Women's work
My story about the convenient (reluctant?) marriage between the sad farmer and the unhappy vicar’s daughter —Tom and Esther — has sent me right down a rabbit-hole — actually, quite a few rabbit-holes. This is my first “ordinary country folk” story — most of mine have been about aristocrats or city-dwellers, who have servants who do most things for them and have shops and markets easily available. Not so Tom and Esther.
Tom knows how to run a farm, and his late wife also did. But Esther, though she cooked and cleaned and kept house for her father, comes from a village. She knows how to bake bread, but the vicarage had an enclosed oven — Tom’s house does not. A lot of people back then took their bread to the local baker to be baked, but Tom’s farm is a long walk from the nearest village. So she needs to learn how to bake bread over an open fire. This photo shows you how. I’ve baked damper (an Australian soda bread) this way when I was camping, so I know it works.
She also doesn’t know how to make butter or cheese. But they have a couple of cows, who need to be milked, and though Tom does the milking, she needs to learn what to do with it — and so do I. Like her, I’m aware of the basic principle of making butter — we might even have made some in school many years ago. but knowing and making are two different things. As for cheese, that’s a bit trickier. And so away to the web I go to learn.
Churning butter comes first, and here’s a video that shows the process beautifully. (If you can’t see the video below, try this link.)
I won’t bore you with the details of how to make the different kinds of cheese (though I find it fascinating.) I think she’ll end up making a simple cottage cheese. I might try making some myself, and if I do, I’ll keep you posted.
But this is a good site with informative info (and again if you can’t watch the video from my blog, you can go here for it
I’m getting a bit worried that the first part of the story is a bit too much about domestic matters. Do you skip that kind of detail or not? Don’t worry — I won’t be cutting anything yet ‚ I generally wait until I’ve finished the rough draft before I cut stuff, and then it will be guided by what I think the story needs or doesn’t need — but I’m interested in your views.
I like the domestic detail as long as it flows with the story. When it reads like a manual, I’ll often skim, since if I really want to know all the exact details I’ll look it up in a reference book, or cookbook.
Whatever you do, I’m sure it will as wonderful as all your other stories. Thanks so much for the time and work you put into them, they’re fantastic.
Thanks, Cheryl — yes, that’s why I leave it in until the final draft and edit — by that time I’m a little more distanced from the story and can more easily decide whether and how much it needs to stay. Thanks for your lovely compliments. I’m delighted you enjoyed my books..
I love all the details. Then again I am probably one of the few people who has read Moby Dick cover to cover . . . twice :-)
By all means to include these details. I think it is a way to draw the reader more deeply into the characters’ lives.
I do hope there is a cat in the story. Never underestimate the value of a good mouser on a farm!
I, too, love the details and also have read Moby Dick cover to cover–not something I ever recommend to anyone.
Thanks, Karri — I have not read it twice. Once was enough. <g>
Thanks, Robin — as to whether there’s a cat — you’ll have to wait and see. :)
I love that kind of detail, Anne! Not only for my own curiosity, but also because it helps to understand what the character is going through – on many levels. In this instance, seeing how Esther deals physically as well as emotionally with all the tasks of a farmer’s wife could only be enhanced, imo, by understanding what she’s doing. In the mid-20th century, my aunt and my grandmother still churned butter. Both lived on farms, milked their cows, and preferred “home butter” to store bought. Each batch of butter almost always tasted different from the prior, depending on what… Read more »
Your comment about the onions was so right on. Even though I was nursing my baby, she had terrible colic and I asked the pediatrician if it could be related to anything I was eating. He said no there was no way that anything I was eating would affect my breastmilk. When I told my mother she just tsked and said, obviously the man had never had to drink milk from a cow that got into the onion patch!
Exactly!!!
Love this story, Cindy. Thanks
Thank you Constance for that, especially that lovely bit of info of the wild onions — now I’m wondering whether I can include it in the story. There’s a definite possibility in my mind for it, but as always I’ll see where the story takes me. And yes, those domestic details are there to show what she’s going through. Him too, as it’s those interactions that provide an opportunity for the development of their relationship. For instance, I originally wrote a scene where he makes the butter, but then decided he should show her how to do it.
