It's Blackberry Season

When I was younger, and my weekends were spent with my Mammy, there were several occasions where I was given an old plastic gallon size ice cream pale and sent down the road to my Great Grandma Willie Belle's. The bucket was to be filled will blackberries picked from the side of the road. It was about a 1.5 miles down the dirt road from Mammy's house to hers. Along the way was my Dad's land too and I would often grab a few sand plums from his fence row. Sometimes my berries were given to Grandma Nall and she would make jelly. The rest of the time it was taken back to Mammy and they would be washed and frozen for blackberry cobbler one Sunday after church.



I am lucky enough to be nearly surrounded by blackberries out here at Chigger Haven. This year I, with the help of Jared and Ashley, have harvested our wild blackberries 3 times so far. The first batch we just ate plain. The second I used to make a batch of delicious blackberry breakfast bars. This time I decided to skim some old newspapers for some unique recipes. I found a winner from The Akron Beacon dated 15 July 1939. The recipe was a submission from a local reader, Mrs. Gertrude Hensel. She was the prize winner and for the cost of 6¢ she would receive a Glenna Snow cookbook. She entered several recipes but the one I am making today is her Blackberry Pudding recipe. I added a bit of cinnamon to mine.... and used 1 1/3 cup of sugar.

 

There isn't a temperature or time for her pudding but a quick search online tells me that similar bread pudding recipes bake at 350° for about 40-45 minutes.

I look forward to trying her Blackberry Custard Pie next. The above little snippet is a perfect combination of both of my Dads. My Dad, Johnny, loves custard pie, while my Step-dad, Steve, loves bread pudding.

Here are a few pics from today:







Until next time,
Becky

A Prompt and My View

I have been terrible about blogging this year. I have discovered I prefer researching over writing. I've never been a confident writer but I am a fairly good researcher. My sister-in-law (who I envy when it comes to writing skills) has convinced me that what's most important is that the information is "out there". She has recently started writing short blog posts and that coupled with an Instagram genealogy #photoaday challenge I came across, has given me the idea to combine the two. For each photo challenge, I will TRY to write a short blog posts with a little more detail to accompany it.

Here is a photo of the challenge:

Here's my Instagram photo for today #MyView:

My favorite view inside my home is this little hutch given to me by my mother-in-law. The shelves are loaded down with family memorabilia from both my side and my husband's. In this post I hope to briefly lists a few of the items on this shelf and who they belong to. I won't go over all of them because a few items will be featured in more detail later this month as a challenge all of their own. The idea to display these things in this manner came from my mom. I have always envied her decorative style. I am more plain Jane, reserved, frugal, and have a hard time spending money if something isn't functional or meaningful. I had always noticed a little hutch area in her home that sat opposite the dinning room table. It housed several antique items and I always assumed they were flea market finds. It wasn't until she recently told me she had items belonging to my great grandmother, and that I was welcome to have them that I found out they had belonged to family. I went to her house to pick up  my loot and she started to unload her hutch. I felt a weird combination of emotions. I was overjoyed to be offered these items, yet I also felt awkward because I was told I could take anything I wanted. I wanted it all. I was going to leave her poor hutch completely bare. I was able to hold back and I only took what I felt I could display.


On the top shelf I have two canning funnels (one belonging to my great grandmother Willie Belle, and one from my great grandmother, Bondell). There's a citrus juicer, and large ladle that also belonged to Bondell. A prescription bottle (with the label still legible) belonging to my grandmother, Sue -- inside are matches. The prescribing doctor is also the doctor who delivered me, Dr. Billy Puckett.  Hanging from the shelf is a little stainless steel tea strainer. The coffee pot and stackable food carrier are not family heirlooms. They're just items I picked up at an auction and being made of stainless steel, they seemed to fit in.

Next shelf is a ceramic tea pot, an apron that belonged to my husband's grandmother, Jessie Bates, a few pieces of embroidery that Bondell had sewn, a tea cup and saucer belonging to Grandma Bondell's step-mother, Margaret. Bondell's mother died when she was very young so her step-mother was the only mother she really knew. There is an old mail scale and an enamelware bowl and an old Eagle oil can from 1923 that belonged to Bondell. She herself was born in 1918 so I wonder what the story is behind this little can. Did it belong to family before her? Or was it something she purchased?

Next shelf is an old ATLAS canning jar - with glass lid and rubber seal that belonged to my husband's paternal grandmother, Audrey. A sifter, belonging to my great-grandma Bondell as well as an old deep fryer basket filled with various utensils. A prescription for 'No Sprout' - I think this was used to keep stored root vegetables from sprouting. Can anyone verify? A biscuit and doughnut cutter and an old tin recipe holder. Stacked behind it are several cookbooks - mostly Microwave - that have Jessie's handwriting here and there beside a few recipes. And a spiral index card notebook with several handwritten recipes. Most are in my mother-in-law's handwriting but there's one or two that I think are Jessie's. And a few torn out pages from magazines and newspapers that had recipes --especially doughnuts. And a tea towel my sister-in-law made me the year we did Homemade Christmas. It has recipes from various family members printed on it.

I love this idea of displaying family heirlooms. Do you display any family heirlooms in your home? Do people know who or where they came from?


Here's a photo of my mom, her dad, his mom Grandma Bondell, and her step-mom Grandma Margaret Thompson... the baby is me.

Until next time (hopefully tomorrow),
Becky