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Show wwmextmes DHE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Page 11 February 15, 2006 The Moffet Place, Part II in the cellar to wait for their trip to the store. Most of the things we bought at the store were paid for with butter and eggs produced on the farm. I always enjoyed going to the store with mother. We always paid the bill in butter, eggs, or cash and always the “man” would give us a bag of candy. I was always proud when the kal a wh Attorney at Law i haat the hayloft. Better still, if we dared, we watche¢ them from a hiding place in an old abandoned thrashing machine near their camp. My sisters and I watched them sing and dance with reckless abandon under the August moon, each of us secretly wishing we could join them but it was forbidden. When the gypsies came to the grove. word went out to all hands to batten down the hatches, secure all livestock, and place all things of value in a place of safety. The gypsies had 2 bad reputation but as far as I know, they did not steal from us. I did not have my brothers’ mechanical ability but I was not without talent. At the age ot seven years, I built an underground inrigatior system utilizing the water of a mineral spring in our back yard. It was not very successful and did not impress anyone except mother. Upon inspecting my system, she made a profounc observation. “I think the reason your system won’t work is that water simply won’t run uphill.” One warm April day I decided to be a miner MOFFET PLACE §) Transformations Life i a 2590 Washington Boulevard, Suite 200 Ogden, Utah 84401 cont. on page 12 Center Perfect Posture Class Local: 801 791-1092 Office: 801 612-9299 Email: ccanninglaw@aol.com FREE Initial Thirty Minute Consultation. Appointments in Ogden Valley upon request. i ee What can our readers tell us about this photo? Can you identify these students? Let us know. Please call Shanna at 745-2688 or Jeannie at 745-2879. store keeper told mother how his customers liked her butter and many of them demanded Mrs. Stallings’ homemade butter. Many people drove up from Ogden to get her butter, buttermilk, and eggs. The cellar got Jim and me in trouble at times. A two-inch pipe in the roof allowed fresh air to enter the otherwise airtight cellar. When a strange kid came to visit, we would get him into a conversation about whether or not it is possible to see the stars in the day light. Most of our intended victims doubted it but were willing to experiment. We would go into the cellar and discuss how the experiment was to be conducted. My brother would say, “Howard, go up on the roof and put the lens on the pipe.” I would leave, get a large cup of cold water, and get on top of the cellar. By this time, Jim had the victim on a box looking through the pipe. When my brother said the magic wort which was “can ?7 water down the pipe. Most were good sports and a about it, but some of them told mother we were given a lecture. There was not much fire in the lecture because I think mother Celeste C. Canning PLLC Meeting the Legal Needs of Small Business and Their Owners enjoyed the prank. The northeast corner of the intersection in front of our house was a favorite camping place for gypsies who periodically traveled through the Valley. It was always an exciting time for us when the gypsies camped in the grove. We kept them pretty well under surveillance from high in Historical Photo _ was constructed in the hole with studs, siding, and roof. Then the clay was tamped around the sides. The roof was covered over with two or three feet of clay. The front was rocked up and completely closed except for a heavy door. The building would accommodate a six foot man if he stayed close to the ridgepole. The building was sound proof, water proof, frost proof, and kid proof if the door was locked and it usually was. There were some pretty sticky fingered kids around especially after they had broken into a crock of tomato preserves. In the extreme back of the cellar was the root department. In several different bins potatoes, carrots, turnips, waited their call to the cook’s pot. On the floor from the root department to the front wall on either side was a row of five gallon earthen crocks filled with preserved fruit, vegetables, and pickles. To name a few: dark red tomato preserves made tasty with spices; peach preserves with cloves; pear, plum and apricot preserves; and apple butter spiced with cinnamon. Crocks of dill, mustard, and sour pickles lined the walls; and crocks of mincemeat that provided the filling for the hot buttered pies that graced our table. Above the crocks were two-foot wide shelves that took care of the hundreds of jars