I was watching PBS yesterday and I forget the guys name, but he was back in Pennsylvania or some where in an Amish community about heritage or something. (Try to remember that you are dealing with someone who checks the date 45 times a day to just be sure it is actually today!) Any way, the center of the courtyard in this community was a 3 legged kettle. I think I have written on that before, but just in case I will sum it up again.
The 3 legged kettle is a big cast iron pot (for lack of a better word) that set in the back yard near the water source, which in our case was a hand pump. Water for washing clothes was heated by building a fire around the bottom. Course it took a while to heat, but back then the laundry was an all day job. Wash the clothes, rinse the clothes, second rinse the clothes and then hang them on the clothes line to dry and hope the birds did not poop on them. Our clothes line was in back of the house as was most peoples. That led to the old adage, "Don't air your dirty laundry!" The same kettle was used to "scald a hog " when it was butchering time.
Dammit! I digress! This lesson was about making hominy. Mother used to make hominy so I was familiar with the process, sort of anyway. First the field corn had to be completely dry. It was then "shucked" which in this instance is removing the dried kernels from the cob. Of course, the cobs were saved for use in the "outhouse" which is a whole 'nuther blog. Just be aware that the cobs that were red were the softest in case you ever need to know!
The loose kernels were put in the pot of water with the fire burning underneath. This was an all day job and as it cooked it needed to be stirred regularly. A very long wooden paddle was used for this. As it cooked it swelled. Dry corn takes a long time to cook with a simmering fire outside. As it simmered it released the hard core of the corn. After due time mother added lye which raised the water temperature higher than any fire would raise it. We continued to stir, but at this time we needed to skim off the hard stuff that was coming out of the corn. The important thing to remember at this time was not to let any water touch our skin because it would burn us bad. While the lye back then was made from the soft gray ash of hard wood, usually hickory, it was still caustic.
Fresh water was added and we now used a sort of dipper with only tiny holes so when we scooped we got water along with debris. When at long last the water was clear the corn, which was now soft and fat was dipped out and put in the center of a large piece of cheese cloth. This was hung on the clothes line to hang in the sun until it was dry. I am assuming that from there it went to the root cellar. I do not remember. I do think that a some point it was also dried and made into grits. Grits are ground hominy. I only like yellow grits. (My friend Sherman only liked white grits, but that is another story.)
Looking back, it sure seemed like an awful lot of work for very little product, but that was the whole point of life back then. We worked all summer to fill the root cellar with stuff to keep us alive through the winter. Sweet potatoes were a staple because they kept better than white potatoes. And Apples! My God it seemed like everyone in the world blessed us with apples in the fall. Apples kept well in the root cellar and we had them all winter! Fresh apples, fried apples, baked apples, stuffed apples, apple pie, apple sauce! But the best apple of all was my mother! She was the apple of my eye! (Little humor there!)
So bid the farmstead fare thee well for now. I think that is an old German saying. Instead of saying goodbye, Grandma always said "fare thee well" which means " good wishes to you at parting."
Peace and prosperity to you all and may you never have to cook your dried up corn again!
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