Old Farm Country Cookbook: Recipes, Menus, and Memories

by Jerry Apps, Susan Apps-Bodilly

Overview

When Jerry Apps was growing up on a Wisconsin farm in the 1930s and 1940s, times were tough. Yet most folks living on farms had plenty to eat. Preparing food from scratch was just the way things were done, and people knew what was in their food and where it came from. Delicious meals were at the center of every family and social affair, whether it be a threshing-day dinner with all the neighbors, the end-of-school-year picnic, or just a hearty supper after chores were done. As Jerry writes, "For me food will always be associated with times of good eating, storytelling, laughter, and good-hearted fun."

Inspired by the dishes made by his mother, Eleanor, and featuring recipes found in her well-worn recipe box, Jerry and his daughter, Susan, take us on a culinary tour of life on the farm during the Depression and World War II. Seasoned with personal stories, menus, and family photos, Old Farm Country Cookbook recalls a time when electricity had not yet found its way to the farm, when making sauerkraut was a family endeavor, and when homemade ice cream tasted better than anything you could buy at the store.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780870208300
Publisher:	Wisconsin Historical Society
Publication date:	07/25/2017
Edition description:	1
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	161,131
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Jerry Apps

has been a rural historian and environmental writer for more than forty years. He is a former county extension agent and professor for the University of Wisconsin College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. He is the author of many books on rural history, country living, and environmental issues, including Old Farm: A History and Garden Wisdom: Lessons Learned from 60 Years of Gardening. Jerry and his wife, Ruth, divide their time between their home in Madison and their farm, Roshara, in Waushara County.

Susan Apps-Bodilly

has been an elementary and middle school teacher for more than twenty years. She is the author of One Room Schools: Stories from the Days of 1 Room, 1 Teacher, 8 Grades. Susan lives in Madison with her husband, Paul. When she’s not reading, teaching, or writing, she loves biking or hiking in the woods with her family.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Part 1 Kitchen Memories

1 The Heart of the Home 7

2 Woodstove Cooking 16

3 The Icebox 25

4 Early to Rise 33

5 The Noon Meal 38

6 Suppertime 44

7 Making Do 53

Part 2 Everyday Foods

8 The Chicken and the Egg 71

9 Milk, Butter, and Cheese 81

10 Butchering Time 87

11 Hunting for Game 94

12 Fishing in Summer and Winter 102

13 Ma's Kitchen Garden 110

14 Cabbage and Sauerkraut 120

15 Rutabagas 127

16 Potato Country 133

17 Ma's Strawberry Patch 139

18 From the Vines 145

19 Cherries 157

20 The Home Orchard 163

21 Canning Meat, Vegetables, and Fruits 170

22 Cucumbers, Pickles, and Pickling 180

Part 3 Gatherings and Holidays

23 Visiting 190

24 Quilting Bees and the Ladies Aid 202

25 Harvest Time 210

26 Threshing Day 218

27 Silo Filling and Corn Shredding 230

28 Thanksgiving 241

29 Christmas 247

30 Birthdays 258

31 Housewarming for New Neighbors 265

32 Grandpa Witt's Funeral 269

33 4-H Club and Box Socials 272

34 Special Days at the Country School 279

35 Food for Thought 294

Index 297

Editorial Reviews

Jerry Apps has become the living memory of rural Wisconsin’s past—an age when agribusiness seemed far away from the red barns of the Dairy State. In Apps’ childhood, the distance from farm to table was measured in yards, not miles. He was a teenager before electricity was installed; the place ran with well water, a wood-fired oven and a cellar of pickled and canned produce from the garden. Along with memories, Apps resuscitates family recipes in Old Farm Country Cookbook, transliterating the “salt to taste” and “bake for an hour” instructions on his mother’s faded recipe cards into meals for today’s kitchens. There is much homespun delight in his directions for preparing strawberry jam and rhubarb sauce and pies along with German-American dishes involving sauerkraut and festive entrees like roast duck with gravy and dumplings. Dig in! (Dave Luhrssen The Shepherd Express, Milwaukee, July 12, 2017 )
 

From the Publisher