ly cook her family's
food; she was instrumental in its production and processing. The family
garden was generally her responsibility. It was she who planted the
early radishes, herbs, flowers and all the multitude of summer
vegetables in the cool, moist spring soil, weeded and nurtured them
through the summer months, and finally gathered them in the lingering
Indian summer days. If there were daughters in the family, they aided
her in this as in her other activities. When the produce was finally all
picked, peeled and cut, she combined them with vinegar, sugar, and
spices to preserve the vegetables as pickles, jelly or canned goods. It
was warm and tiring, but highly rewarding work. "Never will I forget the
pungent fragrances that pervaded the air when it was catsup or
pickle-making season," wrote Lottie Schneider.

When our mothers made apple butter in great kettles each child took
a turn at stirring the delicious mixture. The wonderful fragrance
made the task easier even though the thickening ingredients
sometimes sputtered and caused burns as they popped out on the
hands who used the stirring paddle.[54]

The pantry shelves filled with glass jars displaying their highly
colored contents produced feelings of pride and plenty in the farm
woman.

Poultry keeping also fell to the farmer's wife. There were a sizable
number of commercial poultry farms in the county--it was in fact the
area's second most important farm industry--but most dairy and general
farms kept just enough for their own use.[55] Egg collecting, feeding
and cleaning of the chicken house and yard, even killing, dressing and
plucking the poultry were done by female members of the farm family.
Thrifty women saved the feathers for pillows and coverlets and nearly
all sold their excess eggs to the "hucksters" who travelled from farm to
farm buying surplus goods. These peddlars also bought rabbits, turkeys,
and other poultry, as well as home-churned butter from the farms. This
was yet another area in which women utilized and processed the raw
materials of the land. Twice a week the cream that had been skimmed and
saved was churned (generally in round barrel churns with wooden
paddles), salted, and packed in stone jars to be picked up and
transported to the Alexandria and Washington markets. One of the early
hucksters was Earl Robey who collected eggs and chickens once a week.
"He travelled with 2 horses hitched to a covered wagon,"