Meals on the Farm

When we were on my mother's parents' farm we ate well. Now, by today's standards, this was not very healthy food, but it was good and there was always a lot of it. Breakfast always included eggs (They had a couple thousand chickens, after all.) and bacon and/or sausage. These would be from their own pigs they had had slaughtered. Gramma fried these eggs in the grease from the bacon or sausage on a wood stove. I don't know whether it was because they liked them that way or because it was difficult to control the temperature with the wood stove, but these eggs were cooked fast and had "lacy" edges from the high temperatures. Grampa would put pepper on his until they were completely black and then salt them until they were entirely white. Two eggs a day with all that salt (and all the other foods I will tell you about shortly) and he lived into his late eighties! I think all the hard work they did helped to protect them from the harmful effects of their diet. Then there would be oatmeal, cold cereal, pancakes (never waffles), cake, cookies, pie, toast and sweet rolls available for the asking. It was common to have what we consider desserts like cake, cookies and pie for breakfast. Gramma got up very early every day to do her baking before anyone else was up and then prepared breakfast. When it was a few minutes from ready (6:00-6:30) she would open the door from the kitchen to the stairs, and holler up, "Breeak-fast!" and Grampa would get out of bed, pull on his farmer overalls, stuff his feet into boots and clomp downstairs. I would try to get up as soon as I heard the meat sizzling because I could not dress as fast as Grampa could. Gramma did not like anyone to be about when she was doing her baking, though, so I stayed in bed if I woke up while that was still going on. As soon as breakfast was over, Grampa went out to do chores and Gramma and any grandchildren old enough cleaned up the kitchen. Then work started on dinner. Now, we usually have lunch at noon and our biggest meal at the end of the day, but that was not the way on the farm. Every noon there was a beef roast, pork roast, steaks, chops, etc. with mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, salads, vegetables (two or three) and all the dessert foods that had been available at breakfast. Almost all this food was produced on the farm. When it was haying season, there might be extra men who came in to help (Grampa would go help them on their farms, too.) and the table would be full of adults (It seated at least ten.) and we children would have to eat in the kitchen, not in the dining room with them. It took a long time to do all those dishes! Especially since they could not be washed in the sink. It was sort of like a porcelain counter with a faucet and a drain. We would fill the dishpan there and then put it on the table to wash the dishes. From time to time Gramma would add hot water from a tea kettle on the stove to keep the dishwater hot. When all that was done, Gramma would retire to her upholstered rocker in the parlor for her hour's nap and we grandchildren were free to run off and play. Around 3:30 or 4:00 Gramma would call us in and ask us to take Grampa's "tea" out to him in the fields or wherever he was working. (I suppose that she took it out herself when we weren't there.) He would see us standing at the end of the row he was plowing or cultivating and stop when he got there. He could not have heard us calling because the tractor was so loud and it was not safe for us to go up to the moving tractor. Then he would get down and share his lemonade or cider or whatever and ginger snaps or oatmeal cookies or whatever with us. Around 6:00 to 8:00, earlier in the winter and later in the summer, supper would be cold sandwiches or dinner leftovers, again with the cake, pie and cookies. Gramma fit all her other work around preparing meals and often had to work in the garden in the heat of the day because of that. But then there would be berries still warm from the sun for grandchildren who helped her! Of course, then everyone had berries with cream so thick it had to be served with a spoon for tea or supper. She had a big china bowl with red and blue flowers on it to hold the berries and a special big flattish spoon to serve them. I wonder what happened to them.