Cooking in the West

I will have been writing a weekly column for 27 years this June. The best part about being a columnist is reading my mail. Sometimes I get “fan mail” that I use to fan the fire in the wood stove, but usually I get really nice comments and fuel for my column instead of the fire. Two such pieces of mail arrived recently.

One sweet letter, which came from T.J. Cheetham of Cloverdale Ranch in Redstone, Montana, sorted itself to the top of the pile by explaining that he and his wife of 58 years totally relate to my stories. His wife once killed a badger with a fence stretcher, so I am not going to cross Mrs. Cheetham if I ever meet her. T.J. wanted me to send a shout out to his long time friend, Ron Jarrett, who owns Hawley Mountain Ranch, one of the most beautiful spots on earth up the Boulder River Valley south of Big Timber where I live.

T.J. and Ron were college buddies who ended up working for John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa. They served as the best man for each other in their weddings. They both ended up returning to Montana to ranch, and T.J. asked me to send out a birthday greeting to Ron. I think we missed Ron’s birthday a while back, but I love the dedication to their friendship that his letter conveyed, so I am publishing a shout out to Ron Jarrett from his long time friend T.J!

I received a set of essays from Tom Ogle of Paris, Illinois. I have featured Tom’s hilarious stories before, but this time he sent a tribute to a pioneer lady named Ora LaFond. I have taken the liberty of abridging his three part essay about her, as I cherry picked quotes and stories to share about this remarkable woman who puts all of us to shame when we complain about hardships or hating winter this year.

Ora LaFond was born of French Canadian parents on December 15, 1891 in Belle Prairie, Minnesota. She loved to tell how she arrived near Malta, Montana on the Great Northern Railroad just a few weeks after marrying Bill LaFond at the age of 23. She stepped off the train and said, “I left a fine 2 story house in Minnesota to come to this God forsaken place.” When asked by her grandson Doug why she didn’t go back, she replied, “We couldn’t go back. We spent every dang dime we had just to get to Montana. And besides that your Grandpa Bill was a cowboy who took great pride in breaking green horses, and he loved everything about Montana.”

Ora described their first home located 10 miles north of Wagner, Montana as a small tar paper shack.They drug trees and dead falls in summer and fall to cut for firewood. She canned every last vegetable from her garden and dried or canned all the meat she could get her hands on. The first winter they ran out of firewood and had to pick up cow chips on the prairie to burn. Next they ran out of food. During a break in the weather, a neighbor came by to check on them. Seeing their need, he spread the word of their plight, and Ora said if it weren’t for their neighbors, their family history would have ended that winter.

Bill and Ora gritted their teeth and dug in their heels. Bill cut sod and stacked it on the north and west sides of the shack. They cut three times more firewood, enlarged the garden, and canned more meat. When asked how she kept her large garden watered with no irrigation, she answered, “Dishwater and lonely tears.” When asked how the two of them survived she would say, “We tied a knot in the old cow’s tail and held on.”

After a few years of learning to survive in north central Montana, the 1930s hit. About the only thing that grew were thistles. Bill cut them while they were tender and green and stacked them loosely with layers of salt between the layers. They cut their cattle numbers to 18. During one terrible blizzard, the cows walked over the drifted fences and sheltered in a coulee. When the wind slowed enough, Bill rode his best horse out to find the well bred Minnesota cattle who were not acclimated. He found nine dead and nine trapped in a deep hole in the snow. He drug bundles of hay to them for days and shoveled a path through tall drifts to trail them home.

Bill and Ora raised two children at the homestead where sometimes in the cold of winter, a hammer was used to break the ice in the water pail in the house for a morning drink of water. Bill became ill while shipping cattle to St. Paul, Minnesota and passed away at the age of 56 shortly after he returned to Malta.

Ora continued to farm and ranch north of Wagner before moving to Chinook to live with her daughter Roselyn. She would later move to Glendive to be near her son Cecil. She lived to be over 101 years old and viewed Halley’s Comet twice.

Ora said her biggest regret in her long life was when she talked her sister Admira into going back to Little Falls, Minnesota by train for their mother’s funeral. Their mother had died of the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-1920. Admira was married to Joe Turmell, and she was three months pregnant. Admira contracted the Spanish flu and died three days after their mother. Both are buried in Belle Prairie, Minnesota. Ora did not get the flu, and she returned devastated to Malta, Montana by train where she would live for seven more decades. Ora is remembered and revered as exemplifying the true pioneer spirit.

Tom sent one of Ora’s recipes. Thanks so much, Tom, for this beautiful tribute and the recipe!

Ora’s Crepes:

1 C. flour

2 eggs

1/2 C. milk

1/2 C. water

1 t. salt

2 T. butter

Mix and refrigerate batter for 30 minutes or overnight. Heat lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Pour batter into a frying pan using about 1/4 C. for each crepe. Tilt pan in a circular motion so batter coats the pan’s surface. Cook crepe for 2 minutes until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn, and cook on the other side until lightly browned. Serve hot.

Peach Cobbler:

5 peaches, peeled, cored, sliced (about 4 C.)

3/4 C. sugar

1/4 t. salt

6 T. butter

1 C. flour

1 C. sugar

2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

3/4 C. milk

cinnamon to taste

Add peaches, sugar, and salt to the saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Set aside. If you are using canned peaches, just use the peaches and juice, and there is no need to heat them. Melt the butter in a preheated 350 degree oven in a 9 X 13 pan. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in milk. Pour this mixture over the melted butter and smooth it into an even layer. Spoon the peaches (canned or fresh) over the batter and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon as desired. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Mom’s Applesauce Cookies:

1 C. sugar

1 C. butter

1 egg

1 C. thick applesauce

2 heaping C. flour

1 t. baking powder

1 t. soda

1 t. cloves

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. salt

1/2 C. nuts

1 C. chopped dates or raisins

1/2 t. allspice

Blend sugar and shortening. Add other ingredients. Mix well and drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for ten minutes.