Papaw Tony tending a pan of fried taters
The early settlers of Appalachia cooked bread at noon in the fields. Usually the cornfields were high on a steep hill, a good walk from the house. If the corn needed to be hoed out before rain came, the men would take their lunch with them. They took cooked vegetables and a piece of ham or shoulder meat. They built a little fire and, using a sharpened stick, broiled the meat while their bread baked. Father took along a cast-iron skillet and an old black coffeepot. The bread was put in the skillet and coffee and water in the pot and the aroma made even the most tired person feel glad to be there under shade trees high on the mountain.
Tradition has it that the early settlers never bothered with skillets for their bread. They cleaned their hoes, made up the dough and baked the pones of bread on their hoes held carefully over the fire.
—More Than Moonshine written by Sidney Saylor Farr
I’ve always said even a boloney sandwich tastes better if you eat it outside. I love the imagery of the heady aromas of baking bread, cooking meat, and percolating coffee way up on the mountain encouraging the worn and tired garden workers.
Last night’s video: Planting in a Windstorm.
Tipper
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My grandmama always had Sunday picnic dinners outside weather permitting. She had a big backyard facing deep woods. She would have a big round white table set with white tablecloth under a big apple tree. I always remember the bees buzzing around my head. Such a good memory I can still smell the apple trees and the warm breeze ..
Tell Matt my 4 1/2 yr old grandson True watched “Matt &Tipper” again on our rainy day inside (he lasted watched your driveway video.) Anyway my grandson laughed out loud and made me rewind Matt saying his popsicle “kinda tasted like a donut.” I died laughin at him, laughing at Matt.
Lorie-love that so much! It tickled Matt too 🙂
Agree about eating outside. But it makes me wonder – why has picnicking (not grilling out) as an outdoor activity declined so. There used to be roadside picnic areas along many highways. I have only seen one in a long while. They get in worse and worse shape then are gone. Picnic areas in state parks are lightly used, or maybe not at all, even when near lots of people. The more remote picnic areas on national forest get scaled back or done away with. I really think there is a relatiobship.with availability of fast food. Can get it and have it eaten before one can get to a picnic area. Tables around a day use city or town park with ball fields may be the exception.
Ron, I am offering up two ideas, many of today’s people would “trash up’ a roadside picnic area. As for picnics, at least at one state park I have already mentioned today, it is the cost just to enter the park. $6 for each adult in the vehicle and $3 up to $6 depending on age of the children. No flat fee for a family car load. This does not include the cost of campsites if you wanted to camp. These prices may not be a burden for some but for others it could be.
that picture made me think about going to Rock Creek lake, near the ranger camp in Dahlonega Georgia, first day of trout season, about 4:00 in the morning, leaving from Dawson county, stopping on the side of the road, a stream ran in the ditch, for many years we had a piece of metal, we would place over the fire, and cook our food on in our pans, scrambled eggs bacon and biscuits on the side of the road, those were some Happy Days, and we always caught our limit on the road at the lake, God bless you friends have a great day
I have told about this before, it has nothing to do with cooking outdoors. I spent every minute I could in my child hood with my Granddaddy Kirby. He would work his garden and a large field of corn with his mule named Kate. We were never more than 5-6 hundred yards from the house, but when it was dinner time, Grandmother would ring the dinner bell for us to come home and eat. Kate would stop wherever she was at-middle of the row, she was going no farther than the sled and pull us to the house. She knew it was Break Time! I also remember when people were still picking cotton by hand, at dinner time they would spread a burlap cotton sheet out under a large shade tree and eat sandwiches or biscuits left from breakfast their dinner. Most of the old time farmers wanted a big stick to your ribs breakfast, something light such as a sandwich of biscuit for dinner and often times cornbread and milk for supper.
God bless PaPaw Tony, in the name of Jesus, bless him Lord with deliverance from sickness and disease heal his body and make him well in Jesus name
Oh my goodness, that evokes wonderful memories of meals / coffee / good times outdoors . Especially in the woods ! Prayers for Papaw Tony & you all !!!
We camped a lot when our two kids were small. The early morning aromas of bacon frying and coffee percolating are pleasant memories still. The same goes for hunt-camp cooking. City folks who missed all that have been deprived, in my opinion, and I must count my four grandchildren in their numbers.
