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A. Varesano interviewing Helen Fedorsha -9- 6/15/72 Tape 14-1

422 like if you open can of sauerkraut now, you see it isn't white, it's sort of a yellowish color. Well then,
you knew that it was through fermenting. You could already take it down the cellar. I often wonder how
the men did it, because it was down the steps. And these big barrels, they somehow woud roll that barrel
down over the landing of the steps of the cellar, and down those steps. One man would go ahead of it,
and another man would stand at the top and hold it, you know, to try to hold it back, and they'd slowly
roll it from one step to another to get it down. But that was hard work, to do that and get it down the
cellar. And you'd put boards underneath, it wouldn't be right on the bare ground, And anytime you
needed sauerkraut, you took either a dishpan ort something and went down the cellar and took your
sauerkraut out of there. In the wintertime, you'd get a layer of ice along with it! And bring it up, wash
it out, so it wouldn't be- because if you'd use it directly that way, it would be too sour. So they rinse it
out in clear water to get a lot of that sourness out. And cook it. And you'd have it with mashed potatoes,
or if you had pieces of pork rind, you'd put pork into the sauerkraut and cook it that way. And that's
what you'd get for supper! And the sauerkraut juice, well, they used to use it in different ways, I know
that my mother often, she would dilute it with water until it was the taste that she wanted, and salt it,
and put it on the stove to come to a boil, and then she would make, well, they were noodles, we used to
call then "halushki".
452 They were made with grated potatoes, and you added flour to these grated potatoes, and then you
would roll the dough out just like you do noodle dough, but then you didn't cut them like noodles, you would
tear a piece of the dough off, and have your boiling water on the stove just like for noodles, and you'd tear
pieces off this dough and drop them into the boiling water, and booil them until you knew they were boiled,
and you would drain them, the same as noodles, and then you would have this sauerkraut juice, and instead
of soup you would put the sauerkraut juice over thesse halushki, and that's how you ate it. That was healthy!

AV: Oh yeah! My goodness! Did you boil the potatoes before you grated them?

HF: No, they were faw, and that's how you'd make that. So many times, that's what you got for supper! And
467 when you had sour milk, well then you mashed potatoes, and you wouled eat, because at the factory we
were talking about it, and the girl said well, how could you eat mashed potatoes with sour milk? Well you
had your sour milk in a cup, and your mashed potatoes were on the plate. You would take a spoonful of
mashed potatoes and you would dip it down into the sour milk and that's how you ate it!

AV: How did the people feed all their boarders?

HF: The same as themselves. They sat at a table, and the lady of the house would serve them. Well, she'd
put the stuff on the center of the table and everyone woud help themselves And if there were too many,
well then her children would be served next. And if there weren't too many, they all sat at the table
together and they ate. Whatever the head of the house had, that's
478 what the boarders had, too.

AV: How did the boarders pay for their meals?

HF: They used to pay by the month. If they didn't pay their butcher bills separately, then they would pay the
lady whatever they would agree on, you know, when they came to board. And indeed, it wasn't any forty
dollars a month, that's for sure. I really wouldn't know what the price was, but I know it was a lot cheaper
than that. In later years, whe things got a little fancier, well then forty dollars wasn't too much to ask, you
know, for the food and the lodging and the laundry, and everything that had to be done for them.