My friend Ruby gave me some writings from her aunt from way back a long time ago. She was getting some research done on her family history. I found it very interesting and the woman writes like she talks. Sound familiar?

Lemme share it with you, here ‘t’is:

The lady’s name is Hallie so get used to it. Seems like Hallie was the 13th child born in the family. Time was 1893 and her mother was 45 when she was born. She writes of being raised on a big farm, they raised everything - cotton, corn, sugar cane, peanuts, melons and peas.

She mentioned the system called the free range for all animals; the only fencing was around the house. The families had markings which they used to cut on the hog ears. Each fall the men folk would go into the woods and kill wagon loads of hogs and then the work began - from boiling water to smoking the meats. Cracklins are mentioned as well the lean pork meat that was ground. After salt, pepper and sage were worked into the meat, it was fried and packed down in large jars of grease (fat) to be removed and eaten as needed. She said the jars would be half-full of grease and the fried sausage would be added and the jars placed on a long shelf with the bottom end up so the grease would have a tight seal.

They had their own “surp” mill where people brought their sugar cane to be extracted and to be cooked down to suryp. Nobody had any money so they just gave them more suryp, which they stored in 60-gallon wooden barrels and sold for 25 cents a gallon. (They must have done some ‘sho-nuff soppin back then. You ever did that or do you know what I’m talking about?).

Hallie had written something’s that reminds me of Heloise. She has a recipe for lye soap, how to make tallow which I will share if you want to come get it.

Hallie says to cut your wood on the decrease of the moon, it will burn better.

Cedar bough tea - for chicken mites. She said to “brake” (yea, that’s how she spelled it) “a lot of Cedar Boughs off and put in wash pot of cold water. Boil for one hour. Take limbs out and put tea in wash tub to cool. Dip chickens in it. Separate feathers so you can get the tea down to the skin and all feathers.” Hallie adds that she closes her chicken house door the night before.

For worms, she writes, “A teaspoon full of sugar and put two drops of turpentine on top. Give it every other day until you have three doses.”

Her recipe for poke salad said to “gather Poke Salad while young; put it on to cook in cold water after you wash it. Boil for a while, then take it out of water and put in a skillet of hot water with grease and salt. Cook it real tender, then taste it to see if it is salty enough. This is my way of cooking most everything.

Hallie goes on to tell how to do fig preserves, blackberry cobbler, serial cloth for bronchitis, how to dry seeds, when to plant, sassafras tea, tobacco on insect bites, salts for infection, beaten egg whites for sprains, remove the head of a risin, (yuck – been there, done that), setting your hens, hog killing, cutting wood, watermelons, sweet potatoes, peaches, tea cakes.

Hallie wrote at one point, “I am 83, and wrote this May 1976. I am blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other.”

Charlie Farrar can be reached via email at xuscgx@gmail.com