Chapter Seventeen
Runa was up early the following morning, moving around the house and getting breakfast ready. Once everyone was seated she reminded them that it was going to be cold dinners and simple suppers for the next few days while the canning was underway.
“I’m afraid there will be a lot of beans and rice.” She apologized.
“As long as it’s your beans, Ma’am, I don’t think any of us will mind.” Dum Dum assured her.
“It’ll only be for a few days.” Sam agreed. “It’ll be worth it for jam on the breakfast biscuits.”
“I’m glad you’re all so accepting, because this is going to happen a few times a year so we don’t waste the crops.” She warned.
“Dum Dum, Junior, you two are going to be riding the fence lines yourselves for the next couple of days. Falsworth, you’ll still be working with the horses, Happy Sam, when you’re done taking care of the animals today, we would appreciate the help. Everyone else… We’re going to be picking fruit for the ladies.” Steve told them. Runa expected a few groans, but all she heard were murmurs of agreement.
“This week we’re going to be getting cherries, peaches, plums, blackberries, and raspberries, as well as some of the excess from the garden.” Runa agreed. “In a month or two we’ll be starting on apples and pears, as well as getting anything left from the other trees.” She stood to begin cleaning up the plates, but Dum Dum stood quickly.
“Let me, Ma’am. You’ll be working in the kitchen all day, and could use this time to marshal the troops, tell ‘em what needs doing.”
“I’ll help.” Junior agreed, standing up and starting to get the rest of the dishes. Runa could help but smile at them.
“That is very kind of you, but you’ll be working all day too-”
“Just riding and checking the fences to see what needs repairs, and checking the herd to make sure they’re all right. It’s work, but not as hard as canning. I remember helping Mama and Granny back home. After canning, they were always as tired as Dad is at plowing time.” Junior shook his head.
“It’s that bad?” Bucky asked, puzzled. He and Steve had grown up in Brooklyn, not exactly a place where canning your own food was common.
“It will be fine.” Runa assured him. “With Laura’s help, we should be done in just a few days, and we’ll have fruit and preserves to last us all winter.”
“Seems like a fair trade off to me.” Sam mused. “Hard work now for something that’ll last a while? Save money in the long run, give us something to enjoy during the winter? I like the sound of that.”
“Exactly. And you’ll all be happy when I serve spiced peaches and apple pies with Christmas supper this year.” Runa pointed out. There were murmurs of agreement with that.
“All right, General, what do you want us to do?” Dernier asked Runa, whose eyes widened.
“What, me?”
“Who else?” Steve asked her with a smile.
“As I am not terribly fond of heights, may I request a job picking berries?” Pinky asked, earning a few chuckles.
“All right. Anyone else who wants to avoid climbing up a ladder?” Runa looked around the table, not seeing anyone willing to confess to that. “Pinky, Dernier, I want you two to take some old milk pails and pick the blackberries and raspberries. You two can figure out which you want to do, try not to mix the berries up in the buckets, it will save time on sorting them out later. Get as many as you can, and don’t worry about leaving any for the birds.” They nodded to indicate they understood. “How many ladders do we have? I don’t want anyone risking a broken neck by climbing trees.”
“Three or four, I think.”
“All right. We’ll hope for four but plan for three. I want two people picking cherries, two picking peaches, and someone picking plums, there won’t be as many of those. Sam,” She looked to Happy Sam to indicate which Sam she was talking to, “Could you please help with plums when you’re done with your other chores?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“The rest of you can figure out which you’d rather do. Try to be careful and not bruise the fruit. You can take milk pails up and pass them down when they’re full so you can fill up the bushel baskets. We’ll have Cooper come around every half hour or so and bring you something to drink.” She promised them.
“We’ve got our marching orders.” Steve smiled. “We’ll get to work right away. You and Laura won’t be able to start until we have something for you to work with.”
“Oh, there will be plenty to do.” Runa assured them, planning on starting to prepare for dinner early on. There was also plenty to do before the fruit even arrived in the kitchen, but they didn’t need to worry about all that. “Bring the baskets in as you fill them, and we’ll take care of them.” She said as the men all got to their feet to head out.
As they filed from the dining room she went into the kitchen, smiling to see Dum Dum and Junior making quick work of the dishes. She went into the pantry and began using her apron to gather up potatoes for the potato salad everyone seemed to enjoy. She made three trips to be certain she had enough potatoes for everyone, by which time Dum Dum and Junior were done with the dishes and had headed out to check the fences and herd.
She had started peeling potatoes when she heard the rumble of a wagon outside. She stopped turning the crank on the mechanical peeler and and hurried out to greet Laura and the children, wiping her hands on her apron. Laura was driving the farm wagon, and Falsworth was showing her where she could park it. He helped her down, then helped the children down as Runa hurried forward.
“Lila, honey, pass me Nathaniel.” Laura smiled at her daughter, who rode on a seat made from a board placed over the back of the wagon behind the main seat. The baby was in a crate padded with quilts at Lila’s feet, and the young girl carefully picked up her baby brother and passed him over the side of the wagon to her mother before Falsworth helped her down. Cooper, who had been riding on the seat beside Laura, scrambled down himself. “Cooper, get the crate.”
