My Pennsylvania Dutch Great Grandmother, What A Lady

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My Great Grandmother was quite a lady. I was just talking to another Minds friend about our family member and I started thinking about her. She could garden! She could cook and can and she taught me a lot about how to live.

I miss my great grandmother and her garden, too. She grew a huge amount of food on a large plot of land just outside of Granite City, Illinois. She grew corn, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, rhubarb, strawberries and other things, too. She had a plum tree, apple tree, and raspberries as well as a grape arbor. It was a bounty of food in the summer and she canned what we didn't eat. She was a magnificent cook.

She said she was "Pennsylvania Dutch" and she remembered coming to Illinois from Pennsylvania in a covered wagon. She was born in the 1890's and lived until she was 96 years old. She didn't stop working in the garden until her last year on this earth. She had breast cancer and refused to treat it at all. My mom took care of her until she died.

That woman was amazing. She rose early worked all day long in the yard and the kitchen and went to bed when the sun went down. Almost everything I know about gardening, cooking and survival I learned from her. What a woman she was. And she wasn't alone. A lot of her neighbors and friends were just like her. They are a dying breed. It's so sad that a lot of young people have no idea how to plant and maintain a garden, let alone cook from scratch and live on what they harvest.

She made grape jelly, preserves, homemade yeast bread and rolls, cakes and pies, canned and cooked like an army was coming for dinner every day. Three meals a day she cooked and fed herself, my great uncle, my mom, dad, me and my sisters. Mom would always help but "Mom Ousley" as we called her was the main cook. She used lard and a cast iron skillet and was not one bit fat. She walked like she had a broomstick down her spine and walked to the grocery store for the staples she needed pushing a hand cart for over a mile each way. She refused a ride! Oh I do miss her! She died in 1980 before either of my kids was born.

Her hair looked something like this after she braided it. It was long and totally white and she washed her hair once a week then braided and piled it on top of her head.

My Great Grandmother was quite a lady. I was just talking to another Minds friend about our family member and I started thinking about her. She could garden! She could cook and can and she taught me a lot about how to live.

I miss my great grandmother and her garden, too. She grew a huge amount of food on a large plot of land just outside of Granite City, Illinois. She grew corn, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, rhubarb, strawberries and other things, too. She had a plum tree, apple tree, and raspberries as well as a grape arbor. It was a bounty of food in the summer and she canned what we didn't eat. She was a magnificent cook.

She said she was "Pennsylvania Dutch" and she remembered coming to Illinois from Pennsylvania in a covered wagon. She was born in the 1890's and lived until she was 96 years old. She didn't stop working in the garden until her last year on this earth. She had breast cancer and refused to treat it at all. My mom took care of her until she died.

That woman was amazing. She rose early worked all day long in the yard and the kitchen and went to bed when the sun went down. Almost everything I know about gardening, cooking and survival I learned from her. What a woman she was. And she wasn't alone. A lot of her neighbors and friends were just like her. They are a dying breed. It's so sad that a lot of young people have no idea how to plant and maintain a garden, let alone cook from scratch and live on what they harvest.

She made grape jelly, preserves, homemade yeast bread and rolls, cakes and pies, canned and cooked like an army was coming for dinner every day. Three meals a day she cooked and fed herself, my great uncle, my mom, dad, me and my sisters. Mom would always help but "Mom Ousley" as we called her was the main cook. She used lard and a cast iron skillet and was not one bit fat. She walked like she had a broomstick down her spine and walked to the grocery store for the staples she needed pushing a hand cart for over a mile each way. She refused a ride! Oh I do miss her! She died in 1980 before either of my kids was born.

Her hair looked something like this after she braided it. It was long and totally white and she washed her hair once a week then braided and piled it on top of her head.