16 November 1957 “The Adaptable Cafe Curtain”

I thought I would share this great article on the use of cafe curtains. As many of you know, cafe curtains are straight hung curtains that usually cover half a window, allowing light in, but can also be hung in tandem with multiple layers of cafe curtains.

These are great ideas no matter what age or style your house may be and also a great source for those vintage purist.

Formal to bath to

Hall And kitchen. I love this idea, too, using the colored clothes pins. I have two sizes, a standard and a smaller, HERE and HERE in the Corner store for sale. They are around $4. You could also have a lovely matching or contrasting look by painting plain wooden pins, as well. I like this idea, as if you don’t sew you could use darling vintage or vintage look towels, tea towels, small tablecloth or runners. Even if it is larger, you could double it up and hang it up to show the area of the tablecloth you like and it would still have the look and feel of a curtain.

Enjoy these images and have fun dreaming of how to use them. I am off today with Hubby and Gussie to my MIL. It is her birthday and we are celebrating before she leaves this weekend for Florida until Spring. I made a lovely Custard rice pudding I will share with you later as well as a ground lamb Sheppard’s pie that is easy and so delicious.

Happy Homemaking.

13 November 1957 “Recession Butter: A Churner’s Tale”

Often Butter is tied in a comical way to the 1950’s.

There have even been really bad modern commercials that somehow seem to represent a past that never was, spreading sticks of the stuff everywhere. Meet the Buttertons:

The irony of this situation, is of course that butter is actually better for you than margarine, yet this myth still exists today. In fact, at the turn of the last century heart disease was rare. By the end of the 1960’s it was one of our number one killers. The irony being that it was during the 1950’s that advertising told mother’s that margarine was better for you and it saw a large increase in use.

A researcher named Ancel Keys was the first to propose that saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet were to blame for coronary heart disease. Though this has still yet to actually be backed up or shown to be true, though countless millions have been spent to check this fact, we are still largely in belief that butter is bad for you and a diet in lower saturated fats is better for you. Ironically, however, “As a result, since the early 1970's, Americans' average saturated fat intake has dropped considerably, while rates of obesity, diabetes, and consequently, heart disease, have surged.”

Here is a great list of reasons butter is actually good for you:

1. Butter is rich in the most easily absorbable form of Vitamin A necessary for thyroid and adrenal health.
2. Contains lauric acid, important in treating fungal infections and candida.
3. Contains lecithin, essential for cholesterol metabolism.
4. Contains anti-oxidants that protect against free radical damage.
5. Has anti-oxidants that protect against weakening arteries.
6. Is a great source of Vitamins E and K.
7. Is a very rich source of the vital mineral selenium.
8. Saturated fats in butter have strong anti-tumor and anti-cancer properties.
9. Butter contains conjugated linoleic acid, which is a potent anti-cancer agent, muscle builder, and immunity booster
10. Vitamin D found in butter is essential to absorption of calcium.
11. Protects against tooth decay.
12. Is your only source of an anti-stiffness factor, which protects against calcification of the joints.
13. Anti-stiffness factor in butter also prevents hardening of the arteries, cataracts, and calcification of the pineal gland.
14. Is a source of Activator X, which helps your body absorb minerals.
15. Is a source of iodine in highly absorbable form.
16. May promote fertility in women.⁹
17. Is a source of quick energy, and is not stored in our bodies adipose tissue.
18. Cholesterol found in butterfat is essential to children's brain and nervous system development.
19. Contains Arachidonic Acid (AA) which plays a role in brain function and is a vital component of cell membranes.
20. Protects against gastrointestinal infections in the very young or the elderly.

 

Now, despite its good or bad qualities, butter has been around forever. It is, in its simplest terms, the fat solids removed from the heavy cream of the milk. Agitating such cream separates the butter from the milk, leaving you with buttermilk.

Butter churns have been made from everything from ceramic and stoneware, to wood and glass. Any means necessary to creating a motion that results in the butter and milk to separate.

Now, there are different types of butters depending on the cream used. Before factory made butters were introduced first in America in the 1860’s, the cream used to make butter was fermented. One collected the milk from the cow or goat or sheep and it would sit and ferment.

“During fermentation, the cream naturally sours as bacteria convert milk sugars into lactic acid. The fermentation process produces additional aroma compounds, including diacetyl, which makes for a fuller-flavored and more "buttery" tasting product. Today, cultured butter is usually made from pasteurized cream whose fermentation is produced by the introduction of Lactococcus and Leuconostoc bacteria.”

In the 1970s cultured butter was made by incorporating bacterial cultures and lactic acid. “Using this method, the cultured butter flavor grows as the butter is aged in cold storage.”

Today, however, pasteurization is the norm and butter made from pasteurized cream is called Sweet Cream Butter. This is often what is available from the store.

Ghee, is an Indian clarified butter made by “bringing the butter to a high temperatures of around 120 °C (250 °F) once the water has cooked off, allowing the milk solids to brown. This process flavors the ghee, and also produces antioxidants which help protect it longer from rancidity. Because of this, ghee can keep for six to eight months under normal conditions.”

