A Traditional Farm Life - Cherry Moos
By Shasta Hamilton
Greetings from Enterprise, dear friends! It was finally garden catalog reading
weather this past weekend. I spent an
enjoyable Sunday afternoon perusing the full-color glossy pages, contentedly
plotting a fruit orchard, eyes lingering longingly on the multiple varieties of
cherry trees.
What is it about cherries?
Even after our cherry-picking follies last summer, the catalog’s
beautiful pictures of perfect red fruit sing their siren song.
To my surprise, tonight I discovered I’m at least the fourth
generation to succumb to the cherry tree’s melodic--yet tart--appeal.
I had the privilege this evening of learning a little more
about the life of my great-grandfather, P.P. Penner.
My Grandma Lena’s father, P.P. Penner, passed on the year
before I was born. In a life spanning
from May 2, 1887 to November 2, 1975, P.P. Penner undoubtedly saw sweeping
changes occur in the world around him.
My Grandma Lena passed away more than 14 years ago, so the
extended Penner family gathering my parents hosted in Goessel a couple months
ago provided a rare opportunity to learn a little more about my
great-grandfather from my great aunts.
Why am I so interested in knowing more about him? Tantalizing tidbits of family lore passed
down over the years have indicated a man unusually gifted with mechanics, an
inventor with artistic bent.
P.P. Penner was a man of diverse interests and
abilities. Very unusual for a man of his
time and place, he possessed great artistic aptitude first expressed by
painting scenes of rural life with watercolors, beginning in the 8th
grade. The rigors of early twentieth
century farm life kept him from pursuing this interest further in his adult
years, but his artistic flair showed up many places around the farm.
The rare visit recently with extended family resulted in a
golden gift: P.P. Penner’s daughter,
Velma (Penner) Unruh, mailed my parents a 10 page typewritten (on a
typewriter!) personal reflection on her father written many years ago.
Tears flowed as a window to the past was opened up and I
“met” the man of such mystique. A
picture emerged of someone with traits I can pick out of those in successive
generations: a quiet spiritual leader of
the family, well read, with musical talent, and a keen, inventive mind coupled
with great skill concerning both wood and machinery in the farm shop.
Last, (and probably least, I’m afraid), it turns out he was
a sucker for those garden catalog fruit tree advertisements. I quote great-aunt Velma:
“Pop would naively believe the pictures of fruit tree
advertisements in catalogs and order things.
Some grew and did well and some did not.
Cherry trees winter killed easily but soon he had ordered cherry trees
again. I often wondered whose idea it
had been to plant gooseberry bushes since they weren’t all that tasty. It also had been Pop’s idea. Mom did make pies and gooseberry moos.”
So, friends, I guess it turns out my obsession with cherry
trees in the garden catalogs is genetic!
Let’s bring the past and the present together this week as
we head to the kitchen. Russian
Mennonites have a love for a thickened, creamy fruit soup called “Moos” (rhymes
with “dose”).
Traditionally, Moos was served on holidays, but it was also
often prepared Saturday and served cold for Sunday dinner with cold meat and
zwieback. (While it can be served hot,
it is usually served cold.) Any tart
fruit can be used.
The following recipe was from my Grandma Lena’s
sister-in-law, Laura (Mrs. Jacob S.) Schmidt.
Ironically, great aunt Laura also included instructions for gooseberry
moos at the end of the recipe. What an
interesting coincidence!
Next time I’m looking at a garden catalog, I think I’ll mark
the page with the gooseberries . . .
Cherry Moos
1 quart fresh or 2
cans tart cherries
canned in water
1 cup sugar
5 cups water (4 cups
if using canned)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups milk
1. If using fresh
cherries, add 5 cups water to cherries and cook until cherry skins crack. If using canned cherries, add 4 cups water to
cherries with liquid and heat until boiling.
Add 1 cup sugar during the last minute of the boiling period.
2. Make a paste of
the flour, sugar, salt, and milk by mixing the dry ingredients first and then
adding 1/2 cup milk, stirring until smooth with no lumps of flour
remaining. Slowly add the rest of the
milk while mixing.
3. Add thickening to the
boiling fruit slowly, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and
starts to thicken or coats a spoon. [It should have the consistency of
medium-thick gravy.]
If soup seems too thick when cooled, add milk or a small
amount of water. Yield: 10 cups.
Aunt Laura adds, “Mother sometimes used gooseberries instead
of cherries. But then she added more
sugar. This was called gooseberry moos.”
From From Pluma Moos to Pie. Goessel: Mennonite Heritage Museum, Revised
1991. p. 37.
Copyright © 2015 by Shasta Hamilton
Shasta is a fifth generation rural Kansan now residing in
Enterprise, Kansas. She and her husband
own and operate The Buggy Stop Home-Style Kitchen with their six home-schooled
children. You can reach The Buggy Stop
by calling (785) 200-6385 or visit them on the web at www.thebuggystoprestaurant.com
.
Keep up-to-date with everything in one of our North Central Kansas Community Apps!!
No comments:
Post a Comment