I grew up reading Laura Ingalls Wilder. My third grade teacher had actually met her. To me, the books were not 'the olden days' as much as an earlier chronicle of the ways my family coped. As the eldest of seven children born to parents who grew up in the Depression, I was familiar with raising huge gardens, making butter and cottage cheese, canning and preserving. We milked cows and ate rabbit stewed with homemade noodles. We never had to twist straw to keep warm, or worry about eating the seed grain stashed in the wall. But the hardy pioneer ethic endures to this day. Dad went to a grist mill to buy cornmeal nd cracked wheat. I buy in bulk and keep three kinds of sourdough going, including buckwheat for pancakes. I never once watched the TV series, but I have a lot of respect for Laura and her family.
Feb 7, 2013
Little House on the Prairie Cooking
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Credit: Todd Coleman
Check out some of our favorite food scenes from the Little House on the Prairie television series:
• The dinner scene in "A Christmas They Never Forgot"»
• Apple fritters in "Town Party, Country Party"»
• Picnic in "Money Crop"»
• Supper on "new" china in "For My Lady"»
• Honey collecting in "Mary Ingalls"»
Comments (2)
I did not find these books until I was an adult, and then I read them to my children and my nieces and nephews, and shared them with my mother, who read them for years. The books reminded her of her life on a homestead in New Mexico. My kids loved most Farmer Boy - because of the food (the heaping platters of fresh donuts, etc.). My favorite food references involve the story of the canned peaches and soda crackers at the end of On Silver Lake, and Pa sharing the buckwheat pancakes with Almanzo and his brother during the Hard Winter.
