Becky's Homemade Biscuits

The key to making great biscuits is having the right ingredients. I use White Lily Unbleached Self-rising flour, Crisco, and buttermilk. Since I have made thousands of biscuits in the last forty years, I do not measure anymore. However, for you I will give you the approximate amount for each ingredient.

Use one cup of flour to three tablespoons of shortening. For a larger batch just double the flour to two cups flour and six tablespoons shortening. Be sure to cut the shortening into the flour. (I just use two dinner knives or you could use a pastry cutter.) Slowly add enough buttermilk to moisten the flour and shortening. Stir until all the flour and buttermilk is mixed. Do not get it too wet. Sprinkle flour on a board and pour the dough out. Sprinkle a little more flour on top and work into a ball with
your hands. Roll it out to about three quarters of an inch thick. Next cut out your biscuits. I use a drinking glass to cut out the biscuits because it has a larger diameter and makes a thicker biscuit. Bake at 375-400 degrees depending on your oven until golden brown.

Survival Cooking

Recently we had several power outages reminding us to get prepared for the inevitable loss of electricity that occurs in the country. We have several propane lanterns and stoves for providing light and cooking food. Baking however poses a slightly different problem. We have two different methods we use to bake in our fireplace. The tried and true method for hundreds of years is the cast iron Dutch over (pictured on the left) and our other method is the high tech cardboard box covered with heavy duty aluminum foil better knows as a reflector oven.

Using the Dutch oven method, we placed the biscuits in a round pan and put them on a trivet in the Dutch oven. We then shoveled out some of the coals and placed the Dutch oven over the coals. Next we placed several scopes of hot coals on the top of lid. The lid has a rim that holds the coals in place.

 You can check the bread by lifting the lid with a tool made by a blacksmith. This tool is specially designed just for lifting the lid without getting burned. Making the biscuits with this method took about 32 minutes.

Here you see the results of using the reflector oven. We placed the open front of the box toward the fire. The heat can be controlled by moving the box closer or further away from the fire. We did elevate the pan on a trivet so heat could circulate underneath. We found it necessary to do this in 1993 when we had a huge snowstorm and was out of power for eight days.  By trial and error we found that elevating the pan created more even cooking. During the snowstorm we had biscuits every morning as well as homemade cakes. The reflector works especially well with a fireplace because the heat is reflected forward. If used at a campfire, it will probably take longer to cook.

Here are the two pans of biscuits we cooked. The reflector oven took a few minutes more because we did not have a large bed of coals. In bad weather our fireplace burns constantly and has a better bed of hot coals, thus reducing cooking time. You really cannot tell the difference between the two. Both methods did the job in almost the same time as an electric oven. So when bad weather hits, either method will keep you in bread, cakes, and pies.

Crockpot Yogurt

You will need milk (whole or low fat), powdered milk, crockpot, food thermometer, whisk or electric mixer, and several tablespoons of plain yogurt with active cultures. (Once you make the yogurt, you can reserve some of it to inoculate your next batch.) I use a one quart crockpot but have used a larger one.

Using a whisk or electric mixer, mix the milk with one half package of powdered milk in a bowl. The powdered milk I buy comes in 3 and 3/4  cup packages.When thoroughly mixed put the mixture in your crockpot and turn it on.

You will heat the mixture until it reaches 180 degrees. This may take several hours depending on your crockpot. Once it reaches 180 degrees, turn off the crockpot (leave on the lid) and allow to cool. At this time remove your plain yogurt from the refrigerator and leave on the counter until it reaches room temperature. Let the mixture in your crockpot cool to 120 degrees. When the temperature of the milk mixture reaches 120 degrees, add 2-3 tablespoons of the plain yogurt and whisk.

Now put the lid on the crockpot and cover in several layers of towels. This allows the mixture of cool very slowly. Leave 8-12 hours undisturbed.

Now you have fresh yogurt with active bacterial cultures. Store in the refrigerator. After several days you may have some whey separate from the solids. Just pour the liquid off. When you are ready to eat, add fresh fruit and honey. Be sure to save several tablespoons for your next recipe.

Riding The Ferry

Before the John Snodgrass Bridge was completed in 1958, people living across the river in the valley and on Sand Mountain only had access to Stevenson by crossing the Caperton Ferry.
Art Williams and Jim Payne were school bus drivers that would pick up the valley students and take them to the ferry crossing. All the students would get off the bus and stand on the ferry in rain, sleet, snow, or sun to make the 10-15 minute ride across the Tennessee River. On the other side of the river another bus would be waiting to take us to the school. Never did a child fall into the river. Imagine today's parents allowing students to ride the ferry (without life jackets) twice a day to school.

