STORING NUTS FOR THE WINTER written in 1990 by Melvin Haneberg

Preservation of food was primitive but effective in the early 1900s.  There is a law of nature that “Everything comes in its season” and the problem for the pioneer family was how to preserve the abundance of food that came all at once to be used the rest of the year when it was not available.

Electricity for the farm home did not come for many years so refrigeration was out of the question.  However, countless generations of our ancestors who wrestled with the problem devised simple methods which we employed.

Canning in glass jars was the simplest and most desirable way for fruits, vegetables and to some extent for meat.  For our large family, Mother used one- or two-quart jars and I often heard her say that she didn’t feel comfortable going into the winter unless her cellar shelves held at least 1200 quarts of canned goods.

Farmers usually had a root cellar, covered with a mound of dirt, to store potatoes, squash and other vegetables where they were cool but protected from winter freezing.

Fruit and berries were preserved by the simple method of drying them in the hot summer sun, storing them in a dry place, and reconstructing them with water when needed.

Meat and fish were canned, smoked, salted down in brine, or, in the case of meat, dried as jerky. Sausage at hog butchering time was fried as meat balls and stored in crocks or small wooden barrels with lard poured over them. This sealed them in perfect condition till they were dug out and reheated for serving.

Mother and Dad, hailing directly from Sweden, were frugal in using all the meat available when butchering.  They made head cheese (sulte to Scandinavians) by cooking the beef or pig heads and pressing the meat picked from the bones into cakes which were served sliced cold.  Rolle pulse was made by packing bits of meat on a slab of sowbelly, rolling the whole into a tightly bound roll and pickled in salt brine for a time.  Sliced thinly, it was my favorite sandwich meat.

Eggs too were a problem to preserve.  Today’s technology has produced chickens that lay the year around or go in the stew pot.  In the time of my childhood, chickens were raised in a semi-wild condition and did what came naturally.  Each farm had a chicken coop where the birds could take shelter at night, safe from the weather and marauding animals.  During the day they roamed the field and garden, scratching bugs and seeds which supplemented the grain we scattered for them once a day.

Under these conditions, they followed the instincts of all birds, in that spring was the time for nesting, so they laid eggs like crazy trying to get enough together to make it worthwhile to set on them and raise a family. We knew that if we kept taking the eggs as they were laid, they would continue to lay till they got enough together to accomplish their goal.

So, it became a game between we, smart kids and those bird-brained hens.  We would prowl the brambles and look underneath the bushes to find where they had concealed their nests.  Then, we would gather the eggs as they were laid.  However, even a dumb chicken can sometimes come to the realization that something is wrong, and the eggs were not accumulating at the rate of her efforts.  To avoid this, and the danger of her abandoning her nest for a new location, we would rely on her inability to count and cunningly leave an egg or two for her to add to.

This simple method prolonged the laying season but occasionally some frustrated would=be mothers gave up, stopped laying, became setting hens and determinedly stayed on the nest to hatch a few eggs she had.  When this happened, Mother would make her a nice nest in a barrel to protect her from prowling skunks, put in a dozen or so eggs, and settle her down to her duty of hatching and raising her clutch of chicks.

So, springtime was egg time.  Later in the season, warmer weather brought on the molting of feathers and a lessening of egg production. The abundance of eggs accumulated would soon spoil, so they were placed in earthenware crocks and a solution of aluminum silicate, or “waterglass”, was poured over them.  This solidified into a gel which preserves them for later use.  These were not of the quality of fresh eggs but did nicely for cooking so that fresh hen-fruit could be used for frying and omelets.

Of course, the production of eggs was only half of the reason for having a large flock.  Chicken dinners were a treat, enjoyed the year round.  When company or any other reason called for a special meal.  We boys were sent out to lop off the heads of a couple of birds.

If no roosters were to be had, we were forced to make a selectionfrom the hens.  Woe be it unto us if we make a mistake and chose a laying hen as they were our suppliers of fresh eggs.  A non-layer was fatter and only a consumer of grain, therefore a candidate for the sacrificial axe.

There was a fool-proof method for the selection of a non-layer.  A laying hen had a nice long comb which lopped over in its crimson glory.  If she was a non-producer, her comb was pale in comparison and tended to shrink up.  After catching a hen that looked to be a non-layer the final proof was to feel the width of the clasping bones below the vent.  If the bones were two or three fingers apart, she was laying.  If she was not, the bones would be rigid and only about one fingers width apart.

How things have changed!  Today fresh produce can be obtained year-round in the supermarket and the art of food preservation in the home is rapidly being lost for most families.  No doubt, diets are better and more varied now, but somehow, I feel that having to do things for ourselves has made us more self-reliant and able to cope with whatever adversities we faced in later life.

The orchard on the Haneberg place in Bull Run with some of the Haneberg men who grew up there.