Hello, again History Lovers, After falling head over heels in love with the automobile, Americans began road-tripping. And it wasn’t long before rural entrepreneurs found a way to market farm products to passersby. Farmers built stands and started selling homegrown produce from roadside markets, very much like farmer’s markets of today. Some were small with […]
Hello History Lovers! Inhaling droplets spread by coughing, sneezing, speaking, singing, or close face-to-face contact is the leading mode of respiratory disease transmission. No, I’m not just speaking about Covid-19. I’m talking about centuries-old contagious diseases that spread into the early twentieth century — tuberculosis, smallpox, diphtheria, and others. The Spanish Influenza, however, came seemingly […]
Hello History Lovers! Inhaling droplets spread by coughing, sneezing, speaking, singing, or close face-to-face contact is the leading mode of respiratory disease transmission. No, I’m not just speaking about Covid-19. I’m talking about centuries-old contagious diseases that spread into the early twentieth century — tuberculosis, smallpox, diphtheria, and others. The Spanish Influenza, however, came seemingly […]
National News of Interest to Farm Women By Alice Gram, Washington Representative of The Farmer’s Wife News from Washington was a monthly column published in The Farmer’s Wife. Below is a bulleted list of topics covered in this article: The value of a college education in 1921 is spelled out in dollars and cents by […]
Hello, again History Lovers, Today’s article is another example of the hard work and ingenuity farm women demonstrated while supplementing their family farm income. Mrs. Alta Dunn uses her cooking and baking skills to establish a catering business in a small western town. Quality products and fair pricing are of supreme importance to her. Mrs. […]
The Whole Loaf Once upon a time There was a woman Who loved Beauty. She longed to paint, to make fine music. But her life was cast in other lines. Disappointment embittered her soul. “Shall I live forever in a dream of what I cannot be?” she said. “Because my time must be given to […]
Hello, again History Lovers! In my post from a week ago “Cooking With Ida” we were guided through the process of making homemade yeast bread–an essential task for rural farm women in the 1920s. My husband’s mother, born in 1925, was an avid bread baker as well while raising her family of seven children from […]
Hello, again History Lovers, In the post Cooking For Cash, we met Mrs. Alta Dunn, a farm woman from the 1920s who did catering to supplement her family’s farm income. She even included the “rule” or recipe she uses for baking cakes. Curious about her recipe I decided to give it a try. For a […]
In the 1980s, I listened to a radio show broadcast from Salt Lake City called The Gabby Gourmet. Fredric Wix, the Gabby Gourmet, a retired marine who loved cooking, helped pioneer the concept of gourmet cooking at home. Fred moved from radio to television when he was invited to host a cooking spot on KUTV’s […]
Hello, again History Lovers, In another submission to The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women, Ms. M.A. of New York has chosen The Two Pictures that she Would Like Best To Own. One is religious in nature and the other is of people in nature both of which seem to follow a trend set by […]
Hello, again History Lovers, In the post Cooking For Cash, we met Mrs. Alta Dunn, a farm woman from the 1920s who did catering to supplement her family’s farm income. She even included the “rule” or recipe she uses for baking cakes. Curious about her recipe I decided to give it a try. For a […]
Hello, again History Lovers, In March of 1923, The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women published a letter from Mrs. Haring who enthusiastically shares her tips on how to teach children to work and to enjoy doing it. She starts when the children are young and always adds an “element of fun” to the tasks […]
Cover of The Farmer’s Wife magazine–November 1926 Welcome Friends! As we begin a new month, I was a little perplexed with the cover of the November 1926 edition of The Farmer’s Wife magazine (see image above). It is obviously an illustration of a child’s Halloween party, but why was it used in November. After about […]
Pedal Powered Grindstone Hello, again History Lovers, Today’s post is an introduction to a new series I will call Cottage Industry. Through my research, I have come to realize that farm women from a century ago and beyond needed ways to supplement their farm income. Frequently they raised a flock of chickens and sold the […]