Thursday, October 29, 1936

plesant & cool
full moon this eve-
I made ginger bread and put parafine on the jelly and put it away-
I dug the onions in the garden this afternoon and went to Mrs. Evans and got butter
Harry dug potatoes and Aunty picked them up this forenoon and he dug carots & beets this P.M and gor water from Evans'
He went to Half Acre 5 o'clock-
Rec'd letter & check $20.00 from Clara^-
paid to Nov. 4-
*Sent card to Iliff-

Envelope with Newburgh postmark Oct 27, 1936

First page of Clara's letter to Irene

Page 2 & 3 of Clara's October 1936 letter to Irene

Final page of the letter

^Clara's letter to Irene:
         P.S. I'm a great one, forgot to thank you for my pietuner. 
That was so nice of you to remember me.                                                  10/27/36
Dear Irene,
         I was glad to get your letter saying that you felt better. It must have been something we ate.
         I hate to wish time away but I'll certainly be glad when I can get home again.
         Auntie said you had a lovely cake for mother- and I do appreciate it so. Just don't know how we could manage without you. Did Mother like her flowers and was she awfully disappointed because I wasn't home? She may have forgotten that I usually did spend the day with her.
         I finally decided to go to Hudson. Anne Crawford was taken ill while I was there and had a doctor. It seemed to be a severe cold. Cousin Anne Meigs tells me she came within one of having pneumonia. There is an awful lot of it around. The more I think about it the more convinced I am that Mother should not go down to vote. It might be bad for both of them. Standing around waiting in the cold is not good for young people- and certainly not for old ones.
You have taken such good care of them Irene that I would hate to see them start off wrong this winter. If they can only be well and reasonably happy.
        I'll bet you miss your boy. How is he getting on?
        Had a letter from Harry- said he planned to dig your potatoes- no matter what we said.
        As soon as I mail this I'm taking off old ironsides (breaking in a new girdle)
        My little plant is full of green leaves. Sending a check for $20.00
                                              Lots of love
                                                                 Clara.

*This is written up the left hand, inside margin of the diary entry.

Saturday, October 24, 1936

plesant and cool
Made a jelly layer cake and mopped the kitchen and done general Saturday work-
Aunty canned the quinces with sweet apples-
I do not get strength and feel quite like myself.
Mother good today-
Rec'd nice letter from Iliff-

Quince By Pancrace Bessa (1772-1835)*

*Quince is a tree fruit similar to pears & apples. Because of fireblight, quince trees are no longer common in North America. < image attribution: Quince By Pancrace Bessa (1772-1835) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons >

Thursday, October 22, 1936

Cloudy & windy with rain this eve-
Rec'd letter from Aunt Sarah
Mother rec'd letter from Clara-
I sent card to Iliff-
I canned 7 quarts of tomatoes and put away jelly-
Mother has been good all day

Friday, September 25, 1936

plesant and cool
Sent birthday card to Florence Searles today-
Made oatflake cookies and put away jelly-
Canned two more qts of pickle pears.
Chas took the eggs to market today-
Harry called this P.M. on his way to Half Acre-
Mother was prowling all night so was quiet today-
Harry Teeter, Harold & wife called on Aunty today-

Friday, August 28, 1936

plesant cool but rain all evening-
I made a lemon pie and canned 4 pints of Damson plum* preserves
Leroy Hall worked all day cutting wood and relaying the walk and cleaning out rubbish in the garage-
I made muffins for supper-
Mother has been very keyed up all day-
Mary Brong Miles and daughter & Mrs. Youngs called-

Damson plums are the small, dark purple ones^

^Image attribution: By Alois Lunzer (Brown Brothers Continental Nurseries Catalog 1909) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons


*Damson plums are a small European plum. The recipe below is from Ten Thousand Places blog...

Damson Plum Jam

1 quart damson plums, stemmed and washing, but still whole

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup water

Bring all ingredients to a boil, mashing the plums with a potato masher (my favorite jamming tool!).  

The  pits will mostly float to the top, but they are tiny and I found it difficult to scoop out while the jam is cooking, so: once the jam is mashed and cooking (it will seem very very juicy), pour it through a fine mesh sieve or, if you have it, a food mill, into a heat proof bowl.  With the sieve, you will have to use a spatula to press the pulp through the sieve, so some of the skins get into the jam too (they will continue to flavor the jam with their tartness).  Thrown out the remaining pulp/pit mixture, and return the jam to the pot.  If you want to be really really diligent, you can scoop out the individual pits and put the entire pulp back into the pot, but I got lazy after about ten minutes.  So long as you are using a nice flexible spatula with the sieve, you'll be able to press almost everything good out of the skins through the sieve.  A food-mill would just make it that much easier.

Boil till jelly state, continuing to stir and scrape the bottom of the pan.  You can tell this by several tests, but I usually eyeball it.  When you lift you spoon, if they jam comes off it in sheets, rather than individual drops or streams, then it is ready.  I tried to take a picture of this, but, failed.  The picture to your left is of  not-yet-jelly stage, badly out of focus.

Pour into hot sterilized jars, sealing them or covering with paraffin according to your preference.  This recipe makes about five 4oz. jars.  I successfully doubled the recipe to make to 11 4 oz jars.

Wednesday, July 15, 1936

plesant and cooler with northwest wind-
Wrote letter to Clara and sent Harry his glasses-
Made 6 more glasses of jelly and parafined and put it all away*-
Cooked over and wiped off all last years and took care of it-
The left over salmon I ate for dinner made me feel a little sick this afternoon
Aunty has been fine today

Don't even have to remove stems. Just cook down & strain

*Irene is making (red) currant jelly, if you have not been reading all along. I found a straightforward recipe the WinterWoman blog. (Oh, & for those who don't can, "parafined" means Irene put the wax on the top of the jelly to preserve it before covering the jar with a lid.)

I use my largest pot and fill it to the brim with [red currants] – which doesn’t take long if I don’t bother to stem them.  I just pull off clusters and put them in the pot!

Put them over a burner for about an hour until the juice is running out and the berries start to lose their color.  Watch it though!  You’ll have to turn the heat down at some point or they will bubble all over the top of your stove.

Strain the berries through cheese cloth and reserve the juice.

Measure 4 cups of juice into a deep pot.  Boil hard for 5 minutes.  Add 3 cups of sugar and boil hard for another 5 minutes.  Reduce the heat and simmer for 12-20 minutes.  You don’t need pectin, because currants contain so much pectin naturally.

Pour into sterilized jelly jars.  Cap with new lids (old rims are OK).  Screw lids on tightly.  Listen for the popping as the jars cool.

Tuesday, July 14, 1936

plesant and hot but coller breeze-
Aunty and I alone all day
Rec'd card from Clara mailed from Syracuse station 11-30 last night*-
found Harry's glasses in his coat pocket-
Made 12 glasses of currant jelly
picked the currants in the garden
and spread out on the grass Aunty's north bedroom carpet-

Front of the postcard Clara sent Irene

Back of above postcard. Postmark was stamped at 2:30 am on July 14, 1936

*"11:30 A.M. Dear Irene, Will you please look in Harry's coat and see if you can find the [glasses]. He thinks they are in the lining. Mother is fine All Aboard. Love to Auntie & you Clara" If anyone can tell me what Clara wrote instead of glasses, I would be very grateful.