Old-fashioned Black Walnut Ice Cream Recipe

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Sunday, March 1, 1914:

March comes in like a howling lion,

How it goes out, I do not know.

This month at least is a howler,

Or the beginning is for the winds do blow (fiercely).

Went to Sunday School this morning. This afternoon it began to get pretty breezy and by now the winds are howling to beat the band. We had ice cream. Whether attracted by the scent or not, Besse and Curt came out. Besse usually manages to get out when we have ice cream.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Besse and Curt Hester were Grandma’s married sister and her husband. They lived in nearby Watsontown.

Throughout the diary, the Muffly’s made ice cream once or twice each winter. Today we think of ice cream as a warm weather food—but I guess in the days before refrigeration that maybe it was a cold weather food. It would have been easier to get the ice needed to make ice cream during the winter months.

What kind of ice cream did they make? Maybe they made Black Walnut Ice Cream. The previous fall Grandma gathered nuts after they fell from the trees—and Black Walnut is an awesome old-fashioned ice cream flavor.

Black Walnut Ice Cream

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 cups half and half

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla

1 cup chopped black walnuts

In a saucepan combine sugar, flour and salt. Stir in 1/2 of the half and half (2 cups). Stir and cook over moderate heat until thickened. Cook 2 minutes more. Stir a small amount of the hot mixture into the eggs, and then add the egg mixture to the pan. Cook 1 additional minute. Remove from heat; add vanilla and additional half and half. Strain to remove any lumps. Chill for several hours. Stir in black walnuts before putting into ice cream freezer.

Follow freezer directions to make ice cream.

Makes approximately 1 1/2 quarts. Recipe may be doubled or tripled for larger freezers.

This ice cream turned out wonderfully—and my husband says that I should have doubled the recipe because it didn’t last long enough.

This is one of my favorite uses of black walnuts. The coldness of the ice cream and the robust flavor of the walnuts combine to create a wonderful taste treat.

Monthly Poem

The first day of each month Grandma included a poem in the diary. For more information see, the following post:

Monthly Poem in Diary

Went to Senior Class Play

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Saturday, February 28, 1914: Ruth and I went up to Watsontown with Pa this evening. The senior class gave their play in the opera house. Was the best one I ever was to. Some parts certainly did call forth plenty of laughter. Can hardly begin to describe how much I enjoyed it. After seeing this I don’t feel so put out over the party. Perhaps it’ll be some other time.

I'm not sure where the Opera House was located, but here is a recent picture of downtown Watsontown. — I’m not sure where the Opera House was located, but here is a recent picture of downtown Watsontown.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

What a fun evening! And, a what nice way to end the week after the disappointment over the canceled sleighing party the previous day.

According to My Watsontown there were 12 students who graduated from Watsontown High School in 1914—6 males and 6 females. Grandma graduated the previous year from McEwensville High School–and was part of a graduating class of 6.

It’s interesting that Grandma and her sister Ruth went to the play with their father (though it probably meant that both girls were very well behaved. . . . absolutely no flirting. . . but it didn’t seem to reduce their enjoyment).

I don’t think that Grandma’s father has ever previously been mentioned in the diary in conjunction with a social activity. In fact, he’s seldom mentioned at all —though his presence hovers in the background of many entries. I get the sense that he was a busy farmer who probably isn’t very involved in the daily household activities.

Sleighing Party Fell Through

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Friday, February 27, 1914: Was badly disappointed today. All week had been enjoying the anticipation of going to a sleighing party this evening, but the reality will never be realized as the thing fell through.

Weather Station Data Sheet, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, February, 1914

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma, I’m so sorry. You were so excited when you got a “bid to a party” last week-end.

Did you cry? I can remember how I cried for hours when a date fell through when I was a teen. It hurts!

—

What happened? My first thought was that the weather was too warm, and that the snow had melted.

But, I’m not sure—the 27th was a relatively warm day, but there still was snow on the ground.

I found the weather station data for February, 1914 for Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Williamsport is about 20 miles from McEwensville.

On February 27, the high temperature was 46 degrees—but there was still 12 inches of snow on the ground. Williamsport is a little further north than McEwensville, and in a more mountainous area, so the snow cover may have been a little less at McEwensville—but it still seems like there would have been enough for a sleigh ride

Maybe something else happened. . . but what?

—

If you would like to find old weather station data for other cities and dates, see the following previous post:

How to Find the Temperature for Any City on Any Date in the U.S.

Edith Wharton’s Description of an Old-time Lecture

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Thursday, February 26, 1914: Ruth and I went up to the Institute held in the town hall this evening. Told some things I had heard before, so they really weren’t new to me.

