From scalding trough to gambrels, butchering was a gruesome task
Paul Locher describes the beginning stages of butchering a hog on the frontiers of Ohio Country in the early 1800s.
Butchering was first big event of winter season
Paul Locher describes the process of butchering hogs on the frontiers of Ohio Country in the early 1800s.
Of schnitz and rye straw
Paul Locher outlines the use of rye straw to make baskets and store dried apple slices, schnitz, at homesteads in the early 1800s in Ohio Country.
How do you make apple butter? It depends who you ask
Paul Locher recounts the process for making apple butter in Ohio Country in the early 1800s.
With apple butter parties, play preceded the work
Paul Locher offers a look inside the affairs of an apple butter party in Ohio Country in the early 1800s.
Making apple butter involved plenty of labor in preparation
Apple butter is forever linked with the German communities of the southeast Pennsylvania region, who brought the tradition with them when they crossed the mountains into the Ohio territory.
Johnny Appleseed’s trees gave rise to J.M. Smucker Company
Paul Locher provides a history of how Johnathan “Appleseed” Chapman's orchards became used by Jerome Monroe Smucker to create the J.M. Smucker Co.
Improving apple varieties was a major endeavor for settlers
Paul Locher explains how valuable apples were on the frontier of Ohio Country in the early 1800s, and how settlers improved varieties.
Corn was staff of life for settlers, but was always labor intensive
After corn was husked, it had to be shelled and processed before it could be cooked into a meal in the early 1800s in Ohio Country.
Corn husking bees brought neighbors together for work, socializing
Paul Locher details one of the great seasonal traditions among settlers in the Ohio Country — the husking bee or husking frolic.
