My love for vintage and
heirloom homemaking began with a very special email I received from a distant
cousin. That email held a special key to the past, an article known as "A
Very Old Recipe". Since then I have scoured to find vintage advice,
articles and tidbits to help me appreciate my modern life by remembering the
past. All of the articles and tidbits here have been previously published
by other authors. Some articles will contain actual pieces of antique
homemaking while others provide ideas on how to preserve the homemaking styles
of today for future generations.
Here is the "recipe" that
started it all..
Years ago a Kentucky grandmother gave the
new bride
the following recipe for washing clothes. It appears
below just as it was written, and despite the
spelling, has a bit of philosophy. This is an exact
copy as written and found in an old
scrap book (with spelling errors and
all).
1. Bilt fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain water.
2. Set tubs so smoke wont blow in eyes if wind is pert.
3. Shave one hole cake of lie soap in bilin water.
4. Sort things, make 3 piles. 1 pile white, 1 pile
colored, 1 pile work britches and rags.
5. To make starch, stir flour in cool water to
smooth, then thin down with bilin water.
6. Take white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, and
then bile. Rub colored don't bile, just rinch and starch.
7. Take things out of kettle with broomstick handle,
then rinch, and starch.
8. Hang old rags on fence.
9. Spread tea towels on grass.
10. Pore rinch water in flower bed.
11. Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
12. Turn tubs upside down.
13. Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair
combs.
Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your
blessings.
