The Greening of the Gardens

We have been out in the gardens planting all the veggies that we started in the green house.  Cabbages, kale, leek and onions are just a few.  We have taken out around 50 trays of plants but the greenhouse still looks full. It is a phenomenon that happens every year. We plant a few flats and the next thing you know the greenhouse is jam packed with plants everywhere. I swear they multiply at night.

The German garden is planted and will have a new look this year. We have planted it in squares as German settlers would do in their kitchen gardens.  The Scottish is almost done but we are still working on the herb garden in the center.  Red ants had taken up residence and were swarming us as we planted the northwest corner.  The Norwegian will be planted next week , the Yankee also and a volunteer will be planting and maintaining the Potawatomi garden.

Below is another page from the 1893 cookbook. The name of the cookbook was Three Meals a Day: A collection of valuable and reliable recipes in all classes of cookery. With toilet health and housekeeping departments, by Maude C. Cooke. The cookbook in itself is very interesting but what I really enjoy about it is the handwritten entries that the owner wrote in the page margins, sewed onto pages or pasted in. This was her go to book!  Her name was Stella O'Brien and she was a postmistress. I don't know where she lived but I bought the book in Illinois so maybe there.

Buttermilk Pie and Texas Cream Pie Oh My!

Cooking 1800's Style

On June 9th BCCD will be having a wood stove cooking class. I really like cooking in the cabins on the wood burner so I thought I would teach a class on how Great Grandma prepared her meals.  I am using recipes from the Heritage Gardens Cookbook and we will be preparing meals that represent each of the 5 heritage gardens.  Unfortunately because of the size of the cabin I am having to limit the class to 10 people.  Since everyone else can't come I will publish pictures and recipes from the class for several weeks after the class.

Until then I am going to share pages from an 1800's cookbook I own. The previous owner, Stella O'Brien, was a postmistress, (where I do not know but most likely somewhere in Illinois), and had sewn in and pinned and handwritten recipes, and household hints into the published pages of the cookbook.

Below is a page that has a cure for Rheumatism and a receipt or recipe for Chilla Sauce.