As a child, we as a family would go camping and fishing along the river banks of many rivers in two states. As we traveled or stayed at camp, we had sandwiches during the day but we always had breakfast and dinner on a open fire cooked in cast iron pots and pans. Often these meals were one dish meals..
Sometimes during the day we had to gather firewood for the fire that needed to last through the night. We tried to always keep a clean camp, but you know how that goes. I remember sometimes rubbing dish soap on the bottoms of some aluminum pans before Mom would cook on them over the fire. But 90% of the time she cooked on cast iron.
Fried taters were almost a staple for us as were many non meat meals.
We did have a cooler to cart stuff around and they would go to the store when needed to get stuff. I had many Dutch oven meals, chili and corn bread, stew and biscuits, pot pie, shepherds pie, cobblers the list goes on.
Having a fireplace or a place in your backyard to build a fire, you can create a simple one dish pioneering meal with your children or even a relaxing date and change it up a little. But allowing your children or grandchildren to help out will create wonderful memories that they will carry with them all of their lives.
After dinner, roast some marsh mellows or try my fav, roasted pineapple over an open fire....
So the next time power goes out, even if comes back on. Don't travel to the next town over, have a fun time cooking on a fire with your family or friends.
Showing posts with label community events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label community events. Show all posts
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
The Grain Mill, A Rare Insider Look, Part 3 of 3, A Social Media House, Bartering Hub
The following stations can all work together or not run while some others are. Items such as horse feed can be made in a 2 ton mixer.
Bird Seed is also mixed, and John makes different types of bird seed depending on which season it is, or which birds are most common. He admitted he can make 15 different types of bird food, but prefers to make only 5 different types. But if you buy 250 pounds of seed he will mix a batch for you.
Now its time for some pictures of the Mill and all her gears, spinning/humming. Inside are square tubes call elevators which move the grains from one operation to another until the end product is made. Buckwheat makes this trip up and down the three story building six times before its separated and the fine flour has been sifted and dropped in the bagging location.
But if you don't need hundreds of pounds of flour made, and want to make your own, and own a kitchen aid, this one is for you.
This one, if you want to make your own by hand, I have this one too!!
My friend has this one, and he uses it for all sorts, he loves it.
This unit is a bit cheaper, but isn't as well made judging by the looks of it.
The Grain Mill, A Rare Insider Look, Part 2 of 3, A Social Media House, Bartering Hub
Now we have information at our finger tips, but back when I lived on the farm, this wasn't so. Relationships were important to keep, and the Mill was the place where folks would get together and pass on news that was going on. The counter help would have to be some one that was good at keeping inventory, math, feed/food information as well as a good, friendly gossiper. A person who got along with everyone, and did so to help spread the word of the information they had gotten else where.
They had to be a Master Gossiper, one that didn't take sides, or hold judgment against different people. After all, the information they told would be the information that you told them to spread. There were certain things that wouldn't be spoken of, and some matters of family business weren't spread. There was/is a fine line of spreading that information.
I am not sure of the workings of the grain/feed business, as the crops we grew were to sustain our own farm. We sometimes had to buy grain in if we didn't have enough to make feed for our hogs. That's right, we were in the hogging business, or pork producers. Not a huge operation mind you, and I am not convinced that we were that successful at it.
From slaughtering our own hogs, storing them in a freezer until the buyer came by, to making scrapple to sell locally. I still think to this day, if Mom could have gotten that recipe out, we would have been known throughout the eastern seaboard for our scrapple, it was that good.
We were one of those familys that John Cougar Melloncamp would sing about, when he wrote the song Rain on the Scarecrow. A small farm run by country folks trying to make a living in the dirt. But soon technology and factory farming would put us out of business. I will not say that Mom and Bobs business plan was not at fault either. When your a kid, you don't always get the information you want from adults.
Thou we owned the farm, I think about 20 acres, we leased about 140 more from the state for 50.00 a month. The bank really owned the farm, and I remember the day I climbed in the truck and left the farm for the last time. I remember the banker, Randy using a staple gun to staple something on the front door, a foreclosure letter no doubt. Country living at its finest, and everything I ever knew.
Our local Mill, which is long gone, took up a local collection as they had done many times before for other families that suffered from the same out come as we had. They kept our line of credit although we couldn't pay it back, or perhaps later it was paid back.
I was shocked when I moved here to have a Mill in my backyard. But not just any Mill, thou its 26 years later, it remains the center hub and supply store that anchors this community, just like the one when I was a kid.
So now that I have shared what the Mill meant to me/us/to a community as a child, I hope you have learned why it is such a important place.
Please take a little time to watch the first 40 seconds of this video to try to understand what farming was about back in those days. I suspect it is much the same these days. Even though my homestead sits on 5 acres, its mine, and no bank can have it. It might not be much to some, its more than others, and I can, at a small scale, work this land as I learned back on the farm. With a old milk farm at the bottom of the mountain, it isn't hard to get tied up in making my land produce food. I do have a real since of pride during harvest time.
Everything else I do to be self sufficient today, were important things to do back on the farm to make ends meet or put food on the table. As food prices go up, the population increases, food becomes more GMO and less valuable as a food source, I am pleased with all that I do for myself and family.
They had to be a Master Gossiper, one that didn't take sides, or hold judgment against different people. After all, the information they told would be the information that you told them to spread. There were certain things that wouldn't be spoken of, and some matters of family business weren't spread. There was/is a fine line of spreading that information.
I am not sure of the workings of the grain/feed business, as the crops we grew were to sustain our own farm. We sometimes had to buy grain in if we didn't have enough to make feed for our hogs. That's right, we were in the hogging business, or pork producers. Not a huge operation mind you, and I am not convinced that we were that successful at it.
From slaughtering our own hogs, storing them in a freezer until the buyer came by, to making scrapple to sell locally. I still think to this day, if Mom could have gotten that recipe out, we would have been known throughout the eastern seaboard for our scrapple, it was that good.
We were one of those familys that John Cougar Melloncamp would sing about, when he wrote the song Rain on the Scarecrow. A small farm run by country folks trying to make a living in the dirt. But soon technology and factory farming would put us out of business. I will not say that Mom and Bobs business plan was not at fault either. When your a kid, you don't always get the information you want from adults.
Thou we owned the farm, I think about 20 acres, we leased about 140 more from the state for 50.00 a month. The bank really owned the farm, and I remember the day I climbed in the truck and left the farm for the last time. I remember the banker, Randy using a staple gun to staple something on the front door, a foreclosure letter no doubt. Country living at its finest, and everything I ever knew.
Our local Mill, which is long gone, took up a local collection as they had done many times before for other families that suffered from the same out come as we had. They kept our line of credit although we couldn't pay it back, or perhaps later it was paid back.
I was shocked when I moved here to have a Mill in my backyard. But not just any Mill, thou its 26 years later, it remains the center hub and supply store that anchors this community, just like the one when I was a kid.
So now that I have shared what the Mill meant to me/us/to a community as a child, I hope you have learned why it is such a important place.
Please take a little time to watch the first 40 seconds of this video to try to understand what farming was about back in those days. I suspect it is much the same these days. Even though my homestead sits on 5 acres, its mine, and no bank can have it. It might not be much to some, its more than others, and I can, at a small scale, work this land as I learned back on the farm. With a old milk farm at the bottom of the mountain, it isn't hard to get tied up in making my land produce food. I do have a real since of pride during harvest time.
Everything else I do to be self sufficient today, were important things to do back on the farm to make ends meet or put food on the table. As food prices go up, the population increases, food becomes more GMO and less valuable as a food source, I am pleased with all that I do for myself and family.
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