Dawn That was a touching and quite amazing story about your dad's family raising themselves. It really brought a lot of mental pictures to mind about survival in hard times. What would most folks do now in similar situations we wonder who've never been taught any gardening skills, and lived in apts in the cities, how in the world could they survive?? I think many of us here on the Okie garden web are becoming more aware all the time of not only how fickle the weather can be, but life as "we've known it", and maybe the good times aren't going to roll forever, as some, including myself, Carol, and others have mentioned. It's good to notice the weather and seasonal patterns, but it's also very, very important to be watchful about the signs of the times. Some of this "putting up" that we've been doing may be instinctual as we sense a coming need, and not only the fact that's it's something we do during the harvest season. I have maybe a scant 1/4 acre, but I keep putting more and more of it into garden. I'm not interested in having a show place flower garden anymore, and most of my plants and flowers from now on are going to be geared to eco-system, and attracting beneficals, even though to me, it still looks pretty. I'm just glad that although I live in a semi-rural area, I can still garden the way I want without so-called "protective covenants". My DS just build me a new large compost pile I have in the back corner under the shade of a pecan tree, and I even think it looks good, lol! I am very grateful to this forum and you Dawn for your work here, which is not only informative, but entertaining and very typically salt of the earth. Something I found very rare while living in the Denver sprawl. I appreciate the simple life, and it has brought me back to my own roots here in Oklahoma. The folks here on GW remind me so much of the people I knew in my childhood. And the gardening that came so naturally to my own folks and their friends. I can remember going to Missouri with my parents to visit my dad's brother and family on their farm, and all the wonderful foods that came out of the kitchen, homemade sausages, bacon or ham from the smokehouse, fresh country eggs, milk and butter from the dairy, homemade blackberry jam, hot biscuits with cream gravy. And that was just breakfast! After eating, my cousins and I would go play by the creek where the watercress grew prolifically, and then if we got hungry between meals would run in and get a salt shaker and head to the garden and pick tomatos off the vines, salt and eat them like they were candy, getting the juice all over our faces, of course. My own mom was quite a gardener herself, but not all that much of a cook, because she always worked, and didn't really have the time. But that woman could fry a chicken like no one else in the world. I've never been able to duplicate her method even though I'd grown up watching her. The one thing I remember is that she would always choose the smallest, most tender chickens, and maybe that was part of her secret. Whatever, she had a magic touch, just like your aunt's. And her cherry pies were a family treasure, thick with cherries and not just sweet filling. Well, I got waaaay off topic there, but I don't think the forum police are going to come after me. Anyways, thanks for that post......it really brought back some wonderful memories, and lots of nostalgia for by gone days. It was so sweet of you to make that special Spanish Fort Cream Pecan Pie in honor of your aunt. There has to be a special place in heaven for folks like that who've devoted themselves to raising their younger siblings and keeping the family pulled together during hard times. As for you, you may have to pull out that recipe for your special Skillet browned sugar cream pecan pie come Thanksgiving time, (or sooner)for the rest of us here. You never know when that "old school" cooking may become a necessary luxury again. Someone recently told me their daughter was studying the Depression in school, and had to make a "Depression Cake" using the most bare bones ingredients. We really have been both blessed and spoiled at times in the abundance of things, but we should never forget the lessons learned by those who went before us who learned survival skills and it would be good if we could learn these same skills ourselves in order to pass them on to our own children and the next generation. Not everything comes out of a carton, can, box or wrapper,..... or should! Barbara

