My grandmother’s birth date was a weeks days ago and I have been thinking about her a lot. She was born in the Shenandoah Valley in 1884. Her family were farmers, as were most of the people in the Shenandoah Valley. Her life was pretty hard until she met and married my grandfather.
She and my grandfather settled in the town of Thomasville, but she continued to love fresh fruit and vegetables. She planted a large garden each year and canned enough for the winter. She bought fruit by the bushel and canned it as well. She made pickles and sauerkraut in large crocks.
She made her own laundry soap in an iron pot over a fire in the back yard. She embodied the old saying, “you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.”…