When I decided nearly one year ago to stop buying food unless I knew who had grown it, I envisioned this blog would read like the last pages of Shackleton’s diary with food running out and dissension among the crew.
In the beginning I felt like an early pioneer buying 50 # bags of grain and enough provisions of sugar, salt and leaveners to last until the next stage coach came to town (little did I know that most frontier folks bought flour and it was usually white flour so that the shelf life would be longer. Home grain grinders are a fairly recent invention.) In my household white flour became taboo since I sourced all our grains locally and ground them myself.
We stopped eating things like QFC crab cakes (a favorite indulgence), breakfast cereal and corn dogs. I even bought dent corn from an organic farm in Oregon and ground it for things like corn bread, or nixtamalized it and ground it in the food processor to make masa for tortillas.
If we were going to eat cheese, I made it myself from milk from St. John’s or Dungeness Creamery. Unable to locate a rice farmer I could get comfortable with, we stopped eating rice.
So many times I thought of The Little House on the Prairie and tried to remember the foods they ate. It was honest food for an honest day’s work and I became fascinated with it.
So much so that while Christmas shopping online a suggestion popped up for a book I’ve never seen before. The book is called “The Little House Cookbook - Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories” and it’s fascinating. So fascinating that I barely managed to cook dinner tonight since I was so engrossed in it. I let the kids stay up a little later so I could get through just one more chapter. And I can’t wait to take it to bed with me and finish it tonight.
Whether you try the recipes or not the historical account of food – what it meant, how it was eaten and who could afford it will captivate you.
I read all the books when I was young and grew up with the show which happened to be on TV when I was the same age as Laura was in the series. I loved the books then but now that I am trying to create a 1/4 acre of self sufficiency in the city for my family and can appreciate the work that went into merely surviving on the frontier, it’s amazing to read this book.
Even in Laura’s childhood the few staple food items you could buy at the country store may have been deceptive:
“There was no law against stretching flour with plaster, cornmeal with sawdust, and pepper with gypsum. The coffee might easily have contained dyed navy beans, the raisins might be part pebbles, and the lard might be floured.”
It seems that food was not always honest, even when it was simple raw ingredients from a country store.
My dark days (and Christmas Eve) gift to you is the chance to win this book. Simply comment below and on Monday, December 28th I will use a random number generator to pick the winner of the book. I thought I would make it a little more legitimate since the chicken picking the number out of the hat didn’t work so well last time.
Good luck and Happy Holidays!
Last week I was telling my beloved friends in Holland about the big changes we’ve made this year in terms of nutrition and food preparation and that I seem to be transforming from a Martha Stewart to a Ma Ingalls (but I’ll always have quite a bit of a Julia Child in me ;D).
I’ll have to take a photo of the inside of my fridge one of these days and circulate it among friends. I think there are fewer than a half dozen items with a commercial label on them. It just feels SO right.
“Pepper with gypsum.” Gross! My grandmother wouldn’t touch commercially ground pepper. She must’ve known about this dishonest practice.
BTW, Annette, there’s a rice grower in Sacramento Valley, northern California, the Lundberg Family Farms (http://www.lundberg.com/) whose motto is “Celebrating Over 70 Years of
Environmental Stewardship.”
Wishing you and your family a very sweet and comforting holiday season.
XOX
The book sounds VERY interesting! Thanks for a chance to win this and Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!
I am still shocked that you have come this far in only a year! You must be so proud of all your accomplishments and your family for joining in! I know you will continue eating this way, I just hope you keep blogging about it. You are a wealth of knowledge and the book sounds great too!! Thanks for sharing so much with us and I hope you and yours have a very merry Christmas full of love and happiness!!
Merry Christmas to you and your family! I was an addict of the TV show growing up. My mom always had it on. I’ve heard about that cookbook and would love a copy. Thanks for the giveaway.
I just started reading Little House in the Big Woods to L 2 days ago! I had forgotten how it was for them, smoking their sides of venison and bear in a hollow log, protecting their one pig from predators, salting fish. Because Laura says her favorite meat is bear, L is asking when I’m going to cook some of that up. Are there recipes for bear in the book I just know I’m going to win? And then I can render some bear grease to grease my traps. I expect in Seattle, all I’d catch is raccoon or rat. Mmmmm.
I have read the series of Little House on the Prairie and was just looking on line to purchase the complete. I have never read the cookbook so thanks for a chance to win it.
I just found your blog this fall and enjoy reading it.
Blessings for a Happy New Year!
well this book sounds very interesting.
please count me in the drawing!
happy holidays to you!
That sounds like a great read! Having read all the books, watched the tv series, and then have gone back and reread some of the best of the series… I think a “little house” cookbook would be icing on the cake.
Recently reread “The Long Winter” – made me very appreciative of the abundance we enjoy on a regular basis.
I am fascinated by your blog. I fear I wouldn’t be nearly as successful if I tried the same, so I enjoy learning from your efforts. Thanks for all your hard work!
I was lamenting that I have two boys who would not likely be interested in reading the books but I think I’m going to try to find a set on ebay and order them anyway. We are almost done reading the Magic Treehouse series and have read the first 3 Harry Potters, the 4th started off too scary so we have a little lull right now. Maybe Little House would fit the bill!
I can’t wait to give it away – it’s just so interesting! Merry Christmas to everyone!
p.s. I have two more books to give away once this one is gone and I think they will be great ones too so if you don’t win this one stick around…
What a fantastic giveaway. I have been so in awe of you since I joined the Dark Days Challenge – thanks for all your support to the group!
Love the Little House books. Always found them fascinating as a girl. And I think your story is so amazing and inspiring! Maybe one day a hundred years from now, your story will be a prize. Count me in the drawing!
Happy Holidays!
I completely understand how you feel! I think I read more cookbooks than regular books. I love cookbooks the focus on poorer food fair. They are always more interesting!
Laura is my role model! I often think about them grinding wheat in the coffee mill. Digging tunnels through the snow. Pa declaring that it’s time to move when 5 wagons pass by their home in The Big Woods…..(or whatever number it was!).
I hope you had a lovely Christmas!
Just found you, and wanted to give you a shout out, cause I’m just over in Carnation! How fun to find this blog! I’m just getting back into the whole simple living, backyard homesteading thing after taking a bit of a break last year. Great to find someone local who’s doing so well! I’d love to read this book too! Thanks for the chance to win!
Oh it’s been so hard waiting to give this away but the other two books I have are gems too. Welcome to everyone!
I’ll do the random number thingy tomorrow night. That way I can’t spill the beans and anyone who was out of pocket this weekend could still enter. Next time I won’t make you wait so long to see who wins.
Sounds like an enjoyable read!
OK everyone – I just ran random numbers using http://www.random.org and it picked #10 which means Jennie of http://www.daftlysmitten is the winner! Jennie please email me at annette (at) pollywogbaby.com with your address and I’ll mail you the book. Tomorrow night I’ll announce a new giveaway. Thanks for playing everyone!
Last year I read the first 7 books (up to Little Town on the Prairie) to my son who was 6 at the time. He *still* talks about the Long Winter and what it would be like. Can’t wait to read them to my little boy when he’s old enough.