Now, my main reason for discussing butter today was to show you how easy one can make it at home. This was not something I have always done, but necessity is the mother of invention, or at least in my case, the Mother of Need. As all of you know, grocery prices continue to rise. Butter, at least in my area, is literally twice as costly as when I began my experiment of 1955 in 2009. Then I could buy one pound of butter around $2. Today that same butter costs $4 and that is the cheaper store brand. This lead me even to consider the very cheap margarine. I saw a one pound package of a store brand for only 75 cents. This is a HUGE savings and almost lured me into is wretched quality with that low price. But, I realized it is better for me to trim the fat (pun intended) in other ways, such as reducing meat purchased and adding more beans and other protein sources.

Now, making butter at home is not hard and can be quite fun. It can take really only about half an hour total and then you have your butter for the week.

This tutorial I used the pasteurized store brand heavy whipping cream. Obviously, if one can get organic raw cream, a more wonderful tasting butter can be derived, but I wanted this to be an easy ‘anyone can try it’ exercise.

So, you can use your mixer or your blender. I have used both, but actually prefer the mixer. You can see here I am just using a Stop & Shop brand Heavy Whipping Cream. I like to not buy from larger chains too often, but I wanted this to be a good easy access tutorial. One can do it with basic whipping cream from a local convenient store.

However, if you enjoy it and would like to make your own butter more often, it is true that Butter from grass-fed cows contains higher levels of vitamin E and beta-carotene (which is responsible for the yellow color in butter). And it not being pasteurized would also allow you to ferment and get a truer old better quality butter. But for this purpose, what you get from heavy whipping cream is still a better product than the butter for sale at the store. And you can flavor it and mold it however you like.

Now why I first decided to make my butter as part of my weekly savings in my shopping was this:

1. one pound of butter costs $4
2. one quart of cream costs $4.29 From this you get one pound of butter and 1 1/2 –2 cups of buttermilk

So, really I am paying 29 cents more but getting the same amount of butter, better quality and the buttermilk adds to my milk allotment for the week going into various things. How I am currently looking at it is I have a buttermilk Bread recipe that requires 2 cups butter milk and makes two loaves. So, for that 4.29 plus a bit more for the flour and yeast, I am getting

1. one pound butter
2. 2 loaves buttermilk bread

So, to me, it is worth it both for economy and taste/quality.

So, as I said, one quart of cream makes one pound of butter.  So in other terms one US quart is =

1. 0.946 liter  or
   
2. 0.833 British quart

Pour your quart of heavy whipping cream into your mixer and set it on med. It is best to have the milk at about room temperature or around 55 degrees. If you do this straight from the ice box (fridge) it takes longer. I did it once and it took 35 minutes as opposed to about 15. Though some sites claim it can take only 10 minutes, but my mixer is very old from the early 1950’s, so perhaps it is not up to a modern version.

At first, of course, you get whipped cream. That is, after all, what whipped cream is.

Then it begins to form stiffer peaks until it starts to form thicker chunks. And you can see it becoming more butter yellow. Though it is true that it is not as yellow as butter made from organic unpasteurized butter which is allowed to ferment, it still begins to take on that lighter yellow we are familiar with from commercial grocery store cream butter.

At this point, as well, you are just watching and enjoying. It isn’t as if it is hard work to pour in cream and turn on our mixer. Think of our ancestors churning away. Although, I have to admit, that seems also a way to have a sort of relaxing zen afternoon, churning away. But, for busy modern people this is a very realistic process, just pour and turn on mixer.

So, now depending on cream temp when you begin and your room temp and speed of mixer, anywhere from 10 –30 minutes you will begin to see it hit this phase where it suddenly goes quite wet and sounds as if you have added water or are mixing up a runny cake. You can really see the liquid now separating from the butter.

Once you have reached this state, you simply pour off the butter milk. The first time I did it I put a cheese cloth over a funnel into the container I was pouring to catch any little clumps. Now, I can’t be bothered and I just use my fingers to hold most of it back, as some of the chunks into the buttermilk just makes a nicer product to cook with. You can see the butter chunks on the side after I just drained my butter milk into my bottle. Pancakes, biscuits, and bread made with this butter milk is heaven!

So, simply drain out the excess water. At this point add a bit more water back to the drained butter, say about a 1/2-1 cup or so, and run the mixer again. Be careful not to splatter, I put a towel around the mixer to help with that. Then drain this water down the sink. I don’t add this rinse water to my butter milk. You are meant to rinse it until it runs clear, but honestly that is only if you want to have a lot of butter stored longer. Some liquid left in your butter does not hurt if you are going to use it up in a week or so. Which I do. Therefore sometimes I don’t even rinse it, just drain the butter milk and go to the next step.

Now, with your strained butter, put it on a plate. This works best in a wooden bowl and spoon, but again, I wanted this for anyone to do. So here a spatula and plate work fine. You are simply going to work the excess liquid out at this state to make your final product.

You can use a towel or paper towel. I prefer an actual towel, but that is up to you, I think paper towel or paper napkins would work fine. You are just sopping up the moister. I just press down and then turn over and press down again to get most of the moisture out. You can see the pattern from my towel in it. This shows you the possibilities for molding and patterns. Homemade butter lends itself to such beautiful presentations. And there are many butter molds available, but you could use anything that has a pattern or shape you like.

Now, it is at this point that I usually add sea salt. Sometimes I make unsalted butter to bake with or you can add anything you like. Chopped nuts and maple syrup is wonderful. Or cinnamon and honey. Or chives, garlic, lavender, you name it. Mix it in after you have removed the excess water and work it into the butter. You could break it up into a four varieties easy enough.

