Recently I discovered my Aunt Jessie’s daily journals written a half century ago. She documents her life as one of two elderly sisters living through tough economic times. The two women lived in a small southeastern South Dakota town with no visible means of support other than Social Security checks, small amounts of crop money provided by a family farm and Jessie’s two-hour daily
60 West Highway 61 · 218 38 – job as cleaning lady at the local
bank.
Our country is currently experiencing economic woes and many people are struggling.
decided to take a closer look to see how my two favorite aunts survived hard times and to learn from their experiences.
Almost as an afterthought, I planted carrots this spring. As I sprinkled the tiny seeds into the soil, I thought—what the heck. It might be late to plant, but hey, why not give it a try?
The carrots thrived and, as the summer passed, and I occasionally pulled at the lacy green tops bringing up tiny orange carrots for thinning (and munching), I was surprised to discover that my one row of carrots was going to be quite productive.
But at harvest time, I was caught up short. I hadn’t planned on anything more than a few munching carrots.
Instead, I was faced with a crop of carrots large enough to require storing. My big problem was—how. My basement was heated, I had no root cellar and I wasn’t prepared for the big process of canning.
What to do?
Recently, I’d been reading my Aunt Jessie’s journals and as my carrot dilemma grew, I sought advice in her writing. Her journals scrupulously and accurately recorded all aspects of her daily life—meals…chores…visitors… gardening… everything.
So I didn’t have to delve very deep before finding “carrot harvest” information.
From Aunt Jessie’s Journal:
After that I dug out the carrots
which seemed just a short
row, the other short row just had
two little groups. And yet I cut
off dozens and dozens of the top
leaves and the butter churn crock,
to preserve till spring, which I
hope will again, is filled to the
brim. We had to wash, spin and
dry them [carrots] for the rest of
the day in the garage.
Here was my needed information— she cleaned and dried them in the garage, then stored her carrots in a butter churn crock, which she hoped would keep them till spring.
Searching my memory, I realized that my aunts did not have a root cellar, so where did they place the butter churn crock?
I brought up childhood recollections of their huge garden filled with potatoes, sweet corn, raspberries, strawberries, carrots, peas, ground cherries, lettuce and radishes. I recalled a small garage that my grandmother had once used as a hen house that sat adjacent to the garden but it was not heated so Jessie couldn’t have stored the carrots there.
She must have placed them in their basement, which was partially a coal storage bin, and had cement walls and a partial dirt floor. It was as close to a root cellar as possible without being one.
I had neither butter churn crock nor root cellar but Aunt Jessie’s advice from years ago was still apt. I needed a thick walled container and a cool spot.
I went modern and googled butter churn crocks to see what they look like and also googled carrot storage, finding an infinite number of web sites with advice. The final result was a combination of Aunt Jessie’s long ago system with modern twists.
I dried my carrots on old window screens on the picnic table, then placed them between newspaper layers in a plastic cooler which I set beneath a partially open basement window. As of now, they are storing beautifully.
I don’t know if a butter churn crock will ever be necessary but if you have one, I wouldn’t mind looking at it.
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