Food at Home

Frances Greene 16^th August 2017 Deerpark Social Services Centre, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway

Food At Home

Interviewer: Clare Doyle (CD)

Interviewee: Frances Greene (FG)

CD: What other animals did you have at home, you had the turkeys, did you have any ducks?

FG: She had geese, she hadn’t ducks! She had, she had a …

CD: Chickens?

FG: Hens and chickens and she had ah…

CD: You didn’t have an aul sow at all did ye?

FG: what?

CD: You didn’t have an aul sow at all did ye?

FG: We had a sow

CD: Did you?

FG: And a [inaudible] of bonamhs sucking on the sow

CD: And did you ever eat duck eggs?

FG: Duck eggs? I did

CD: And are they nice?

FG: They’re nice Clare, lovely

CD: There is a strong aul taste off them though

FG: Strong taste of them though, there is!

CD: Yeah. You were saying earlier on there…

FG: I like hen eggs too

CD: Hen eggs are nice, they’re nicer

FG: Saying earlier on…

CD: You were saying earlier on your mother used to make the brown bread

FG: The brown bread, she had a lossett, a big lossett, the size of this chair or longer and she used to knead, get the flour and the buttermilk out of the churn, she used to make it in the churn, the churn in the dairy and she had a dairy, a dairy at home. She used to knead the four, knead the dough like that, and she used to put a cross in the middle of it and we had an oven. She used to put it in the oven …

CD: There would be a lovely smell off it when it was cooking

FG: Yeah. And she used to put coals on top of the oven. She had a griddle and she used to put coals on the griddle and ah … what else used she do… she used to let the cake bake then

CD: Nice

FG: The cake is nice, and she used to give us all a slice of the cake, the whole family

CD: And you had your own butter then to put on it?

FG: It was the butter she had, country butter!

CD: And how would she make that?

FG: She’d make it, in the churn. She had a bat, a bat, two bats like that. Do you know them long things …

CD: Kind of like a paddle, was it?

FG: A paddle

CD: A long stick with a flat bit on it?

FG: Yeah

CD: And she used that then in the churn?

FG: Churn, yeah

CD: And was it a timber churn?

FG: Timber churn, yeah

CD: And how long now would that take her to make the butter, would it take a long time?

FG: Well…

CD: You put the milk in first …

FG: It would take an hour anyway, an hour or more

CD: And what, you put the milk in first, would you?

FG: The milk in first, yeah

CD: And it was your own milk, was it?

FG: Ah well, it was or own milk or the buttermilk, whichever

CD: And did you ever milk a cow?

FG: Well ah, I used to milk a cow above in… I forget the name of the place now it was so long ago, I forgot the name of it

CD: And you just collect the milk and put it into the churn?

FG: Into the church, yeah

CD: And what would you have to do then after that?

FG: Well, Mary Kate used to go off and milk the cow, that’s my sister, other sister and my father used to milk a cow and I used to milk a cow too, when I got older

CD: Yes

FG: When I was 11 or 12 or thereabouts Clare

CD: And did the cow ever kick you?

FG: No, she never kicked me, no

CD: They were gentle enough, were they?

FG: Gentle enough, they were

CD: So, you collect all the milk and put it into the churn and the handle goes up and down, is that it?

FG: That’s it, up and down, like that

CD: And you just keep going until it’s done