Show The Herald Journal Logan Utah Wednesday November In In 4 1987 the LDS Church cannery in Ogden a group of 2nd Ward members fill cooked cans with kraut Providence they've made a tradition of good taste By Ken Braegger Krautmaker " Back in "the good old days" it seemed that every family had a cow pigs chickens a coal stove and a woodshed Back then it was an job making preparations for winter survival It seems that those good old days and the many great events that took place when we were kids always find a way to sneak into our conversations Well most of the old home methods have been long forgotten — like the salt brine barrel used to cure pork and beef and the smokehouse used to smoke meat as a means of preserving it Even the ham hanging in the pantry the head cheese pickled pigs feet and liverwurst that were made each fall when the hog was slaughtered out by the barn have become a rare sight — along with the long sausages made from the pork and formed In the cleaned washed small intestine of the freshly killed pig Who among us “former kids” could forget the football made from the pig’s bladder? Nor could we forget the way the top of the old coal stove would shine after all the grease was rendered and placed In cans for future use Still fresh in our memories are the milk pans Mother used to let the cream rise before skimming it off to make butter Remember the buried wooden barrels that we would uncover in the middle of the winter to retrieve carrots apples and potatoes? Only the fortunate had root cellars for vegetable storage Who could forget the giant hubbard squash placed in the wheat bin for safe keeping? That squash would stay in the bin until that cold winter day when it was placed in the heated oven of the coal stove for a couple days until it was cooked enough to use for pies or to eat just plain as a vegetable It was hard to imagine that you could pull a cabbage plant out of the ground and put it upside down in a trench filled with straw where it would keep until spring Of course it was always available in the depths of winter in case your mother was so inclined to want cabbage for dinner Then there was the ‘‘swill bucket" er L" into which all the scraps from the kitchen were placed Each evening the bucket was taken to the barnyard where the pigs would enjoy what now goes down the garbage disposal But in spite of all the work that went into preparation for winter there always seemed to be time for play laughter and family Harvest time most always brought relatives and friends together for the exchange of produce and the sharing of butchering projects It was a neighborhood event whenever someone had a hog or a beef to kill The men did the outsiae work with the kids watching and the women waited patiently for their turn to do the food preserving The early home traditions brought to the small town of Providence like those of many other small communities have been mostly forgotten except for the very few that have survived the modern world One of those old traditions which is still going strong is the art of sauerkraut making Several families in the valley still make their own "barrel of kraut" for private use but to the best of my knowledge only two wards in Providence still carry on the tradition of making sauerkraut as a ward project and offering it for sale to the general public get-togeth- All of the first generation immigrants and most of the second generation have long left this life and only a few of the older third generation know the art and recipes for good kraut making Few of us today remember the large wooden barrels mat were kept in the See KRAUT on page 15 Editor's note: making kraut can be found gainfully employed as The Herald Journal's production Cliff Anderson By Ken Braegger T The Providence 2nd Ward was organized in At that time ward members held their meetings in the town pavilion across the street from the 1st Ward chapels Finances were a -major concern for the member! of the 2nd Ward as they contemplated building a new meeting If" ' : — stirs the kraut during the cooking process ‘V A How the annual cni b(zrr When he's not Ken Braegger 1909 P Most of the ward members were small farmers and money was not as plentiful as it was in some areas They decided to hold a ward bazaar to start a fund for the new building It is not known if sauerkraut was on the menu at those first few bazaars Some say that beef dinners were served However we do know that there has been a ward bazaar held every year 1909 and years past turkey and sauerkraut has been the main dish since for-th- jo-som- e e Ward : In 1962 when a new Providence-2nbuilding was in the planning stages an all-oeffort was made to make the annual bazaar the biggest and best ever The bazaar was held in the elementary school lunch room in the basement of the gymnasium More than 1600 plates of turkey ana sauerkraut were served to the public in a four-hoperiod' All of the food was furnished by ward members The total proceeds from the dinner as well as the large country store were placed in the ward building fund This year's cabbage-to-kraproject has been a iirst for the Providence 2nd Ward in that the cabbage seed obtained from California Packing ut ur ut was planted in Lloyd Nyman's Lloyd then transplanted and greenhouse nurtured the small plants until they were large enough to be set out in the field Seth Alder has made the land available for the past several years for the ward project This year 1100 plants were set out and cared for by the ward High Priests group Early in September the cabbage reached maturity and was ready to process As in years past ward members got together for an evening of storytelling laughter and work as they shredded the large heads of cabbage in preparation to make the kraut Some of the heads weighed as much as 12 to 14 pounds and were very solid and white making them Ideal for the best kraut making Corp |