You could easily enough just spread you new butter into a container to use, like soft butter from the store. Or you can shape it into any shape.

Here I shaped it roughly into a block, then cut that in half. This makes two 1/2 pound sections.

I like to take 1/2 pound of it and make a stick out of it wrapped in waxed paper and the other half loose in one of my Pyrex dishes. I leave the Pyrex dish on my counter for toast and other spreadable needs and the 1/2 pound goes into my fridge for baking. 

It is Very easy and cost effective and worth a try. You simply turn on mixer, wait, pour, dab with towel and put in container and you have butter and buttermilk. You should try it.

I thought I would shared these easy flavored butters from my 1950’s Dionne Lucas Cordon Bleu Cook Book. You could really add anything to make a good butter.

I hope you enjoyed this and would like to give it a try. As homemakers we have to look to what is the smartest way to deal with higher prices and buying less. It should not mean we sacrifice taste and joy in cooking.

Happy Homemaking.

10 November 1957 “Blue Green Color Scheme with Clever Wall Storage, and Scones”

Although this article was concerning acoustical tiles that allow for a more soundproof home, I was taken by its vibrant color scheme and clever storage. This home is quite small but really a normal size for the burgeoning suburbs of the mid century. Sound was an issue due to the proximity of close neighbors as well as room to room and more open floor plans. Many new home owners of the growing middle class were either old apartment dwellers, who would have found the ‘small’ home quite spacious particularly with their own garden space. While many more established middle class families fractured away from the bigger family homes where grandmother and unmarried aunts people the many bedrooms and multiple floors.

So, the need for sound barrier was enough that it could support a product line. This same sound proofing would continue on as families made ‘rumpus rooms’ in basements and made over screen porches where Father or teens could listen to their new louder Hi-Fi systems without driving mother or neighbor nuts.

I was really taken by the color scheme. We have talked about blue green as a color scheme before. This use of almost navy on the wall with a pistachio on the steel cabinet and hints of robins egg are all married in the fabric of the curtain which slides to make various ‘rooms’.

This is my favorite bit. You can see here that these very shallow built ins were part of the acoustical wallboard makeover. but, these very same ideas could easily be done by any homemaker or hubby with a more traditional drywall and stud wall. Simply finding the studs and marking out the size you would need, you could either work in the 16’ width framework or open up a section by removing a bit of one of the studs and shoring it up with a 2x4 bracer at top and bottom. It it is an interior wall, even easier as there will be no insulation in the  way. This is the perfect place to use vintage or expensive wall paper as a backdrop where you could only afford a piece. Even a collage of Wallpapers from a free sample book being tossed by your local paint and paper store.

I have yet to redo my own kitchen. It began with more glorious ideas of add on to include a mudroom and separate laundry room and pantry. Every time I reconsider and think of the waste and money, I get more clever and downsize my plans. This built in ‘laundry room’ would be a clever way to do so. I am considering buying a used stackable washer dryer and selling our current normal sized pair that take up much of my kitchen space. This I would build into a corner and with the built in wall I could add these assets here. The more we think of what we do and how we can be more efficient, the less space we can do with when we use that space to its fullest.

So, again my kitchen plans shrink, but with smaller appliances hidden or below new counter space, I may even find room for my breakfast room I always wanted. And it might not need its own room, but simply another corner of my very small kitchen.

What do you think of the colors? Do you like the idea of combining a few working rooms into one, like laundry/kitchen?

And what does one love to do most in ones kitchen? Cook and Bake, of course and so here is a simple but yummy raison scone recipe. It is quite basic and if you don’t like raisons, chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruits can easily be used alone or in combination. This is just a good basic all round scone recipe.

Raisin Scone

1. 2 cups flour
2. 1  Tbs baking powder
3. 3 Tbs sugar
4. 1/4 tsp salt
5. 5 Tbs chilled butter cut into chunks
6. 1/2 cup raisons (or similar)
7. 1 cup cream or canned evaporate milk (use full strength don’t dilute)

Preheat oven to 425 F

Mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt and add chilled butter cubes. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut butter into flour mixture until it is crumbly. You want little butter chunks as that adds flakiness.

Add raisins and cream stirring to combine. Then sprinkle lightly with more flour and flour a surface to roll dough out upon. Flour hands and place dough on floured surface. Knead one or twice, don’t over work it! Press down to about 1 inch thickness and cut with biscuit cutter or inverted glass. Place on greased cookie sheet and brush on cream/milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake about 12 minutes, but check as you want them to just have the slightest hint of brown. Remember food continues to cook after you take it out of the oven, so take them out a bit before they look brown enough.

 

Here they are before oven. And here they are after baking and setting. Look at that lovely texture and I love a good raisin scone. I had these as part of my tea break yesterday.

I hope you enjoy these and will consider using space you already have if you are planning any remodels. With our tightening belts we don’t have to do without, we just have to do with MORE brain and planning to most likely better results.

Happy Homemaking.

7 November 1957 “A Frugal State of Mind: Prepare for Harder Times so They Won’t Surprise You”

After my last post comparing our current economy’s direction towards similarities with the Great Depression of the 1930’s, I though I’d follow up with some happier talk. There may be little we can do at present to change the world (though every little bit of knowledge followed by smarter action leads to a greater change world wide) we can still become use to frugality in our daily life.