Tipper: I’m Praying for Papaw Tony, Nana Janet, Matt & you.
The cooking of bread on the cleaned hoes reminded me of having hoe cakes and sorghum syrup for dinner growing up. At home they were cooked on a griddle. Just flour and water. Came out as a thick pancake. You can split them apart, slather on butter and sop the syrup. I make them occasionally and eat with honey.
After we were married my wife and I visited an aunt and uncle in the Bahamas. We would go out each day to a beach or wherever and my aunt packed sandwiches and cans of vegetables that could be opened and eaten with out heating. We continued doing that on our road trips. We ate lunch along a brook in Yosemite, a buffalo range in Wyoming, the Needles in S. Dakota, roadside in Alaska and numerous other places. It is obviously less expensive than restaurants, but the main reason was less time taken. And where else could you get the views.
That’s a nice little picture Mrs. Farr paints there but it doesn’t exactly gibe with the one in my head,
1. I’ve never seen corn planted on a steep hillside so far from home that you couldn’t go home for dinner (lunch to the uninitiated). I’ve known people to walk a ways to tend corn in bottomland but not steep hillsides. Hillsides were pasture land. More gentle slopes reserved for crops.
2. Who wants to eat hot food in the middle of the day in the broiling sun after hoeing corn all morning? Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Why not eat a big breakfast and take along something little light for dinner. Put it in a bucket and when you got there, set it in the spring or branch and then eat it cold.
3. How would they have protected the corn in their faraway fields from animals? Crows, squirrels, deer, bears, coons, cows and countless other creatures are also anxiously awaiting fresh roastnears, too.
4. Putting a hoe over a fire like that will take the temper out of it reducing its efficacy. Hoes and other farm implements were hard to obtain and expensive before the modern machine made junk we have today. They were treasured and well cared for.
Maybe, where Mrs. Farr was, things were done differently. My Appalachian experiences run counter to hers but both of us could be right depending on place and circumstance.
PS: The bottomland mentioned above wasn’t isolated. Generally it was owned by older people who couldn’t tend it anymore. They allowed others to farm it for a share of the harvest so they had a stake in the outcome.
I agree about the temper in steel tools. No farmer would knowingly do anything to remove it.
As for planting corn on hillsides, I’m sure that was done if no bottom land was available to the farmer; but not by choice.
As for farming at a distance, there was a time when people lived in villages or settlements for protection from human and animal predators and kept their fields at a distance. I can see, in that circumstance (and perhaps others) that taking the noonday meal with them would be logical. I don’t know about a hot meal being unsavory or otherwise inappropriate. I’d think that fuel for the afternoon’s work would be important.
In my limited experience (camping), I have seen bread – both corn and wheat – baked on a hot flat rock placed in the ashes. Perhaps this method was used IFF bread were baked at all during dinner time repasts in the fields.
It was a great story, but like many doesn’t hold up to careful inspection. Maybe that’s why I always resisted teachers who insisted that we examine and inspect the intentions of my favorite poets. I much preferred to simply enjoy their work.
“Two road diverged in a yellow wood . . . ” Thank you, Mr. Frost.
some of my best childhood memories is being at my grandparents (my aunt is a year younger than me so we grew up like sisters), grandma had a little country store and for lunch she would often slice off ‘goose liver’ or boloney to make a sandwich a piece for my aunt and I for lunch. Whe would cut it on the diagonal after making it and then wrap each one individually in a napkin in her own special way, then we would be allowed to pick out a bottle of pop a piece out of the coke box that had freezing cold water in it (I almost always got either a Ski, or a ‘short coke’. Then we would take our lunch outside to where the big car ramp/rack was where we could use the big walnut bench that was on either side of the old ‘rack’, sit on the bench and use the ramp/rack as our table and then enjoy a wonderful picnic outside. Nothing like it in the world. My next memory is again outside eating taters my died had fried up over an open fire—-again, nothing tastes as good as fried taters cooked and eaten outside especially far removed from the house (preferably at a pond in the woods somewhere.
