for those who wanted to go along. My mother looked forward to the ride in the back of the cattle truck along with other women from the Wild Rose area interested in a day away, a day for socializing, and a few hours of cherry picking.
The section on “Ma’s Apron” brought tears to my eyes. I could picture my grandmother standing in front of me. “It was a full-length affair, with a cloth strap that went over her head and strings that tied in the back, the front of it covering most of her dress.”
There are recipes that harken back to food rationing, inventive ways to use fresh vegetables, the ubiquitous “Noodle Hotdish,” plenty of sweets, and all kinds of memories to make your mouth water.
These two authors are cherished storytellers in Wisconsin. Occasionally you can catch them on PBS. It’s worth it stop what you’re doing and watch.
But it’s this book, filled with wisdom and a little sass, as well as many, many memories of how this nation fed itself at a time when fewer people were unhealthy, that will have you turning the pages to learn more about our history and how we could return to eating.
Highly recommended.
Old Farm Country Cookbook:
Recipes, Menus, and Memories
Jerry Apps & Susan Apps-Bodilly
Wisconsin Historical Society Press
I invite you to subscribe for a weekly book recommendation, a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but always a book I believe you’ll enjoy.
Your delicious writing makes me feel like we're in your living room and you're reminiscing while you pass around the foods you remember so we can all taste them 💕