Good Mountain Cooking
Food in the mountains was and is good basic food, simple and tasty.
Many mountain women were excellent cooks. My mother was never an excellent cook. She didn’t have the provisions for anything but the basics. But she fed six children and kept them healthy. Mama’s food was good enough. My step grandmother was one of those excellent cooks.
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We called her Birdie and everything from Birdie’s table was a mouth watering feast. Her green beans that had simmered for hours on the back of the wood stove with a hunk of fat back were so delicious. Her corn bread would practically melt in your mouth. For breakfast she cooked streaked meat and fried eggs in the grease. And made red eye gravy and cat head biscuits to go with it. When we visited Granddaddy and Birdie we feasted. They always had an apple or an orange for us. We didn’t get oranges at home unless it was Christmas or any fresh apples unless they were from our apple trees. Mama dried our apples and canned apple sauce so we had fried apple pies and applesauce cake in the winter months.
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We always had a garden of green beans, peas, cabbage, tomatoes, radishes,lettuce,squash, bell and hot pepper, onions,and cucumbers. We were a hungry bunch so we ate most of it as the veggies matured. What was left mama canned. She made chow chow from the cabbage, peppers, onions and cucumbers. It was a tasty green food with our pinto beans and potatoes.
In the early spring we searched out the early shoots of poke salet, wild onions, lettuce, and water creases. Mama boiled the poke salet and poured off the first water because it was poisonous, she then boiled it again, drained it and cooked it in fat. She chopped up the lettuce or creases with wild onions and swished them around in a hot skillet in a little hot fat. They were a joy after a winter of mostly chow chow, onion, and tomatoes as our only green food.
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Published in: Cooking
Comments: 38 | Post a CommentPost a Comment
Elizabeth Abbott | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
This is so comforting. I love the feel you give when you say Mama. The food sounds so good. This is not only informative, it is so very heart warming to me, Ruby. Thank You. It is well put together. Should be another Hot topic. Your book would easily sell. I would buy one for sure. Just with what you have published here would be a fabulous book not only for referene sake but also for our children and children’s children. You humble me and keep me focused!!! The pics make my mouth water! Love fresh fruits and veggies!
Josey | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Makes me wish I knew Birdie. This made me very hungry and wish I had someone to make a big mouth-watering meal for me.
Rask Balavoine | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Yes this really is heart warming and homely – a treat to read, smeell and taste. I grew up in a remote part of Africa where we grew our own and everything was fresh and tasty – no supermarket plastic there (or elctricity, phones, TV …). It’s only now when it’s gone that I appreciate it.
Christine Ramsay | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
That is such an interesting subject. You portrayed life back then beautifully. My father was a great one for growing his own fruit and veg and I well remember picking fruit in the summer and my mother bottling it so we had it to eat all through the winter. I agree with Elizabeth. You could easily put all your recommendations into a book. It would sell really well.
Christine
Daisy Peasblossom | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Ruby, you have described my “poverty diet” perfectly. What worries me about our current economy is all of the ways we have become dependent on electricity, piped in gas, tap water and so on. We had a local ice storm two winters ago that had the local economy at a standstill for almost a week. We older ones are, well, getting older. A lot of the youngsters never knew. The infrastructure you are describing isn’t there.
clay hurtubise | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Sounds like you had a great childhood!
Thanks,
Clay
Joe Dorish | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
So much of our food today is processed. New ways are not always better ways.
Alicia Wind | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Loved the berries…it says that berries are good for fighting against cancer…
and a very useful article.
Betty Carew | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
What a wonderful wqrite Ruby it’s sad to think that most of the young generation today will never know a life like this. I think a life such as this instills values that last a lifetime.I grew up with very little but in our minds we were rich and we were rich in values that we learnt from that experience.Excellent write and the pics are awesome
Darla Cooke | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
This reminds me of my Grandma. She always cooked delicious foods and I sure do miss her cooking.
Melody SJAL | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Great memories of a well-lived childhood in a pleasant community, thanks for sharing.
Kate Smedley | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
It sounds idyllic, lovely memories.
QuinMonty86 | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
I was raised in a much similar way in my early childhood. We lived close to my grandparents, and my grandmother raised all her own veggies and her gooseberry pie was to die for!! Baked her own bread, would even go out every now and then and kill her own chicken but for the most part, we didn’t eat a lot of meat either. I was a lean, skinny kid, but you wouldn’t know that now. We do need to get back to the basics and eat what God intended. We’ll all be better off for it!! I might even lose some of this weight I’ve put on
Mr Cool | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
That just seems like the perfect diet. We live on a farm and so have our own vegetable garden and animals,however while we eat these and are healthy we still eat too mucgh processed food. I too love collecting fruit for jams and jellies or pies.
By the way what are dewberries? (if they are the tings in the picture then we call them blueberries).
CHAN LEE PENG | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Wow, you tempt my appetite! I particularly like the egg and the berries.
