The Old Ways

[sumi]

I bought myself a microwave oven a few weeks ago, after not having one for nearly 2 years. They are so handy! Reheating food, especially "difficult" food like rice or pasta and cold pizza and pies… I also cook in it a bit, usually vegetables.

Many people nowadays are so far removed from doing things the old way, they'd be in serious trouble if they suddenly lose the privileges modern living offers.

 

[Beekissed]

I salt watermelon, grapefruit, tomatoes,and apples.

I use a disposable apron when I butcher...makes for a quick clean up and keeps me dry. I have a regular apron for baking but will often forget to use it. My little Grand girl has a matching one for when she helps me...so darling!

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Old school: I seriously enjoy reading rather than watching tv, and I like a real book with real pages rather than a tablet or computer or other electronic device. I enjoy listening to a baseball game on the radio when I am outside working, and still sometimes expect to see my dad the way he looked when I was a kid, listening too. (I don't have any patience for watching baseball on tv). I like long rides in a car, especially on a quiet, sunny, Saturday afternoon, and a picnic lunch, even better if we find an old hand pump for fresh water. I like hiking in a woods to find a waterfall, or kayaking on a small lake before the sun comes up to watch the day come alive. (Did I mention I'm not a tv watcher??) I find I get impatient if I'm in the "living room" too long, and would be quite happy doubling the size of my kitchen, adding a giant table in the middle of it, extending the front porch, and getting rid of the "living room" altogether...

 

[tortoise]

How old are we talking here?

 

[milkmansdaughter]

I remember the breadboxes, but don't have one. I was just thinking I did something yesterday that was a flashback to my past.

When we were kids, every fall my dad would get pitchforks and rakes and we'd all like into the pickup truck. And we'd go along ditches and get up some of the old grass that had been cut down and had dried. Those of us who were smaller would stand in the teuck and use our bodies to "pack it in" ( usually amidst a lot of laughter). Then we'd drive home and spread it out over the old sewer line leading away from the house all the way back to the field behind the barn where our sewage would drain into an open ditch. We'd make a dozen or more trips, but covering the sewer line kept it from freezing up over the winter.

So yesterday, I was outside raking leaves over our water line that comes in from the road. And I never even really thought about what I was doing until I was finished and looked back at my work. Does anyone else still cover their pipe lines?

 

[Mini Horses]

Yep, I have a breadbox that was from mom's house. Its metal but, she used it all the time. I don't. I don't think it keeps it any fresher. They were probably started to help, not the same wrap products we have now, plus it kept bugs & varmits away.

Besides - stale bread is great for French toast, bread pudding, toast, croutons, bread crumbs, stuffing, chicken feed, etc.

My water lines are basically all underground, except where they come up at various points for spigots to fill water troughs. But, I do have an underground cut off at each of those, with a 2nd spigot just above the cut off which lets me drain the pipe going up for use.

Mulch has been used for a lot of "protection" issues. It works. People without cellars used to dig a hole, line with leaves/boards/tub, etc., add winter veggies to store, cover those with flour sacks or burlap, then cover heavily with mulch. Carefully move some to get a portion of the food in winter. Then recover the spot. It works.

 

[Hinotori]

We salted cantaloupe (but not watermelon) when I was growing up because that's what great grandma did.

Oh and then there is the kid food thing I was just talking with Mom about over thanksgiving. Kids ate the same thing as adults when even my youngest brother was a kid. No issues with picky eaters only wanting junk from anyone I knew growing up. It's a poor farming town. Both brothers' kids are picky and only want processed crap. Seems I hear that from most friends too.

As kids I think we had generic brand mac and cheese a handful of times a year. Fast food even less. Hot dogs were only bought for camping trips. Chicken nuggets were a few times a year.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Some places have home ec, but it's a bit out of favor these days. I think the high school here has it though.

My daughter likes wearing aprons, lol, but I don't have any adult sized ones!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

https://www.snopes.com/science/microwave/plants.asp

That one has pretty much been de-bunked.

 

[baymule]

I have a microwave and use it to reheat food. If it kills food, it doesn't matter because I've already eaten the majority of it before I "killed" it in the microwave.

I guess I follow a lot of old ways, we all do. We raise our food. We preserve our food in the "old ways". How many people besides on these forums, do you know that do this? And how many do you know that think you are wacky for working so hard when it is so easy to buy it already cooked/frozen at the store?

Stand up and take your bows. You are one of the few.