The History of Saddles

The known history of the saddle can be traced back to the Moorish horsemen and warriors of the Dark Ages.

The Moors invaded Spain in the 700’s and brought with them a unique style of riding and tack. With high cantles and forks for protection and security, their saddles were designed for battle. They included stirrups to accommodate riding with armor. The knights rode these saddle on the crusades.

The Spaniards brought their Spanish War Saddle to the New World. These saddles evolved from a military saddle into a stock saddle, becoming a tool for the working cowboy.

Two schools of preference developed – the Texicans and the Californios. The Texican style was popular east of the Rockies and up into Canada. These saddles were big, plain, heavy square-skirted, double-rigged saddles. They were suited for the heavy brush of the region and the hard riding and roping style.
The Pacific coast, Great Basin country, and the Northwest were dominated by the Californios style saddle. Their saddles were lighter, round-skirted, and center fired rigged for the dally style of roping they used. The vaqueros had more free time because of the climate and terrain of the area. They used their time to begin to highly decorate their saddle and established the tradition of saddle decoration.

These two distinct styles can still be recognized in the Buckaroo slick-fork saddle (Californios) and the swell fork, square-skirt saddle (Texican).

Tatting
The origins of tatting, called frivolité (frivolous) in French, occhi (eyes) in Italian,and Schiffchen arbeit (little boat for the shape of the shuttle) in German, are uncertain. This lace made of knots has been used for centuries to adorn clothing and household goods. When it reached England in the 15th or 16th century it was named tatting, perhaps because of the old English word tat meaning to entangle or weave.

Tatting is made of knots worked in a ring or a semicircle around a base thread. It can be made with a long needle, but is more commonly created with a tatting shuttle and one or more threads. Textile historians believe that tatting may have developed from different forms of knotting, including macramé and purling (mentioned in Chaucer’s The Canturbury Tales). The early Egyptians made rings and circles of knots with a shuttle called a makouk (Dusenbury 3). To allow for thicker threads, European knotting shuttles are wider and longer than modern tatting shuttles. An early mention of tatting in found in the poem The Royal Tatter, by the English poet Sir Charles Sedley in 1707. In the poem Queen Mary II (1662-1694) is seen to be either knotting or tatting:

For here’s a Queen now thanks to God!
Who when she rides in coach abroad,
Is always knotting threads.

The earliest true tatting, as we know it today, was found on two chair covers made
by Mary Granville Delany in 1750 (Dusenbury 3). This type of lace was popular in
Europe in the last half of the 18th century, especially among aristocratic women. A
portrait of Madame Adelaide, the daughter of Louis XV, painted by Jean-Marc Nattier
(1685-1776) shows her holding a large tatting shuttle, as does an 18th century portrait by Benjamin West of Queen Charlotte of England and her daughter (Blomquist 8-9). Interest in tatting declined in the early 19th century but was revived by the display of several pieces in the first Industrial Exhibition in France. Tatting was mentioned in a book titled The Lady’s Assistant for Executing Useful and Fancy Designs in Knitting, Netting, and Crochet Work (1842) and The Ladies’ Hand-Book of Millinery,Dressmaking, and Tatting; with Plain Instructions for Making the Most Useful Articles of Dress and Attire (1843) (Mescher 2-3).

From 1846 to 1868 an English woman named Mademoiselle Elenore Riego de la Branchardière wrote eleven books on tatting. She was the daughter of a French nobleman and an Irish woman. She owned a needlework shop in London and was appointed as the Artiste in Needlework to Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. She won prizes at the Great Exhibition in 1851, 1855 and 1862 and her many innovations in the art were responsible for a great upswing in interest (Mescher 5). Prior to this, tatting had consisted of a series of knots that were sewn into circles. She improved on a system of rings of knots formed in a circle and connected by picots (small loops between the knots). Tatted lace adorned caps, shawls, collars, cuffs, handkerchiefs, baby clothes and underclothes. It was also popular on table runners, curtains, doilies, and antimacassars.

Tatting fell in and out of fashion as styles changed. After 1870, interest in tatting
waned, perhaps because of the popularity of the needle point laces. In 1910 The Art of Tatting was published by Queen Elizabeth of Romania (1843-1916), writing under the
pseudonym of Carmen Sylva, and her friend Lady Katharin Hoare. She incorporated
jewels and beads in her tatting and appreciated the beauty and luxury tatting added to an increasingly industrialized life. She expressed many women’s appreciation for the solace that needlework brought to their lives when she wrote “I have often pitied men, in the first place because they can’t know motherhood, in the second because they are bereft of our greatest comfort – needlework (Trumbull 57). Needlework provides a creative outlet for women who have few ways to express themselves, while also offering the opportunity to show off skills, fine tools, and the finished products.

