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water and washed; then they were simmered in a pot with ham meat
and salt until tender. Beans that were left on the vine to dry were used
in soup. After picking, these were laid out on a sheet in the hayloft
and beaten out of their hulls widi a pole.
Roasting ears of corn were boiled, their kernels removed, and the
latter dried on a scaffold. Sweet potatoes were prepared in similar
fashion: boiled with the skins on, the yellow potatoes were then
peeled, sliced, and laid out to sun-dry. After attaining a "hard and
glassy" look, they were tied up in cotton sacks and stored away for the
winter. In restoring the vegetables to edible condition, Arie's mother
would place them in a stoneware cooking pot and pour boiling water
over them, letting mem soak overnight. 5
Arie's mother kept large churns of pickled beans and cabbage kraut
in her farm kitchen atop her plank-lidded meat box. Smaller churns
containing "salt pickles"— green tomatoes and cucumbers prepared in
brine solution —went on a shelf above. Pickling was a special chore
and took place mainly during the cool months of September and
October, as vegetables prepared in this manner kept poorly in warm
weather.
To pickle beans, Arie would soak some of her leatherbritches in
warm water for around two hours, then wash and cook diem. Afterwards,
the beans were interlayered wim rock salt in a four-gallon
churn, and the vessel was filled with water. The vegetables were
weighted down widi a clean white flint rock or a large river pebble.
In pickling cabbage kraut, Arie would mince her cabbage in a
wooden tub using a straight-handled hoe known as a "kraut cutter."
Again, the vegetable was packed in a five- or six-gallon storage
container wim alternating layers of salt. Unlike the ordinary churn,
however, this container—known as a kraut jar— had an especially wide
mouth and a turned-out lip, or "flange," which allowed a cloth to be
more easily secured around the top (fig. 41). Aside from die cloth,
which allowed the contents of the kraut jar to "work" properly and
which kept insects out, the vessel was never sealed.
Salt pickles were kept in smaller stoneware jars. The tomatoes and
cucumbers were packed in their respective containers and then
scalded with a boiling mixture of sorghum syrup, salt, and water. The
jars were covered and set aside for eight or ten days, after which the
pickles were ready to eat. A special combination of green tomatoes,
cabbage, and hot peppers, known as "chow chow," was prepared in