The Rural Voice, 2003-06, Page 45steer was acceptable in the beef ring,
and how it should be fattened. 1
think there was some worry about
whether the other beef ring members
would find the meat from our animal
up to snuff.
When the meat arrived it was my
mother's task to cook and store the
cuts for the week. Sunday dinner
always involved a big roast, but all
the meat had to be cooked so that it
would keep better in the cellar
cupboard where it was stored. I
wonder now how we all escaped food
poisoning from spoiled meat. I think
perhaps it was re -cooked before
eating to kill the bacteria. My
mother agonized at times, wondering
if a certain cut was still safe to eat.
The winter was much less of a
problem. The slaughter of one
of our own pigs was done on
the farm, and we ate a lot of pork in
the wintertime. The day of the pig
butchering was one I dreaded. I
cannot describe this event because I
stayed as far away from the scene as
I was able to. The cut-up carcass was
stored in the summer kitchen and
lasted for many weeks.
I never was able to eat the strong
tasting pork liver. Despite mother's
careful cooking and tenderizing it
made me gag. I discovered later that
elsewhere in the province people had
smokehouses cured bacon and ham,
and made spicy sausages. I assume
that people of German origin did
more of this, but farm people in our
area were mostly Scottish or Irish in
background and the smokehouse was
not part of the culture. What a pity!
Later my parents rented a meat
locker in a nearby village where we
could store the meat from our own
animal and the Beef Ring
disappeared. Some time in the early
1950s that all changed again. We
bought a huge freezer that sat in the
back kitchen packed with meat, ice
cream, and our own frozen fruits and
vegetables. Also in the early fifties
we got a refrigerator, which elimin-
ated the childhood task of running up
and down stairs before every meal.
What luxury to simply open a
refrigerator door to make dinner!
In the short space of 10 or so
years we moved from farm habits
centuries old into the modern day
world.0
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JUNE 2003 41