I keep forgetting to tell you a humorous phrase that my mom used when we were growing up—mom and dad taught my three older brothers and I all the manners that parents use to teach their kids without exception–yes sir no sir, excuse me, etc etc—we were not suppose to say ‘what’ if we did not hear or understand something we were told so if I said ‘what’ to mama she would repeat this phrase ‘what! chicken squat’…I had to quickly correct my grammar and say pardon me or excuse me—anything but ‘what’. lol continued prayers for your family and your father in law
When I said what my mother always said “Chicken squat, pick it up and see what you got!”
LOL
That one is new to me. Thank you!
I agree, many a time I packed up bologna sandwiches and we journeyed out to the back yard and it was the best sandwich ever!! Our prayers for Matt’s dad. We know the Lord has a plan.
My folks cooked cornpone on their hoe. Thus hoe cake.
When the grandkids were little, I had an old Toyota truck that could climb a mountain or travel for miles in a low creek as we searched for the perfect spot for our picnic. We would find a shady spot, sit on the tailgate, eat our delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and have a blast watching minners and catching crawdads. Those memories will never die.
My grandmother always said nothing tasted as good as a cheese sandwich eaten outside.
My heart just hurts for Papaw Tony and his family. It’s seems totally outrageous that in this length of time his doctor(s) haven’t been able to manage the pain. I truly hope/pray they are the top in their field in his area.
Watching you and Matt battling the wind is exactly what I deal with here in west central IL for the past 6 or more years. Something definitely changed in our weather pattern around that time and appears to be here to stay for the duration. It’s so rare that I can find a day to enjoy a burger from the grill. Until this spring with frequent rains, we’ve suffered from drought conditions so a person doesn’t dare try to burn brush or light a grill. I used to grill a burger and make a plate and go sit down by the pond to enjoy my supper. That burger tasted so much better down there 😀
Prayers to the Acorns and their loved ones in need. A big ol’ thunderstorm is about to strike here. It just turned very dark and the wind is whipping up. Hopefully it’ll be brief and without damage!
Yes Ma’am I love eating outside. Even just a sandwich and chips on the porch tastes better outdoors.
As y’all have prayed for me and my family, we pray for yours and hope Matt’s Daddy gets better and relief.
I’ve done MORE than my fair share of so called camping in Uncle Sam’s Army. The Army is really a nice way of saying professional campers who haven’t bathed in a week and possibly a month. Food in a rectangle bag cold and dehydrated leaves much to be desired. It literally took years to get me to camp or see the joy in it. I love a camp fire and love to smell food cooking over the campfire. After 2 days, I’m heading home to bathe and clean… It’s fun but here it gets cold and damp at night especially up on the mountains… I’d love to smell bread cooking in a skillet or on a hoe…I mean REAL bread that molds-not the SPONGE…
So true. Everything tastes better if its cooked outside and eaten outside. In the early 60s my father made the decision that we would go camping. He bought a 6×12 foot Sears tent, A Coleman later and stove and off we went to White Lake State Park for a week of fun. The entire family found out we all loved camping. The funniest thing that happened was the night my dad decided to cook a can of beans. He put the large can of beans in a pan of boiling water to heat the beans. He forgot to do one thing. He forgot to open the can so when he thought the beans were hot enough he took that can out of the pan and put the can opener to it. You would not believe how high those beans flew into the air. We all had a huge laugh over what happened. Even dad. That first camping trip lead to each of us kids taking our families camping and now my son takes his children camping. Praying for Tony.
I couldn’t agree more – everything tastes better outside, from a simple bologna sandwich to a full feast. Nothing smells better than breakfast being cooked when you’re camping in the woods. I must admit, I like a good bologna sandwich once in a while. When my daughter was small, we would take her to a little creek and pond area with a picnic lunch I packed. She would love to “fish” with a stick and string and feed the little minnows small pieces of bread. We would have such a good time.
Eating outside is so much better, somehow!
I love watching you and Matt gardening together but it makes me a little sad. My late husband and I used to enjoy working together outside.
How nice that you have your girls and grand babies close. You have a beautiful family!
I loved reading about cooking outside.
