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Barefoot In The Sand: Remembering the Waning Days of the Hopewell Community (1998) Bruce C. Gragg 30/123

WE GREW OUR OWN FOOD

Growing up on a farm environment gave me an appreciation of life, and
living amongst God's Creatures that those raised outside this setting
would never have. This is where some of the more pleasant events
occurred. With some of the events being relived here, there will be
added at times some personal observations often as a correlation of
the closeness of man and nature. Several of the crops we planted
either in the garden or the field were grown primarily for canning or
preserving for the coming winter. A lot of the feed for the horse or
mule and milk cows was made from our own home grown corn. During the
year we would take a trailer full of corn to town and have it snapped
and bagged. As it was needed we kept cottonseed meal and other items
to mix our own blend of cow and horse feed. We always made sure the
animals were provided for, especially their winter food.

For our human consumption we canned squash, string beans,
butterbeans, peas, bell and hot peppers and sweet corn just to name a
few. We all worked to gather the produce to be canned that day. Some
produce could be gathered the afternoon before canning, but it was
better to pick the day is was to be canned. Picking and preparing
beans and peas had to be the slowest and longest job of all. When
shelling or snapping beans or peas it seemed as though it took all
day to get just a pan full, but with all working the same task we got
it done. It seems funny now, but while snapping and shelling peas my
tongue always got real sore from eating the tender green pea pods. I
didn't like the taste of raw green beans, squash or okra so whenever
I had to help prepare them I didn't eat any of them raw. Some things
never were canned, canning just didn't do them right. The various
greens, mustard, turnips, and collards are intended to be cooked
fresh and eaten soon. Canning or freezing them does nothing for the
flavor either. For instance Collards are at their best after a few
cold frosty mornings to really bring the flavor to its best. Mama,
had a way of getting the most of the flavor from them. Canning was
our only way of preserving for the winter any of the summer crops,
and all were still better tasting when served fresh from the garden.
We would can some whole ears of corn but mostly, it was creamed. The
work had to be done more rapidly with the corn because it would spoil
quickly in the summer heat. Burnette used a thin blade, sharp knife
to cut the very tops of each kernel of corn, then with the back of
the knife scrape the contents into a big pan to make creamed corn. It
was then cooked slowly, put in jars and placed in a big pressure
cooker to complete the process. There is nothing like the taste of
fresh creamed corn, especially if cooked soon after it is removed
from the cob, and cooked in a big heavy iron

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