30

Angela Varesano
8/15/72
Mary Washko

After her husband came home from work, he'd be cracking coal, working in the garden, fixing fences. In winter he'd shovel snow and take ashes out of the stove. He'd get up at four or five o'clock in the morning and have the paths shoveled. He used to stoke the fire. When he was done, he'd go to bed. This was about 8:30 or 9:00 PM. He'd play with the kids and take them out for about an hour after supper or on idle days.
on idle days men picked coal, sometimes taking the kids. They picked berries to sell and mushrooms to eat. These the wife dried and made into soup.

Nothing went to waste. She canned everything from the garden. Fruits preserved were applesauce, peach preserves, grape jelly, balckberry jelly, and huckleberry jam. She'd put up pears, too.

Mushrooms were picked by her husband. Usually these were white toppers and red toppers. She washed them and cut them up in pieces. They were boiled for fifteen to twenty minutes. They were then strained and washed good and chopped or put through a meat grinder.
____Fry chopped onion in butter, add mushrooms, and fry. Add salt and pepper. Beat up two or three eggs and add them to the mushrooms. Mix around in the pan to cook.
This is served with bread and coffee for lunch or supper, when there was no work and they were not too hungry.

Bean soup:
Get 'soup bean' (marrow beans.) Wash and cook them an hour or more with water filling half of a six-quart pot with about one pound of beans. When they are done, tasting to check, add zaprashka.
Zaprashka is made by melting butter. Add flour to form a thick paste. Brown. Add a glass of water. Cook until there are no lumps. Add salt and pepper and some spice like celery or parsley. Add this to the soup. She used to add about two tablespoons of vinegar to give it a sour taste.

For Monday supper, if there was any leftovers from Sunday, they were eaten. On Sunday she usually made enough for another meal and ate the same food for supper as was eaten at the main noonday meal. She made a big meal at noon. This could be beef soup and noodles, stuffed cabbage, or chicken, stewed or stuffed and roasted. She kept chickens and killed them herself. They were killed in the yard, way up the back. She sliced the wind pipe with a sharp knife. Years ago people killed their own pigs and cows. The neighbors used to help kill your cows and pigs. Cows were slaughtered by tying them and hitting them between the horns with a sledge hammer.