Colin King

[L.B,]

Colin you had a post reply that my Grandpas thrift-ty-ness was a fun read. Here is my favorite. The Great Depression was a bit easier on the farm due to the fact you had a better chance of 3 meals a day. My dad related that fact when he told me for breakfast was bread eggs and bacon, noon meal always at noon bread eggs and sausage. Supper was sausage,bread and eggs and the bread always came with butter. Sundays were special by the fact one meal would include pancakes or waffles with syrup. The syrup was the treat as it was store bought and not for daily consumption. Come Sunday gram-ma had the table set and ready and a pan of hot water ready to put the glass bottle of Karo syrup in and warm it up. Everyone now seated around the table as gram-ma went from cabinet to cabinet and into and out of the pantry a few times. Grandpa told her to come and sit down and eat, she said I cant find the Karo Syrup and I know we have some, has anyone seen it? My grandpa told her to sit down and he knew what had happened to the syrup. Well he said I used it and of course grandama said land sake what for? He said he was grinding animal feed and the belt that ran off the pulley on the tractor to the drum on the grinder was stretched as tight as he could,and was still slipping as it was wore and shiny. So he went to the house got the bottle of syrup, poured it on the belt and it worked great and quit slipping. You cant make this stuff up.

 

[TN 2N]

When I was a kid (50 years ago) my dad kept a bottle of Dark Karo in the hay baler to keep the belt from slipping on hot days! Good times!

 

[Dave in Wyoming]

Karo. Haven"t heard that name in years. I remember having it on Pancakes and Waffles as a kid.
Dave

 

[Mr. T. Minnesota]

LB,
You were very lucky to have Karo syrup. We had to make our syrup for pancakes. It was an imitation maple flavoring, Maplelene (sp)we added to boiling water and sugar. This was in the 60's. We also had our own blueberry syrup which we used hand picked wild blueberries heated and mixed with water and sugar. This syrup was canned in quart jars. That was special. We were lucky to be farmers. My father also worked the iron mines and when they went on strike we still had plenty to eat. We survived better than most. Does anyone out there remember Maplelene ?
Mr. T. Minnesota

 

[Fuddy Duddy]

Yes, does bring back some memories. We usually just had the sugar and water. When left in the pan it would form a layer of hard sugar on the top. Only on special occasions did Mom add the Maplelene. And we loved it. But when Dad would take us to Deer Camp they always kelp a bottle of "Burr Rabbit" syrup on the table. That was great stuff. If it wasn't for that I probably would have even known you could buy syrup in the store.

 

[Bruce (VA)]

Here in VA it was pronounced KAY-row. One of my uncles would put a blob of peanut butter on his plate & mix in some Karo, then put it on a biscuit. We also used a lot of sorghum molasses, made on the place w/ a sorghum mill. Never tasted maple syrup until I was an adult. But I do love it!

 

[arnold z]

We ate Karo or sugar and water. Brown sugar was better. I tapped a lot of maple trees and kept it cooking in the mud room on a coal stove. a few gallons usually yielded enough for one meal. We used blocks of wood with jar lids for wheels as toy trucks. To make a car, the top block was centerd, for a truck you set it farther forward. Snow ice cream was another favorite, It took snow, cream, sugar, and vanilla.

 

[TheOldHokie]

(quoted from post at 06:16:09 12/31/13) LB,
You were very lucky to have Karo syrup. We had to make our syrup for pancakes. It was an imitation maple flavoring, Maplelene (sp)we added to boiling water and sugar. This was in the 60's. We also had our own blueberry syrup which we used hand picked wild blueberries heated and mixed with water and sugar. This syrup was canned in quart jars. That was special. We were lucky to be farmers. My father also worked the iron mines and when they went on strike we still had plenty to eat. We survived better than most. Does anyone out there remember Maplelene ?
Mr. T. Minnesota

As kids Mother always made pancake/buckwheat cake syrup from dark brown sugar and water. We hated store syrup. Karo was a cupboard stable (and still is in my house) used for cooking. The Pecan Pie I just finished off for breakfast this morning was made using it.

Not too long ago my youngest was amazed when I made him a batch of brown sugar syrup when we ran out of Mrs. ButterWorth. :lol:

TOH

 

[Richard G.]

Since we make sorghum syrup every fall, I always use it for belt dressing on flat belts. At my sawmill, I would open an old quart of sorghum and pour some on the belt and it would grip better than any belt dressing. If somebody new was watching, I would pour it on the belt and stick my finger in the jar and lick it off my finger. Always grossed folks out thinking I was eating belt dressing.
I use it all the time in my shop when the belt on my 100+ year old drill press belt starts slipping. I used it back in November on the belt from my H JD to the syrup mill.
Richard in NW SC

 

[Texas!]

"Does anyone out there remember Maplelene?"

Back in the 60's my Grandpa and I would go to town (San Antonio) to sell cattle or hogs, buy feed, etc. and we would always stop at the grocery store on the way home. He would get a six pack of Lone Star longnecks and half a gallon of Mellorine which was some form of imitation ice cream.

 

[Colin King]

These are all great stories. I've never heard of using Karo Syrup to keep a belt from slipping. I have a jar of Dark Karo Syrup in my fridge for making cinnamon rolls. We make maple syrup every year, and sell it commercially.

I'm the only child of hippies turned back-to-the landers. The first year on our farm (I was 6), we had no electricity or running water. Water was fetched by grabbing two pails and a hatchet. A 10 minute walk down to the crick. Hack through the ice and fill the pails. For a bath, we warmed water on the wood cook stove.

My mom still uses the wood cook stove in the winter. Makes the best apple pie. Pies are always a little darker on one side, even when she remembers to turn them. Her cookstove made an appearance in Mother Earth News sometime around 1999-2000.

My childhood was a lot more similar to that of my grandparents. My toys were made of wood and TV was a special occasion, if at all. At 35, my story is peculiar to many my own age, but I wouldn't trade it for an Atari or a three wheeler, that's for sure.

Colin, MN

 

[Bob S.]

Howdy,
We didn"t know anything about store bought treats when I was a kid except for penny-candy when we did get to a store. A favorite for us kids was a sandwich made with lard and sugar and if we were lucky cinnamon on top. We ate sandwiches made with melted bacon grease. We waterproofed our boots with goose grease. I remember wearing my boots (hi-cuts with a place for a pocket knife on the side) with a fresh coat of goose grease on em to church one snowey Sunday. When it got hot in church everyone was looking around for the source of the smell of roasted goose. We raised our own chickens, ducks and geese and didn"t waste a thing.
Bob S.

 

[New Oxford 2-n]

Brr Rabbit We always mixed molasses with our dairy feed. My dad had an occasion to buy several cases of Brr Rabbit molasses that was starting to expand in the gallon cans that had the center friction top. To make matters worse, we sat the cases outside our basement door in the hot sun. Our neighbor, Pappy Yoder, saw them and asked if he could have one to take home. Several days later I saw him and he said that taking that can was a BAD idea. He sat the can on the kitchen table and pried the cap off. The cap hit the ceiling with a gusher of molasses. End of story!

 

[Fuddy Duddy]

"ice cream"? Anybody remember 'Ice Milk'? We never had ice cream, only ice milk. I've looked for it and can't find it any more. I asked my Mother about it before she died. She sell they don't make it any more. It was was pretty much like ice cream.

 

[bill black]

i never heard of karo syrup for belt dressing but a lot of guys seemed to have used it. i remember one time when the belt pulley was slipping on the tractor to run the thresher that a fellow took one of those old red rubber inner tubes and set it on fire and let the hot rubber land on the pulley .problem solved. happy new year