SILO FILLING AND CORN SHREDDING
Silo-filling season followed threshing by several weeks, usually occurring by mid-September when the corn plant was still green and the corn kernels had only partially ripened—they were in the milk stage, which meant if you pierced a corn kernel a milky substance shot out.
Nearly every farmer in our community had a silo, where the cut corn was stored, fermented, and turned into silage for winter feed for the cattle. The silos were wooden and cylindrical, and most were eight to ten feet in diameter and no taller than twenty-eight or thirty feet.
Ross Caves, our local cattle trucker, also did custom silo filling, going around to farms with his silo filler, a machine that cut cornstalks into small pieces and blew them up a metal pipe into the silo. He also owned a Farmall H tractor that powered the noisy machine.
Pa walked out to the cornfield every day starting in early September, checking whether the plants were ready. When he determined the best day for silo filling, he called Caves and set it up. Next he called several of the neighbors who had silos and asked them if they would be able to help out on the day he had selected. In turn Pa would help them when they were ready to fill their silos.
Pa hitched our trusty team of workhorses to the corn binder and began cutting the green corn a couple of days before silo-filling day. The corn binder cut one row of corn at a time, tied the stalks into bundles, and then spit them out onto the ground where they remained until silo-filling day.
Ross Caves arrived at the farm the day before we filled silo. It took an hour or so to bolt the silo filler pipes together and extend them from the filler to the little door at the top of the silo. My brother Don, when he was old enough, often helped Ross with the pipes, as he had no fear of heights. Extending the pipes to the top of the silo required holding on to the ladder with one arm while handling the pipes with the other. Don did so easily; I was petrified and preferred remaining on the ground.
Around nine the following morning, four neighbors arrived with their teams and wagons and headed out to the cornfield to pick up the heavy green bundles and haul them to the silo, where they fed them into the filler, one bundle at a time. Caves made sure everything was operating properly, usually watching from his seat on the Farmall.
Before I was old enough to handle the heavy corn bundles, my job was inside the silo, working with what was called “distributor” pipes. The freshly cut corn tumbled into the silo through these pipes, which I moved around inside the silo to make sure it was evenly distributed as the silo slowly filled from bottom to top. The reason for the careful packing was to make sure that no oxygen pockets remained in the silo. The silage fermentation process is an anaerobic process, meaning it will not work if oxygen is present. In addition, pockets of oxygen among the corn would allow mold to form, making the chopped corn dangerous to feed to cattle.
Filling the silo, 1950s
As I worked inside the silo, the smell of freshly cut corn was a pleasant one, earthy and rich. It wasn’t a bad job, until the silo was almost full. Then the job became a bit scary, especially for a kid who wondered if he might be buried under the roof of the silo as the cut corn continued to be blown into it. Pa wanted to fill the silo as full as possible, as it would settle several feet overnight. When the silo had as much cut corn in it as there was room, and I could still find a place to breathe, I pushed several handfuls of cut corn out the silo window, signaling the crew to stop feeding bundles into the machine. If I signaled too soon, Pa would let me know, because he usually crawled up the silo chute to see how full the structure was and check my work.
With Pa satisfied that the silo was filled to capacity and the machine shut down, I crawled down the silo chute (on an enclosed ladder that was far less daunting than the ladder placed out in the open) and walked to the house, where the men had gathered for the noon meal.
The next day, after the silage had settled several feet, Pa and Ross Caves blew a couple more loads of cut corn into the silo to fill it once more to the top. Before I crawled into the silo to return to my job of making sure the corn was well packed and distributed, Ross ran the silo filler empty for several minutes, which blew fresh air into the silo. This was to make sure that no silo gas (nitrogen dioxide, which forms during the fermentation process) was present. Silo gas is yellowish brown, has a bleach-like odor, and is extremely toxic.
Once the silo was filled, we waited well into October for the rest of the corn to ripen and for the first frosts to aid in drying the cobs and making corn shredding easier. That process began when Pa once more hitched the team to the corn binder and cut the remaining corn—usually twenty acres, sometimes more. When the corn was cut and the bundles spewed out on the ground, my brothers and I would help with shocking on a Saturday. We stood the bundles on end, making what looked like a tepee. When we had a dozen or more bundles in place, we tied a length of binder twine around the top of the shock and then moved on to create the next shock.
Shocking corn was not an unpleasant task, as those October days were often clear and cool, and the woodlots showed off their fall colors. The occasional flock of Canada geese winged overhead, on their way from the breeding grounds in Canada to warmer places for the winter, honking loudly as they passed. There were no bugs to annoy us, nor was it near as hot as when we shocked oats back in late July and August. The drying cornstalks, heavy with yellow ears, had a special, musky smell that was not at all unpleasant.
