Helen Berscheid | Article and Photos

Our family lived on the bald Saskatchewan prairie on a mixed farm complete with cows , pigs , chickens , a few turkeys for Christmas and Easter , and , of course , a farm dog and cats . Training in this occupation came from our ancestors , who were the first settlers in the district on a section of land down the road toward the lake . It was a good life filled with hard work , twice daily chores , and endless Life Lessons .

We had a special exemption from boring meals because my mother had a talent for cooking and enjoyed baking . She could whip up a cake with an out-of-her-head recipe at a moment ’ s notice !

She had a chart of all the cuts of meat that guided us when butchering the animals . Everyone was called upon to help . Cutting up the carcass came after the tallow , fat , and sinew had been trimmed off . Those would later become lye soap . All the scraps of meat were trimmed

42 | arta . net FAMILY

Helen and her siblings on the family farm

from the bones to be ground into hamburger . When we had enough beef , pork , and game meat , we could produce our annual supply of homemade sausage . Now that was a treat ! In Mom ’ s recipe stash could be found plain , spice , or garlic sausage , to name a few . She even tried her hand at salami . Everything was mixed in a large , enamelled baby bath and a taste test was prepared in the frying pan . If Mom was satisfied that just the right flavours were in the mix , considering that the sausage might be boiled in water for preparation , then we proceeded with the production , and a sausage stuffer was used to make the links .

Onto the stuffing tube were threaded the casings , which had been thoroughly rinsed . One person turned the handle , another kept the sausage meat loaded in , and a third gently guided the filled casings and gave them a twist into desired link lengths . It took a couple minutes for all hands to coordinate and for the first sausage links to look right ! The lengths of links were strung up on poles to go into the smoke house . Picture rows of sausage links , ham hocks , slabs of bacon , and a few unidentified items hanging from the rafters . The smoking had to be done over the weekend because it required us to check the fire every three to four hours for several days . The stove had to be lit but not too hot . Damp sawdust was tucked into the stove to rev up the smoke factor . Occasionally Mom would experiment using apple wood to see if it improved the flavour . I could not confirm that it did because all our food was inhaled as fast as it hit our plates , and you better not be late to the table for meals !