Parsley bartering in hard times

‘My mother used to grow parsley. It was gorgeous. She would take a big bundle to the local fish shop...and then in return he would give my Mother free fish. My father also [grew] carnations and he knew how to debud them, the finished stem of the carnation was one large pink head, which was very sought after at the florists. My mother used to sell her large poinsettias. ...She would get money to buy our weekly groceries. Another thing I remember as we were struggling. We had hens we used to get the eggs from. Mum used to feed the fowls wheat. Well, I remember mum soaking the wheat in a saucepan overnight, and that is what we had for breakfast with sugar and milk on it when it was boiled. Of course I never complained, it was food.’

‘I learned to cook by watching my Grandmother ‘make do’ using skills she learned in Colorado where her family pioneered as merchants and cattle ranchers near Carbondale and Glenwood Springs. She came to Ca. in the early 1900s. I’m probably the last generation who attended public schools where cooking and sewing were requirements in the curriculum for girls in the 7th and 8th grades, as well as one year of Home Economics in the senior year of high school, which covered life skills, i.e. managing the home, banking, saving, entertaining, kitchen skills, etc.’