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West Feliciana African American Oral History Project

The Elders Speak: The West Feliciana Parish African American Oral History Project

By Teresa Parker Farris

 

Page 4

Foodways

Whether vegetables like mustard greens, okra, and corn, or livestock such as pigs, cows, and chickens, the interviewees raised nearly everything they ate as children. Only provisions like sugar, flour, and other foodstuffs were purchased at the store. Weekday meals were simple affairs, with supper (lunch) being the heartiest to sustain family members working long afternoon hours in the fields. Sundays were sometimes marked with special foods or a larger meal. It was Christmas day, however, that brought the most elaborate feast with roasted hogs, cakes, and pies requiring days of preparation. Women were responsible for preparing this and other daily meals while men engaged in fishing, hunting, and slaughtering livestock. As there was no refrigeration, foods were either served fresh from the farm or preserved through pickling, canning, and smoking. Only occasionally did families have ice, which was purchased in large blocks, buried in the ground, and covered with crocus sacks for insulation.

 

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Turlie Richardson explains that her family raised livestock and that each spring a hog would be killed and pickled for the coming year.

 

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Travis Carter recalls curing hogs in large wooden barrels for meat that would last a year.

 

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Alice Johnson thinks back to her family's Christmas meal preparations and how food was cooked in large iron pots in the fireplace.

 

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Geraldine London explains how to pickle watermelon rind.

 

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Geraldine London recalls how she collected water and stored blocks of ice.

 

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Ellen Hardy reflects on raising vegetables, making cornmeal and grits, raising hogs for salt meat, and making gravy.

 

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Robert Sterling recalls acquiring and storing ice blocks.

 

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Robert Sterling recalls raising a vegetable garden, and drinking goat milk.

 

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Zack Cavalier remembers storing ice blocks in the ground.

 

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Zack Cavalier remembers typical foods served on Christmas day.

 

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Zack Cavalier remembers being self-sufficient through raising livestock and farming.

 

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Rosia Pate shares how her family grew vegetables and raised livestock to sell in the community.

Teresa Parker Farris is an instructor of folklife at Tulane University where she is also completing her doctoral studies in the Department of History. This essay originally appeared on the West Feliciana School Board website. In 2018, Farris revised it with permission for the Folklife in Louisiana website.