For any emergencies after dark, the ferryman had to be awakened to get people across the river.
The last ferryman was Gander Owens. He lived in a house next to the ferry crossing so he would available 24/7.

Sunflowers for the birds

Raising sunflowers for the winter feeding of birds is easy and simple. Plant the sunflowers in full sunlight in the spring and fertilize with time-released fertilizer. The blooms can be enjoyed all summer and the dried heads harvested in the fall. We let the seeds mature and remove the head before  the seeds begin to fall off. After they are dried, place them in a plastic container to keep out mice and insects. When winter arrives, simply take out a head and place out for the birds. They will come and pick out the seeds. When they finish with one head just put out another one.

The native sunflower is somewhat smaller than the more familiar cultivated variety. The Common Sunflower was used by the Indians for flour. They made bread from the ground seeds and used the oil for cooking and grooming their hair.

You may want to harvest the sunflower seeds for yourself but be prepared to spend some time hulling the seeds. The nut meat is an excellent source of Vitamin E which is a very important fat-soluble antioxidant. They are also a good source of magnesium and selenium.

Another Battle

It appears raccoons have been reconnoitering our corn patch waiting for exactly the right time to invade- when the ears of corn are perfectly formed. From past experience we knew to be ready. As you can see in the pictures we were not quite successful. Our corn was planted inside a 6 foot tall fences guarded with several different kinds of animal traps. We used marshmallows for bait, but the sweet corn was more appetizing to the coons.

When they got in the field they proceeded to tear down a stalk of corn, pulled the shucks apart exposing the corn, and took a few bites off the ear. They then moved on to the next. Much of the ear was not eaten but wasted.

Raccoons are omnivores- eating both plants and animals. They will eat fruit, acorns, crayfish, insects, rodents, fish, young rabbits, turtles, garbage, birds and eggs. However, their absolute favorite is corn and grapes. They adapt and co-exist with humans often making them a nuisance and health concern as they often carry rabies. The wetlands adjacent to our property are a prime habitat for raccoons, and we are plagued with them every year. They not only get in the raid the corn, they will get in the chicken pen and kill hens. They will eat the entire chicken usually killing only 1 or 2 at a time.

We are always looking into other ways to deal with them. One very effective method will be to electrify the fence. That will be a future project. When you live as we do, there are always daily battles with nature. Nature wins more than we would  like.

Yucca Valley

In Alabama this plant is called the Yucca plant. It is also called Spanish Bayonet (Yucca Smalliana),  and you may have even heard it called Beargrass. You can see the abundant creamy white flowers 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter blooming from May to June. It also the namesake for the Valley in which we live.

The yucca plant was the inspiration for the naming of Yucca Valley, AL on the south side of the Tennessee River near the present town of Stevenson. Yucca Valley is a 7-8 miles long and a mile wide at its widest point. It runs parallel to the Tennessee River and along the base of Sand Mountain. ending at a TVA lake called Raccoon Creek.

The valley was first settled by the Chickamauga band of the Cherokee Indians during the latter part of the seventeen hundreds. This valley made up part of what is called "Crow Town" by the Cherokees. The Indians in the valley were hostile to the American settlers coming into the area. The power of the Chickamauga's was broken by the Sevier and Campbell expeditions in 1782. At that time the population of the valley was about 1,000 warriors. My ancestor, Doublehead, continued to fight the white encroachment until the 1800's. We will more on Doublehead in a later blog.

The McCoy's moved to Yucca Valley in 1830 and intermarried with the Cherokees. We don't know exactly when the name, "Yucca", became accepted, but we have letters with the postmark of Yucca, AL in 1851. The last post office in Yucca Valley was closed in November 1944 and moved to Fabius, AL. We later received our mail from the Stevenson, AL post office.

Predators and Prey

A pen full of wonderful models are no more. This spring a variety of predators devastated our flock of 50 laying hens. Despite constant efforts to protect them it was all in vain. We even built a fortress to house them at night. We have always dealt with an occasional owl, hawk, opossum, or a raccoon taking one or two victims. This year was different.

