Grandma’s Recipe Box

Published in The Cowboy Chronicle; North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame

August 2024

Lila was briefly mentioned in the article Staking their Claim: Women Homesteaders in North Dakota. After homesteading with her sister, Lila went to secretarial school and was working at the courthouse in Williston, North Dakota where she met C. F. Martell. They were married February 27, 1929

The old little wooden box was nothing fancy, but it held a treasure of history and love. It represented much of Lila’s life. At one time it sat in the cupboard of a ranch house with Charbonneau Creek out the back. If it wasn’t windy, you could hear the gentle flowing of the creek through the kitchen window.

One day this recipe box and an old church cookbook arrived in the mail from my Aunt Helen who grew up on this ranch in western North Dakota in the first half of the 20th century. It was a surprise; I only knew something was on the way, but not what. We had talked on a recent visit about the key to her health and longevity. She believed it was those first years of her life when she drank fresh spring water, ate food that was grown in their own dirt, and meat from animals they raised. Here now on my kitchen table was a glimpse into those times.

The great westward movement across the United States began after Lewis and Clark’s exploration. The greatest push of people came after the Homestead Act was signed on January 1, 1863, with hundreds of thousands of settlers spreading through the west. In North Dakota, the peak year for homestead claims was 1908. My grandfather was one of those 1908 homesteaders. He staked his claim in McKenzie County along Charbonneau Creek. He was six miles from the little railroad town of Charbonneau,  40 miles from the larger town of Williston and in the other direction about 20 miles away from Fairview, just across the Montana border. He worked hard establishing a successful ranch and twenty years later brought his bride Lila to his home by the creek where they raised their son, my father, and four daughters.

Lila’s dedication to her family cannot be overstated. Her language of love was in many ways her cooking. Providing meals was of course survival, but it was more than that, it was the fabric weaving their lives together. Things had changed since the early pioneering days, but rural North Dakota in the 1930’s and 40’s was still remote. The roads, where they were more than just tire tracks, were still rugged.  There were no nearby stores or services. The REA didn’t start to bring electricity lines out to the little prairie towns until the late 1930’s, and it was well into the 1940’s when all the co-op lines were in and electricity was commonplace. The kids rarely had anything to eat their mother did not make except the occasional candy or pop from town. With few exceptions they raised what they needed.

The summer garden was large and grew an array of fresh vegetables including corn, peas, beans, and for a summertime treat, cool crunchy lettuce. Each plant in the garden had its place. The ground cover crops were in one area; pumpkin, watermelon and cucumbers. Next were the standup vegetables; green beans and peas and the like. Then there were the root vegetables; carrots, parsnips and potatoes. Lots of potatoes! Oh how they loved to dig up a potato, wipe the dirt from it onto their clothes, and then eat it like an apple. Crisp and delicious! Let’s not forget the corn. The kids would watch it grow taller and taller with anticipation building for that first bite of fresh corn on the cob. What a delight that was! Sometimes, multiple ears of corn would be eaten; there is a family rumor that the two middle girls each ate seven cobs in one sitting.

They would often work in the garden barefoot. Extra care was taken to not get your foot in the way of someone’s hoe. Hours were spent hoeing the garden and canning the produce for winter. Lila loved her peas; she would eat them straight from the garden while they were out there hoeing. My grandfather had built a dam in a coulee on the other side of the road into the main yard. When there wasn’t enough rain for the garden, he would open it and the girls would wait excitedly to see the water flow through the garden they spent their summer nurturing. Rhubarb grew among the nearby trees in the summer and Lila was known for her rhubarb pies.  Wild June berries and chokecherries were gathered to make jelly.

They all worked together. In the yard there was a large washtub on a stand with chairs circled around it where they would sit and talk while shucking the corn and preparing the vegetables and fruit for canning. They didn’t have fruit trees, but fresh peaches were bought, some to be enjoyed on those long summer days and some to be put up for the winter. Meat was also canned in gravy for some of those long winter days. Everything was cooked on a coal stove with coal that they dug from veins in the surrounding hills.

