CHAPTER 7

Natalia remembers riding to Falfurrias on a mule-drawn wagon to get salt. On the way, she and other family members visited Tía Inés, who was a sister to Mamá María. They also traveled to get bulk salt at a salt-water lake about two miles east of Falfurrias. Using a shovel, they cut small square-shaped pieces of salt and shoveled them into the wagon. After loading the salt, they visited awhile with Tía Inés and Tío Donaciano López, then returned to the ranch. When they got home with the salt, they broke it into smaller pieces and removed the dirt. Finally, they used a grinder, or molino, to grind it.

The salt was used for all kitchen cooking and also to preserve meat. When they had more meat than could be used within a couple of days, they cut and dried it in the sun. Besides preserving the meat, the salt also repelled flies. A few days later, after the meat dried, they put it into burlap sacks and beat it with a heavy stick to soften it. Then the meat could be folded and saved in the burlap sacks. They hung the sacks from the rafters of the house with a thin rope. To prevent rats or mice from sliding down the rope and raiding the meat, they placed circular tin plates over the sacks and tied them in place with a knot.

From a cave near the salt lake, they extracted gypsum. Many years later, a gypsum mine operated in the area. From pieces of gypsum people made square-shaped plates and then put designs such as cupids on them. Other articles were also made that could be given as gifts.

The lard for cooking came from hog fat. The ranch family continuously was fattening one or two hogs, which they kept separate from the others. Hog pens were made of mesquite tree trunks that had been saved and stacked when the land was cleared. The logs were piled close to four feet high so the hogs could not climb out. They fed the hogs almost anything, including dried mesquite beans; pigweed, or quelite, a green herb abundant in the area; watermelon and cantaloupe rinds; and all the leftover food. They also fed extra corn to the hogs which they were fattening for slaughter.

Butchering a hog, c. 1920

When the hog was as fat as possible, the immediate family members were notified, and the entire family joined in the difficult work of the hog slaughter. Early in the morning, they started a fire under the iron kettle, or paila, to get the water boiling. The hog was usually killed with a hard blow to the front center of the head with the butt end of an ax. Once the hog was dead, they poured the boiling water on the hide to scrape off the hair. Afterward, they would split the carcass open to cut the different pieces of meat. The kitchen and butcher knives of different shapes and sizes had to be sharpened for various uses. Some people worked on the hog's head after removing it from the body, while others cut and cleaned other parts of the body for the various meat cuts. They set aside some meats to grind for sausage called chorizo. Chunks of meat were saved for frying into chicharrones de carne, while skin rinds were fried and became cracklings, or chicharrones de cuero.

Meanwhile, some family members started grinding the meat, while others cleaned the intestines, or tripas, to fill later to make sausage, or chorizo. The meat for the sausage was flavored with vinegar and chile colorado.

The workers used three or four kettles, or pailas, for the different processes. Some people cooked the meat for the tamales, and others soaked the cornhusks, called ojas. Quite a few people worked on the tamales, which needed a separate paila. Other workers cut fatty pieces of meat to fry. When the meat chunks were good and hot, a worker dipped them out with a large strainer and put them into a burlap sack. Tying a wooden stick to each end, two workers twisted in opposite directions to squeeze out the lard, or grease, from the meat. The resulting bits of fried meat were called chicharrones de carne. The women saved the chicharrones for cooking later in various recipes. Other family members cut the skin into small pieces, fried the bits in the kettles, and again squeezed in the same manner to drain out the grease. These were cracklings, called chicharrones de cuero. All the grease was poured into cans to use for cooking lard.

It took all day to finish these chores. At dinnertime everyone was treated to fresh tamales. Each of the families who came to help received some of the food prepared during the day. Chicharrones de carne, chicharrones de cuero, chorizo, tamales, and a can of lard were given to each family. In this way, the work and food were shared. In a few days or weeks, someone else would kill another hog, and the community would gather to go through the same routine.

White Wings Flour made by Pioneer Flour Mills of San Antonio

The flour used for flour tortillas was the Pioneer brand. On Sundays, when visitors came, the family served tortillas with sugar sprinkled on top and sometimes offered corn syrup with them. For everyday meals-breakfast, lunch, and supper-the family ate corn tortillas. During the pumpkin season, they made turnovers, or empanadas, for snacks and dessert.

The cows provided them with milk. In warm weather, the cream, called nata, would rise to the top. The nata was placed in a glass container. To make butter, a person would shake the container for a while until the butter separated in the jar. This was their butter for home consumption. The eggs the family ate for breakfast came from their hens. For special events, they might cook one of the chickens.

Armadillo

During cold winter nights when the moon was bright, the male members of the family hunted with their dogs for armadillos.In the cold days when there wasn't much to do, they hunted deer or javalinas. In the area around the haystacks, doves or quail came to eat the seeds. The family set out quail traps, which they made by tying wood sticks to form a box. They held the box open with a stick and attached an ear of dried corn to the stick as bait. When a bird pulled on the corn, the box collapsed, sometimes catching two or three birds.

Main street of San Diego, c. 1909

Family members made regular trips toSan Diego to buy staples for the ranch. The trip to San Diego by mule-drawn wagon took two days, one day to go and another to return. They stayed overnight with relatives in town, then returned home around dusk. At a later date, they owned a buckboard cart called a carretela. The carretela was much lighter and quicker, and they got home earlier.

The staple groceries bought in town included coffee beans, potatoes, and sugar, which were sold in 100-pound sacks. At home they stored the potatoes in a cool place to prevent spoilage. They also purchased rice, vermicelli, and soap for bathing.

To supplement the items purchased from the store, the ranch family produced their own food and sweets. In the garden and yard, they cultivated fruit trees of peaches, oranges, pomegranates, and figs, as well as prickly pear cactuses, or nopales, which, in season, produced tender, edible shoots called nopalitos. They also grew a round cactus plant that had rough thorns, called a barrel cactus, or viznaga. They boiled the viznaga with sugar and cut it into bite-size pieces, making a delicious candy. From pumpkins the family made a candy called dulce de calavaza. And they even made candy or jelly from beans and jelly from tomatoes and from a berry called agarito, or algerita.