Dear Anna Mae:
I met Nancy L. Hopper, R. D. #1, Hesston, Pennsylvania 16647
last year at the Rough & Tumble Show at Kinzers, Pennsylvania.
She was busy taking orders for the redwood signs that her
brother-in-law was making. They were quite nice and 1 ended up with
a sizeable order. They would put names on them as ‘The
engine, steam engine, deer, fish, etc. But, in between taking
orders, she was also handling a cotton candy machine, minding some
children, talking to me, etc. you get the picture a dynamic gal
going strong with a full head of steam and everything was going
quite smoothly. After our interesting chat I asked her to please
send us a story of her doings for after all, how many folks have a
nice new home and can with a steam boiler and make bread and
goodies in a stone bake oven? Read on I’m sure you’ll enjoy
her letter
I haven’t forgotten my promise to write about canning with
the steam boiler and baking bread in the stone bake oven.
We have a 1925 50 HP Frick portable sawmill engine, which we use
to run a cut-off saw. We heat our new home with slab wood. The slab
from the local sawmill is free for hauling it away. I may never
have a linen closet because if we build it in, the heat from the
two stoves in our basement would not have a very easy time heating
the bedrooms. The cellar door is always open, letting heat to the
kitchen and the dining room. We also have a fireplace in the living
room. Hence the Arabs can boycott fuel oil all they want we just
won’t go away next winter. We have a big oil furnace, but it is
used only when we are away over night.
We use the boiler to can vegetables and fruits; also to make
apple butter and to steam corn for corn on the cob. A long copper
tube is attached to a live steam valve and coiled several times
around in the bottom of the barrel or tub.
For canning purposes, my father cut the top third from a 55
gallon drum and turned the edge over so we wouldn’t cut
ourselves on it when we reached in. A faucet was installed in the
bottom. Wooden slats were placed over the copper coil so the
extreme heat wouldn’t break the glass jars. We can put 25 to 30
jars in the bottom. My husband built a sturdy wooden rack which
hangs from the lead pipes laid across the barrel. We can put 25 to
30 jars on the top also.
Meanwhile, my mother, sister and I have prepared the fruits or
vegetables and packed and covered them in the jars. My husband then
loads the jars in the drum and fills it with water. He then
carefully brings the water to boiling, taking about 15 minutes to
do so, in order not to break the jars. He then times it just as we
would a water bath canner. When the time is up, he shuts off the
steam and opens the faucet on the bottom to let out the water. Then
he covers the drum with an old bedspread to keep out any drafts
which may break the hot jars and it is left to cool until the next
day. We have canned green and yellow beans, tomatoes, apple sauce,
peaches and pumpkin in this manner. Although it doesn’t take
very long to do fruit, it saves a lot of cooking gas when we are
doing so many jars (about 400 jars).
As for apple butter, we just put the copper coil in the copper
kettle, add the cider, boil it down half, add snitz and cook it
till thick. Then we add sugar and spices and cook it until done. We
don’t have to stir it, except when we add sugar or spices as
the steam running through the coil creates enough movement to keep
it from burning or sticking.
At the Canandaiqua, New York Show, they put a steam pipe into a
huge galvanized watering trough with a lot of sweet corn in the
husk. They cover it with tin and turn on the steam. They set out
pans of melted butter with little dippers in and the salt and
pepper.
To make a long story short, I used to not enjoy steam shows. I
didn’t know anyone but my husband, with whom I went and I
really had no interest in that junk. But, as I was doomed to spend
the entire week at the Morrison Cove Pioneer Power Show, I decided
to create something of interest to women! The first year, we had a
very successful quilting bee. Everyone seemed to go along with the
idea and would put in a stitch or two. Then, my father and a couple
other guys built us a stone bake oven just like great
grandmother’s.
We needed a setting in which to mix the bread, so up to the hill
went the ice box, the dry sink, an old kitchen cabinet, the
pedestal kitchen table and Mr. Smith’s old cast iron kitchen
stove. And a request for homemade doughnuts! We only meant to use
the ‘country kitchen’ as it had become, as a live display
of the kitchen of the steam engine era, but things have gotten out
of hand. I suppose the gloves drying on top the stove, the boots
and shoes under it perhaps a damp magnita in the oven caused the
men to crowd around it, just as it was way back then. We keep a
huge pot of coffee on the back of the stove along with a pot of
beans or vegetable soup. A hot corn pone, gingerbread or apple or
pumpkin pie may be in the oven. Someone is usually snitzing apples
for the next day’s apple butter. A double decker dryer not only
has corn on it, but at one time, there was corn and peanuts on the
bottom and green beans and apple slices on the top.
We also added a nice dough tray in which to mix the bread. We
have churned butter in an old wooden churn and made a chocolate
cake with the buttermilk. We have even baked pies for a pie-eating
contest.
Last year a gentleman asked for a special ‘old fashioned
doughnut.’ Just a piece of yeast dough formed into a flat
circle with a hole in the center. We let it rise and then fired it.
He asked us to split it and spread it with apple butter. This was
as his grandmother used to make for him when he was just a kid.
Last year we attended the entire shows at Berryville, Virginia;
Federalsburg, Maryland, Kinzers, Pennsylvania; Canandaiqua, New
York; Center Hall, Pennsylvania; Alum Bank, Pennsylvania; and
Martinsburg, Pennsylvania. We have attended shows at Arcadia,
Maryland; Portland, Indiana; Ft. Wayne, Indiana; Harlansburg,
Pennsylvania; New Centerville, Pennsylvania; West Minister,
Maryland and Meadville, Pennsylvania. Our goal for 1977 is to make
it to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. At every show, we make new friends and
share with old friends.
And Anna Mae, of most importance, it’s always greatest to
learn that a new friend is a Christian! God Bless You!
ABOUT THE PEOPLE IN THE STORY: Nancy – is
housewife and Huntingdon County Fresh Air Chairman for the Fresh
Air Program for needy New York city kids. (We placed 89 kids last
year it’s really great!)
Husband Jerry is a Youth Development Counselor for the
Pennsylvania Department of Welfare. My father, Ralph Detwiler,
night watchman for 23 years at Roaring Spring Blank Book, hoping to
retire soon and build model steam engines on his metal lathes! My
mother, Erma Detwiler, housewife and chief consultant for problems
of a country kitchen especially since we can’t seem to keep the
fire burning in the cook stove! My sister, Naomi K. Detwiler,
unemployed librarian, with a Master’s degree (too much
education to get a job). She works in a shoe factory. Would you
believe that a course in working with the blind in Kutztown taught
her to be sensitive enough that she is indispensable at time for
the fire to be pulled from the bake oven. She is like a
thermometer.
I have four more sisters, three of whom help with the country
kitchen. Also a sister-in-law, my brother and two brothers-in-law
help out also.
