Whenever I think of fun and fellowship, the first thing that comes to mind is food. It is a trilogy: food, fun and fellowship. The kitchen was the centre of our home when I was a child. Food preparation was an all day project, from making fresh bread, to baking blueberry pies ( we actually picked the blueberries), to creating a fragrant soup stock that simmered on the back burner. Today, we live busy lives outside the home. Our kitchens are smaller and the amount of hours spent on making meals has slowly decreased over the years. With diverse assortment of grocery stores and neighbourhood deli/caterers in our neighbourhood, it is so easy to pick up healthy, delicious meals on our way home from work.
We have come to like our new world where we have the possibility of immediate results (even with food) because the upshot is that we have more hours in the day to pursue other interests. We may deplore fast food, but we desire its speed and efficiency.
My grandmother, a farmer’s wife, cooked for a threshing crew at harvest time. (Threshing is a process of beating out grain from the straw or husk of grain.) In the 1930’s and 1940’s a crew could be up to 20 people. Meal preparation took an enormous amount of organization and effort. Up at first light, my grandmother worked the wood cook stove, pealed the potatoes, carrots. She saw to it that the milk was freshly separated, and the butter hand churned.
My grandmother embraced innovation. The freezer was available to more families in the 1930s based on two factors: 1) falling prices 2) the introduction of refrigerants that were harmless and non-flammable. My grandmother was freezing waffles years before they became a staple in the refrigerated section of our grocery stores. It seems that even 60 years ago, people were looking for fast food!
Taking the Kitchen 
I am now a great grandmother, what a privilege. The rest of you will have to wait a quite a while.
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And you were a fabulous mother before you were a grandmother or great-grandmother. You just seem to collect more children as you go along…
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What a great grandmother ! Grandmothers are the most wonderful ! I want to become a great grandmother! 🙂
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I have a feeling, when the time comes (don’t rush it) that you will be the best great grandmother!! My 21 year old son is in no hurry to get married, so it seems that it will be a while before I become a grandmother….
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As a child, I churned a lot of butter. There were several different kinds of churns, one was called “The Daisy”, we used the large crock churn with a paddle that we stomped up and down. Both kinds worked well. Then, there was the invention of margarine. At first, especially in Minnesota where my husband grew up, the margarine was packaged with yellow coloring that we mixed in to make the white margarine look yellow like butter. No one was fooled, it didn’t taste like butter, even if it looked like butter.
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I remember those margarine packages. They had this yellow dye that you needed to spread through the margarine! You’re so right!! It didn’t taste at all like butter.
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I want some of those blueberry pies & hand churned butter & your grandmother!!
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So do I!! I was reading an article several months ago that we do not use our stoves like our grandmothers. There has been a gradual transition from stove to stove top. As for churning butter – a friend said that she picked some up at a farmer’s market but wouldn’t disclose how many she paid for it. It seems we all remember the great taste…
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I haven’t made butter in years because I am reducing intake of it. but maybe for TG!
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I always remember Julia Child saying “more butter…” I’m with you – my scale will not let me have any more butter, no matter if Julia said it was OK. 🙂
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I am 81 years old, I remember those days. They were special and good.
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Would love to hear more stories!
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