Dinner
- Ham: cured under the stairs for 16 months. Two slices boiled for ten minutes, fried until crisp.
- Turnip Greens: steamed in the ham water for a few minutes.
- Corn: Cooked with honey from our hives.
- Cornbread: Local cornmeal, eggs from our hens, fresh churned buttermilk from a local dairy.
- Dessert: cornbread and butter, with Steen’s syrup for me and blackberry honey for Cindy.
East Tennessee protocol for when to wave or honk
- Women seldom wave while driving.
- When standing alongside the road collecting mail or talking with a neighbor one always raises their hand in greeting to passing cars or trucks. But, one rarely looks up at the passing vehicle. Instead slightly incline your head in that direction and toss your whole hand up.
- While driving your truck never wave at a car unless it is family or a neighbor. Car drivers do not wave.
- When passing another truck on the road, grip the top of the steering wheel with your left hand and extend your forefinger to the horizontal. If you think you recognize the truck from your section of the valley then extend the forefinger finger to the 2 o’clock position. If it is a neighbor then toss up 2-3 fingers while still keeping your palm on the steering wheel.
- Horn honking is reserved to two toots. Honking your horn when passing the person or persons by the road, when they have just casually thrown up their hand, says I’m your neighbor. Otherwise, a horizontal one fingered wave is appropriate after the honk, even though they are not looking.
- Always toot twice when passing a tractor. People who honk once usually accompany the sound with a raised index finger. Be a good neighbor.
Top 3 signs your dog is coming into heat
- The other dogs become aggressive.
- The male dogs stop eating.
- The male dog practices mounting Forsythia bushes, rocking chairs, bales of hay or if you are not careful….
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Oh my gosh, you took me back to something I had forgotten. Both sets of my grandparents lived in Nebraska. Nebraska driving etiquette says when passing an oncoming car on a two lane country road between rustling fields of corn you raise one finger off the steering wheel to acknowledge the other driver. / My mouth is watering. I am wondering what a slice of ham cured under the stairs for 16 months, boiled and then fried crisp tastes like. dhyan
The longer you cure the ham the denser the meat and the taste. Typically we slice it thinner the longer it is aged. Still delicious regardless of the time spent hanging around.
I believe there is an exception in Nebraska’s road meeting rules. If its warm enough out for you to have your window down, left arm on the door, it is acceptable to raise your left hand (no waving, just show your palm). If you’re on gravel and its been dry enough for each of you to be raising a limestone plume you may roll your window up… but anticipate sufficiently in advance to still have the left hand ready for acknowledging the other.
Brian – a fascinating set of E TN rules. Looks quite complicated. I imagine it keeps speeding in check, one has so much to keep track of. Do the rules extend to follow up meetings in town where it may be customary to acknowledge having seen the other on the road… such as “Saw you talking to Billy Joe on my way home yesterday”? Or “I see you still have the Plymouth running”?
I completely forgot the “head jerk”. When passing another truck on a tight curve, with hands otherwise occupied, a quick snap upwards of the head is an acceptable greeting. And, no follow-up rules to a later meeting are used.
Excuse me, this is way off topic, but our local press has suggested they’re feeding 4 to 5 year old frozen pork in a few E Tennessee school lunches (Hawkins County). No problems reported yet, but my first reaction was to find out if Delores is ready to drop her second litter yet?
I realize her issue is not likely to end up in a school cafeteria – but when I saw the piece it occurred to me I know a sow in E Tennessee… even know her by name and her parity. Aren’t blogs something?
No, we are going to AI her to a Berkshire boar in May. She just weaned her litter last month. We saved one of her off spring (Petunia) who will be AI’d in late fall. I may have to set up a blog especially for Delores and her many (1) fans.
Ahhh, just for that I’m requesting a photo of Delores that is suitable for printing on a T-shirt. I may even have to stand for election to president of the Delores the Pig fan club. Will get started on my stump speech forthwith. Miss Piggy will be jealous.
It may not quite be time to notify the Hawkins County School Board of developments, but rest assured the future DPFC will be on the front lines making sure 4 and 5 year old frozen pork will no longer stalk the freezers in their schools.
Oh, BTW, Petunia is a great name for a guilt (and for a sow for that matter). I can just imagine the Berkshire Herd book now…
with entries such as: Winged Elm Petunia and WE Sweetpea, and on and on… 🙂
And don’t get me started on the pig puns – what a guilty pleasure!!