Jo Oliver | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
“Our food was plain and simple but we didn’t go hungry and we were all healthy. I now understand that we were raised on a completely healthy diet.”
Very good point! Our food today is so over processed and full of fillers. We all need to get back to the “good mountain cooking”
Allana Calhoun | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for sharing these wonderful memories. Kids today don’t know how lucky they are with how bountiful food is. Nor do they know what they missed – all the family time and neighborliness.
William H. Sloan | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Good work
Mary Patricia Bird | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Okay, I just ate but now you’ve made me hungry! LOL! Good job!
nobert soloria bermosa | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
i love those fruits and vegetables
Toni Sellaro | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
This is a very interesting article. I wish I knew Birdie though. There are lots of lessons to learn from this post especially about being thrifty and making the most out of what we have. Thanks a lot for sharing. I like this article a lot.
Phill Senters | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
You made me yearn for my mother’s kitchen and all the mouth-watering things she could make with so little.
Wonderful memories. Thank you!
Karen Gross | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
The ability to sustain ourselves and our families on what we can produce ourselves is a lost art. If North America ever had a disaster so huge that we lost all of our electricity and foreign fuel, we would have to count on people like you to teach the rest of us survival skills.
Great article! It brought back memories from Grandma’s kitchen.
Inna Tysoe | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
A good way to grow up, indeed.
Inna
amilia snow | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
it made me hungry…
but yes, we should appreciate the gifts of nature
rutherfranc | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
so simple back then… brought back childhood memories.. thanks for sharing..
Edward J Rodrigues | Apr 1, 2009 | Reply
i love food…
papaleng | Apr 1, 2009 | Reply
could you invite me and my wife for a lunch. my wife simply loves berries.
Ruby Hawk | Apr 1, 2009 | Reply
Thank you, thank you my friends, I enjoyed writing this article and I’m glad you liked it. Our lives were really hard but we all came through it and mama lived to the age of 87. She and my sister Charlotte were on their way to my house when mama took sick. Charlotte rushed her to the hospital and she died there. Mama lived by herself and her decendents numbered in the fifties when she died. We have more kids now.
MrZebra84 | Apr 1, 2009 | Reply
Great article! I agree with Karen; we’d all be coming to you if society collapsed lol… I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t just throw something to eat in the microwave!
harvard | Apr 2, 2009 | Reply
A unique glimpse into America’s roots, it’s my opinion a book is in order. A culture that makes us as proud as we are strong from eating right. Now, what do we have to eat around here?
NA Staffieri | Apr 2, 2009 | Reply
Cooking is such a lost art.
hiho | Apr 3, 2009 | Reply
Meat is the basis of a good square meal. The old, traditional meals recipes resulted in meat dishes with real flavour. Today’s younger generation learn kitchen skills and household marketing in the supermarket age. On the crowded supermarket shelves, you can’t find the casseroles, braises and roasts of a generation ago..enjoyed your article Ruby.
Crissleigh | Apr 4, 2009 | Reply
Dear Ruby what a wonderful story. I am only 33 but this makes me think back to my child hood too. I grew up in WV and my parents and Grandparents on my fathers side had a farm. Life is very different when you live like that. I do not worry so much about myself in this economy but more about my children. They have never know a life with out frills. I was pretty lucky money wise growing up but I have hit on hard times as an adult and the first thing you do is go back to the simple ways you were taught as a kid. I must say I had to laugh at one part of your story as we are all getting ready to put in gardens my fist thought the other day was about a big pot of green beans cooked all day with bacon fat and new potatoes there is nothing else like it in the world . Thank you for the wonerful story and the great memories it brought back. 5*
Catelin Hoover | Apr 4, 2009 | Reply
Ruby A mouth-watering read! I enjoyed reading your content, it has an uncluttered simplicity about it that is heart warming.
Having moved 9 months ago from a very large California suburb, I am now enjoying Country living and the simple pleasures it brings. I always have enjoyed cooking…folks in my last church almost embarrassed me by saying I was one of the best cooks the church ever had for pot luck, or outreach dinners. Soon as the weather settles, and we get past the frost stage I will plan as many veggies in planters as my little back yard can handle…should be good eating this summer.
CutestPrincess | Apr 5, 2009 | Reply
thanks for this ruby… it brings back the memories…
PR Mace | Apr 6, 2009 | Reply
Ruby, you sound a lot like me and my childhood. We had a garden every year. My family raised pigs for everyone and my maternal grandparents had a calf for us all. We had a smokehouse in the back. I remember picking blackberries and apples for jelly. I remember sitting on the front porch with my mother and grandmother snapping beans or shelling peas. We have all gotten lazy with our way of life.
Ruby Hawk | Jun 25, 2009 | Reply
I haven’t been back here for awhile so let me thank you all again for your kind comments. Those of us who were raised to live without the frills will always fare better during hard times. Catelin is right, it will be harder for youngsters who have had everything but they will get through it too if they have to. I wish all of you a life of plenty and all the luck in the world.