A Mjl vobu'Eg
84-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 2, 1988
a farm wife *y
-And
IVHHi
Joyce Bupp
“Mom? Hey, Mom! Can you
make me lunch?”
A classic, child-to-mother ques
tion if there ever was one. How
many children over the centuries,
in multitudes of languages and
dialects, do yop suppose have
come bursting into die family
cooking area on an identical quest?
“How about a hunk of leftover
sabre-toothed-tiger?” perhaps the
Stone Age, skins-clad, parent may
have suggested. “Maybe I can find
some roots and berries out in the
swamp. Just go out there first and
chase off that pesty brontosaurus
that hangs around down there.”
“I’ll slice you some cold por
ridge and pieces of roast wild
boar,” may have answered the
domestic head of some Middle
Age, Celtic household. Our own
pioneer ancestral youngsters no
doubt often carried for a midday
snack dried venison and yester
day’s combread.
Packing lunches has never, ever,
been a favored chore of mine.
School hot lunch programs have
blessedly eliminated that early
morning, schoolday hassle. And, a
husband whose career choice puts
him at the midday meal table most
of the time similarly saved me bat
tling the brown bagging syndrome.
However, during heavy tillage,
planting and harvest periods, they
occasionally sweep into the kitch
en with that boggling request.
“Mom? Hey, Mom! Can you
make me a lunch?”
Actually, the physical chore of
putting together a spur-of-the
moment, tractor-seat meal isn’t
that much effort. Tough part lies in
the creativity challenge; what to
put together that’s nutritious,
appealing, and holds up in ninety
degree weather, when you haven’t
planned ahead.
With luck, you can go the
ancestral route of leftovers - some
nice, cold, sliced “roast beast,” (as
the kids used to call it). Or, a real
winner is when they put in a brown
bag order the morning after you
baked a piece of ham.
More than likely, though, medi
tation at the opened refrigerator
door results in the enlightened
answer of bologna and cheese. Or,
maybe, cheese and bologna. Rare
is the day when these two staples
cannot be found stocked in our
chilled larder.
And, while still-frozen bread
doesn’t win any praises at the din
ner table, it has its merits when
packing a lunch. Frozen bread
thaws before they’re ready to
pause at noon, while keeping the
sandwich stuffings cool and fresh.
Pawing through refrigerator
shelves might further enhance
creativity in the form of pickles,
onions, lettuce, even a tomato
come mid-summer. And, there are
almost always fresh apples on
hand. If their timing is lucky, and
you’ve just made a run to the
supermarket, such lunchbox treats
as potato chips, or cookies, might
be available. Twenty-four hours
after the shopping trip, forget it.
Watermelon has proved to be a
lunchbox winner in the field
hereabouts. Couple-inch-chunks
of the juicy fruit can be eaten out of
hand while unloading a bin or
waiting for a replacement empty
wagon. Plus, you can track their
comings and goings by the drips on
the floor.
What to put the lunch in to keep
it cool, reasonably clean and which
will adapt itself to Held battering,
is another challenge. Traditional
brown bags just don’t cut it bounc
ing around the toolbox through a
morning of heavy duty tractor
work.
This year, I sent to the field, with
a feeling of having kissed it good
bye, our small but heavy-duty,
lunch-size Igloo cooler. Coolers,
especially those favored half
gallon types for drinks, turn per
manently grease-black and break
out with dents, cracks, and missing
pieces.
Though the treasured Igloo
returned only slightly worse for
wear (with thanks from the lunch
consumer), a half-gallon lemonade
jug was less fortunate. Slipping
from a moving tractor, it tumbled
beneath the heavy-tread tire and
became bits and pieces of lunch
time memorabilia.
Which is why, when they come
hunting field food and drink, I’ve
learned to stick with this philoso
phy: pack ’em full, but buy ’em
cheap.
I hope there’s a half-gallon
drink cooler sale somewhere this
week.
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