Tatting came to America with the pilgrims, and although its popularity has
fluctuated over the years, it remains a well loved art. The women’s magazines of the 19th century, including Harper’s Bazaar, Godey’s and Peterson’s published tatting patterns and in the early 20th century American thread companies included tatting patterns in their leaflets. Much tatting in America today is used to decorate household linens and baby clothes as it launders well. Tatting is one of the sturdiest laces: once each ring of knots in tatting is closed, it is difficult to open. Because of this tatting holds it shape well and will not unravel like other laces. Traditionally done in white or cotton ecru thread, contemporary tatting often incorporates different fibers and colors. As with the other laces, there are guilds and teachers available to provide instruction and support. Yarn shops carry tatting shuttles and thread, and the lace making guilds include tatters among their members.
Like knitting and crochet, tatting patterns were initially written out in words.
Modern tatters have developed diagrams that provide a clear visual set of instructions. Most pattern books in print now provide both charts and written directions.

FROM: Michelle C. Chase. American Lace. (Pages 55-56), Master of Liberal Arts, Winthrop University, Spring 2004.

Cornmeal - Useful But Under Appreciated

Cornmeal – a plain, common food without any particular grace about it. It was cheap and easily accessible. It needs no refrigeration and if kept dry is usable for months. One benefit over flour was anyone could grind the cornmeal. Women have been grinding corn for their families for thousands of years. We don’t have to grind our own cornmeal but can get good whole grain or stone ground cornmeal at any grocery store. Arrowhead Mills, King Arthur and Hodgson Mill are some brands that make whole grain cornmeal. If you have any recipes using cornmeal that you would like to share, feel free!

CORNMEAL MUSH
One of the staples of the pioneers and many a child grew up with cornmeal mush as a normal breakfast food. Try the recipe below and imagine what it was like to live on the frontier.

Take boiling water about 1 qt. with salt, stir in your meal 1 1/2 cups until it gets thick like you want it, about like cream of wheat. Serve in sweet milk, or slice and fry until brown. Or use your mush like breakfast food with cream and sugar. Just guess how much you want as to how many would like it.

CORN BREAD
Another common food was corn bread and served with beans makes a full meal. It also makes for a complete protein when served together. My favorite way to bake cornbread is to preheat an iron skillet with a couple of tablespoons of shortening, pour the cornbread mixture into the hot skillet.
Sift all corn meal to take out bran. Make the amount according to your pan [about 2 cups for 8x8x2 inch pan].
salt 1/2 tsp.soda 1 tsp.
sugar 2 Tbs.egg 1buttermilk, about 1 cup or until a firm, but consistency to pour (you can also use milk)a little shortening 3 Tbs., melted
Mix all together. Bake in a warm oven (375°) till brown. Serve while hot. Serves 6.

The Homely Hominy

When the colonial settler first came to the shores of this country, they found the Indians growing and eating corn. Corn is easy to grow and can be grown across the United States. One of the products that is made from corn is hominy. The Indians developed hominy probably to add variety to a diet that depended greatly on corn. Since the stored dried corn would not spoil, it was always available and could be made anytime of the year.

When I was a child and my mother served hominy, I thought I was eating something like a bean. Then I learned it was made from corn and of all things lye.

The methods for making hominy differs only as it relates to the different methods of obtaining the lye. The most rustic method is ingenious. Even the poorest family could make hominy.

So, how do you make hominy if you have no lye and no way to extract it from wood ash?

First you prepare the corn by simply shelling by rubbing the cobs of dried corn together so that the kernels comes off, then wash the kernels to remove parts of the cob and the silks. You take one gallon of dried corn to come out with two gallons of hominy.

Now we must figure out how to obtain the lye. The purpose of the lye is to remove the hard outside hull of the dried corn, leaving the edible kernel. The lye also loosens the dark eye so as to have a nice looking white or yellow hominy.

Collect a bucket of ashes, preferably hickory, or any kind of oak, but not cedar ashes. Sift the ashes to remove any large pieces of charcoal. Put a quart of ashes, three pints of dried, shelled corn, and a gallon of water in a big pot. Stir until the ashes have dissolved. Cook the mixture over a slow burner. It will look awful. Use only a wooden spoon as the lye will erode a metal one.

When the hulls are loosened, take the pot of hominy of the stove, rinse, and rinse the hominy through a sieve to remove the ash mud and wash away the hulls and eyes. This is a good outdoor activity.

The raw hominy is the results.

