Produce is eaten fresh or canned and stored for the long cold winter. The chickens and turkeys have to be fed and the eggs gathered. A small herd of dairy cows are kept and each child has one of his own to milk, and there are a few extra that are taken care of by Coe or one of the hands. As there is no refrigeration, the milk has to be consumed fresh, the extra being fed to the animals. Butter and cheese are made, the butter being salted to help it keep longer, and stored in the stone storehouse in the yard.
Fresh meat is had only when a fat steer is butchered in the fall.
Lard, used for making soap or for cooking, is rendered, and the meat is jerked. Mother Nature, though sometimes cruel, is gracious to those who know her, and much of the Coe family's food comes from her kitchen. Deer meat is always available, the venison eaten fresh, canned, or jerked in the same manner as beef. In the spring, large and juicy red berries ripen along the canyons. They are gathered and preserved into jellies or sauces and fruit juices.