butchering?
Laura Ingalls Wilder writes in The First Four Years that the fall after she and Almanzo were married, "Manly butchered his fat hog and Laura had her first experience making sausage, head cheese, and lard all by herself."

Wilder made a point of mentioning in Little Town on the Prairie that while Carrie could remember butchering, Grace only remembered Dakota Territory, and the only meat she knew "was the salt, white, fat pork that Pa bought sometimes." (See Chapter 4, "The Happy Days.") In Chapter 19 ("The Whirl of Gaiety"), Laura notes specifically "the rich, oily, brown smell of roasted pork, that Laura had not smelled for so long." Of course the "Little House" books are fiction, but readers hadn't been exposed to butchering and fresh pork since Little House in the Big Woods.

So, how did Laura know how to make sausage, head cheese, and lard? In real life, did Charles Ingalls ever raise or purchase hogs for butchering after the family left the Big Woods of Wisconsin? One can only suppose that if newly-married Laura Wilder knew how to make sausage, head cheese, and lard at all, she must have learned to do so by observing and working with her mother in years past.

It's interesting to note that while Almanzo Wilder usually declared one or more "swine" (usally valued at about one dollar each) on his personal property taxes in Kingsbury County, Charles Ingalls seems to never have raised pork while living there.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:24 AM