Hilltowns Senior News for Friday, September 30, 2016
Our ancestors were amazingly smart. I know, for them, most of the techniques and recipes they invented were about survival, not artistic creativity, but I’m nonetheless impressed.
A cow provided milk, cheese, butter, meat, leather, and soap. Who figured all those things out? Imagine someone sitting around his or her campfire saying “Hey, I’ll bet if I ran water through those ashes, and then mixed it with fat, I could use that stuff to clean things.”
Not even my strangest friends think that far afield. Everything was used, and preserved, and stored for the lean months. Did you ever notice how many ways there are to “put up” fruit? We can it, sauce it, dry it, make jams and jellies out of it, and then branch into exotic things like chutney and mincemeat.
Mincemeat, of course, is shorthand for minced meat, and, since sugar is a preservative, it was an effective and tasty way to serve and preserve meat and suet. Spices brought home from the East by the Crusaders expanded the culinary repertoire, and minced-meat pies became a popular Christmas dish, baked in the shape of a manger, with a miniature Christ Child on top.
Cromwell and the Puritans put a stop to all that Popish nonsense in the 17th Century, and abolished Christmas for a number of years. Their austerity extended to those who came to settle New England, which may be why the tradition never took root as firmly here in the Colonies as it had back home.
I don’t know if there’s a traceable connection, but have you noticed that old English plum pudding and mincemeat are remarkably similar? They seem to have evolved the same way, since mincemeat seldom contains meat these days, and plum pudding has no plums.
Both have dried apples, currants, and other fruits, spices, and some type of citrus. Both often involve a certain amount of brandy, or dark beer, or rum, for flavor and good keeping quality. As a matter of fact, I bet you could make a pretty decent plum pudding by just adding eggs, bread crumbs, and flour to mincemeat, and then letting it soak in brandy for the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In Britain, the Sunday after Thanksgiving is known as “Stir-up Sunday,” because that’s the day the Christmas plum pudding is made and stored away. Our Thanksgiving has nothing to do with it; the Book of Common Prayer included an exhortation about stirring up the will of the people for the Sunday next before Advent. It’s good luck for every member of the family to give the pudding a stir as it’s prepared.
Another part of the tradition came to be the inclusion of a sixpence or other coin to foretell wealth for the person whose slice contained it. Other tokens may also be included, such as a tiny wishbone for luck, a silver thimble for thrift, and an anchor for safe voyaging. You can still buy pudding charms from British import companies; I have a couple of sets myself. Now all I need is to find someone besides myself who likes plum pudding.
Coming up
Speaking of safe voyages, there are a whole slew of fascinating trips in the works for the fall: the shopping bus on Wednesday, Oct. 5, will be going to Walmart, and then taking a side trip to Indian Ladder Farms to buy apples on the way home. The next bus, to Walmart and Colonie Center as usual, will be on Oct. 19. Call CDTA at 437-5161 two days in advance to arrange for pickup.
An excursion to the Troy Farmers Market is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 15, and you can use up your SNAP coupons to purchase from the array of fresh and tasty items offered there for sale. The bus will leave the Berne Community and Senior Center at 9 a.m., and will stay until noon (or maybe longer).
The Hilltown seniors will gather on Oct. 8 at 10:30 a.m. at the Berne Community and Senior Center for their monthly meeting and a Halloween celebration.
October is Adopt A Shelter Dog Month, Bat Appreciation Month, Country Music Month, Dyslexia Awareness Month (however you spell it), Italian-American Heritage Month, and National Critical Illness Awareness Month.
The first week of October is 4-H Week, Great Books Week, National Chimney Safety Week, National Midwifery Week, and Spinning & Weaving Week.
Cephalopod Awareness Day is the first (go look it up!), as is Fire Pup Day and Model T Day. The second is Country Inn Bed & Breakfast Day. Guardian Angels Day, International Day of Non-violence, Islamic New Year, and Rosh Hashanah. Kanelbullens Dag (Cinnamon Roll Day) and National Taco Day are on the fourth. The fifth is World Teachers Day, the sixth is American Libraries Day, and the seventh is World Smile Day. National Motorcycle Ride Day is the eighth, along with National Pierogy Day.
Menu
The air is getting crisper, and a hot lunch starts to sound better and better. Come on down, and enjoy a lunch that you don’t have to cook. Doors open at 11 a.m., and lunch is served promptly at noon.
— Monday, Oct. 3, lasagna rollups, chickpea salad, what Italian bread, pears, and milk;
— Tuesday, Oct. 4, meatloaf with tomato gravy, cauliflower, oven roasted potatoes, wheat bread, birthday cake, and milk; and
— Friday, Oct. 7, mac and cheese, stewed tomatoes, wheat bread, baked apples, and milk.
Please call Linda Hodges 24 hours in advance to 872-0940 to reserve lunch, or email her at: , or sign up when you come in. Tell us how many are coming, your name, and your telephone number. If you’d just like to come and help out, give Mary Moller a call at 861-6253, or email her at , and put “volunteer” in the subject line.
Lunches are provided by Helderberg Senior Services, the Albany County Department of Aging, and Senior Services of Albany. The Town of Berne Community and Senior Services Center is located at 1360 Helderberg Trail (Route 443) in Berne.