of fruit and vegetables that mother canned each summer. Another section was used for the production of dairy products. The milk was placed in long shallow The cream rose to the top and was taken off and put in the churn. When the five gallon churn was full and the cream was sour, it was ready to churn. The job of churning the butter usually fell to me. The job consisted of turning a crank that turned a paddle wheel inside the churn and agitated the cream. Sometimes I used the upright churn. This was a five gallon earthen jar with a hole in the lid through which a shaft entered the churn. The shaft had what looked like a Christmas tree stand on the churn end, and the up and down, up and down movement changed the cream to butter. After about a million up and downs or so, it seemed to me, the butter came and was gathered. That means that the cream changed to butter and was gathered into a large lump in the churn. At this point my mother took over. The butter was placed in a large wooden bowl. With a wooden paddle, mother worked the liquid out of the butter and using the paddle, would press the butter firmly into the mold. Then, holding the mold firmly in both hands, she would push the plunger that forced the butter from the mold. When the golden loaf came from the mold, it had the imprint of a shock of grain on the top. This was mother’s trademark and set her butter apart from any other butter. The last act of the drama came when a dozen or more pound loaves of butter were lined up on the table. After putting her name and address on the wrapper, she would carefully wrap them and place them ae Pleat note: the, followi ing | is the four te “a i gr ae up in Ogden Valley. Few people today would recognize the little building that was butted up against the coal house. It was a smokehouse where hams and slabs of bacon were smoked and cured with apple or cherry wood. On our farm, we killed several hogs at a time and for a week, the butcher detail would be busy rendering the lard, trimming hams and bacon, and making sausage. e bacon and hams were trimmed and placed in a barrel containing a heavy salt solution. After several days, they were taken out and placed in the smokehouse; the meat [now] would keep indefinitely. To protect it from freezing, thawing, or drying, the ham and bacon were placed in the wheat bin and covered with several feet of grain. The sausage was made from meat that was trimmed from the hams and bacon. It was ground in a meat grinder, packed in an earthen crock, and sealed with hot grease. Sometimes it was put in casing and smoked in the smokehouse. The strips of fat taken from the pig were cut into | inch cubes and boiled in large kettles. The skin of the animal attached to the cube seemed to explode with tiny bubbles. Tt was crunchy and delicious especially when it was hot. Stomach aches that lasted far into the night were common on lard rendering days. It is said that in large packing plants, every part of the pig is used except the squeal. It was almost so in pioneer times. The feet and tail found there way to our table. You might want to try my mothers recipe for making head cheese. Boil one pigs head for several hours or until the meat falls from the bone. Kneed and work the meat until it has the consistency of jelly. Pour into a deep bread pan and let harden. Slice and use as sandwich meat. By adding cornmeal, mother made a delicious breakfast dish called Scrapple. It was fried to a golden brown and was delicious. In memory, I can still taste its crunchy goodness. The most interesting and exciting building n the farm was the cellar. It would compare favorable to today’s walk-in coolers. I think that James Whitcomb Riley was looking at my mother’s cellar when he penned the following lines: The jelly - the jam and the marmalade and the cherry and quince preserves she made; and the sweet sour pickles of peach and pear, with cinnamon in ‘em and all things rare! And the more we ate was the more to spare.out to old Aunt Mary’s! Let me describe this fairyland of food for you. I have mentioned that twenty-five feet from our back door was a small hill that rose rather sharply until it reached a height of perhaps 20 feet above the level of the house. Into this hill of clay someone had dug a hole perhaps fifteen feet long and ten feet wide. A building Saturday, March 4th, 10 am—2 Taught by Lorrie Harper, physical therapist and pm Pilates instructor Topics will include: bone health, osteoporosis prevention, spiritual and emotional aspects of posture, exercises to create optimal spine alignment and muscle balance to help you maintain Posture That Your Mother Would Be Proud Of... 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