Summertime Vintage Style Series- Preserving and Canning

Welcome back to Frolicking Freckles Summertime Vintage Style Series where we are studying the 1940's as a Summer School project. Over the weekend we went shopping and saw that the peaches were on sale....Unfortunately we don't have a peach tree...So the next best thing is buy them. One thing though, I will not pay full price for them. As a frugal Mama, I will wait for sales then pounce on it. So at 50. cents a pound I bought about 20 pounds. I saved a ton, since regular price is almost $2.00 a pound. And yes I am going back for more. Okay so....As our Summer project is on the 1940's...I decided since I had all this fruit, that we would can them. I have been canning for years. Freckles has helped me in the past, but this time I was going to teach her how to do it step by step, so she could do it on her own. 

During World War II, Victory gardens made an important contribution to the home-front effort by producing a significant amount of food (approximately 40 percent of the vegetables consumed in 1943) and by providing a way to contribute to the war effort for those who could not fight on the battlefield.  The book "Eating for Victory: Food Rationing and the Politics of Domesticity" by Amy Bentley contains a chapter examining victory gardening and canning during the war, gender politics, and how the nation responded to the call to do their part in the war by gardening and canning.

Canning was an important part of the victory garden program, as it allowed the bounty of the harvest to be preserved for the winter. Canning was a common activity during the war: in 1942, 64% of women canned food for household use; in 1943, the percentage was 75%.  On average, families that canned put up 165 cans or jars per year during the war.

Although most of the canning was done at home, about 5,000 community canning centers were established across the country.  These centers were places where specialized equipment like pressure canners (devices that allow the food to be heated beyond the boiling point of water, thus killing pathogens that can survive in boiling water) or very large hot water baths could be used for a fee — sometimes the user paid per can or jar, sometimes they donated a portion of their canned goods to the needy. Although 5,000 is vastly more than we have today, the centers were used by only about 1% of those who canned in 1943.  Most people didn't know they existed, already had basic equipment, didn't need a pressure canner, or knew someone who had what they needed.

(Excerpt by:Eat Local Challenge)

The whole process took several hours and some tears, but we got through it. 

Freckles cut, cooked, and canned them all on her own. 

Now, this Mama is very proud.

The "Of Course I Can" poster was created by the U.S. War Food Administration in

 1944 as part of the nationwide victory garden program

She canned 6 quarts and one pint of golden peaches, which we will enjoy...And after we buy more peaches and do the process all over again, we will have some for the Winter to enjoy. I find canning not only rewarding but a healthy option...Since most all food is over processed, over sugared and not to mention expensive. We have enjoyed fruit of all kinds plus jam preserves over the years, and I know where it came from, because we canned it ourselves. We have been blessed in this new home with a nectarine, apricot and cherry tree...Which we are already gleaning from...And that is free food for my family with just a little sweat... We produce some delish yummies for the coming months. Next on my list is getting 

a pressure cooker to do veggies. Can't wait for that. And well, I know we are not in the same circumstances as in the 40's during the war...But I do declare, I am saving money and feeding my family wholesome goods. I take pride in that. And, of course my family appreciates every bite.

I would really love to encourage you, if you haven't....to start canning, teach your children this lost art...It's easy really, just takes some dedicated time in doing it every year. You can easily find jars on Craig's list, thrift shops, garage sales, or new in stores for pretty cheap, a canner for about $25, the rest of the supplies are pretty inexpensive as well. Then seek the sales, or use your fruit and tamaters, you can also make pickles and relishes. You can learn about canning by searching the web; "canning with kids", buying a book and reading up on it. It will be a rewarding project for you and your child and helps build great relationships between the two.

Some Resources:

The Beginners Guide To Preserving Food At Home

Canning Peaches By: Make It Do

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1940's House

This is quite interesting to watch. We got ours from the Library. 

You can also stream it from the computer or from Netflix...

Or you can buy it from Amazon ( kinda expensive).

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Have a Canning Party

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Add pretty fabrics to your jars and give away as a gift

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Hope this helps...Hope you enjoyed this post. More coming soon.

Frolicking Freckles Summertime Vintage Style Series~ 1940's~

Well, we are finally getting settled into our new home and our normal routines after the long five months we were without our own home. Due to staying with others, we never quite felt we could continue on our normal routine path since there was so much going on and things I will not discuss here. Anyways due to stress and other things beyond our control, Freckles missed quite a bit of school.   She was reading and writing regularly, but the normal stuff wasn't getting done. Thankfully she is home schooled and we have the opportunity to catch up this Summer. That is just what we are going to do. So, back to school..."Summer School" that is.... to catch up. And, yes she will still have some fun this Summer, I wouldn't deprive her of that. We will be going on some field trips as we need to venture out a bit and learn about our new area...The Bay area. And, she will be going on her first Summer Camp trip. I decided since I am a visual,  hands on, unit study kind of Mama who loves history too...And I have a visual, hands on, unit study kind of daughter who also loves history...That I would pull together a unit type study on a couple of our favorite eras. The 1930's~1940's. 

