BMancaster Farming, Saturday, May 18, 1991
In Big Valley,
Made The
Gail Strock
Mifflin Co. Correspondent
BELLEVILLE (Mifflin Co.)
One of the most interesting things
about our world is the diversity
diversity in geography, climate,
people, cultures, and food.
Those who travel know the joy
of discovering the uniqueness in a
given area. But in America, to find
the unique flavor, a person needs
to go beyond the hamburger, fries,
and blue jeans to find maple syrup
in Maine, hot peppers in Texas,
and Knngle pastries in Wisconsin.
Not only does food vary state to
state but also from region to reg
ion, and even valley to valley.
Visitors to the Belleville area in
Big Valley, Mifflin County, will
not find nuggets, fries, and a drink
Mrs. Ethel Yoder’s Belleville home has both memories
from her childhood and modern conveniences. Though the
microwave “takes some getting used to,” Mrs. Yoder
enjoys being surrounded by memories from home, such as
the lunch pail her mother carried to school a tin bucket
with blue and white enamel swirled on the outside.
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Great-grandson Chase Kuhns looks on as Mrs. Yoder
and her daughter-in-law Wanda display a quilt Mrs. Yoder
tied. Wanda and husband J. Loren will be taking the quilt to
Germany as a wedding present.
at a drive-through restaurant.
What they will find is good old
fashioned cooking chicken pot
pie, homemade bread, bean soup,
bread pudding, and half moon
pies. Some of these foods, like
chicken pot pie, are found
throughout central Pa. Others are
not, like half moon pies.
Ethel Yoder of Belleville makes
half moon pies the old-fashioned
way the way she learned from
her mother who learned from her
mother. “We used to bake three to
four dozen every Saturday morn
ing. The men came in from the
bam after they’d thrown their hay
down for the weekend and eat the
half moon pies, which were still
warm. There weren’t too many
left ‘till Monday morning,” Mrs.
Yoder said.
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Half-Moon Pies And Bean Soup Still
Old-Fashioned Way
In short, a half moon pic is a
circle of pie pastry filled with
apple snitz, folded over, then sea
led and baked. To make the pie
dough, Mrs. Yoder uses lard,
flour, and water. She takes a ball
of dough the size of a large goose
egg, rolls it into a circle, and
marks holes in half. This will be
the top after folded. At this time,
approximately three to four tables
poons of apple snitz is placed on
the dough. The top half is folded
over and the edges are pressed
together to seal. Mrs. Yoder uses
her pie wheel around the edges for
an even finishy. The pies are
baked for 45 minutes at 400
degrees.
Mrs. Yoder’s apple snitz con
sists of cooked dried apples,
sugar, and cinnamon. “I don’t
measure my sugar. I really don’t
make mine as sweet as some peo
ple,” she said,
Mrs. Yoder has been drying her
own apples ever since her son J.
Loren bought her a food dryer
years ago. This dryer sits on Mrs.
Yoder’s old cook stove the one
she and her husband ‘‘started
housekeeping with.” The eight
trays in the dryer hold about V»
bushel of apples. ‘ ‘Every morning
I get up and fill it. My husband
helps to turn the apples (on the
tray) and keeps the fire going.”
By the next morning, the apples
are dry. Mrs. Yoder dried 14
bushels of apples last year.
She said, ‘‘My daughter Donna
in Juniata County loves the dried
apples. Her children take them to
school in their lunches.”
“I like to cook,” Mrs. Yoder
states. She went on to explain
another favorite food bean
soup. ‘‘My mother always soaked
the beans, but I use those,” she
said as she pointed to a 40-ounce
can of Great Northern white
beans. She heats the beans and a
quart of milk, then pours this over
bread chunks (about 6 slices). Sea
soned with salt and pepper, bean
soup was one of her family’s favo
rites.
“When I lived at home, bean
soup was always our Saturday
dinner. It was always a habit.
You’d bake half moon pies every
Saturday morning, and eat bean
soup for dinner.”
Mrs. Yoder and her husband,
Harvey, farmed while raising five
children. “It’s wonderful for a
family,” she says of life on a
farm. “We really liked it. It was a
job, but we really enjoyed it
everything about the farm,” she
said. “I still like to go through the
cow stable.”
After she and her husband
retired from fanning, Mrs. Yoder
worked at the Friendship Book
Store for 10 years, and then
cooked at the Charolais Restaur
ant in Belleville for eight years.
Mrs. Yoder’s hobbies include
piecing quilts, braiding rugs, gar
dening, and canning. While her
family was still at home, Mrs.
Yoder would can as much as 100
quarts of applesauce, 75-80 quarts
of peaches, and 50-60 quarts of
beef. “I could get 20 quarts in the
big iron kettle that I heated wash
water in,” she said.
Over coffee and sticky buns,
Mrs. Yoder discussed the many
changes over the years. “The far
mers worked hard long ago, but I
don’t think they had the stress on
themselves. I think that’s a lot of
our problems nowadays. We have
all these conveniences, and if one
switch goes wrong, we have prob-
Ethel Yoder of Belleville uses a food dryer to make dried
apples for apple snitz. Apple snitz Is then used to make a
local Big Valley favorite half moon pies.
Ethel Yoder of Belleville uses a food dryer her son J.
Loren bought years ago to dry apples for her half moon
pies. The food dryer sits on top of Mrs. Yoder’s cook stove
—the one she and her husband started housekeeping with
after they were married. Last year Mrs. Yoder dried 14
bushels of apples.
lems.”
As for the microwave, she said,
“I’m having a hard lime getting
used to it. I’ve cooked for so long
one way. But I use it more than I
used to.”
Vfames(cad
trfies
Maybe Mrs. Yoder’s favorite
“recipes” could be adapted for
the microwave, but for now, she
can enjoy her family’s favorite
foods the way she always has
the good old-fashioned way.
mm
mm
55*
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