Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1911-03-30
FARMERS GREW EVERYTHING
That Was the Way II Seemed to
a Boy rs Years Ago.
Wool, Cheese, wheat, All Things That
New Enalnnd HIS Given Jp Were
Then a Matter of Course
Fresh Meat Rarity.

stress on one fact Of life in those early
days. and that is that each farm supplied
to those who lived on 1t all things need
full for life, says the New York Sun The
farmer grew and ground his own corn
and wheat and raised and spun his own
wool and made his own cloth.
! SO far as raising all the necossaries Of
life goes 1t Ia not so many years since
farms OF that type still existed In New
| England. They produced their own beef
mutton and pork and slaughtered the ami
J mails themselves raised their own wheat
and sent 1t to the mill to be ground Guilt
waited of course their own vegetables, IA
they made their own butter and cheese
The farmer of even twenty-five years ago
mad sheep. sheared them himself and
sacked the wool for market. Cloth max
| ing was beyond him. Flax he did not
grow and cotton was an impossibility
The sugar problem was met by the maple
tree.
The boy particularly remembers this
last charm of the farm he lived on more
than twenty-five years ago. IIe was a
| city boy with only such n knowledge OF
| country life as he had gathered In the
small towns he had summered in. Maple
sugar he knew, but as luxury. Here In
| this corner Of northern Vermont he found
| place where there we're two bowls of
sugar one of white ana one of maple
| The hired men and the family EXCEPT tho
| women folks were expected to use the
| maple; the boy as q sort Of paying guest,
| was privileged to use the white, an op-
| portunity of which he never awaited him
self.
| That maple sugar was kept in n great
| barrel In the pantry. and when the chance
came there were nuggets of maple sugar
as big as the small boys hand to be dug
out. Tho barrel was only small part of
! the years output OF the hundreds of trees
| that formed the two sugar orchards on
| the place. In addition roadside trees and
sugar naples about the house were tap.
! ped, for the farmer in that far corner of
| Vermont was thrifty.
| The best instance perhaps of how de-
pendent on itself such farm was is
furnished by the question of the meat
supply. In the two summers the boy
| lived there he rarely had fresh meat
| except chicken. The nearest town with
| which the farm folks traded was four
or more miles away and no meat cart
made a regular route in warm DAYS
Houses were too far apart. demand too
small and ice too scarce to warrant it.
Moreover in summer time horses were
| too busy to drive to town
| The result was that the family of six
father. mother and four children: the
| four hired men. the one hired girl and
the boy lived for the most part on salt
pork Tor meat. Salt pork in fact ap-
peared on the table with rare exceptions.
Cnlt x,fi,
gravy is delcctable dish and no one
appeared to find monotony in 1t.
Sunday dinner furnished one of the
rare Interruptions Of the salt pork diet
II nothing else offered itself chickens
were always ready for sacrifice Another
exception came with the killing of a
calf. Veal appeared then in more forms
than the unskllled would have thought
a calf could assume
But these were minor incidents to the
boy. There were always new wonders
that kept him busy. and Just the looking
into them helped to develop an appetite
that could content itself with vegetables
pie, salt pork or whatever was on the
table,
1t was then that he first learned that
sweet cream was the best accompani-
\
was no luxury Of the rich on that farm
There were forty or more cows and a
pint Of cream was merely an incident
This was In part due to the fact that
cheese was a summer product Of the
farm. Even in those days there were
not many farms where cheese was made.
but this farmer stuck to his traditions
and WAS helped In that determination
h1Et J. 70, H.
for all his dairy products.
Cheese factories and creameries were
scorned In place of the easy way Of
selling the milk in bulk there was the
actual work OF making butter SO long
as cool weather held and of making
cheese each day In summer The sepa-
rator had not then appeared and there
were problems In handling the milk that
We're hard to solve in summer
For that reason the boy seldom SAW
the Oldest horse on the place led into the
ing back room and tied in the treadrniu
that was connected with the disher OF the
big churn. But he did see and learn to
know the delights Of every stage of home
cheese making.
1t Is true that these delights were
largely connected with eating, for from
inc time tne Curu llISl DeSlnS TO form
until the finished product il put away
on the shelves OF the cheese room there
is always something about It good to
eat.
The long vat was filed with milk each
morning, the rcnnet added and then as
it curdled and the solid matter rose to the
top the farmer or his wife with a wooden
paddle divided the half solid, half liuuid
curd into rectangles and the whey was
allowed to run off. II was hand pressure
that forced out the remaining whey and
left the first eatable product for the boy.
That was curd pure and simple, unsalted
but delicious. There followed the pro
cess of adding salt and perhaps one day
in hvo sage and then the curd grew IN de-
liclousness.
The next step was the pressing in an
old fashioned hand press which somehow
seemed oddly suggestive of an old wood
cut of tho beginnings OF printing. save
that the cheese curd was in a round re-
ccptacle.
II was when the cheese came out of the
press that It furnished its third thiug
good to eat That was the edge that WAS
trimmed or before tho buttered cloth
was frightened about 1t and II WAS nut
away TO be turned daily and ripen for
months. After that it lost interest. for
the cheese that grown folks ate WAS
strong and dsagreeabe, but the edetngs
Of that day old cheese still tasted of rev
mil