This year our nemesis was a bobcat. A bobcat's nature is to kill; not just for food. This one made several visits avoiding all traps and precautions that we could devise. It would kill 6-8 victims a night taking only one away. The others were just killed for the pleasure of killing. On the last night it avoided 6 traps, scaled an 8 foot wall, ripped away the heavy wire protecting under the eves, and entered the chicken house. It proceeded to kill the last 14 hens, piling them in the corner and then taking one victim. It made its exit the same way it entered. It then stopped outside the  fence, scratched up a pile of leaves and urinated on top to mark its territory. Since then it has moved on to a neighbors chicken pen.

We now have purchased our first dozen eggs at the grocery in about 20 years. We are also raising 50 more young chicks to replace the ones lost. Hopefully in 6 months we will once again have fresh eggs. Even though my recent heart surgery has put me on the sidelines, we will prevail!

Summer Bounty

After a few weeks I am back online. Unexpected heart surgery has delayed several posts that I had been trying to complete. Now, I am home recuperating and hoping to get into the garden again sooner than later. I am not allowed to do much but with my wife, family, and friends, the garden is producing and providing some excellent meals. Now we are just waiting on the sweet corn to be ready.

The pen and ink drawing of the garden vegetables is available as a print for $40.00.

Summer Gardening

Summer really shifts in to high gear now that the garden has started to produce vegetables for our table. We have already picked beets, green beans, squash, onions, and lettuce. With the abundant rainfall it is certain we will be busy harvesting more crops within the next few weeks.

Today we harvested two rows of Roma green beans. After giving some away, we still canned and processed 16 pints- not bad for the first picking. One cabbage head also made 6 pints of sauerkraut. The yellow squash was steamed, cooled, and frozen in quart bags. We pickled the beets.

The outdoor sink was very useful in washing our produce before bringing it in the house. The beans were rather dirty after all the heavy rainfall. All the water we used to wash the vegetables was caught in a bucket and recycled back into the garden. Hopefully we will soon have a shed over the sink to give us some shade from the hot summer sun.

Queen Ann's Lace

Believe it or not the Queen Ann's lace is actually a member of the carrot family. In fact it is  sometimes called "Wild Carrot".  Take a moment and smell the taproot and you will notice the carrot aroma. The flowers resemble lace with a single purple dot in the center. The leaves are feathery resembling the domestic carrots' leaves. The taproot has a high sugar content only second to another root- beets. In fact, the Irish sometimes used it as a sweetener in things such as pudding.

There is a poisonous hemlock growing in swampy areas that could be confused with Queen Ann's Lace. Before you eat any part of the Queen Anne's Lace, make sure you know the difference between it and the poisonous cousin, Water Hemlock.

Queen Ann's Lace is a biennial. The first year it simply grows and the second year it blooms.

Shed

We have several different structures around the farm. This shed is one built almost exclusively from materials off the farm. This shed uses cedar collected on the farm as well as shingles made from fallen oak trees. Over the past few years we have lost so many nice oak trees in the woods. The soil here is red clay and dries out quickly. We are just assuming drought did the damage to the trees, but we try not to waste them when they die. The only materials purchased for this shed were a few pieces of wooden lath (1" x 4" lumber) and roofing nails.

The simple design uses two forked cedar posts to hold up a ridge pole. The cross braces attached to the post hold up perlin poles on which rafters rest. The Y braces add strength. A very simple but effective design made of all natural materials.

Right now we are using the shed as additional storage for winter firewood. There are future plans to use it to house a syrup pan for the making of sorghum cane syrup. A fire would be built under the pan to heat the cane sorghum juice to make syrup better known in the south as "sorghum".

Butterfly Bush

Butterfly weed (Asciepias tuberosa) is a flower loved by butterflies and caterpillars. The reason- it produces and abundance of nectar- just what butterflies thrive on. Most are bright orange and can vary from yellow to red. You will find it listed in the milkweed family, but unlike other members of the milkweed family, the sap of this plant is not milky white. You find it in open fields, roadsides, thickets, or railroad banks. We have successfully planted it, but it is very difficult to do. The taproots go very deep, and you must dig up the entire root system in order for it to survive.

After the flowers bloom, the seed pods form. They are four inches long and canoe-shaped. When
they open you find what appears to be cotton. The cottony threads are attached to seeds. The cottony material helps disperse the seeds when the wind blows.

Native Americans chewed the tough root for treatment of pleurisy and other pulmonary conditions such as pneumonia and whooping cough. You may hear it called by its common name, "Pleurisy Root". It was also powdered and mixed into a paste for sores.  Beware, it is poisonous if taken in large doses.