Freckles came out the other day in a blue shirt and red banana on her head making this gesture with her arms, declaring "We Can Do It". I just about died laughing and grabbed the camera. This is just what inspired this Summertime Vintage Style Series. So...Follow along if you would like. We will start off a little backwards with the 1940's, since Freckles inspired this whole thing...And well, Independence Day is just around the corner, so I'm feeling a bit patriotic. Later we will move into the 1930's.This series of the 1940's will include crafting, cooking, baking, sewing 

and a resource list to help you dive into the era a bit more.

Here's a little crafty photo booth idea for you:

Make a Rosie Riveter poster~

I took a picture of Freckles just like the pose of the Rosie Riveter poster. Then I took it into Pic Monkey and colored around it and added the text. If your daring and know how to do this in Pic Monkey or Photoshop, then by all means have fun and be creative. Okay some of us may not be savvy with the computer....so here's what you can do instead: Dress up in a blue or white button up shirt, roll up the sleeves, add a bandanna, make a photo booth back drop on a wall or use a big sheet...( yellow would be nice, but not necessary.) Now make a big speech bubble from blue construction paper and painting "We Can Do It" with white acrylic paint. Attach this to the wall or a big sheet. Take a picture, crop it and have it printed...You can then use it for a scrapbook about the 1940's or a memory album. Or... You could always have your child draw

 a poster with colored crayons, markers or colored pencils.

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Note* This is not a project that I intend to encourage feminism. I believe in the 1940's there were women who had to work because their husbands had to go to war and women who wanted to support the war effort. They didn't have much of a choice back then. Keeping food on the table and caring for families was hard. I am also not against the woman who chooses or has to work in this day and age. 

This is not about my personal political beliefs. 

Rosie The Riveter was an American Icon and surely

 could be used as a lesson in our history. 

Eat Watermelon

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A favorite Summertime pastime is eating watermelon. We bought this lovely yellow watermelon from Sprouts and thought we would cut it up, while Freckles enjoyed some reading time at the kitchen table. Freckles is almost 13 years old...And still enjoys the American Girl series. We highly recommend the Molly American Girl book series, which will give you glimpses into the time of 1944. 

Visit Molly's World 1944 here.

Freckles also enjoys the book called Welcome to Molly's World, which is filled with pictures and information that will benefit any 1940's study as well as World War II. You can also find Molly's cookbook for cooking projects on Ebay or Amazon.

She also likes watching The American Girl Molly movie. 

We love the visuals of how it would have been back then.

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Some extra resources:

World War II For Kids

Great World War II Projects

World War II An Interactive History Adventure

Songs that got us through World War II

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Hope this will help kick start some Summertime fun.

 Keep your eye out for the next installment to this series.

 See you later.

Nostalgic Americana History ~ The First McDonald's

So, my daughter (Freckles) and I went out today to hit a few thrift shops in town....We have passed by this old McDonald's building a few times before and decided as we passed by....Why not stop and check it out. Come to find out it was a little run down museum...But the first McDonald's location on the old route 66 here in San Bernardino California.

I am always up for a bit of history in any town I live in...So this was right up our alley. The Museum itself was perhaps a little bit of a disappointment,  but was still fun to look at all the old doo dads and memorabilia, which brought me back to my own childhood memories of going to McDonald's and playing on the old metal hamburgers and the big hamburger guy below.... 
Freckles was a good sport about letting me take a few snapshots of her playing around on the old play place stuff... I love that girl...She can be such a goof. Hey, remember the Fry Kids???? 
I soaked it all up in just 20 minutes...
It was fun...Even though the place was a bit dinky,
it's still a part of some really cool Americana history.
  
It was a good day spent with my girl and we still browsed through
 a couple thrift shops and found a couple little treasures.
 Have a great weekend y'all.
Hope this brings back memories for some of you.

Kicking Off The Summer With A Pre~Mini Vacay...

Summer time is here y'all. My kids and I took a pre~mini vacation to my sisters for the last few days. First, my son had to make a delivery clear past Los Angeles...So we had a whole afternoon of driving and seeing the sights out the car window. Then off to our destination to visit with the family.
 
To get to my sisters we had to exit what is the old Route 66 and took a quick pick of one of the last old 50's diner in Southern Cali...The Summit Cafe. We didn't stop to eat...
perhaps next time, it actually looks like a cute place.

We stayed up late visiting, swimming, jacuzzi soaking and watching movies for a couple days. It was a really good visit with my Sister, my Brother in law and my Nephews. We will really miss them when we have to move. My kids enjoyed the pool...Especially my little fish who LOVES to swim.
   
Now we get to look forward to a week of swimming and fun in the sun
 on vacation with our friends this Saturday.
 
We also enjoyed Happy Hour at Sonic... I love their Cherry Lime aids. YUM.
Then we went bowling for a couple hours.
  
The last game we bowled...Let's just say I kicked every one's butt.
 I won. Oh yes I did.
Good Times.
 
One last dip in the pool. Well, for my son it was more like
 one last jump into the pool to cool off before we headed back home.

And one last peek into a little birds nest from my sisters yard.
 So sweet isn't it?

It was a fun few days...Thanks to my family for letting us come over on a whim.
Another few more days and we'll be on the road.
Happy Summertime.