As a little girl, I loved to go with my Mom to our old cellar. It had been dug back into the hill years ago. The front was made of flat field stones stacked up on each other and there was a wooden door. With no windows, it was very dark inside. But when Mom opened it up and let the sunlight in, it shined upon our storehouse of food. Wooden shelves lined the dirt walls. They were full of quart and half gallon mason jars containing fruits, vegetables and meats. Most of the cans were blue in color. They had zinc lids with white glass inside and red rubber seals. Wooden bins set on the dirt floor. They held apples, beets, carrots, potatoes and turnips. Pumpkins and squash were there, too. Mom handed me a quart of apple butter and a quart of sausage. She picked up two of the same. We stepped out of the cellar and closed the door. Company was coming for the weekend and this food was part of the fixins. On our way to the house I carried my jars carefully. I had seen the hard work my family done preparing and canning this food.
For the apple butter, dishpans full of apples were peeled, cored and sliced. Out in the back yard the big brass kettle set in its iron rack. A fire was built underneath. The apples, a little bit of water, and later on the sugar were added to the pot. Stirring the apples and keeping the right amount of fire under the kettle kept us busy. Cinnamon was added when the apple butter was almost done. It took hours to finish. Then it was put into canning jars and sealed while hot. Apple butter day was fun, but I did not like hog killing day. I went to my room and played and took a nap, only coming out for supper. Often I had carried apples to those hogs and they were so happy.
The next day my family was very busy carrying water from the spring to heat on the wood cook stove, washing jars, cutting and canning tenderloin and grinding sausage. Good lean pieces of meat and some fat were ground up. Then it was seasoned with salt, black or red pepper and sage. Little sausage balls were made and fried. Those were packed into jars and canned in a hot water bath canner on the wood cook stove. Later some of the sausage was used for the most delicious sausage dumplins when company was coming, my favorite.
Mom was making her special cookie dough sweetened with molasses. I had my little apron on and my dough roller in hand. I wanted to help, too. She rolled out the dough and cut out six large cookies the size of a small plate. Mom let me make some small cookies from the left over dough. After the cookie rounds were baked and cooled, she stacked them on a pretty glass cake plate with a thick layer of apple butter between each cookie. The stack cake was tall. Mom wrapped it in her favorite kitchen towel made from an old flour sack and put it in the cupboard to rest.
On Sunday when every one was seated around the dinner table we were truly thankful for the bounty before us and for another blessed day.
