Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance
FAMILY HEIRLOOM RECIPES
2015: Family Favorites Never Served to Guest
(or whatever you want)
Missouri State Fair
August 15, 2015
(Image by Peter Engler)
Second Prize:
Grandmother’s Blackberry Cobbler
Faye Hunton, Sedalia, Missouri
Picture this: The time is the late 1940’s; the setting is a country home in Middle Georgia in mid-July. There in the kitchen is an old wood cook stove my grandmother used to cook for the family. There is no air conditioning or fan to help cool the intense heat of the kitchen. I am standing at the kitchen cabinet and grandmother is teaching me how to roll out pie dough.
In the oven is a blackberry cobbler baking in a large iron skillet. The black berries were picked fresh the day before by my grandmother, my aunt and me.
I can still remember the scratches on my legs from the briars and the bites from what we called “red bugs.” Missourians call them chiggers. My grandmother used some salve on my legs to help stop the itching.
My grandmother did not use written recipes. I learned to cook by repetition and taste. Most of the time there was no real measuring of ingredients; we used a cup and spoons that we drank and ate with. Grandmother was very patient with me and did not mind repeating the process over and over until I could master the task.
The wood cook stove was always tended by my grandmother as it was too dangerous for me as a child. She moved to town in the early 1950’s and purchased an electric stove. That really made a difference in learning to cook. The guess work was gone on cooking at the right temperature.
My grandmother died before she reached 60 years of age. She was diagnosed with cancer and lived only a few months after her diagnosis. I had just graduated as a Registered Nurse and and though it was hard, it was an honor to care for her instead of her caring for me.
The memories of my grandmother are renewed each time I cook one of the family’s favorite recipes.
Second Prize:
Grandmother’s Blackberry Cobbler
Faye Hunton, Sedalia, Missouri