Food and Funerals Traditions Part 4 Indiana
Courtesy of the New York Public Library
I have been going through my collection of WPA food sources from the Great Depression era found in the archives of the Library of Congress in Washington DC. In our series on food and funeral we turn to the Indiana folder titled America Eats Notes, Reports, and Essays and the story “Pitch-In Dinner After a Funeral Service.” As always I have attempted to produce the content in a paraphrased format when necessary to make them legible and direct quotes as often as possible. During the repast the widow Mary became naturally nostalgic recalling that her husband John had a little “Dutch blood.” She went on to remember how she “had a terrible time learning to make scrabble to suit him, and that mush made with gram flour that he liked so well. But he was always one to praise me, and even when things didn’t turn out so well. John was a good man.” Aunt Mary remembered out loud the years it took for her to master the sauerkraut that her husband loved, as younger women who coveted the recipe lingered on her every word. “It’s all in getting just the right portion of salt and it and then I always wash three or four good, tart apples clean and put them in with the cabbage in different places in the cake. I can’t tell you just how much salt by weight to use in proportion to the cabbage but come over next fall and I’ll show you” she said to the young women who sat mesmerized listening to her.