I thought of this the other day when I had a friend over. We were chatting in my kitchen and she laughed and said I reminded her of her Grandmother.

“Why?” I asked, “Because of my clothes?”

“No,” said she, because of that. And she pointed at my dish drain rack which was currently drying three upside down zip-lock bags and a drying paper towel. She said her Grandmother was always doing things like that.

I had to laugh, because for me it happened organically. In many of my Vintage choices since my project began back in 1955 (2009) they were decisive moves to “try out” and old fashion way. To put on and get used to the actions or clothes of that era. What I have found interesting now, is, that after walking in those shoes as best as one can living in the modern world, I have found myself coming to similar choices just by the nature of my way of life.

  To me, I never buy things like zip lock bags, as my waxed paper works for me to wrap hubbies sandwiches (when he has those for lunch) or my washable glass covered Pyrex dishes serve as ice box (refrigerator) storage. Today I thought of this because we recently had a group of us together and ordered take out Chinese food. We rarely get take out so after it was all done, I saved up all the plastic lidded containers as they are very good storage.

The idea that we have easy to buy and toss storage would never have occurred to me odd in my old life. But, my doppelganger 50’s personality sees too much waste. A zip lock bag that simply held dry or veg matter is easily enough washed out with warm soapy water, rinsed in cool and let dry. It can be used again and again. When it finally gives out, then it can get tossed. A paper towel, which I don’t use to clean normally, is easily enough rung out and let dry for a second go around or a quick hand wipe while cooking.

The amount of garbage we create since my project has easily been reduced to more than half. This less garbage also means less money, because if you are throwing it away, then you are tossing away your hard earned money as well.

This really got me thinking about how we humans, creatures of habit surely, can change. We don’t have to have a drastic change as I put myself and hubby through for our experiment. It can be little things like re-using zip lock bags, buying a few ingredients to make the things you normally buy, such as tortilla ( so simple to make) or bread. HERE is a post I did with tortilla and Bread recipes.

Even the way we live with heat is greatly changed. We once though nothing of just turning on the heat, setting it to what felt good and heating an entire house or apartment. Now, though we have an auxiliary heat of propane in our fireplace and wall unit heater, we even have reduced that. We originally added propane heat as a means to not have to use the electric heat which was expensive. We simply heated the area we were and left the other rooms cold. Now, with oil and propane prices rising, what was once a cheaper choice is now forcing us to look even closer at how we live. We now have two little plug in heaters that are quite economical. We can move them about. We do not heat rooms we are not in and mainly don’t use the larger rooms as time gets cold. Hubby and I each have our own little offices. My little sitting room/office is off my kitchen and dining room and is command central to me. Luckily, though I might have once thought it a hindrance, the room is Very tiny only about 9 x 9. But, with clever planning, I have a sofa and old trunk as a coffee table, my computer on a smaller but efficient desk and one wall of shelves that hold my books, magazines, decorative items to please the eye and my files for running our home and budgets. This room is closed off with a door and can be heated up in a jiffy with our little plug in and I simply turn it off and keep the door shut. It would be so much more to heat the whole house.

I have even come to enjoy that brisk cool feeling of the rest of the house. In many ways I think of our Victorian or even Colonial ancestors and what they felt was ‘normal’ for inside temperatures.

So, though electric heat can be expensive, if one uses a unit that plugs in (There are even darling little ones that look like real fireplaces) and only heat the room you are in, then you save. And, as a family, if you heat a shared room that mum and dad and kids can all share, you not only save, but you have more together time and chances to share with one another. There are myriad of reasons why we once were more a community based culture and one of those was the simple need to share resources and heat. Bodies in one room shared can increase the heat and have a better chance of enjoying their time there than a house of separate rooms holding one person and big areas empty in between heated for no one. Another place money can slip out the window.

I know I have talked about leftovers before and once you cook more for yourself and family, you will be happy for the leftover. A frugal homemaker’s best friend can be the meat grinder. These are still made today and are fairly inexpensive. I have a version in the Corner Store HERE.  You can get simply hand crank versions that use no electricity and are easy to use. Leftover meats stored in the ice box (fridge) even ground together, poultry, beef, are easily converted to a meat pie for dinner and leftovers again for lunch. A simple attachment even allows you to make your own sausage with leftover meats, add some apples and spices or even the bottom of that jam jar you might just toss away. Give it a good scoop and add that and you will be amazed how wonderful leftovers can taste.

You recently saw a spooky cake a friend made for our Halloween party. As she was leaving she said, “Oh it wasn’t that good, you can just toss it out” and I was shocked. “No way, is that going in the trash” I said.

I divvied up a few pieces into slices into a container to save for hubby’s lunches as is. Then I cut up the remainder and put in a buttered crockery deep baking dish. whipped some eggs and milk some sugar and cinnamon and simply poured it over the old cake. Cover that and bake for 40 minutes on 350F then another 10-15 uncovered and you have wonderful bread pudding. The rest of the fondant covering and the crumbs went out to the chicken yard and they loved it. They of course will convert it to eggs for us to enjoy. Waste not Want not is truly an adage I have come to live by.

