Beth Durham's Blog, page 31

Harvest Season

The picture leading this blog is from our church bulletin last week. Don’t those little folders have some of the prettiest pictures? Well this one is such a familiar scene that it got me to thinking about the memories of the season.

There’s something heady about the harvest season. The air is cooling (cooling slowly this year), the leaves are hinting at the autumn-brilliance they’ll soon wear and the work of summer is drawing to a close. Of course the work on a farm never ends and there are c...

Making a Mark on the World

Photo courtesy of Musgrave Pencil Company, www.pencils.net

I’ve told you many times before that these blog articles are chiefly driven by research for the novels I’m writing. In my latest book Plans for Emma, I have her grabbing a pencil at one point. While it may seems a strange thing to research, I heard someone talking about quill pens and ink wells and then I wondered just when did we have ready access to pencils.

Usually when I have a question like this, a quick internet search reveals...

Mountain Family

Family is a precious thing. I’ll tell you right up front here that I’ve got tears in my eyes as I try to share these thoughts with you. Some of my friends have been giving me a pretty hard time lately about all of the family reunions I’ve been to this summer. I wouldn’t give up a single one of them!

Last Saturday the Key cousins got together as they’ve been doing every September for nearly thirty years. The faces change some from year to year either because life just gets in the way or sickne...

Snuff Glasses – and other useful Re-Useables

There’s a popular movement in our world today to “reduce your carbon footprint” and “recycle today for a better tomorrow.” Well let me tell you, on the mountain we are recycling experts and have been for generations.

I recently saw a picture that included a snuff glass – or at least it looked just like some of the snuff glasses I have in my cabinet and it got me to thinking about how disposable our world today really is.

Dipping snuff is a pretty disgusting habit in my estimation but two gener...

Mail Order

I’m a catalog shopper. I often say that I lack the shopping gene. I’d rather face a hard day of field work than a day at the mall. I guess if I’m going to be crowded I’d rather it be trees that won’t push or shove or try to pick my pocket. So I do my shopping via mail order, just like my grandmothers and great grandmothers for generations.

We’ve established here before that I’m pretty spoiled. Even though I enjoy history and historical things; even though a part of me longs for the “olden day...

A Good Cup of Coffee

Today’s thoughts may seem a little silly – unless like me you catch up on your blogs first thing in the morning while enjoying a good cup of coffee. I do like a steaming cup first thing in the morning whether it’s a fancy latte if I’m out somewhere that one can be had or from a pot boiled over a campfire.

Historically, we think of tea as the beverage of our European ancestors. But you’ll remember that little tea party held in Boston Harbor in 1773 that changed American tastes forever. As a...

Mysteries on the Mountain

We know and love our history on the mountain and I find great comfort in that. It’s a wonderful feeling to drive around the area and remember someone from or something about nearly every hill and hollow. I get a lot of teasing that maybe my family tree doesn’t have enough branches if I start talking about all of my cousins. Yet people are amazed that I know my great-grandparents’ names without looking them up – all of them. Still, there are mysteries buried on our plateau and that’s pretty fa...

The Humble Squash

There are foods we eat on the mountain that would seem strange to some outsiders. I’d imagine most urban-dwellers have never heard of dry-land fish and if they saw the funny little mushrooms they’d turn their heads. And of course we use pretty much every part of a hog, including the whole head. But in the summertime the abundance of fresh garden vegetables can transform the mountain table into a vegetarian delight. One of my favorite summer foods is yellow squash.

It’s got to be the easiest t...

The Country Store

I’m sure I’ve mentioned here before that when I was growing up my Daddy and Grandpa were in a big way of bean farming. Not owning a great deal of acreage themselves, they rented fields all over the mountaintop and under the mountain as well. I have so many memories - both fond and a little scary, - of mountain roads rutted deeper than the truck’s wheel wells, trees reaching into the path so far you drove on faith that there was indeed a roadway and little fields cleared for a pair of mules a...

Appalachian Tea Cakes

Tea Cakes

Today I wanted to share a story from another blog that really struck a chord with me. We’ve talked here before about Apple Stack Cake and the strong tradition that dessert has throughout the Appalachian Mountains. So when I saw Appalrootfarm.com writing about “Old Timey Appalachian Tea Cakes & Mini Kentucky Apple Stack Cakes”, you know I was gonna follow that link. Well, she taught me so much more!

I remember my Grandma Stepp making Tea Cakes – it wasn’t a regular treat she gave us,...