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January 17, 2010
WOLF CREEK HERITAGE MUSEUM NOTES by Virginia Scott MUSEUM HAPPENINGS The quiet of the museum has ceased. We were busy Wednesday put up the Student Art Show for this year and again, the students of Lipscomb County have demonstrated their creativity, talent, and artistic flair. This year has some interesting aspects that incorporate Texas geography and US history. Good job to all of you. If there are home schoolers in the county that want to contribute to the show or private art teachers who have students that want to show their work, all is welcome. Deborah Sue McDonald,executive director of the Texas Plains Trail Region of the Texas Historical Commission Heritage Tourism Program, traveled to our county Thursday for a visit. We toured through all five towns of the county visiting everyone cafe and enterprise that was open. I thank everyone of you who met and visited with Deborah Sue. She truly enjoyed herself and learned what a treasure our county is. On Friday, she was one of four spokesmen for local tourism on KEYE Coffee talk. In the afternoon, a meeting was held at the Perryton museum where Ms. McDonald spoke on the activities and benefits of the Plains Trail. She also announced that the Trail is offering $5000 grants that non-profits can apply for. You can go to the website www.texasplainstrail.com for details. It was a full and enjoyable site and traveling around our county was beautiful even in the winter. This week, the Booker students will be touring the museum and the courthouse so we will have lots to talk about next week. HISTORICAL MUSINGS Monday was Martin Luther King Day and there were celebrations and observances throughout the country. His dream was for freedom for everyone and that the words of our forefathers would at last come true that "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal". Equal is all things,with equal opportunities. It is on these holidays, that I reflect on our heritage and give thanks to all before us for their sacrifices and wisdom. Let us reflect this week and strive to be the kind of citizen that makes our country,county, and towns better. An example of one of our past citizens is Leila Litchfield who in 1991 shared her knowledge of making mincemeat with Marki Laughlin. Ms. Litchfield who lived in Higgins, had recently canned 17 pints of mincemeat and invited Marki over to learn the process. The following is from Marki's article for the "Lipscomb Heritage" : "Making a pot of mincemeat is like making vegetable stew...you put everything in it." She emphasized the special preparation of the some of the ingredients "grate the apples because grinding, squashes all the juice out. "... "Mother used to cook a hog head for the meat, but I can't have the pork so I use beef. I used a small beef roast also with a little piece of suet. Boil it then grind it up. Suet is special. It comes from the back of the beef. You don't want to use just any old piece of fat that comes from between the ribs or the like. " "Plums were the basis for all of our mincemeats, so we used lots of that.We used plum pulp that we saved from making jelly.And if we had little parts of left-over jelly, we'd mix that in, too. Next we ground up oranges, lemons, cranberries and cherries- rinds and all. We would alternate meat and fruit in the grinder to clean out the grinder and kept it from gumming up. Then add three-four pounds of raisins and one quart of canned apples and any other canned fruit from the cellar or pantry that was a year old and needed to be used up. Last came three pints of grape juice; sugar, cloves, all-spice, nutmeg and cinnamon until it tasted good. placed in pint jars and she added an apple or two when she made the pie because that saved space in the jar. " Ms. Litchfield was a a telephone operator, a member of Higgins Methodist church, active in the Busy Bee Quilting club, TOPS club and Lipscomb County Home Demonstration club. She passed away in 1996 at the age of 90. I hope her mincemeat recipe is still being made. |
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