Country Cuisine

Huckleberry Pie and Polk Salad ....does that get your salivary glands going when you read that? Maybe and maybe not since you may have never heard of either one! A lot depends on if you're from the city or the country. If you're from the city, then maybe you don't even know what I'm talking about! Late May and early June is the time of year for both of the above....polk salad and huckleberries. Since we live out on a farm, we partake of both. Actually WE don't but my husband does! He picks them and I cook them. I did taste the pie and it was really good. The polk salad I have tasted but definitely do not like and do not eat.

I was raised in town....not really what some would call a city.....but most all of our food came from the grocery store. I do remember my Mama being thrilled to get the occasional "mess" of polk salad each spring from a friend or family member who lived in the country. I don't recall ever even hearing about huckleberries until B. and I got married. He introduced me to all kinds of strange foods and eating customs! Not long after we were married I was introduced to the annual "hog-killing" at my in-laws house. Talk about something that will gross-out a city-slicker! I had always gotten my ham, sausage and bacon at the neighborhood grocery store and didn't actually even want to know where it all came from! Being the only one that day who had never participated in such a thing, I was given the job of helping to cut up the belly fat of the hog which jiggled and wiggled til I thought it would never get cut up! Just the thought of it even now makes me cringe! The fat would be put in a big black three-legged pot set up outside over an open fire. Then came the job that B.'s daddy was the best at....cooking off the lard and making "cracklings". He also made the best cured ham I ever ate. Seems a paradox that after being raised on pork neither me nor my husband can eat it now without getting sick. Go figure!

I have not always been easily persuaded to cook a lot of the things B. insisted I cook.....for instance: making homemade "souse meat" from cooking the head of a pig and then taking all the meat off the bones (tedious job I tell you!) and then mixing with all kinds of spices....or cooking a beaver....which, not surprisingly, tasted a lot like sawdust he said....I didn't taste it nor the souse meat! I may cook unusual dishes for him but that doesn't mean I eat it!

I only wish that I had not been so easily aggravated in the early years of our marriage. It would make me mad when he would ask me to cook something for him that I considered to be bizarre. I would usually cook it but with a terrible attitude. I wish now that I had just considered it as "making memories" because that's what they have become....funny, cherished memories of our early married life.


"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content." 1 Timothy 6: 6-8


So.... did I freak some of you out with my honest testimony of our "Country Cuisine"?
I hope not! What are some of the most "unusual" things you have ever cooked? I'd love to hear about them! (And lest you might think that country is the only way I can cook....I make a mean Baklava! )


God bless you....

Marilyn