Here's a vision from Christmases past--our little bungalow in the snow, back when our family was just three people with a Roan on the way. This Winter may prove to be as cold as that one was. Brrrr!
So, home for Christmas and customs in an affluent rural community are up next from Christmas in the Mountains. Preparations began in Autumn, as I guess they do now. Nuts falling, good things being put up from the gardens, weather cold enough to allow for butchering. All very Little House in the Big Woods. Firewood was chopped and laid ready. The Christmas fire was believed to have held in is embers the souls of family members who had gone before. They came in this way to join in the festivities and it was considered bad luck to let it go out.
The meal preparations included many of the favorites of that time, along with things that were plentiful. Stack cake, hams, chicken and dumplings, black walnut cake, candy, homemade light bread, and the like might be on the menu. People saved here and there, no matter how few their resources, so that the day would have a special air and special foods. And there was plenty of cider and that eggnog.
Descriptions and recipes for these items and more, if not in your own files, can be found in The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery and A Foxfire Christmas. They also include recipes that were served more often, and probably in more homes--leather breeches, cornbread or pone, stewed dried fruits and berries, and plainer foods. A Foxfire Christmas really captures the want that some mountain people truly struggled under, and their joy at filling their own tables when they grew up.
To be called to "put your feet under the board" was the summons for the meal. Mr. Davis tells of Mother apologizing for the meal, which I have been witness to many times. I think it must be a learned (inherited?) skill of mountain women. My mother has always been able to make a whole meal out of nearly any ingredients, and she always fished for compliments by apologizing for the meager selection on the full to bursting table.. ;-)
Interesting. That must be a learned thing that your mother and other mountain women say re food. I see this kind of learned behaviour in my birth family too. I love hearing about the resourcefulness and careful planning in the Little House books. Still on the Long Winter and they are almost running out of food. We are hooked on that book! Sounds like you might have a long winter too. Glad you are all on the mend.
ReplyDeleteIt must be. Maybe her paternal grandmother said it. My great-great aunt on the other side never made much of a fuss of her big, early suppers. "Here. Eat this," she'd say! Oh, the Long Winter is a tough one for us, but they manage. It's -18 here this morning, in your degrees. Brrrrrr!
DeleteIt's always interesting to me, the traditional foods associated with certain holidays, especially Christmas. My grandmother always made mincemeat pie at Christmas. I can remember ham and chicken and dumplings, too.
ReplyDeleteWe were watching a Christmas episode of 'Lark Rise to Candleford,' and I thought of some of the things that have been mentioned here during your series. The food might be meager and the gifts few, but everyone in the hamlet had gathered holly and various evergreens to decorate their cottages. :)
We never really had particular Christmas foods, other than my grandmother wanting boiled custard. I wish I could ask my great grandmother what she had. Oh, was it the scary episode? I could hardly get through that one! I'm really Still Glides the Stream right now. Have you read that one? I can see where they got further inspiration for the series.
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