My maternal grandmother is an active and healthy 91 year old. Her secret? Eating as naturally as possible. She attributes her longevity and good health to the natural, home-grown, and locally-sourced foods of her childhood.
“We were eating organic food before anyone really knew what ‘organic’ meant,” she says.
Recently I had the privilege of visiting with her extensively about her family’s lifestyle during her childhood years, which were spent on a small farm in the 1920s. We talked for an hour about her mother’s garden, how she preserved food to last through the winter, and how she foraged for food.
The Food That Started Grandma’s Day
Even back then, a few processed foods like Post cereals had made their appearance, but Grandma’s day started with homemade cereal featuring walnuts from their own walnut tree. Her mother gathered the nuts, chopped them, combined them with oatmeal and raisins, and then served her homemade cereal with raw, unpasteurized milk delivered that morning from the cream wagon.
Grandma recalls, “The cream rose to the top of the milk. Mother and dad would always skim off a teaspoon full for their coffee. When the milk was finished, mother would wash the bottles with money and a handwritten order for the next day tucked inside. This was set out on the front porch for the driver to pick up the following morning. The cream wagon was a horse-drawn buggy, and one day the driver said to me ‘You be ready, and in the morning, I will give you a ride’. The next day he picked me up and sat me on the front seat to help him make his deliveries. It was the first time I ever rode behind a horse.”
In addition to milk, the cream wagon would also provided butter and eggs. Grandma’s eggs, however, came from the chickens her mother raised. Compared with today’s incubators, hers was much simpler.
“Mother hatched her chicks using a cardboard box and a light bulb as an incubator. She set the box on a shelf out in our barn. The chicks were so tiny when they hatched. I thought they looked like silk.”
Eggs from the chickens were eaten frequently and used for baking. Grandma recalls a special dessert that her father liked featuring their eggs. “Mother liked to make dad angel food cake. She saved up and set aside a dozen eggs, and made it completely from scratch. There were no boxed cake mixes then.”
The Rooster Got Out of Hand
The chickens were also a source of meat, sometimes providing an impromptu supper if one or two of them happened to get out of hand.
Grandma recalls one such time: “We had a rooster, and one day he was out stirring up the chickens. Mother came out to the front porch holding my little sister and set her down in order to deal with the rooster. Well, that rooster jumped up on top of my sister’s head and began to dig into her hair. The chopping block and the axe were well within reach so mother grabbed that rooster and chopped off his head. We ate him for dinner that night.”
Fish from a nearby stream was another source of meat. Grandma and her siblings tagged along while their mother fished for dinner, catching and cleaning all of it herself.
Everyone Had a Garden
Since I am an active gardener, I was especially interested to know if Grandma’s family had a garden and what they grew.
“I think everyone had a garden.” While Grandma didn’t remember many cole crops (like broccoli, cauliflower, and kale) until later, she did remember pretty much everything else. Lima beans, tomatoes, Swiss chard, carrots, celery…the list went on!
All summer long her mother preserved the food they would eat during the winter. She had a special basement kitchen just for the purpose of canning. It included a gas stove, a kitchen sink, a solid oak table, and a cupboard just for canned goods. It had a brick floor and brick walls, and was fitted with solid oak shelves for storage. My great-grandma canned everything from cling peaches with whole spices, apples, applesauce, to tiny whole potatoes and corn (which was canned with additional salt for better preservation and then rinsed under cold water before cooking).
Extended Family Cooking
Grandma also talked quite a bit about how the extended family would come together to make apple butter.
“It was an all-day affair that involved everyone in the family. Mother and her sisters gathered together and spent the better part of the day peeling, slicing, and coring the apples which would then go in a large copper kettle. The kettle was heated outside over an open fire and stirred constantly with a wooden paddle. Once it was ready, it was canned, and then of course everything had to be cleaned up.”
The apple butter was enjoyed at dinner with homemade bread.
“A typical meal was at 5:00 to 5:30,” she says. “It always began with a blessing. We’d have some meat and a lot of vegetables from the garden and my mother’s bread. Mother liked everything to be fresh so she would bake twice a week. Often times she would include dinner rolls, a coffee cake, or cinnamon rolls. She was especially noted for her pies. She would layer the fruit as thick and as high as she could and then stretch the top crust over it. It barely reached.”
Treats On Occasion
Additional treats were offered only on occasion. A few favorites were homemade popcorn and homemade fudge. Every so often Grandma and her siblings received small candies when her dad returned home from a trip to the store.
She remembers, “He came home to three eager faces waiting for him at the window. He always went to the living room, and we’d run after him to ask ‘Where’s the candy? Where’s the candy?’ Of course, that’s exactly what he wanted. He gave it to us then. We really didn’t know what junk food was since this happened on such rare occasions.”
Ice cream was a real treat but very rare. It wasn’t possible to keep it solid in an icebox, and Grandma said they did not have a modern refrigerator until much later.
“To commemorate the arrival of our refrigerator, my mother decided to make potato salad. It was a labor of love since all of the ingredients, including the mayonnaise, had to be started from scratch. She mixed it all together and put it in a special glass bowl, setting it to chill on a special shelf in the fridge.”
Advice For Today’s Cooks
Toward the end of our visit, I asked Grandma if she had any advice for the present day cook.
“Just feed your children as healthfully as you can,” she said. “Look at how my mother fed me… now I’m 91 years old!”
