Homesteaders

[rancher hicks]

FYI, I bought some new "old" cook books and there are some recipes for Coon, possum and squirrel in them.

Too, of interest to me recipes for rhubarb other than jams and pie.

I was hoping to find the recipe for the dumplings my mother used to make.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

I LOVE old cookbooks. All my best recipes have been my great grandmas. They used real food to cook with not the processed crud of today.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Agreed old cookbooks are the best, or church cookbooks. I suppose old church cookbooks would rein supreme.

 

[rancher hicks]

I LOVE old cookbooks. All my best recipes have been my great grandmas. They used real food to cook with not the processed crud of today.

Agreed old cookbooks are the best, or church cookbooks. I suppose old church cookbooks would rein supreme.

It's cool to read that you have to "make" an ingredient that you need, not buy it all made at the store. Oh and I just saw Lard at a store. I haven't seen lard in years.

One book has a recipe for Lye soap.

Others have terms like "small cup of sugar". I expect they didn't have measuring cups as common as we do today.

Anyhow I figure these are the cookbooks you'd want if you're a homesteader. I got a whole stack of stuff for $10.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

It's cool to read that you have to "make" an ingredient that you need, not buy it all made at the store.  Oh and I just saw Lard at a store.  I haven't seen lard in years.

One book has a recipe for Lye soap.   Others have terms like "small cup of sugar".  I expect they didn't have measuring cups as common as we do today. 

Anyhow I figure these are the cookbooks you'd want if you're a homesteader.  I got a whole stack of stuff for $10.    

I buy lard for my biscuits and pie crusts. It just gives a much better mouth feel and taste. Plus lard is , get this!, healthier than cisco. I really appreciate the old world methods of cooking and living . Its so simple and non stressful compared to life today.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I like having the option to pick and choose the "old ways" that I live in my life. I am too lazy to actually live that life.
lol!!

 

[rancher hicks]

I buy lard for my biscuits and pie crusts. It just gives a much better mouth feel and taste. Plus lard is , get this!, healthier than cisco. I really appreciate the old world methods of cooking and living . Its so simple and non stressful compared to life today.

I did hear that. In other news there was a thing on CBS this morning about Monsanto. I just remembered it. I've got to watch it.

I like having the option to pick and choose the "old ways" that I live in my life. I am too lazy to actually live that life.
lol!!

Sometimes I'm not quite so sure the old ways are harder. Perhaps the extra work meant folks ate less and weighed less. "Mom only made so many biscuits and once they were gone they were gone." "Ah man there's not more gravy?" Then...............................Now. " No there's another can of gravy in the cupboard just heat it up. " "No biscuits? Let me just break open a can and pop them in the oven".

Then you had to budget your money so you only cooked so many taters. Remember in "Meet me in St. Louis" Katie the maid says "Mrs Smith said she wanted to make it last for two meals". This when Mr. Smith complains, "We don't shave meat in this house" or something like that. I couldn't find the exact lines.

Some things have improved. IMO there is no reason anyone in this world should go hungry, but that's another story.

Anyhow many of the recipes in these books call for Lard.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

We do 95% of our property upkeep by hand. We have no tractor, no post hole auger, nothing of that sort. We do our tilling with a 1970 tiller. All ditches and holes get dug by hand. We have power drills and saws we use but that's it. I'm not anti technology I just prefer to do things by hand to show my kids it can still be done . Plus it's better than a gym membership and it's free.

 

[boskelli1571]

We do 95% of our property upkeep by hand. We have no tractor, no post hole auger, nothing of that sort. We do our tilling with a 1970 tiller. All ditches and holes get dug by hand. We have power drills and saws we use but that's it. I'm not anti technology I just prefer to do things by hand to show my kids it can still be done . Plus it's better than a gym membership and it's free.

Enjoy while you are young!

I would love to be able to do everything by hand, but a chainsaw and tractor are necessities for cutting wood etc. Other than that we really don't have too much in the way of big equipment.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

We have a chainsaw and use a 4 wheeler to pull large logs off the hill. We are trying to aquire some larger equipment but for now it's just slow and steady with the work.