The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1909-02-24
OLD TIME TURKEY EAT
A Once Popular Feast In the
Pennsylvania Mountains.
GONE WITH THE WOODSMEN.


tions That Made It Possible Are No
More, and It Joins In Oblivion the
Apple Cut and Quilting Bee.
1T isn't because there is no more
material In the Blue mountain region
of Pennsylvania to provide a turkey
eat that we have had the last Of those
famous festivities" said a former
dweller of the district described, "for
there are still wild turkeys a-plenty.
The turkey eat has gone out with
the passing of the people whose homes,
traditions and Of life made it
possible and with the occupation that
was once theirs.
I'm the days when the turkey eat
was the great winter festivity in the
mountain districts between the Schuyl-
kill and the Juniata watersheds the
sparse population was chiefly of rude
and rugged woodmen and their fami-
lies, many of them descendants Of
pure Pennsylvania Dutch stock. Scores
Of them depended almost entirely on
their skill with gun and trap for their
food supply.
"The cabins Of these mountaineers
were built Of logs, the chinks between
which were filed in with clay. A
huge stone chimney rose at one end
Of the cabin outside, covering that en-
tire end, while on the inside it opened
on a broad fireplace across that end
Of the room.
SOThn 00h3n vr10 he vl,4l III ~.1.,~l
with earth, against which hemlock and
pine boughs were heaped. Sometimes
rows of cord wood were piled up al
most to the caves, the better to keep
out the cold, which is always intense
during winter on those wind swept
hills.
"There was rarely a cabin with more
than n room. The walls were dark
and smoky, and from rafter or beam
hung plentifully strips of jerked veni-
son and chunks of smoked bear meat,
along with hams and bacon from the
family pigs fattened in the woods and
almost as wild as the bear and the
deer. But the choicest and best be-
loved thing Of the cabins harder was
the fat and wen frozen wild turkey.
while the woodsman's cabin was al
ways prepared for a turkey eat, 1t
never knew when It was coming. A
turkey eat began with the making up
Of a party in a neighboring village or
settlement. Taking along a fiddler,
they would appear at this, that or the
other woodsman's cabin Of a winter
evening, and the woodsman and his
family did the rest.
INSTANTLY the birch wood pail Of CT
der came forth. While the cabins
guests drank cider the host prepared
and spitted the turkey over the hick-
DRY Goals In the fireplace to roast for
the feast. When it was ready for the
table it was placed before the guests
on a big tin platter. Each one carved
for himself. the plates being squares
of birch bark.
"The turkey eat was not complete,
though, without a liberal supply Of
'paan haas and head cheese, and with
1t went the sweetest Of rye bread and
butter. Paan haas is a strictly Penn
.sylvania Dutch creation.
ut is made from the rich juices left
after boiling the ingredients for head
cheese, these being thickened to a stiff
paste with buckwheat -four. This paste
is pressed in forms until cold and IS
served In slices: It is a dull blue in
color, very rich and very good.
"After the feast the turkey eat was
rounded out by a night Of jollity super
induced by the fiddle and maintained
by it in it's music for the old fashioned
%cotillon figures and reels, which were
danced until the gray Of morning.
"But most Of those old time woods
men have passed away, and on those
who are still jewellers in the mountains
the game laws have forced a situation
that leaves them with their ancient oc-
cupation gone, and the hunt being no
longer a source of maintenance its ira
ditions have departed with 1t. The
newer generation of these people is Of
other tastes and associations, 20 while
the wild turkey is yet in proximity in
that Blue mountain region to supply
the material for the festive turkey eat
the traditions and associations that
made it possible are no more, and it is
gone, like the apple cut, the quilting
bee. the pig killing frolic and others of
the old time rural pastimes that are
now but a memory."-New York Sun.
Hot Stuff.
The great editor looked up impa-
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