I agree, it just seems like food taste better when cooked outside. When we camped and my children were small, they would eat grits cooked outside they would not eat at home, they said they taste better when cooked outside. We would camp a lot of times at Oconee State Park at Mountain Rest, SC. My wife’s granddaddy and his friend (Uncle Lewis) would often go with us. At the crack of dawn each morning they would be up cooking a breakfast of his own county cured ham, eggs, taters and coffee. You could smell the ham cooking all over the campground. The were friends with the park ranger, he would often come by and eat breakfast with them. I suspect the smell of that ham cooking flung a craving on a lot of the other campers. Another good memory of past times spent with family. My wife’s granddaddy buried two wives (cancer and heart attack) and Uncle Lewis buried one.
When my kids were little, I would pack a simple picnic lunch, put them in a wagon, and pull them out the road just a little ways to a tiny creek that ran under the road. We would park the wagon beside it, eat our lunch and throw rocks in the little creek. It was such a simple thing, but my children loved it. It doesn’t take much to make a child feel special and loved and taking them on a picnic is one of those simple activities that they will remember. When the grandkids visit, we often take them a ride on the side by side—and we always take food. They love sitting on the tailgate beside a creek or just beside a trail and eating outside. I still remember asking my mama if we could have a picnic. She would pack us a quart jar of kool-aid and a sandwich and allow us to walk down the road to a piece of land we owned. It wasn’t far, but we thought we were big stuff—sitting on a blanket eating our simple lunch outside. I still look forward to nice weather and carrying our dinner plates out on the front porch to share a meal together—just hubby and I—It’s such a nice way to end the day.
Please tell us about Papaw Tony. How is he doing? Have they helped his pain? I’ll pray for him.
I love a bologna sandwich sometimes!
Gina, thank you for praying for Papaw! They are trying to come up with a treatment plan for him. His pain is about the same.
Watched your video last night and we really like Matt’s t-shirt! We need his deer control services here where we live at, too many deer and no hunters around here to keep the population under control. We have a doe that is very pregnant hanging around our house. My guess is she will have twins if not triplets this year.
I want to say thank you to everyone who is praying for my dad and for us, we really do appreciate the prayers. I would have never believed my dad, who was such a strong, independent man would ever developed this disease. Thankfully, he’s a vet, so he’s under the care of VA and their ALS team, which has been excellent and very responsive to all of his needs and to support us. Again, thank you to each and every one here on the Blind Pig and the Acorn.
I’m not a hunter so maybe I really shouldn’t offer my thoughts, but there’s too many deer around my way too, and I tell the too-few hunters, “If you’d be satisfied taking a doe, instead of a buck with a hat rack, that’d hold down the population, since venison is venison after all, and you only need one buck to get the does ‘with fawn’. Kill off a few does, and the bucks will produce fewer offspring.” The “take” around my way averages 60% male, 40% female, according to the state wildlife department, when it should be at least t’other way ’round, for a few years at any rate.
And all good hopes for you in the care of your father.
Oh that sounds so good! I was thinking of doing that yesterday since our power is out due to severe weatherthrough the whole region. A cake of bread freshly baked sounds nice! Beentoo wet and windy to try a campfire. One more day/night of storms and we are hopefully back to normal. Praying for everyone, no tornadoes please Lord!
I can smell the aromas from your description. Sounds delicious to me.
Just before 5 AM here and I’m listening to the birds singing sweetly outside, welcoming a new day. What a wonderful photo of Papaw Tony. Matt resembles him so much. I agree that anything prepared and eaten outside tastes extra wonderful.
Yesterday we planted two apple trees to replace two we had lost in our orchard, presumably to disease but we are not sure what exactly happened to them. After we planted them we got what my grandpa would call a “million dollar rain.” A long, gentle, soaking rain. He was a farmer and had so many sayings and expressions. Another one was, “Make hay while the sun shines.” Meaning don’t put off what needs doing. You never know what tomorrow will bring. He died suddenly from a heart attack when I was 15 and I miss him so much.
Allie, I was 14 (1968) when the Grandmother I mentioned in my comment died and 17 (1971) when my Granddaddy Kirby died. I am now 72 and still think about them and miss them. I live on their home place, and will baby a peony my Grandmother set out.