Even the use of the car can be altered. I am able to live now with one car as I work at home. So, I plan my marketing and errands in such a way that I try to do them all in one day and as local as possible to save on gas and wear and tear on the car. The old me would have felt ‘trapped’, “What do you mean I can’t just hop in my car and drive off somewhere to a shop or lunch with friends”. Well, now I prefer to walk or bike, don’t have to stress about traffic as much and we use easily half the gas. Unfortunately, as gas has risen since 1955 (2009) for us, we are spending close to what we did with two cars. So there was an example of preparedness that paid off. Had we stayed with two cars, insurance, gas and upkeep it would have been a greater burden when gas prices rose, as well as repair costs just to general inflation.

Learning to do with less or to live frugally does not have to seem like a prison sentence and in many ways is the reverse and quite freeing. And with the outlook of our future seeming more bleak than bright, it is better to get on board right away with a few things here and there. When one really just tries to think of it like this: Every trip to the garbage can, stop, think of what you are tossing and why? Did you need it? Could you still use it again? Was it a waste because you didn’t have the time or make the time to use it? Try to change that behavior or action so next week that same trip to the Garbage doesn’t happen again. It sounds simply and silly but it makes you think. And really, thinking and considering is a lost art in the modern world.

The sounds and constant noise and distraction of the modern world makes for an easy place to simply live without thinking. It is easy to grab that credit card and go or just use and toss away, why not? Its so easy and there are so many distractions. We can, however, very happily live in the modern world with cell phones and i-pads and i-pods and computers AND still be thoughtful of our use and waste on a day to day basis. Even simple things like what we spend as a nation on coffee and muffins. Coffee, though going up in price at the store, is still MUCH cheaper to make at home and take with you as is making your own ‘treats’. So, still sit on that park bench or relax with friends outside at a cafe, but let them pay $10 for a cup of coffee and muffin, you slip your little thermos out and your waxed paper wrapped treat and enjoy their company while still keeping your money. They may laugh at you or you even become the ‘quaint little old lady’ of the group, but you still enjoy the experience and have your pin money to spare.

I know these may seem like simple or silly ideas, but I thought it would be fun to start a dialogue about easy ways to simplify ones life to both save money and to make it easier. I love learning from one another and I honestly KNOW that one CAN change bad behaviors. If we want a new or better life we can work towards by being mindful and paying attention to how we live and spend. The homemakers number one tool is her Mind and Intelligence. Let’s keep exercising that muscle and see what clever and mindful things we can achieve.

Happy Homemaking.

4 November 1957 “1957 or 1937: The Modern World Encroaches into the Past”

First of all, let me thank all of you for such wonderful birthday wishes. It felt so wonderful to get such warm wishes from so many. Thank you again, all of you.

 

Today I wonder if I am thinking more of the 1950’s family of plenty or the 1930’s family of want?

For the most part, I only access current information online through various sources. We don’t watch TV and don’t have access to modern cable. Which is fine for me, because whenever I see any ‘news’ programs on at friends homes I just have to laugh. It is more entertainment and speculation and heresy than news. I suppose when one has to keep up a 24 hour news cycle anything can be news and even speculation or what ‘he said’ gets air time. Something Walter Cronkite would have never stood for, but I digress.

What I have noticed when I research various things for future posts is more and more similarities showing up that pin the modern day more to 1937 than my usual research into 1957. Before I go on, let me just say to anyone that I am NOT saying today is as bad as the Depression. But, we must also remember that it has not yet got as bad as the Depressions years because the Social reforms which we now have came OUT of the Depression. So we are going into our current bad state with many things in place, such as unemployment, food stamps, various welfare, Social Security and so on. What is frightening to me, of course, is with these schemes firmly in place we still see a bumpy road ahead.

I also cannot help but see parallels in images such as these.with these of today.Surely today we see less “I want a job” sign (though we do see those as well) because our government reforms of the 1930’s are still in place as of now. But, we see that while we once were upset by the financial world into no jobs and lost homes and farms, we see now that the financial ruin of 2008 has left us wondering why so much went to those with so much who were indeed the cause of the current melt down.

 

Even this image of a modern day farmer in the South West here on his farm with the dustbowl storm stirring up. It certainly has its twin in the Depression Dust Bowl Days.In both situations we act as if there is a variety of reasons for the storms. When the simple fact was after the land was given out during the 1860’s, you farm five acres you keep it, the very nature of the land changed. What was once endless grassland prairies became increasingly large farms from 1900 through 1920s. The land had been set up to keep its top soil by the very nature of the densely planted wild grasses and wind breaks of hedgerows and forest interspersed. As these were cleared more and more and more area with no wind breaks and loosened top soil were formed, the same wind we always had simply gained speed and swept through taking with it the topsoil needed for both growing and holding down the substrate of sand!

then and now

What is amazing to me is, we may not have known then to not farm that way (Though if we simply recalled our ancestry farming in England and Europe, we would have kept hedgerows and multi-crop rotations, as it wasn’t a ‘new’ idea.) However, after the Depression we DID know why it had happened. Even simple things as plowing a certain type of furrow helps maintain topsoil, but after WWII we were inundated with chemicals from the wartime. These industry wanted to find new ways to sell  their product. And today we are again faced with dust bowls. This time, again, we have cleared TOO much to form TOO LARGE vast areas of farming. And today that same topsoil problem is solved with endless chemicals. Chemicals that require farmers to wear masks when spreading, so now this gets mixed in with the ‘dust bowl storms’ and who knows where it shall spread?