The Institute may have been held at the McEwensville Community Hall.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Today people listen to TED talks online for information and inspiration. A hundred years ago there were institutes and traveling lecturers who entertained and educated the people who attended their presentations.

Grandma attended several lectures during the previous few months. For example, on December 9, 1913 she wrote:

Went to a lecture with Ruth this evening in Watsontown. Fortunately we didn’t have to walk. We rode in a carriage. The lecture was real good and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Edith Wharton wrote a short story more than a hundred years ago called The Pelican about a young widow who became a lecturer. Here’s how a lecture was described in the story:

The only way of paying her husband’s debts and keeping the baby clothed was to be intellectual; and, after some hesitation as to the form her mental activity was to take, it was unanimously decided that she was to give lectures. They began by being drawing-room lectures.

The first time I saw her she was standing by the piano, against a flippant background of Dresden china and photographs, telling a roomful of women preoccupied with their spring bonnets all she thought she knew about Greek art. The ladies assembled to hear her had given me to understand that she was “doing it for the baby,” and this fact, together with the shortness of her upper lip and the bewildering co-operation of her dimple, disposed me to listen leniently to her dissertation. Happily, at that time Greek art was still, if I may use the phrase, easily handled: it was as simple as walking down a museum-gallery lined with pleasant familiar Venuses and Apollos.

You can find The Pelican on The Literature Network website.

1914 Wilson Dress-hooks Picture Title Contest

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Wednesday, February 25, 1914: Something like yesterday.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

It was a slow week. This was the third day in a row that Grandma didn’t write much.

Maybe Grandma had time to enter a contest that was in Ladies Home Journal.

The Wilson Dress-hooks contest gave a $100 cash prize for the best title of 8 words or less for this picture.

The contest rules say:

Why tolerate such embarrassment as shown in the above picture? For the last five years increasing numbers of women have been exclaiming, “At last I have found a fastening that simply can not be sprung open nor come unfastened!”

Rules

1. Write your title (8 words or less) –the shorter the better. Below it your name and address–nothing more. Only one title accepted per person.

2. Count Wilson Dress-hooks as two words only. You may use or omit them in your title.

3. Contest closes June 1, 1914.

4. Questions cannot be answered.

1914 Karo Advertisement

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Tuesday, February 24, 1914: Ditto

Source: National Food Magazine (February, 1914)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

This is the second day in a row that Grandma didn’t write much. The previous day she wrote, “Nothing hardly worthwhile.”

The party that she plans to attend on Friday (and mentioned on the 22nd)—apparently didn’t merit a second mention when she wrote this entry.

What did Grandma do on quiet winter days? Did she ever bake or make candies using Karo corn syrup?

We worry so much about the health effects of corn syrup today. Who would have guessed that corn syrup has been around for least a hundred years? . . . (though I think that the recipe for Karo has changed over the years—and that back then it was just corn syrup, not high fructose corn syrup like it is now.)

Correction: After I published this post, I discovered that I’d made an error–and that Karo does not contain high fructose corn syrup. According to a FAQ sheet on the Karo website, Karo is made of regular corn syrup (glucose only). See comments below for more details.

Hundred-Year-Old Bird Drawings

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Monday, February 23, 1914: Nothing hardly worthwhile.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma-

For crying out loud, how can nothing be happening when you got invited to a party yesterday? The party’s on Friday—aren’t you thinking about what you’ll wear? . . . what you say? . . .

At least you could have told us about everyday events. . . even if it’s boring stuff because I’d find it interesting.

For example, what birds did you see and hear today? I heard a woodpecker pecking (hopefully not on my house) today. Are there woodpeckers on your farm?

And, this time of year the trees in my yard are often filled with noisy crows. Are there crows cawing in your yard?

—-

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I share some pictures from a book of birds published in 1914.

Crow: These birds, against which the hand of every farmer is uplifted, are very shy and cunning, as is well-known, they nearly always post a sentinel in some tree top to keep watch while the rest of the flock is feeding in the field below. In the fall and winter, large numbers of them flock, and at night all roost in one piece of woods.

Screech Owl: This well-known species, which is often called “Little Horned Owl” because of its ear tuffs. They nest anywhere in hollow trees, being found very frequently in decayed stubs of apple trees. They also often nest in barns or other old buildings which are not frequented too freely. Their food consists chiefly of mice and meadow moles, and occasionally small birds.

Chickadee: The Chickadee is too well known to need any description; suffice it to say that they are the favorites with everyone among all the North American birds.

The Bird Book (1914) by Chester A. Reed