A visit to the Wilder Homestead
I grew up on the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House series of books. Starting with Little House in the Big Woods, I read them cover to cover when I was in 4th grade, and then read them cover to cover again each summer in Quebec up through high school. The pluck and optimism that Laura and her family had, confronted with daily hardships ranging from a plague of grasshoppers to being resettled off Indian lands, inspired me and made me long to live back in the pioneer days.
Reading the books now to my boys, I am charmed and fascinated by Wilder’s detailed descriptions of work chores. In Little House in the Big Woods, the reader learns how to slaughter and smoke a pig, how to make maple syrup, and how to make bullets and clean a rifle. In Farmer Boy, Wilder’s book about her husband’s childhood in Upstate New York, she describes harvesting ice and packing it into an icehouse, reaping and shocking oats and wheat at harvest time, and shearing sheep. Heavy stuff for books written for kids ages 8-12 years old, yet Wilder writes with levity and sprinkles in many stories to keep her readers interested.
When I re-read Farmer Boy as an adult, I discovered that almost every chapter is about food. Farmer Boy is the ultimate locavore book. The family lives on a farm in Malone, NY, near the Canadian Border, and they grow or raise everything they eat. And this family eats well. Here’s a sample breakfast consumed by Almanzo when he is 9: “…oatmeal with plenty of thick cream and maple sugar. There were fried potatoes, and the golden buckwheat pancakes… with sausages and gravy or with butter and maple syrup. There were preserves and jams and jellies and doughnuts. But best of all, Almanzo liked the spicy apple pie, with its thick rich juice and its crumbly crust”. Granted, Almanzo was up at 4 milking the cows, but the feast makes my kids’ breakfast of cherrios or waffles seem pretty paltry. And here’s a sample of their dishes for Christmas Dinner: “crackling little pig, fat roast goose, cranberry jelly, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, golden bakes squash, pale fried parsnips, fried apples’n’onions, candied carrots, spicy pumpkin pie, cream pie, mince pie, and fruit cake”.
Last weekend, when my sister and I drove from Portland, ME to our cottage in Quebec, we stopped at the Wilder farmstead in Malone, NY, which is now a historic site. The original house and outbuildings have been restored to their circa 1868 condition. Here’s what they look like now.
Reading the books now to my boys, I am charmed and fascinated by Wilder’s detailed descriptions of work chores. In Little House in the Big Woods, the reader learns how to slaughter and smoke a pig, how to make maple syrup, and how to make bullets and clean a rifle. In Farmer Boy, Wilder’s book about her husband’s childhood in Upstate New York, she describes harvesting ice and packing it into an icehouse, reaping and shocking oats and wheat at harvest time, and shearing sheep. Heavy stuff for books written for kids ages 8-12 years old, yet Wilder writes with levity and sprinkles in many stories to keep her readers interested.
When I re-read Farmer Boy as an adult, I discovered that almost every chapter is about food. Farmer Boy is the ultimate locavore book. The family lives on a farm in Malone, NY, near the Canadian Border, and they grow or raise everything they eat. And this family eats well. Here’s a sample breakfast consumed by Almanzo when he is 9: “…oatmeal with plenty of thick cream and maple sugar. There were fried potatoes, and the golden buckwheat pancakes… with sausages and gravy or with butter and maple syrup. There were preserves and jams and jellies and doughnuts. But best of all, Almanzo liked the spicy apple pie, with its thick rich juice and its crumbly crust”. Granted, Almanzo was up at 4 milking the cows, but the feast makes my kids’ breakfast of cherrios or waffles seem pretty paltry. And here’s a sample of their dishes for Christmas Dinner: “crackling little pig, fat roast goose, cranberry jelly, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, golden bakes squash, pale fried parsnips, fried apples’n’onions, candied carrots, spicy pumpkin pie, cream pie, mince pie, and fruit cake”.
Last weekend, when my sister and I drove from Portland, ME to our cottage in Quebec, we stopped at the Wilder farmstead in Malone, NY, which is now a historic site. The original house and outbuildings have been restored to their circa 1868 condition. Here’s what they look like now.
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