I had an aunt and uncle, who had more money than we did, no kids, and
every year they spent a few months in Florida. On the way back to
Baltimore, (Bawl-mer) they'd stop by for a visit and bring us a big
bag of fresh oranges, which was a treat back in those days.
I think the warmth of the sun (and maybe something else, who knows-
the way clothes dried in the sun smell so wonderful) brings out
aromas in food crops that is lost when they're packed away in dark
crates, shipped for a thousand miles, kept in arid stores. It is
marvelous to sleep next to a corn field. At night the wind ripples
it, it sighs and whispers, you can see why the Native Americans told
of corn maidens and such, living there.
And cattle- what have we lost there, that our ancestors knew as well
as we know the sounds of car traffic? The clop... crop... pulling of
grass... munch... clop... pull as they feed. The thwack thwack of a
calf smacking its head against its mother's udder, to bring down the
milk. I've slept listening to those sounds, too. Wonderful.
Nancy
-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
--Daniel Boone
On Jan 21, 2007, at 8:27 PM, Anita Wills wrote:
> When people traveled in the summer time, they would bring items
> home. I remember we got a barrel of pecans from Georgia one summer.
> We got good fruits and vegetables from as far away as South
> Carolina. I live in California and when you shuck the corn, it just
> does not have that fresh sweet smell, of fresh grown corn. When I
> was a child we would go out to the corn fields and eat the corn
> right from the stalk.
>
> Now those are the good old days that I miss (smile).
>
> Anita
>
>
>> From: Sunshine49 <[log in to unmask]>
>> Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia
>> history <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: "ex" Ku Klux Klan member
>> Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 14:36:45 -0500
>>
>> When I was a kid growing up in Richmond in the '50s, a lot of
>> people had a few backyard chickens. I think it's now illegal to
>> keep such "farm animals" in the city. In our neighborhood,
>> Woodland Heights (in south Richmond), which was mostly built as a
>> streetcar suburb in the 1920s, the old houses had cherry, apple
>> and pear trees, black walnut trees, and an abundant grape arbor;
>> neighbors shared the bounty with other neighbors. We'd gather a
>> few bags full of black walnuts, spread them under the back porch
>> to dry, and before holiday baking season sit with a hammer and
>> knock off the outer husks and the hard shell, to get the nutmeat
>> for baking. In summer we'd have a dishpan full of cherries on the
>> back porch, washing them so Mama could make pies, and of course
>> eating plenty, too. Sitting under the shade of the backyard maple
>> tree, shelling fresh butter beans and talking. So even though it
>> was very much in the "city", it was in a way a rural lifestyle,
>> too. My grandparents lived in Chesterfield County, and had a
>> small vegetable garden, in the summer we kids would be out there
>> picking butter beans, blackberries, various melons, squash,
>> cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, etc. When you grow up with fresh food,
>> the horrid stuff in the grocery stores today can never compare.
>> Nothing better than fresh corn, picked and brought into the house
>> and plopped directly into boiling water. Fresh kale, after a
>> first light frost- I'd just pick it and eat it raw. Or ripe
>> tomatoes, still warm from the sun.
>>
>> Out here in rural Orange County there are still older folks who
>> have their vegetable gardens. Then one day you no longer see them
>> out there, they must have died, and no one else continues the
>> garden. Sad. One thing about gardening, no matter if it's for
>> food or flowers, it makes you generous. Sharing your extra
>> tomatoes or giving away cuttings of a favorite flower, it's a
>> pleasant way to look at the world.
>>
>> Nancy
>>
>> -------
>> I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
>>
>> --Daniel Boone
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jan 21, 2007, at 1:36 PM, Anita Wills wrote:
>>
>>> When I was growing up in rural Pennsylvania, the farmers would
>>> send meat, fruit and vegetables. We went to the Farmers Market
>>> during the summer (which was run by the Amish), and they had the
>>> best foods, and bake goods there. In the fall my uncle would
>>> bring us baskets of pears, apples, peaches, tomatoes, and other
>>> fruits and vegetables. My mother would can the goods for the
>>> winter, and eventually she taught me how to can. Most of the
>>> canned fruits did not make it past the first couple of months (I
>>> can still taste them). Early in the morning my father would get
>>> up and go to a farm to get milk fresh from the cow. Sometimes he
>>> would come home with eggs, which were freshly laid.
>>>
>>> Most of the people that were from the South kept gardens
>>> growing, and they also hunted and fished. The concept of going
>>> to a market to buy food was foreign to them (this was in the
>>> 1950's). My mother told me that they grew everything on the farm
>>> she was raised on. They churned butter from the cows milk, and
>>> even used hops to make beer.
>>>
>>> I really miss that part of growing up.
>>>
>>> Anita
>>>
>>>
>>>> From: Debra Jackson/Harold Forsythe <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia
>>>> history <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>>> Subject: Re: "ex" Ku Klux Klan member
>>>> Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2007 15:21:58 -0500
>>>>
>>>> The Virginians on my mother's side called making a big mistake
>>>> "cutting a hog." I imagine this referred to the fact that
>>>> doing harm to a hog before the first freeze meant you would
>>>> probably not be able to preserve and use all that meat. Farm
>>>> folks, even those a generation removed in the coalfields of
>>>> Pennsylvania, understood the value of home produced protein for
>>>> the good of the family.
>>>>
>>>> In fact, both my grandfathers, industrial workers from Virginia
>>>> (maternal) and Georgia (paternal) kept kitchen gardens all
>>>> their lives, providing for their families not only by earning
>>>> wages but through their skills as gardeners. This tradition
>>>> continues among blacks (and not doubt whites, too) in Virginia
>>>> and the South but is a dying skill in the urban North and West.
>>>>
>>>> The extraordinary richness of southern agricultural potential
>>>> makes, I think, the actual history of agriculture in the South
>>>> a massive puzzle. Think, for example, of how the South ceased
>>>> to be food self-sufficient after 1865.
>>>>
>>>> Harold S. Forsythe
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 1:45 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: "ex" Ku Klux Klan member
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> You are absolutely right. If we think the recipe thread got
>>>>> people bothered this subject will really "take the rag off the
>>>>> bush".....which could lead us to a great line of discussion:
>>>>> old- timey expressions.
>>>>> Does anyone know where the expression: "take the rag off the
>>>>> bush came from"?
>>>>> I know. First of all, it translates to mean something mildly
>>>>> astonishing just happened.
>>>>> Where it originated was from laundry days and sometimes people
>>>>> would drape their damp napkins over the top of a bush to dry.
>>>>> Very likely it would be something like an English boxwood bush
>>>>> since they are fluffy and have no thorns which would tear the
>>>>> napkin. Occasionally, a black bird or a bluejay would swoop
>>>>> down and snatch the napkin off of the bush and fly away with it.
>>>>> So, there you go!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Debra Jackson/Harold
>>>>> Forsythe" <[log in to unmask]>
>>>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>>>> Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 12:56 PM
>>>>> Subject: Re: "ex" Ku Klux Klan member
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Oh, my: this is totally inappropriate for this listserve.
>>>>>> The LV folks are kind enough to offer us this forum
>>>>>> uncensored but that means we have to be responsible.
>>>>>> Democrats vs. Republicans is certainly an argument we are
>>>>>> free to have but not here.
>>>>>
>>>>> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
>>>>> instructions
>>>>> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>>>>
>>>> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
>>>> instructions
>>>> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>>>
>>> _________________________________________________________________
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>
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