Martha and her daughters spend much of the novel immersed in everyday household labor such as making candles, baking bread, weaving, and killing chickens. Were there any 1780s tasks you’ve tried or would like to try for yourself?
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As a midwest farmer/farm wife, I’ve raised my own vegetables and fruits, raised and butchered the farm animals (chickens, cattle, hogs), canned and frozen my home grown foods. baked bread, prepared our meals from scratch, quilted, sewn my own clothes, worked in the fields, etc. I also was a family counselor, newspaper editor, etc. I think one has a different outlook on life if they do the work themselves.
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I would like to have learned the medicinal values and affects of the natural plants. Remember Euell Gibbons? I grew up on a farm surrounded by woods. We knew which wild mushrooms to pick and which ones to leave alone. There was a leafy plant we called the licorice plant and would suck the stem for the tasty licorice flavor. (Did I actually admit this???)
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@Marcia_Sailer I’m so impressed that you can do all that! As a city girl (grew up in Cleveland, Ohio) I know absolutely nothing about any of this. I’d be so hosed if I ever had to do the things you’ve done.
@NanK Haha, yeah, I remember good ol’ Euell (“Did you know many parts of a pine cone are edible?”) I think it’s pretty cool you can identify the licorice plant. Again, I’d either starve or poison myself if I was in any kind of wild situation.
I have in the past made candles. I still make bread from time to time.
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When I was a new wife I did make bread and enjoyed it. Later I was gifted a bread making machine not quite the same as making my bread from scratch! One Christmas my husband and I made candles as gifts as we did not have money to buy other items for relatives. We were really not very successful! My mother’s job, as a young girl, on her parent’s farm was to kill the chickens. After she chopped off their heads she told me their bodies kept running around. No thank you I would not like to kill chickens.
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No I’ve never tried any tasks from that time period nor would I want to. Having said that, I do enjoy reading books of that time period. I thank God that I was born when I was, since I probably would have been an unpleasant person to be around. Maybe time-traveling back for a day or two could be interesting…lol.
Time travel - if I could choose weather and political conditions!
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I’m so impressed with the broad range of experience of you fellow book clubbers! I made candles long ago which I really enjoyed doing. I remember making a beer candle which was gold/brown wax in a pilsner glass with white wax beaten with an eggbeater added to the top for the beer’s foam. I displayed it next to my chair in the tv room. It didn’t take long for word to get around the neighborhood that I drank beer as early as 10:00 a.m.! Also I remember making what I think was called Amish bread. I so admire those experienced in off the grid skills, but I think it’s not for me. Once at an authentic historic park where everyone stayed in character, performing era tasks, a young woman was plucking a chicken and I almost fainted… thank goodness I was late for the killing.
I agree about never have tried any of tasks from that time period and do not think I am capable. But reading about that time period and other periods both nonfiction and fiction one learns so much by immersing oneself in the book. An example of a family tradition my husband’s large family has done Pie Night Thanksgiving eve for over fifty years and we have attended but role has been fetcher and cheerleader but my husband is one of the active bakers plus everyone else including very youn kids.
Same - no thanks on the chickens.
Fun on the candles.
I have made different kinds of bread, and have woven on a loom as well. However, I did this for relaxation and fun, as well as to learn new skills. I’m not sure it would have been as much fun for the Ballard family, who had no choice but to do it themselves.
Years ago I did a lot of canning. We moved to Connecticut in August and there was a huge garden with an abundance of tomatoes, green beans and zucchini. My mother-in-law taught me how to can. I really enjoyed it for a few years, but then it became a chore. I also have liked crocheting and knitting and still do that in the winter. I am rather glad I didn’t grow up in the time of Frozen River.
I find it fascinating to visit local living museums to witness firsthand what life was like years ago. I have not done many of these tasks that the women completed back then.
I was fortunate to have lived in the Detroit suburbs not far from the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. Many of these skills were taught with experts using tools, equipment, and techniques of times past. Bees wax candles, herb lotions and soaps, woodworking and tin kitchen tools are examples of the many offerings. That was 40 years ago but my memories are still fondly retrieved today.
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