Jack-In-The-Pulpit

The Jack-in-the-pulpit, also known as Indian turnip, is a plant flowering from April to June in moist woods, by streams, and in marshy meadows. The flowers are hidden inside the cylindrical structure call the "Jack".  Each leaf has three segments. (You can see this well in the top picture.) The three leaf segments gave rise to the scientific name Arisaema triphyllum (tri- three). The spathe or "pulpit" is just a modified leaf from which the Jack (spadix) extends. The spadix is inside with the true flowers. The spadix produces a mushroom-like odor attracting an insect called the "fungus fly". These flies are attracted to the plant and assist in transferring pollen for fertilization.

A Jack-in-the-pulpit can either be male or female, not both as with many plants. A male plant has tiny thread-like yellow to brown anthers at the base of the spadix. Female plants produce a cluster of tiny green berries inside the Jack. In the fall the berries turn red and are great food for birds. One very interesting fact about the Jack is that a plant can change sex from year to year depending on how much food it has stored in the corm (taproot) during a growing period. If the growing season was poor, it will be male the next year. If the plant stored a good deal of food in the taproot, the next year it will be female.

The Jack-in-the-pulpit is in the arum family. The word, "arum", means fire. The Jack gets that name because of needle-like crystals found in the tubers. The tubers have a peppery taste and can cause a burning sensation if eaten raw. This can be eliminated by cooking or drying.  Native American gathered the taproots and ate them as a vegetable but only after cooked or dried- never raw.

Poke Salad (Phytolacca americana)

Years ago people had to make the most of the food that was available to them. Pokeweed, better known as "poke salad", was one of those plants that grew wild around fence rows and barns. Most parts of the pokeweed had toxic chemicals in it but could be eaten if cooked properly.

It was best to pick the poke salad when tender and young, about 6-8 inches tall. The roots were never eaten as they were more poisonous. When picked early the leaves and stems were less toxic. People usually cooked it a couple of times (pouring off the water each time it was boiled) to remove some of the toxic chemicals. The third time it was boiled and then cooked until tender. Sometimes scrambled eggs were added or little green onions. Poke salad was beneficial because it was rich in iron and vitamin C.

Poke salad has reddish color stems and can grow as tall as 12 feet tall. The white flowers it produces develop into hanging clusters of purple to black berries. We were always told the berries were poisonous too, however, it didn't stop us from mixing them in our mud pies. We also made homemade play dough from salt and flour using poke berries as our dye. The early colonists also used the ripe berries as a dye.

Native Americans used a herbal remedy made from pokeweed for a heart stimulant, for treating cancer, rheumatism, itching, and syphillis. Common country folk used it as a laxative. Today scientists are studying pokeweed as a source of possible chemicals for the treatment of diseases.
From the American cancer website we discovered that researchers have identified a protein called PAP (pokeweed antiviral protein) that has shown anti-tumor effects in mice. Test-tube studies have also shown that PAP demonstrates action against herpes and HIV. So far there have been no clinical trials using PAP on humans. This plant ,some consider a weed and some consider a food source, may one day provide important drugs for all of mankind.

Hay-Fork

This hay-fork was bought and installed in the ridge of a new barn built by James David McCoy around 1910. The hay-fork was used to move loose hay from a hay wagon to a haystack in the loft of the barn.  It used a fork device, ropes and pulleys and a wooden rail to move hay.

A wagon of loose hay was driven into the barn. Then a rope lowered the metal fork into the hay. A tripping device extended forks into the hay enabling you to lift the entire load, if the hay was properly stacked on the wagon. A pulley system was used to lift the hay to the loft.  The trolley then rode along the rail. When the hay was in the right location, a string attached to a small tripping device pulled the forks back in, releasing the hay. This type of operation was used before the advent of hay-balers.

The hay-fork now hangs in our sunroom as a reminder of my family's past history on this land. I salvaged it out of the barn just before my uncle demolished it. The barn had deteriorated to the extent that it was no longer structurally sound.  I stored it for years hoping to one day find a use for it. And I did. Every time I look at it, I am reminded of my heritage. It also makes a great conversation piece for visitors to our home.

Ox Yoke

This ox yoke hangs on the wall going from our sunroom to the kitchen. It is a constant reminder of my grandfather, John McCoy, who bought a team of oxen in 1936 to log a Tupelo tree swamp that TVA was going to force him to sell. He wanted to cut the timber before the sale because the TVA flooding would kill the trees. 

