Missouri

Mariana, AR is a small town in the Arkansas Delta.  My family lived there when I was around 4 and 5 years old.  We crisscrossed the Arkansas and Mississippi Delta for eight years for my father's work.  It also kept us strategically located to maternal and paternal grandparents.   At this time there were just us three sisters.  I was the middle girl.  Some of my most vivid and memorable experiences came from our two years in this small Delta town.

Lindsey, Paula, and Rebecca

 It was here that we spent lazy summer days running barefoot through the yard and the neighborhood.  We spent many afternoons on the back steps with a tube of saltines and mustard.  This was a snack that Lindsey could prepare.  

My brother Jimmy was on the way by this time, so Missouri became a part of our life.  I don't remember how often and I don't know for how long.  I don't recall her being a great cook but I assume her help with the laundry (hung out to dry, of course) and other household chores allowed my mother a bit of time to cook.

It was also at this time that we all got pixie haircuts.  For those of you who do not remember the hated pixie cut, it was just short of being a boy's haircut.  My mother told us it was just too traumatic to pull and brush three sets of ponytails of pigtails every morning so our hair had to go. It certainly was not a fashion statement.  

Our maternal grandmother lived 20 miles up the road and during vegetable harvest season we spent much time with her.  My sister recalls the time when a bushel of purple hulls appeared at my grandmother's house and she and my mother tried to convince us that it was a great and fun game to shell the peas.  It did not take long to tire of the sore and purple thumbs.  We also made trips up to Crowley's Ridge in the fall of the year to purchase muscadines for jelly.  Maw maw, my maternal grandmother, would make my favorite jelly from this odd tart fruit.  I loved to eat them raw as the texture was so interesting.

Beautiful muscadine jelly.

Muscadine Juice - Take six cups of raw muscadines after cleaning of stems and trash.  Cover with water and bring to a boil as berries simmer mash, mash, mash.  Mash and simmer for 15 minutes and them put through a sieve and mash until juice is all mashed out into a bowl.

Maw maw's Muscadine Jelly

4 cups muscadine juice 
3 tsp. lemon juice
1 3 oz. package liquid pectin
7 cups of sugar
Bring 1st 3 ingredients to boil in Dutch oven, stirring constantly; stir in sugar.  Return to boil, boil stirring constantly, 1 minute. Remove from heat; skim off foam.  Pour hot jelly into hot sterilized jars quickly, filling to 1/4 inch from top; wipe jar rims.  Cover at once with metal lids and screw bands on.  Process in a boiling water bath 5 minutes.  Makes 8 half pints.