Even the drought aren’t simply an ‘act of God’, but as wetlands were removed to make more land to plant less water is available to go up into the atmosphere and make rain and then collect up to do it again. It is simple land science one would have learned in their McGuffey reader, yet we act as if we can’t understand why these things are happening. When really we are simply TOLD a variety of things so as not to try and figure the real problem and then we can argue amongst ourselves rather than fix the problem. Leaving, of course, the solution to large corporate farms and new chemical products to ‘save’ us.

Once, even farms were more part of the ‘small mans’ domain. A local farmer grew a variety of crops and could make a business for his sons or daughters to inherit.

What is interesting is as the farms grew larger, and smaller farmers were forced out until we have what we have today: a very small percentage compared with the 1930s, we were told it was because it allowed the greater populace as a whole to spend less of their income on food. We are seeing that today, that is no longer in the case. If one wants to buy cheap fast food, perhaps it is cheaper, but much of what we consume is not even grown in our country anymore. And those jobs of farm laborers and helpers to farmers are now mainly done by cheap labor from other countries. Thus, we can see how the increase in farm size and decrease in farm labor adds greatly to more job and career loss for the population at large. As well as less actual control over the environment to grow food ourselves if we so chose as a business model.

  Today, many small farmers have to have off-farm jobs to supplement their income. We can see here that in 1930 only 30 % of farmers worked off farm, while today 93 percent do.

Another interesting point is that during the Depression many farm subsidizes started. It was to help sustain the dying land and farmers. Today, however, many such ‘farmers’ are simply corporations run by a few hard pressed farmers. These farms still receive money for over growing products such as corn for corn syrup which, as a food crop, is inedible unless processed into that sugar substitute.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture distributes between $10 billion and $30 billion in cash subsidies to farmers and owners of farmland each year.

More than 800,000 farmers and landowners receive subsidies, but the payments are heavily tilted toward the largest producers.” INFO HERE.

Another parallel I found was the odd scenes of people standing in line at banks to close out accounts. Here we see people this July in line at the closing of Indymac Bank:

The closing of IndyMac in July, the third-biggest U.S. bank failure, may cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s fund $4 billion to $8 billion, in addition to an estimated $1.16 billion for seven closures through Aug. 1. Premiums for insuring deposits will likely rise, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said in a July 30 interview.

The major difference being that today the FDIC exists because of what happened in the 1930s. However, because the FDIC exists to back up the accounts of individuals in failing banks still means that money has to come from our tax payer money rather than from the bank itself as its failure to handle our money give to them.

``It's going to be a bloody, expensive mess for the banking industry,'' said Bert Ely, president of Ely & Co. Inc., a bank consulting firm based in Alexandria, Virginia. ``Healthy banks are paying for the mistakes made by failed banks.''

The potential $9.16 billion in withdrawals would be the highest since the insurance account was created in 1933, said Diane Ellis, the FDIC's associate director of financial-risk management.”

A situation more akin to the 1930’s was the recent lines at Bank of America, when customers wanted to close their accounts due to a hike in monthly debit card holder fees. One can understand such anger by their customers when we consider that Bank of America received 50 billion of the bailout money as well as 118 billion in Federal guarantees against futures financial woes. And, many customers were literally barred at the door by police from closing out their own accounts, despite the fact that the Bank is a healthy solvent bank which had no claim to stop individuals from claiming their own money.

And a similar situation happened in NY when customers in Citibank were locked into the building and refused to be allowed to close their accounts. One woman on the street waiting to get in for regular Banking business was arrested. Today, however, with the easy access to video phones we are more aware of such injustice, so it begs to see what sort of result such protests and militant actions on the part of the big banks will result in.

I am immediately drawn to the scene in “Its a Wonderful Life” when Jimmy Stewart’s character has to stop a run on his families small lending organization. When he explains the money is lent out to the neighbors of those trying to get their money and he willingly gives up his own honeymoon money to tide people over, it warms our hearts.

I watched that movie recently with a friend. We had not seen it in years and we felt ‘Christmassy’. I was taken by how differently I now view that ‘evil character’ Mr. Potter. At once I thought he was simply a Plot device to embody the evil of the time, but now watching it, in our current climate, he seems almost mild in comparison to the various people and ‘corporate people’ in the guise of Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and so on. It made we wish, even more, that our TRUE Capitalism could be in the hands of the free people. Small business in small communities helping one another for profit for THAT community and its inhabitants.

Today, how can we say we have a ‘free market’ when a bank far too large to have failed was indeed GOING to fail and therefore got money from the government to help it. What small mom and pop, when Wal-Mart rolled into town, received Government money from the ‘Free’ market to save it? I fear that we have found ourselves in the world that Jimmy Stewart found after his guardian angel made him never been born. His small town became Potters-ville and was owned by one man, one corporation. And with that, very fittingly, we see more seedy areas such as the old bar owned by the character Martini turned into a dive to survive.

I have been a small business owner and I can tell you there was no one there to bail me out as the larger ‘too big too fail’ multi chains rolled in offering everything super cheap. Why have we let it all get out of our hands? I heard a quote from some woman, I can’t recall her name, but she said in defense of ‘millionaires’ that we need them for jobs. “Who” asked she, “Has ever been hired by someone who isn’t a millionaire”.

