I’m glad I put beans to soak last night,’ said Ma. She lifted the lid of the bubbling kettle and quickly popped in a spoonful of soda. The boiling beans roared, foaming up, but did not quite run over. ‘There’s a little bit of salt pork to put in them too,’ Ma said. Now and then she spooned up a few beans and blew on them. When their...
Thanksgiving dinner was good. Pa had shot a wild goose for it. Ma had to stew the goose because there was no fireplace, and no oven in the little stove. But she made dumplings in the gravy. There were corn dodgers and mashed potatoes. There were butter, and milk, and stewed dried plums. And three grains of parched corn lay beside each...
All day long while the girls were in school, Ma made preserves of the red tomatoes, of the purple husk tomatoes, and of the golden ground-cherries. She made pickles of the green tomatoes that would not have time to ripen before it froze. The house was full of the syrupy scent of preserves and the spicy odor of pickles. —Little Town on...
There are many challenges that come from life on a farm, but there’s a big payoff, too. Food on the table at a farmhouse is as good as it comes. In Farmer Boy, the third book in the Little House on the Prairie series, we learn about life on the Wilder family farm in Upstate New York. Food was plentiful, and Almanzo’s mother was known...