“I’ll fetch it, Missus Barton.” Falsworth interrupted. “No doubt Coop could manage, but best to save his strength for the day’s work.” Falsworth gave Cooper a wink at that, and Cooper grinned broadly at him.
“I’m so glad you could make it.” Runa smiled at Laura as Falsworth got the baby’s crate. “Falsworth, could you put that in the kitchen near to the door where he’ll get a nice breeze?” She didn’t want the baby to catch cold being in the breeze, but the kitchen would be stifling soon, and better he had air than suffer the heat.
“All right.” Falsworth agreed amiably, carrying the old packing crate around the house to the kitchen door.
“I was just starting to peel potatoes to make a salad to go with dinner. I should have done it last night, but I wasn’t thinking.” Runa apologized as she led Laura, Cooper, and Lila around the house, following Falsworth to the kitchen door.
“We can’t think of everything, and we would go mad if we tried.” Laura pointed out. “Cooper and Lila can take turns peeling the potatoes for us while we get started on the rest. I take it the men are going to be bringing us fruit from the orchard?”
“I found two mechanical peelers in the pantry, so they can peel at the same time. And the men should be bringing us both fruit and berries.” Runa agreed. “I hope we have enough jars. We’ve ordered more from Scott Lang, but I don’t know that we’ll have enough. The trees are practically groaning with fruit, and back in Washington we got about eighteen quarts out of a single bushel of peaches.”
“You’ll be getting a lot here.” Laura cautioned her. “When we first moved here ten years ago, Missus Ducain would have me over to help with the canning and give us some of the produce in trade. I’d never seen so much fruit in my life.”
“Oh dear.”
“We’ll find a way to manage. Now, I’ve brought a few baskets to take some fruit in trade as we discussed, but I might bring in some jars of my own tomorrow and do the canning here, if it’s all right.”
“That would be more than all right.” Runa assured her as they entered the house. “To be honest, I’m terrified of making a mistake. I’ve never canned anything without my friend Iris, and she was usually the one who took charge on canning days.”
“I’ll teach you everything I know.” Laura promised her. “And the children will be a big help with peeling fruit and pitting cherries, though we’ll have to make certain they don’t eat more than they prepare.”
Runa laughed. “If they eat it all, there won’t be anything for the dead of winter.” She looked back at Cooper and Lilah with a smile as Laura set little Nathaniel down in his crate. “Cooper, can you start in on the potatoes while your Mama and I get the syrup started for the peaches? Lila, I’ll get the other peeler out for you to use.”
“Yes, Missus Rogers.” Cooper said, going to the work table where Runa had left the potatoes and the mechanical peeler. He seemed to know exactly how to use it (not that it was difficult) and set to work peeling the potatoes.
“Yes, Missus Rogers. Thank you.” Lila echoed.
Runa hurried into the large windowless room with all the shelves to find the second peeler, finally emerging with it and plunking it onto the work table beside the first. Lila hurried up and had to strain to see over the work table, so Runa fetched a small wooden crate that had once held canning jars, setting it down for Lila to stand on. The little girl gave her an enormous smile, before turning to the work at hand.
Runa and Laura got to work, and soon bushel baskets filled with nearly fifty pounds of fruit each were brought into the kitchen. Occasionally the haulers would stop for a chat, but mostly they were all too busy for that. Runa and Laura sent Cooper out every half hour with a bucket of fresh water from the well and a tin cup to give the men working in the orchard something to drink.
Everyone worked hard that day, and by dinner time the house was filled with the cloying smell of cooking fruit and sugar. The simple salt pork sandwiches and potato salad served with sliced vegetables were appreciated by everyone, as were the cookies that Laura and Runa made while waiting on fruit to cook.
It took two days to pick all the ripe fruit out of the orchard, and four days longer to process all of it. Runa and Laura even skipped church that week, to try and find time to get all the fruit preserved before it went bad. Steve didn’t protest the breaking of the Sabbath, not when he saw the results of their labor in the kitchen filling all the shelves in the pantry and a portion of the springhouse, with a good deal going to the Barton family as well.
“I see you’re trying to keep your promise about us eating like kings instead of the pigs.” Steve whistled when he saw the pantry.
“It was a joint effort.” Runa murmured, feeling almost as tired as she had on her arrival as she pulled two pans of cornbread out of the oven to go with the large pot of chili Laura had taught her how to make. Runa tried to keep her promise that there wouldn’t be many beans, but with all the work they had been doing in the kitchen, the ranch had been running on beans, rice, salt pork, and stew. She didn’t have the time or energy to cook proper meals, and promised that the following day would see a change to that, now that the first round of canning was completed. “I honestly wouldn’t have been able to do it without anyone else.”
“And we’ll have to do it all again come apple season?”
“A couple of times, I think. It will all be worth it, I promise, and shouldn’t be as bad as this harvest was. And next year it will be easier, we’ll have everything planned out better.” She assured him.
“With you as our General, I’m certain it will.” Steve smiled at her, and Runa felt a warm glow of pride fill her. Maybe she wasn’t attractive to him in the physical way, but there were other ways to be an attractive partner and helpmeet, and she had just found one.