A family pie tradition
Every fifteen years or so, Mom pulls a 1974 Good Housekeeping
article out of her hat and makes me read it. I wish I could share the
whole thing, but it's still under copyright, so I'll just sum it up with
the title and subtitle:
The story is written by my great-aunt Ruth Tirrell
and tells about the feast her great-grandmother and great-aunts made
for city relatives returning to the Rhode Island farm around 1885. And
each time I read the story, I see something entirely different. This
year's gem was the fact that the family relished potatoes, onions,
turnips, and parsnips...but considered carrots only good enough to feed
to cattle.
I think I can probably sneak in another little quote about pies without being sued:
The family joining me
tomorrow is much smaller than my great-great-great grandmother Mary
Greene's massive clan. So I figure we'll get by with a 9x13 butternut
pie and two deep-dish cranberry-apple-raisin pies. But I followed the
family tradition of making dessert ahead to beat the rush. Pumpkin-type
pies, especially, taste better on the second or third day!
(And thank you to my pie consultant, Joey, for deciding on the dessert menu.)
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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In Eastern Europe corn (sweet corn) was always considered animal food.
My Mom could never bake a cake and have it come out right, but pies? Oh my! She was the pie lady! Apple, chocolate cream, and others, but for thanksgiving we clammared for chocolate cream pie! Once she was finishing up the pie and getting ready to put Ready Whip on it. She shook the can really hard and somehow pressed the side of the nozzle before turning the can upside down. Whoosh! Whipped cream on the ceiling!
Love thse stories, Anna and that pie looks great. We alwys have pumpkin and apple nd if my mom is with us, pecan. And maybe chocolate and lemon. Spending Thanksgiving in the hospital might not be my favorite thing, but we will have good stories to tell about it next year. Funny about the carrots. Hubby Steve is doing all the animal chores while I am here, and tonight, the goaties seemed to be missing all the attention they usually get. After he left the pen to close up shop at the chicken coop, he turned to find one of tje goats had worked the door open amd folowed him, as if to say, wait, you have not given us our nightly ear rubs with dinner! Of course this means we have to beef up our goatpen latch too, now.