My mother was a food gatherer. We went out into the woods and picked wild raspberries, blue berries, wild strawberries along the road sides and she would make jelly and jam. Wild blackberries weren't quite as a often available up in the Northern part of the state where I grew up, but when we found some there was usually enough for a pie, or fresh ones to put on our cereal. She would also can many berries in light syrup for other uses. She would make jelly out of Elderberries. Wine out of them as well, dandelion wine, Choke cheery wine and jelly. We had a big garden, and she made pickles, canned beans, peas, and tomatoes. Our friends had a large apple orchard that was on the place when they bought it, and they shared apples with us that she would can as sauce, or sliced. When dad would get a deer during hunting season, she would can the meat. (this was before we had a freezer) We would raise a couple of hogs most years, and butcher them in the fall. We rented a freezer box in a local "locker plant" to store the meat. Later we did get a freezer so we could store the meat. We would raise a bunch of roosters to butcher, and freeze. We had chickens for fresh eggs as well. Potatoes were grown commercially in large quantities near us, You could buy a gunny sack full of potatoes (seconds) for $1. so it never payed to waste garden space for them. We'd get several bags and store them for winter in the root cellar, along with carrots, onions, and rutabagas from the garden. Cabbage was made into sauerkraut in a big crock. My aunt had a large flock of hens and sold the eggs to local stores. Each year she got new ones to replace the old ones, and my mother and us kids would help butcher the stewing hens. For helping her, we got a bunch of them to can for winter. It's really easy, and nice to open a can of chicken and make something with it. She had a huge pressure cooker/canner that she used when she canned meat. We would go fishing as a family, not so much for sport, although it was fun, but more for the food. We'd catch blue gills, sun fish, pumpkin seeds, perch, and bull heads. Come home and clean them and freeze them for winter. Wild game was common on our menus, dad loved to hunt and was a good shot. Small game like ruff grouse or gray squirrel were not uncommon. It sounds like a lot of work, and it was. Maybe that's why I never was one to get into trouble as a kid, just didn't have time for that foolishness.
We grew up poor, we had to work for anything we wanted. For Christmas we got things we needed like clothes, and in good years maybe one toy, but always lots of love. Those toys are broken and forgotten, but the love will always be felt. There is nothing I would want to change about my childhood.
