Southwest Messenger - December 16th, 2018

www.columbusmessenger.com
By Rick Palsgrove
Southeast Editor
People on Ohio farms in the 1880s lived
a frugal lifestyle that embraced recycling
in a more in-depth way than we do today.
According to information provided by
Metro Parks Slate Run Living Historical
Farm, located at 1375 State Route 674
North, Canal Winchester, a 19th century
saying sums up our ancestors’ outlook:
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do
without!”
Farm families of the 1880s did not live
in a disposable culture. They could not easily
make frequent trips to town to the store
for needed items. They labored long hours
to earn their money so they reused as much
material as they could on the farm.
“Everything was used,” said Slate Run
Living Historical Farm worker Rachel
Brooks. “There was little to no waste.”
Brooks cited the butchering process as
an example where meat for food was salted
and smoked, animal fat was used to make
soap, bones could be ground up for other
uses, and animal hides turned into leather.
“They tried to get as much use out of a
product as they could,” said Brooks.
At first glance, some things seem
unlikely for reuse, such as ash leftover
from burning wood in the farm’s stoves.
While soap from a store was available, the
pioneer farmers often made their own soap
Make it do, or do without
by pouring water through ashes to create
lye. The lye was combined with clean animal
fat and then heated and thickened into
a soap for bathing and for laundry uses.
Ashes could also be combined with sand to
create a scrubbing cleanser for skillets and
such.
Cleaning wasn’t the only use for leftover
ashes as the substance was also used by
1880s era farmers to fertilize the garden or
fields as well as being dusted on broccoli,
cabbage, and cauliflower to ward off
insects.
Turns out a lot of things on the farm
could be reused as fertilizer to enrich the
soil in the fields, including ground bone
meal, straw, corn cobs, and manure.
A farm in the 1880s could plant up to 60
acres of corn, which would produce thousands
of pounds of corn cobs. Nothing will
eat a corn cob, so other uses were found for
this abundant item, including using it as a
scrubbing tool or turning the cobs into toys.
Cobs could also be cut into discs and used
as checkers for a game of checkers.
After threshing time, straw was abundant
and could be used for stuffing horse
collars, made into straw hats, used as
mulch, made into livestock bedding, or
twisted into a rope.
Turnips, beets, potatoes, and carrots
were protected during shipping by packing
them in sawdust. Sawdust could also be
smoldered to produce smoke for smoking
meat. Hickory or apple wood sawdust was
used to add flavor to the smoked meat.
When it came to the livestock, the hog
was the ultimate example of reuse on the
1880s farm as almost every part of the animal
could be used for something. The old
saying goes, “You can use everything but
the squeal.”
Farm recycling in the 1880s was not
limited to the barnyard as the farmhouse
kitchen also was an active place of reuse
for various items.
Eggshells could be crushed and fed to
the chickens to enrich their calcium levels.
Apples were primarily for eating, but
their peels could be boiled and then the
juice strained and cooked to be used in
jelly. The remnant boiled peels were then
fed to the hogs.
Stale bread and cake crumbs could be
made into puddings and dressings.
The farmhouse would also have a “rag
bag” of odds and ends pieces of cloth that
could be used for washing windows and
lamp chimneys, as well as for other household
cleaning. When these rags became too
worn for further use, they could be sold or
traded to be used to make paper.
“It’s interesting to look back and see
what lengths our ancestors could, and
would, go to in order to reuse things,” said
Brooks.
SOUTHWEST MESSENGER - December 16, 2018 - PAGE 13
Messenger photo by Rick Palsgrove
Metro Parks Slate Run Living Historical
Farm worker Rachel Brooks preparing to
recycle used dishwater in the farm’s
kitchen.
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