My late father L. Z. Dorsey had a thriving family farm. In addition to crops (Cotton, Soybeans, and Corn), we had hogs, hogs, hogs, and more hogs, and we had a few cows, and one horse. All these animals had to be feed twice a day, and the cows had to be milked (that was my older sisters jobs to milk the cows). The boys chopped the firewood, feed the animals or put the dairy cows out along a shady spot to graze during the hot summer days. One of my earliest chores was to help churn milk (we made our own butter). We never made cheeses, but Im sure Momma and Daddy knew how. Pumping that milk churn up and down was quite a chore for a scrawny little boy like I was, but my brothers and I would take turns. We had a wooden mold that we used to put the butter fat (which floated on top of the milk after churning) in. Wed skim the butter fat off the milk, and put it in the mold. What was left was butter milk. As a child, I loved buttermilk more than whole milk (which we called sweet milk). When we would slaughter hogs in the late fall or early winter, Daddy would always slaughter several more than what we needed for our large family. Since we all hunted too, and fished, we always had plenty of meat for our family. But he did that so extended family and friends could also have plenty of meat. When I was growing up, so many of my aunts and uncles had long since left the farms for the city, and many who had grown up with gardens (or truck patches as they were sometimes called), either didnt or couldnt grow one. Some had gotten up in age and just physically couldnt tend to the rigors of a garden or raising animals for food. I was so happy when I was about 11 or so, when Daddy finally bought an electric meat grinder. My brothers, Booker T (deceased), Bruce, Ronald and I used to be worn out on the older hand cranked meat grinder taking turns. I know some years we had 3 of the big #3 wash tubs of meat that had to be ground into sausage. We loved the sausage but we hated the process!!! Then on top of the hectic slaughtering process, we had to smoke the meat after it had been packed in salt for flavor to preserve it. Some of you on fb have heard of a SMOKE HOUSE, but we actually had one, and it got lots of use every winter. All the structures of my youth and childhood are gone, and so are so many of the people, but when I go back home or just walk down memory lane, I can see the faces and the joy, our family brought to so many, and so many brought to us. The Nelsons, Pelmores, Reeds, Colemans, Washingtons, Robinsons, Browns, Walkers, Lotts, Watsons, and on and on and on!!!!
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 13:36:32 +0000
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