Another way to make lye is to take ash from the stove to an ash hopper. Water from rain would trickle through the ashes, leaching out the alkaline salts, commonly known as lye. The lye water was stored in a covered barrel, out of reach of children. When the lye was needed, a granite or stone cup was used to dip it out.

The lye made by the rain water was enough for daily use but when special projects called for lye such as soap making, the pioneers would pour buckets of water into the ash hopper to increase the output of the lye.

Today you can purchase liquid or concentrated lye.

Wash the hominy, put in clean water, boil for about twenty minutes, and rewash. Once the corn is tender, it is ready to be eaten. Season with salt, pepper, a little butter, and serve.

The nutritional value of hominy includes calcium, iron, magnesium, protein and niacin.



Jane Winterston ran a sporting house and restaurant in early Abilene, Kansas. One of the favorite dishes was hominy. It was a favorite of Will Bill Hickok.


“Melt a generous amount of butter in a frying pan. Add a cup of hominy and mix until covered with butter. Chop up pimentos as finely as possible. Add to hominy and salt and pepper to taste.”

So there you have it, the homely hominy.

Needle Tatting

For a relaxing craft that requires few tools other than thread and a needle, try needle tatting. The history of shuttle tatting goes back several centuries, but, needle tatting appears in the early 1800s.

Needle tatting uses a long needle with an eye; the double stitches are made directly on the needle and pulled through to form the ring or chain. For an article that give a good overview of the craft go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatting#History

I have found some my best tatting patterns in books from the middle to late 1800s. I will endeavor to share some with you and photos of the finished products.

Happy tatting!

Sourdough Biscuits

Sourdough Biscuits were a basic food item in the west during the 1800s. Not only was yeast and/or baking powder not always available, but during hard times something extra, like yeast, could not be afforded. However, they knew how to make their own yeast with a sourdough starter. In my novel, JOE STORM, the chuck wagon Cookie very carefully tended and fed his sourdough starter, which he kept in a crock. With care, he kept his starter growing throughout the journey. He made yummy biscuits as long as he had flour, salt, and lard.

Many a frontier woman on a ranch learned that if she kept biscuits baked that cowhands would trade cold biscuits for wood chopped and water carried. The cowhands would take the biscuits with them on their lonely days of work.

There are several recipes for Sourdough starter, but this is one from a cookbook from the 1800s.
Sourdough Starter
2 cups of potato water (lukewarm)
(Make potato water by boiling a couple of potatoes. Set the potatoes aside for a snack for later and retain the water.)

2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon of sugar

Mix thoroughly, put in container with lid. Store in a warm, dark location until it doubles in place, then store in cool place. (Check occasionally. If not used daily, feed the starter flour and water at least once a week. Most recipes call for two cups of sourdough starter. You then replace with the cup of flour and water.)

Dutch Oven Sourdough Biscuits

Get fire going and burned down to coals. (Optional, you can use your oven)
Get out 12” Dutch Oven, put in enough cooking oil to cover the bottom and then some and heat, (Use lard, or you can substitute Crisco, if you want to be authentic, butter flavored cooking oil if you want a good flavor, or just go for it and use butter)
Mix 2 cups of sourdough starter with ¼ cup cooking oil.
Mix dry ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder (optional)
3 tablespoon white sugar
1 tsp salt

Combine dry and wet mixtures. Mix until you have a dough that is not sticky feeling (add flour a pinch at a time until it has the right feel).

Turn out on floured surface and knead for ten minutes.

Let rest for ten to fifteen minutes.

Pinch off enough dough to form a ball about 2 inches thick.

Dip into warm cooking oil and place in Dutch Over with the dipped side up (for a crusty brown top).

Set aside to rise for 30 minutes if using baking powder. If not using baking powder it will take longer, up to an hour. You want the biscuits to rise until they are double in size.

Bury Dutch Oven in hot coals—bake for 15 to 25 minutes. Check often and keep the coals off the biscuits. (Or, if using your oven, bake at 400 degree for 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how big you made each biscuit.)

Serve hot with butter. Enjoy!

Indian Fry Bread

3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
3 tablespoons honey
Skillet
Oil, or lard

Mix warm water and honey; mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Roll out on floured surface. Pull off large egg-sized balls of dough and roll out into thin rounds with a hole in the middle.

Fry rounds in hot oil until bubbles appear on the dough, turn over, and fry on the other side until golden.

Hang on rawhide cord and eat as needed. If the bread becomes too hard, soak in water or coffee.

This was a travel, survival food of Indians long before the pioneers moved west. The people of the frontier soon learned how useful the bread was, especially for traveling.