1885 - Use of Pumpkin, from Lafcadio Hearn's Creole Cookbook

I've been a Lafcadio Hearn fan for decades.  This was a shocker...a Lafcadio Hearn creole cookbook!! I never knew about, or read, anything of his beyond the Japanese culture books. I  was interested in this man who loved Japan.  So I was taken aback by not having had a fuller picture of his work until I finally figured out why that was.  I had become enamored of his work before the internet.  Sheesh...

The pumpkin orange woodcut above is by Lafcadio Hearn.  It is from a very enjoyable piece about his life in the National Endowment for the Humanities magazine.  It was there I found out he believed in the strength of an image to communicate.  As an art teacher this makes me like him even more. The article explains why he was in the United States as well, and why he was attracted to New Orleans.  Fascinating man.  

The University Press of Mississippi's book, titled Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn, brings together a selection of Hearn's nonfiction on New Orleans and Louisiana.

 Yum...he is so right.  Simple and so good.  I like his parting comment. :-)

What exactly is salt meat?  I asked the same thing...and found the answer here.

La Cuisine Creole: A Collection of Culinary Recipes from Leading Chefs and Noted Creole Housewives, who Have Made New Orleans Famous for Its Cuisine

1862 - The Improved Pumpkin - Humorous Prediction for 1962

This was a surprise!  In 1862 an illustrator was imagining what the pumpkin of the future would look like as people seemed to be breeding for size.    The future was faraway in 1962.

“ That's what we are coming to," said our humorous artist, as he threw upon our table the above picture which he had just sketched after examining the large pumpkins exhibited at the Office of the American Agriculturist in competition for the prizes offered. He has undoubtedly “ stretched things” somewhat, as is his wont, but we believe that no exhibition of the kind ever excited more wonder than has been expressed by the crowd of visitors who have thronged our office during the exhibition. It was a complete success in every respect, in the number and variety of specimens shown, and in the mammoth size of several monsters of the pumpkin tribe.

 The heaviest pumpkin shown in London weighed 176 lbs., the second largest 154 lbs. These would look small beside our mammoth specimen,_which stands 3 feet high, girls 8 feet 7 inches, and weighed when picked 289 lbs 1 Its 'weight has since been reduced by drying out. Four of our specimens each weigh over 200 lbs. So we can now put another feather in the cap of Yankee Doodle, and may claim the fastest yacht, the best reaper, the most effective gunboat, and the BIGGEST PUMPKIN! 

To read the entire article - http://books.google.com/books?id=5qhAAQAAMAAJ&dq

Just for Fun: More New Yorker Covers with Pumpkins

Just for Fun: New Yorker Covers with Pumpkins

I love the old New Yorker covers.

Pumpkins!! Odd and Ends from Old Seed Catalogs

I love pumpkin pie!  Also pumpkin bread, and just plain pumpkin as a side dish.  

I have pumpkin pie for breakfast.  I think that works as I don't use much sugar, relying on stevia for the sweetness and just a little molasses to give the sweetness some depth. 

The page of pumpkins is from Everitt's 1894 catalog.  My second favorite name here is Winter Luxury.  The sort of name to make a pumpkin lover purr.

 My favorite is the Quaker Pie pumpkin. Great name...bet it would sell pumpkins really well today!

This excerpt from Currie Brothers 1906 catalog  has the Quaker Pie pumpkin, too.

On the other hand, the name Golden Oblong doesn't hack it.  

The Granger Movement and a Selection of Odds and Ends

My area of the country has old Grange Halls everywhere. 

I pass one heading towards the We-Lik-It ice cream stand, there is one on the way to Lowe's although maybe that was sold and turned into a church, and this one is on the way to the Post Office.  The Grangers have pie sales before the holidays!  Other than that I am not really familiar with what they do nowadays.  I somehow thought of it as a 4H for adults with a social component.

I found a book from 1900 to skim that was interesting to me as it is Connecticut.  

The Connecticut Granges: An Historical Account of the Rise and Growth of the Patrons of Husbandry : Sketches of the State, Pomona, and Subordinate Granges of Connecticut, with Valuable Statistics, Notices of Prominent Members, Portraits, and Illustrations



This illustration is shown full size at the bottom of the blog. A library of Congress image originally, this version seems color enhanced and cleaned up a bit.

I found this image after I got the inaccurate idea that J.A. Everitt had something to do with the Grange movement.  I don't think he did.  The Grange movement is interesting though!  Wikipedia will get you filled in, and there is a ton of stuff on the web, both old and new, if you want more.

I had fun poking around eBay for Grange ephemera!  You could try to collect Grange ribbons; they'd make a jolly display with  pleasant feelings attached.

Search Sample:

This first one has a great lithograph, "I Feed You All".

The Grange Movement, 1875 | The Gilder Lehrman Institute ...

www.gilderlehrman.org/.../...

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

The Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange, was founded in 1867 to advance methods of agriculture, as well as to promote the social and economic needs of ...

The next one is from a search in BOOKS.  There are many there.

The Granger Movement: A Study of Agricultural Organization ...

Solon Justus Buck - 1913 - ‎Read - ‎More editions

Interesting Illustrations - The Farmer Feeds Us All

The third power: farmers to the front -  self published in 1903 and later editions were self published for years.  

These illustrations are from the 1907 edition.  I was so surprised to see them!!  The earlier copies I had viewed were without any illustrations.  

I wish I could find more information about the man.  I have come across more than an average number of court cases involving him - he is sometimes in the wrong, and sometimes in the right.

One snippet from Floral News, or some industry magazine like that, said he was the first seedsman who was sent to jail to serve a term!  Can I find any info about that?  No.  (At least not at the level of search I am interested in doing :-)

This first illustration is odd.  The rest are good, rather folky, propaganda.   The sincere message he tries to convey in the series comes through.  I wonder what he would have said about the reason for adding them at this late date.