Sharon, I just love pecans and am looking forward to trying your recipe. We have several native pecan trees on our property. Actually we have probably a couple dozen trees, but two are right by the house and easy to access...the one in the front yard drops pecans everywhere. The one on the edge of the woods drops them into tons of leaf litter and debris, so I have to search harder for those. Most of the other trees are way back in the woods and I usually leave their nuts for the wildlife. I grew up in a pecan-loving family. If the only thing I do is make batches of pecan pralines for family members for Christmas, they are just thrilled to death. They're even tickled pink if I just give them big zip-lock bags of pecans from our place. Our first year here there was a huge bumper crop of pecans in the front yard right at Thanksgiving. All my siblings, their spouses, my mom and dad, my nieces and nephews, my aunt, my cousin and her spouse and kids spent their Thanksgiving picking up Wal-Mart bags full of nuts. They even wanted to eat outside at the picnic table under the pecan tree. Apparently they allthought they were helping me out by picking up the pecans for me. When I told them to keep the pecans for themselves, LOL, they ran back outside and picked up more. I was rolling on the ground laughing at them! "Oh", they said delightedly, "You mean we can keep them? Let's go find more!" Clearly my family members know the value of a good sack of fresh pecans! I had the last laugh though. I was SO relieved thinking of them spending all THEIR time cracking and picking out the nutmeats, because I'd intended to do it myself and give the nuts to them for Christmas. Instead, they all got gifts from the store, and I didn't spend a month of evenings cracking pecans and picking out the nutmeats to give away. So, we all were happy! I still need to find and post my recipe for pecan cream pie like my aunts used to make. I haven't made one in ages and just thinking about it makes me want to make one right now. Dawn

Lisa-in-Germany, were we twins separated at birth?? I could have written *exactly* the same post, but subbing “Sister” for “Dad.” I love the Karo filling but I can’t stand the nuts. I don’t like nuts of any sort. Mother thought a dish wasn’t fit to eat until she had found a way to put nuts in it. It made for an interesting childhood! ETA: OMG, I just saw how old this post is!

Scott, There is no smell like ANY peppers roasting! Truly! If I was trying to sell a house, I'd have peppers and tomatoes dehydrating or roasting in the oven just to fill the house with that delicious aroma. I think a house would sell based on how good it smelled! I miss frying! I miss making home-made fried chicken and chicken fried steaks as well as fried pork chops, and fried potatoes, or my dad's summer garden dish where he'd mix together sliced potatoes, okra, onions and peppers (hot or sweet) and fry them in lard or bacon fat, sprinkling a handful or two of cornmeal over them as he fried them. We never had a name for that dish but I loved to make it, and it too has been relegated to the more fattening meals of our past and no longer is included in the healthier meals of the present day. Tim has high cholesterol, though, so frying things in the old southern style is something we dropped almost entirely at least 15 years ago. Homemade fried chicken still is a favorite birthday meal here in this household, and I'll make it if that's what the birthday person wants. I think that on their birthday a person should get to eat what they want. If you're eating healthy most of the time, an occasional old-style fried southern meal won't hurt. Stockergal, Well, I grew up on meat and potatoes, growing up in Fort Worth a few miles from the Stockyards. Beef was always the main thing we had when I was a kid, but we did have lots of chicken and occasionally pork or fish. It is just that when you live in a Wild West sort of town like Ft. Worth (I am sure OKC was very similar in the same decades) where beef and potatoes are the holy grail of meals, that's what you eat. I'd still rather eat meat and potatoes than anything else, but we do try to eat more fish and poultry now and less red meat. My first job was as a waitress in a steakhouse and I would have eaten steak every day if I could. It has been hard to slowly (way too slowly, most likely) learn to eat in a more healthy manner. Carol, As soon as I saw "hobo dinners", I did instantly think "Boy Scouts!" That's some good eating, and I love hobo dinners. I also love cooking anything/everything outdoors in cast iron dutch ovens, also a remnant, I guess, from our Boy Scout days. Andria, Well, you made me hungry! We do cook a lot less in the heat. I love it when cold weather returns in fall or winter and find myself spending a lot more time in the kitchen then (coincidentally at a time when I am spending less time in the garden). I find eating healthy works best for me one day at a time. (grin) If I had to think that I'd only eat perfectly healthy meals for the rest of my life, I'd rebel and go buy and eat the biggest ribeye I could find, and then I'd finish the meal with incredibly rich and delicious homemade (made from scratch) chocolate cake. An occasional cheat day isn't too bad, but we truly are eating healthier than we ever have, most days. We are trying really hard to eat healthier as we get older, and it isn't always easy. The taste buds want what they want, but I do think that once I cut a lot of junk out of my diet, I don't enjoy it as much when I do eat some of it because my taste buds have learned to enjoy things that are less fattening, less processed, less salty, etc. I suppose that's a good thing, but I miss the days when I was younger and had better metabolism and could eat anything and everything I wanted and never gain an ounce. Those days are gone forever. If I ever find a way to grow my own chocolate, I'm in trouble. Dawn