Great Pumpkin Sheet Cake from Dale Grubaugh Cake: 4 eggs beaten 1 cup oil 2 cups sugar 1 16-oz. can pumpkin 2 cups flour 2 teaspoons cinnamon 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking soda in 1 teaspoon water Mix eggs, oil, sugar, pumpkin and soda. Add flour, cinnamon, baking powder and…
Apple Butter Makin’ by Dale Grubaugh There’s a great big pan of cat-head biscuits a’bakin’ off in the oven…. Made from scratch of course. Settin’ before me is a butter dish with a fresh stick of real butter and a jar of homemade apple butter. All three of us are a’waitin’ fer those biscuits to…
Bubble Lights by Dave Loftin One of my favorite memories from my childhood years was going to Paw-Paw and Granny’s house. They were fantastic grandparents and I remember Granny doing certain things that didn’t happen at home. I remember that Granny would freely provide between meals and she never seemed to run out of store-bought…
The Lowly Red Cedar BY JOSHUA HESTON Hillbilly Christmas trees. Pencil cedars. Weed trees. The red cedar (which is in the Juniper Family and is not a cedar at all) clearly has a bad reputation. The tree is made even less popular by the large amounts of pollen it produces during the season. Nevertheless, the…
The Blacksmith. BY JOSHUA HESTON Unique. There is something unique about our perception of blacksmithing. As Buddy Ebsen noted (below), the blacksmith was “one of the most essential of all the pioneer craftsmen.” Perhaps that is why it figures so predominately in American culture of the 19th century. And while the art was ubiquitous in…
German Culture in the Ozarks by Joshua Heston The year was 1830. Across Germany, folks of all walks of life were reading the work of writer Gottfried Duden. His book Bericht über eiene Reise nach den westlichen Staaten Nordamerika’s made an enormous impact in Continental Europe — and consequently the United States — and for…
PLATE 1. Detail photo, persimmon bark (Diospyros virginiana). Persimmon Snow by Joshua Heston It was a persimmon snow that fell heavily across the Ozarks just prior to the 72nd anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day. Branson tourism came to a stormy halt as the week’s previously balmy 70-degree temperatures were replaced by icy winds and a…
Murder Rocks BY JOSHUA HESTON Partway up Pine Mountain, just a few miles south of Kirbyville, a stand of elephant rocks rise to the west of the old Springfield-Harrison Road. Nowadays, they are hard to see (the elevation of the new road took care of that) and harder to get to (they are on private…
Ice Roses BY JOSHUA HESTON If you find yourself traipsing about an Ozark hillside sometime this winter, it might be a good idea to watch where you’re going. Otherwise, you may put your foot down on an ice rose. Ice roses, also known as frost flowers, are rare natural formations. They form at certain altitudes…
The Red Fern BY JOSHUA HESTON If you search the internet carefully, you’ll learn the truth. Truth that red ferns exist only the realm of cryptobotany. What does that mean? It means the red fern is a figment. Made-up. A bit of literary imagining. A myth. Sort of like Bigfoot. But prettier. That’s if you…