Chapter Five - continued

We got a good night’s rest, got up very early. The neighbors started arriving. Josh got a fire started. The rest of us got some tables set up in the butcher house where we’d have room to work. It was a nice day, a little breeze, temperature in the 60s to start. The sun came out bright.
“Well, let’s get to work,” Dad said. Jim and Hallie had come up. Bill and Marie came down. Of course, Grandpop and Grandma were there. Dad went on, “We’ll start in the freezer in the kitchen and see how that food is.” He opened the freezer door and said, “Well, Alyssa, you were wrong on Saturday. You didn’t have your last ice cream. Here’s a full half gallon, a little soft, but it will be a treat this afternoon.” He threw it into a mixing bowl. “Put it into that blue cooler, the one with the most ice; and here’s a couple of packs of hot dogs, they’re in good shape yet. They’ll keep a day or two in the cooler. Take those along.”
The next thing he found was a couple of packs of fish. He said, “I don’t have any way to keep them, so we’ll eat them today when we get a chance.” There was frozen orange juice.
Jake said, “I’ll mix that with plenty of water in that big orange water cooler and add some of that lemon juice in the cooler before it spoils. We can drink it as we work today. Might as well dump these couple of ice cubes in also.”
There was a pack of soft pretzels. Dad said, “Put that aside. We can figure out a way to heat up those for a snack.”
“That would go well with the ice cream,” Mom said.
“Yeah, that’s true,” Dad said.
Then there were a couple of boxes of raspberries. Those he gave to Marie to go out into the drying beds. “But,” he said, “no hurry with those; we’ll have some more things from the basement freezer. And then finally, there were some peppers. Those went to the butcher house to be used in some of the foods we’d be making.
When we went downstairs Dad got five boxes and labeled them: soup, dry, eat, chili, and chow-chow.
“Chow-chow,” Janice said, “what’s that?”
Janice was new to the area. The area we lived in was that part of southeastern Pennsylvania that Thomas Penn had purchased from the Indians right around 1700. It was the area bordered by the Blue Mountain on the north, the Delaware River on the east, the South Mountain which ran just beneath Allentown and Reading to the south, and the head waters of the Susquehanna tributaries to the west. It had some very fertile ground in it and another section of ridges and valleys that were farmable but somewhat hilly and a little drier, lighter soil. This area had been settled by Germans in the early 1700s and chow-chow was just one of the Pennsylvania German dishes that we ate. Simply put, it was pickled vegetables.
So we opened up the second freezer. Everything was nice and cool. Some was still a little frosty.
“Looks good,” Norm said.
Janice added, “I think our freezers will be alright when we go at it tomorrow.”
“Let’s hope so,” Jim said.
The first thing Dad grabbed was four or five loaves of bread. “Won’t spoil right away,” Mom said. “It’ll last us a while or we can share it if some of you need some.”
Dad found four packs of beef. We sent them out to Josh. He said to start boiling them in the largest canner that we have. We had one that held about twenty quarts. He also found about six pounds of hamburger. That went to the butcher house also.
He said, “I’ll show Mom what to do with that when we get out there.”
We found a few packs of sausage. Mel took that out and put it in the coolers. “That’ll last a day or two,” Mom said.
There were quite a few boxes of tomatoes. Dad split them up between the “soup” and “chili” boxes. Then he found blueberries, strawberries, and more raspberries. They all went in the “dry” box. He found peas. They went in the “soup” box. There were sugar peas. One went into the soup.
Mom said, “The rest we can eat with our meal tonight, with that fish.”
Then we found broccoli. Normally, we don’t put a lot in soup but we can’t eat it all today. So, we threw it in. We found cauliflower.
“That’s very good in vegetable soup,” Mel said. So we threw it in that box except for two packs Dad grabbed.
He said, “It’s good in chow-chow, too.”
Then, we found a couple of packs of chicken. Mom said, “We’ll cook that for our noon meal. I can use some of the corn and make soup and throw in these two packs of frozen pasta.”
Some of the remaining corn went into the “soup” box and the rest we’d have to try to dry. The last thing we found was a package of unbaked bread. Mom put the five loaves on a tray, covered it with a towel, and set the tray on a stool near the stovepipe behind the stove and out of the way.
“There it should have enough heat to make it rise, then Pop can figure out how to bake it,” Mom said. So all the things in the freezer were distributed and it was time to get to work.
Marie, Bill, Dad and I carried the fruit and the corn up to the dryer setup. We had to open every box and pour them on the screen carefully. We didn’t
want fruit all over the place. We had room for a few bags of corn and then
the screens were full. He laid the next grid overtop and then we put the glass panes on top.
He said, “You might be bored, Alyssa, but you have to keep your eye on this a little bit. We don’t want a lot of flies or birds getting after this, even though it’s protected by the glass. We’ll just let the sun do its work. Also the boxes and lids need to be washed to put the dried fruit into when it’s finished.” Oh boy, I thought, more work.
Back in the butcher house, Grandma had cut up some onions and Mom had started frying the hamburger with some onions added and some of the peppers. The beef that Josh was cooking was pretty well done. He fished it out. Grandpop and others sat at the table and de-boned it. When the chicken had been cooked, they de-boned that also.
Dad threw the soup vegetables and some of the onions into the beef broth with the tomatoes; it made the kettle pretty full when the meat was added. In the second biggest pot we had, Mom kept dumping the hamburger in as she fried it. Josh had another kettle going with the kidney beans, so as they were cooked, they were thrown in with the hamburger and tomatoes, and soon, there was a batch of chili being made.
“I still don’t remember,” Hallie said, “How to make chow-chow.”