Hmmm – him showing her how to churn has lots of romantic possibilities, doesn’t it?
Yes, and that’s what I hope it shows.
I love the details! I find it fascinating to learn the nitty-gritty of how people lived before us. They don’t cover the interesting stuff in history books just the basic facts. I feel that way when a character is decorating a house. I’ll just be getting into their plans and in the next, scene the house is all done and finished! Very frustrating. I want to actually see them doing the work. If I’m going to skip anything more and more, it’s the sex scenes. There’s only so much you can do with the basic facts, part A goes into… Read more »
LOL on that slot into B comment, Cindy. I have an English writer friend who calls it “the docking procedure” <g> and yes, I’m not much of a one for reading (or writing) long detailed sex scenes. For me it’s the meaning that counts — how it contributes to — or causes problems with — the development of the relationsip.
The problem with going into detail about those domestic activities, like refurbishing a house, for many people it’s not that interesting, so they skip it. So for writers, it’s a balancing act.
Wow! I’ve just learned a whole lot of things I never knew! I don’t think I’ll be making butter or cheese anytime soon-but I eagerly await your new series of books.
Binnie Syril
Thanks, Binnie Syril — I might try making cottage cheese, but I think that’s all. I have friends who are professional cheese makers — prize-winning ones, too, so I’ll leave it to them, and just buy their gorgeous cheese.<g>
One of my early memories is of my mother giving me a small jar of cream to shake into butter. It isn’t as easy with ultra pasteurized cream, either, but I think that was the point.
I thing the processing of milk these days makes it hard for ordinary people like us to make butter and even cheese.
I am very excited about both your new novellas, although I’d take them in a book form as well. I love your writing style. I always love the details and think it helps me visualize the time period and appreciate the issues they dealt with and how much things really have changed and the improvements we enjoy. I grew up on a farm and learned to make butter as a child. We had a butter bowl that my uncle had carved my grandmother, along with a butter paddle. Even though I don’t have a farm as an adult I was… Read more »
We are lucky, Karri to have so many delicious cheeses available. One of my adult students regularly makes cottage cheese using plain (unflavored) junket tablets, but that’s hard to find these days. When I was small, junket was a common dessert — and Miss Muffet made sense to be because junket was curds and whey.
I love the details! Please include them.
Thanks, Pam. They’re in. <g>
By all means keep the details of her struggle or process of learning to live on a farm. That is part of her life story and how she develops into herself and do her share of making a living. Life was hard in those days.
Life was so much harder than we imagine, I agree. And I’m so encouraged that so many people here have said they enjoy the details.
I like getting a fair amount of historical detail and it seems like we don’t often get domestic details.
Thanks, Patti — yes, domestic details are not a big part of most historicals. They actually were in my first book — Gallant Waif. The editorial feed back I got for that story was that they liked the story and the writing, but they’d like me to include more history in it. The trouble was, he was living in a run-down house in the country, and she was orphaned and had lost everything. So the only historical details I could include were domestic ones. I did have one fun scene with her making some cold-cream. <g>
I love historical detail, and my favorite genre is historical fiction. With enough historical detail to make the fiction work. The authors who take the trouble to go down various rabbit holes to make a great keeper book, know that you and your work is much appreciated. Thank you.
Thanks, Kantu — I agree with you. I prefer my historical stories to feel historical too.
I like domestic details in stories as they add depth and help to ground the hero and heroine in their environment. I love discovering details about everyday life at the time and in the place where the story is set. That said, I don’t want to wallow in it.
LOL Shelagh — not sure anyone wants to wallow in house-work,but I take your meaning. Enough detail to bring the setting to life, but not enough to become a manual. Thanks.
I love detail about how to run a home and cooking meals.Really looking forward to your new book.You might want to watch the bbc series about an Edwardian farm.Obviously a different time but there might be some details you could adapt eg I remember the making a dress by hand and the bath as well as the cooking scenes plus the frustration for the farmer when a crop failed.A great series
Thanks, Alison — I’m glad you enjoyed those videos. I’ll keep a lookout for the BBC series you mentioned. Actually my grandmother was a country woman and many of the things she did she learned in her girlhood on a Northern Ireland farm, and I don’t think it had changed much over time.