Notes

Notes

On Supplies

The hard-working homesteads of the first century of Rappahannock’s existence were pretty much selfsufficient. There were a few key items that had to be bought: coffee, sugar, tea and salt. Coffee and tea could be eliminated in a pinch - there was plenty of cider, buttermilk and moonshine. Sugar was needed for sweetening and preserving, but most families had access to honey and sorghum. Salt remained as the one staple that could not be dispensed with. Salt cured the hams that fed the family throughout the winter and spring. Without salt, the hams would hang in the smokehouse and harbor pests and decay with each warm spell.

Anne Keyser tells a story repeated all over Virginia by rural families suffering harsh deprivation during the Civil War. To reclaim some of the salt used in previous decades of curing hams, Rappahannock women tore up the smokehouse walls and floors, soaked them, plank by plank, in water, and left the water to evaporate in the sunshine, leaving the hardwon salt crystals to use again.

On Turkeys

Wild turkeys are fast and clever, but rural people know that there is nothing as stupid as a domestic turkey, not even a domestic chicken. To the children fell the job of feeding and caring for the baby turkeys and at times it was quite a job. Those who should know say that baby turkeys have to be taught to eat or they will starve and that when it rains they must be herded under shelter because the birds will hold their beaks up in the air until they drown. From these difficulties comes the rural saying that the only thing stupider than a turkey is a turkey farmer.

On Apples

Although most Rappahannock farm families grew some fruit, C. B. Wood is credited with the start of commercial apple growing in Rappahannock. He is the one who is said to have sent a barrel of Albemarle Pippins to Queen Victoria. The years between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the century were years of a growing orchard business here. P. H. O’Bannon bought and shipped many of the Sperryville area’s apples. For a while, there were two apple drying businesses in Sperryville, followed by packing, cider and cold storage operations. For many years, Rappahannock ranked third in the state in apple production.

On Sausage

Over in the valley women stuffed their sausage into intestine cases to hang alongside the hams in the smokehouse. Around here, most people ate loose sausage and it kept through the winter if it was stuffed into a muslin sack, long and narrow, rolled until the grease coated the bag, then rolled again in cornmeal. Enough salt was used, as well as the other spices, to preserve the meat for a long time.