Quote:
Originally Posted by l2ridehd
I grew up very poor, however we never went hungry. And yes we ate woodchuck, squirrel, raccoon, rabbit, venison, bear, moose, and a few others I probably didn't know about. And we didn't exactly follow the hunting seasons if the animal was available. But there was almost always some type of meat on the table along with home grown vegetables. Mom used to can everything from the garden. We used to have cows, pigs and chickens so plenty of milk, butter, cream, eggs and bacon. We did our own maple syrup and made lard for pie crusts. We never had any money but we did eat well and very little was wasted. Extras would be sold to buy sugar and flour and a few other staples. Did our own dried beans and apples. Had a big root cellar where lots of food was stored through the winter. We made pickles and grape juice and jellies and jams and cured the hams. And the good news is I remember how to do most of that stuff.
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So, maple syrup would mean you were raised in Vermont?
When we first moved up here in 1970 from New Jersey, we soon discovered that most of the native Vermonters did know how to live off the land, such as you described. They also made their own ketchup and soap, candles,, etc. in addition to consuming all the foods you've mentioned above.
It's hard to believe, but there were some parts of Vermont that did not have electricity until the 1960's. We've seen this on Vermont Public Television.
Being a very unpopulated state, people learned to live off the land and provide for themselves enough food to last through the long winters.
Squirrel and raccoon were the others that found their way into stews up at hunting camp.
Nowadays there are Price Choppers and Shaws Markets in all the larger towns, but in the old days, the simple life was led by most Vermonters.
Your family's ways are a lost art. We'd all starve to death nowadays.
I often say that if , by some act of terrorism, our electric grid nation wide was destroyed.......the supermarkets wouldn't even know how to tally up the customer's bills.......plus the food would eventually perish.....and the rest of us wouldn't know what to do.....once our dried pantry staples like rice and such ran out.