FRUIT

FRUIT was almost unknown in our neighborhood, except red currants and gooseberries. And these were not grown for several years after we came to Washington. I believe there was not a bearing apple tree in the neighborhood. But Mother would cook service (sarvis) berries and as they were so flat tasting, she'd put both home made vinegar and sugar in them, to give them flavor. Then there were wild haw berries. These were black and tasty, but mostly seeds. Mother would run them through a home made colander to take the seeds out, then make jam of them. And we also used the wild rhubarb, which grew so abundantly. I've eaten many a piece of wild rhubarb pie. The Bridgefarmer boys also knew where to find wild crabapples. Later, of course, orchards were planted, also we went to the orchards near Mary-hill or The Dalles, and bought peaches to can for winter. To can this fruit, we used five-gallon kerosene cans, into which a wide mouth had been cut by a tin smith and a lid made to fit the hole. The can was sealed by pouring melted pitch from pine trees around the lid. For the young people who might read this, I'll say that "self sealing" glass jars were not commonly known at that time, and we used the most common method of canning fruit.