Domestic Economy

We hope that you will join us this Thursday, September 18, for another Pathfinder Produce market at our Village Commons from 2 to 5 p.m.  We’re at the height of the harvest, and have a great selection of fresh fruits and veggies for you to try.

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Many of my friends and relatives are proudly sharing their fall harvests on their Facebook walls.  There’s nothing quite as satisfying as freezing or canning your own produce, knowing that you had a hand in growing, preserving, and serving your family’s food each step of the way.  As these friends are saving their harvests, they are also preserving the rich food-ways traditions of our rural fore-bearers.

To me, the photos of tantalizing canned pickles and bright Mason jars full of fruit preserves are beautiful; I’m sure the tastes of these foodstuffs equal their aesthetic appeal.  They certainly bring back fond memories.  I recall tales from my paternal grandmother, who grew an annual garden at the family farm in Sullivan County, and would can everything she could in the days before home freezers were common.
 

Grandma’s stories lead to thoughts of “domestic economy,” a historical term that was used in reference to the theory and practice of household management, especially during the first decades of the 19^th century.  Several famous women wrote books to help others better manage their homes and improve their finances.  Among those dispensing advice were education advocate Catharine Beecher, whose guide, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, For the Use of Young Ladies at Home, and At School, was issued in 1842, was very popular.  Catharine was a sister to Harriet Beecher Stowe, the famed author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and clergyman and reformer Henry Ward Beecher.

Another advice-offering author Lydia Maria Francis Child, who some may know as the author of “Over the River and Through the Wood.”  An avowed abolitionist, women’s rights and Native American’s rights advocate, the prolific Mrs. Child penned two helpful books for the home, The American Frugal Housewife, A book of kitchen, economy and directions (1829) which went through 33 editions by 1855, and The Mother's Book (1831), an early American instructional book on child rearing, that also gained popularity in England and Germany.

During Beecher’s and Child’s era, foods were dried, smoked, salted and pickled to preserve them for winter use.  Probably the two most influential developments in home food preservation were the development of the Mason jar, and the introduction of the home freezer.  The iconic canning jar with the screw lid was patented in 1858 by Philadelphia tinsmith John Landis Mason.  Before then, there were canning jars that used unthreaded lids that had to be sealed with wax.  This process at times allowed deadly bacteria to grow and spoil food (or kill the unsuspecting).  Mason’s invention was an immediate boon to the housewife; and helped keep America’s larder full and safer.

Rural families often used spring houses and harvested ice in the 19^th century to help keep food cold, and then progressed to using ice boxes.  But the real advent of home refrigeration didn’t happen until manufacturers like GE and Westinghouse started to make home electric refrigerators in the mid-1910s.  Home freezers, introduced in the 1940s, were a natural progression, and further assisted families with their food preservation efforts. (Home freezing was made even easier with the introduction of the zipped plastic freezer bag in the 1960s).

Until next time, be well and enjoy the great tastes of autumn!

Lori