Last week I posted on my blog about making butter at home. Alan and I had a chat about how our grandmother’s would have known how to do it without even thinking, not to mention measuring the temperature of the cream. They would have learned from a young age how to do a lot of the things that we are trying to learn now, the lost arts. My grandpa tells some great stories of his childhood, things like storing potatoes in a pit filled with straw outside and going out in the winter to retrieve dinner. I did grow up in a household that had a huge garden and canned all summer for winter. My dad is an avid hunter so our freezer was full of venison and my mom loves to bake, knit, and sew. I learned a lot of skills growing up, but there are things I had no idea how to do until recently. Today we’re sharing photos of things that we see as Lost Arts.
I’m sure our great grandmother’s were expert sourdough bakers. I have to read up on it and look at recipes when I make my sourdough. I’m starting to get the hang of it though, soon enough I’ll be doing it without the cookbook nearby.
Hunting was something my grandpa had to do to survive. He passed his skills down to his sons and my dad is currently teaching Mr Chiots about hunting. We have a freezer full of venison thanks to Mr Chiot’s hard work during deer season this past November.
My grandma, being of German descent, would have been an expert at fermentation. My mom made sauerkraut when I was growing up, so this art wasn’t necessarily lost. But I did have to read up on it when I decided to do it to make sure I was doing it right. Making butter would have been a quick chore as well. I make butter every week, so now I can do it without checking temperatures and it comes out great every time.
Butchering is definitely something that seems to have been lost along the way. I watched a You-tube video on how to portion this rabbit when I got it. It’s something that definitely fascinates me and I want to learn more about it. Perhaps someday I’ll butcher a deer Mr Chiots gets during hunting season.
The area I think I’m most sad about not having a lot of knowledge is in traditional medicine. Using herbs and foods for medicinal purposes. I’ve been spending a lot of time reading up on this to regain some of this knowledge. This was perhaps something my grandmother knew about as a girl but lost as she grew older and conventional medicine became more available.
Hi Kim here…When Susy suggested a post on lost arts I was excited… and then perplexed. I figured I had covered all of those with my posts on bread baking, animal tending, vegetable canning, etc., posts. But then I remembered that I do something that I haven’t shared here. I sew most of Sweet Girl’s clothing!
I learned to sew at my grandma’s side with an old black Singer sewing machine. I learned to baste, tuck, pleat, and rip under the patient and watchful eye of a wonderful seamstress. Now Sweet Girl and I go fabric shopping and planning together and at 6 she is beginning to learn to do the sewing too…but the wearing is still her favorite part!
Mostly we make simple little frocks with aprons or flowers…many times the garden is our inspiration…like this pumkin.
Or this sunflower…
Sometimes we even use a favorite book as inspriration…recognize this?
And sometimes…just sometimes I go all out and make something out of vintage fabric with hat, hand beaded flower and all, like this Easter dress!
Sewing for one’s children is not as easy as running to the local mall and grabbing something off the rack but it is rewarding and after 4 sons…sewing for a little girl is an old-fashioned pleasure I cherish!
What are some of the “Lost Arts” you want to find?
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