Even though things like sucanat and ancient grains weren’t available to her like they are to us today. All of her food was made from scratch and sourced locally. Even without spelt flour, if you make your own food, you are miles ahead in preparing healthy food for your family.
What conversations have you had with beloved elders in your family about how they grew up? What did they share? What was life like?
...without giving up the foods you love or spending all day in the kitchen!
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Love this article! It’s great that you are able to glean wisdom from your grandmother, Jenny. What wonderful traditions she and her family had!
Thank you Bethany. It was lots of fun to chat with her.
My father was raised much the same way. He still starts every day with homemade old fashioned oatmeal. My mother purchases it in 25 pound bags. My great-grandmother lived to be 99 and I think a lot of it had to do with their eating habits, much the same as your grandmother remembers. I love reading and sharing this kind of wisdom!
I know this will sound a bit odd but I’m alive today because of the milkman. Just like your Grandma our dairy products were home delivered. At the age of 5 years I had an accident and fell carrying my Mama’s empty coffee mug. The mug hit the ground breaking and I landed on it severing my wrist. The Milkman just happened to pull-up and he kept me from bleeding to death. So, not only did he deliver the best milk products straight from the farm, he saved my life and became my Knight in shinning Armour!
Oh my goodness! That must have been so painful! That was something he was there right when he was.
Morning,
I loved this article. I am 60 years old and have tried many of the different kinds of eating philosophies. The one that has stuck is gluten free as I do not have a choice. My husband and I have paid a high price in our health,adrenals and thyroid in particular following the no fat,no red meat,no salt heart association recommendations for 20 years. My husband had very serious heart disease. He died and was revived in his early 40’s. After many years of trying different solutions I have come to this conclusion. If you are over 55 ….eat the way your parents ate…younger then that eat they way your grandparents ate. Skip the pre made baby foods. Feed them them what you have on your old fashioned dinner table. Learning to think things through is your greatest asset. After all baby food was created in 1927 by Dorothy Gerber. This begs the question,what did babies eat and thrive on before that? The family dinner table which was gmo free, and naturally occurring organic food,raw milk and butter. Though at this point butter was already being challenged by oils..rancid oils…but that is a story for another time..Source best organic,grassfed, gmo free food you can find. Chemicals in food is a new thing….post war in fact..
I remember how and what my mom cooked….fresh veggies,fruit,meat from the butcher, chicken and fish. Gravy oh the gravy. It has only been two years since we have reincorporated these old gmo,organic, grassfed foods back into our lives. But I will never forget my body’s reaction to eating my first goat chop,smothered in celtic sea salt, raised by our own hands. My body went into alive mode from just one bite.
I challenge all to begin to rethink your food…ponder what health was like in your great grandparents time. What were they eating?Research and find our for yourself ….For example…before the 1920’s heart disease was non existent. After the 1920’s is was the number one cause of death. Why is that? Hint it has to do with the introduction of oils in place of raw butter…. search it out.
Kate
Great thoughts Kate and thank you for sharing. You have me wondering about goat chops now. I’ve never tried those. We did though raise a few of our own chickens last summer and those were wonderful. Nothing like raising your own food!
We left the city too and moved to the country where we could grow and raise our own food. A lot of work! But worth it in the long run. We’ve been simplifying our lifestyle and our food – to real, whole foods – and that has been the best part!
Thanks Angela. It is amazing how a simple lifestyle can actually be a lot of work. We’ve enjoyed it though. 🙂
I am sixty years old and I can remember many visits with my MawMaw and PawPaw Brown when I was a little girl. They lived on a farm about 30 miles from the nearest town. My grandfather was a hunter, and my grandmother was the best cook in the world it seemed. If we didn’t have a venison roast, fried quail, or a leg of lamb for Sunday dinner, then we had her wonderful chicken and dumplings. I have often gone to the barn with her to help catch a chicken for the next day’s meal. When the chicken was cleaned thoroughly, it was then taken into the kitchen to be seasoned and boiled. Her dumplings were made like homemade biscuit dough (but tougher), and rolled out on a floured towel. When she had rolled the dough to about 1/8 of an inch thick, she would cut them into strips about and inch wide and 3 inches long (they didn’t break apart when I picked them up). Then she let me drop them one- by -one into the simmering chicken stock. That was my favorite meal at MawMaw’s house. I have always loved to cook because of the wonderful time she made of her hard work. Awesome memories! She and my grandfather lived to be 93 and 88 respectively. And, my dad just recently passed away at age 93…I think that says a lot for traditional foods and a godly lifestyle.
Thanks for sharing about the chicken and dumplings Bev. A friend of mine makes hers the same way. What sweet memories. 🙂
My grandparents were raised in Switzerland and always were about growing their own food. They had chickens and ate two meals a day that contained eggs of some sort. My grandfather made the dark rye bread every week and my Nona cooked with lots of herbs and spices the best food I had ever eaten. When my Nona was in her 90’s I would take her grocery shopping and would be irritated when she would comment about my choice to buy cold cereal, cool whip and velveta. She was shopping for oatmeal and a few staples but never touched processed modern foods. I did wise up eventually and now think of her every day as I follow her example of cooking real foods. She and my grandfather not only lived until age 99 and 100 respectively but lived healthy and well until the last moment of life, running a beautiful orchard, raising a garden each year, and loving each other.
Oh that’s lovely! I am so happy they were able to stay active that long.
I am almost 98 years old and I so enjoyed your write up. I was reared on a 140-acre farm in Western Maryland in a seven-room brick home and I could relate to everything you wrote.