When all of the shocks were in place, the cornfield was picture perfect, with corn shocks lined up in rows from one end of the field to the other. We left the shocks standing for a week or two, waiting for the stalks and ears to dry even further. Then, usually on a Saturday, Pa would arrange for a fellow with a corn husker/shredder machine to come by, and Pa would once again ask several of the neighbors to help with the project. On the appointed day, they brought their teams and wagons and hauled the dried corn bundles from the cornfield to the shredder.
The corn husker/shredder resembled a threshing machine, but it was smaller. Its purpose was to remove the corncobs from the stalk, husk them, and then elevate the husked corn into a wagon. The stalks and husks were shredded, and the material was blown out a long pipe, either into the top floor on one end of our barn or onto a stack outside. Pa fed the shredded cornstalks to our cattle and then used what was not eaten as bedding in the barn.
When the cob wagon was filled, the team of horses pulled it next to the corncrib and the men forked the yellow cobs into the slatted structure, where they would remain until we hauled them to the mill in Wild Rose and ground them for cattle feed. Shredding corn took about a day, with the neighbors’ help, and Ma prepared both a noon meal and a supper meal for the hungry crew.
Pork Roast with Gravy and Dumplings
5 pounds pork shoulder
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon dried sage leaves
1 teaspoon marjoram leaves
1 teaspoon salt
Pork Gravy and Dumplings (recipes follow)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Trim excess fat from the meat. Cut the clove of garlic in half. Rub the pork with the garlic. Sprinkle the meat with a mixture of sage, marjoram, and salt. Place the meat in a roasting pan on a rack, fat side up. It is not necessary to cover the meat or add water to the bottom of the pan. Roast the pork until a thermometer inserted reads 170 degrees, about 25 to 30 minutes per pound. Be sure the thermometer is not inserted near a bone or into fat. Take the meat out of the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes. Keep the drippings in the bottom of the pan for gravy.
¾ cup drippings from pork roast
½ cup flour
4 cups water, or use potato water if you are boiling potatoes with the meal
Salt and pepper
Cornstarch, if needed
Skim the fat from the drippings in the bottom of the roasting pan and discard. Measure the drippings and pour into a saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook until the mixture starts to bubble. Continue stirring and add the water gradually until the gravy is the desired thickness. Season with salt and pepper. Continue to stir and simmer the gravy for 5 minutes. If the gravy becomes too thin, you can add a little cornstarch to thicken it.
Dumplings
1½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon dried sage
3 tablespoons shortening
1 egg, slightly beaten
⅔ cup milk
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sage. Cut in the shortening. In another bowl, combine the egg and milk. Stir the milk into the dry ingredients gradually until moistened. Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls into boiling gravy. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes. Cover the pan and cook until the dumplings are fluffy, about 10 more minutes.
1½ cups raisins
1½ cups hot water
1½ cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs, well beaten
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put the raisins in hot water in a large bowl and let them sit until they are tender (about 10 minutes). Do not drain. Add the brown sugar, shortening, and beaten eggs. Mix together. In another bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture. Mix well. Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls on a cookie sheet and bake until light brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Choose well-shaped, smooth potatoes that are about the same size. Scrub the potatoes. Cut off any discolored parts or anything that looks blemished. Rub each potato with shortening for softer skin. Prick each potato a few times with a fork to allow steam to escape while the potatoes are baking. Bake for 1 to 1½ hours. Serve potatoes with butter or sour cream and salt and pepper.
Carrots with Cream Sauce
6–10 carrots
½ cup sour cream
½ cup chopped parsley or chives
Wash and peel the carrots. Cut them into thin slices lengthwise. Cook carrots in boiling salted water until they are crisp tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain. Slowly stir in the sour cream and parsley or chives.
Prepared pie crust for 2-crust pie
5 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup sugar
¼ cup flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place one pie crust into a 9-inch pie pan. In a large bowl, mix the sliced peaches with the lemon juice. In another bowl, combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon and stir into the peaches. Transfer the mixture to the crust. Dot the peaches with slices of butter. Cover with the top crust. Cut slits into the top crust. Seal the edges and pinch together all the way around. Bake until the crust is brown and juice begins to bubble up through the slits, about 40 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
½ cup shortening
1½ cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons hot coffee
2 cups flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sour milk or buttermilk
½ cup chopped maraschino cherries
1 teaspoon maraschino cherry juice
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9 × 13-inch pan. Beat the shortening until creamy. Add sugar gradually and mix until fluffy. Blend in well-beaten eggs. In a small bowl, mix cocoa powder and hot coffee to form a smooth paste. Blend into the creamed mixture immediately. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add to the creamed mixture alternately with the sour milk or buttermilk and mix well. Stir in the cherries and cherry juice. Pour the cake batter into pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.