Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Thursday, October 3, 2019

In Heaven

The ranch cook. With Chris and Jerry.
Mom could make anything taste good.
And it didn't matter what she had going in her life, meals were always plentiful and on time.
She would serve a full, cooked breakfast of ham, eggs, pancakes and oatmeal, with lunch simmering on the stove and dinner baking in the oven so both meals could be produced quickly as soon as she got done gardening, cleaning, doing chores, driving us kids to school, picking up whatever was needed from the hardware/feed store/grocery, or attending one of her numerous Hereford club meetings/quilting/sewing bees.
Sometimes I contemplate the scheduling nightmare that her life must have been.
Thinking about it makes me tired.
But back to the food . . .
When Mom was 10 years old, she went with her dad and brothers up to the Berg family's 'other place' to cook while Grandpa and the boys brought in the hay crop.
She often described the little wood stove she used for her meals.
“It had the littlest oven,” she told me, “just big enough to fit in one pie.”
She was making pie???!
At ten years old???!
By herself???!
In a - gasp - wood stove???!
Okay, amazing just doesn't quite cover it.
By the time I was ten, I figured I was doing extremely well because I knew how to eat pie.
But I digress . . .
So, at the age of ten, she was doing all of the cooking for her father and three older brothers.
Well, she certainly learned how to cook.
Mom could open the fridge (that same fridge that one of us kids had just looked into and pronounced, 'empty'), and produce a hearty, rib-sticking meal.
In minutes.
And totally without the aid of a microwave.
Okay, she had all the modern conveniences. Electric stove. Running water.
Toaster.
Cheese Whiz.
But still, the meals she could produce!
Her roasts were works of gustatory art. Her pastries and pies had to be tasted to be believed.
Even her vegetables were unsurpassed by anything available in the vast dining world.
Mom could take cauliflower that she had grown and frozen. Cook and serve it in such a manner that not a scrap was left over.
I tried it with my kids.
Somehow, when I prepared frozen cauliflower, it just came out . . . soggy.
And disgusting.
I did learn how to make her pies. But that was all.
To this day, my siblings and I contact each other regularly, asking if anyone knows the recipe for . . .
No one does.
When I cross over to the other side, it will be with a pen and paper in hand.
The first thing I will ask Mom will be, “What the heck is your recipe for your angel food cake topping?”
Notice I said 'heck'. That's because you can't use anything stronger in Heaven.
Where I know Mom is.
Probably cooking.

10 comments:

  1. At ten, I too was only capable of eating pie, not making it - our ancestors grew up so much faster than we did, eh?

    And now I'm hungry!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your mom sounds amazing and got a little misty-eyed when you mentioned her in heaven. You must miss her a lot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really do, Laurie! She 'left' far before she left and I've been without her for over twenty years now. I look forward to seeing her again!

      Delete
  3. Humbling isn't it, to realise just how much they did. Day after day on an ongoing basis.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She must be looking down on me and . . . looking DOWN on me! ;)

      Delete
  4. And once you have all the recipes, how will you get them back to your family waiting on Earth? I often think back on how easy I had it with only four agreeable kids and no computers or phones. There was one household landline phone, but it was hardly used.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmmm...good point. Rats. I knew there had to be a flaw in my reasoning!

      Delete
  5. Sweetie's mom took over the cooking at age 12 on a wood burning stove. She cooked for her father and 5 younger siblings. Most of what she made had no recipes, but with Sweetie's good memory for taste and cooking ability, we've managed to recreate a lot of what she cooked. No, i've never managed a wood stove, and hope i don't ever have to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Age 12! Yow! I just keep wondering how they regulated the temperature!

      Delete

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