Country Kitchen:
Autumn's Harvest
By Mary Emma Allen
As autumn approaches, with chill frosty nights, often sunny days, and
leaves changing color, we harvest the remaining foods from the garden and
fruit from the orchards. If we don't have a garden ourselves, we look for
farm stands where we can purchase the items we enjoy for fall cooking or
preserving for winter use.
This was a time for working hard on our farm, as the temperatures dropped
and a killing frost might destroy the crops. The field corn must be
harvested, the ears gathered too and put in the corn house to dry for
winter food for the cattle and chickens. The stalks were chopped and
blown into the silo.
During "silo time," neighbors helped neighbors, with the men going from
farm to farm. Wherever they were chopping corn, the women gathered and
cooked a large noon meal for the crew.
Garden Harvest
Harvest from the garden meant we continued canning and preserving for
winter needs. Nowadays, women often freeze the food they need rather than
canning. Pickles, relish, jams and jellies were extras Mother made when
she had the necessary staples canned.
It's also a time for enjoying the foods that are fresh this season of the
year. Corn, squash and pumpkins have been autumn foods since the early
days of the Native Americans. They taught the colonists how to grow and
prepare them for their culinary use.
Of course, these colonists from England created their own variations and
came up with recipes that have become part of our American culinary
heritage. Methods of cooking corn followed largely the Indian ways of
preparing grits or hominy (rockahominy), succotash (misickquatash) and
samp(nasamp) or corn meal mush.
HARVEST SUCCOTASH - During gardening season, our succotash was made with
fresh corn, cut from the cob. Many recipes call for lima beans. Mother
and Auntie often used cut green beans.
Heat 2 cups cooked, cut green beans or lima beans, 3 cups cooked corn cut
from the cob, 3/4 cup milk. Stir in 3 tablespoons butter, salt and pepper
as desired. When heated through serve as a vegetable with your meal.
My grandmother often added a bit of flour to thicken the milk. She also
frequently used cream or "top milk" to make a richer succotash.
CORN FRITTERS - Mother made these for a supper dish. You can use fresh or
canned corn. When we had leftover corn-on-the cob, Mother cut it off for
fritters or succotash.
Beat 2 eggs lightly. Then add 2/3 cup milk and 2 cups corn cut from the
cob. Sift together 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon
salt. Stir until well mixed.
Drop by spoonfuls onto a griddle. If the batter is too thick to spread
out like a pancake, add more milk. Cook first on one side and then the
other. (Some cooks drop the thicker batter into hot fat and fry as you
would doughnuts.) Serve plain with butter or with maple syrup.
Article (C) 2004 Mary Emma Allen
About the Author
Mary Emma Allen has been writing cooking columns for 40 years. She and
her family compiled a cookbook to preserve their food heritage. She
teaches workshops to show others how to do this, along with scrapbooking
their family recipes.
Visit her web site for more cooking
articles. Contact her at me.allen@juno.com