“We’ll get there, Dad said, “But first we’d better can this hot vegetable soup and get that out of the way. What’s important in this canning process is that you get it very hot, boiling, if you can. Then carefully stirring so it doesn’t stick. The second thing is to put enough salt in, to keep it preserved.”
So he added salt to the soup. He added salt to the chili. When the soup was good and hot, we started putting it in the clean jars. It was an assembly line. Norm and Jim filled the jars and passed them to Bill and Mom who put the lids on. Janice wiped them off and Dad and Jake carried them outside where a table was set up all by itself.
Dad said, “It’s also important that once the jar lid is tightened, that you do not disturb the jars much so they can seal properly. Remember, if any of the lids don’t seal, you have to eat those in short time because the bacteria will grow and spoil the soup and make it unfit to eat.”
In due time, the vegetable soup was canned. It gave nineteen jars. By then, the chili was hot. We used the same system to jar it. It yielded eighteen jars. It gave us room on the stove. Mom’s chicken concoction was ready to eat. We had brought enough tables out to work on and now to eat on. Dad threw the soft pretzels on a cookie tray, covered it with aluminum foil and set it on top of the stove. It was around noon, so we dug in. When most of us were finished eating I went and got the ice cream. It was more like a milkshake but it tasted good, especially with some warm soft pretzels.
After lunch, Mom checked on the bread rising behind the stove and said,
“This has risen enough, but how are you going to bake it?”
Dad said, “I’ll use a grate from the kitchen oven, lay it on top of the stove plate, and place the bread on the grate, and cover it with the lid of the big roasting pan that we have. It should work like an oven as Josh has the fire going strong yet.” Made it pretty hot in that butcher house. Fortunately, we could have all the doors and windows open and there was a big shade tree above it and like Dad had predicted, it was a much cooler, drier day.
“Now,” Dad said, “Let’s get started at this chow-chow.” It took a few more pots. We put the vegetables in separate containers. Dad continued, “With chow-chow you have to be careful not to overcook them. You still like them a little crisp. So as all the vegetables were heated to the right tenderness, they were poured back into the large canner. In a separate pot, Dad made the broth for the chow-chow. It was two parts water to two parts sugar to three parts vinegar. He added celery seed and pepper and of course salt. When the vegetables were all cooked, the canner was placed back on the stove, the broth added, and the whole mixture brought to a boil.
We went back to the assembly line process again with one addition. Mom said, “Before you close the jar lids, you should make sure there is at least one inch of juice above the vegetables.”
Hallie said, “I think I got it now.”
Dad said, “I hope none of you have too much trouble when you try this yourself.” It gave another eighteen jars of the chow-chow.
Next, we went after the dried fruit. Must have been about three in the afternoon. “Not quite dry enough,” Dad said. “We’ll have to let the sun work on it. Some might have to finish tomorrow. In the meantime, let’s get the containers with tight lids ready.”
“While we’re waiting,” Dad said, “I have some announcements to make. First of all, I’d like to thank everyone for helping today. Please take a couple of jars of your labor home with you. I wish you luck with emptying your freezers and preserving the food. We’ll try to help as much as we can, but starting tomorrow, we’ll be moving.”
“What,” said Mel, “We’re moving?”
“Where?” Jim said.
“And why?” Marie wanted to know.
“We’re moving to the farm my parents live on, Harvey’s dairy farm,” Dad answered. “They have a good running spring and have about 130 head of cattle to care for. I’ve previously talked it out with Harvey. They have a lot of work to do and they need our help. What with taking care of my parents and all the cattle and the crops that need harvesting. My brother, Jeremiah, and his family are already there, and Harvey’s cousin, Joe, is there, too.”
Moving, I thought to myself. This is the only place I’ve ever lived. I think Mom and Dad lived here over twenty years. But, I did miss milk and we’d have plenty of that at Harvey’s dairy. I always loved being around cows and calves. Harvey’s wife Jean and I were good friends and I loved being at the farm with Poppop and Grandmom. So, I guess, we have to leave our old homestead.
Harvey Stump was Dad’s second cousin. Harvey’s father and Dad’s father farmed together until Poppop retired and Harvey’s father had passed away, then the farming had all fallen to Harvey.
“So,” Dad continued, “tomorrow will be another busy day as we start trucking things over to the dairy farm. Plus, finish up these dried fruits. We also need to empty Harvey’s and my dad’s freezer, like we did today. Harvey ran his generator a few times to help get the farm work done before the help started arriving, so the food could go a few days longer. But please,” he said to the neighbors, “Don’t hesitate to stop and ask us for help if you need it. We’ll leave you a couple screens and panes to help you dry some things. And you’re still welcome to the water here. The landlord will be moving here in a few days. He lives in town; limited water supply. I think he, his daughter, and son-in-law will be moving in here. And, by the way, don’t hesitate to check on my garden. Keep picking the vegetables as they ripen. You’re welcome to them. However, the top three rows are shell beans. Don’t worry about those. Let them dry on the stalk. That way, they’ll keep through the winter and could possibly be used for seed next spring. It doesn’t matter if they turn brown. We’ll stop back and check on them every week or so. Again, I need to thank everybody for the help today.”
We all said our goodbyes although we’d probably still see each other over the next couple days.
“I’m going to miss you,” Marie said as she gave me a big hug and fought off tears.
I didn’t fight them off as easily. I sobbed, told her I’d miss her too. Then I thought a bit and said, “But we’re not moving to Ohio. We’ll only be five miles away. Our bicycles travel that far. Don’t worry; we’ll get to see each other.”

To be continued… wonder what’s going on at the new place… Mort