What did they do before ... ?

[ORChick]

Tonight I put some stale bread ends in the blender to make breadcrumbs, and was reminded of my lightbulb moment when I read that in the old days they would use a grater to get crumbs (and my other lightbulb moment when I read that a grater was often made out of a piece of metal that was pierced with a nail numerous times).
So what were your lightbulb moments, when you realized that some tool/appliance you use often hasn't been around forever, and they must have done something different in the *before-time* to achieve the needed result? Now, I will admit that I am older than many (most?) of you, so your moments may just seem like early memories for me, but I'm sure that anything added to this theme will be new to at least one of us. And this info may be useful at some future date.

 

[freemotion]

An elderly friend told me her mother...or was it grandmother...would cut the top off a small pine tree and strip the needles each year to use it as a potato masher! How strange. Imagine slightly balsam flavored spuds...

"What did they do before..." is a question I've enjoyed exploring most of my life, and I am blessed to have a father who remembers many things they used to "do before!" and enjoys exploring some of them with me. Both my parents raised us kids on a steady diet of library books, extension office brochures, leaflets, and booklets, Mother Earth News, and conversations with older ones on how to do things. And their own memories of how their parents did things, raising large families through the Depression.

Maybe some of these things will be what we do after.....

 

[ORChick]

An elderly friend told me her mother...or was it grandmother...would cut the top off a small pine tree and strip the needles each year to use it as a potato masher! How strange. Imagine slightly balsam flavored spuds...

"What did they do before..." is a question I've enjoyed exploring most of my life, and I am blessed to have a father who remembers many things they used to "do before!" and enjoys exploring some of them with me. Both my parents raised us kids on a steady diet of library books, extension office brochures, leaflets, and booklets, Mother Earth News, and conversations with older ones on how to do things. And their own memories of how their parents did things, raising large families through the Depression.

Maybe some of these things will be what we do after.....

I will have to admit to puzzlement as to how the top of a pine tree might be used to mash potatoes!
Free, I have also had a long time interest in such things. I remember a book from my childhood, story placed in pre 1st WW Hungary, and how surprised I was that the homemade chairs were held together with dowels, and that the father in the story (he who had made the chairs) was so contemptuous of the modern *crap* (not how it was termed in the book) that depended on nails.
I actively search out old cookbooks to learn about the old ways. Granted, I wouldn't always want to return to those ways but I do find value in knowing about them.

 

[big brown horse]

Everything in my kitchen can be done manually by some antique I've picked up over the years.

Most of my yard work can be done by hand too, I even have a reel push mower and a brand new manual wood splitter/kindling maker.

I too am drawn like a moth to a flame to the way things were done before...I love the hard work.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I join this club also.

Today I was using a wire whisk to mix up a box cake. I didn't feel like dragging out the big mixer and bowl and then make a whole lot of noixse to mix up a little simple cake.

DSS offered to help. I told him to beat it for about 3 minutes with the whisk. After less then the alotted time, he sighes and says his arm is getting tired. I told him my mother made all cakes and cookies etc, using a wire whisk or a wooden tool with a half round star shape bottom. Then told him that when the hand powered mixers came on the market, my mother was in heaven, because it made everything to easy to mix up

I always wonder what did they do before...

 

[i_am2bz]

One of my favorite places is Shelburne Museum in VT, which is full of "Americana". They have a blacksmith shop, apothecary, etc. Anyway, in the old-timey cabin, the tour guide will pick up an artifact & say "Who can guess what this was used for?" People will make their guess (usually wrong) & the guide will explain "They used this for such-&-such". It's such a hoot, watching everyone's eyes widen, then ooh & ahh! The first time I went, I was in such awe...first, that people were so creative, & second, that they had to work so hard!

 

[Wifezilla]

I am slowly accumulating those old tools. Now that I am getting back in to canning and make so much from scratch I see how useful these things are. Like a food mill. I really needed one when I made all that apple sauce.

Now as for my mixer, until all sources of electricity are gone, I will still be using it ;D

 

[tortoise]

One of my favorite places is Shelburne Museum in VT, which is full of "Americana". They have a blacksmith shop, apothecary, etc. Anyway, in the old-timey cabin, the tour guide will pick up an artifact & say "Who can guess what this was used for?" People will make their guess (usually wrong) & the guide will explain "They used this for such-&-such". It's such a hoot, watching everyone's eyes widen, then ooh & ahh! The first time I went, I was in such awe...first, that people were so creative, & second, that they had to work so hard!

Yeah - when I was a kid I volunteered at a museum and did the log cabin tour. Fun!

My favorite was the pre-scotch brite. It was a 6 or 8 inch square of chainmail!

 

[patandchickens]

Some of the things being mentioned here, e.g. a food mill, were THEMSELVES significantly "mod cons" not all that long ago Your grandmother or great grandmother was probably all a-flutter at the prospect of being able to buy one of those newfangled high-tech contraptions to make it easily possible to produce a smooth applesauce or a seed-free raspberry jam. Oh, the modernity of it all, what will they think of next?

Reel mowers in common household use goes back only to, what, maybe the later part of the nineteenth century? (*Lawns* werent' even invented until the late 1700s IIRC and did not become ubiquitous til the rise of the suburban middle class a good deal later)

I do not think modern style whisks are necessarily of that great antiquity either, at least not as something found in the average household. If nothing else they depend on inexpensive production of suitable metal heavy-wire.

Some may say "but that's still a hundred or two hundred years ago you're talking, there!" but honestly that is a MINISCULE fraction of the time that human civilization has been around. So most of these issues have been resolved in much older ways yet, as well... either by having older-style solutions, or by Just Not Doing That Kind Of THing.

There *is* a reason why the modern conveniences were adopted so avidly when they came into affordable production, though...

Pat

 

[JRmom]

I've found that a lot of my "antique" kitchen stuff (which I collect) works far better than the newer gadgets. I bought a new, non-stick rolling pin - hate it! I use a very old wooden one with only one handle. I love it, nothing sticks because it's very well "seasoned". I also love all of my little odd shaped graters I've collected. I've found a use for nearly all of them. And don't get me started on cast iron cookware!

On my wish list is a real lawn mower - good exercise and no noise!

I'm like Big Brown Horse - I love how things used to be done. Anything I can do in the kitchen by hand is all right with me. It's my therapy!