They had no refrigeration, but they did have a cellar under the living room floor and an icehouse out the back door. In the middle of the floor was a big pull-up door that opened to a steep staircase with a lone lightbulb hanging above it. Down these stairs you went into the deep recesses of the cellar. It was cool and dark and all dirt. The walls were lined with shelves full of the food they canned. The potatoes were stored in the dirt on the floor. One of the many chores the girls had was checking the potatoes, and when they started to grow “eyes” pulling them out. On the other side of the cellar was a door from the outside. This is where the crocks for the pickles were kept. Lila made dill, sweet and pickle chips from the garden cucumbers. These stoneware crocks were large, two to three feet high and with a lid. The pickles would be checked once or twice a day until they were deemed by Lila to be ready, and then they were put into jars.

Also in the cellar was a generator and large batteries that provided electricity before the REA got electrical lines in. There was no refrigerator but there was a washing machine. The generator had to run all day on washing day. It was loud and wherever they were out in the yard they could hear the rumbling. The kitchen was felt by all to be the most warm and friendly place. They even had a sink with running water, which was unusual for the place and times. 

The ice for the icehouse was cut from the creek in winter. The milk and butter were kept in the icehouse – set on top of the huge blocks of ice and covered with sawdust. The milk bottles would have the very top peeking out of the sawdust, but other items like the cheese and butter were completely buried. They put markers on top so they would know where to find whatever they were sent for.

The cows were milked twice a day, and twice a day Lila ran the separator that was an integral part of her kitchen. There was a big bowl like vessel on the top where the fresh milk was poured and two faucets came out below, milk flowing from one and cream from the other. Lila made her own butter and cottage cheese, but she didn’t make hard cheese, that came from town. Flour and spices also came from town, but all baked goods and desserts were homemade. Lila’s bread had no rival. Once when Helen had a Girl Scout event that everyone was supposed to bring lunch to, one of the leaders swapped her sandwich for the one made by Lila, just to get a taste of that bread. This did not sit well with Lila and the usual quiet demeanor was broken and her displeasure was known!

The eggs and meat were fresh of course. Chickens gave them daily eggs, and if chicken was wanted for dinner they just went out to the yard and grabbed one. If other meat was wanted a ranch animal would be killed. There was a spot in the shop where the carcass was hung to drain. It would be quartered and taken to the butcher to be packaged. The meat and sausage patties Lila made were kept in a freezer locker in town. On Saturdays a trip would be made to Fairview for meat, tool parts, and whatever else was needed at the store. Lila didn’t do the shopping. She couldn’t drive anyway and stayed home with her children, so grandpa would quit and clean up a little early. He would go to Fairview and take advantage of the time change and extra hour he got by going west.

Lila may not have driven, but by twelve or thirteen her kids all had learned to drive. The girls would sometimes be sent into Charbonneau to get the mail. By this time Charbonneau’s heyday was over, but there was still a post office and a few other businesses including a general store Helen described as looking, “just like those with the large wooden barrels you see in all the cowboy movies”. They would bring their pocket change and go to the store for candies before heading home with the mail.

Noon was the big meal. Right after the breakfast clean up Lila would get to work. Most of the time she didn’t use a written down recipe, she just knew how to cook, and she did it well. If you got a meal from Lila, you were lucky. Nothing was ever wasted. During harvest when the men would be out in the fields until late the dinner was brought to them. China and glassware and big jars of iced tea were packed up along with the food and brought out to the middle of the field. When the men were done the dirty dishes and were brought back to the house.

All families have their traditions, and they are often are built around food. The birthday cake was one of these for Lila’s children. Every birthday a special cake was made, and the official birthday picture was taken. It didn’t matter what else might be happening, each of the five had their special day and cake to mark the occasion.

Most of the recipes in the old box are faded and hard to read now. Many might wonder why it was opened and received with such excitement. It doesn’t look like much, but I knew the importance of what this little box held; a connection to lives and stories that are more and more lost to time. When we think of pioneers and homesteaders it is often just a chapter in our history books. For some of us though, it’s only a generation or two back, and is the story of people we knew and loved.

The memories that contributed to this story were mostly from a visit with Aunt Helen, but some memories were from Aunt Janie (Dora Jane) and our visits. I also used a story that Aunt Trisha wrote (Long Ago and Far Away), that can be found in “Tales of the Ranch.”

Photos from the Martell Family Archives