"Vittles",
victuals, food… The notion that a pioneer family could pack what we would now
term a survival ration and live off the land day-to-day was quickly dispelled,
if it was ever embraced by anyone other than romanticizing early writers. The
noise of even a small train of wagons with its accompanying stock would send
any wild grazers to flight long before they could be sighted. If the émigrés
wanted to eat, they carried it with them. What they packed depended largely on
their source of advice.
A family of
four might pack:
800 pounds
of flour
200 pounds
of lard
200 pounds
of dried beans
700 pounds
of bacon or salt pork
100 pounds
of dried fruit (mostly apples)
75 pounds
of coffee
25 pounds
of salt & pepper
2 pounds of
salteratus (sodium bicarbonate)
Sugar/molasses,
tea, cornmeal/oatmeal, rice, dried peaches, hard biscuits of various kinds, and
potatoes were also know to be packed, but too much weight was an ever-present
worry. Re-acquaint yourself with the previous post as to what the wagon
was already carrying. Although a 2,400 pound maximum for food was recommended,
especially if three yoke of oxen were available to be rotated, many travelers
tried to keep the load to just over 2,000 pounds (1 ton), and this included the
barrels the food was packed in. Heavy jars carrying preserving liquids, either
brine or sweet, didn’t last long.
Glancing
over the list, it was easy to see why émigrés tied cages of laying hens to the
wagons and dragged along the occasional sheep as well as milk-cows. There was
hardly a cry of “What’s for dinner?” It would be a variation on the same, day
in, day out, with the fervent prayer that it would last the trip.
Now, which
one of you has that bag of Snickers?
No comments:
Post a Comment