I found that such a scary lie to spread. There were once MANY people hired by simple middle class people. A few years back, when I owned a shop, I hired people and had three designers and two drivers on my payroll of my little shop. I was NOT a millionaire. In fact I struggled to keep my little business afloat but I paid people OVER minimum wage and I was simply ‘one of them’. Towns and even cities were once filled with employers who were not millionaires providing jobs for others in their community. Such a concept only shows the sickness of our times. That Advertising seems to be the utmost import to any political or news movement. It is very scary. I am frightened for many people who simply have to be lead by whichever ‘side’ they choose. Because, in all honesty, they are both the same side. One has only to look and see that Democrats Big Government and Republicans Big Business are two sides of the same coin. They work in tandem to continue to warp and change our world into one further and further our of the hands of the majority. Small towns are all but gone, there is little chance for individuals to start small business or small manufacturing to provide jobs for their own area as most manufacturing was made huge by a few and priced out of our country by moving overseas. I don’t know why we allowed it all except that we were simply to passive. We were allowed to become to ‘relaxed’ in all the wonder of our ‘retail therapy’.

And there is another glaring difference from the Depression to our Recession. At the time people did not have guaranteed money coming in to tide them over and to then use to go buy i-pods or the latest cell phone to text their friends. There were not endless knit tops on sale racks for 3$ at local big box stores to make one feel they ‘have things’, while their credit card debt piles up and one more local clothing shop has to shut down to compete and one more future homemaker can’t even fathom sewing their own clothes.

The levels to which our current world has infiltrated our abilities to truly live is immense. There are MANY things in the modern world that I am glad of. Medicine being one of the main and even the technology that allows us to communicate like this. But, I wonder have we even the power to go against any of it? I am scared that even those who now protest will simply get co-opted somehow by some talking head or some political party or some corporate power to shift the tides to simply lead us to another level of less freedom in our country. MORE regulations in our daily lives?

Even when we begin to see that it is the banks and the money that controls the world and that the Government is simply made up of and appointed by those same financial institutions and kept interest in by their lobbyists, one is frozen. What can we, the little people, really do?

All I can do, as a homemaker, is to plan. Being a homemaker, that very career path, is based in planning, preparation and lists. Therefore I feel it the duty of any homemaker to be up on what ‘may’ be coming and to plan for it. I know already that my food bill is such that when I shopped two weeks ago using an old 1955 list I had which cost me then $40 (this was 2009 now remember) cost me $72 today! In three years that is the increase in foods for me in my area. So, all along I have been altering my shopping list.

Recently to get back to $40, which is quite a challenge, I have an even more early 1950’s menu in that we don’t eat big cuts of meat all week long. I can’t afford it, so it is spread out through the week in casseroles and various bakes while the big meal dinner of chicken or beef happens on a Sunday. We are fine with that, but it does beg the question, what will it be in the next three years? Will $40 not buy me even enough to get by? Now, I am able to have hubby’s lunch be carved out of the weekly food and my own at home luncheon has become much more crumbs of this or that to keep the flour and sugar supplies down. It might help my waistline in the end!

I know this has been a rather lengthy post and I don’t want it to be political but merely to point out where we are. Because as a homemaker knowing what you have to work with is the cornerstone of successfully running your home. When we have to work with less (Such as ingredients such as flour which has doubled in price for me since three years ago) you learn to stretch what you do have. However, along with the prices rising, incomes seem to be stagnant.

This has often left me wondering should I try and return to the outside the home job market? Am I foolish to not begin to gather up as much extra cash as we can? I have gone back and forth with this with myself and with hubby. It is a tough decision. First off, there are less jobs available, so there is no guarantee that I could even get one. But, thus far, I have decided against it. We feel if we continue to make adjustments and live with what we currently have, we can still plan for the future. My skill set keeps improving our ability to live with less as the bad times continue.

I think I am going to do a few posts about the 1930’s and today and begin to look at more frugal ways to live now. I think our role as homemaker, rather it is our full time job or not, is even more important at a time like this. Prices rise, income stays the same or simply goes away due to layoffs, we need to know how to feed, clothe and shelter ourselves. I only hope we aren’t heading down a road to any great war. But, if that does happen, as many homemakers before us did, we shall persevere and we shall overcome.

Happy Homemaking.

2 November 1957 “Happy Birthday to Me”

Today is my birthday. Though we are not celebrating it officially today, as we have a party planned this Friday, I was surprised with this at Breakfast.

I had set the table as usual for Hubby and I to have breakfast and when I came back in, there it was. It is just a simple little gift, as my presents shall be this Friday, but he didn’t want my actual birthday to not involve a gift.

I love that he even made the little box out of paper himself. As you can see he used one of my favorite colors, as it matches my dishes. It contained two darling little vintage pins. He purchased them from our local shop where I often go to get antique/vintage finds. The ladies who run it love him. Every time I shop there, one of the ladies always says to the others she is working with, “She has the best husband” (referring to me) “He came in last Christmas and just bought the most wonderful things. He just walked right up and new what to get”. So, I am sure they were happy when he walked in the door.

What I cannot fathom is that here we are at another birthday already! As my birthday is at the end of the year, when it arrives I often wonder, ‘Where has the year gone’? This year it seems to have arrived even sooner. I cannot believe that this is my Third birthday in the 1950’s! How has it been three years (well in January it will be) since I started my project?

When I think back to my ‘before 50’s life’ it seems ages ago. Almost as far away as the actual 1950’s and I wasn’t even there. Though the time has speed by I am so happy and grateful to have had these past years with all of you. I have made so many wonderful friends in our virtual community. I am honored and happy that so many of you have come along with me this far on my crazy ride. Though my 1950’s or really ‘old timey’ parts of my life seem completely normal now, they are everyday improved or brightened by my sharing them with all of you. I thank you all for your support and interest and friendship. I am truly blessed and surely happy on this birthday. Thank you all.

