Grandma’s Cooking Was Suh-WEET !!!!

As I mentioned in an earlier column, as a youngster I spent quite a bit of time at my Grandpa and Grandma Dale’s house. Grandma Dale, like most of the women in those days, was a great cook. Most of the food was “home-grown.” They raised farm animals, which were taken to the locker plant in Darlington for meat processing, except for Grandma’s chickens. I will never forget the time I caught a chicken for her and then watched what happened afterward…quite scary for a 4-year old! But, oh my…the taste of Grandma’s fried chicken that evening was out of this world! Grandpa and Grandma also had a gigantic garden with a wide variety of vegetables. Breakfast never varied. It was always either bacon and eggs, with toast and Grandma’s homemade jam…or pancakes with homemade maple syrup or molasses. Dinner and suppers were always scrumptious, with ham, roast beef, chicken, and meatloaf as the main course…with fresh vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy…and Grandma’s homemade rolls. No one left the table hungry!

But the best part of Grandma’s cooking were the sweets. She certainly never skimped on the sugar. Her pies…apple, peach, strawberry, pumpkin, sugar cream, and rhubarb…all made from scratch, were loaded with it. And I can never remember a time when Grandma did not have a jar of sugar cookies or snickerdoodles handy for me and the other grandkids. I enjoyed helping her by slicing off a portion of dough and flattening it out on the cookie sheet. I learned to count to sixteen, as that’s how many cookies fit on the baking sheet! Grandma’s sweetest concoction was her iced tea. And a few times, she had me dig up some sassafras roots, which she sliced and boiled to make sassafras tea. There was literally at least a half-inch layer of sugar at the bottom of the tea pitcher when it settled!

But the very best…and my favorite sweet that Grandma made was her homemade ice cream. Grandpa and Grandma had a White Mountain hand crank ice cream maker/freezer. The outer tub was made of wood and painted green. The can inside was metal and always had to be washed and dried very well so it would not rust because of the salt that was used to melt the ice. Grandma mixed the milk, sugar, eggs, and flavoring and then boiled it on her old stove…and then after cooling, poured the mixture into the inner container. Grandpa drove to town in his 1949 Ford and purchased a bag of ice from the drug store or locker plant, and it was packed around the container and sprinkled with rock salt. Of course I always volunteered to turn the crank, but when the ice cream started to become thicker, Grandpa had to take over the duties, with a towel placed on top of the gears for me to sit on…to hold it down when the turning became harder.

Well, let me tell you…there is NOTHING that could beat the taste of Grandma’s homemade ice cream! And you can bet she also had homemade chocolate, fudge, or strawberry topping handy…but I just enjoyed the taste without any toppings. Grandma passed on her recipe for homemade ice cream down to all of her six children, each of whom purchased an ice cream maker, and every time the Dale families, which included the Hampton, Cohee, and Wells aunts, uncles, and kids…there was always homemade ice cream to be made at summer cookouts. And when the last crank had been turned, it was a good idea not to stray very far…or you would miss out on your portion. Oftentimes, another batch had to be made so that there was enough to go around!

Grandpa and Grandma Dale were not wealthy. They couldn’t afford to buy me or any of the other twenty-one grandkids any presents for our birthdays or Christmas. But we didn’t care. Grandpa reading us a book, as we munched on Grandma’s sweets after enjoying her homecooked meal was everything a child could wish for. And when they finally got a TV, guess what? Popcorn grown right there on their farm…with lots of butter!

– John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 32 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.