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Couple's new books explore log cabins, old-timey cooking

By Rose Hooper
Cabins Step inside the door of "Log Cabin Pioneers" as Wayne Erbsen takes you on a personal journey of finding and restoring an historic log cabin.

At the same time, reminisce about a simpler time as four 20th-century mountain pioneer women share their cooking secrets.

Then join Erbsen and his wife, Barbara Swell, for a book signing and old-time musical performance at City Lights Bookstore from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17.

Erbsen will share excerpts from his new book, "Log Cabin Pioneers," while his wife, a respected food historian with three cookbooks to her credit, will share recipes from her new book, "Secrets of the Great Ole-Timey Cooks."

Erbsen will introduce you to authentic pioneers, sing you ancient songs, spin yarns about Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone and Thomas Jefferson, and tell spellbinding tales of bear hunting with moonshine or give you advice on how to buy a mule.

"It was a songs about log cabins that first capture my attention," Erbsen said. "As I was learning to play the banjo, the fiddle and the guitar nearly 40 years ago, I was drawn to the songs about log cabins. Perched high on a hill, a log cabin was something real and yet mysterious, something worth singing about.

Cooking "The book is both a personal story as well as a collection of authentic stories, songs and sayings. It includes tall tales, jokes, remedies, superstition, recipes and even insults," the author said.

Here's two of his best insults ­ "He's all vine and no taters." "He can stay longer in one hour than any person I know."

Sayings like "Our land's so poor it wouldn't raise a fight" and "It's a strange world. People used to eat inside and go to the bathroom outside. Now they eat outside and go to the bathroom inside" sprinkle Erbsen's book.

According to Erbsen's research, America's first log houses were built in the mid-17th century by Swedish people who settled on the Delaware River. Both the famous and infamous were born in long cabins: Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Abe Lincoln, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, George Custer, James Buchanan, William McKinley, George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington, Jesse James and John Wilkes Booth.

In her "Secrets," Swell tells how old-timey cooks stir in their own wisdom and share tales of growing up on rural farms where they prepared delicious meals by lantern light on wood cookstoves. Included are heirloom recipes, proverbs, folk remedies and vintage photos.

Swell, who learned the art of old-time cooking from her grandmother while growing up in West Virginia, teaches old-timey cooking retreats.

Here's one of her favorite recipes:

Old-Fashioned

Applesauce Dumplings

2 cups applesauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 recipe biscuit dough

biscuit dough:

2 cups self-rising flour

5 tbs. butter or shortening

buttermilk

1/4 tsp. soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup water

Combine applesauce, cinnamon, brown sugar and water, gently simmer on medium-low heat in a lidded pan. Drop dumpling dough by spoonfuls onto top of simmering sauce. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. If you have heat up too high, sauce will burn. Slide fruit and dumplings into bowl and sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar.

Swell includes folk remedies such as to prevent lockjaw if a needle is stuck in the foot, put fat meat next to the puncture and a penny over that. To prevent a cold, tie two big red onion to the bedpost. Try this cure for baldness ­ consume the gall of a lizard, fresh mouse meat or mole's blood. And for whatever ails you, brew some toasted egg-shell tea.

For more information about either publication, call 1-800-752-2656; or visit the web site www.nativeground.com.

Back to Archive: 08/09/01.