What Did Your Ancestors Do in the Fall?

[Susan - s3js]

I knew 3 of my 4 great grandmothers. Had my great grandmother Wood lived - she died suddenly, probably and aneurysm, at age 42 - she would have been canning, smoking and curing meat, especially ham and bacon, drying onions, garlic, maybe other herbs, and apples if they had apples, and insuring an adequate supply of flour, meal, salt, and lard. She would have made sure the root cellar was filled with potatoes, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, parsnips and maybe pumpkins and squashes. And she would have made pickles and preserves, all with nine children to look after (of the 21 born to my great grandfather). My great grandfather Wood was a farmer but he also owned and operated a grist mill an a lumber mill, and he made his own whiskey, not moonshine like my Uncle Eli, but what was said to be pretty good whiskey like his father distilled, sold, and paid taxes on.

We didn't have any particular fall traditions beyond Halloween other than the Fall Fairs at school. I remember the impossibility of bobbing for apples, cake walks, and lots of games, but fall in Southern California was very mild.

What about you?

 

[Jeannette]

My grandmothers would have done the same. They both were working class families, they both had large gardens and butchering an animal for meat to eat during the winter. So canning meat, but also preserving vegetables and fruits for the winter.
It's gives me a sort of connection with them, because I have my own garden since this year, and I have a freezer filled with vegetables too now, and enough potatoes to last us through the winter.