GRANNY'S KITCHEN


    My Grandmothers Kitchen was never idle.
You could always get a whiff of something
cooking on the old wood stove that never 
seemed to go out.

   Granny was always busy putting something away
for the winter. I can close my eyes and still
see the kitchen today. Two walls had shelves
floor to the ceiling filled with jars of every
color and size. Everything from canned sausage
and pickled pigs feet to jams and jellies. 

   The big old wood stove with a small wooden
table beside it that held the pans and skillets.
In the middle of the room was a big oak table
with the big yellow cat curled up below. 

   The other wall had several crocks and a few
barrels filled with flour, salt and more goodies 
for the long winter.


   Outside on the back porch were more crocks
and barrels filled with "sourkraut," pickled beans,
pickled corn and pickled eggs. Gourds and shuck 
beans had been strung, and were drying from the
rafters like a hugh necklace. The cellar had been
filled with root vegetables.


   Everyone had to help, even the young. When my
grandmother made sourkraut, it was my job to 
make the perfect brine. She would fill a crock about
half full of cold spring water and place an egg with
it's shell on in the bottom of the crock then she would
give me the bag of salt and I would start to pour it
into the water. When the egg floated to the top it was
a perfect brine. I just loved doing this job and thought
it was magical. The fresh chopped cabbage was then
added to the top. Then went on the round board and
a big flat river rock to weight it all down.


   When the apples were ready we made apple butter
and then dried apples. I can still see her siting in her
rocker on the back porch singing old gospel hymns, 
the little dishpan on her lap, peeling and slicing apples.
When she was done we would take a big white sheet
and place it on the hot tin roof of the chicken house. 
It was my job to get on the roof and spread out the
apple slices to dry.

Oh yes ......... I remember Granny's Kitchen.

By Vivian Combs Moon
2003