He had plenty of mule teams, but they did not work well in the swamps because their hooves were round and would sink into the mud and create a suction. Whereas, an ox has two toes that spread apart when they put their feet down. When they lifted their hoof the toes came together. That made the hoof smaller, breaking the suction, and allowing them to withdraw their hoof from the mud. This allowed them to work in wet and muddy terrain.

In the bottom picture are two ox shoes. They were shod, like horses and mules, in order to protect their hooves and give them more traction.

Oxeye Daisy

This white-and-yellow Daisy is a common sight on roadsides, and in meadows and pastures. It has no medicinal use and is not considered a weed but can be an invasive species, especially in pastures. The plants often crowd out pasture grasses. Oxeye daisies form spreading colonies up to three feet tall with flowers about 1-2 inches in size. You will see it blooming throughout the summer months.

This species, also called the "day's eye", can make dairy farmers very unhappy. If eaten by cows it can produce a not so pleasant flavor to the milk- even though cattle typically do not like to eat it due to the offensive taste. The daisy was introduced to North America form Europe.

Everyone may not agree that the oxeye daisy is a beneficial plant, but you cannot ignore its beauty. This pen and ink drawing of a jersey cow in the midst of oxeye daisies is available for $40.00.

Spiderwort

Recently a very interesting characteristics of the Spiderwort has been observed by Japanese scientists at Kyoto University. Spiderworts have show experimental evidence suggesting that they can detect radiation not detected by scientific instruments. This biological sensitivity may indicate a serious use for the plants other than just enjoying their beauty. Notice the stamens in the center of the flower (yellow tops). In the presence of radiation the blue or blue-purple stems of the stamens turn pink. The same change has also been observed in the presence of chemical pollution.

Spiderworts get their name as a result of viewing them from above. From above the whole plant resembles a large "spider". The flower forms the "body" and the leaves make the "legs".
When the stem if broken, sap emerges forming slimy filaments resembling a spider's web. This is also where it gets the nickname, "Cow Slobber".

Flowers of the Spiderwort are about the size of a nickel. Spiderworts are monocots having long narrow leaves with parallel veins. The flower petals of monocots occur in threes or multiples of three. Flowering occurs form April to July. You can find them in wooded borders, thickets, meadows, and
roadsides.

The Cherokee Indians used the plant to make a tea for female problems and as a laxative. The Lakota used the flowers to make paint, hence the nickname, "Indian Paint". Crushing the leaves made a good treatment for insect bites and stings.

This plant is also a favorite for biology teachers. They have large chromosomes that are well suited to the study of cells. It is also very easy to see the flowing cytoplasm and nucleus with a microscope.

Old Pigs

When the weather turned cold in the fall and a cold frosty morn arrived, it was hog killing time. With no refrigeration the meat temperatures had to remain cool until the meat was cured. Hogs were killed when they were 300-500 pounds. They were fattened on slop (food scraps) and corn.

Pigs were the main source of meat for country people. Almost all of the hog could be used by the family. The hams and middlings (bacon) were salted and then smoked. Sausage was made from the scraps and sometimes the shoulders. The tenderloin was eaten fresh as were the organs. The fat from the pig was rendered into lard to be used for cooking. When the fat was rendered to liquid form it was poured into "tin lard stands (5 gallon lard buckets). The solids that remained were called cracklings and were eaten fresh or added to cornbread. Chittlings were made from the intestines after they were stripped and washed clean. The head, feet and tail were made into souse meat. The tongue was boiled with fresh back bones. The brain was usually scrambled with eggs the morning after killing and served with the fresh sausage. As the old saying goes, "Everything was used but the squeal".

This pen and ink drawing of the country pig is 10 inches by 12 inches and prints are available for $40.00

Indian Pink

Indian pink was very abundant in the southern part of the United States until around 1830 when it almost became extinct due to over harvesting.  The native Americans had found that the root, though poisonous, was a cure for worms in humans, especially roundworms. This treatment was often unpleasant and produced serious side effect, but soon American pharmacists as well as European physicians began to use the plant. The Creeks and Cherokees sold the plant in great quantities for cash. Fortunately, doctors became concerned with side effects- dizziness, rapid heartbeat, vision problems, and convulsions. Finally the use of Indian Pink was discontinued by the 1920's.