Happy Homemaking and Happy Birthday to me!

31 October 1957 “The Halloween Party”

  Well, it is Halloween today. Though we celebrated with our Halloween Cocktail party four days ago. I hope you enjoy today’s spooky treats and treasures.

I am sorry it took me these three days to get this post about our party up. The tail end of October has just got away from me for some reason. Maybe it is my day-dreaming of the up coming Christmas season, which I always love and greatly anticipate.

I was a bad blogger and did not get as many photos as I planned of our guests. There were many wonderful costumes. Here is hubby and myself as the “Spirits of the Jazz Age”

Hubby in his coattail tuxedo and I in an early 1920’s rendition of a Jazz baby. Though you can’t see it very well in these pics, the beads hanging from my headpiece are actual vintage beads from my husbands great Grandmother. I am lucky to have a few such treasures saved from old clothing from the Edwardian and into the 1920’s from various family who thought it wise to clip and save bits of old beads and trim from outmoded and worn out dresses.

  Here we are at the piano. My fan is also vintage 1920’s black silk.

Here my good friend took our theme of ‘fancy dress’ costuming and went as an ‘owl’. I like costumes that are themes but more ‘evening wear’ with a nod to an idea. Such as this Victorian fancy dress costume of a butterfly. One still wears evening clothes but with a nod to the costume, here butterfly wings and insert panels into the dress similar to the patterns on a butterfly wing.

Though we had a fair share of other such costumes. Here a friend came as her interpretation of a Starbuck’s Latte and another friend with her as a Gypsy. I unfortunately did not get photos of all our guests. I am always faced with the conundrum of very meticulously documenting my life verses simply living and enjoying it. I am rather apt to choose the latter and forget the camera all together.

 

Here is a photo of the table. Not everything was set up at this shot, but you can see the general feel. My lovely punch bowl in the middle was a gift this year from Gussie for my birthday. My birthday is in November but she said she couldn’t wait as it was so perfect for our party. She was right.

My friend brought these darling little bag rings which we placed as favors on the cups and I think they look simply darling.

Everyone loves a good brownie. And I as I was making candy anyway, I found these darling skeleton molds. The brownies become little graves with delicate peppermint scented white chocolate deadlies sneaking out. I thought they looked ‘haunted house’ sinister presented on my old Victorian Transferware  Severn Platter.

This recipe HERE for brownies is what I often use and find it really easy and good. I always sprinkle a bit of chocolate pieces into the mix before baking. And as I was making candy that day, I had scrapings leftover and into the mix they went.

I adore old fashioned cake doughnuts. And this time of year, cider and cinnamon doughnuts are a sort of tradition. It always makes me feel such a part of a New England Autumn. This is the recipe I used for these and they are very easy to make and wonderful warm from the fryer or even two days later! I always find that a cake doughnut ages better than a yeast raised.

1 cup sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

2 eggs

1/4 cup  melted butter

1 cup milk or  1/2 milk and 1/2 cup cream

4 cups flour and a touch more to handle dough

oil or lard for frying

cinnamon sugar

Mix all dry ingredients with a whisk to blend. Add wet ingredients (melted butter, eggs, milk/cream) and mix well

Next add the flour and mix with wooden spoon or flour covered hands. If the dough feels too sticky, add up to another 1/2 cup or so of flour.

Roll into ball (don’t over handle) cover and but in ice box for at least an hour. I prefer to make it the day before. And any leftover dough can be refrigerated for up to a week. Or keep some made up in the freezer for a few months at a time.

Let stand for 20 minutes out of ice box, roll out on floured or marble surface and cut with doughnut cutter.

Your hot oil should be about 360F. I always test with a donut hole first. Let it brown and turn a few times if you need to. When it is done inside in under 3 minutes, it is the right temperature.

Drain and shake in a bag of cinnamon sugar mixture or confectioners sugar. Delicious!

  These darling little candies were simply made by melting chocolates and using a little mold. The mold was designed to hold an Oreo sized cookie. I put a Christmas themed one HERE in the corner store. They are around $5 and are rather fun. I used white chocolate for the white and green and regular chocolate (milk) for the darker. I flavored the chocolate with peppermint, as I really love mint and chocolate. Though that would probably be better for a Christmas party, there were no complaints and the plate was soon emptied!

One of our guests makes incredible cakes. She delighted us all with this scary confection. It was home-made red velvet cake and homemade raspberry jam ‘blood’. He was rather scary but Very tasty.

  We had many beverages and cocktails, but in the center was our 'spooky punch’. It was made with strawberry daiquiri fixings (smashed up strawberries and sugar) and orange juice and ginger ale to make it bubble away. The scary ‘Goblin skin’ is simply scoops of lime sorbet. It was made without alcohol so those quests who don’t drink could enjoy it and those who wanted to could spike it with some white rum. You can also see a delicious bowl of peanut butter caramel corn home-made by one of my guests. I am lucky that my guests always see fit to bring such wonderfully made things to my parties, I am lucky in that.

I am going to close with these fun Halloween ideas from the vintage cookbook Holiday Cookbook.

Enjoy and Happy Homemaking.