Wonderful Roots

Country Girl At Heart

I've always been kind of a nostalgic nut, growing up on classic country music being performed by the likes of Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, and many others.  Besides my love of gold old country music, I am a country girl at heart.  Even though I grew up in a metropolitan area, I will say I hate cities.  I admire those folks who can live in all the hustle, bustle, and night life.  I'm just not that way.

Back in the 1960s

When I was still in elementary school, my dad's mother became ill, and Grandpa was taking care of her.  Back in those days, when men and women got married, they stayed that way until death came between them.  There were no senior apartments yet as far as I knew. Grandma and Grandpa lived on a farm in the western part of Wisconsin, between Tomah and Fort McCoy.  Because my dad's parents were elderly (in their 80s), our family would get in the car and travel up to the farm every other weekend.  Even with taking care of Grandma, my grandpa still kept a huge garden and grew the best tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, potatoes, carrots, and put them up by himself.  He also had a root cellar where everything was stored, from canned goods to preserves, to all types of root vegetables.  

The area around Tomah is indeed God's country.  Grandpa's farm was up in the hills and sat on approximately 80 acres.  My sister and I used to LOVE to go up there!  After all, their farmhouse was heated by wood stoves, and they had a really neat crank telephone on the wall!  Grandpa's barn didn't have any animals in it anymore, but my sister and I had wonderful times playing there.  He had a hay mow where we played hide and seek with each other.  Yes, this farm was my happy place filled with warm, fond memories.

During the summer, my sis and I would tag along with my dad and we'd go out to the woods and pick wild blackberries.  I have to admit that we had more of these beauties in our stomachs than we collected in our berry pails.  I will never forget how wonderful they tasted!  We'd make our way back to the farmhouse where our mom would be waiting for us with an anxious look all over her face.  "Are there enough berries to put on the ice cream?" she inquired.

While we ate the sweet berries over our ice cream, I remember my dad talking about how ice cream used to be when Mrs. Ranney made it.  It was nice and yellow naturally--no artificial color to it.  And it had real vanilla, not the imitation stuff!  He used to say it was the best vanilla ice cream in the world.

Mrs. Ranney was one of the country folks around when my dad was growing up around the Tomah area.  She made this wonderful chilly treat and even sold it in some of the stores in the area.  So....I'm going to share this wonderful recipe with you all!  By the way, it is great in the winter, because if there is snow on the ground, you can use it in the ice cream freezer instead of ice; your ice cream will be creamier that way.  Oh, but do not forget the rock salt (yes, the kind you use to melt ice on the sidewalk).  You have to alternate some snow (or very finely crushed ice), then some rock salt, then some snow, and you get the idea!

RANNEY'S BEST HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

• 1 quart milk (use whole milk; it's so much better!)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 T. flour
• A little salt

Mix the above together and add:

• 6 Eggs

Put all into a double boiler and cook until thick.  Chill.  Then put into the ice cream freezer and add 1 quart whipped cream.  Don't be tempted to do this with half and half.  Use 1 quart of real cream and whip it before adding to the cooked custard mixture.  I use about a tablespoon of real vanilla when I add the whipping cream to the cooled custard.  Put into the ice cream freezer and freeze.  Makes about a gallon.

You don't have to limit yourself to vanilla either!  My grandpa also had lots of raspberries along the garden fence.  You can use those; fresh peaches are also great.  Use your imagination.  I found that using farm-raised eggs will give your ice cream a much more yellow color, if the chickens were fed corn.

Stay tuned for my next blog....and good-bye for now :)