Indian pink (Spigelia marilandica) produces trumpet-shaped flowers, red on the outside and yellow inside. They grow in clumps and bloom from March to June. In nature they are usually found in moist woods and along stream beds but grow well in gardens. The flowering season can be extended by removing the withered flowers from the plant. Hummingbirds enjoy the nectar from the flowers and also aid in the process of pollination.

Pointed Blue-eyed Grass

The flower of the pointed blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium)is about the size of a dime. The small blue or violet-blue flowers have a yellow center with points on the end. You will find them blooming from May to July. Their habitats are meadows, low woods, and shores. Even though the flowers are very small, the plant has features of the Iris family and is not a grass. The green seed pods below the flower will produce and release small black seeds.

Hummingbird Haven

This year our hummingbirds arrived on the first day of April.  We had already put out our feeders in anticipation of their arrival. Many of the same birds come back each year. We know this because if the feeders are not in place, the birds will hover at the window and look in as if to say, "Where's lunch?".  By the end of summer we may have as many as 20-25 birds. We will fill 4 feeders once a day during the time of greatest demand.

Hummingbirds burn a great deal of calories each day, feeding about 4 times every hour. They take in the nectar through their tubular tongues.  At night their body functions, such as heart rate and breathing, slows down to about 5% of the daytime function. Some hummingbirds migrate 2,000 miles from the breeding sites to their wintering home.

Do not feed hummingbirds honey mixed with water. There bodies cannot digest honey. They will eat it but will eventually die.  Homemade feeding solution can be made from 1 part white sugar to 4-5 parts warm water. (The warm water helps the sugar to completely dissolve.) Keep your feeders clean by rinsing them with vinegar and hot water. If ants are attracted to your feeders, coat the line used to hang the feeder with vegetable oil. This prevents them from climbing down to the feeder.

Male hummingbirds are very territorial. If the males begin to fight add more feeders.

Great Horned Owl

These night hunters take crows and turkeys off their roost and an occasional chicken out of the hen house. However, their main diet is the field mouse. Those of us living in the country appreciate their appetite for mice, as it is a constant battle keeping them out of home and barns on the farm.

In some Indian cultures the great horned owl was associated with death. Hearing the owl for several nights warned of a coming death. The Cherokee Indians placed owl feathers in water and bathed their children's eyes to keep them awake for all night ceremonies.

This particular owl is a great horned owl. They are the largest species in the area and migrate through the southeast during winter months. This drawing in pen and ink is available for $30.00 for a 6" by 8" print.

Ole Tom's Grave

This little inset in our rail fence is the marker of the grave of Thomas Atkerson and his child. As the story was told by my grandmother, Eula McCoy, Tom and his child died of a fever. His wife sold the land to Theodore McCoy for a horse and saddle in the early 1850's. They buried the two next to the house place. We have found evidence of the house beside the grave. His wife then took the horse and left never to return.

We have never been able to verify this story, however, there definitely is a grave, and we preserved the site in respect of "Ole Tom". The hill on which our house is located has always been called "The Tom Hill".

International Dogwood Festival

We have our art set-up this weekend in Winchester, TN for the International Dogwood Festival! Great weather for an outdoor festival. Lots of food, vendors, and music. Tomorrow night, May 3rd, the Charlie Daniels band will be performing on the square. No charge for entering the festival or watching the concert. Now that is a deal for Charlie Daniels fans.

Salt Box

 Hogs were the main source of protein for the country family.  Hogs were slaughtered and the meat cured or smoked. The hollowed out poplar log above was used to cure meat in the early 1830's-1840's  by the Caperton family. A hollow log was used during this time period because sawn lumber was difficult to find. Salt would be placed in the log and the meat added. More layers of salt would cover the meat. Some people may have added sugar and pepper. A lid would then be placed over the top.  Using salt to preserve meat was necessary before refrigeration.

This salt box was purchased at an auction of the estate of Jack Caperton. This particular log is almost 12 feet long and weighs as much as 500 pounds. Today it is used in our sunroom to hold potted plants and serves as a conversation piece.

Yellow and Blue Flags

Yellow Flag
The Yellow Flag is found in marshes and stream
 margins. It was introduced from Europe. It blooms
 from June toAugust. This pen and ink drawing is 
an 8" by 10"print. It iso available for $25.00

Blue Flag
These flowers are found in swamps, marshes, 
and wet shores. The name "Flag" is from the
 middle English word for "rush" or "reed". 
 This 8" by 10" print is $25.00